It feels like of Montreal (who are actually from Georgia) have been around for even longer than their eleven years. They’ve never really felt the fickle grip of hype, instead remaining a constant presence; on mixtape compilations, at parties and in music blogs. Shamefully, their part-of-the-furniture demeanour has meant that I’m only familiar with a handful of their hits, having never felt the impulse to dig deeper and geek up on all of their releases (and boy are there releases; in just over a decade they’ve produced nine studio albums and six EPs). So tonight as we head into Digital, just off the pebbly shore of Brighton beach, I can honestly say that I have no idea about what will be store for us over the next three hours, but I can’t wait to get inside.
Casiokids at Brighton Digital
While coats are swapped for raffle tickets and bar trips hastily made, Norweigen eletropoppers Casiokids take to the stage in a burst of bright, primary coloured lights and Cheshire-cat grins, fiddling about with the wires that extend out of the countless electronics and snake around their lace-up pumps. The self-named ‘electro troupe’ stand huddled in a close group enshrouded in equipment, energetically clapping their hands and throwing out jaggedy, pulsing dance moves. The music is vigourously dynamic but they appear relaxed as they spin out perky electro soundscapes, drenched in positivity and good times, as the stage is soaked in blocks of red, blue and green light.
Before of Montreal make an appearance, the atmosphere ascends; even the soundcheck is watched by the surrounding crowd with all the excitement normally reserved for an unexpected rendition of an old favourite, not the usual “one-two-one-two”. After being thrown into darkness, the lights eventually rise to depict a guy in a tiger mask standing center stage, setting the tone for the theatrical extremities that will follow. All members then appear to ‘She’s A Rejector’, dressed to the nines in glitter, dark shades, and ruffles, looking like a bemused circus group that have somehow got lost on their way to a carnival in outer space. It shouldn’t work, but it does, and I have to remind myself that this is a band who released their latest record, ‘Skeletal Lamping’, in various bizarre formats, including jewellery and bags.
Of Montreal at Brighton Digital
Frontman Kevin Barnes never stops moving, always pointedly alert as he bops around and dramatically strips off his shirt. He performs one song sat high on someone’s shoulders and even manages a costume change. The band play their way through tracks from albums including Skeletal Lamping, The Sunlandic Twins and Hissing Fauna…, as pigs, ninja’s and buddahs dance across the stage and with band members, which is slightly disturbing and fantastically theatrical. Due to the many incarnations of of Montreal over the years, their music comes in various forms – it sometimes verges on a ramshackle of unpredictable indiepop, then swins into funky afrobeat, and then just when you think you’ve got them pinned down, they throw in some psychadelic grooves to prove you completely wrong.
Of Montreal at Brighton Digital
For of Montreal a concert isn’t merely a runthrough of numbers but a grand performance; a chance to challenge perceptions and revel in insanity, dressed up and down and bringing their world onto the stage with them. As we leave I overhear a girl telling her friend, “My expectations were so high, but that has totally gone past anything I’d expected. It was incredible”, perfectly summing up the evening.
14 Bacon Street, erectile E1 6LF, page 11th-18th December
The pop-up shop does what it says on the tin, buy appears in a different location for a limited time, so you have to be quick to get in and see what’s inside. But make the effort as you can find a plethora of goodies from new designers and artists, hand picked from exotic locations all around the world. The store also supports the East End charity Kids Company, so you’ll be doing your bit to help as you shop.
Enjoy an evening of late-night shopping on London’s trendiest street, as well as rumageing through all that vintage, there will be refreshments on hand and special Christmas gifts available only on this night.
The Bizarre Bazaar
Sunday 21st December
Monday 8th December Joan as Policewoman, Thekla, capsule Bristol
Ex-Antony and the Johnsons collaborator touring in support of her new album. Expect mesmerising vocals and heart-rending tunes.
Boss Hog, Luminaire, London
Jon Spencer (as in Blues Explosion) and his wife Cristina Martinez front this long-standing blues-rock outfit.
Tuesday 9th December
Kong, Buffalo Bar, London
Art-noise, cool as Manchester band, heavy on the guitars.
The Miserable Rich, Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
Folky, orchestrated Brighton group, with links to Lightspeed Champion.
Sixtoes, Big Chill House, London
Cinematic, spooky blues-folk with a melancholy Eastern European edge.
Wednesday 10th December
Little Death, Club Fandango @ 229, London
Cool, cosmopolitan London band playing psychadelic tinged noise-pop.
Land of Talk, Water Rats, London
Canadian indie-rock.
Thursday 11th December
Good Books, Proud Galleries, London
Danceable indie-electro.
Mike Bones, Old Blue Last, London
One man and his guitar.
Friday 12th December
Rose Elinor Dougall, Barfly, Cardiff
Pretty girl music from this ex-Pipette. Still very pop but less of the sixties girl group rip-offs.
Free Fridays: Brute Chorus, La Shark, Josh Weller, 93 Feet East, London
Bonkers hair (Josh Weller) and outfits (La Shark) will abound at this FREE night featuring up-and-coming bands including Brute Chorus who will presumably play new single ‘She Was Always Cool’.
Saturday 13th December
Herman Dune, The Deaf Institute, Manchester
Perennial Parisian folksters on tour to promote new album ‘Next Year in Zion’.
Glissando, Holy Trinity Church, Leeds
Dreamy and ethereal. Should be lovely in a church.
Stereolab, Black Box, Belfast
Long-standing lounge/electronic post-rock with female French singer.
Getting up at 6am on a cold Saturday morning may be unthinkable to some -but for myself and fellow fashion enthusiasts, information pills the Angels Vintage and Costume clothing sale was more than enough motivation for the long, look early trek over to Wembley….or so we thought. The queue turned out to be VERY long… a 3 to 4 hour wait we were told. Despite our earlier determination, it was too long for us and we gracefully admitted defeat, leaving behind a growing queue of seriously hardcore shoppers.
One of those hardcore shoppers was ameliasmagazine.com’s very own Music Editor, Prudence Ivey, here’s her take on it, “Leaving the house at 6.30am, we were in the queue by about 7.15am and, although in the first 500, we were nowhere near the front. Some people – vintage shop buyers – had been there since Friday afternoon. There was a really friendly atmosphere, you could tell these people were true vintage fiends, as there was not a scruffbag in sight, it was all red lipstick and glamourous outfits despite the ungodly hour.
When we were allowed in, after just over an hour of wating, there was virtual silence and heads down as people rifled through the cardboard boxes packed with clothes on the floor. A cloud of dust filled the room after about 10 minutes, most of the clothes were in a bit of a state and everything I ended up with turned the water black when I put it in to hand-wash, not to mention my black snot… A quick sort through, try on and swapping session with my friend, along with some excellent packing meant that I left with 18 items of pretty decent, some of them really excellent, vintage finds for a measly £20. One of my favourite shopping trips EVER.” (above and below is Prudence modeling her two of her wonderful buys)
So now I wish I had stayed in the queue – but my day was not wasted, I found a far more inviting alternative, which boasted the benefits of being a. inside and b. no queue! It was the first London edition of New York magazine BUST‘s Christmas Craftacular.
Set in the St. Aloysius Social Hall in Euston, a mixed group of cool crafty kids, cute guys and even grannies filled the aptly dated-yet-cozy bar, and the Shellac Sisters played classic retro tunes on their wind-up gramophone, which added to the kitsch atmosphere. Having taken off in New York over the last 4 years, the Craftacular event has now come to British shores and brings together craft sellers, knitting circles, badge making stations and of course, lots of cake!
Tatty Divine turned into doctors for the day and set up their very own ‘craft clinic’ offering advice and tips to craft novices or lovers.
An ArtYarn Guerilla Graffiti Knitting Crew even set up a training camp, where boys sat happily next to their teachers, learning how to knit one, pearl one and Random Monkey Designs offered lessons in cross stitch.
With a packed out venue and buzzing crowd, it’s likely that (and we hope) the Craftacular event will become a regular date in the British calendar.
Monday Dec 8th
It seems most exhibition spaces in this area begin like this, drugs in someone’s flat. Every day this week at 79a Brick Lane, viagra 100mg there will be an exhibition of seven separate artists (one for each day) alongside a selected feature film, including the likes of Saturday Night Fever, North by Northwest, and The Truman Show. It starts at eight and ends when the film does. For a more detailed itinerary, check here. Admission is free.
Tuesday Dec 9th A Family in Disguise, by Yu Jinyoung has been extended at Union on Teesdale Street and is worth a look, if not only for the fact that entering the exhibition is a surreal experience in itself. Not a curator to be seen, and with a camera that links the room to their gallery in Ewer Street, you are alone in a haunting room with this disparate family of forlorn faces. Ring the buzzer and take a look.
Wednesday Dec 10th
Indian Highway is the new exhibition starting today at the Serpentine, describing itself as a snapshot of the vibrant generations artists working across the country today, well-established artists shown besides lesser known practitioners. Using a array of medias they are threaded together with a common engagement with the social and political, examining complex issues in contemporary India such as environmentalism, religious sectarianism, globalisation, gender, sexuality and class. It runs until Feb 22nd.
Thursday Dec 11th
Hermetic Seel is a new exhibition by Shane Bradford opening on Wednesday at the Vegas Gallery. It might just be satisfying to see fourteen historical art encyclopedias subjected to Bradford’s “post-Pollock” dipping technique.
Friday Dec 12th
Here’s what one of our writers said of Omnifuss’ last exhibition: In the heart of Dalston, down the end of a small alley road was a large garage with a little door. Through this door, a group of 24 artists showcased their work. Sculpture, music, performance and photography took place in the old car workshop that was far away from the usual pristine white walls of gallery spaces and created a rustic, and inspiring location for this exhibition. With flame heaters to warm those tootsies, and the symphonious sound of a violinist haunting the open rooms, I found myself immersed in the eclectic furniture and art… Downstairs is their new exhibit, an exploration of domesticity in its rawest states through sound, sculpture, video and installation, and by the sounds of it is worth a visit.
Saturday Dec 13th Awopbopaloobop. Artists listen to music, everyone listens to music. Lyrics are etched into our minds whether we want them there or not, and we can’t help but allow them to inform our everyday. Awopbopaloobop (I just like saying that word) is an exhibition at http://www.transitiongallery.co.uk/index.html, asking a host of artists to produce based on a favourite song lyric. This exhibition is coming to an end, (21st of Dec), so go and see it if you haven’t already. The space itself is worth the trip, and it’s fun to walk around a gallery with a song-sheet in your hands!
Brian Aldiss’ short story, drug “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long”, this to which the exhibition “Super-Toys” makes reference, abortion tells the story of a mother and her android son in the overcrowded world of the future who, however hard they try, cannot find a way to love each other. It makes love seem like a human malfunction, a flaw which can never be imitated. But moreover it captures the feeling of dismay when two people who know that they should love each other realise they can’t – that they fundamentally don’t know how. The android boy, who questions whether or not he is real, seems more humane than his human mother; who sends him to be repaired for the flaw from which she herself suffers. Love cannot be programmed; but is a lover not someone who says all those things that you want to hear, like an automated machine?
So with high expectations of an exhibition dealing with the strange interaction between humans and machine, fantasy and reality, love and compromise; what I found was initially disappointing. The notions the story had alluded to, the emotions and the complexity of them, were not to be found. Machine ducks floating in a pond, a room of human shaped stuffed objects lying mundanely on the floor; flashing machines dancing in a square box; all interesting to look at, but lacking explanation. The most interesting part of the exhibition was the nightmarish, garish and lurid room that followed, full of toys ripped apart: toys with two head, toys mutilated and deformed by visitors, and all in the name of art. With shelves and window ledges packed already, I was invited to create my own monster from a pile of rejected toys. There was something sinister about being instructed to rip the head off a teddy bear; glue Barbie legs where paws should be; and to work at a designated workstation. Despite the visual pleasure and hands on aspect of super-toys, it seemed to be an exhibition full of concept without real content. But maybe that’s what it allows you to do; to explore you own memories of love, childhood, playfulness and ultimately rejection; and realise that everyone else feels the same way too.
Anne Collier Dispersion is a patchy affair. Curated by the director of the Chisenhale gallery Polly Staple, hospital it features seven artists working from different locations, view tied together under the banner of an examination of the ‘circulation of images in contemporary society….in our accelerated image economy’. This seems a fairly sound starting point, although a bit nebulous and too wide in the sense of the number of artists that could be described as grappling with these issues.
Recycling and colliding of images is examined most clearly in Anne Collier’s photographs. Iconic posters, complete with creases, walk the line between multiple realities; but unlike other work in the show, the centre of power lies not in some theoretical hinterland but in the jarring sensation between seeing the photograph of the image and the image itself. Again this is hardly a new idea but it is well executed. The twin set of images a box of photos of the sea provides a further layer of tension between the natural and man-made.
Anne Collier
Seth Price
Most of the the other works are films. Seth Price’s ‘Digital Video Effect:Editions‘ (2006) , juxtaposing high and low cultural references (such as those barriers still exist), feels like an early 90′s MTV insert in its scope and complexity. Mark Leckey, now with the epithet ‘Turner Prize Winner’, is due to give a one off lecture/live performance ‘Mark Leckey in the Long Tail‘ in January tackling the similar ground, hopefully to better effect.
A better example of the film work on display is Hito Steyerl’s fascinating ‘Lovely Andrea’ (2007). This is an engaging documentary-esque look at a Japanese bondage artist, cut with scenes fom Wonder Woman cartoons and ‘backstage’ footage of the creation or recreation of scenes, calling the whole film’s authenticity into question. This could have led to a horribly self reflexive pile of mush but is actually a taut and gripping set of mixed narratives.
Henrik Olesen’s computer printed images mounted on blackboards, ‘some gay-lesbian artists and/or artists relevant to homosocial culture V,VI.VII’(2007), a collection reappropriated around queer history, touched on interesting ideas; a collection of female portraits by female artists from Renaissance onwards, for example. But the sum of its parts felt lazy and, like the rest of the show, he veers into hectoring or frustrating silence instead of fostering conversation between the work and viewer.
This is a problem, but one the ICA can absorb better than other cultural centres. The institution was founded as an ‘adult playground’ and this remit naturally involves risky and challenging work, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Dispersion is a perfect encapsulation of this.
The disjointed art punk of San Fransisco’s Deerhoof is pretty brilliant on record but I’d heard it was even better live and so couldn’t wait to see them at ULU on their only UK date this year. Their music is disarmingly simple sounding, online loved by music aficionados and 10 year old girls alike – my kid sister loves Panda Panda Panda and Milkman almost as much as any Girls Aloud single. Perhaps I should have sent her along to review the show. It would have been easier for her to convince the people on the door that she was called Prudence Ivey (the name I was under on the list) than a scruffy and definitely male reviewer. They thought I was a street-crazy.
Achieving such wide-ranging popularity is an impressive feat considering that, sick underneath that childlike simplicity, their songs consist of complex structures alongside fragments of dissonant guitar thrash/twang and improvisation. However, seeing Deerhoof is no overblown, intellectual chore. They manage to be simultaneously clever, loud and cartoonishly entertaining and enlivened ULU with a set that encompassed a lot of new album material alongside some stuff to keep the old school fans happy.
The crowd were particularly receptive to old favourite Milkman, along with the Yo La Tengo-in-a-parallel-universe sounds of new album Offend Maggie – a title that always gives me the mental image of an outraged, pre-dementia Margaret Thatcher. There were clipped drums ahoy, along with Deerhoof’s twinkling wire to fuzz guitar textures. Satomi’s vocals, all coy and Japanese, were accentuated by goofy hand gestures – a fitting accompaniment to her surreal and playful subject matter. The whole band were really tight and surprisingly enthusiastic after fourteen years playing together. I can’t wait to see them again.
For anyone wanting to brush up on their climate science, drugs I thoroughly recommend this charming animation by Leo Murray.
The friendly and clear narration takes you steadily through the various chemical processes that are happening on our planet in it’s present climatic state. Without being overly ominous, the film warns how these processes, unchanged for millions of years, are being disturbed by man-made CO2 emissions and may be heading towards a tipping point where we will be plummeted into a place of no return. This definitely ‘isn’t about polar bears anymore!’
I found it really helpful for clarifying some terminology, the science bits- told in a simple way- are up- to- date, and it projects a statement of encouragement, not one of doom. The prospects are scary but we’re lucky to be the generation who could prevent them from happening.
To vote for Wake Up Freak Out then Get a Grip in the Aniboom Awards 2008 click here.
For anyone wanting to brush up on their climate science, buy information pills I thoroughly recommend this snappy animation by Leo Murray.
The friendly and clear narration takes you steadily through the various chemical processes that are happening on our planet in it’s present climatic state. Without being overly ominous, the film warns how these processes, unchanged for millions of years, are being disturbed by man-made CO2 emissions and may be heading towards a tipping point where we will be plummeted into a place of no return.
I found it really helpful for clarifying some terminology, the science bits- told in a simple way- are up- to- date, and it projects a statement of encouragement, not one of doom. The prospects are scary but we’re lucky to be the generation who could prevent them from happening.
To vote for Wake Up Freak Out in Aniboom Awards 2008. No Equal clothing are a company who don’t pander to press agendas and celebrities, sick instead they are refreshingly focused on working with new and exciting design talent and helping charities.
They also know how to throw a party – and it was good cause central. In the first room of The Russian Club Studios was a display of logoed t-shirts and hoodies, website like this made in collaboration with three emerging illustrators– Yann Le Bec, Thibaud Herem and Jean Jullien.
10% of the sales – not just profit – of this No Equal apparel are being donated to three charities, which No Equal Clothing are supporting, Kidsco, Addaction and XLP. To mix up the mediums and give some background to the collaborations, there was also a video installation showing the three artists at work.
In the second room, as part of their desire to champion new designers, No Equal clothing held a silent auction (of which all profits go to Kidsco, Addaction and XLP) for the London College of Fashion. Seven of LCF’s undergraduate students working for the college’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion created collections that were environmentally and ethically conscious and these were being sold.
The auction is also a possible reason for the eclectic mixture of guests. East London kids hung out with men in suits (in separate groups obviously) in the sparse concrete venue created an unusual atmosphere, you could have been in an underground club, art gallery or exclusive couture shop.
The students collections were varied and interesting, Michela Carraro (pictured below) used hemp based fabrics sourced from small family run businesses to create a romantic chiffon-esque collection, while Manon Flener created deconstructed / reconstructed garments made of pieces of fabric pieced together with studs. She says her motivation for the collection was to reduce waste in fashion; each piece can be put together in a different way to make many garments.
Supporting the Fashioning the Future programme at LCF, which encourages designers to think about the environmental imapct of their work, No Equal clothing are actively championing eco-friendly designers of the future and with their own clothing label, bucking the greedy fashion trend by giving a percentage of profits to charity. Good work all round.
Last week the Earth team at Amelia’s Magazine went along to the Friends House in Euston to listen to a report made by the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC). The issue was climate change and the information it uncovered was alarming.
As a self-confessed newbie to these sorts of events I must admit to harboring uneasiness about feeling out of place in a room full of swampys. But my silly preconceptions were immediately flattened.
Lead by a panel of speakers expert in their field, story the atmosphere at the Friends House was alive with people from all manner of backgrounds but united in the opinion that climate change is a matter of urgency.
Chairing the debate was Christian Hunt who kicked off by asking the audience a few questions. 99% raised their hand when asked whether they would describe themselves as environmentalists. Roughly 70% would say they had some knowledge of climate change while roughly 20% would say they had lots of knowledge on the subject. 99% of us responded yes we did like his t-shirt that read ‘don’t give up.’
The first to speak from the panel was Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He started with a clear message: the question of climate change is a humanitarian one. While the U.K. and E.U’s definition of a dangerous climate change as 2°C per annum may be an adequate threshold for us in the western world, it is not nearly small enough to safeguard the rest of the world.
It is the southern hemisphere, containing the world’s poorest, that is targeted the most by global warming in it’s present state, with people dying on a daily basis. Therefore it is an ethical decision about how much we care about the world’s weakest as to how and when we go about dealing with the climate.
He went on to say that the entire climate change debate needs an urgent rethink when taking into account the latest emissions data. The planet is heating up at an even faster rate than we thought, and our government seems to be denying this is happening by following the miscalculated advice from the Stern Report and not pumping in nearly dosh needed to implement a strategy that will radically cut back our emissions.
But Kevin Anderson pointed out there may be a silver lining to retrieve from the present economical situation. History has shown us that larger emission reductions occur when there is economic turmoil. I guess this has something to with cut backs in industry forced by a plummeting economy. When the Soviet Union collapsed, for example, there was a record drop of 5% per annum.
Tim Helweg-Larson, the director of Public Interest Research Centre bounded onto the platform next. So this is where it gets rather technical but don’t worry, Tim’s clear and straightforward delivery meant that even my mind didn’t drift into thinking about what I might eat for tea.
He showed us a series of images showing the levels of sea ice in the arctic in 1979 and in 2007 and I was taken back to those pretty pictures in my school science lab…Predictably the more recent images contained a much larger surface area of dark gloominess.
These dark regions absorb more heat. This additional heat penetrates 1500km inland across a plain of perma-frost. This stuff is harmless if left untouched but once melted, its carbon content-which is twice the amount of the entire global atmosphere-is released into the air. Yep that means even more bad stuff is added to the high intensity of CO2 that started this whole malarkey.
The knock-on effect going on in the arctic-known as the triple melt- is steadily destroying the climatic state of the entire planet. Soon we will reach the point where we will no longer be within the realm of temperatures that enable things to grow and humanity to survive (known as the middle climate). If this isn’t scary enough this tipping point is likely to peak sooner than we thought; as early as 2011 to 2015.
George Momboit was next to speak. Hello. His exuberance for the cause was exciting…ooh la…did you know he has been shot at, shipwrecked and pronounced clinically dead? Well he was very much alive that evening as I listened – intently- to his practical, if ambitious, advice to the government to stop fannying about and introduce a ‘crash program of total energy replacement.’
He whizzed through a series of steps geared to cut our emissions by 20% by 2012 and more thereafter. But those wild curls, brisk demeanor and air of academic brilliance were just a little distracting. Without getting too carried away I managed to jot down the key points of this radical plan:
1. To train up a green army of builders that is equipped to build more energy efficient homes
2.A mass subsidy program to re insulate homes
3.Replacement of power plants
4.Re engineering of roads to cater better for cycles and coaches
5. To Cap number of landing spots for airports so that by 2030 the maximum number of flights is 5% of current levels.
6.Agriculture should be devoted to the most efficient carbon saving schemes
7.He summed up with the statement that lowering demand for fossil fuels should happen simultaneously with lowering their supply and we need to dramatically cut oil and gas exploitations.
Pretty rousing stuff…
Solar energy pioneer, Jeremy Leggett gave us a more buisnessy slant on what can be done for climate change especially in this current state of economic upheaval and an encroaching energy crunch (the I.E.A. predicts 5 years time). With people becoming increasingly disheartened by the government’s spending priorities, now’s the time to duck in and make a collective effort to re-engineer capitalism. He enforced the notion that money needs to go into building a carbon army of workers that would create 10 thousand new jobs and…cost a measly half a billion squid
Caroline Lucas, MEP for South East England and Leader of the Green Party, disheartened by the inertia of our government, shocked us all by urging ‘a massive campaign of civil disobedience.’ This prompted uproar amongst the audience and I must say it felt pretty inspiring .She went on to talk about Climate Rush, an activist group who take their inspiration from the Suffragette movement. Like the women who were denied the vote, their rush on parliament really is a demand for life itself. They also dress-up in fancy Edwardian petticoats, which sounds fun. But their theatricality is not without sincerity, direction and a passion to change the injustices that climate change is causing on humanity. Caroline Lucas’ speech stirred an energetic drive to ‘do something’ in me. She reminded us of the words of Emily Pankhurst ‘to be a militant is to be a privilege’ and something hit home. We are very lucky to not be totally powerless in this situation, as so many people across the world are, and it is possible to make our government listen to us, albeit with a bit of hard work. To find about the next climate rush action click here.
So I’ve dipped my toe into the murky sludge of our current climate. All the facts and figures might not have filtered through into this article but I hope if, like me, you previously thought this issue was for only for really clever people and maybe just a little put off by dreadlocks, you’ve realized that this is something we should all be aware of whether we want to listen to it or not, including our government.
As I left the Climate Safety talk to cycle home, I felt almost grateful for never bothering to learn to drive as perhaps in a small way it might make up for that stomach-sinking feeling of how terribly selfish I had been for only vaguely paying attention to news of melting popsicles and greenhouses.
The truth is I felt safe in the view that the really scary things won’t happen for a very long time, well after I’m buried in the ground and used for compost. Well I was wrong, it’s not our grandkid’s grandkid that’s going to feel the full force of climate change-it’s us.
We’ve searched online for hours to find these wonderful gift ideas for Christmas this year! Including solar powered fairy lights, advice recycled wrapping paper, rx sew-it-yourself dresses, fairtrade teddies and handmade jewellery.
JEWELLERY
Kate Slater First up on our list, and featured in Issue 10 of Amelia’s Magazine, we have wonderfully talented illustrator Kate Slater. She is one of many artists currently selling her work on etsy in the form of these gorgeous little accessories that she has made. Kate‘s illustrations come alive through the use of collage, mixed papers and wire for relief work. Furtive Pheasant Brooch Kate’s collaged pheasant has been remade into this lovely brooch. The original illustration has been printed onto durable shrink plastic and bejeweled with green diamantes. We love the idea of being able to wear Kate’s illustrations! Buy the Furtive Pheasant Brooch here
Butterfly Dress Kit Gossypium is a great place to buy gifts from! All the clothes on their site are high quality, fairtrade and made from biodegradable materials. They’re one of the great sites working with the idea of a zero-impact on the environment, and we’ve love this Butterfly Dress Kit. It is a sew-it-yourself organic cotton kit that comes with a lovely printed fabric and easy instructions to create one of three garments. You can make a blouse, a dress or a smock with or without pockets, and have the option of long or short sleeves; with nine different styles to choose from you are in total control of how your finished product looks! Buy the Butterfly Dress Kit here.
Solar Helicopter This little toy is perfect as a desk ornament, and is loads of fun for kids and grown ups! Working with as little light as from a desk lamp, the solar cells demonstrate how efficient modern eco technology is. Buy the Solar Helicopter here.
Outdoor Solar Powered Christmas Fairy Lights These all-year-round lights are a great way to bring some green sparkle to your home! They’re waterproof and come with 8 different settings including flashing, continuous light patterns! The lights only come on when it’s dark (so about 3:30pm…) and the solar panel uses high grade Kyocera Solar cells that store enough energy to run for 10 hours, even on winter days! These lights are a bargain too at only £19.99! Buy your Solar Powered Fairy Lights here.
These 100% recycled wrapping papers are by Lisa Jones and come in many different styles! They are modernist and brightly coloured using vegetable inks. Get some Recycled Wrapping Paper here.
Cardboard Cutting Table This 100% Icelandic made brilliant cardboard table can be used as a meeting table, a cutting table (it comes with a laminated white surface top), a dinner table and a baby changing table! It’s portable and folds away to save space! (and comes with a handy 18% discount for design students!). Buy the Cardboard Table here.
KIDS
‘Woodsy The Owl’ Bib This adorable bib is by etsy seller ‘cocoandmilkweed‘, consisting of Evan and Lila Maleah- a husband and wife team intent on creating lovely products for little and big people! Woodsy has been handmade in a dark brown eco-felt that has been made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, and sewn onto a soft cotton woodgrain fabric. the entire bib has been backed with organic cotton flannel and lined with organic cotton and bamboo for extra absorption! All this detail has added to its appeal, and it even has a snap closure to make sure its little wearer isn’t able to yank it off! Buy a ‘Woodsy The Owl’ bib here.
Dala Horse Stocking The Christmas tradition of stocking has been brought into the 21st century by Erin ‘sewsewsuckurtoe‘ by using the folk art inspired Dala Horse. It is constructed out of eco-felt which is made from recycled plastic bottles and lined in cotton to make it strong enought to hold as many things as possible! Buy a Dala Horse Stocking here.
Witness are a group, based in New York, that use video and online technologies to expose human rights violations all over the world. By making videos of victim’s personal stories, they direct attention to injustice and promote public engagement and policy change.
Sam’s first up on the video (below), telling us that the images of a school teacher in East Burma hiding out in a forest with her children is one of the images that shows us we need to go further with our actions to help those whose human rights have been severely violated.
A video producer, trainer and human rights advocate, Sam’s videos have been screened at the US Congress, UK Houses of Parliament, The UN and in film festivals worldwide.
The group are also launching an online channel for these videos called The Hub. This is a new multi-lingual online portal dedicated to human rights media and action. It provides the opportunity for individuals, organizations, networks and groups around the world to bring their human rights stories and campaigns to global attention.
To find out more about Witness (www.witness.org) click here.
The non-existent morality faeries that do not sit either side of my head were in a fluster last Thursday. I took them down to a police auction in Bethnal Green, salve and for the entirety of my pedal there, they could not be resolved: surely there is something fundamentally wrong with capitalising on the lost and stolen goods of hapless victims, or worse still, liquidated assets, urgh! But then again, stolen … and retrieved; lost … and found. Where else would these items, long since departed from owners, go? I have nothing to say about liquidated assets, but apparently that’s next time – this week was reserved to lost and stolen goods only, courtesy of the metropolitan police; thanks.
Once we arrived, debates were dispelled and there was nothing to fluster about – it did not seem in the least bit seedy. This fortnightly event, put on by Frank G. Bowen Ltd Auctioneers and Valuers, two men both of whom are very friendly, one of whom looks like Santa Clause, takes place in an old air raid shelter, making for a strangely intimate and cosy affair. Potential bidders arrive early to browse, an advisable precaution seeing as nothing can be returned once purchased. I felt like the passer-by who steps into a regulars-only pub, my obvious excitement an instant give-away; but I tried my best to look like this was routine, and nestled myself in amongst the clutter on Lot 135, 1 wooden kitchen-table chair. Pensive brow in place, I concentrated on my catalogue sheet, my mind now settling to the bewildering list before me …
An initial glance reveals nothing of a surprise: bicycles, phones, cameras, and mp3 players; but it’s not long before you start to wonder … who steals a kitchen chair? A cupboard? An oak mirror overmantle (Lot 379)? The clothing list is the strangest of all: Lot 4: A pair of Ladies sandals, size 40; Lot 58: (non-specific) Ladies Clothing as bagged. One Lot contained a pair of jeans, a jacket, and a pair of trainers – all stolen from a single owner? How did that happen?
Against all inclinations, we ended up describing the place and the experience as a gem. Don’t go expecting to find vintage treasures, but there are amenities at a good price (surely I need a quad bike). And a few pointers: don’t let the excitement of bidding make you go for things for no other rational reason than the pleasure of raising your hand; careful of the man who will out-bid everyone for bikes; and don’t take a lunch break in the middle, thus missing that one item you’d circled in red that you were willing to spend forty quid on, and ended up going for under twenty, pah.
Don’t miss this excellent event tonight:
Cheshire Street Christmas Shopping
Friday 12th December
This Friday, case pop down to Cheshire Street as the whole street will be open to 10pm, cost so you can get your quirky Christmas gifts till late(ish) into the night and enjoy wine and nibbles while you do it. The shops will be offering exclusive discounts also, including 20% off on the night at I Dream of Wires. Amazing.
Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair
Sunday 14th December
Frock Me! vintage fashion should not be confused with the questionable television show of the same name hosted by a certain over-exposed designer and TV presenter. It is in fact a fabulous vintage fashion fair, and this Sunday, in the swanky surroundings of the Chelsea Town Hall you can pop down and pick up a genuine vintage garment.
They even have their own tea-room. What more could you want?
Open: 11am – 5.30pm
Admission: £4 (students £2 with ID)
Nearest Tube: Sloane Square / South Kensington
Christmas singles, diagnosis still the preserve of naff novelty acts, pillpop stars in trendy coats and X Factor winners, or newly fertile ground for acts that are unlikely to even get a sniff at the bottom of the charts? As the Top 40 becomes less and less of a barometer for success and following much-loved Christmas releases from the likes of Low and Sufjan Stevens, this year it seems that more and more indie bands are joining in on the act. But are any of them actually any good? And how to stop them seeming like lame commercial cash-ins in the style of the Christmas tunes of yore?
1. One way to quash accusations of rabid commercialism is to give your single away for free as Slow Club (see above) have done, with ‘Christmas TV’ offered as a free download in a spirit of seasonal goodwill to all mankind. A sweet little folk pop tune about travelling home for Christmas and snuggling in front of the Vicar of Dibley or some such, this is good for anyone feeling the pangs of seasonal separation. The boy/girl vocals chime prettily together in a song that has thematic echoes of ‘Driving Home For Christmas’.
2. Stay true to your signature style. If you’re usually a grumpy old misery guts, Christmas is no time to suddenly become cheerful just for the hell of it so why not whack out a truly miserable Christmas EP a la Glasvegas? A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss) is the one to pull out when your Dad forgot to turn the oven down, your mum’s sobbing into her charred potatoes and your granny’s being cantankerous.
3. Restrict your mentions of the season to atmospherically wintery weather references a la The Leisure Society with their pretty waltz ‘Last of the Melting Snow’. Cinematic strings, romantic lyrics and a slightly more upbeat B-side in the form of ‘A Short Weekend Begins With Longing’. It’s available to download but it would be far more festive to buy one of the limited edition handmade copies in the spirit of wonky gingerbread men and glitter-glued everything.
There’s just one thing we’re a little bit worried about. Where are all the sleighbells???????
Now I know I sound like a purist, medicine but sometimes I wish Photoshop had never been invented. After seeing the ingenuity of the post-war artists featuring in Estorick’s ongoing exhibition, rxCut & Paste: European Photomontage 1920-1945, I longed for the days when you could actually tell something had been done by hand. When skill was quantifiable – based on precision, patience and masterfully cut and mounted shapes; not down to your aptitude with adjustment layers, clipping masks and liquify tools. Of course these arguably require a well-honed set of digital skills within themselves, but Photoshop has cheapened photography to a certain extent. Unimaginably cool things can be done on it by anyone with a shard of creative impulse, so we can’t help but lose the eensiest bit of respect for the end product, no matter how groundbreaking this may be. Don’t you think?
Regardless, this is a little gem of a show. Small – with only around 25 pieces – it looks at the modernist manipulation of photomontage (in which cut-out photographs and fragments of newsprint from illustrated journals were pasted into drawings and paintings) by the Cubists, Futurists and Dadaists. There’s also a healthy dose of angular Russian Constructivism in there, so for such a small exhibition, they have all the seminal art movements of the early 20th Century well and truly covered.
Developed towards the end of the First World War by the Dadaists in Berlin (the word ‘photomontage’ was taken from engineering and film editing practices) it was a way of making art with a new kind of conceptual clarity. And grit. It was powerful and playful – there is one untitled image of Hitler and a devilish-looking Churchill quaintly enjoying a cup of tea together – and mixed mediums in a way which made people stop and look. And they still have that affect today.
All the works are beautifully balanced and composed. Italian Futurist Enrico Prampolini’s Broom (1922) is a punchy little piece with huge red circles and chunky text overlaid on a photo of a massive machine, while Gustav Klucis’ Spartakiada Moscow / All-Union Olympiad (1928) is packed with movement and angles so sharp you could cut your fingers on them.
Curated by Lutz Becker, Cut & Paste showcases work made almost a century ago, but which feels surprisingly fresh and modern. It’ll make you turn off your computer, pick up a pair of scissors and start attacking The Daily Mail like there’s no tomorrow. I think that’s always a good thing.
I’m not a person who wins things; Lady Luck is not my friend. Never has my name been picked from a raffle or hat, discount scratch cards always defeat me, and even when I tried to Derren Brown the ticket man at Walthamstow Dogs, “Look into my eyes, this is the winning ticket”, I still came away empty handed. So when my name was electronically selected for the Time Out Bus Tour, a heavily over-subscribed perk to First Thursdays, I was veritably excited.
I’m not sure what I imagined, a day of musing amalgamated in something entirely inconceivable bearing reference to the Playbus and set firmly beyond the realm of reality. This is the description from which I fabricated: Each month, join leading curators, writers, academics and artists on a guided bus tour visiting a selection of First Thursdays Galleries; and that’s precisely what it was, but I couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed when I saw a very ordinary looking bus waiting outside Whitechapel Gallery, a bit health & safety and sanitised, OAP visit to Hastings anyone?
If you were in fact there for a guided bus tour with leading academics, curators, and artists, and not for a bus of dreams, then you’d probably be satisfied. Four selected galleries, a talk from a curator in each, and the wealth of information that only a guided tour can give, adding much more depth to your engagement with the work. My favourite part was a six-strong bowling team that unofficially tagged along, following the bus in a Transit, and innocuously joining the talks wearing matching blue team shirts, names on the breast. I did feel a pang of jealousy at the scores of people casually strolling between galleries on Vyner Street, drinks in hands, hmmms and ahhhs at the ready. I’ll opt for a home made bicycle tour next time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recommend this.
If you’re planning on going to any of these events, sale or have something you want to write an article about for the Earth Blog, email us: earth@ameliasmagazine.com!
Now here’s a lovely story: One felt-making coffee morning in South London, three suburban mums discover a shared hoarding habit, a joy in rummaging through rubbish and a desire to make pretty things (with or without the use of felt). Out from the discarded chicken-shop boxes and begrudged lotto tickets emerged, not Oscar the Grouch (think Sesame Street) but The Skip Sisters.
These ladies really know how to make-do-and-mend, rescuing shabby bits and bobs found in skips and attics and revamping them into something truly lovely. 100% eco-friendly.
From now until Christmas Eve the Skip Sisters will be selling all sorts of treasures from the debris at 14 Northcross Road in East Dulwich. (Not open Mondays).
Clocks made out of tins…found in a skip!
Jewelry…found in a skip!
Necklaces made with real human hands…found in a skip!
At 3am on the morning of the 7th of December two mini buses, thumb a 1960s fire engine and just over 50 cold, eager and very excited protesters turned up at a gate near the long stay car park of Stansted airport. Calmly and attentively we piled out of the mini buses and began to swarm around the entry point. A security vehicle happened to be passing just as we arrived, which instilled some nervous butterflies in our stomachs, but there was no stopping us. Once through the fence panel with our wire cutters we marched, as if to a temporary ark of safety (which we were to construct), two by two, carrying the tools and materials we were to need. Our objective was to reach the taxiway and setup a Harris fence enclosure around us to which we would lock-on to for as long as possible. After 6am, which was when the first flight was scheduled for take-off, every minute was to count as extremely important – directly stopping the release of ridiculous amounts of CO2 into the earth’s atmosphere.
We were all so pleased to be doing something so direct; the feeling was one of pride in knowing that we were helping to facilitate discussions, raised levels of awareness, and aid to those directly suffering as a result of raised CO2 emissions in developing countries around the world. It really won’t be long before we are seriously suffering from our selfish actions, we need to look and focus on long-term rewards not short term ones. In reading the press coverage after the action I have been surprised to read a few comments by people who were disrupted – one man was quoted to say “Why couldn’t they have waited a few hours?” if we all adopt that approach where will we be left?
I will go on to strongly encourage non-violent direct action to be taken by as many of you reading this as possible, it feels so great to be there, in the heart of potential change, to be able to say “I have tried my hardest”. It is our future generation who will suffer, and personally I don’t want my children to be struggling as much as they will be if no “green” systematic changes occur.
At The Climate Safety Talk delivered at Friends House, Euston, a few weeks ago I became scared – and directly inspired by that very fear to act, with others feeling the same way, as soon as I could, as this seems to have the most impact. I am newly accessing this level of climate science through living with some of the most inspiring women I have had the pleasure to meet and we discuss this issue of climate change daily, and innovatively focus most of our energy in the direction of raising awareness and creating social change methods and access points. Tamsin Omond lives upstairs and is helping to organize another suffragette style Climate Rush at Heathrow on Jan 12th, which I invite everyone to attend. Beth Stratford, Mel Evans, who spoke to the press after the Stansted protests, and Clemmie James from the Drax 29 also inhabit this eco-warrior house.
This action came as an opportunity for myself and others to not just discuss what is happening, but directly and physically respond, and gain immediate results – we stopped 86 flights from leaving the airport and acted as a catalyst for many many discussions.
Stansted has on average at least one flight leaving its runway every minute during working hours generating a shocking 4.2 tonnes of CO2 every single minute! Aviation is the fastest growing source of emissions and already contributes at least 13 per cent of the UK’s total climate impact. In October controversial plans for an expansion of Stansted Airport were given the go-ahead by the Government. Airport owner BAA wants to increase passenger numbers from 25 million to 35 million a year and flights leaving the airport from 241,000 to 264,000 a year. Objectors say an expansion would damage the environment, but some unions said the proposal could bring new jobs. Do we really need new jobs in this sector, should the Government not be pushing for new green jobs to go along with its emissions reduction target? The target that has been broadly accepted by many bodies including our own Government is that a rise in global average temperature of more than 2C above its preindustrial value must not be allowed. If this airport expansion is really given the go-ahead there will be very little chance of us being able to achieve the targets.
Aviation is the fastest growing cause of climate change and a major threat to the earth and everything living on it. But rather than reining the industry in and trying to reduce demand for flying, the government is promoting it through tax breaks and through its plans for massive expansion at our airports: the equivalent of a new Heathrow every five years!
Plane Stupid demands a fundamental rethink of the government’s 2003 Aviation White Paper which predicts that air travel will treble by 2030: an increase in annual plane journeys from 180 million to 501 million.
We, as Plane Stupid want to see airport expansion plans scrapped, and an end to short haul flights and aviation advertising.
Discussions and presentations are important, as the information and science needs to spread as far and wide, and touch as many people as possible, but we need to follow contact with this information with direct action as nothing else seems to be getting the results we need as soon as we need them. The Government has been making empty promises of reductions in the levels of CO2 emissions, and as nothing has happened yet we want to directly affect this ourselves.
www.planestupid.com
It’s Saturday and everything at the Eco-Design Christmas Fair in the Old Truman Brewery, piluleBrick Lane, is daubed in gloominess. Thanks to the amazing British weather, the Christmas spirit is not in the air as greyness bears down through the skylights and umbrellas drip a murky trail behind each visitor. We all gravitate towards a stall selling mulled wine, but the smell – delicious at first – soon mixes with the sickly sweetness of organic soap and incense.
The fair, now in its fifth year, brings together designers whose work is centered on sustainability and kindness to the environment, the products on sale range from clothing, jewellery, toys and furniture to edible shoe polish.
The best find of the day is Finnish designer Minna Hepburn. Hepburn looks and sounds like she is channelling Claudia Schiffer, and is selling her leftover designs from London Fashion Week’s eco-sustainable show ,estethica. Her clothes, all creamy Scottish lace and organic or fair trade silk embellished with found brooches, buttons, outshine neighbouring designs. (pictured below)
Around the relatively small space, recycled jewellery stalls clamour for attention. Rosie Weisencrantz‘s display is by far the most elegant; some of her work is even framed and mounted on the wall. (pictured below) Weisencrantz was a weaver for 25 years before becoming a jewellery designer, and her pieces hang on intricately woven string. She also likes to root around at markets and on ebay for antique brooches, which she transforms into one-off, textured necklaces.
Using an altogether different approach, Kirsty Kirkpatrick buys enormous bags of old jewellery and spends hours sifting through, detangling chains and picking out gems, before reassembling them into new designs. She uses recycled materials too, making geometric necklaces from wine and biscuit boxes. Kirkpatrick has a quick smile and soft Scottish accent, and is obviously proud of her “anti-landfill” label. (pictured below)
After Minna Hepburn, the rest of the clothing at the fair is a bit of a let down. T-shirts are in abundance, most sporting slogans and stencilled graphics like those by design collective Edge. (Their ethos: “We will make eco-fashion cool if it kills us”). (pictured below)
Overall, there was far more here for the eco-jewellery enthusiast than anyone else.
Karolin Schnoor has contributed some illustrations to our upcoming Earth blog ‘Tipping Point’. We loved them so much we decided to make her our illustrator of the week! Her work is being featured in this week’s issue of TimeOut.
Below are a few examples of her work, here and a little bit about her!
Reindeer Illustration (Part of a series of illustrations by Karolin appearing in TimeOut)
“I am originally from Germany and came over to London to study Illustration with a 5 month stint at a Parisian school in my third year. In my illustration work my main interest is narrative and characters and lately I have really enjoyed labouring over intricate folk-like patterns to contrast with my two-dimensional and quite simplistic drawing style.”
A recent Christmas card design
“I used to play it quite safe when it came to colours, physician using mainly pencil and occassional bits of red until I had a tutorial in my first year and my tutor called out rather exasperatedly: “What is missing here is colour! Colour!!” Since then I have gone a bit overboard sometimes but I think I am feeling more comfortable with colour now.
“Norwegian Wood” Illustration of the famous Beatles song
(screenprinted for Karolin’s degree show).
I was also rather obsessed with screenprinting at college and really miss it, but I think the process still informs the way I build my illustrations. At the moment I am freelancing, drawing, designing websites and I might be designing a book next year which I am very excited about.”
800feet is the new exhibition at sale 89490, see en.html”target=”_blank”>Space in Portsmouth, exhibiting the work of over 20 Portsmouth based artists, including painting, sculpture, photography, and film. Established in 1980 by graduates of the then Portsmouth Polytechnic, Art Space Portsmouth will soon celebrate 30 years of supporting, nurturing and retaining creative talent in the City.
Tuesday Dec 16th
Museum 52 hosts a one-off festive grotto beginning today and running until Saturday the 20th. The grotto will pool in a breadth of work, with over 30 artists exhibiting unique hand-made works from tea-towels to comics, films, and scarves. A percentage of all profits will go to shelter.
“The Greatest sleeptalker in recorded history?” I would not imagine such a category to exist; who I wonder, is the second greatest sleeptalker in recorded history. I pointed you in the direction of Seventeen last week, but that was before I knew about the happenings in the basement, which is why I’ll recommend you to go again. So Somniloquent leads you into a dark basement of low ceilings and cubbyholes, where you are invited to sit back and listen to the surreal world as incarnated by Dion Mcgregor. Bizarre narratives and entire worlds were conjured by this man, only to be forgotten upon awakening, until somebody finally decided to put a tape recorder to the purpose. It runs until the 24th of January.
Friday Dec 19th
Head down to St Johns Church in Bethnal Green this Friday for Ghost, hosted by the Belfry Project and guest-curated by Sarah Sparkes and Ricarda Vidal, a spooky project that plays on the 1953 artwork by Marcel Duchamp entitled “A Guest + a Host = a Ghost”. The show will spread over the entire space, spilling from the cobwebbed dark alcoves of the belfry into the entrance hall, past the red velvet curtains and into the church. There will be performances, video, sound and scent installations, and later on, a program of artists’ films. Mulled wine and mince pies too!
According to the fountain of knowledge aka Wikipedia, ‘Fan death is a South Korean urban legend which states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can cause the death of those inside.’ Interesting… Whether this was the inspiration for the band name, I don’t know, but I do know that their tune, with its 70′s funky strings and Debbie Harry-esque vocal, mixed with 80′s synth beats, went down well in the party mix.
Our thoughts about the song were that, although it was fine accompaniment to our turkey and stuffing, it wasn’t a highly distinctive or original tune. As my housemate put it, “I’d dance to it if it was on in a club, if I was drunk, but I wouldn’t be bothered otherwise.”
I think she was being a harsh judge, although not groundbreaking, produced by club king Erol Alkan (who also provides a remix) Veronica’s Veil is a solid electro pop tune that interestingly merges the key sounds of my two favourite musical decades and deserves to be more than just background music.
Celebrate a goth Christmas headlined by bowlcutted eyeliner queens playing a weird and wonderful fusion of 60s and 80s guitar sounds in excellent monochrome outfits. Dark pop disco support.
The Boy Least Likely To, The School, Mia Vigour, Hoxton Bar and Grill, London
Christmas party from dreamy whimsical pop gang who are releasing a Christmas single this year.
Britpop stalwarts who’ve been around for at least a decade break out the indie, with support from up-and-coming, poppy Brooklynites TPOBPAH playing songs from their new album, out next Feb.
New folk extravaganza with performances from as many up-and-coming and up-and-come young folk stars as you can fit in one room. Many of them are either featured in the new issue of the magazine (out now!), or have been featured in the past.
Wednesday 17th December
A Thompson Family Christmas, Royal Festival Hall, London
More of a loosely interpreted folk family than blood relations (although it does feature his mother Linda and sister Kami), Teddy Thompson has organised this extravaganza in aid of Amnesty International.
Fresh from their stint as Roky Erikson‘s backing band, this Texan quintet are bound to bring some warped Southern musical weirdness to ULU. Expect dark, driving stoner-rock sounds.
The Broken Family Band, The Accidental, End of the Road @ Cargo, London
Whistful, unassuming country-tinged tunes with a sense of humour.
Maximo Park guitarist playing material from his new solo album with an early Graham Coxon jangly lo-fi feel. Screaming Tea Party also offer more of their bonkers but sweet pop tinged punk sounds.
Everyone, including Madonna’s, favourite gypsy punk band tend to play pretty explosive sets, often culminating in Eugene Hutz crowd-surfing on a drum and other scrape and bruise inducing antics.
An ideal Saturday night gig. Dress up, go out and dance dance dance to these electro faves.
Sunday 21st December
Sensible Sundays @ Lock Tavern: The Wild Wolves, The Social, Helouisa, Lock Tavern, London
The perfect end to the weekend/ beginning of real Christmas at this folky acoustic afternoon to evening. Look out for Helouisa, a uke-toting trio with the voices of angels, influenced by the likes of Emmy the Great and Peggy Sue and the Pirates. But then we would say that as the Luisa of their name is our very own art girl.
Joan Wasser – Singer, find songwriter, and violinist, and seemingly omnipresent force in the New York indie scene. Starting her post-music-school career in the Damnbuilders, Those Bastard Souls and Black Beetle, she has since racked up a very impressive CV. In 1999 she became a ‘Johnson’, featuring on the Mercury winning ‘I am a Bird Now’, Anthony Hegarty being a dramatically positive and calming influence on her both personally and musically.
The mishmash of folk milling around the Empire typifies Joan’s broad appeal. Clearly her talent knows no boundaries or subcultures which can’t be won over, which creates a delicious mix of middle-aged couples, muso types and uber-trendy lesbians.
She commands the stage with her sultry New York sassiness, giggling at the irritating and oh-so British heckles that makes you wish you could sod off and see her properly in New York. The first few songs, although technically perfect, seem to be missing something until suddenly, the weighty silence that fell in the fist few bars of ‘To be Lonely’ hit. Effortlessly, she pours the melody into the piano keys, which melt with the words and take you to her world. In fact, Joan’s world is very much Joan’s music. As an artist she is intrinsically linked to her history, her story, and it’s the subjectivity of her music that makes her so appealing. One of the most exhaustive sets I have ever seen, she pretty much played her entire back catalogue, including ‘Eternal Flame’, ‘Christobel’ and incredible Elliot Smith tribute ‘We Don’t Own It’.
Joan breathes, bleeds, feels and loves. Her solo work is very much her new beginning and the performance has this wonderful amalgamation of an accomplished, qualified, and experienced musician with something so fresh, tender, and pure. She’ll make you laugh, cry and fall in love all at the same time.
This was an event for the lovers of fun, more about performance, website like this spectacle, fascination and interaction, and was it all of the above…oh yes, most definitely!
Decompression celebrates the reuniting and collaboration of like-minded artistic individuals who are familiar with Burning Man and/or No-Where festival(s). They refer to the gathering as a reunion. The on-site setup lasts a mere two days, but artists, performers and choreographers work for just over a month in preparation for this one night. Decompression, Burning Man and No-Where describe their holistic key principles as:
• Self-expression: The freedom to BE in a creative and liberating space.
• Radical self-reliance: YOU are responsible for YOURSELF.
• No commerce: Bring it because you can’t buy it, give it because you can.
• Leave no trace: Create something from nothing, and leave nothing behind.
• Participation: Get involved, this is not an event for spectators.
I haven’t attended Burning Man or No-Where, but what I’ve heard from those who have is always so positive and inspiring. The two events have been said to be life changing, and are also said to stay within the hearts of all participators for life. The key principles lay down the ideals held centrally by most successful communities, and I feel this is really the way we need to all begin living.
Within a community you have so much support, so much strength-brought from everybody’s unique sets of gathered and nurtured skills and their desire to share them, a sense of shared purpose and the ability to achieve great things through all of the above points collectively. Greenpeace have published an Energy (R)evolution report which talks of energy solutions coming from local opportunities at both a small and community scale. Their focus is on us all working together to produce a sustainable model of living, and I feel that these events inspired by Burning Man, and Burning man itself of course, are celebrated examples of what it is to be and function within that method of collective habitation, energy production (homemade solar panels and water purifiers being a common site within the festivals), food and waste management. Theses spaces, allowing a coming together of similarly focused creatives, also allow a lot of focused discussion around important topics, and being an important topic, sustainable models of living get spoken about a lot. These people are trying to break down the barriers between people and to re-focus energy on shared living, creativity and innovation.
Burning Man (Nevada desert, California), No-Where (The site is situated in the region of Aragon in northern Spain between Zaragoza and Lleida desert, Spain) and London Decompression are events linked through concept, predominantly focusing on shared experience and expression, with an overwhelmingly strong foundation of creativity. There is a leave no trace concept, which after a week of partying and artistic workshops in the middle of the desert with thousands of other people can, as you will imagine, takes a little time-combing every square foot-they are not happy to leave a single sequin!
images from Genevive Lutkin-Burning Man 2007
I was working alongside three really good girl friends of mine to produce a recycled elephant sculpture, whose body acted as a tent and projector screen, and which offered an educational journey thought the mandala painting techniques originating from South India. Our elephant was exploring what you could create with rubbish, and how you could turn it into something beautiful, making people think about what they throw away. Wire coat-hangers, hanging baskets, stripped electrical wire and plastic milk bottles made up the body structure. The tent and 4 costumes were made from a few meters of bought fabric, but decorated with sections of old sari fabric we had been collecting for the last few years, the floor underneath the elephant was covered with saris, on which lay pots and pots of the brightest rangoli paint, 4 blackboards and lots of rangoli stencils.
Rangoli, also known as Alpana, Kolam and by other names is a traditional art of decorating courtyards and walls of Indian houses, places of worship and sometimes eating-places. The powder of white stone, lime, rice flour and other paste is used to draw intricate and ritual designs.
Although Rangoli art is Maharashtrian in origin, it has become quite popular all over the country. Each state of India has its own way of painting Rangoli. One characteristic of Rangolis is that it’s painted by commoners. On some special occasions like Diwali it is painted in every home, with or without formal training in Rangoli art. The art is
typically transferred from generation to generation and from friend to friend.
images from Monique Gregson-Hampi, South India, 2005
images supplied by Yolanda Yong-Decompression 2008
Sophie Rostas, of Café Cairo (a nomadic decorational and tea party troupe who put on beautiful nights at changing venues, since their South London site burnt down a few years ago) created a greatly entertaining performance based instillation called ‘Feast of Fools’, for which I aided her in costume making. The feast was held at a huge wooden table, constructed especially for the event, on which a dance was held, then a lavish feast of skipped food spread. A precession of fools in costume led an inquisitive crowd to the table. After a ballet performed by two beautiful dancers hatching our of eggs on the table, the performance began…an eager and excitable king sitting at the head of the table on a chair raised to be on-top of the table stomped a steady beat to which 8 dancers circled the table in rich, exquisite costume. The circling slowly declining from an orderly chair swap to hectic table clambering and mass interaction, not just with the other members of the dance, but with the onlookers, and as the order dropped the kings beat quickened pace, with him becoming more and more excited by the movement of his fools. It ended up with his passing out and being carried off the table, to return with a broom sweeping up the scraps of the feast a little later.
images from Joie De Winter-Decompression 2008
The Café Cairo nomadic troupe
The transformation for Decompression is quite incredible with its pace, transforming old railway arches, now used as car parks, into a rich artistic exploration. The artists can apply for funding directly from the organizers, who will try and cover up to 70% of their total spending on materials. This allows artists the freedom to work without being hindered by material costs, although a lot of the participating artists work with reclaimed materials, scavenged from here and there, the budget helps with necessities needed for the pieces. Imagine the space if you will…dark, large and cave like with each corner, section of the ceiling, large open space and doorway covered or filled with a different instillation, from huge art cars, costume camp, to water tanks for underwater ballet performances in gas masks, a tunnel of lust and love full of projections and erotic sounds, a photographer and his plush set awaiting visitors in extravagant and curious fancy dress in the corner of one room, a Drawing Booth by Interactive Instillation artist Joie De Winter and too many more instillations and art pieces to mention.
Joie’s Drawing Booth is a highly interactive performance based piece featuring set, concept, performance and makeup. It offers up an environment, which encourages social exploration through creative engagement. Rather than relying on the capturing of a moment and memory within a photo booth, she creates a richer version of this experience and celebrates the art of drawing as a social tool.
image from Joie De Winter-Decompression 2008
If jewellery is your gift of choice this year, page thanks to the internet there is an abundance of quirky and beautiful necklaces etc to get your hands on. If you want to make your choice extra festive, order here are some places that have brought out exclusive Christmas pieces. Snap them up fast as last postage date to places in the UK is the 19th December.
If you love to wear a necklace and have people admire it saying, “where did you get that from?” This is the place to go. Anyone would be very happy with a unique trinket from here, especially this seasonal necklace:
So go on, get the lady in your life a Christmas trinket she will treasure all year round.
Wetdog thrive on the chaotic; their debut longplayer Enterprise Reversal is a head-spinning, web giddy joyride of layered chants, sick sharp guitars and thick, viagra 60mg reverb-laced bass lines, all pushing, shoving and fighting each other for room on each of the record’s 22 tracks. But amid all of the pandemonium, there is a strong, swaggering melody to keep things ticking over and entrancing, jabbering lyrics that verge on inaudible, but still deviously drag you ear-first into the commotion.
Continually changing tempo from track to track, the record sways between the raucous and the slower, more sprawling thumps, but retains a definite style, neatly affixing the assortment of songs together as a whole. ‘8 Days’ swings between thudding bass and chanting multi-vocals and ‘Zah und Zaheet’ conjures up memories of Nirvana during the Bleach-era (if they had a yelling girl group in tow).
With most of the tracks never pushing past the 2 minute mark, Wetdog undoubtedly won’t be to everyone’s taste, but their strident and unabashed style and jumbled sound of The Slits stumbling over The Fall is certainly attention-grabbing and deserving of a listen.
With unduly brilliant timing the Climate Change secretary Ed Miliband called for a Suffragette-type movement to push forward political change on the very same day as the Plane Stupid Stansted protest.
“When you think about all the big historic movements, recipe from the suffragettes, physician to anti-apartheid, to sexual equality in the 1960s, all the big political movements had popular mobilisation,” said Miliband, quoted in the Guardian on December 8th. “Maybe it’s an odd thing for someone in government to say, but I just think there’s a real opportunity and a need here.” So, in the spirit of the Suffragettes we at Climate Rush thought it would be nice gesture to invite Ed Miliband and some of his governmental cohorts along to Dinner at Departures, at Heathrow on the 12th January at 7pm. (Terminal One, y’all) After all, shouldn’t he be supporting us?
So, today I toddled off to Westminster to meet my fellow Climate Rushers with the aim of hand-delivering a few invites to our Dinner, which is, of course, open to all. Tamsin was instantly recognised by a ‘friendly bobby‘ who merrily told us that the last time he saw her was on the top of Parliament.
Photocall with the Evening Standard done we headed off to Downing Street. Which was when we realised that hand delivering invites is clearly worthy of police intimidation; two coppers were soon tailing our every move.
Maybe they felt it was a good use of tax payer’s money to capture the features of our youngest recruit, who delivered a festive invite for Gordon Brown. (why not invite them all?!)
Next up was Ed Miliband himself, over at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. We weren’t allowed much further than reception, but had time to admire the big TV screen showing images of penguins and cute seals (endangered….. ahhhh) and oil rigs (hmmmm) I hope he gets his invite.
On our way up to see Geoff Hoon over at the Department for Transport (who will make the final decision over whether the 3rd runway goes ahead) we passed a hair salon with an entirely appropriate name.
For some reason the security guards seemed a bit wary of us, making sure that the door was firmly closed and bolted when we delivered the invite.
Not so over at Defra, where environment secretary Hilary Benn‘s personal secretary came down to meet us in reception and accept the invite – she asked who she could rsvp to and we realised we hadn’t included an address – woops! Perhaps we weren’t quite expecting such personal attention.
We have done our best to invite the people we think should come to our Dinner at Departures – the people who will ultimately decide whether a new runway goes ahead. Now it’s up to you to make your own statement about what you think should happen – join us, dress Edwardian, and bring food to share. More information can be found here and on facebook here.
The aim of this project is to, sildenafil “inspire debate and awareness about the destructive impact of consumer values on the emotional wellbeing of society.” Through the medium of art.
The exhibition will take place between 16th – 27th of March 2009 and currently there is a call for artists, so if you are any kind of visual or performing artist and think that you would find it a satisfactory challenge, here is the brief and requirements:
* Painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.
* Placing a high value on money, possessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame, a failure to distinguish between what we need and what we want.
Consider that the excessive wealth seeking in consumerist nations lead to the unhappiness of its citizens and higher rates of emotional and mental distress.
The work
The exhibition is submission based with a solid panel of high profile judges including author and psychologist Oliver James, Jonathan Barnbrook (Barnbrook Design) and Michael Czerwinski (Design Museum) who will assess the work and decide on the final entries.
We encourage performance, sound pieces, sculpture, photography and broad based visual arts. Entrants are invited to submit a proposal for work to be completed or existing work.
We will need
* A brief biography/CV
* Artist statement
* Samples of work: CD or digital pdf is preferred, but we will accept up to 10 images, 35 mm slides. (Please include a self-addressed envelope if you need the work returned.)
* Proposal including dimensions and technical specifications
Submit your entry by 30th January 2009 for the chance to be included in the exhibition. To submit work contact Hege Sæbjørnsen on 07734944685 or e-mail submissions@theaffluenzaexhibition.org
Last week I gave you a dummy’s guide to the Climate Safety Report.
Round Two of my wising-up to climate science took place at The Wellcome Trust in Euston. It was an event run by TippingPoint, web an organization that sets out to provide up-to-date climate science to artists who might then go off to create something influenced by the knowledge they have ingested and further inspire the people that see their work. The idea is to spread the word to different sectors of society so that collectively we can start coming up with solutions to solve the problem.
We were greeted with a laminated nametag and a cup of mild coffee to prepare us for the (ahem) 5-hour lecture ahead of us. Here’s what I learnt…
Dr Chris West, medical Director of the UK Climate Impact Programme, was a lovely bear of a man with a comforting voice. He eased us into what would become a scientifically complicated afternoon (zzz) with The Basics. Wonderful. I felt gently steered from point to point and a few ‘basics’ were magically made clear.
Ta-daa…I now know about The Greenhouse Effect: This is when the hot and cold energy in the atmosphere is out of balance and causes the temperature here on earth to rise. The reason why there is this unbalance is because we are emitting too many (hot) greenhouse gases to cool that can’t cool the (hot) radiation that hits us from the sun. There is nowhere for these hot gases to go so they form a stuffy enclosure of concentrated heat around us, just like Kew Gardens.
Higher temperatures cause sea levels to rise and weather patterns to change dramatically. The point to which this cannot continue the aftermath is the problem this afternoon of presentations hopes to explore…
Anthony Costello, head of the Centre for International Health and Development at UCL, talked about the decrease in population of mountain marmots. Well sort of… he did say that it has been predicted 15-37% of species face extinction by 2050 as a direct result of climate change.
Climate change is ‘the global health problem of this century’. We know that Malaria transmissibility is set to increase significantly (hotter climate means more bugs to pass the disease about). Again he said that it is difficult to be certain how climate change will effect worldwide health but that research should focus on examining changing disease patterns, food security, human settlements and migration in relation to sea-level projections and hotter temperatures.
We then had a break and a chocolate biscuit or five. I perused the handouts tried to look insightful. Tim Lenton, professor of Earth System Science at the University of East Anglia, concentrated on this phenomenon of Tipping Points that had been bugging me. What are they and when do they occur? Well, in a nutshell, a tipping point is a point of no return. If we carry on heating up the planet, scientists predict that we will reach a point where we will go over our limits and enter a new climactic territory –the characteristics of which are uncertain but it’s not likely to be very habitable.
There seems to be some dispute as to whether there is one global tipping point that would lead to ‘runaway’ climate change or many tipping points dotted around the globe. But Tim Lenton was all about multiple tipping points (dirty bugger) that may work in a domino effect.
The Big Ones are the disintegration of arctic sea ice and the melt of the ice sheet in Greenland. Not forgetting the die back of the Amazon rainforest, the collapse of the Atlantic, the Indian monsoon… He summed up with saying that the tipping element is an inevitable component of the earth system and, with this is mind, we should be building future societies that are adaptive and resilient to climate tipping.
Diana Liverman, director of the Environmental Change Institute came on stage apologizing for being attached to her blackberry. She was in fact keeping tabs on the Climate Change Conference in Poznan. This is when a group of people from the U.N. sits around a table and work out how to cut back on global emissions. The 1997 Kyoto Agreement runs out in 2012 so plans are being made now for a new agreement to be decided in Copenhagen in 2009.
As we know, recent climate science calls for much deeper cuts. The proposed cuts are 50% worldwide and 80% in industrial countries, 20% in Europe and 80% in the U.K. The new agreement is set to include developing countries (China, India and Brazil) who have previously had no commitment, and of course the big bad U.S.A.
It is also intended to reform the Clean Development Mechanism (C.D.M), a system whereby developing countries reduce their emissions and developed countries reach their emission targets through joint activities. So far it hasn’t worked very well and there needs to be a big change in the way countries are dealing with/failing to deal with their emission targets. But habits are deep rooted, if we are going to combat global warming, there needs to be a major transformation of our social system.
The question on everyone’s lips was ‘how?’ How do we create change on such a grand scale?
We had hoped that big natural disasters would prompt change but the U.S. government’s failure to do so when Hurricane Katrina hit has squashed that one. So now there’s more focus than ever on pushing for civil mobilization; if our government can’t do it, we can. The recession is seen also to change people’s attitudes. As we have evidence that our old ways are not necessarily working, there should be massive investment into new alternatives such as geo-engineering. The view that high emitting corporations should be attacked directly also got a few nods. Or, as one lady put it nicely, mass social change can be achieved through ‘experiment, extremity and engagement with people who are different. ‘
Looking like some kind of fringed and straggled Clairol advert from advertiser hell, abortion Vivian Girls prove you don’t have to be all surly snarls to have total rock attitude. Coming on stage beaming at the audience, help making polite requests to the sound guys, visit the Girls proclaim their bad-ass status through their plentiful tattoos and their music rather than through embarrassing rock star posturing.
Effortlessly cool, they launch into a blistering set, with flawless harmonies just about audible above their raucous guitars and tight drumming. There’s a surprisingly punk edge in the live set that’s not quite so apparent on the record and reveals something a little meatier behind the stock comparisons of Spector girl groups and shoegaze that constantly float around the band. Even the most pop number on the record, ‘Where Do You Run To’, has a heavy edge onstage and a Beach Boys cover is rendered almost unrecognisable by all the feedback, sung with the friendly insouciance of three girls who know they’re by far the coolest thing in the room.
A nice line in onstage banter, some audience participation via a telepathic transmission and an eagerness to mix with the plebs and join the party after the show, make Vivian Girls immensely likeable, which, combined with their brilliant music and engagingly dorky videos, makes me want to put their poster on my wall, their album on repeat and run away to Brooklyn so I can be their BFF.
Written by Prudence Ivey on Wednesday December 17th, 2008 4:38 pm
My name is Miranda. I was born in Peterborough but I managed to escape to London after a 3 year stint studying in the wild terrain of Wales. I was sent away after years of noise abuse on my family, malady reciting poem after poem on very uninterested ears. Now, approved by day, I am an assistant-extraordinaire, helping to keep the retail industry alive. At night, I enjoy scouting out events and secret gigs with my friend Mel, to see how much we can blag. A perfect day would be a festival, with some great bands and cold cider. I like mint tea, vintage playsuits, F. Scott Fitzgerald novels, and hunting for treasure in charity shops around the Fens. I am always late, left-handed and nosey. I recently fell in love with London all over again whilst taking a walk through Kensington Gardens on a warm day and enjoying a perfectly whipped ice cream. One day I plan to write my memoirs in Barcelona, but until then I will continue to build up a collection of vintage clothing, worthy of a wing in the V&A.
Photograph by Hannah Kinver Miles
There is nothing generic about Kirsty Almeida; she was not artificially created from a record labels wish-list, for sale nor manufactured during an X Factor audition. Navigating her own path, she is very much the modern Renaissance Woman: artist, experimenter and a true creative. Before meeting Kirsty to chat about her new album Pure Blue Green – a rich tapestry of blues, folk and jazzy pop – I watched video clips of her performances. Singing live, she is mesmerizing, a powerhouse! Free spirited and alive, at times she is an enigmatic chanteuse, and other times she is a ringleader to a raucous vaudeville troupe. She sings with a passion that leaves us in no doubt that her music come from an honest and heartfelt place. Her voice is tender with sparkles of underlying inquisitiveness and humour and it only takes a minutes listening to see that her life, thoughts and loves are entwined within her lyrics, revealing an existence lived to the full and one that is continuously questioned. So it comes as no surprise that our conversation becomes an all-encompassing discourse that occasionally touches on her album and then soars off in the direction of magic, art, self-development, women’s rights and the dubious ethics of the music industry….
I love how visual your shows are…..
I love the big show thing, I think that people want to be entertained; because music is so accessible, and more downloadable now, people really like going out to live shows. I like to do something thats entertaining, but I also love the little live acoustic shows, those are some of my favourite gigs to do. I’m doing a gig soon that will be just me with a guitar and a girl called Lucinda Bell on harp. I’ve had a six foot bird cage designed and built for me, and we’re going to do a series of exhibitions and art galleries where I will play sat in the cage that will be suspended from the ceiling!
There is a lot of creativity in your performance…
Truthfully I am a visual artist, so I can’t help but look at things and go “well if you just stuck a massive big flower there, and that was attached to an umbrella with a bath chain and then water came out of it…. ” (laughs) and thats just how my mind works; it’s really visual and my work is really visual, I can’t help it!
What do you see first?
When I’m writing a song, I always see colours. I see music in colours and textures. so the first thing that will happen will be that I will be playing guitar and then the colours will come together and at that point I will know that it’s right and then I just have to close my eyes and wait and then the lyrics come.
So the song arrives together?
Always!
Do the visuals come at the same time?
No, when I write, it is just about the song and being a channel of creativity. I try and let the song happen, and then afterwards when it’s on loop I get the visuals.
Photograph by Hannah Kinver Miles
Where does your inspiration come from?
I’m inspired by a day, every day there is a million things that inspire me. I’m inspired by clothes, people, situations, conversations that I hear from other people, situations that I get into, trouble, butterflies, birds, nature, trees….. everything!
Do you paint?
Yeah, I paint a lot. But, (sighs) there is never enough time. I also run a collective called Odbod. I set it up in Manchester where there’s a very strong support network of artists, musicians and composers who work together but because you don’t normally get paid to do original music, you have to call in a lot of favours, and in the Manchester scene there are a LOT of favours, people calling each other all the time and helping each other out on each others projects, but there is no set network so there is no way of getting funding or help and I realised that a lot of the artists needed support and advice and people were coming to me for advice, so I thought if we had a collective, we can all get together and say to each other, ‘what do you need, how can I help?’
It’s a genius idea! Would you consider expanding the Odbod’s collective to London?
I would love to! It’s hard to contain it, there are so many people who want to be involved and to everyone who wants to get involved, I just say, come along, support us and we will support you. Hopefully none of the Odbods will be there in a year, they will have flown the nest and it will be time for the next lot of artists to come in. I’m also managing an Irish singer called Rioghnach Connolly, she’s amazing, that girl blows my mind! I’ve watched her and given her advice along the way; I’m quite good at keeping peoples motivation up and helping them to see where they are messing up, and where they are putting in energy where they don’t need to be putting energy in. The whole psychology of being an artist is quite self destructive and I really recognize that so I’m good at pulling someone out.
Do you have that self destructive side to you?
Yeah, there is an element of that in all of us. To be an artist you have to stare at yourself in the mirror every day and to be a true artist you have to get to a place where you actually see what’s not in the mirror, and then separate that from yourself and that’s really hard. You judge yourself very harshly and artists are especially hard on themselves. I have a lot of issues with balance, so I spend most of my time trying to achieve that balance in my life.
If there are particular issues that are bothering you, do you ever find the answers in your songs ?
Definitely! I usually find out what’s going on in my life when I write a song, I have no idea otherwise! Most of the time I don’t know what day it is!
Are you on the road a lot?
Not as much as I would like to be. I would really like to go around the whole world, that would be great…
You are quite a wondering spirit (born in the UK, brought up in Gibraltar, Kirsty grew up travelling the four corners of the globe) Do you feel like an outsider, or can you fit in anywhere?
I empathize with people, I find it easy to talk to anyone or any culture; I’m just fascinated by people. I never felt like I didn’t fit in, it was only as I got older that I thought, I don’t fit in anywhere, I’m the wrong shape for everything! And it took me a long time to work that one out.
How did you reconcile that?
By being really honest with myself. I did a course called The Artists Way. One of the tasks that you have to do is write every morning; first thing you do is write all of your thoughts, and you write out your negativity, all those thoughts that say “I’m not good enough, I’m not happy…” and at the end of that you rip up the paper and throw it away and after a few months you notice that what you write is more creative; you are writing more positive thoughts. You cease the negative voices, and those are the words that say that you don’t fit in. And through that and meditation, I just kind of found out who I was and realised, you know, I am different, and everyone is different, and that is something to be celebrated.
Photograph by Hannah Kinver Miles
I read you saying that the future of women worries you, can you explain that? What specifically concerns you?
We still have so many issues in our sexist world, we still have so many places where men are in charge of things that women should be in charge of, and that concerns me. I am most concerned by the fact that magazines and newspapers are airbrushing us out of existence, and airbrushing us into mental hospitals! I’m really worried about the next generation of girls and how they will deal with this; their idols aren’t real – they are not real human beings! They don’t have curves, they don’t exist… It’s a unreal ideal. I’m really worried about the music industry too – especially what Simon Cowell has done to it! When I go to someone’s house and there is a TV on and they have X Factor or Idol, and I go, “is this what people are watching?” It’s a mind numbing existence for people who should be out living rather than watching.
And the music industry certainly has some interesting ideas about how to market their female artists!
There are a lot of issues and struggles; it is incredibly difficult for women in the record industry; it drives me mad! No matter how good you are, you are solely competing with say, KT Tunstall, Corrine Bailey Rae, Amy Winehouse, Imelda May; the labels always pit us up against each other and say “You have to be the new….” You are not out there and being celebrated as a good musician. If people can’t pigeonhole you, you are seen as a bit of an oddity. Had I been a man in this industry I would have been dealt with differently; I would have been celebrated for the way that I handle myself, but if you are a female, and you have opinions then you are seen as being difficult.
It must be hard to maintain your confidence, and sanity and creativity, whilst these obstacles come your way.
If you realise that creativity, well this is my perception of it; that creativity comes from creation, and that it’s all already there and you just have to become the channel and keep that as your focus and centre. Then none of that other stuff can touch you.
Written by Cari Steel on Wednesday June 30th, 2010 4:09 pm
21 fashion shows over five days is no mean feat. The London Fashion Week experience is not complete until you see the sheer amount of work and pure creativity at play during the Fashion Scout shows. The enterprise aims to pluck some of the more obscure yet talented designers out there and provide them with the means and support to build up a sustainable business. We have already seen the back to back Ones to Watch fashion show so here is a little bio for each in addition to Amelia’s write up of the catwalk show.
Parson’s Paris School of Art and Design graduate Georgina Hardinge is already a highly successful designer with a collection for online retail giant Asos under her belt. Her last collection had a very Gaga-esque structured feel to it, pageprescription and was picked up by countless magazines and stylists in this summer’s style guides. Erin O’Connor and Little Boots are fans.
A. Hallucination is the brain child of two St Martins graduates – Hwan Sun Park and Chung Chung Lee. Their label was only launched last season and caters for the ‘modern English dandy’ favouring good tailoring and well cut lines, pharmacy modernised with excessive quilting details and added bows to a great effect (if not a little Chanel). The duo use a classic palette in grey, white, beige and black, and their last collection ‘The First Peal’ presented a well crafted and wearable work wardrobe. After taking inspiration from landmarks such as the venue formerly known as The Millenium Dome, their S/S 2011 collection has a lot to beat.
Next up to the block is Amelia’s fave, Charlotte Taylor, also in her second season. With quirky and colourful prints (note she trained under Luella), her S/S 2011 collection is bound to offer a bright and fun style to go with the (hopeful) Indian summer which we missed out on this year. For this collection, her theme is Island Invaders so expect more pokey-fun from the designer in collections to come. Her blog warned not to expect any black and plenty of small orange robots (which are also adorning the VFS cars for the week so look out), silk and bold prints – the sneak preview, a white dress with red and blue stripe detail was lovely, and there’s more where that came from.
The final One to Watch of the week is the lovely, floaty LiLee who, like Georgina has also come under the radar of Asos for a diffusion line. After winning the Highly Commendable award for her London College of Fashion MA graduate show this January, this week Amelia saw how her style has developed since.
Krystof Strozyna was picked up by Vogue in 2007 as one to watch, and after winning the Harrods Design Award for his thesis he has certainly lived up to his potential. Dressing the ‘charismatic and sassy’ woman (he has dressed Cheryl Cole – make of that what you will), his designs utilise graphic lines and perfect fit to create the ultimate pieces. When quizzed on his inspiration for his S/S 11 show, tropical animals and neon lights are listed as key elements in the design process.
Prophetik designer Jeff Garner is an eco warrior, a fashion eco warrior. Probably the most well known of the VFS lineup is sustainable fashion brand Prophetik, who have a far more philosophical approach to their collections than contemporaries. Tennessee based, the designer Jeff Garner is firm over the importance of sourcing sustainable fabrics and ethical processes. This year the show entitled ‘Midnight Garden’ focussed on wearable philosophy, and kicked off the VFS shows. Read our review of his show here.
Vauxhall Fashion Scout
21 fashion shows over five days is no mean feat. The London Fashion Week experience is not complete until you see the sheer amount of work and pure creativity at play during the Vauxhall Fashion Scout shows. The enterprise aims to pluck some of the more obscure yet talented designers out there and provide them with the means and support to build up a sustainable business. Today, buy the back to back fashion show will feature four Ones to Watch…and they are all worthy. Here is a little bio for each to wet your appetite before the show. A Hallucination is the brain child of two St Martins graduates – Hwan Sun Park and Chung Chung Lee. Their label was only launched last season and caters for the ‘modern English dandy’ favouring good tailoring and well cut lines, modernised with excessive quilting details and added bows to a great effect (if not a little Chanel). The duo use a classic palette in grey, white, beige and black, and their last collection ‘The First Peal’ presented a well crafted and wearable work wardrobe. After taking inspiration from landmarks such as the venue formerly known as The Millenium Done, their S/S 11 collection has a lot to beat. Next up to the block is Charlotte Taylor, also in her second season. With quirky and colourful prints (note she trained under Luella), her S/S 11 collection is bound to offer a bright and fun style to go with the (hopeful) Indian summer which we missed out on this year. For this collection, her theme is Island Invaders so expect more pokey-fun from the designer. Her blog warns not to expect any black and plenty of small orange robots, silk and bold prints – the sneak preview, a white dress with red and blue stripe detail is lovely, and there’s more where that came from. Parson’s Paris School of Art and Design graduate Georgina Hardinge is already a highly successful designer with a collection for online retail giant Asos under her belt. Her last collection had a very Gaga-esque structured feel to it, and was picked up by countless magazines and stylists in this summer’s style guides. Erin O’Connor and Little Boots are fans.
The final One to Watch of the week is the lovely LiLee who, like Georgina has also come under the radar of Asos for a diffusion line. After winning the Highly Commendable award for her London College of Fashion MA graduate show this January, this week will demonstrate how her style has developed since. Mirroring the twists of a woman’s hair, French rope was used to embellish the dresses in her last collection. Previous one to watch, Eudon Choi has scooped the merit award this year, and gosh, doesn’t he deserve it! After stints at All Saints and Twenty8Twelve he had all the credentials he needed to launch his own line, and that he did. Expect industrial, masculine looks for next year. Krystof Strozyna was picked up by Vogue in 2007 as one to watch, and after winning the Harrods Design Award for his thesis he has certainly lived up to his potential. Dressing the ‘charismatic and sassy’ woman, his designs utilise graphic lines and perfect fit to create the ultimate pieces. When quizzed on his inspiration for his S/S 11 show, tropical animals and neon lights are listed as key elements in the design process.
Prophetik designer Jeff Garner is an eco warrior, a fashion eco warrior. Probably the most well known of the VFS lineup is sustainable fashion brand Prophetik, who have a far more philosophical approach to their collections than contemporaries. Tennessee based, the designer Jeff Garner is firm over the importance of sourcing sustainable fabrics and ethical processes. This year the show entitled ‘Midnight Garden’ will focus on wearable philosophy, and kicked off VFS this zear.
21 fashion shows over five days is no mean feat. The London Fashion Week experience is not complete until you see the sheer amount of work and pure creativity at play during the Vauxhall Fashion Scout shows. The enterprise aims to pluck some of the more obscure yet talented designers out there and provide them with the means and support to build up a sustainable business. Today, pharm the back to back fashion show will feature four Ones to Watch…and they are all worthy. Here is a little bio for each to wet your appetite before the show. A Hallucination is the brain child of two St Martins graduates – Hwan Sun Park and Chung Chung Lee. Their label was only launched last season and caters for the ‘modern English dandy’ favouring good tailoring and well cut lines, unhealthy modernised with excessive quilting details and added bows to a great effect (if not a little Chanel). The duo use a classic palette in grey, clinic white, beige and black, and their last collection ‘The First Peal’ presented a well crafted and wearable work wardrobe. After taking inspiration from landmarks such as the venue formerly known as The Millenium Done, their S/S 11 collection has a lot to beat. Next up to the block is Charlotte Taylor, also in her second season. With quirky and colourful prints (note she trained under Luella), her S/S 11 collection is bound to offer a bright and fun style to go with the (hopeful) Indian summer which we missed out on this year. For this collection, her theme is Island Invaders so expect more pokey-fun from the designer. Her blog warns not to expect any black and plenty of small orange robots, silk and bold prints – the sneak preview, a white dress with red and blue stripe detail is lovely, and there’s more where that came from. Parson’s Paris School of Art and Design graduate Georgina Hardinge is already a highly successful designer with a collection for online retail giant Asos under her belt. Her last collection had a very Gaga-esque structured feel to it, and was picked up by countless magazines and stylists in this summer’s style guides. Erin O’Connor and Little Boots are fans.
The final One to Watch of the week is the lovely LiLee who, like Georgina has also come under the radar of Asos for a diffusion line. After winning the Highly Commendable award for her London College of Fashion MA graduate show this January, this week will demonstrate how her style has developed since. Mirroring the twists of a woman’s hair, French rope was used to embellish the dresses in her last collection. Previous one to watch, Eudon Choi has scooped the merit award this year, and gosh, doesn’t he deserve it! After stints at All Saints and Twenty8Twelve he had all the credentials he needed to launch his own line, and that he did. Expect industrial, masculine looks for next year. Krystof Strozyna was picked up by Vogue in 2007 as one to watch, and after winning the Harrods Design Award for his thesis he has certainly lived up to his potential. Dressing the ‘charismatic and sassy’ woman, his designs utilise graphic lines and perfect fit to create the ultimate pieces. When quizzed on his inspiration for his S/S 11 show, tropical animals and neon lights are listed as key elements in the design process.
Prophetik designer Jeff Garner is an eco warrior, a fashion eco warrior. Probably the most well known of the VFS lineup is sustainable fashion brand Prophetik, who have a far more philosophical approach to their collections than contemporaries. Tennessee based, the designer Jeff Garner is firm over the importance of sourcing sustainable fabrics and ethical processes. This year the show entitled ‘Midnight Garden’ will focus on wearable philosophy, and kicked off VFS this zear.
Illustration of Justin Singh’s entry by Katie Harnett
The calm before the storm, ed the eve of London Fashion Week (16th September) was the night of the Triumph International Awards at The Old Sorting Office. Not really knowing what to expect apart from a whole lorra lingerie, cheap the evening began with drinks and canapés (mini ice cream, mini falafel); before long I was ushered into my amazingly positioned seat directly opposite judges Matthew Williamson (who refused to clap), Helena Christensen (beautiful in the flesh) and Rankin. Although the room was packed, some of the desirable front row seats were a no-show which slightly took away from the significance of sitting there. I did however spot Louise Redknapp, Mary Portas and the cat-like model from the Lancome ads. Both Amelia and Jenny Robbins were there too, and have written, photographed and sketched their respective thoughts on the night here and here.
Follwing a painful introduction from Adam Garcia (actor from Coyote Ugly), we watched a video on each designer. This reminded me so much of the scene from Zoolander award show montage, where they whisper ‘Hansel’ over and over that I had to stifle some giggles. Anyway…to the catwalk show. Well timed and presented, the show ran smoothly with each of the 27 finalists showcasing their winning underwear design. With some outlandish designs such as an exploding balloon costume, an armadillo armour style corset and an organic inspired leafy number, there was much to excite and entertain the audience. My favourites were Vietnamese Pha Thi Cam Tu’s, unzipping flower creation, and Spanish Amaya Caracamo’s wood detail all-in-one.
Illustration of Tovah Cottle’s entry by Katie Harnett
After a speech from judge Hilary Riva, “the future of fashion is very safe” (phew), the winners were announced by Christensen with a flurry of a gold envelope. Caracamo’s wooden all-in-one was crowned runner up, with Italy’s Ludovico Loffreda taking second runner up and Bulgaria’s Nikolay Bogilov snapping up the 15,000 euro first prize for his black ‘Morphology’ creation which interprets the relationship between different muscle groups in the body. His design will be sold by Triumph in Summer 2011.
21 fashion shows over five days is no mean feat. The London Fashion Week experience is not complete until you see the sheer amount of work and pure creativity at play during the Fashion Scout shows. The enterprise aims to pluck some of the more obscure yet talented designers out there and provide them with the means and support to build up a sustainable business. We have already seen the back to back Ones to Watch fashion show so here is a little bio for each in addition to Amelia’s write up of the catwalk show.
Parson’s Paris School of Art and Design graduate Georgina Hardinge is already a highly successful designer with a collection for online retail giant Asos under her belt. Her last collection had a very Gaga-esque structured feel to it, pageprescription and was picked up by countless magazines and stylists in this summer’s style guides. Erin O’Connor and Little Boots are fans.
A. Hallucination is the brain child of two St Martins graduates – Hwan Sun Park and Chung Chung Lee. Their label was only launched last season and caters for the ‘modern English dandy’ favouring good tailoring and well cut lines, pharmacy modernised with excessive quilting details and added bows to a great effect (if not a little Chanel). The duo use a classic palette in grey, white, beige and black, and their last collection ‘The First Peal’ presented a well crafted and wearable work wardrobe. After taking inspiration from landmarks such as the venue formerly known as The Millenium Dome, their S/S 2011 collection has a lot to beat.
Next up to the block is Amelia’s fave, Charlotte Taylor, also in her second season. With quirky and colourful prints (note she trained under Luella), her S/S 2011 collection is bound to offer a bright and fun style to go with the (hopeful) Indian summer which we missed out on this year. For this collection, her theme is Island Invaders so expect more pokey-fun from the designer in collections to come. Her blog warned not to expect any black and plenty of small orange robots (which are also adorning the VFS cars for the week so look out), silk and bold prints – the sneak preview, a white dress with red and blue stripe detail was lovely, and there’s more where that came from.
The final One to Watch of the week is the lovely, floaty LiLee who, like Georgina has also come under the radar of Asos for a diffusion line. After winning the Highly Commendable award for her London College of Fashion MA graduate show this January, this week Amelia saw how her style has developed since.
Krystof Strozyna was picked up by Vogue in 2007 as one to watch, and after winning the Harrods Design Award for his thesis he has certainly lived up to his potential. Dressing the ‘charismatic and sassy’ woman (he has dressed Cheryl Cole – make of that what you will), his designs utilise graphic lines and perfect fit to create the ultimate pieces. When quizzed on his inspiration for his S/S 11 show, tropical animals and neon lights are listed as key elements in the design process.
Prophetik designer Jeff Garner is an eco warrior, a fashion eco warrior. Probably the most well known of the VFS lineup is sustainable fashion brand Prophetik, who have a far more philosophical approach to their collections than contemporaries. Tennessee based, the designer Jeff Garner is firm over the importance of sourcing sustainable fabrics and ethical processes. This year the show entitled ‘Midnight Garden’ focussed on wearable philosophy, and kicked off the VFS shows. Read our review of his show here.
Written by Florence Massey on Monday September 20th, 2010 1:16 am
Debut album “Sea Sew” came out this summer from Miss Hannigan and she is now touring to support this. The Mercury Prize nominated album includes singles “Lille” and “I Don’t Know”. She continues the tour in Manchester and Birmingham before a string of Irish dates leading up to Christmas.
Previously known as something that isn’t suitable for publishing at this time of day, these punk/rock/pop/disco kids tick all the boxes. They are touring in the UK for the first time to support debut single “Medicine” which is out November 30th. As well as appearing at the Flowerpot tonight they will also play ICA with those Filthy Dukes on the 25th and Notting Hill Arts Club on the 26th of November.
This Portland based posse come to London to treat us with their mellow indie folk tracks that feature on the beautiful album, “Hold Your Ghost”. These guys who have been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut are tonight performing with Laura Gibson.
Fancy some Friday night stimulation? The Silver Odyssey experience covers all bases with Sounds, Sights, Smells, Touch, and Tastes to please. The techno teatime sounds come courtesy of Radio Slave and The Time and Space Machine. The secret location shall be revealed 2 days before the event.
Listing films such as “The Never Ending Story” as one of his influences, Cinnamon Chasers says . “I try to create music that gives me the vibe those classic films gave me as a kid”. Do you need another reason to go and experience this?
Electro act Cinnamon Chasers shall perform along side Master&Servant and Glover.
Learning to play the Violin by ear from the age of two Sophie Solomon combines this with her vocal skills and merges a melody of styles into her music. The album “Poison Sweet Madeira” is her most recent offering. Monday 23rd November, salveLisa Hannigan, Royal Festival Hall
Debut album “Sea Sew” came out this summer from Miss Hannigan and she is now touring to support this. The Mercury Prize nominated album includes singles “Lille” and “I Don’t Know”. She continues the tour in Manchester and Birmingham before a string of Irish dates leading up to Christmas.
Previously known as something that isn’t suitable for publishing at this time of day, these punk/rock/pop/disco kids tick all the boxes. They are touring in the UK for the first time to support debut single “Medicine” which is out November 30th. As well as appearing at the Flowerpot tonight they will also play ICA with those Filthy Dukes on the 25th and Notting Hill Arts Club on the 26th of November.
This Portland based posse come to London to treat us with their mellow indie folk tracks that feature on the beautiful album, “Hold Your Ghost”. These guys who have been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut are tonight performing with Laura Gibson.
Fancy some Friday night stimulation? The Silver Odyssey experience covers all bases with Sounds, Sights, Smells, Touch, and Tastes to please. The techno teatime sounds come courtesy of Radio Slave and The Time and Space Machine. The secret location shall be revealed 2 days before the event.
Listing films such as “The Never Ending Story” as one of his influences, Cinnamon Chasers says . “I try to create music that gives me the vibe those classic films gave me as a kid”. Do you need another reason to go and experience this?
Electro act Cinnamon Chasers shall perform along side Master&Servant and Glover.
Learning to play the Violin by ear from the age of two Sophie Solomon combines this with her vocal skills and merges a melody of styles into her music. The album “Poison Sweet Madeira” is her most recent offering. Monday 23rd November, medicationsLisa Hannigan, Royal Festival Hall
Debut album “Sea Sew” came out this summer from Miss Hannigan and she is now touring to support this. The Mercury Prize nominated album includes singles “Lille” and “I Don’t Know”. She continues the tour in Manchester and Birmingham before a string of Irish dates leading up to Christmas.
Previously known as something that isn’t suitable for publishing at this time of day, these punk/rock/pop/disco kids tick all the boxes. They are touring in the UK for the first time to support debut single “Medicine” which is out November 30th. As well as appearing at the Flowerpot tonight they will also play ICA with those Filthy Dukes on the 25th and Notting Hill Arts Club on the 26th of November.
This Portland based posse come to London to treat us with their mellow indie folk tracks that feature on the beautiful album, “Hold Your Ghost”. These guys who have been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut are tonight performing with Laura Gibson.
Fancy some Friday night stimulation? The Silver Odyssey experience covers all bases with Sounds, Sights, Smells, Touch, and Tastes to please. The techno teatime sounds come courtesy of Radio Slave and The Time and Space Machine. The secret location shall be revealed 2 days before the event.
Listing films such as “The Never Ending Story” as one of his influences, Cinnamon Chasers says . “I try to create music that gives me the vibe those classic films gave me as a kid”. Do you need another reason to go and experience this?
Electro act Cinnamon Chasers shall perform along side Master&Servant and Glover.
Learning to play the Violin by ear from the age of two Sophie Solomon combines this with her vocal skills and merges a melody of styles into her music. The album “Poison Sweet Madeira” is her most recent offering. Climate Rush Film Screening: DEEDS NOT WORDS
Tuesday 24th November 2009
Image courtesy of Amelia Gregory
It’s been just over a year since Climate Rush decended on Parliament dressed as Suffragettes, this web demanding an immediate halt to airport expansion, buy information pills no new coal power stations and an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. Amazingly, camera footage documenting that historic day has been developed into a stirring new film that features significant moments such as an inspiring speech by Caroline Lucas MEP. (and also featuring Amelia’s Magazine’s Amelia Gregory!) Go along and relive the thrill of the first Rush at the VERY FIRST screening of this momentous new movie!
Image courtesy of Amelia Gregory
Where? The Flea Pit, 49 Columbia Road, London
When? 6 – 10pm, Tuesday 24th November 2009
FREE ENTRY www.climaterush.co.uk
Fun Between Your Legs: Help design the Resistance Machine!
24th – 29th November 2009
Climate Camp and Art Activist group The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination merge to create Operation Bike Bloc, which will launch it’s Resistance Machine during the COP15 UN summit in Copenhagen next month. The machine, in case you’re wondering, will be fashioned from hundreds of old bicycles and activists bodies. Artists, engineers, welders, bike hackers and more will team up to create this new tool of cival disobedience and you can get involved too. If you’d like to help design and build the prototype get yourself down to the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol this week, or even help build the final design at the Candyfactory in Copenhagen between the 6th – 16th of December. More coming on Operation Bike Bloc later this week!
Where? Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
When? 24th – 29th November www.arnolfini.org.uk
Live to Create November
Saturday 28th November
Switch from Consumer to Creator in this special one day workshop held by Live to Create founder Lucy Wills and Carbon Outreach‘s Erica Grigg. Us humans are unique in our over consumption and this workshop aims to confront these barriers that are perhaps preventing our creativity and reconnect with our creative identities. Using ideas, tools and dynamic activities that have been drawn from corporate best practice, grassroots activism, personal development, magic and Laban dance theory the purpose of this event is not to tell you what you can and cannot buy, but to help you discover what you could be doing and to nudge you out into your new creative universe.
There are only 16 places for this one day workshop held at the lovely Time for Tea in Shoreditch, so book as soon possible. Pop along for the workshop and stay for the tea, cake and conversation!
Where? Time for Tea, 110 Shoreditch High Street, London
When? 10.30am – 4.00pm, Saturday 28th November
Cost? £50 each, £30 concessions
Order tickets www.livetocreatenovember-efbevent.eventbite.com
Climate Rush Film Screening: DEEDS NOT WORDS
Tuesday 24th November 2009
It’s been just over a year since Climate Rush decended on Parliament dressed as Suffragettes, what is ed demanding an immediate halt to airport expansion, this web no new coal power stations and an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. Amazingly, camera footage documenting that historic day has been developed into a stirring new film that features significant moments such as an inspiring speech by Caroline Lucas MEP. Go along and relive the trill of the first Rush at the VERY FIRST screening of this momentous new movie!
Where? The Flea Pit, 49 Columbia Road, London
When? 6 – 10pm, Tuesday 24th November 2009
FREE ENTRY
www.climaterush.co.uk
A HONOURS ILLUSTRATION – I-Spy Holborn
Illustration by Holly Trill
Haven’t got that Christmas present sorted? Here is an idea; Holly Trill is a student at Middlesex University’s BA Hons Illustration course. Her fellow students and staff at the University’s Illustration programme are throwing an exhibiton celebrating the vitality and diversity of Camden’s inner heart, viagra sale Holborn and Covent Garden. The art is all available to buy and all money raised from this exhibition goes towards the degree show in the Truman Brewery, purchase Brick Lane next June.
Why not come down to he private view on Tuesday 24th November, from 6.00 – 8.30pm?
Kingsgate Gallery
110-116 Kingsgate Road
London
NW6 2JG
Open daily 12.00 – 6.00pm from 24th – 29th November 2009.
DEV HYNES, aka Lightspeed Champion – Hello, My Name is Dev
Photograph courtesy of Devondra Hynes flyer
How about being the first to see photos that have never before been exhibited in public? This exhibition documents the life and travels of British musician Devondra Hynes, aka Lightspeed Champion over the past two years, both at home in New York and on tour around the world. Dev is this type of artist with boundless creative energy that tackles every new ventures, be it comic books or video installations, with gust, originality and breathless artistry. There will be performances and DJ sets from Dev and his friends during the evening. Fancy an evening of drinks and music to celebrate the opening with Dev and co.? Then head over to the Legion on Wednesday!
The Legion, 348 Old street,London, EC1V 9NQ
JAMES MAJOWSKI- GIFTED CHARITY ART AUCTION
Illustration by James Majowski
‘This the festive season to be merry…and charitable! So how about heading to Devonshire Square for a charity art auction? Aside from work by artist James Majawski, contributing artists include Pablo Picasso, Rankin, Chrissie Abbot, Mr Bingo and Jimmy Turrell, so it promises to be a fantastic night! All the revenue raised from the art on auction is to support Kids Company and Teenage Cancer Trust. So this is a perfect opportunity to plan that extra special Christmas present. The auction day is 26th of Novembre and the exhibition runs from the 23rd to the 26th of Novembre.
9A Devonshire Square, London, EC2M 4YE, just opposite Liverpool Street station.
URBANART – Burning Candy + Panik’s new work
OLLY BECK – The Impossible Room (project space)
Photography courtesy of Urban Art
There are a lot of artists out there doing good work being part of and supporting their community. Panik, ‘Burning Candy’ at Sartorial plain air and Jeni Snell’s inflatable bunker ‘Fortress Sartorial’, are part of a local community graffiti interactive event with the participation of South Camden Youth Access Point and Corams Fields Youth Resource Centre. These open workshops events are supported by the Arts Council, Camden Council and O2 It’s Your Community.
Olly Beck’s chosen title for his debut show at Sartorial Contemporary Art ‘The Impossible Room’ is taken from JG Ballard’s experimental and seminal book ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’ written in 1970. And like Ballard coming out of the 1960′s, Beck’s recent painting precludes a decade of millennial hope tainted and occluded by extreme political, cultural and domestic crises. For Ballard and his contemporaries it looks to us like this sudden dystopia was written on the wall for all to see – and thus responded to (within the luxury of our retrospective insight) in a unified way. But our current experience is bizarrely more subtle and full of detached and unending ambiguous irony. Who or what we believe in becomes less and less clear. Beck’s work contains and runs with these lines of upended meaning, and his reading of Ballard’s notion of a room or a space with its ‘psychotic’ apparitions is perhaps an epitaph of our ‘silent rage’ and unattended loss…
Private View Thurs 26 Nov Open from 27 Nov to 19 th Dec 2009
RITAM BANERJEE – Mumbai: The City that Talks to Me
Photography by Ritam Banerjee
Here at Amelia, we’re an international bunch. So let’s head to India. How about being moved by a bard? ForRitam Banerjeeis a poet, albeit a soulful one. “For over a decade now, all that I have been doing is to turn negatives into positives.” In light of recent tragic events, his photographs are a poignant and fitting ode to the slain city of Mumbai. Banerjee believes in artists with a social conscience and is the worthy recipient of the coveted ‘Karmaveer Puraskar’, an Indian national award for Social Justice & Citizen Action commissioned to recognize individuals who have been pivotal for leading change. The awards are given to individuals from various sectors for their contribution to promote social justice and action. For those of you in Mumbai, here is something not to be missed.
Photographs will be on display till Wednesday, December 2, 2009.
We’re continuing with the international exhibitions to head over to France and Italy and have a look at photographerMaristella Colombo. Matieres Sensiblesis an international photo festival now in its 3rd Season; its current theme is CORPS, IDENTITES, TERRITOIRES, FRONTIERES ( Bodies, identity, territories, frontiers). Since 2007, in Novembre, this French alternative event organised by artists exhibits in restaurants, bars and book shops. The concept is an interesting one: take artist installations and musicians and mix it with performance to get the sort of vibrant happenings we, at Amelia, really get excited about! This year, there is an exchange with Milanese artist Pomezia Uno and more of the exciting blend of sculpture, fashion, music and fun for what looks to be really fun shows!
Photography courtesy of Matieres Sensibles
Written by Valerie Pezeron on Monday November 23rd, 2009 7:15 pm
Artists Eugene Perera, viagra dosage Eiko Hondaand Christopher Thomasset up the A.R.T Organization or “Art Casino” in an attempt at initiating reflection on the nature of value of art, pill comodification and risk taking in the art market. Jessica Stokes talks to artist Eugene Perera about “after hours” poker sessions.
Photograph courtesy of A.R.T
Jessica Stokes: Where did you get the idea for this casino?
Eugene Perera: The idea forAlternative Risk Transfercame out of my interest in art and poker. Poker is a game of skill, risk and chance where an experienced player, whilst having no control over the cards they are dealt, is nevertheless able to gain an all important edge through the skilful manipulation of risk in the form of bets. It struck me that this was in some way relevant to my own art practice where I was constantly assessing the risks within a particular course of action and working out what to invest in that action. By investment here I do not necessarily mean economic but time, thought, ideas, effort and skill and so on. As an artist, I wanted to highlight this and ask whether such a way of working which potentially derisks is appropriate to the creative process and whether instead we should be working in such a way that failure is an ever-present possibility. As I began to think about the relevance of poker and how it might illuminate art practice and how artists negotiate the art market, I wondered whether it might be possible to create a work involving art and poker within the context of a wider exhibition. That is the impetus behind this show; it’s a form of ongoing research really.
Image courtesy of A.R.T
JS: What is your background?
EP: I have been creating art for around five years now following a Masters in Art History. Before this, I used to work in media where I set up a number of music and arts radio stations. Working in the media business environment exposed me to constant considerations of risk and as I progressed I noticed how I was better able to assess and manage risk, much like in poker and in art practice. The question now though is not so much how do I minimize risk but how do I explore risk. The exhibition Alternative Risk Transferis an unknown to me and that in itself is inherently risky and my experience cannot fully prepare me for what might happen! That’s interesting to me!
Photograph courtesy of Mark McGowan
JS: Who are the artists that will be taking part?
EP: We have a highly diverse range of artists taking part in the show ranging from the extremely new to the established such as Mark McGowanand Anthony Gross. There is also a strong international strand to the show with Japanese, Taiwanese and US artists alongside a strong London presence. The show encompasses video, sculpture, photography, painting and performance and there are a quite a few interactive gaming works such as the nightly poker games and a 24-hour chess performance created by Patrick Goddard. Many of the participating artists are creating work outside of their normal comfort zones that is commendable in this risk adverse environment. Furthermore, they are willing to stake their work in the nightly poker games in order to better understand how they respond to situations of risk.
JS: Is it important to be aware of the connotations of gambling and the encouragement thereof in today’s climate?
EP: I think it is important to be aware of what one is doing when you’re risking something in a gaming or betting situation. Unaware gambling is potentially harmful and we all know the consequences. With the Alternative Risk Transfer show at The Rag Factory, we are attempting to provoke discussion around what it means when we risk something so I think that has to be a useful contribution.
How about chance, skill and risk-taking in an unusual twist on the debate over the value of art? Give free rein to risky behavior at The Rag Factory16-18 Heneage street, London E1 5LJ. The exhibition is on from the 10th to 13th of December from 12 to 10 pm. Why not come to the preview on the 9th of December from 6 to 9 pm?
All photography of Lily Vanilli goodies by Sally Mumby-Croft.
“So what do you do for Amelia?” a gentleman partygoer asks me. I tell him I’m one of her writers, buycialis 40mg and he nods: “I’m Amelia’s father. I’m making myself useful, pharmacy ” he laughs, tadalafil pointing to the camera around his neck. See, we all want to be part of Amelia’s world, and last Friday many of us were gathered under one roof. Illustrators, writers, bloggers and friends were all there to celebrate the launch of Amelia Gregory’s latest creation – Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration.
123 Bethnal Green Road was already buzzing when I arrived, slightly late due to some last-minute fretting over my hair. I’m usually the wash-n-go type, but after following the steadily building party buzz on Twitter all day I’d started to realise some effort was required as this party was going to be of the colourful kind. Just have a flick through the book and you will see it couldn’t be any other ways, really – ACOFI is a riot of colour, creativity and inspiration.
Naomi Law and myself. Photography by Matt Bramford.
Despite having worked with several of the illustrators present, not knowing who was who made introductions a little tricky. But some were pretty recognisable from their self-drawn portraits, such as Abby Wright, Zarina Liew and Naomi Law.
Michael of AnastasiaDuck and Ellen of the Real Runway.
Antonia Parker, Joana Faria and Abby Wright. Photography by Matt Bramford.
After catching up with fellow Amelia’s Magazine writers Matt Bramford and Sally Mumby-Croft, I finally got to meet Helen Martin, Amelia’s new music editor, who had come from Bristol with her boyfriend.
After running into crafts columnist Hannah Bullivant and her husband, our little group hit the dance floor – enjoying a fantastic mix of music ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Mariah Carey. I had to make do without my boyfriend though, who had to take his coughing home to an early night. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy 6 Day Riot, a new discovery for me, and some excellent dancey tunes from The Pipettes and Will from Mystery Jets.
An open bar served up Adnams beer and Vodka O – generously poured by bar boys and girls with some enviable dancing skills. The vodka was kicking the next morning, and I clearly remembered why I‘d sworn off the potato spirit years earlier. But all well worth it to see in this excellent book and meet the people who made it happen. Well done, Amelia – and thanks so much for having us.
She strutted on stage, more about knees rising high and her umbrella twiddling like a fairy’s shield.I wanted to take in the art work that was Gabby Young. For her outfit was an explosion of neck and hemline pomposity, her boots electric blue and stomping, and her right eye was surrounded by a blossoming flower type creation. Her signature vibrant red hair was piled high with blue and pink buns attached, whilst her face looked as beautiful as a doll’s.
With this visual feast I felt revived from the previous evening’s late night antics at the ACOFI launch party (where Gabby also was), preceded by late night chats with a dear old friend and his girlfriend on the floor of their North London flat. Charlie beside me eating toast, we had spiraled from lively and boisterous to as sleepy as moles. The day had been spent on the Heath, and cushioned with carbohydrates. For the love of Gabby and The Irrepressibles, we had trekked to the utter freezing, shiny, high rise blocked world of the Barbican. And, ah it was a theatrical and stunning evening.
Gabby Young & Other Animals played a mixture of old and new tracks, there were lively jives and ballerinas with cut out megaphones flouncing through the audience. Liberating, FUN and creatively inspiring. We are told that a new song is about someone on stage. It is slow, pretty and meaningful. “I wonder who that’s for” semi-whispered Chaz, “I really like this one”. Me too. It was obvious throughout that Gabby has been classically trained. Her notes range up and down like carefully controlled billy-o. It appears easy for her to produce these notes, and indeed her operatic background serves her folk/jazz genre delightfully. We’re All In This Together brought about suitably pleased expressions and murmurs from the crowd. Its often played slow notes shot up and down my spine, before her voice gently streamed out like a delicate flower opening. It felt like an anthem.
Moving on, The Irrespressibles are theatre and gothic glitz. Wearing an enormous and glittery hat from Philip Treacy, Jamie McDermott is basically DRAMA. As the singer, the composer and the spectacle, McDermott has a knack of being captivating to the point of eye locked awe. And he orchestrated the whole event superbly, his stage presence perfectly matching the flashing lights, and blasting instrumentals.
Illustration of cellist, Nicole Robson by Faye West
The rest of the band both compliment him, but also stand alone as individually beautiful creations. And I mean creations. Each of the nine musicians on stage seemed like a Tim Burton fantasy. Moving in unison and then malfunctioning, like bad robots, they move chaotically about like gothic Toy Story characters. Expressions remain serious and playing, precise and perfect. Each wears beautiful outfits, skimming over bodies with a wink of the eye. See this for a taster of what I mean. It’s INCREDIBLE:
Darkness/light/suspense/breathing/noise/explosion/catwalk – Ooo! Highlights included Nuclear Skies, Knife Song and In Your Eyes. But to be honest the whole set was a triumph. The crowd adored them and the atmosphere was hugely flamboyant and expressively fun. The soaring vocals and dramatic instrument use was just breathtaking. With the emotion of Anthony and The Johnsons, but the Brit extravaganza charm of David Bowie, Jamie McDermott is delicious. With the rest of the band, THE IRREPRESSIBLES are unstoppable.
Written by Helen Martin on Wednesday February 2nd, 2011 4:09 pm
Christopher Raeburn
A designer whose name is never far from any eco fashion list is that of Christopher Raeburn, viagra sale who is famed for his high end, more about innovative and functional fashion created using re-appropriated military fabrics. Sourcing his material from de-commissioned military stock and hot-air balloon canvas among other materials Raeburn both redesigns and manufactures his groundbreaking garments ethically within the UK.
Image courtesy of Rachael Oku
Of his SS10 collection Christopher says: “This season presents a great opportunity to play with colour, page negative space and flowing lines; from its inception I wanted to create an upbeat, fresh and experimental collection.”
With the emphasis on rouching, contrasting geometric panels and colourful taped seams Raeburn utilises laser cutting techniques for the first time introducing repeat patterns of concentric circle cut-outs which are peppered throughout the collection cleverly hidden between panels and layered hoods and sleeves.
Image courtesy of Christopher Raeburn
What is most striking about Raeburn’s new contemporary collection of dresses, ponchos, skirts and macs is how well his colour palette and themes work together with layer, light and silhouette being the main focuses. With the majority of fabric used being transparent it is Raeburn’s bright accents of colour and playful dots that really inject life into the garments, and are reminiscent of jellyfish.
Image courtesy of Christopher Raeburn
Rather excitingly the new collection also features accessories for the first time, with Raeburn fusing woven netting with his trademark parachute fabric and cord to great effect adding to the high impact of this super functional range.
Another exciting designer who we’re predicting big things for next year is the lovely Lu Flux; who has just launched her debut collection after being named ‘London’s newest one to watch’ at Vauxhall Fashion Scout earlier in the year. What sets Lu’s designs apart is that her work is created using salvaged, vintage and organic fabrics, which she cleverly combines with traditional techniques such as knitting, pleating and patchwork.
Image courtesy of Rachael Oku
Lu’s witty and playful SS10 collection titled ‘The Eco Life of Riley’ is inspired by the ‘humble bluetit’ which is cleverly juxtaposed with bold jarring graphics throughout the collection. If developing her own eco brand wasn’t enough of a challenge Lu is also busy working on a project called Soko Kenya, which was conceived over two years ago when she visited the small coastal town of Ukunda in Kenya. The idea behind this project is to work in conjunction with local Kenyan tailors who attend the community owned Ukunda Youth Polytechnic, which offers basic vocational training to local residents at a low cost.
Image courtesy of Rachael Oku
This collaboration will see Soko invest a minimum of 5% gross earnings into the Polytechnic annually in addition to year-round fundraising to help acquire sewing machines and other essential equipment for the students. Additionally Soko are committed to providing support in the design and running of the Polytechnic’s existing tailoring department and syllabus according to international fair-trade and eco production standards.
Image courtesy of Rachael Oku depicting Soko Kenya products
Most importantly both parties are committed to working together to transform the Polytechnic into an eco institution by introducing a rainwater catchment system and working to create solar generated electricity. To find out more about this great project and where to buy Soko Kenya products head to their website.
Image courtesy of Julia Smith
Julia Smith
Another groundbreaking designer who caught our attention was Julia Smith, a designer who has graced the webpages of Amelia’s magazine a few times previously. Julia’s SS10 collection entitled ‘Nurture Me’ explores the idea of mixing beauty with function. Part inspired by the 1930′s and 1940′s, when loose shapes and function were paramount Julia’s collection also references the concept of underwear as outerwear. Created using tactile fabrics such as soy, bamboo and organic cotton and linen Julia cleverly juxtaposes these with recycled polyester which is made from recycled plastic (PET) bottles.
Image courtesy of Julia Smith
What really sets Julia apart is her second line aptly titled ‘Julia Smith Made in Africa’, which supports lives in Ghana through the vision of Mrs. Marian Essel, a highly skilled batik printer from Ghana, West Africa. Having worked for the Global Mamas in Cape Coast, Marian and Julia Smith have now formed a co-operative in the suburbs of Accra, Ghana’s capital city, offering employment opportunities to the struggling community.
Image courtesy of Julia Smith depicting the Made in Africa collection
With Marian using all the proceeds of her work to employ disadvantaged adults as well as sponsoring children so that they can go to school, this is a fantastic initiative which aims to help everyone within the community get the best educational start in life. The ‘Julia Smith Made in Africa’ collection is stocked in Julia’s new flagship store in Marble Arch’s Connaught Village.
Matt and Nat
A new brand to Amelia’s magazine which is fast becoming a firm favourite is that of Matt & Nat, a pioneering vegan luxury accessories label who create animal free products for both men and women. Interestingly (which I’m hoping you’ll agree) Matt & Nat is not a design duo as the name would suggest but is instead founded by Inder Bedi who was challenged almost 20 years ago to forgo animal products for 30 days. Ever since he has made a conscious effort to use recycled and greener materials in his work steering clear of leather, wool and animal by-products.
For SS10 Matt & Nat are continuing where they left off last season with their 21 water bottles campaign which sees all the linings in their handbags and wallets created using 100% recycled plastic, with each accessory using an average of 21 bottles.
With the inspirations for their SS10 collection being biker chic and glam rock, each bag has been embellished differently with everything from studs to zip details. Made primarily from eel skin (incidentally the softest type of leather I have ever felt,) the colour palette of fiery scarlet, intense blue and blush pink bring a vintage feel to the pieces.
Henrietta Ludgate
A great designer who has already received quite a bit of media attention in 2009 is Henrietta Ludgate, who won the Ethical Fashion Forum ‘Fashion Innovation Award’ earlier in the year. Creating sustainable and sculptural garments from her studio in the remote Highlands of Scotland, Henrietta stays close to her Scotch roots by working primarily with Scottish linen.
With a brand ethos to support both the Scottish and British textile industry as a whole, all fabrics are sourced from within the British Isles with all pieces produced locally.
A champion of slow fashion, Henrietta’s minimalist silhouette remains hauntingly elegant and distinctive. For inspiration Henrietta often looks to Elsa Schiaparelli, and her vision of fashion as a type of architecture, and beliefs that clothing should be ‘closely connected to the frame of the body’.
With the recent opening of a swanky new showroom in London’s Covent Garden, things are looking bright for 2010. Stay tuned for the second instalment tomorrow… Image courtesy of Christopher Raeburn
Christopher Raeburn
A designer whose name is never far from any eco fashion list is that of Christopher Raeburn, cure who is famed for his high end, innovative and functional fashion created using re-appropriated military fabrics. Sourcing his material from de-commissioned military stock and hot-air balloon canvas among other materials Raeburn both redesigns and manufactures his groundbreaking garments ethically within the UK.
Image courtesy of Rachael Oku
Of his SS10 collection Christopher says: “This season presents a great opportunity to play with colour, negative space and flowing lines; from its inception I wanted to create an upbeat, fresh and experimental collection.”
With the emphasis on rouching, contrasting geometric panels and colourful taped seams Raeburn utilises laser cutting techniques for the first time introducing repeat patterns of concentric circle cut-outs which are peppered throughout the collection cleverly hidden between panels and layered hoods and sleeves.
Image courtesy of Christopher Raeburn
What is most striking about Raeburn’s new contemporary collection of dresses, ponchos, skirts and macs is how well his colour palette and themes work together with layer, light and silhouette being the main focuses. With the majority of fabric used being transparent it is Raeburn’s bright accents of colour and playful dots that really inject life into the garments, and are reminiscent of jellyfish.
Image courtesy of Christopher Raeburn
Rather excitingly the new collection also features accessories for the first time, with Raeburn fusing woven netting with his trademark parachute fabric and cord to great effect adding to the high impact of this super functional range.
Another exciting designer who we’re predicting big things for next year is the lovely Lu Flux; who has just launched her debut collection after being named ‘London’s newest one to watch’ at Vauxhall Fashion Scout earlier in the year. What sets Lu’s designs apart is that her work is created using salvaged, vintage and organic fabrics, which she cleverly combines with traditional techniques such as knitting, pleating and patchwork.
Image courtesy of Rachael Oku
Lu’s witty and playful SS10 collection titled ‘The Eco Life of Riley’ is inspired by the ‘humble bluetit’ which is cleverly juxtaposed with bold jarring graphics throughout the collection. If developing her own eco brand wasn’t enough of a challenge Lu is also busy working on a project called Soko Kenya, which was conceived over two years ago when she visited the small coastal town of Ukunda in Kenya. The idea behind this project is to work in conjunction with local Kenyan tailors who attend the community owned Ukunda Youth Polytechnic, which offers basic vocational training to local residents at a low cost.
Image courtesy of Rachael Oku
This collaboration will see Soko invest a minimum of 5% gross earnings into the Polytechnic annually in addition to year-round fundraising to help acquire sewing machines and other essential equipment for the students. Additionally Soko are committed to providing support in the design and running of the Polytechnic’s existing tailoring department and syllabus according to international fair-trade and eco production standards.
Image courtesy of Rachael Oku depicting Soko Kenya products
Most importantly both parties are committed to working together to transform the Polytechnic into an eco institution by introducing a rainwater catchment system and working to create solar generated electricity. To find out more about this great project and where to buy Soko Kenya products head to their website.
Image courtesy of Julia Smith
Julia Smith
Another groundbreaking designer who caught our attention was Julia Smith, a designer who has graced the webpages of Amelia’s magazine a few times previously. Julia’s SS10 collection entitled ‘Nurture Me’ explores the idea of mixing beauty with function. Part inspired by the 1930′s and 1940′s, when loose shapes and function were paramount Julia’s collection also references the concept of underwear as outerwear. Created using tactile fabrics such as soy, bamboo and organic cotton and linen Julia cleverly juxtaposes these with recycled polyester which is made from recycled plastic (PET) bottles.
Image courtesy of Julia Smith
What really sets Julia apart is her second line aptly titled ‘Julia Smith Made in Africa’, which supports lives in Ghana through the vision of Mrs. Marian Essel, a highly skilled batik printer from Ghana, West Africa. Having worked for the Global Mamas in Cape Coast, Marian and Julia Smith have now formed a co-operative in the suburbs of Accra, Ghana’s capital city, offering employment opportunities to the struggling community.
Image courtesy of Julia Smith depicting the Made in Africa collection
With Marian using all the proceeds of her work to employ disadvantaged adults as well as sponsoring children so that they can go to school, this is a fantastic initiative which aims to help everyone within the community get the best educational start in life. The ‘Julia Smith Made in Africa’ collection is stocked in Julia’s new flagship store in Marble Arch’s Connaught Village.
A new brand to Amelia’s magazine which is fast becoming a firm favourite is that of Matt & Nat, a pioneering vegan luxury accessories label who create animal free products for both men and women. Interestingly (which I’m hoping you’ll agree) Matt & Nat is not a design duo as the name would suggest but is instead founded by Inder Bedi who was challenged almost 20 years ago to forgo animal products for 30 days. Ever since he has made a conscious effort to use recycled and greener materials in his work steering clear of leather, wool and animal by-products.
Image courtesy of Matt and Nat
For SS10 Matt & Nat are continuing where they left off last season with their 21 water bottles campaign which sees all the linings in their handbags and wallets created using 100% recycled plastic, with each accessory using an average of 21 bottles.
Image courtesy of Matt and Nat
With the inspirations for their SS10 collection being biker chic and glam rock, each bag has been embellished differently with everything from studs to zip details. Made primarily from eel skin (incidentally the softest type of leather I have ever felt,) the colour palette of fiery scarlet, intense blue and blush pink bring a vintage feel to the pieces.
Henrietta Ludgate
A great designer who has already received quite a bit of media attention in 2009 is Henrietta Ludgate, who won the Ethical Fashion Forum ‘Fashion Innovation Award’ earlier in the year. Creating sustainable and sculptural garments from her studio in the remote Highlands of Scotland, Henrietta stays close to her Scotch roots by working primarily with Scottish linen.
Image courtesy of Henrietta Ludgate
With a brand ethos to support both the Scottish and British textile industry as a whole, all fabrics are sourced from within the British Isles with all pieces produced locally.
A champion of slow fashion, Henrietta’s minimalist silhouette remains hauntingly elegant and distinctive. For inspiration Henrietta often looks to Elsa Schiaparelli, and her vision of fashion as a type of architecture, and beliefs that clothing should be ‘closely connected to the frame of the body’.
Image courtesy of Henrietta Ludgate
With the recent opening of a swanky new showroom in London’s Covent Garden, things are looking bright for 2010. Stay tuned for the second instalment tomorrow…
French electro ensemble DAT Politics are coming to little old London town to headline the fourth installment of Mofofest this month. Taking place December 12th, treatMy Tiger Timing and Bright Light Bright Light are also part of the jam packed line up. Ahead of this rare UK performance from the group, cheapest Politicians Claude and Gaëtan talked to Amelia’s about how their material comes together, this web Mofofest and the perfect DAT Politics party.
France seems to produce the crème de la crème of electro acts, why is this? Is there something in the water?
G: There is definitely a strong connection between electronic music and pop culture in France. It seems to be a historic thing, for at least fifty years the French electronic artists have produced dance music influenced by sound research and pop. Now, it’s a kind of collective spirit, the number of electro acts is massive but the best ones have a specific sound.
DAT Politics have been established for 10 years now, what have been the highlights of your decade in the industry?
G: Maybe our “Plugs Plus” album because it was a decisive step in our career. We switched from instrumental music to electro pop songs with lyrics, verses and a chorus. This choice gave us a lot of freedom and possibilities; it was like opening a new toolbox and breaking the walls in the house. Something very fresh, and the best part is that we’re still working on it!
What new acts excite you?
G: Not that new, but some tracks from Diplo with Rye Rye or Major Lazer are pretty amazing in the fucked up dance music register.
I’m really interested as to how your songs come together? They seem like they are made in the dark of night? I can’t imagine you work together during the day?
G: Actually, more like late afternoon with the curtains drawn and a pink neon light on.
C: When we decide to work on a new album we meet everyday for several weeks. We build up some tracks together. One comes with an idea for the beats for instance, one the synth lines, one the samples or the vocals. Gaëtan and I write the lyrics. Then we are just the 3 of us in front of the computer trying to assemble each piece. At some point each of us keeps the demo version of the tracks to listen to them and we meet again with new ideas and new material to finish. The process will be the same till we agreed on the final version of the track.
What is the most unusual thing that has been used on a track?
G: One time, we used a coffee grinder for a NWA remix, also a talking bird which made some strange sounds. We can use any kind of unusual sources to set a specific atmosphere. It’s like the cherry on the cake but the main part of the track is done with classic electronics like synths and beats.
You obviously use computers a lot, Are you a PC or a Mac?
C: At the beginning, the project was based on laptops’ jamming so several laptops have been through our hands. We’ve been using both. They have the same abilities nowadays. But we’re mainly using Mac which are more stable.
When most people are on computers they get distracted by Facebook, does this happen to you?!
C: Of course, those social networks are easy to get addicted to, but we try to adjust and also concentrate on our activities.
The Artwork/Graphics/Visual side of things are important to you? Where does this come from?
C: We’ve been studying in art school, we are movie freaks, and read a lot of comics as well. Everything is potentially an influence. Our artistic universe is sonic and visual at the same time. It’s hard to imagine one without the other. Since the beginning, we design our own covers, it’s like we know better what fits to our sound, a kind of D.I.Y tradition: have fun with some parallel media like photography, drawings, videos…
So you come to London for Mofofest…
C: It ‘s always good to play in London! And we know the girls from Mofofest, their parties are always great !! People always look so trendy! I like that a lot! The London crowd is often very sexy!!
Anything particularly special planned?
C: We’re excited to play “Mad Kit” for the first time in London, we played it many times everywhere else, It went very well, so we expect a lot of positive energy!
Are you excited for the rest of the line up?
C:Yes! always good to discover new bands/acts.
People should defiantly wear their dancing shoes when they come to see you, yes?
C: Of course ! Ballet shoes, sneakers, high heels, moonboots any outfits/shoes they are comfortable in !!
How do you prepare for live shows?
C: We have a studio where we rehearse all together till we find the good compromise between the tracks on the album and how we should perform them live.
G: It’s important to set the gear in a space with a real PA and play loud to see how the things are gonna work for the audience during the show.
Where on earth do you find energy for this type of performance?!
C: We are working out a bit. But I guess that the audience is very important too. It really pulls you up! That’s a bit cliché but it’s so nice to see people react to your music!
I can imagine it is not easy to unwind after a live show?
C: That’s a weird feeling because before the show it’s hard to relax, and it’s difficult to appreciate what’s going on… Then we go on and when the show is over and went well, we are usually really high, and ready to party!!
Now for some quick fire party themed questions to find out what a DAT Politics party would be like… Party song?
C: “Rectangle” from Jacno
Party food?
C: Ceviche
Party city?
C: Berlin / Paris/ Buenos Aires/ London/ Tokyo….
Party game?
C: Hide and Seek
Party drink?
C: Champagne
Party trick?
G: Oddibil (anti-hangover)
Party hat?
C: No hat
Party partner?
C: A good looking and funny young man
Party pants?
C: Shinny tights and high heels boots
Party like a celebrity?
G: I wanna party like Peter Sellers.
You can party with DAT Politics this Saturday at Bardens Boudoir, 38 Stoke Newington Road, Dalston, 8pm – 4am. Click here for more details
Written by Rebecca Milne on Thursday December 10th, 2009 3:26 pm
Here at Amelia’s Magazine HQ this week we are all feeling rather revitalised, thissalve with the prospect of spring safely in our sights and a stomach full of Easter eggs we thought what better time to share our energized disposition with you are faithful readers, and boy do I have a treat in store for you fashionista’s today.
It comes in the form of exciting new Aussie talent Fashion Designer Josh Goot, heralded as “modernisms new messiah” it’s enough to get anyone in the fashion sphere jumping up and down excitedly in their Chanel heels. Goot first catapulted his way into the fashion sphere in 2005 after winning Young Designer of the Year Award in Sydney, but only made his debut on the London fashion circuit at this years London Fashion Week with his S/S 09 collection
Goot studied Media Art and Production at Sydney’s University of Technology where he graduated in 1999. This background has shaped his distinctive approach to fashion design, renowned for his use of print and his minimalist aesthetic Goot has injected a healthy dose of artistic expression onto the catwalk.
Goots A/W 09 collection did not fail to get our taste buds flowing, paying homage to the natural world it’s an explosion of texture and colour. Heavily inspired by geology the collection focuses on organic lines and silhouettes.
Goot’s exquisite tailoring techniques come to the forefront in his A/W 09 collection. Enthused by the erosive textural quality of rock Goot uses angular tailoring with reverse contour lines to mimic the harsh lines that occur in sedimentary rocks. This masculine tailoring is then softened by his subdued use of colour; the palette is a hazy of distilled greys that merge with soft violets, yellows and blues to create quixotic and distinctly feminine pieces. His modernist aesthetic creates a look that is both functional yet expressive, with styles ranging from tailored jackets, panelled shirts to asymmetric tops and body con suits.
The most enthralling element to the A/ W collection has to be Goots Marble effect series. Audiences were mesmerised by the haze of colour gliding down the catwalk. To me it conjures old childhood memories of marbling from art class. I remember excitedly leaning over a tank of water mixing oil inks and eagerly gliding my stick through the water to create patterns. I was mesmerised by the beautiful hues merging together to create such vivid canvases of colour. Goot encapsulates this perfectly in his prints, which were created from large-scale digitally printed water coloured pieces.
After such awe inspiring pieces in his A/W collection I am eager to inspect what else Josh Goot has tucked up his sleeve. With stores such as Browns Focus in London and Marie Luisa in Paris already stocking his collections I have no doubt Goot is set to take the fashion sphere by storm!
Lewes’ quaint, story cobbled streets and Dickensian finery belie the town’s rebel status and heritage. Thomas Paine, ask 18th century philosopher and all round radical was a local while the annual bonfire festivities are the kind of Pagan perverse, politically loaded Wickerman shindigs that grab national newspaper headlines. Situated slap bang in the life-affirming environs of the Sussex Downs and home to Harvey’s ale, it’s easy to see why Lewes is something of a hippy haven – genteel on the outside, pretty bizarre on deeper investigation. The perfect host to the neo-psychedelic revolution. Or a place where a bunch of bearded dudes get to hang out and discuss obscure Nuggets. Either way, I was home.
The happening unfolded in the All Saints Centre, a church where, most appropriately, Pink Floyd played in 1966. Heightening the sense of lysergic lasciviousness that characterised the night was the mind mulching lightshow provided by locally sourced hero, Innerstings. Such visual freak-ery was offset perfectly by the evening’s DJs who, for the most part, dealt in psychedelic music of the guitar based variety. No bad thing, especially if the crate digger behind the decks is Richard Norris, whose set seemingly unearthed the kind of gems Lenny Kaye would kick himself for missing. As was the desired effect, this all blended perfectly with the live performances which served to give the evening a modernist sheen and kick several shades of shit out of any sense of nostalgia that pervaded. Take, for example, The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers, whose singer resembled Jerry Garcia but whose band kicked up a beautifully godless stoner-rock racket. (Un)natural heirs to Rocky Erickson’s throne perhaps, they tore their way through an acid-spanked set of psychedelic garage punk and sounded far bigger than you’d expect from three blokes from South London.
Having obliterated the dance floor of rug cutting psychedelic Mods, it was left to headliners, The Yellow Moon Band, to restore some kind consensual good will. This was entirely apt as the Yellow Moon Band’s founders are Jo and Danny, hirsute curators of the Greenman Festival. Consummate professionals to a hilt, they play note for note the majority of their recent (and peculiarly danceable) debut album, Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The World. On paper, their Steeleye Span meets Slayer schtick looks decidedly unappealing but, bathed in a wash of kaleidoscopic lights and played out with merciless efficiency the Yellow Moon Band are a strangely alluring, downright compelling and very psychedelic experience. Just ask the mass of people throwing shapes and gyrating down the front. Pouring out into the graveyard post show, chatting with likeminded souls and new friends, it seemed Lewes had given birth to a new spring time institution, one worthy enough of taking its place next to the other grand traditions of this beguiling and beautiful town.
The Otesha Project team are an ambitious lot. They want to tackle climate change, more about poverty, cheap injustice, and educate thousands of young people on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Their weapon of action? The humble bicycle. You heard me! But the folks behind Otesha are a clever and forward thinking bunch. They can achieve more with a bicycle and a deceptively simple mission statement then most global corporations could possibly dream of.
Back in 2003, the team that would go onto create the Otesha Project in Canada had recently returned from working in Kenya. Rather than being inspired by life in Africa, Jocelyn Land – Murphy and Jessica Lax were dismayed to find vast inequalities between the North Americans and the Kenyans. The extent of the unfair trading, irresponsible over consumption and labour exploitation that they witnessed left a bitter taste in their mouth but equally seemed too insurmountable a problem for two people to tackle. The feeling of powerlessness acted as a catalyst for their own personal change. On return to Canada they began to alter their lifestyles to reflect the change that they wanted to see in the world. And thus began the Otesha way of being. It’s a beautifully uncomplicated concept, and practically the only one that we can adhere to when all of the world’s problems seem too huge to tackle – that change can occur on the most massive scale by simply altering your own life – in other words, be the change! So this is what they did, and set off through Canada on their bikes, stopping off to make presentations to young people about the importance of social change. Seeing that this was a resounding success, and that they made over 250 presentations to more than 12,00 young people, Otesha was ready for more!
This brings us to the Otesha Project UK, which promotes social change in a number of ways. The most well known way is through their cycle tours. I met with some of the team behind Otesha UK; Liz McDowell and Hanna Thomas recently, and they filled me in on these expeditions. Needless to say, I am not much of a cyclist, but even I was segmenting off part of my summer for the following year to join the next wave of cycle tours. So, for any of you that are interested in spending your summer doing something slightly different to the status quo, this is how it works. A team of volunteers (like yourself, or me after I have done a couple more spinning classes) cycle around a particular part of Britain for around 6 weeks; last year the venues included Cornwall and Wales; this year’s venues are East Anglia, a section of Scotland, and the coast of Wales. Whilst on the travels, the team stop off to speak at schools and communities about environmental and social sustainability. They don’t just speak; plays and workshops are also performed. Whilst on the road, the team record their experiences on journals and video recorders.
There is a bit of a travelling circus element to it; and Liz and Hanna told me that the team clearly love what they are doing. Equally as important – the response from the groups that they speak to is always overwhelming. Many of the group return year after year; Otesha are good to their teams! As well as stopping off at schools, the team also have excursions organised for them. In Wales they get a couple of learning days at the Centre for Alternative Technology, as well as a visit to a permaculture farm. Those who head over to East Anglia get a chance to stay in a tipi at a Roman archaeological site. While this is all good fun, the skills that the team take away with them are invaluable. Getting a head start in public speaking, learning to work alongside and live with a large team of people – and maintain a great relationship with them – are attributes that can be taken anywhere.
When they are not cycling around Britain, The Otesha Project are working with groups of young people over longer periods of time to help create change in their local community. They work from the Otesha Handbook, which highlights issues such as Food, Money, Fashion, Energy, Trade and Transport. Last summer, Otesha worked with students in Tower Hamlets Summer University, who chose to do a project about food; specifically the issues of seasonable and organic food. The students approached local cafes, shops and markets to discover who was using organic, fairtrade food, and wrote to their MP’s asking that organic food be subsidised. This culminated with the students creating a Seasonal Summer Feast for their friends and family, which by all accounts was a great success.
Other projects have included Getting Ethical About Fashion, held at the Princes Trust XL Club in Barnet, where students discussed issues in fashion that are often swept under the carpets, such as sweatshops, child labour, and the chemicals put in clothes. My favourite sounding workshop was the Dirty Weekend held at Goldsmith’s EnviroClub Community Gardens. Ok, so it was not that kind of dirty weekend, and it involved plans for creating a garden for the local residents and students, but at least the students still got their hands dirty!
The Otesha Project like to say that they are germinating good things, and it does seem that way. Everything that they do is for the benefit of the Earth, and the people who are inhabiting it. If you are interested in working with them, get in touch at: info@otesha.org.uk
After last years’ unforgettable appearances from Bobby Digital, physicianFelix Kubin, onlineGay Against You and Agaskodo Teliverek amongst others, one cannot help but be wracked with anxiety about what they can pull out of the bag for this years’ follow-up Futuresonic Festival. The festival will be taking place between Thurs 14th – Saturday 16th of May, this year.
Taking a glimpse at the line up it promises to be something to rival last years’ festival unequivocally.
Starting off with Mexican electronic pioneer Murcof (& AntiVJ) with Jóhann Jóhannsson, the festival then dips its toe into Hip Hop with the New York collective ‘The Anti-Pop Consortium‘. From this we trawl through some dark and muddy psychedelic rock from Electric Wizard. A real highlight comes in the form of a one off performance from the legendary Philip Glass; playing Etudes and Other Work for Solo piano.
Not to omit an audio assault from Ariel Pink with Marnie Stern and Crystal Antlers. It’s gonna be an absolute monster of a year for the futuresonic team.
“The best, most explosive, most all-encompassing Futuresonic music line-up to date, covering genres as diverse as dubstep, contemporary classical, lo-fi indie, electronica, deep house, math rock, leftfield hip-hop and italo disco.” – The Futuresonic team.
Some of the venues sequestered for the festival include the RNCM, The Deaf Institute and Urbis, where you will see “a celebration of musicianship and a salute to those who perform on the cutting-edge”.
Photo by www.andthewardrobe.co.uk
With oodles of other events going on over the entire weekend including exhibitions, theatre productions and club nights, there’s no excuse to completely miss out, unless you’re in a coma that is.
Written by Simon Edgar Lord on Thursday April 16th, 2009 2:19 pm
