Tate Britain – AmeliasMagazine

Amelia’s Magazine | INSA’s Sh*t Shoes

Well, viagra here’s a treat.

As part of the Chris Ofili exhibition at Tate Britain, the gallery played host to Bring The Noise – a project to encourage emerging artists, musicians and fashion designers to respond to Ofili’s work.

Super stylist, publisher and owner of WAH Nails Sharmadean Reid worked her magic on the fingers of the fashion-conscious, and graffiti artist INSA made, erm, these…

Taking his insipration from Ofili’s work quite literally, believe it or not, these fabulous stilettos are part leather, part… elephant dung. Yeah, you heard me!

I’m not sure they’ll be available in the shops, or if there’s much of a market for this kind of thing, but aren’t they incredible to look at? INSA’s synonymous graphic style is applied to the shoe, with almost delicate beading used as the sole.

Read more about Chris Ofili and the exhibition at Tate Britain here.

Written by Matt Bramford on Friday March 26th, 2010 11:06 am

Categories ,Bring The Noise, ,Chris Ofili, ,Elephant dung, ,INSA, ,Sharmadean Reid, ,Stilettos, ,Tate Britain

Amelia’s Magazine | Smash the Piggy Piñata at the Annual International Banking Conference

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network
Photography by Amelia Gregory.

This morning I made an especially early start so that I could take a whack at a ‘piggy piñata’ outside the Annual International Banking Conference held in Threadneedle Street. Sometimes I think that I live just a little bit too close to the axis of financial evil that is the City of London, viagra buy but it sure makes it handy to get along to protests.

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network

In collaboration with the UK Tar Sands Network, Climate Camp London decided it would be a good idea to swing by this conference – attended by RBS head honchos Stephen Hester and Gordon Nixon – as a preclude to the main national Climate Camp, to be held somewhere near the headquarters of RBS outside Edinburgh in Scotland this summer. You probably don’t need me to tell you that RBS was bailed out by the tax payer and is now 83% owned by us – yet the bank continues to invest in the Alberta tar sands, the most destructive fossil fuel process ever – as well as funding UK based fossil fuel extraction projects such as open cast coal mines. Yes, open cast coal mines really are reopening up and down our countryside, ruining not only the landscape but the health and happiness of locals: except in the 21st century huge diggers are used to slash open the landscape, instead of sending men down into the pits. And we have no say in this. Now don’t that feel a little unfair? For this reason RBS is the main target for Climate Camp actions this year and especially at our annual summer camp between 19th-25th August.

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network

“Have a bash at the bankers,” we offered passers by as we swung at the rather impressive treasure box/piggy piñata with a not-nearly-as-resilient green plastic cricket bat. Many bemused bankers snapped up a copy of our Never Mind the Bankers paper, cunningly sold to them as a “Financial Times supplement” or “RBS newspaper” as they entered the venue, but the piñata piggy – despite the loss of it’s legs and head – was keen to hold onto it’s contents till the end. Will the RBS bankers keep flinging (our) dosh at fossil fuels extraction? Will they? Finally we were showered with… a batch of Oyal Bank of Scotland bank notes.

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network

But this was just a warm up. Will you be joining us in August? Right now local groups up and down the country are arranging travel up to Scotland, so do find yours and get involved. If you’re based in London and would like to find out more about how to get involved in Climate Camp here you can attend a Welcome to Climate Camp session this weekend. Join the Facebook event here.

Piggy Pinata RBS UK Tar Sands Network

You can watch my qik video of the piggy bashing here and read more about the open cast coal mine at Merthyr Tydfil here – site of the Climate Camp Cymru last year. Find lots more about the tar sands all over my website… and check out the other amazing action that happened today… when activists from Liberate Tate paid a visit to the BP sponsored British Museum.

…which followed another Liberate Tate action at Tate Britain a few weeks ago…

Things be hotting up out there… don’t get left behind.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday July 13th, 2010 5:31 pm

Categories ,Annual International Banking Conference, ,BP, ,British Museum, ,City of London, ,Climate Camp, ,Climate Camp Cymru, ,coal, ,edinburgh, ,Financial Times, ,Fossil Fuels, ,Liberate Tate, ,Never Mind the Bankers, ,oil, ,Piggy Piñata, ,RBS, ,Tar Sands, ,Tate Britain, ,Threadneedle Street, ,UK Tar Sands Network

Amelia’s Magazine | Turner & the Masters – should have formed a supergroup

Jay-Z, price Coldplay and Girls Aloud in concert – that’s the closest analogy in recent times to the new Turner and the Masters exhibition at Tate Britain. There are so many greats in this revealing show that JMW Turner sometimes comes off the worst in the fistfights between complementary pictures hung side-by-side. Bursting with Rembrandts, viagra 40mg Canalettos and Titians, it gives a strong impression of how Turner felt in the world of art: in fierce competition with literally everyone who ever held a paintbrush.

It’s astounding from a modern perspective obsessed with originality to see how similar Turner’s works are in terms of style and composition to those of artists he admired. The Turner of this exhibition is constantly checking on what the person next to him is doing and trying to outdo them.

Turner was totally engaged with the artists who preceded him and those who were his contemporaries. An anecdote that reflects the artist’s temperament is that of the 1832 Royal Academy exhibition: during the “varnishing” time before the show opened to the public, Turner saw Constable’s riotous work “Opening of Waterloo Bridge” (above), which surges with colour, including bold reds. Turner went to his painting “Helvoetsluys” (below), a cool seascape – and added a tiny red buoy. Constable, now in possession of a painting that looked overblown in comparison, complained that “Turner has been here and fired a gun”.

The style of other artists seems utterly up for grabs to Turner. His most famous paintings are those of boats and he was deeply influenced by the painters Jacob van Ruisdael and William van de Velde the Younger, whose “A Rising Gale” (above) is the mirror image of Turner’s “Dutch Boats in a Gale”, though Turner’s work is a moodier, more threatening piece. It is in these scenes of the sea that Turner finds his best-loved topic, but he experimented in what seems like every other niche to get there. His effort to portray rural life in the style of Nicola Tournier falls a little flat and his suggestive style finds a more sympathetic subject in the beauty of nature than in the details of a busy Venetian scene, as shown in a work overpowered by its companion Canaletto.

Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery and although Turner’s antics come across as potentially rather aggravating to other artists, who he copies with the express intent of bettering, he clearly holds those he challenges in high regard. Knowing a little about his relatively humble background, the self-promotion starts to seem like an effort to belong to the establishment art scene of the time, as well as being in the tradition of honing one’s craft by homage. This approach is still in currency: the Arctic Monkeys started out as a Libertines cover band so perhaps things haven’t changed that much after all.

Turner clearly wanted to be considered in the canon of great artists and that wasn’t possible without entering through the doors of the Academy and working in the Grand Style they had designated the high status method of the time. However, he showed just as much interest in the small-scale works of continental artists, perhaps because of their commercial nature: they were more suited for people’s homes and so presumably sold more like hot-cakes than canvases several metres high and wide.

Even among the starry lineup of fellow painters, Turner’s talent shines. Before he hits his stride, the efforts are hit and miss but among them are jewels, which he rustles up from oils, watercolours and ink. The Turner voice is encapsulated by the raging water of “Snowstorm” (above): a swirl of foam, shadow and the suggested sails of a boat. Light and dark and the sense of natural power are more important than seeing the face of the sailor at the helm. This was my favourite work of the show because it is entirely Turner but doesn’t trample on Ruisdael or any other artist. It’s confident in itself – at last! – and movingly beautiful; it reminded me that there is a lot to learn at this exhibition about Turner the man, but also plenty to remind about Turner the artist.

Written by Satu Fox on Wednesday September 23rd, 2009 5:32 pm

Categories ,Canaletto, ,painting, ,rembrandt, ,Ruisdael, ,Tate Britain, ,Tournier, ,Turner and the masters

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

Jared Schiller with David Byrne

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

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

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

Jared Schiller with Jeff Koons

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

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

Jared Schiller photograph courtesy of Simon Williams/O Production

What Jared likes:

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

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

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

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

Music: Currently the new Four Tet album.

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

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

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

Written by Jared Schiller on Monday February 1st, 2010 1:40 pm

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

Amelia’s Magazine | My struggles with the Turner Prize 2009

I must confess, remedy I came with preconceptions: the Turner Prize’s reputation for “challenging” art that leaves much of the public baffled, there precedes it.

Your intrepid reporters are me, Satu, Art Editor of Amelia’s Magazine, who likes ceramics and the British Museum; and my much more knowledgable advisor Sally, our Fashion Editor, a graduate of Goldsmith’s fine art and art history course. Sally has been to the exhibition many times, while I have never felt much interest, mainly because of the often negative coverage. I like things that are beautifully made rather than conceptually challenging and so there are a few holes in the jumper of my arts understanding.

work_skaer_chisenhale2

According to Sally, the Turner Prize space at Tate Britain has sometimes felt cluttered, more like the dusty archives of each artist’s endeavour than a well-culled selection of their best. This year’s exhibition does away with the volume in favour of carefully chosen pieces, sometimes very few and sometimes more, that work together to reveal each person’s themes and motivations.

The four artists seem incredibly different. On first entering you find Lucy Skaer’s work revolving around found objects, the skeletons of whales and the material coal dust. Large prints made from a dismantled chair form a sort of language, with punctuation but no recognisable letters. The three-dimensional works include a real whale skeleton, borrowed from a museum, which is rather frustratingly concealed behind white panels. I liked the look of Skaer’s work – it was all black and white, bold shapes – but I didn’t take much away from it. Nothing was especially beautifully made or memorable visually.

In sharp contrast, the dedication and care put into Richard Wright’s painting could not have been more evident. A large-scale painting done in an almost medieval decorative style, the work will be painted over once the exhibition ends and so feels like it exists purely for its own sake, and for the beauty of making something with human hands for human enjoyment. This is the sort of thing I love! I could imagine the artist up on a scaffold, creating first the cartoon by dusting a paper stencil with black powder, then carefully going over each tiny line with gold paint. This work makes the most of its context, the blank white room.

enrico david turner prize

Enrico David’s sculpture plumbs some darker depths, with malevolent human faces appearing to be trapped on strange over-sized toys, a distinctly adult version of the terrifying toy that comes to life. Noface from Spirited Away, the tall black ghost with the white face, makes a cameo in the uncanny resemblance to him by a surreal cloth model whose extended arms drape over boards and stacks of boxes, making a physical link between portraits of strange characters with impossible bodies: a torso placed on backwards legs for example. There is a strong sense of a murky underworld but again I felt that the poor physical quality of the objects made them feel tacky and reduced the impact of the visual concepts.

My strong feeling that care should go into works of art faced its strongest challenge in the room demonstrating Roger Hiorns’ work. There were sculptures that appeared to be made of cast plastic, which I learned from the curator were impregnated with cow brain matter. The most eye-catching piece in the room (excluding his stunning “Seizure”, above, a council flat filled with copper sulphate crystals) is the ionised airplane engine, whose powdered remains have been dumped in the middle of the room. That word “dumped” is used advisedly: there was some debate between Sally and I over whether the amount of care taken over the spreading of the ashes was vital or not important.

The care that goes into the composition of art is very important to me. It’s not clear despite investigation, whether the beautiful landscape created by Hiorn’s ionised metals is intentional or arbitrary. Ionising an aircraft engine is not a quick and easy process: does it really matter whether he carefully laid out each line of powder according to a plan, knowing we would be looking? Arbitrariness is apparently an important part of his work with chemical processes – the outcome is uncertain and intended to derail the confidence we modern folk have in technology and the physical world around us. The work certainly started debate and that’s what we’re after. Maybe I need to get over my need for art to be neat around the edges and allow it to be messy, tacky, cheap and nasty if it needs to be.

I’ll make no predictions for the winner, although I think that Roger Hiorns is streets ahead in terms of thoughtfulness and confidence; his work is original but grounded in the natural world. It would be Richard Wright’s work I would have in my fantasy future house though: beautiful, unique and then gone with a stroke of white paint.

Written by Satu Fox on Tuesday October 13th, 2009 5:22 pm

Categories ,Enrico David, ,Lucy Skaer, ,Richard Wright, ,Roger Hiorns, ,Tate Britain, ,Turner Prize 2009

Amelia’s Magazine | Five things you might not know about Chris Ofili

Sparky Deathcap is a twenty-something musician and artist from Cheshire, sildenafil whose wry tales of love and loss are in turns hilarious and heartwrenching. You may have caught him recently supporting the likes of Los Campesinos! and Hot Club de Paris.

On songs like “Berlin Syndrome”, case guitars and handclaps loop and whirl around lyrics like, recipe “Since then you just make cameos when I’m asleep/you’re the William Shatner of this elite genre of women that I have loved and lost,” creating a lo-fi landscape one that is simultaneously bleak and full of warmth. At times the songs are reminiscent of early Smog, when Bill Callahan wrote songs like he had a sense of humour and sometimes felt a bit awkward. As well as the recent Tear Jerky EP (available here) he maintains a brilliant cartoon blog at his website.

It’s a busy year for Sparky, off on a European tour as we speak, but I managed to send a few emails back and forth about comic books, rock operas and the Wonder Years.

So, you’re on tour with Los Campesinos! right now, how’s that going?

It has been really fun, it’s an absolute privilege to tour with my friends Los Campesinos! and the supports, Islet and Swanton Bombs, are two outrageously good bands. It was my birthday the other day coinciding with our Aberdeen date and the crowd sang happy birthday to me which was a really touching moment.

Sparky Deathcap presumably isn’t your real name – is it a sort of onstage personal that allows you to unleash your inner diva, like Beyonce Knowles’ Sasha Fierce?

I originally chose it something like 5 years ago when I started doing the one man and a guitar thing live because I felt like it would be easier to play if I could invent a persona. Now, however, there isn’t really a great separation between Sparky Deathcap and me, except for when I remember some of the crap, depressing gigs I used to do and I think about younger Sparky as this sort of beleaguered little brother or something and how excited he’d be by the exciting things I’m getting to do at the moment. Crikey, my mind is like Fellini directing The Wonder Years. Edited by Lassie.

When you play live you have drawings projected behind you, do you think you might ever make a whole comic book, is that something you’d be interested in?

Oh I have grand, grand plans for comic books. I’m working on a little comics booklet for my album and an illustrated valentines rock opera for next year. I’m also trying to resurrect my weekly comic strip for my new blog. The trouble is that comics are incredibly labour intensive. Chris Ware pointed out once that unlike writing a novel, comics don’t allow any sort of natural flow to occur as every page has to be planned out as a whole and so the panels within in it are predestined. I’d love to create a big Clowesian comic book one day, but for now I have to concentrate upon producing small, gimmicky things to “build my profile”… urggggghhhh, the modern world… adulthood…

You mentioned your rock opera there, what does that involve?

That was something I wrote for a ukulele festival in Manchester last year on Valentine’s Day. I was wrongly under the impression that we had to perform the whole thing on ukulele and didn’t really have any ukulele songs so I set about writing a sort of musical/rock opera about an organ transplant van driver finding love whilst snowbound in a rural town. I drew some illustrations for my old overhead projector as well. I hope to turn it into a special edition record and book for next year’s Valentine’s Day.

Musically, who would you call your biggest influences? You get compared to Jeffrey Lewis a lot, right? But that seems like a pretty easy comparison for anyone who sings and draws…

I have an awful lot of respect, naturally, for Jeffrey Lewis, and he has obviously influenced some aspects of my live show, even if it is in trying to steer away from his territory as much as I possibly can. I suppose the bands I have revered the most over the years are The Beach Boys, Pavement, Smog, Silver Jews, Magnetic Fields and Why?, but increasingly I’m becoming very interested in Steve Reich and Bill Evans. In terms of my artwork I’m very heavily influenced by Archer Prewitt, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine and Marcel Dzama. Archer Prewitt is another artist/musician; he plays in the The Sea And Cake and under his own name whilst also drawing the incomparable Sof’ Boy comics.

So, after this tour, what’s next for Sparky Deathcap?

Next up: more touring with Los Camp. I’m trying to perfect my world-weary, “oh, touring is such a drag,” but in truth it’s the most fun I’ve ever had. We have European and US tours to come which will be really amazing. In between I’m working hard on writing and recording my album, which is really very exciting.

Sparky Deathcap is a twenty-something musician and artist from Cheshire, viagra dosage whose wry tales of love and loss are in turns hilarious and heartwrenching. You may have caught him recently supporting the likes of Los Campesinos! and Hot Club de Paris.

On songs like “Berlin Syndrome”, generic guitars and handclaps loop and whirl around lyrics like, “Since then you just make cameos when I’m asleep/you’re the William Shatner of this elite genre of women that I have loved and lost,” creating a lo-fi landscape one that is simultaneously bleak and full of warmth. At times the songs are reminiscent of early Smog, when Bill Callahan wrote songs like he had a sense of humour and sometimes felt a bit awkward. As well as the recent Tear Jerky EP (available here) he maintains a brilliant cartoon blog at his website.

It’s a busy year for Sparky, off on a European tour as we speak, but I managed to send a few emails back and forth about comic books, rock operas and the Wonder Years.

So, you’re on tour with Los Campesinos! right now, how’s that going?

Sparky Deathcap presumably isn’t your real name – is it a sort of onstage personal that allows you to unleash your inner diva, like Beyonce Knowles’ Sasha Fierce?

When you play live you have drawings projected behind you, do you think you might ever make a whole comic book, is that something you’d be interested in?

You mentioned your rock opera there, what does that involve?

Musically, who would you call your biggest influences? You get compared to Jeffrey Lewis a lot, right? But that seems like a pretty easy comparison for anyone who sings and draws…

So, after this tour, what’s next for Sparky Deathcap?

1) Alongside his other works of art, dosage currently being showcased at The Tate Britain, decease one canvas has elicited more controversy than others. The Holy Virgin Mary, portrays an African Virgin Mary surrounded by clippings of genitalia taken from blaxploitation and porn films.

Hang on a minute, could he be making a cultural criticism on the fact that the media has a tendency to deify white idols (Vogue has been in monthly syndication since 1973, to date publishing 446 issues since then, 14 of the covers have featured black women) whereas black women are at best, overlooked and at worst, reduced to faceless sexual objects? Of course he’s not! He’s screwing up America! Bernard Goldman’s right wing book chronicling those who are most to blame for the current predicament of ‘screwed up America’ – the not too creatively titled ‘100 People Who Are Screwing Up America’ listed Ofili at Number 86 for his contributions to the decline of United States. Whether he is directly responsible for environmental decline, the War on Iraq or the 35.9 million citizens living below the poverty line in the US is not made clear. Quite a feat considering he’s actually British. Regardless, Mayor Giuliani was appalled enough by Ofili’s artwork, that in 1999 he threatened to withdraw The Brooklyn Museum of Art’s $7million grant because, as he said “There’s nothing in the First Amendment that supports horrible and disgusting projects!” Well good sir, in which, can we ban Fox News? Or at the very least, Rush Limbaugh. No? Guess the pendulum doesn’t swing both ways. Digressing, I can’t help but wonder whether it’s the depiction of The Holy Virgin Mary as a black woman, the genitalia or the use of elephant dung as an art material that has caused so much outrage?

‘No Woman, No Cry’

2) Continuing from point Number 1; The Holy Virgin Mary had to be placed behind a plexiglass shield when on display in New York. However, crafty little old Christian pensioner, Dennis Heiner, 72, jumped behind the plexiglass shield and smeared white paint over the artwork until the Virgin Mary was obscured from view. He was charged with second-degree criminal mischief and a $250 fine. That wasn’t a typo. $250. Who wants to place bets on what would happen to me if I threw paint around inside the Vatican?

‘Painting with Shit on it.’

3) Chris Ofili refuses to be molded by his own success. His more recent paintings that are displayed in this exhibition have shrugged off the bright glittery tones of their predecessors. Black on black-blue, the new canvases tell a story, but a story you have to dance around to see. Standing in front of dark canvas, adjusting your eyes to make out the images, like looking for sharks in a dark sea, you can make out a few images; a deer carcass, men making music – but being practically invisible, the mind is forced to project it’s own ideas on what Ofili is both displaying and commenting on.

‘Blue Riders’

4) After winning a scholarship to study in Zimbabwe, Ofili studied African cave paintings, which he has cited as a source of inspiration for much of his work.

5) Chris Ofili is one of the few black artists to be included in the artistically elite group ‘Young British Artists’ which also included Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Any young artists, or anyone young (under 26) can visit Chris Ofili at The Tate Britain for only £5. Pretty good, eh?

Click for our event listing for this exhibtion

Written by Amica Lane on Wednesday March 10th, 2010 9:27 pm

Categories ,africa, ,african art, ,amica lane, ,art vandalism, ,cave paintings, ,Chris Ofili, ,controversy, ,discounts, ,equal rights, ,left wing, ,politics, ,right wing, ,sensations, ,Tate, ,Tate Britain, ,young british artists

Amelia’s Magazine | Cheapzine launches an open brief to find artists/designers for their Art Nouveau book

illustration by Brett Manning

Anyone who has heard me lecture will be aware that I do like to bang on about what a great idea it is to produce your own fanzine: they’re cheap, dosage this site flexible and mean you can spread yourself around easily. NO NO not like some slutty yoga bunny – more like the best way eva to promote yourself if you’re an up and coming artist or writer. Plus, troche a whole network of zine fairs has now grown up to support this most underground of art industries.

That point aside, view I am a particular fan of zines that talk about Amelia’s Magazine and Amelia’s Anthology of Illustration. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours – you know how it goes. And of course the fact that the creators of such zines are interested in my work means that OBVIOUSLY they have good taste – goes without saying that they are worth talking about in return then.

Some aspects of zines exist online because of course one cannot exist without a webtastic presence these days, but as someone who is a massive fan of cold hard print, I believe you still can’t beat something which you can actually hold in your hands. So, it is with pleasure that I’d like to promote Cheapzine’s latest project, which sees them moving from the (okay, somewhat limited) world of photocopied zines and blog posts into a four colour print book project, choosing as its subject the influence of Art Nouveau on contemporary art. This A5 book will collate the best examples of such work alongside a collection of essays on the subject from Tommy Eugene Higson – a self-confessed art history obsessive – and artwork from current Cheapzine contributors such as Brett Manning whose work is featured above (she’s a girl okay), purveyor of wonderfully detailed drawings.

illustration by Martyn Mills

“Until recently I’d kinda thought of Art Nouveau was just a nice little discourse in art history that died out with the rise of high Modernism, but this isn’t the case at all,” explains chief Cheapziner Tommy. “Most of the fashion illustrators that we like appear to take inspiration from artists such as Egon Schiele, Alphonse Mucha and Gustav Klimt.” He thinks that the influence of this particular period of design can be seen in everything: from high art, such as Chris Ofili’s Upper Room (currently the highlight at his Tate Britain solo show) to ‘lowbrow’ art, contemporary illustration, poster art, fashion design and even ‘business’ art.

illustration by Sarah Ontiveros

“We decided to make the book cause we’ve been making the zine for a while now,” he continues, “and we’ve been working with some really cool people so we wanted to make something a bit nicer and more ‘proper’ than the zine.” So far Tommy and his cohort Nikki Marie have produced nine issues of Cheapzine, with issue 10 likely to be the last for the time being due to their new projects. Just like Amelia’s Magazine, it seems that 10, not 3, really is the magic number.

Tommy is hoping to publish 500 copies of this limited edition book sometime towards the end of summer. Whether you’re a photographer, illustrator or designer, this will be an ideal place to get your work seen, and who doesn’t love a bit of Art Nouveou, really? The deadline is 31st March 2010 and all work should be sent to cheap-magazine@live.com

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday February 16th, 2010 10:59 am

Categories ,Art Nouveau, ,Brett Manning, ,Cheapzine, ,Chris Ofili, ,illustration, ,Nikki Marie, ,Open brief, ,Tate Britain, ,Tommy Eugene Higson

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