Monday 28 June 2010

St Martins Degree Show Highlights










A few of my personal picks from the Central Saint Martins BA Fine Art summer degree show. Unfortunately I don't have the names of the artists...

Sunday 20 June 2010

Somewhere soon


Have just seen the trailer for Sofia Coppola's new film, 'Somewhere'. Set in LA's infamous Chateau Marmont hotel, the plot - a disillusioned actor coming to terms with his life in the surroundings of a hotel - sounds more than vaguely similar to her cult classic Lost In Translation. Hopefully, after the somewhat hit and miss Marie Antoinette, it will be something of a return to form. The trailer also hints at some typically credible names for the soundtrack, featuring a haunting demo of You Only Live Twice from The Strokes, as well as promising music from French band Phoenix. Not sure when it's out but most certainly looking forward to it.

Saturday 19 June 2010

Making progress

This is just a note to say that Dulcie and I are really pushing forward with our poetry and photography fanzine Polly Put The Kettle On, we're planning to compile the first printed issue over the summer and are currently narrowing down submissions. Follow the blog here - http://pollyputthekettleonzine.blogspot.com/ - for regular online content and further news and information on submitting work. Oh, and spread the word!

Friday 18 June 2010

Artefacts


Before I cam home for the summer I saw a great exhibit in the Level 2 Gallery at Tate Modern by Cypriot artist Haris Epanimonda. Collating imagery from old copies of National Geographic with ancient artefacts and sculptures, she treats the space as an installation, with each element in the show creating a dialogue with the objects around it, playing with the conventions of the museum/gallery space and asking the viewer to dream up connections and connotations. The curation of a show is very much a focal point of her practice, the title of the show - Volume VI - a nod to the spatial element of the gallery space (this is number six in a series of similarly titled pieces).


Her method of juxtaposing found imagery is akin to John Stezaker, and recalls far off lands and ancient civilisations, creating the sense of being in a kind of disjointed museum where it is up to the viewer to dream up the origins and meanings of the seemingly unrelated ephemera.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

How the elephant got its trunk


Then the Elephant's Child sat back on his little haunches, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And the Crocodile floundered into the water, making it all creamy with great sweeps of his tail, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled.

And the Elephant's Child's nose kept on stretching; and the Elephant's Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each pull the Elephant's Child's nose grew longer and longer--and it hurt him hijjus!

Then the Elephant's Child felt his legs slipping, and he said through his nose, which was now nearly five feet long, 'This is too butch for be!'


Taken from 'The Elephant Child' from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.

Sunday 6 June 2010

Viva Las Vegas


Just watched a programme on iplayer about Elvis' Vegas years, the final chapters of his life that, after initially providing him with a comeback no-one could have imagined, eventually led to his tragic downfall...

Saturday 5 June 2010

Pencil on paper

('Don Bachardy; Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood' by David Hockney)

After finishing the year with our show at Trinity Buoy Wharf on Wednesday, I am now going to turn towards a summer of, amongst other things, rediscovering a love of painting and drawing. I made a few sketches today and it felt rather rewarding, and I vow to keep it up over the coming months.

Thursday 3 June 2010