Amelia’s Magazine | Asli Polat AW15: London Fashion Week Catwalk Review

Asli Polat AW15-photo by Amelia Gregory 1
American designer Asli Polat took reference from a host of sources for AW15, culminating in a small but concise collection shown in the underground vaults of the RSA.

Asli Polat AW15-photo by Amelia Gregory 3
Asli Polat AW15-photo by Amelia Gregory 2
Asli Polat AW15-photo by Amelia Gregory 4
Asli Polat AW15-photo by Amelia Gregory 6
Asli Polat AW15-photo by Amelia Gregory 5a
The show opened with several outfits made up in the same retro coloured plaid applied to different fabrics, including a mohair tweed. Shapes encompassed sweet rodeo detailed dresses, cute mini skirts, hooded sweat tops and a plasticised parka with teddybear fur details on pockets thanks to a partnership with the iconic teddybear manufacturer Steiff. This unusual choice of garment fabric was used in further outfits, most notably a couple of eye catching patchwork shift dresses, with matching bold tangerine eye shadow. Definitely a designer to watch.

Asli Polat AW15-photo by Amelia Gregory 7
Asli Polat AW15-photo by Amelia Gregory 8
Asli Polat Steiff teddybear Jay Pinxie
Jay Pinxie Turnbull with a Steiff teddybear, our gift on the front row. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Categories ,American, ,Asli Polat, ,AW15, ,Catwalk review, ,Jay Pinxie Turnbull, ,London Fashion Week, ,retro, ,Steiff, ,Teddybear

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Amelia’s Magazine | Nuclear: Art and Radioactivity

If you try to describe this to someone (which you shouldn’t, this web sales don’t give anything away), doctor medications you will sound like you are conjuring from memory a nonsensical and fantastical dream; not something remotely tangible that actually happened in a 25-minute journey through a Shorditch warehouse.

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Enter the ride and find yourself wheeled through 15 distinct scenarios with over 70 artists acting out micro-performances. “Designed to mentally and visually astound”, check; “leaving you overwhelmed and exhilarated’, check and check; and finishing the ride “in a totally different emotional state from the one you were in when you embarked on the journey”, most definitely true: utterly elated, mesmerised, and psychologically discombobulated.

The You Me Bum Bum train represents a new branch of experimental live art where the line between performer and audience is not just blurred, but utterly turned on it’s head; interaction is integral to the experience, and how far you take this is up to you. It’s creators Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd, intend to strip individuals of decision-making, giving passengers the would-be ordinary experience of somebody else’s shoes. You are left with fleeting slices of alternate realities, one moment you might be a drummer, the next a translator (I really don’t want to say much!). It’s real human experience through the prism of the utterly surreal, and it will take you some time to reclaim your grasp on the two, a most marvellous and novel experience.

The venue is essential to the experience, and they describe Cordy House as their dream venue, lending itself to the most ambitious event they’ve held yet.
There isn’t much time to go, and I whole-heartedly recommend it as an unforgettable experience. It runs every Saturday from now until the 20th of December between 7pm and 11pm.

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Hip Parisian fahion and electro label, buy Kitsuné, what is ed are fast becoming as well known for their associated music as they are for their fashion. In fact, there is a clear cut three-way divide at Heaven tonight: scenesters, dressed for the fashion blog photographers collide en masse with those who know Kitsuné for the music and are quite unprepared for the additional rooms full of said scenesters, and with the regular Heaven clubbers, used to G-A-Y Camp Attack on Friday nights and probably the most bemused of everyone here.

Within the four rooms there’s a frustrating mix of real djs and acts like Autokratz, whose Pet Shop Boys go big beat set was a joy to behold and left me humming ‘Stay The Same’ for the rest of the night. Hearts Revolution, Punks Jump Up and Kitsuné house band Digitalism all turned out in force to impress and did so, although at times the acts felt a little repetitive. Alas, alongside these quality acts, we also got a number of vanity djs, including various models and boutique owners, which all blurred into the same set as the night progressed and seemed to play to rooms full of people aiming to get to the bar and move on.

It transpired that the ‘Don’t Panic’ room was the place to be. Inspired by K-Tron, blasting bass heavy No-Wave, they held me and the room in near divine rapture. The highlight of the night however, was Matthew Stone who dragged us back to 1985 via The KLF, his effortlessly sublime musical compass taking us on a seemingly random adventure, fitting perfectly with the tone of the night. There were some true high points tonight, but Kitsuné are probably best enjoyed via one of their compilations than live, based on tonight’s evidence.

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Global Day of Action is a direct action environmentalism initiative that started in 2005 Global Climate Campaign to focus world attention on the anthropogenic effect that humans are having on global warming.
Actions take place on this day to coincide with a Climate Change convention; a meeting of world leaders from 189 nations, viagra dosage that meet every year to discuss climate change.
We have the listings for the actions taking place on the 6th in London, viagra 100mg for a list of other cities actions click here.

Global Day of Action
6th December 2008

This will be the Saturday midway through the next round of UN Climate Talks and our best chance to influence the decisions of delegates ahead of the critical UN talks in 2009 at which a post-Kyoto treaty agreement will be decided.

LONDON

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Climate Bike Ride 2008
Assemble 10.30 am Lincolns Inn Fields for a mass bike ride around Central London joining up with the National Climate March at Grosvenor Square (see next listing for National Climate March info)
The three stops on the route are:
-Outside Greenergy, 198 High Holborn – for an agrofuels protest organised by Biofuelswatch
-Outside E.On 100 Pall Mall – for a speaker on NO NEW COAL
-Outside the Department of Transport – for a speaker on sustainable transport
Everyone welcome; decorate your bikes, bring whistles, bring music!
Want to help out for this action? Contact Jeremy Hill on 07816 839883 or jeremy.hill1@btopenworld.com

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National Climate March and Global Day of Action on Climate
The march starts at 12noon at Grosvenor Square and will move via Carlos Place and Mount Street to Berkley Square and Berkley street to Picacadily, Picadilly Circus, Lower Regent street, Pall Mall and Cockspur street to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall to Parliament Square.
We will bring the UK issues of Aviation, New coal and Biofuels to the streets of London, along with a call for more investment in renewable energy, more energy efficiency and more green jobs.
Speakers will include Nick Clegg (leader Liberal Democrat Party), Caroline Lucas (leader, Green party), Michael Meacher (ex-Environment Minister) and George Monbiot (Honorary President, Campaign against Climate Change).
Contact: 020 7833 9311
www.campaigncc.org

There will also be an After-Party in the Synergy Centre from 5.00 pm till late.

The March on Parliament has four main themes –
1) NO to a 3rd runway at Heathrow and the runaway expansion in aviation expansion.
2) NO new coal – no new coal-fired power stations as planned at eg Kingsnorth in Kent
3) NO to the expansion of agrofuels – with negative impacts on forests, the climate and world food supply.
4) YES to a renewable energy revolution and green jobs – a “Green new Deal”
Come with your own banners, costumes on one of these themes and join up with others pushing that theme……

The March on Parliament for the Climate marks the Saturday midway through the UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland and we make our demands on the UK government in solidarity with the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities that will suffer worst and most immediately from climate change caused overwhelmingly by the rich long-industrialised countries.

We need the government to act now on climate, to stop building coal-fired power stations and new runways – and to begin the renewable energy revolution. We need a tidal wave of people outside parliament to make them act to stop climate catastrophe now! Be part of that tidal wave, be there! Next year may be too late.

for more information:
http://www.globalclimatecampaign.org/ – for a list of cities and actions!
www.campaigncc.org

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BUST Magazine Christmas Craftacular
6th – 7th December, St Aloysius Social Club, 20 Phoenix Road, Euston, NW1 1TA
craftacular-uk@bust.com

BUST is a magazine devoted to the female. Providing an unapologetic view of life in the female lane, they break down stereotypes! Based in the US and established in 1993, the magazine addresses a variety of different issues within pop sulture, including music, fashion, art & crafts and news.
Editor-in-Chief, Debbie Stoller, decided to call the magazine BUST, because it was “aggressive and sexy and funny… It was a title that could belong to a men’s porn magazine.”
For Women With Something To Get Off Their Chests!
Click here for the Christmas Craftacular’s Facebook Page


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Jumble Fever
Under the bridge on Beck Road, E8
Saturday 6th December
Midday-4pm, Entry £1
A fabulous jumble sale with a boogie twist! There will be a great deal to see and do and buy.. See you there!

ETSY
An online shopping bazaar; Etsy is a cross between eBay and Amazon with a humble handmade twist. Launched in June 2005 by Robert Kalin, for sale Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, the site has grown to be incredibly popular, with tens of thousands of people selling their handmade goods (90% of whom are women!).
As Christmas draws nearer and greener, we have chosen our favorite handmade things to inspire your presents list.
www.etsy.com

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“The Kelsey”; a pleated clutch in paisley mocha
This handmade clutch is one of many adorable bags created by GraceyBags; get in touch through etsy.com to custom order a clutch and choose from a rainbow of fabrics.
Featured is ‘The Kelsey’ in a paisley mocha print on the outside in greens, blues, pinks, yellows and browns. The inside has been sewn from a silky brown fabric and the bag closes with a small magnet.

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Recycled Journal – handbound
Find a lovely selection of hand bound recycled books by Rhonda; bookbinder and book artist.
This particularly wonderful journal is made with a variety of recycled scrap papers ranging from large envelopes, posters, junk mail, blank paper, lined and graph paper, covers from old sketch books, old maps, discarded photocopies, misprints from the computer printer to paper bags.
Perfect as an art journal, the book is covered with an old map of the world, the one pictured above showing the islands of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
There are 256 pages (when you count both sides of each sheet). The pages are handbound using green and brown linen threads, visible on the spine in 4 rows of chain stitches.
The book size is approximately 4″ x 4¼” and 1″ thick (or 10.5cm x 11cm x 2.5cm).

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French Bulldog cotton tote bag

This adorable cotton tote is the perfect carry-all for any occasion. BellaBlu Designs signature French Bulldog silhouette has been cut from Heather Bailey‘s ‘Sway in Brown’ Pop Garden print and appliquéd to this cotton canvas bag. It is 100% 10 oz. cotton, measures 15 x 13 x 3 inches and can be customized with most other dog breeds.

TREEFORT
http://treefortkids.myshopify.com

We’ve also had a browse round treefort.myshopify.com, for some gift ideas for those of you with little ones in your life!

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Dreamlets Dolls
These cute little creatures would make an adorable gift this season, and as a product that gives 1% back to Artworks, Bridges to Understanding, or Poncho, they’re doing a lot more than making a loved one happy! The dolls come in a variety of shapes and colours, each with their own quirky personality. You are also able to choose which organization will benefit from your gift by registering your doll online.

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Nikki McClure’s Mama & Baby Things
Treefort also sell many of Nikki Mcclure‘s prints, books, cards, and calendars. Nikki McClure creates complex, yet natural designs by cutting away from a single piece of black construction paper with an x-acto knife. Her works are printed on 100% Recycled, 100% Post-Consumer Waste, Processed Chlorine Free paper that was manufactured with electricity that is offset with Green-e® certified renewable energy. Her work is printed by a small family-owned press in Portland, Oregon, US- and uses soy-based inks.

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Kids On Roof “House”
is made of Eco friendly-100% recycled cardboard and is 100% biodegradable. These houses are the perfect gift for creative children, as they’re meant to be decorated and personalised! (see below for examples from treefort) Kidsonroof donates 5% of its profits to specific Unicef projects; €24,000 has now been collected for the Unicef project for building better, small-scale housing for HIV/Aids inflicted orphans in Russia.
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Beyond Retro Christmas Party!

This evening Beyond Retro is throwing it’s annual seasonal gathering – in both it’s shops, viagra buy the original Cheshire St warehouse and new sibling store in Soho – from 6pm – 8pm, there’ll be lots of exclusive goodies for you to browse through and they’ll even throw in some mulled wine and mince pies. Good times.

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Made In Clerkenwell

This evening and all weekend, the Clerkenwell Green Association open their studios for Made in Clerkenwell, an event that showcases the work of over 70 designers they support through providing them with studio space, mentoring and business advice to help them create their work.

The fruits of their labors are exhibited and available for purchase, so you can hunt out that unique Christmas gift and buy all kinds of original and creative wares – ranging from fashion designs to jewellery, accessories, textiles and even ceramics.
What makes this shopping experience so different is that you can mingle with and chat to the designers and find out about their craft, inspirations, working method, becoming a designer, anything you want to know! So pop down, get a great gift and support new designers.

Open 6pm to 8pm, Thursday 27th November 2008 and
12pm to 6pm on Friday 28th, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th November 2008.
£2.50 entrance – free to the under 16s.

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It’s no secret that Brooklyn’s the place to be for smart indie pop these days, view but look a little closer to home and you might be surprised. Take tonight’s superb support acts, advice for example. First up is Pens, erectile a cute lo-fi local trio who, despite playing to only a handful of people, put on a wonderfully frantic and ramshackle performance – think Karen O‘s kid sisters gleefully bashing at snare, guitar and synths.

Fellow Londoners Chew Lips are up next and are nothing short of a revelation. The threesome cater in captivatingly melancholy electronic music and boast a bona fide icon-in-waiting in singer Tigs; she prowls and creeps around the venue, all black bob and wide eyes, unleashing powerful vocals and jumping on the bar to serenade us, while the boys whip up a glitchy synth and bass storm in the background. ‘Solo’ is the band’s set-closer and an undeniable highlight – scuzzy and danceable yet strangely sad, it will be one of your anthems of 2009, no question.

This bunch are hard to follow, but Telepathe just about manage it. Dave Sitek-produced debut ‘Dance Mother’ is on the way in January, and recreating its majesty live is clearly still a tricky undertaking for the Brooklyn duo. They do their best, unleashing a stream of cluttered soundscapes, layered harmonies and clipped rhythms, and while the effect is hypnotic at times, barely a word is uttered between songs – resulting in a distinct lack of atmosphere. This could of course be due, in part, to the fact that they are playing to a room full of typically disinterested Shoreditch types. Whatever the reason the performance falls a little flat, until final effort ‘Chromes On It’ that is, its spine-tingling beats waking the crowd from its stupor and climaxing with speakers shaking and half the band hanging from the ceiling as the hysterical throng down the front excitedly punch the air. It’s just enough to convince us that we’re not quite prepared to give up on Telepathe as a live proposition yet. More like this please.
Nuclear: Art and Radioactivity
discount -4.064941&sspn=16.764146, visit this site 39.418945&ie=UTF8&ll=51.524712,-0.079694&spn=0.008598,0.019248&z=16&g=E1+6PG&iwloc=addr”target=”_blank”>Nicholls and Clarke Building, 3-10 Shoreditch High Street, Spitalfields, London E1.

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‘Half-life’
Chris Oakley, 2008
High-definition video, 15 minutes

‘The Nightwatchman’
Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou, 2008
Installation

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The Nicholls and Clarke Building hosts an exhibition that explores the changing perceptions of nuclear power. In our rapidly deteriorating climate, the effects of nuclear development from the past have come to haunt us. ‘The Nightwatchman,’ by Simon Hollington and Kypros Kyprianou, captures this disturbing predicament.

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As we entered the installation there was something immediately unsettling about it. A board-meeting table situated in the centre of a large dilapidated storeroom indicated recent activity, and as we crept further through the exhibition space there was more evidence of some night watchmen. But they are no where to be found…

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Together with the film ‘Half-life’ by Chris Oakley, there was a sense of being caught in a crossfire of two different eras: the naïvely optimistic 80′s and the knowledgeable cynicism of the present day.

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The film showed a series of paradoxical images of nature vs. technology, and through it we were reminded of how our idea of what is progressive has been turned on it’s head.

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Categories ,Chris Oakley, ,Earth, ,Installation, ,Kypros Kyprianou, ,Simon Hollington, ,The Nicholls and Clarke Building, ,Video

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Amelia’s Magazine | COP15 rapped up

80s leather jacketAll imagery throughout courtesy of The Stellar Boutique

Stella McCartney and Kate Moss know a thing or two about good style. Both are fans of Stella McClure, shop owner of newly opened internet shop, The Stellar Boutique. Previously running a vintage-customised stall at Portobello Market, McClure packed up shop in 2004 to travel the world in a campervan. Now settled in the Spanish countryside, she has decided to give it another go. This time though from the comfort of her own home via the power of the internet.

v125The Stellar Boutique is a great concept. McClure travels the hippy-luxe trail across Europe to Marrakech in order to bring you vintage treasures. Everybody loves a one-off, and that is certainly what The Stellar Boutique provides. Featuring vintage bags, designer garments, customised pieces and exquisitely exotic homeware, there’s something for everyone.

squareingtrq231Unlike many other fashion businesses at the moment, McClure is keen to promote new designers and ethnic artisans. (Instead of ‘Marc Jacobs’ think ‘Marc who?’) McClure insists that real style is best grown from within, instead of stealing magazine looks or following trend advice. The Stellar Boutique offers the freedom to do this.

NWfeathfrBut does it deliver? Standout pieces are endless. Let’s start with the accessories. There are the Moroccan style leather handbags.Then there are the mountains of unique jewellery to choose from. Pieces by Bora Bora, Lei Rose and Norwegian Wood are to die for. I love the porcelain tea-cup necklace and the silver postcard trinket by Lei Rose, as well as the feathered and fringed pieces by Norwegian Wood, and wow, have you seen the skull charm bracelet by Bora Bora? Even more for the Christmas list!

vintage shoes goldnsilverNext up, vintage. There’s second-hand, slightly grubby, vintage fashion, and then there’s nice ‘I’m so glad only I have this’ vintage fashion. The Stellar Boutique falls into the latter category. The vintage section of the site is easily the big winner. With clothing separated into 60s, 70s, 80s, handbags, scarves, boots and boho, it couldn’t be easier to navigate towards your era or item of choice.

80s vintage tiger topBoho features peasant tops and kaftans Sienna would covet. The 70s section showcases (unusually beautiful) standout dresses at massively cut-down prices, and 80s can tailor to all your glam rock needs. There are sparkly 80s style heels and some killer red leather stilettos in the shoe department, as well as the standard biker or cowgirl boot. With menswear and more accessories coming soon, you’ve got to keep checking back for more goodies!

boomboxAs if it needed to be said; everything is quality assured, hand-picked and highly loved. Check out the site to update your wardrobe for 2010 with fresh, exotic pieces your friends can drool over. For Christmas, they are spreading the holiday joy with a 20% off discount sale on all vintage and womenswear, as well as homeware! So why not pick up something for your Christmas shindigs or New Year’s bashes now instead of waiting for the mania of the January sales?!

home pageAll imagery throughout courtesy of The Stellar Boutique

Stella McCartney and Kate Moss know a thing or two about good style. Both are fans of Stella McClure, click owner of newly opened internet shop, price The Stellar Boutique. Previously running a vintage-customised stall at Portobello Market, McClure packed up shop in 2004 to travel the world in a campervan. Now settled in the Spanish countryside, she has decided to give it another go. This time though from the comfort of her own home via the power of the internet.

v125The Stellar Boutique is a great concept. McClure travels the hippy-luxe trail across Europe to Marrakech in order to bring you vintage treasures. Everybody loves a one-off, and that is certainly what The Stellar Boutique provides. Featuring vintage bags, designer garments, customised pieces and exquisitely exotic homeware, there’s something for everyone.

squareingtrq231Unlike many other fashion businesses at the moment, McClure is keen to promote new designers and ethnic artisans. (Instead of ‘Marc Jacobs’ think ‘Marc who?’) McClure insists that real style is best grown from within, instead of stealing magazine looks or following trend advice. The Stellar Boutique offers the freedom to do this.

NWfeathfrBut does it deliver? Standout pieces are endless. Let’s start with the accessories. There are the Moroccan style leather handbags.Then there are the mountains of unique jewellery to choose from. Pieces by Bora Bora, Lei Rose and Norwegian Wood are to die for. I love the porcelain tea-cup necklace and the silver postcard trinket by Lei Rose, as well as the feathered and fringed pieces by Norwegian Wood, and wow, have you seen the skull charm bracelet by Bora Bora? Even more for the Christmas list!

vintage shoes goldnsilverNext up, vintage. There’s second-hand, slightly grubby, vintage fashion, and then there’s nice ‘I’m so glad only I have this’ vintage fashion. The Stellar Boutique falls into the latter category. The vintage section of the site is easily the big winner. With clothing separated into 60s, 70s, 80s, handbags, scarves, boots and boho, it couldn’t be easier to navigate towards your era or item of choice.

80s vintage tiger topBoho features peasant tops and kaftans Sienna would covet. The 70s section showcases (unusually beautiful) standout dresses at massively cut-down prices, and 80s can tailor to all your glam rock needs. There are sparkly 80s style heels and some killer red leather stilettos in the shoe department, as well as the standard biker or cowgirl boot. With menswear and more accessories coming soon, you’ve got to keep checking back for more goodies!

boomboxAs if it needed to be said; everything is quality assured, hand-picked and highly loved. Check out the site to update your wardrobe for 2010 with fresh, exotic pieces your friends can drool over. For Christmas, they are spreading the holiday joy with a 20% off discount sale on all vintage and womenswear, as well as homeware! So why not pick up something for your Christmas shindigs or New Year’s bashes now instead of waiting for the mania of the January sales?!
kdg
I was making my way through my e-mails one morning at Amelia’s HQ and I came across one from a lady called Kate Daisy Grant. This caught my eye as it is the name of my old boss…and her daughter… merged? Confused. I know she is not the most technologically gifted of folk so I was miffed to see an e-mail from her. I had no doubt that it was going to be about how much she missed me and my mocha making skills, illness However it wasn’t her at all. It was another lady, viagra approved who perhaps is a distant relative (we explored the idea at one point). Anyway, I checked out her myspace and “I liked it” as Louis Walsh would say. So Kate and I arranged to meet in a blind date stylee in Brixton.
“…What do you look like so I know how to spot you?…”
“…Im wearing a tan faux fur jacket, pale blue jeggings…”
I sounded like a compete tit. Fake fur and “JEGGINGS” I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t bother turning up. sound like I have been rolling around in Coleen Rooneys wardrobe. I didn’t mention my diamond head band, I think if I did it perhaps that would have been too much. The beautiful young thing came bouncing up to me at the station with a pretty pixie crop, I was expecting something like this when she said she had cut her own hair. We bonded over our love of the “luscious motion” of gel pens then Kate began by telling me about her musical upbringing…

Kate: My Granny was a concert pianist, but she gave up due to performance nerves, and she got married instead. It was the 30s or 40s and it’s a shame that in that era the advise was “Your too nervous, You should just give up!” My mum was a ballet dancer and I played the piano before I could even reach it!

School was a musical time?
Yeah, total geek! The only thing I have ever nicked are choir music sheets!

The only thing I really played at school was recorder, Did you go down that route?
Yeah, all routes; cello, piano, singing… Now I have a collection of toy instruments, toy bells, tiny piano, autoharp…

Your home is like a musical museum then?
Yeah, Totally! And puppets as well. I’m making lots of puppets for a video. Usings lots of pompoms and wool! I’m trying to knit a baby at the moment!

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I have a big bag of pompoms that my sister used for a project and I wouldn’t let her throw them away, would you like them?
Yes! That would be great! I would actually because I want to make a panda and I could make sheep out of them!

I knew I was keeping them for something!
This is to accompany your music?
Yeah, this is the single I guess from the film so I’m doing a video for it. It’s based on a 50’s film called “Lili” which is about a girl who follows around a travelling circus and she falls in love with a puppeteer who is a bit of a bastard, but he is really nice to her through the puppets, and she becomes part of the act, So it’s a reworking of that.

When shall this be released?
January, then I’m going to do a whole spate of videos in January.

So this first video is for “One Thing You Should Know About Me”? Is this available now?
It’s on the film soundtrack and its available on itunes at the moment. I haven’t done a big push yet because I’m going to wait until I can do it through some kind of label or my own, to properly shunt it out there! I am published by Sony but we record independently so we have more freedom.

It must be nice to have that creative control?
Yeah defiantly, I know people that are singed to the wrong label who aren’t even aloud to gig- they just put you on the shelf so thank god I’m not like that.

So where since school has your musical journey taken you?
I dropped out of theatre at university because I wanted to gig and not be told if I was good enough to write or perform, I just needed to get on with it.

Where did you study?
Bristol, I spent about 5 weeks there! I’m from London, Hammersmith. So since then I have been gigging, I’ve been at The Edinburgh fringe, Written a children’s book which is being turned into a ballet next year!

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What’s the kids book about?
It’s called “The Fox and the Pig”, have you read the little prince?

No…

Love it! It’s tiny! It’s a French book…

Yes!! I have! I bought a clock in a charity shop like 2 weeks ago, that so weird!
That’s so lucky! What a great thing to have! The book is great! Get it! It’s a fable about a man who comes form another planet and visits all these planets on the way to earth and he tells an airman who is stranded in the desert all about these silly adults he meets…and he dies at the end so he can go back to his own planet. So our book is like that- a tragic love story between a fox and a pig. We did models like Bagpuss style, Victoriana style models, a toy stage from an orange crate, made everything like flowers out of glacier cherries and stuff like that. And so somebody wants to make it into this ballet puppetry!

So, where shall this be?
In London, somewhere we are looking at venues but it might still be a while but we are defiantly going to do it. Hell of a lot to do. We are going to use shadow puppetry, and I have written the soundtrack too….

I understand that you’re a fan of toys, Last time I went to the dentist, I saw these toys in the waiting room, They are straight from my childhood! Do you recognise them at all?
That would be big bird- you wind him up? I defiantly recognise him!

I think the bear could be a great instrument…

toyz

Your right, I’m going to go into Argos and charity to see what hey have got. I have a speak and spell! Around the corner they have a Qur’an, You press a button its chants! And I have a robot that plays the double bass. I use instruments in weird ways, like the way I create a tambourine sound is I fill a toy drum with pennies and it makes a nicer sound than an actual tambourine, cheese graters with a loosely held handful of spoons! I’m just desperate for new sounds!

Do they come to you in the middle of the night or is it just from stuff lying around?
When I was doing the sounds for the children’s book, I realised that my budget was totally limited and I went round just knocking chairs and walls and various filled glasses all around my room! Toy wise- I used to have bells- they are really out of tune, but they sound amazing! A toy piano from the 50s that I dismantled, it sounds better now! I just wanted to see inside what goes on!

Where do you find them?

Brixton market! It is so rubbish!

So rubbish its good

There are a lot of kinda leftfield pop strong female songstresses around at the moment, which ones would you call yourself a fan off?
PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, Bat for Lashes, Cat Power and Bjork.

Do you go to gigs a lot?
I saw The Yeah Yeah Yeahs not that long ago- so amazing- I’ve also been to The Correspondents and Kitty, Daisy and Lewis.

So, Instrument and toy wise your Influences are quite, retro lets say? Is this the same with your musical influences?
Yeah, well, Tom Waits, he uses sweet sounds pots and pans dustbin lids, he is an influence. I love how he can have a sweet sad melody with something creeeakin’ in the background like something being wound up and your not quite sure what it is!
I like film soundtracks and French films like Amelie

Have you seen “Love Me If You Dare”? That’s a French film- best film ever.
Oh god I have seen it! And they marry themselves! It’s got that purity and really clean story telling with a dark ending!

How did your work for the film “Mr Right” come about?

We met through a friend – he kept playing my music in his shop and the director heard it and decided that it was perfect for the end scene in the film. It’s about gay relationships with out having any characters that play to gay stereotypes, it’s really refreshing. I wrote a song as well for the opening scene and more.

Did you get quite a free reign for things?
It was amazing because she showed me the film and showed me the scene that she wanted the music for, it all came instantly into my head and it wasn’t a struggle at all and I did it all in about 2 days. She didn’t change anything that I had done it was a pretty blessed situation.

You record in London?
Sometimes I record straight onto a laptop- not even with a mic! So it has this kinda messy quality! But for the album- I use a studio in north London with my producer

Tell me about the relationship with your producer?
I have known him bout 2 years now-2 years working together, He is amazing, a total surf dude- in attitude- he doesn’t actually surf at all, he is amazing, drenches stuff out of you! He is like a Jewish Bob Dylan!

Jewish Bob Dylan surfer dude
And so he would play live with you also?
Yeah, his name is Ken Rose and we have an amazing cello player called Hannah and we are there with dustbin lids and bells.

Gigs in the new year?
Yeah there are in the pipeline!

Finally, If you could live any era when would it be…I am torn between the 20s and Victorian era- or the 40s?! Before climate catastrophe and people were inventing really exciting things. I think they are now- but in a different way. Everything was so fresh and there was a hunger for entertainment!

There are so many different layers to Kate Daisy Grants sound – when you listen to her its like visiting a fairground, like another world!
Amelia’s will keep you posted with her live dates in the New Year, In the meantime check out her myspace and the film “Mr Right” is out now. You can catch it at The Prince Charles Cinema.
Kates album is available on itunes.

PS.
This is my clock…
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THIS JUST IN!
Copenhagen Climate Summit: Lord Monckton rap battles Al Gore

“It’s freedom they’re plundering, seek and you’re the scare-monger king!” cries global warming sceptic Lord Monckton to former American Vice President Al Gore, during their furious rap battle over climate change. Hold on… Lord Monckton and Al Gore in a rap battle?! It happened! Sort of. In this ingenious video by The Juice Media you can see how it might play out if Monckton and Gore were to get down wit da kids and engage in a juvenile debate over the issues of climate change and the Copenhagen summit. This video in particular is part of a series called Rap News – with Robert Foster, which was born in October this year, other titles in the series include ‘Nasa bombs the moon’ and ‘Obama receives Nobel War is Peace prize’. Rap News was spawned from the artistic and philosophical minds of Giordano and Hugo, who reside in Melborne Australia, where they met after moving from the UK and Italy. Together they write and produce the show; Hugo, an MC/spoken-word performer/poet and actor creates the rhymes and impersonates the various public figures featured in the shows. Giordano, a writer, historian, academic, music composer and founder of Juice Media directs using themes and narratives based on his deep-seated interests and ideas about history, the media, the environment, social justice, indigenous peoples and politics.

They’re an intriguing pair, over 1000 are subscribed to their You Tube channel, and amongst the comments on their page is “What a talent mate” and “You make me proud to be Australian”. With the Copenhagen summit underway I have a few questions for the madcap duo, who going by our email correspondence are not only talented but super friendly.

So, why rap?

Chuck D once said that Rap was the CNN of the ghetto. We figure, why CNN? Why not a quality news channel like DemocracyNow.org?

How did you 2 first come to work together? What is your relationship like?

We met over common interests in politics, nature and medieval Italian poetry. Our relationship is great. We sit around in the garden and have brainstorming sessions over homegrown salads.

Your raps are driven by politics, environmental and social issues. Tell me more about your views and motivations?

Our view is that the mainstream media is manifestly almost completely failing in its duty to inform the populace of world events in a measured and contextualised manner, and our motivation is therefore to rectify that in a small way, helping people join the dots between the quotidian occurences, and the broader picture. We are putting into practice that wise adage, ‘become the media’, for, as Jello Biafra famously stated, ‘we demand fair and more accurate balanced news coverage – and if we don’t get it… we’ll make it ourselves!’

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Hugo, you impersonate various public figures in the video, who is your favourite person to be and why?

So far the only real public figures i’ve impersonated have been Lord Monckton and Al Gore. Out of those two, Lord Monckton came the most naturally – i finally got to use those skills from ‘Latin For Pseudo-Scientists 101′. Of all public figures to impersonate, my favourite has to be David Bowie when he does the Goblin King in Labyrinth: “Go back to your room… play with your toys!” and so on.

What are your hopes for COP15?

That it will be a turning point. Wherever we’re headed, the future’s not looking too good right now. This seems like a good opportunity to take a break from the reckless ride we’ve been on for the past few centuries and reassess our situation; a chance to consider that we may not have thought all this through that well from the outset: Civilization? – what self-respecting civilization would totally trash it’s own home? And climate is just one of the massive challenges we now face; yet it’s the surest sign that ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ and what better place to rectify this than in Copenhagen?!

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So, we hope it doesn’t become another Kyoto – with the little time we have left we simply don’t have that option. We hope it won’t legitimise false solutions and myths such as ‘clean coal’ or emission-trading schemes – these just encourage a business-as-usual mentality, and if it hadn’t taken as many as 15 COP’s since the ’92 Earth Summit in Rio, then perhaps these wouldn’t be a case of too little too late. We hope the media does its job and keeps its eye on the ball and doesn’t degenerate into coverage of smashed windows and protester arrests.

But above all we hope that COP15 won’t all come down to money and be limited to market-based solutions – we need a real supra-economic movement to spring from Copenhagen which will carry us through this. It can’t just be about hatching new technologies but also about regaining old knoweldge. We are going to have to finally remember that our economy and society has to adapt to the planet, to the law of the land, and not the other way around. This is the simple fundamental lesson which we are going to have to (re)learn. Whether we do so the easy or the hard way, is what will be decided in these coming days in Copenhagen.

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What are Juice Media’s future plans? What’s next?

Although this project has existed for several years in our imaginations, we’re really only just setting out on this journey and, well, we’re still figuring out what to pack in the suitcases.

TheJuiceMedia itself is a broader prtoject which seeks to facilitate access to the voices of Indigenous people – particularly from Aboriginal Australia, since that’s where we are. So we’ll carry on working on doing what we’re doing and look to keep the information flowing. As far as Rap News episodes, we are looking forward to covering many more topics, as they come up. First on the cards is a website where we can set up our little campfire in the world-wide-web, light up some hyperlinks and start foraging for new stories.

We’re quite clear about what won’t come next: we’re not hoping to get on TV! The way it is, we encourage people to turn off their sponsor-saturated, Murdoch/Berlusconi-owned mega-networks and tune in to alternative, independent media sources. The internet seems to be the only medium left to us to retain some form of global participation in the production of meaning in today’s society and we intend to dedicate all of our creativity to making the most of it – while we still have it. The more people use this vital medium, the less the likelihood of it being hijacked, like what’s happened to TV. That would truly leave us in the dark(ages), once again.

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Check out all Juice Media’s Videos here

Categories ,Al Gore, ,australia, ,Copenhagen summit, ,environment, ,Lord Monckton, ,Media, ,Rap, ,video, ,You Tube

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Amelia’s Magazine | Earth Listings

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“It’s nice everyone getting dressed up and making an effort, hospital stomach round Christmas time ‘n that”, generic slurred an old man at the bar after telling me this was his local. Halloween did he mean? A gaze and a nod.

Peggy Sue (there were some pirates but they’ve long since fled to the Caribbean to find themselves) have a knack of adding a distinct flavour to everything they do. Brewed in soulfulness and peppered with giggles, they are an intoxicating concoction of many lovely things; compared to the likes of Lauryn Hill and Regina Spektor in a single breath, all manner of genres tossed in their direction.

But references aside, that tend to reduce everybody to something regurgitated, there’s lots of other good stuff – like a compilation CD released for every month (100 copies only, complete with artwork), like how their voices emulate astonishing power and soft effortlessness all at once; or that their low-fi sound is brought together with honeyed harmonies, punctuated Spektor-like noises and an unending supply of bizarre percussion instruments. It is finally exquisitely tied together with lyrics that detach our body-parts as things to be stolen, tell stories of the woes of superheroes, and give life to ‘those fragile little things’ that live inside. It all feels very refreshing, and nicely homemade – ‘Peggy Who?’ asks the drum-face.

The Horror Movie Marathon had the Peggy stamp all over it, made apparent in its details. A projection screen hung behind them playing classic horror gems; a new horror song, complete with screams had been written for the occasion; and the widely acclaimed ‘superman’ was illustrated by a live puppet-show on stage. The wide-eyed Alessi’s Ark and feet-shuffling Derek Meins were there to support, marking the beginning of the Triptych Tour – one bus, two weeks, three acts. Catch them if you can in a venue near you! But what oh what does Triptych mean?

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Be Prepared, sildenafil long the motto of the Scouts, is now being added to by The London Climate Camp Social Group with Be Inspired and Be Involved. A series of nights around town broadly divided into these three headings encouraging all to socialise and fund-raise for Climate Camp.

Be Prepared nights fund-raise with bands, djs and comedy. It’s one to bring your friends who may not be into all the “eco stuff” but would be interested in finding out more about Climate Camp.
Be Inspired focuses on what’s going on at the moment. Film screenings, speakers and debates wil inform people what is happening and why Climate Camp is doing what its doing.
Be Involved is the actions based adventures, such as Climate Rush, the forthcoming Day of Action and what ever else happens in the future.

The first one is tomorrow and is a Be Inspired night held at The Old Crown, 33 New Oxford St starting at 19:00. The line up consists of Alistair James playing music, Leo Murray introducing his excellent animation Wake Up, Freak out and Get A Grip, a short presentation from Climate Camp about what is being done right now and where it’s going and why, including two ladies instrumental in organising Climate Rush. Plus plenty of music to dance the night away.

The Old Crown
33 New Oxford St (corner of Museum street),
London WC1A 1BH.
Between Holborn and Tottenham Court road tube station.

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Hotel International 1993

Dear Tracey, discount

It wasn’t so long ago that I really thought I’d had it up to my neck with you. I think it was one of your columns in the Independent that did it. You’d had a bad day, page you know, one of those ones when you don’t particularly feel like getting out of bed in the morning and then when you do, you burn your toast, or scald yourself in the shower or something. And instead of having a quick cry, or swearing, or generally getting on with things as most people might do, your especially bad day led you toward one overarching question: ‘did my dad ever really love me?’ I thought it was a tad dramatic. So upon hearing about your retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art I was expecting 20 years of torment in the space of a few rooms. And you didn’t disappoint. But what I wasn’t expecting was that I was going to leave the exhibition liking you. Feeling for you, maybe. Being critical of you, definitely. But actually liking you? No, I wasn’t expecting that. But there is a reason that we hear so much about you Tracey, because you know what, you’re actually a pretty good artist.

Emin’s exhibition opens much like one would expect it to, throwing the viewer head-first into the deep-end. The first work we encounter is a tribute to her deceased grandmother; the second, a graphic description of a traumatic abortion. All the staple Emin classics are here: the neon signs, the tapestries, expressionist etchings, and of course, the infamous bed. And yet after the piss-stains, the used condoms, the confessional video diaries, the purging of torment and the sheer tragedy of it all, something beautiful remains. Emin’s letter to her uncle Colin is a striking example of this. Lucid and incredibly moving, Emin succinctly describes her emotions as she learns of the horrific accident that caused her beloved uncle’s death. Exploration of the Soul, a work comprised of 32 sheets of handwritten text, is similar in its expressive eloquence. You may baulk at the several spelling mistakes, shudder at the sadness of other people’s lives or smile at the moments of humanity within it; Emin will fail to leave you unmoved.

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My Bed 1998

The further we continue through the exhibition the more we feel as though we are Emin’s confidante; her scars are ours now and they are weighing us down. To enter, toward the end, a room removed of much of the abject excess of the others, comes as welcome relief. Two sculptures in particular reveal the diversity of Emin’s talent as an artist. Self Portrait (Bath) comprises a rusty bath filled with bamboo, barbed wire, chicken wire and a contorted neon streak entwined to create a work of great textual interest. In the same room a rollercoaster of reclaimed wood, It’s Not The Way I Want to Die from 2005, dominates the space. Constructed entirely from old crates, the past life of the wood seems to echo Emin’s own (one plank retaining it’s FRAGILE label), but is here reworked into a somewhat rickety yet undeniably beautiful piece.

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It’s Not The Way I Want to Die 2005

Emin is a chameleon, expressing herself in several mediums and seemingly mastering them all. Love or loathe her – you won’t easily forget her, and to my mind, that’s what makes her continue to be worth talking about.

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The Perfect Place to Grow 2001

Images courtesy of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

September marked the official UK launch of the new shopping/networking website, ampoule ShopStyle. Already popular amongst fashion followers in the US, viagra the best way to describe this new digital phenomenon would be a ‘Google for fashion with a MySpace twist‘. Shopstyle offers a unique online shopping experience, which enables users to browse the rails of thousands of brands through a simple search box option. Just like Google, ShopStyle carries out all the hard work trawling through shopping sites in order to bring you any matching items to your keywords. Users can also narrow down their searches by price, brand, store and size so only the most relevant results are displayed.

The site proved to be heaven sent in my own hunt to unearth a descent pair of gladiator heels, presenting me with options from new and smaller brands that I wouldn’t usually consider in my shopping choices.

ShopStyle’s nifty social networking twist means even those of us a little strapped for cash can still muzzle in on the spirit of fashion. The StyleBook tool allows users to play around and create their own fashion look books based on their own personal tastes and styles. These can be viewed by fellow users who are free to comment and discuss ideas. Unlike other virtual stores, ShopStyle embraces a love for fashion and creativity, moving beyond the simple idea of consumption.

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Keep an eye out next month as three emerging designers, selected by stylist to the stars, Bay Garnett, get the opportunity to display their collection on the site.

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Creaturemag sets out to bring together artists from all around the world, adiposity and produce an online publication, which works as one big collaboration. Being the arty literate types that they are, they’ve also created a sort of character out of the Creaturemag concept. This has led to an entertaining, if not ever so slightly confusing, interview with themselves, or Creaturemag – you kind of have to read it to understand.

They have just released Creaturemag festival edition – a diary of their activities over the summer. Its content though is a little more in depth than trudging through mud and drinking cider though. The wonderful cover has been done by long time Amelia’s contributor Nikki Pinder! It also features interviews with up and coming musical geniuses Alessi and Zombie Zombie.

Being the creative types that they are though, no pages go without a little artistic decoration. A group of top notch illustrators have contributed – bringing the entire thing to life.

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Crafty pirate

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Floating from festival to festival over the summer, the creatives behind Creaturemag have compiled pieces on the more out there festivals like Secret Garden Party and End Of The Road. The festival edition acts as a sort of guide to how they have often created their own arty fun at festivals this year. Perhaps the most intriguing of which is the feature on concrete mushrooms that were taken to festival all over the country. It is also a testament to how devoted they are to their art. The idea of dragging massive concrete mushrooms on top of the mounds of bags and tents I always end up hauling to campsite doesn’t appeal to me.

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Concrete mushrooms

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The whole thing just makes it look like the guys behind it have had the best summer ever, and it really makes me want to go back to a festival.

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As an entity we usually take in music that is self-consciously/appointed art-rock. It is often forgotten that this art-rock did not just pop out of Andy Warhol’s arse as he stood watching the Velvet Underground, more about he just brought an audience to Reed, buy Cale, see Morrison and Tucker’s genius. Although visual art did have an influence, it is the avant-garde classical that clashed with rhythm and blues to start this musical mongrel. LaMonte Young and the Fluxus movement popularised drones; Cage, Reich and Glass atonality and chance. Karlheinz Stockhausen is another visionary whose contribution cannot be forgotten. The great German- who sadly passed away last year- was a key contributor to the zygote cell stage of electronic music and developed his own musical language of complexity and rapturous transcendental irregular noise. Without him the work of- to mention a few acolytes- Kraftwerk, Zappa, Bjork, Can, Aphex Twin, Faust and Sonic Youth would be very different and have a few less words to rely upon in their collective musical lexicon.

The Royal Festival Hall and Purcell Rooms hosted Klang which was intended as a tribute for Stockhausen’s eightieth birthday. I was privy to two nights of the retrospective which proved to be one of the most amazing musical experiences I have ever had. The Friday night in the smaller Purcell Rooms began with Joy the second hour of Stockhausen’s incomplete twenty-four hour cycle. This was a piece composed for two harpists. The two former students of Stockhausen sat illuminated by a single spotlight dressed in white. They completely subverted my expectations of what a harp could do as the cut up fragments of a medieval German hymn mixed plucked or bashed arrythmic textures with youthful voices making strange phonetic noises. Subsequently, Cosmic Pulses (the thirteenth hour) was archetypal Stockhausen electronic music on 24 different tape loops played at differing speeds through eight surrounding speakers in the dark with a single moon like spotlight on stage. Bjork says Stockhausen mixed modernity with the primordial and natural ferocity of a thunderstorm. This displayed that contradictory dialectic as it buzzed brilliantly with unpredictable electric whip crack on rumbling menace.

I feel privileged to have seen the final night at the Royal Festival Hall. First as short electronic work was played, a token gesture for what was to follow. Lucifer’s Dance was utterly batshit. Performed by the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, a solo drummer, flautist and opera singer dressed up as Lucifer himself. It was a comment on the spirit of contradiction and independence via the conduit of an orchestra pretending to be a grimacing demonic face. However, Stockhausen made people use their instruments idiosyncratically and it wasn’t a conventional (not that I have been to many) classical concert. The musicians had to dance, uncomfortably, in their chairs as they blew discordant squalling devil’s frown lines. The cameo from the amazing jazz drummer was particularly good, he represented nostrils. Weirdness. As we left the hall from the rooftops Michael’s Farewell was trumpeted over the Thames, a stunning experience, older fans were getting visibly emotional it may as well have been Karlheinz’s farewell for them. Many of his students, collaborators and friends were in attendance. People left with sad smiles and general wonder from what they had just experienced.
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I realised the other day that it had been quite some time since I had rocked out – it kind of just fell out of favour. Mainly because rocking out became so cringeworthy all of a sudden. The connotations appeared to have fallen into something deeply uncool, capsule instead of being the epitomy of it.

The answer to this life problem comes in the form of two bands. Rolo Tomassi; a band that are undeniably too fun for metal and too out there for indie, more about and Fucked Up!; a relentless hardcore band whose live show is almost more about what the lead singer is doing physically, rather than their ear punishing music.

Rolo Tomassi took to the stage and instantly impressed with their musicianship. The music skips from segment to segment with time signatures that befuddle the mind. They’re like some experimental jazz band, in the way that they take an anything goes approach, only more like a jazz band that has been raised by wolves – or something equally ridiculous.

Their set was simply fantastic, though with the catalog of songs they have on their album that came as no surprise. Their keyboard player came into his own during Abraxas, his assault on the keys reproducing something of an assault on my ears. They leave the audience thoroughly shaken, and all I could think about was how I couldn’t wait to see them again some time.

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With a name like Fucked Up! there is a certain amount of characteristics expected. They live up to, if not exceed, any kind of expectations imaginable. As soon as the lead singer hoists himself on stage he is something of a dominating presence, like some jurassic being – I was genuinely scared of this guy. On first hear they sound like a pretty standard American hardcore band, and it’s not until you see them live that you get a full understanding. The lead singer’s nonsensical ventures into the crowd, his hilarious jibes between songs and the general raucous in the crowd caused by their show somehow allows it to make sense.

I left the gig with a level of adrenaline that I haven’t felt whilst walking away from a gig in years. I’d recommend some time at a metal gig of this calibre to anyone, it is still a case of being careful though. As a genre it deals with both end of a spectrum. Prepare to listen to an awful lot of guff before you find the genre’s best bits.

Here at Amelia’s Magazine we’re all about nurturing design newbies, advice particularly if they’re as innovative and inspiring as Karen Karem. We first encountered Karen way back in the days of issue 6. Fresh out of Central St Martins and brimming with ideas, for sale she caught our eye with her funky range of horse shaped bags inspired by childhood dreams of magical fantasy lands. After two long years of hard work and some good ol’ fashioned elbow grease, information pills she’s now back to launch her debut Spring/Summer 09 clothing collection, Hard Cover Candy.

A peak into Karen’s treasure trove of inspirations reveals a concoction of nostalgic teenage memorabilia combined with a haphazard assortment of British items from eras past. Kitch accessories and pastel coloured cupcakes bump shoulders with jars of jellybeans, fluffy cotton candy, 60′s platforms, teenage heartthrobs and images of elegant ladies at brunch.

The collection itself consists of a range of dresses. Each contain a childlike quality but still manage to maintain a sense of femininity and elegance. Like her playful horse bags, Hard Cover Candy is for women who remember raiding their mothers wardrobes and dressing up in pretty frocks for birthday parties at the age of 9. They’re for women who like to daydream and still feel like little girls at heart.

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With a mixed colour palette of soft pastels and vibrant electrifying tones, Karen’s selection of baby doll dresses and floor length evening gowns use chiffon and ruffles to ensure a high level of grace and movement.

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With Vogue and Vanity Fair already showing an interest in the collection, it’s likely that Karen Karem will soon be sweeping us all along into her magical daydream world.

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To make music relaxing without descending into something boring requires great amounts of skill in arrangement and more often than not melody. These are two things that Finn has in milk tanker sized loads.

The music on this album rises and falls like a souffle. Beginning with the settling whispers of Half-Moon Stunned. Perhaps not the most exciting song on the album it introduces you to the subtle yet brooding voice of Finn. The restrained yet beautiful melodies of this song have an air of Sigur Ros, illness though on a much smaller scale.

Midway though the album things become a little more unsettled, with the romper that is Julius Caesar. All semi off key, there is a sense of panic in his voice – a device that reminds me of Thom Yorke‘s solo efforts. It pulls at the heartstrings purely through it’s melody, even without the hard hitting, blood spill heavy lyrics.

One of my favourite selections from the album is The Truth Is A Lie, again opting for those obtuse melodies, only this time with some very 60s percussion. This sets it off magnificently, making it far less dreary even though it’s steeped in melancholy. Only problem is, about halfway you remember what it really reminds me of. It does sound kind of like Duffy, if she was in a fowl mood and had a record label who had a conscience and would stop forcing that drivel upon us all.
Here’s one for the fashionettes, pharm the glam goddesses, purchase the couture collectors and anyone who dreams in fairytale fashion time. Make way for a new fashion address. Wembley is now the place to head for a truly avant-garde adventure.

Come December, a distinctly unfashionable warehouse on the outskirts of the city, in Wembley, should expect a style onslaught in the form of savvy shoppers and gracious costumiers, each of them on the hunt for a piece of design history. Think hand-sewn sequins and starry silhouettes. Or you might spy a vintage muse in second hand leather and spiky heels falling over flapper dresses and wartime headwear.

For the first time ever, Angels, Europe’s biggest, brightest and most iconic film and theatrical costumier, stages a mammoth clothing sale. More than 30, 000 items of vintage clothing, accessories and jewellery, including pieces featured in films, TV dramas and pop promos, are set for a starring role as a bargain addition to your wardrobe.

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The timing couldn’t be better. Bang in the middle of the credit crunch party season Angels have dropped the frou-frou price tag in favour of a far more festive payment system. You purchase an empty shopping bag on arrival, costing between £10 and £20, and fill it up with lush, lavish or downright ornamental day and eveningwear.

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Tucked away in the fashioned up folds of this supersize event are gowns by Christian Dior and Jean Muir. Perhaps you’ll even come across a corset fresh from its debut on the silver screen. More exciting still for anyone inspired by street style looks are the High Street labels of yesteryear, including Chelsea Girl, Bus Stop and Artwork Blue. The sale acts as an archive of fashion’s forgotten favourites and is a snapshot of retro design pioneers.

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Whatever you find, the event has widespread appeal, from members of the bargain hunter public to history of design scholars. The shopping elite can snatch at consumptive fulfillment in these credit crunch climes without having to settle for the mindless monotony of minimalism, a look traditionally touted by fashion forerunners in times of economic hardship. As the trend for re-wearing, recycling and reworking style statements from the past continues, fashion, at least, can still be fanciful and frivolous. This authentic collection of costumes stalks a precious historical timeline and offers the chance for you to put a new slant on generations of style. So steal yourself away from the urban high street shopping throng and spin North in your second hand heels. This is could be one of the shopping highlights of the season.

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MONDAY 17th November

Amazing Baby, sick Stricken City – The Lexington, viagra sale London
Yo Majesty! – Barfly, London
The Black Keys – The Academy, BRISTOL
White Denim – The Plug, Sheffield

TUESDAY 18th November

Baddies, Dan Black – Hoxton Bar & Grill, London
Metronomy – Rough Trade East, London
Little Noise Session feat. Ladyhawke, Noah and the Whale
The Notwist – Club Academy, Manchester

WEDNESDAY 19th November

TV on the Radio – Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
Tony Christie – Cadogan Hall, London
Jay Jay Pistolet – The Enterprise, London
Fucked Up – Roadhouse, Manchester

THURSDAY 20th November

Micachu – Corsica Studios, London
Jay Reatard – The Faversham, Leeds
Sway – The Syndicate, Bristol
White Lies – Guildhall, Gloucester

FRIDAY 21st November

Andrew Bird, St Giles Church, London
RAR! All Ages Event feat. Street Riots, Poppy and the Jezabels, Partyshank
The Faint – Brighton Digital, Brighton
Golden Silvers – The Macbeth, London

SATURDAY 22nd November

Buraka Som Sistema – Shoreditch Studios, London
Screaming Tea Party – The Macbeth, London
The Sugars – Bardens Boudoir, London

SUNDAY 23rd November

Those Dancing Days – Thekla, Bristol
Clinic – Scala, London
Koko Von Napoo – Rough Trade East, London
Greg Weeks – Luminaire, London
It is on a nippy and windy day that I meet Maia, view one third of the chillzine collective at Mona Lisa coffee shop in North London. It emerges that she has travelled all the way from Korea and is hot-footing it around Europe. Luckily she still has time to catch up for coffee whilst talking about: inspiration, thumb Korea, pharmacy her old landlady and why ‘batman woman’ graces the front cover of issue two.

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Who’s involved with creating your zine?

It’ s made up of three girls. My name is Maia and there’s Jaewon and Heojih. We met at art school and graduated together. We soon got a studio together and just bummed around for a bit just doing our own separate things to make money. Then at one point we were just really bored so decided to make a magazine. So that’s how it started.


How would you describe your zine?

Super independent coz it’s just the three of us! Also ‘Chill’ means ‘to paint’ in Korean and we like to do both! It’s consciously decided. All the images are there for a reason. It showcases international and local artists as well as reviews, essays, interviews, photos and poems. But mostly it’s full of quirky weird stuff we like.

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What themes have you covered?

Issue one was Seoul. Issue two was localisation and globalisation. Three: respect your elders. And this one’s our last one. We went a little bit crazy and did an excerpt and made it big. This one focussed on ‘environment and seductive behaviour’. The environment is dealt with all the time and we thought lets do something to go with it that has nothing to do with it!

How do you come up with the theme for each issue?

We sit around and just talk and gossip a lot. We’re also really interested in current events in Seoul so when something comes up we tell each other, ‘guess what this happened here’ and we discuss it and sometimes we decide ‘this is a really good subject for a theme you know?’

What are your backgrounds?

We all majored in painting. The local contributors are mostly our friends. The art scene in Korea is very tight. Once you know people it’s really easy. It wasn’t hard to expand a network.

What inspires you?

I’ve been in Seoul for eight years. Before that I lived in Nepal for thirteen years so Korea is still new for me. What really inspires us is the kitsch culture of Korea. It’s a fast paced place but it’s the old historical locations and fashion that interests us. These old creative places where we walk the backstreets and get a feel for past cultures- this is what gives us ideas. The ‘70s and ‘80s in Korean culture and the themes of globalisation and localisation also gets us thinking.

Globalisation and localisation-how did you go about treating this massive subject?

We focused on this huge theme in issue two and tried to make it light-hearted. A lot of people are coming into Korea nowadays and there’s a lot immigrant workers who are being neglected and others nationalities who are being shunted. We talk about these issues. For example, there’s slogans in the streets where on the outskirts of Seoul in the countryside there are adverts where they are selling wives. You can phone a number and get yourself a wife, which we think is ridiculous!

We changed the word ‘petinam’ meaning Vietnamese into ‘petimen’ which means ‘batman’. So for the globalisation and localisation issue we used the idea of wordplay in the cover. We changed the word ‘petinam’ to ‘petimen’ (batman) and put an image of a batman woman on the front cover for fun. These topics are serious but we wanted to create a playful feel.

chillzine%20globalisation%20issue.jpg

What issue excited you most?

After our first three issues we wanted a different format. We made our issue ‘respect your elders’ into a napkin shape because older people obviously use them.

chillzine%20napkin%201.jpg

We went round Seoul taking pictures of old people. Elders have nowhere to go in Seoul as they’re really neglected there. They were all such amazing people. Our landlady gave us the initial inspiration. She’s old old old but she is really miserable because her daughter has depression. She has a really sad life. When we go to pay our rent each month we see her place, which is really run down. We took a picture of her bed where she keeps a knife under her pillow to ward off nightmares-it’s superstition. She gave us a picture of herself and she said ‘blow this up for me so I can use this for my funeral’. That was really touching for us. After that we thought, lets photo-document her. We took a few shots of her, one which included her jogging in the morning.

chillzine%20napkin.jpg

From the artists that you have used, who has particularly caught your eye?

This issue we used Aurel Schmidt who contributed some amazing flower images. They’re all so beautiful and delicate. We were really pleased to have her in our zine because she’s an up and coming New York artist who is just really talented.

aurel%20schmidt%20chillzine.jpg


Where do you want to go next?

We were thinking of doing a documentary. The things we experienced with the old people-like drinking with them, hearing their stories, they were really interesting. So it would be good to change the medium.

One of the girls is moving to London and I’m hopefully going to be in Europe for a bit so hopefully we will keep on the zine. It sometimes feels like we’re the only ones who read it! But for us we are doing it for ourselves anyway so I think that’s why it’s so fun.

Why not grab your very own copy by contacting the lovely bunch by clicking here
Monday 17th November
Man&Eve presents a group exhibition of recent work by gallery artists. The exhibition runs from the 17th of November until the 21st, more about by appointment only.

Tuesday.jpg

Tuesday 18th November

This is the second festival of European documentaries after the success of last years Voyages. Spread over several venues, viagra 100mg What’s Art Doc? presents an eclectic panorama of documentaries profiling painters, pills musicians, dancers, and other artists, talking freely about their inspiration, their relationship to the world, and with their audiences. The Goethe-Institut will be showcasing four films: Addicted to Acting by Andres Veiel; World-Star by Natasa von Kopp; Actually, Everything is Completely Different by Jörg Burger; and The Photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher by Marianne Kapfer.

Wednesday 19th November
Museum 52 plays host to “There’s a better way to spend an afternoon”, a group show exploring new avenues in current paiting practice. Each artist, using a different vocabulary, presents a view into the abstract, and the abstracted, using the painted form. In conjunction with the exhibition there will also be a series of new works by Shara Hughes.

Wednesday%20Museum%2052.jpg

Thursday 20th November
Ferreira Projects presents a solo exhibition by James R Ford, Only Bored People Get Bored, an existentialist outing via assemblage, games, and by-products of boredom. The exhibition is free, and you can meet the artist every Thursday and Saturday during the residency!

Thursay%20Ferreira%20Project.jpg

Friday 21st November
John Simpson exhibits his first London show at Ocontemporary. The exhibition features unique hand-executed monotype originals and new signed limited edition silk-screens. Simpson’s work has been described as somewhere between childhood imagination and adult reasoning, exploring the physical and psychological relationship between the human figure and animal forms.

Friday%20Ocontemporary.jpg

Saturday 22nd November
Pack your suitcase and come on board … what happens when 30 artists are commissioned to create a 3D work that conforms the weight and size restrictions of airline carry on luggage? Hurry to catch a glimpse on its final day at the White Space Gallery.

luggage.jpg

Sunday 23rd November
Duncan Campbell, Bernadette at HOTEL, 22nd Nov – 18th Jan
Campbell’s recent film, Bernadette, portrays Bernadette Devlin, a Northern Irish Republican who became a street activist in the late 1960′s who helped to organise the Battle of the Bogside, and subsequentely, at the tender age of 21, became the youngest woman to be elected to the House of Commons in Westminster. Go Bernadette!

Sunday.jpeg

earth_listings_image.jpg

Here are a few events happening over the next couple of weeks that us at Amelia’s Magazine think would be worth going to if you are interested in finding out more about Environmental Issues today!

mean%20sea%20level%20pradip%20saha.jpg

Mean Sea Level: A film by Pradip Saha
Friday 21st November 7pm, more about Khalili Auditorium, click School of Oriental and African Studies, click Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Around 7500 Kms from the heart of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] in Geneva, Ghoramara and Sagar islands are going through their own testimony of climate change related phenomena. ‘Mean Sea Level’ takes us through the story of the inhabitants of these small islands at the southern tip of the Indo-Gangetic Delta.

Categories ,Earth, ,IPCC, ,Listings, ,Pradip Saha, ,Video

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Amelia’s Magazine | Tate Shots: Jared Schiller’s Dream Job

DSC02965

Jared Schiller with David Byrne

All photographs and videos courtesy of Tate Shots except where otherwise stated.

Back in 2002 whilst still a skint student, cheapest I started what was then my idea of a dream job: ticket seller at Tate Modern and Tate Britain. I got to see great art and even meet the odd artist or two. I remember Gustav Metzger insisting he paid to see Barnett Newman, and Tony Oursler successfully blagging a freebie to the Turner Prize. Bridget Riley even gave us a personal tour of her exhibition. Fast forward five years and I’ve landed a job helping Tate Media launch a new video podcast: TateShots. These days I produce and commission the TateShots series, in which we interview artists about the business of making art, and talk to famous gallery-goers about their favourite art shows. The job has given me the opportunity to nervously meet heroes of mine like Jeff Koons, Laurence Weiner and Martin Creed, as well as artists I’m less familiar with but who become firm favourites.

We’ve made 150 episodes of TateShots so far, and it now comes out weekly. This week we launched a new strand called Sound & Vision. The series took the films’ director, Nicola Probert, and I, all over the country to interview musicians who make art. Billy Childish, Lydia Lunch, Mark E Smith, David Byrne, Jeffrey Lewis and Cosey Fanni Tutti all helped us with our enquiries about where art and music collide.

me-and-JeffJared Schiller with Jeff Koons

Billy’s interview was probably the most memorable. We filmed him in a cramped bedroom he uses as a studio in his mum’s house in Whitstable, surrounded by stacks of paintings. There was hardly enough room for him to paint, let alone for us to film.  Billy’s musical and artistic reputations arguably couldn’t be more different. As a musician he is cited by bands like The White Stripes as an influence – his dedication to lo-fi recording and performance make him the very definition of authentic.  On the other hand, as an outspoken critic of conceptual art, his standing in the art world is a little harder to pin down. Because of this big difference, Nicola had the idea to get Billy to interview himself.  So Artist Billy asked Musician Billy questions (e.g. “Do I have an influence on you?” Answer: “No.”), and explains how he went through a ten year stretch of only painting to the music of John Lee Hooker (almost). The whole experience made me think that it’s only a matter of time before Billy Childish is unmasked as the ultimate conceptual artist…

Going forward I would love to make more videos about pop stars with a taste for art. Before we embarked on this series we had already spoken to Alex James from Blur about Ellsworth Kelly, and John Squire from the Stone Roses about Cy Twombly. Apparently Jay-Z is a massive Richard Prince fan, so perhaps he should be next on my list.

meJared Schiller photograph courtesy of Simon Williams/O Production

What Jared likes:

Places: Moel-y-Gest, a hill near Porthmadog in North Wales

Food: Pizza. My dream is to build a pizza oven in my back garden. It will never happen but I keep hold of the dream..

Drink: An Islay Whisky is the perfect late night tipple.

Website: http://www.tate.org.uk (of course)

Music: Currently the new Four Tet album.

Books:  Currently reading ‘Then We Came to an End’ by Joshua Ferris. I mainly have a weakness for any kind of exhibition catalogue or artist’s monograph.

Film:  I’m looking forward to Chris Morris’s ‘Four Lions’.

Shop: Alter 109 is a really good men’s boutique in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Categories ,art, ,Billy Childish, ,conceptual, ,contemporary art, ,Cosey Fanni Tutti, ,Cy Twomby, ,david byrne, ,Jeffrey Lewis, ,Lydia Lunch, ,Mark E Smith, ,music, ,musician, ,painting, ,Tate, ,Tate Britain, ,Tate Modern, ,Turner Prize, ,video

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Amelia’s Magazine | Theatre

unknown.jpg
The Wellcome Collection’s new temporary exhibition is entitled ‘War and Medicine’ and focuses on the individual human consequences of war rather than the overall statistics of death and destruction that impersonalise and almost glorify military combat and which we are most often presented with. Soldiers are heroes when they die for their country but uncomfortable representatives of horror when they return wounded and disfigured.

Installation artist David Cotterrell’s film, specially commissioned for the exhibition, attempts to rectify this. Covering three walls of a darkened room, the film shows wounded soldiers, with varying degrees of injury, being loaded onto a flight back to England from Helmand Province in Afghanistan. The only soundtrack is the constant hum of the plane’s engine, an eerie backdrop to the calm, efficient activity taking place on screen. There is an unsettling disjunction between our inclusion in the scene through the way it is presented to us and the alienness of the sight before our eyes. This slightly dreamlike atmosphere helps separate the artwork from the realms of documentary photography and helps us understand the confusion of this homeward flight, which we are told in the information outside, is often only partially remembered by the soldiers.

What is most striking about this piece is the individual humanity behind the uniforms of the men and women depicted. On the left are the walking wounded with a variety of arm slings and facial injuries being tended to by medical staff and waiting patiently for their journey to begin, on the right, more distressingly, a person is carried in on a stretcher, connected to breathing apparatus. It is heartbreaking to realise that although most of these people will probably survive, and so not register in the public consciousness, they will have been scarred for life both physically and emotionally. I began to see them as people beyond whatever my personal attitudes to their profession and the war they are fighting in was.
A harrowing counterpart to this work is Cotterrell’s written diary, where he describes with civilian horror, the daily minutiae of life amongst the medical staff in Camp Bastion. The exhibition’s mission statement is to explore the dichotomies in a society that is simultaneously developing ever more sophisticated means of destroying life and protecting it. The stalemate futility of this situation is given a human face by Cotterrell’s work.

David Cotterrell is featured in issue 10 of the magazine, out shortly.

Categories ,David Cotterrell, ,Medical, ,The Wellcome Collection, ,Video

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Amelia’s Magazine | Tim Plester introduces ET IN MOTORCADIA EGO!

Motorcadia-Promo

ET IN MOTORCADIA EGO! is a spontaneous dream-poem that was inspired by The Beat Writers, American Counter-Culture and the iconography surrounding the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Here film maker Tim Plester explains the idea behind his latest project.

Motorcadia-Promo

Teddy Roosevelt may have been the first U.S. President to ride in an automobile, but John Fitzgerald Kennedy will be forever remembered as the first to die whilst in one. Shot like a red grouse, on November the 22nd 1963, whilst incumbent on the backseat of an open-topped four-door Lincoln Continental convertible. The fatal headshot sent echoes around the globe, and was captured for all to see by frame 313 of the apocalyptic 8mm home-movie taken by local Dallas resident Abraham Zapruder.

Channelling the dharma-burn of Allen Ginsberg and The Beat Generation, ET IN MOTORCADIA EGO! is a cinematic poem, inspired by the rich iconography surrounding the events of that fateful afternoon fifty years ago. A deep dream echo, transmitted by a displaced soul marooned in a blistered corner of imaginary desertscape.

Motorcadia-Promo

ET IN MOTORCADIA EGO! was written and directed by Tim Plester, in collaboration with Lamb+Sea, and performed by Kieran Bew.

Categories ,Abraham Zapruder, ,Allen Ginsberg, ,American Counter-Culture, ,ET IN MOTORCADIA EGO!, ,Kieran Bew, ,Lamb+Sea, ,Lincoln Continental, ,President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, ,Teddy Roosevelt, ,The Beat Generation, ,The Beat Writers, ,Tim Plester, ,video

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Amelia’s Magazine | University of Westminster: Photography Ba Hons Graduate Show 2011 Review

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 review-Zara Ilic
Detail of photograph by Zara Ilic.

University of Westminster had the lion’s share of the Free Range showspace last weekend, store taking up the entirety of the huge hangar like space, symptoms which has lately been suffering a lot of roof leaks. Within those walls was a plethora of different photographic styles. I picked up on just a few in the show.

Tomas Hein Artefact
Tomas Hein porcelain figure
Tomas Hein looked into contemporary archaeological finds – from the former inhabitants of 43 Gerrard Road, Islington. After eviction only the porcelain statues of this Chinese family remained alongside some black and white informal family photos. Huge prints emphasised the pathos of his finds. His accompanying zine was featured on It’s Nice That. Find Tomas Hein on twitter here.

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Louise Smith de Vasconcelos
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Louise Smith de Vasconcelos
Louise Smith de Vasconcelos looked into Awareness and Perception in a series of close up still lives, some of which were more discernibly objects that I knew and recognised than others.

Genevieve Rudd dementia
I was most taken by Genevieve Rudd‘s collaborative project with her grandfather James Pettigrew, named 64 Althea Green. Together they documented her grandmother’s decline into dementia, with slabs of paint overlaid on conventional photography in a semi crazed manner.

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Samantha Cawson
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Samantha Cawson
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Samantha Cawson
Samantha Cawson also chose to create an installation with the bastardised photographs of the Victorian and Edwardian era – faces sewn over with coloured cotton threads. Weirdly, I had the idea to do this with some of my old magazine tearsheets only yesterday, when I was considering how I could have contributed original art to the Art Car Boot Fair. Though maybe not over their faces…




Beth Vieira calls herself a ‘lens-based artist’ and is interested in cinematic and narrative photography. ‘Coming from an academic environment, my work tends to demonstrate a conceptual reflection onto psychoanalytical and sociological dramas‘. Her three video loop installation was called Scouting for Boys and featured staged tableaux that called to mind the kind of generic imagery that is familiar to us from films and television. At first glance these appeared to be static photos but then eyes, breath, wisps of emotion revealed them to be alive and moving people. Subtley clever.

Ed Hannan rowley_way
Ed Hannan tackled that favourite photographic subject, the weird beauty of council estates – mounds of curvaceous and angular weathered concrete rendered beautiful in the loving detail. It’s a shame there’s nowt more to be seen online yet.

Shanna Taylor Hoarding the Garage
Shanna Taylor Hoarding the Garage
Shanna Taylor Hoarding the Garage
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Shanna Taylor Hoarding the Garage
The Garage struck a resonant note with me – Shanna Taylor‘s documentation of her father’s incredible hoarding showed how it has threatened to engulf his family (he’s built an extra garage where everything is getting mouldy and moth eaten). Rather uncomfortably it reminds me of my own tendency to hang on to absolutely everything… just in case it’s needed somewhere down the line, and also because I hate to create any kind of waste that might end up in landfill. ‘Much of what he has accumulated is junk…. However for him each item has such a high degree of perceived value that he cannot bear to part with it.’ Yup, I know that feeling only too well.

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Jorge Anthony Stride
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Jorge Anthony Stride
Uncertain States by Jorge Anthony Stride featured a series of ethereal landscapes, quite similar in fact to Lydia Anna Stott’s work at Nottingham Trent. Even his written explanation was eerily similar too. I must say I am very drawn to this kind of photography – something about the dreamlike state of it is very appealing. There must be something zeitgeisty going on here.

Zara Ilic Plitvika Jezera
Zara Ilic Plitvika Jezera
Zara Ilic Plitvika Jezera
I loved Zara Ilic‘s Plitvika Jezera – a colour saturated documentation of the waterfall in a national park on the borders between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The waters change colour constantly according to the mineral deposits and angle of the sun, something which she has captured extremely evocatively. And to my excitement I was able to tweet her immediately to say how much I liked her work because she included her twitter profile on her business card. Yay!

Aniela Michalec-Perriam Pur-spi-kas-i-tee
Aniela Michalec-Perriam Pur-spi-kas-i-tee
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Aniela Michalec-Perriam Pur-spi-kas-i-tee
Aniela Michalec-Perriam worked with children to complete her final project – Pur-spi-kas-i-tee tackled the plight of kids with communication difficulties, saddled with trying to make themselves understood in a society that negatively stereotypes them. The children were all given the opportunity to contribute to their portrait in any way they liked. The blurring of faces and simple brightness of the resulting photos was very evocative.

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Jason Pierce-Williams
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Jason Pierce-Williams
Lastly, Jason Pierce-Williams visited the studios of artists who are driven to make art despite the lack of commercial success. His candid portraits portrayed the stoicism of those artists who are determined to keep producing art regardless. ‘None of the artists portrayed are household names.’

All in all there was a very high quality of photography amongst Westminster students, but too many have rested on their laurels when it comes to promoting their work online – it was a massive struggle to find degree show images. Some students hadn’t even bothered to upload their images to the Free Range showcase pages, hence the reason that this blog features my relatively crappy photos of photos. Trawling the web in search of images I have also come to realise just how much help creatives need with learning Search Engine Optimisation – they really don’t make the most of it. I can’t stress how important it is to graduate with a strong online presence so that interested parties can track you down. Is it any surprise that Tomas Hein, with his great website, blog and twitter feed, has received such notable accolades already? If not now, then when?

Categories ,2011, ,43 Gerrard Road, ,64 Althea Green, ,Aniela Michalec-Perriam, ,Art Car Boot Fair, ,Awareness and Perception, ,Beth Vieira, ,Bosnia and Herzegovina, ,Council Estates, ,Croatia, ,Dementia, ,Ed Hannan, ,Eviction, ,Free Range, ,Genevieve Rudd, ,Graduate Shows, ,Hoarding, ,Islington, ,It’s Nice That, ,James Pettigrew, ,Jason Pierce-Williams, ,Jorge Anthony Stride, ,Lens-based artist, ,Louise Smith de Vasconcelos, ,Lydia Anne Stott, ,Nottingham Trent University, ,photography, ,Plitvika Jezera, ,Pur-spi-kas-i-tee, ,Samantha Cawson, ,Scouting for Boys, ,Search Engine Optimisation, ,Shanna Taylor, ,The Garage, ,Tomas Hein, ,Uncertain States, ,University of Westminster, ,video, ,Zara Ilic, ,Zeitgeist, ,zine

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Amelia’s Magazine | University of Westminster: Photography Ba Hons Graduate Show 2011 Review

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 review-Zara Ilic
Detail of photograph by Zara Ilic.

University of Westminster had the lion’s share of the Free Range showspace last weekend, store taking up the entirety of the huge hangar like space, symptoms which has lately been suffering a lot of roof leaks. Within those walls was a plethora of different photographic styles. I picked up on just a few in the show.

Tomas Hein Artefact
Tomas Hein porcelain figure
Tomas Hein looked into contemporary archaeological finds – from the former inhabitants of 43 Gerrard Road, Islington. After eviction only the porcelain statues of this Chinese family remained alongside some black and white informal family photos. Huge prints emphasised the pathos of his finds. His accompanying zine was featured on It’s Nice That. Find Tomas Hein on twitter here.

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Louise Smith de Vasconcelos
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Louise Smith de Vasconcelos
Louise Smith de Vasconcelos looked into Awareness and Perception in a series of close up still lives, some of which were more discernibly objects that I knew and recognised than others.

Genevieve Rudd dementia
I was most taken by Genevieve Rudd‘s collaborative project with her grandfather James Pettigrew, named 64 Althea Green. Together they documented her grandmother’s decline into dementia, with slabs of paint overlaid on conventional photography in a semi crazed manner.

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Samantha Cawson
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Samantha Cawson
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Samantha Cawson
Samantha Cawson also chose to create an installation with the bastardised photographs of the Victorian and Edwardian era – faces sewn over with coloured cotton threads. Weirdly, I had the idea to do this with some of my old magazine tearsheets only yesterday, when I was considering how I could have contributed original art to the Art Car Boot Fair. Though maybe not over their faces…




Beth Vieira calls herself a ‘lens-based artist’ and is interested in cinematic and narrative photography. ‘Coming from an academic environment, my work tends to demonstrate a conceptual reflection onto psychoanalytical and sociological dramas‘. Her three video loop installation was called Scouting for Boys and featured staged tableaux that called to mind the kind of generic imagery that is familiar to us from films and television. At first glance these appeared to be static photos but then eyes, breath, wisps of emotion revealed them to be alive and moving people. Subtley clever.

Ed Hannan rowley_way
Ed Hannan tackled that favourite photographic subject, the weird beauty of council estates – mounds of curvaceous and angular weathered concrete rendered beautiful in the loving detail. It’s a shame there’s nowt more to be seen online yet.

Shanna Taylor Hoarding the Garage
Shanna Taylor Hoarding the Garage
Shanna Taylor Hoarding the Garage
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Shanna Taylor Hoarding the Garage
The Garage struck a resonant note with me – Shanna Taylor‘s documentation of her father’s incredible hoarding showed how it has threatened to engulf his family (he’s built an extra garage where everything is getting mouldy and moth eaten). Rather uncomfortably it reminds me of my own tendency to hang on to absolutely everything… just in case it’s needed somewhere down the line, and also because I hate to create any kind of waste that might end up in landfill. ‘Much of what he has accumulated is junk…. However for him each item has such a high degree of perceived value that he cannot bear to part with it.’ Yup, I know that feeling only too well.

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Jorge Anthony Stride
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Jorge Anthony Stride
Uncertain States by Jorge Anthony Stride featured a series of ethereal landscapes, quite similar in fact to Lydia Anna Stott’s work at Nottingham Trent. Even his written explanation was eerily similar too. I must say I am very drawn to this kind of photography – something about the dreamlike state of it is very appealing. There must be something zeitgeisty going on here.

Zara Ilic Plitvika Jezera
Zara Ilic Plitvika Jezera
Zara Ilic Plitvika Jezera
I loved Zara Ilic‘s Plitvika Jezera – a colour saturated documentation of the waterfall in a national park on the borders between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The waters change colour constantly according to the mineral deposits and angle of the sun, something which she has captured extremely evocatively. And to my excitement I was able to tweet her immediately to say how much I liked her work because she included her twitter profile on her business card. Yay!

Aniela Michalec-Perriam Pur-spi-kas-i-tee
Aniela Michalec-Perriam Pur-spi-kas-i-tee
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Aniela Michalec-Perriam Pur-spi-kas-i-tee
Aniela Michalec-Perriam worked with children to complete her final project – Pur-spi-kas-i-tee tackled the plight of kids with communication difficulties, saddled with trying to make themselves understood in a society that negatively stereotypes them. The children were all given the opportunity to contribute to their portrait in any way they liked. The blurring of faces and simple brightness of the resulting photos was very evocative.

University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Jason Pierce-Williams
University of Westminster photography graduate exhibition 2011 Jason Pierce-Williams
Lastly, Jason Pierce-Williams visited the studios of artists who are driven to make art despite the lack of commercial success. His candid portraits portrayed the stoicism of those artists who are determined to keep producing art regardless. ‘None of the artists portrayed are household names.’

All in all there was a very high quality of photography amongst Westminster students, but too many have rested on their laurels when it comes to promoting their work online – it was a massive struggle to find degree show images. Some students hadn’t even bothered to upload their images to the Free Range showcase pages, hence the reason that this blog features my relatively crappy photos of photos. Trawling the web in search of images I have also come to realise just how much help creatives need with learning Search Engine Optimisation – they really don’t make the most of it. I can’t stress how important it is to graduate with a strong online presence so that interested parties can track you down. Is it any surprise that Tomas Hein, with his great website, blog and twitter feed, has received such notable accolades already? If not now, then when?

Categories ,2011, ,43 Gerrard Road, ,64 Althea Green, ,Aniela Michalec-Perriam, ,Art Car Boot Fair, ,Awareness and Perception, ,Beth Vieira, ,Bosnia and Herzegovina, ,Council Estates, ,Croatia, ,Dementia, ,Ed Hannan, ,Eviction, ,Free Range, ,Genevieve Rudd, ,Graduate Shows, ,Hoarding, ,Islington, ,It’s Nice That, ,James Pettigrew, ,Jason Pierce-Williams, ,Jorge Anthony Stride, ,Lens-based artist, ,Louise Smith de Vasconcelos, ,Lydia Anne Stott, ,Nottingham Trent University, ,photography, ,Plitvika Jezera, ,Pur-spi-kas-i-tee, ,Samantha Cawson, ,Scouting for Boys, ,Search Engine Optimisation, ,Shanna Taylor, ,The Garage, ,Tomas Hein, ,Uncertain States, ,University of Westminster, ,video, ,Zara Ilic, ,Zeitgeist, ,zine

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Amelia’s Magazine | New video for Diamond Mine single Bubble by Elliot Dear

Elliot Dear Bubble King Creosote Jon Hopkins title
There’s no denying that a good music video is increasingly a necessity to accompany any new single release in our multi media world, ampoule so it is no wonder that it is to illustrators and animators that bands are turning in order to create magical visions of their songs that would not otherwise be possible. Illustrator and animator Elliot Dear is responsible for the gorgeous video for the new single from the Jon Hopkins and King Creosote collaboration Diamond Mine.

Elliot Dear Bubble King Creosote Jon Hopkins boatElliot Dear Bubble King Creosote Jon Hopkins fish boat

It features a small boat marooned in a snowy harbour and a black dog that jumps overboard to join a shoal of fish amongst points of light and an abandoned car. It’s one of the most evocative videos I have seen in ages, sickness exploring themes from Bubble in an abstract and dreamlike way.

Elliot Dear Bubble King Creosote Jon Hopkins fishElliot Dear Bubble King Creosote Jon Hopkins dog

Bubble was first written by King Creosote in the 1990′s, and is described by King Creosote in his Drowned in Sound track by track explanation as ‘boy does bad, promises to do better, big sentiments and commitments if and only when desperately needed.‘ Kenny added a second verse more recently in which he attempted ‘to bring in some older cynicism to counter the naivety in the original.Jon Hopkins recorded most of the backing track in his attic a few years ago and included sounds such as the turning of a bicycle wheel and the drumming of his hands on the carpet.

Elliot Dear Bubble King Creosote Jon HopkinsElliot Dear Bubble King Creosote Jon Hopkins under water

The video was directed by Elliot Dear, who graduated from UWE in 2007. Elliot now works with Blinkink and his work often explores the relationship between people and animals and where the line between the two blurs‘. He mixes illustration and animation with hand built sets and it took him five days to shoot the 3D models of the boat and car to create Bubble. You can watch it right here:

YouTube Preview Image

I love the combination of music and animation in the Bubble video, but if you want to break the spell it casts on all who view it then why not watch the ‘making of’ video below, which shows Elliot messing around in his basement studio to create the fictitious Bubble world.

YouTube Preview Image

Read my interviews with both King Creosote and Jon Hopkins. They will be on tour later this summer; two dates have just been added for Leicester Summer Sundae Weekender and Bestival on the Isle of Wight… full listing information here. Read our review of their recent performance at Union Chapel here.

Categories ,animation, ,bestival, ,Blinkink, ,Bubble, ,Diamond Mine, ,Drowned In Sound, ,Elliot Dear, ,illustration, ,isle of wight, ,Jon Hopkins, ,King Creosote, ,Leicester Summer Sundae Weekender, ,review, ,single, ,UWE, ,video

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