Artist Feature by Thomas Browne

Courtney Love ‘And She’s Not Even Pretty’

Ever wondered what goes on inside Courtney Love’s head? Well now you can find out from Courtney herself. The first exhibition of her drawings featuring 45 works is going on show in a new exhibition at Fred Torres Collaborations in New York.

The drawings are an emotional tour-de-force that seem to fire themselves out at you from the page. Well known for wearing her heart on her sleeve Courtney Love’s drawings are like raw emotions that are clawing their way out to grab you by the throat and leave you reeling. There’s jagged scrawled text that sit on top spilling out Courtney’s inner most thoughts and emotions. These drawings come over as almost cute but with a deep dark undertone that draws you in for all the wrong reasons. The women are living dolls, all looking for love but in a desperate way and so seem doomed to failure. There’s a tragicomic aspect that hits you too. But it’s all so personal. This doll is  Courtney and the cast of characters – her friends and lovers. So it’s all too raw and real with an energy that makes you want to look away but still you stare.

Courtney Love And She’s Not Even Pretty in on show at Fred Torres Collaborations until June 15, 2012.

www.fredtorres.com

Artist Feature by Thomas Browne

Inside Courtney Love’s Head – Artist Feature

Fashion Article by Jim Morrall

In a world of kids that seem too cool for skool but that secretly just wanna play incestuous networking games, Henrik Vibskov’s approach is refreshing. No samples for journalists, a lot of design integrity and a frank (Danish) demeanour make for sparse but telling insights into where he’s coming from (Copenhagen) and how he sees his art (not as art).

In the wake of his 3rd May book launch, Henrik told Jim Morrall a (little) bit about his inspiration, his diverse work and his love of sticks.

JM    How was Saturday night (the book launch)? What went down?
HV    I went down … I was pretty jet-lagged – just came 1 hour before the show from South America … Peru1.
JM    Where do you live and work? Why?
HV    In Copenhagen – you can breath and logistics are easy.
JM    Was Denmark a part of your creative journey and is it visible in your aesthetic?
HV    I would lie if I said no…
JM    Are you rooted to places?
HV    Probably more than I think … securelifestylebehindtheheavywalls
JM    The Danes are known for brutally frank humour and visuals, dare we bring up the whole Mohammad (pbuh) cartoon scandal. Do you see that in yourself?
HV    Hmmm the Danes try to be as democratic as possible … everybody has the right to say what he wants … but it is a small country and a few times it goes really wrong…
JM    Your press release talks about ‘signature style recognizable across all disciplines’… how could that be defined? Is it possible to be recognizable across disciplines so diverse? I guess that means that the hallmark must go deeper than a literal motif… and so becomes so much more subjective?
HV    I guess I should change that … sounds stupid … doesn´t it? … The publishers wrote it…
JM    The release also talks about ‘Renaissance man’. Do you take inspiration from the Renaissance approach to life? Any greats in particular?
HV    Yeah, as before … I didn´t get that either … publishers…
JM    So you’re a drummer! How does that balance with your day job? What do you like about the drums as an instrument?
HV    The sticks.
JM    What are your five desert island disks?
HV    Fish, fruit, water, cigarettes and white wine.
JM    How does music and your work relate?
HV    I listen to it.
JM    What drew you to the concept of the Panopticon2 for SS12?
HV    I was doing 4 projects at the same time called Panopticon.
JM    Do you see your work as art?
HV    No…
JM    If you weren’t in fashion or music where would you be?
HV    Project manager …

Appendix:
1. HV had been lecturing at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicada in Lima
2. The Panopticon is a circular architectural model in which all the inmates of an institution might be watched without realising it, and was invented by English social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century.

Henrik Vibskov is available from Gestalten from 3rd May 2012
Edited by: Henrik Vibskov, Alastair Philip Wiper
ISBN: 978-3-89955-435-9

www.henrikvibskov.com

Fashion Article by Jim Morrall

The Fashion of Henrik Vibskov – Fashion Article & Interview

Music Article by Matthew Kinlin

What if you had dedicated your life to making music only to find yourself losing your hearing? It seems hard to imagine the suffering that would arise from this situation, to continue living in a world that once was a source of joy and creativity but then had exiled you into a silent and helpless place.

This was the dilemma facing Jason DiEmilio, a Philadelphia-based experimental musician who after years of recording and performing drone-rock music under the alias of the Azusa Plane, tragically found himself losing his ability to hear.

As founder and permanent member of the Azusa Plane project, DiEmilio used a Fender guitar and effect pedals to create experimental guitar-led music, ranging from ambient, drifting guitar-based drone to harsher, more experimental music that incorporated digital noise.

The music of DiEmilio was indebted to the space rock of Spaceman 3 and the Xpressway label but he cited his music heroes as the Velvet Underground, the Smiths, Belle and Sebastian and a wide range of psychedelic bands. In DiEmilio’s own words, the ethos of the project was: “You can just have an electric guitar and you can create worlds, individual worlds, distinct ones. And I’m going to take you there.”

However, DiEmilio suffered from a condition known as tinnitus and hypercusis, which had been brought on by extreme exposure to loud noise, caused by playing with bands for most of his life without any protection for his ears.  The nerve damage in ear was too severe to be resolved and became progressively acute.  Faced with being cut off from the artistic world from which he took so much joy, DiEmilio took his own life in late 2006.

In his lifetime, he released three full-length studio LPs, a collection of live recordings, several EPs and a large amount of singles and compilation contributions released between 1995 and 2001 that can be found on cassettes, compilations and mixtapes all across the globe.

This year saw Rocket Girl Record label release a retrospective compilation called Where the Sands Turn to Gold, which is an anthology of previously unreleased tracks and live material from the Azusa Plane. The release celebrates the work of an unsung hero of experimental music that always found intriguing ways to approach and explore sound.

The record can be experienced in two ways. It can be seen as a collection of joyful experimentations from an inquisitive mind. However, the knowledge of DiEmilio’s fate also fills the record with a cathartic sense of loss and makes these explorations even more affecting.

The material found on Where the Sands Turn to Gold pays homage to the exploratory nature of DiEmilio’s work, which always saw him venture outside his own comfort zone. It also shows how indebted contemporary artists are to his experimental approach.

“Ode to the Mountain Goats” floats on an upbeat guitar riff and creates a sound that contemporary artists such as Ulrich Schnauss are indebted to. However, the track is then hijacked by a distorted guitar rising further and further up, highlighting the experimental tendencies of DiEmilio.

The wonderfully titled “Shooting Speed with Lou Reed” rides along on a blissed out, psychedelic rock drone that sounds spaced yet intense. The faint, sitar-like sound reminds of psychedelic rock and the track feels infused with an Eastern quality.

The eleven-minute “Cheltenham 2” is one of the darkest moments on the release, moving along on a simple guitar riff before splintering off into number of different guitar riffs all running at different speeds, layered on top of each other. It creates an unnerving effect that demonstrates the ability of DiEmilio’s music to disturb and unsettle.

The highlight of the album comes with the gut-wrenchingly touching “Every Wave Has Its Own Integrity”, which uses soft pads of drone and a melancholic guitar riff. It reminds of Cocteau Twins, in the delicate balance it treads between sadness and joy. As throughout the album, it is a moment that is imbued with a sense of fragile humanity, especially when placed within the context of DiEmilio’s life.

However the tragic narrative of DiEmilio’s last days should not overshadow his courageous and experimental music, which is attracting curious listeners from a contemporary audience. Jason DiEmilio dedicated his life to his music, and as Where the Sands Turn to Gold demonstrates, this is what he deserves to and will be remembered for.

For info on the release go to www.rocketgirl.co.uk/

Music Article by Matthew Kinlin

Joy and Loss: The Work of the Azusa Plane – Music Article

Fancy yourself as a bit of a mover on the dance floor? Well if you do you should enter this rather fabulous competition from the carmaker Kia. The 8 finalists will get flown out to watch the opening game of Euro 2012 and the grand prizewinner gets a new Kia Picanto. You can see the teaser video here .

You have to base your dance around the DJ Flux Pavillion dubstep track “I Can’t Stop”. It’s a great song to throw shapes and get creative with. There are some amazing feats of body grooving for you to get inspired by. Some funny, some just plain brilliant. Have a peek at Kia Dubstep Competition

We went for a mystic tribal dance. We wore our ceremonial costume and danced in rhythmic magical steps designed to invigorate and give winning ways to the chosen subject of your dance. We were of course aiming our magic dance at the England team. Let’s hope it helps.

You can enter on your own or get together with a team but only 2 of you will be able to claim the prize. The competition ends on the 13th May so get your glad rags and dancing shoes on and give it your best shot. Enter the competition now!

Sponsored Post

Viral video by ebuzzing

Dance Your Way to Euro 2012 – Dubstep Competition

Music Article by Charlotte McManus

With their unique blend of dancefloor-shaking synth-pop beats and singer Shannon Funchess’ unearthly heaven-to-hell vocals, Light Asylum are easily one of the most significant acts to emerge out of Brooklyn’s underground scene in the last ten years. Having just released their debut self-titled full-length, Flux caught up with the duo on the eve of their intense (and very sweaty) one-off gig in East London’s venue The Nest.

FLUX: Tell us about your upcoming album. What were the kinds of inspirations and influences behind it?

SF: We really wanted the album to be an introduction to the sound of Light Asylum, but in many ways, it’s a culmination of what we’ve been doing for the past three years; including ‘Shallow Tears’, which was the first song we ever released after Bruno joined the band, and ‘A Certain Person’, which was also featured on the [In Tensions] EP. We’re both inspired by so many different kinds of dance music – industrial, house, freestyle, new wave – and we really wanted to produce a body of work that would have the longevity of some the albums we were always inspired by. But the influences really come from everywhere, like the current state of the world right now, in the middle of political and cultural uprisings – that’s really inspiring, and it’s easy to admit that affecting us too.

FLUX: How was the process of putting the record together? It’s been a long time coming…

SF. A few tracks have been in the process of being born for two-and-a-half years, while others were new inspirations from spending last summer in Berlin. The actual recording of the album only took the time waiting to get into [Light Asylum's label] Mexican Summer’s recording studio. It was booked until December 2011, which was when we were able to get in there. A month later, we had our debut full-length.

FLUX: Your earlier work (e.g. ‘Dark Allies’) had fairly tangible Christian undertones to it – and it seems like that influence has gone into a lot of tracks on the album too. What is it about the religious aspect that appeals to you, artistically?

BC: Since music can be a catharsis at times, these themes reveal themselves in the songs – but religion is only one part of a greater story being told throughout history that involves control and power in our society. We were both raised in devout Christian homes, and that may have started us questioning the world around us in a way that isn’t favoured by the powers that be, but is necessary to know oneself. There are so many forces at work that seek to suppress people’s expression and hinder each and everyone’s own personal pursuit of truth, because information is power – but they have used religion time and time again against the people in order to control them.

FLUX: Tell us something about Light Asylum that not many people know…

SF: We are not a Christian rock group.

FLUX: You’re set to tour the US this spring – are there any plans to extend that to Europe (aside from tonight’s show)?

SF: We’ll tour the U.K. and E.U. for most of June and August, as well as a fall tour October-November.

FLUX: What’s one of the most memorable moments you’ve ever had on tour?

SF: Performing an improvisational set with [experimental US performance artist/musician] Laurie Anderson in Austria for the Donau Festival this April was pretty memorable. She’s great, and we highly respect her as a legend and a person.

FLUX: You once said that there are “No laptops on stage – EVER” during your live sets. Is this still the case?

BC: Some of our favourite acts use laptops on stage, but we made a choice early on to make the most out of the live shows, and get up there and engage our instruments – even if that means sweating bullets into our keyboards, ’cause that’s what we were inspired to do.

FLUX: Your music is gaining a reputation for appealing to a whole host of different audiences. Is there ever any tension between making the music you want to make and appealing to a big an audience as possible?

BC: We really welcome a wide audience and are excited to have as many people as possible get the chance to hear us, but we’ve never made any sort of comprise in our sound.

FLUX: Shannon, you’ve done guest vocals for names like Teengirl Fantasy and Ford & Lopatin – do you have any more collaborations in the works?

SF: Yes – a song and writing collaboration with The Knife and Emily Roysdon that will appear on The Knife’s next album.

FLUX: What about other acts collaborating with Light Asylum? Can we expect anything along those lines?

SF: Hope so, but nothing in the works yet. Would have been great to work with Malcom McLaren, or have someone like FLOOD or Alan Moulder do re-edits/extended versions of our songs.

FLUX: Are there ever any drawbacks to working as a duo?

SF: Carrying all your own gear.

FLUX: And finally… what are your views on 2012′s impending apocalypse?

SF: Not sure what’s going to happen… just hope to be somewhere nice with loved ones if anything should actually go down.

Light Asylum’s self-titled album is out now. For details on upcoming UK tour dates, check out the band’s website at www.lightasylum.com

Music Article by Charlotte McManus

Light Asylum – Brooklyn Dark Pop – Music Article

Madrid’s Caja Magica is in the midst of hosting the new blue courts of the Mutua Madrid Open, and Italian sportswear maestros ellesse are in the thick of it along with French fashion house Surface to Air.

ellesse is continuing its reign this year as official clothing partner to the tennis tournament, dressing the ball boys and girls in stylish tennis wear.

This year there’s an additional twist, with the collection being designed by highly revered French fashion house Surface to Air. The collaboration aligns itself perfectly alongside the overall progressive mood of the tournament. The tournament has a modernist air, replacing its red clay courts with a vibrant blue for the top tennis stars to fight for the Madrid title on. And this new ‘blue’ image along with the ellesse x Surface to Air kits will be exclusive to Madrid.

The Surface to Air signature aesthetic has been carried through the Mutua Madrid collection. The Parisian collective are known for their progressive style, and recently for work with musician Kid Cudi. Surface to Air chose the colours red, blue and white to fit with the tournament’s image and the ATP rules. ellesse logos combine with block colouring, modern detailing and panels. The kits range from socks, polos, skirts, shorts, jackets and hats, all sitting in harmony with each other and the blue clay courts.

The capsule Surface to Air x ellesse Italia collection is the latest in a line of ellesse fashion collaborations that have seen them work with Eley Kishimoto, Danish streetwear leaders Wood Wood, Parisian colette. Surface to Air founder, Aldric Speer, says,”We aimed for something visually strong for the courts within the Surface to Air aesthetic. We look forward to fans and athletes discovering this project at the 2012 Madrid Open.”

And in another twist, the final rounds of the tournament will see trained models take over as ball boys and girls, another concept unique to the Madrid tournament. The professional models will be dressed head to toe in the specially designed ellesse x Surface to Air kits, with ellesse continuing to bring charm to the courts as it has done for the last 40 years. Is this a fashion meets sports step too far? Well check it out to see for yourselves, as tennis fans and fashion lovers around the globe turn on the sports channel to check out the ball boys and girls. You could even choose your favourites live! Fashion sales on court? Well it’s not a new concept! But catwalks on court? Let’s see how those models handle the workload, and if they can resist striking a pose and trying to out shine the players!

For more information see www.ellesse.com

ellesse x Surface to Air in the blue in Madrid

If you like us love both innovative independent fashion and the best emerging music, this is a collaboration for you.

Boutique fashion marketplace, farfetch.com, is working with six of the world’s most prominent independent music stores and two emerging bands to bring you ‘The Playlist’, a music and fashion crossover that celebrates the ever-evolving relationship between the two genres. And with independent record stores become fewer and farer between, the ones that are left need all the celebrating they can get.

As part of The Playlist project farfetch.com has created two fashion films with emerging bands S.C.U.M and Singtank. The videos launched in April with S.C.U.M wowing a crowd of east-end crowd hipsters, and French boygirl duo Singtank performing to the cult fashionistas at ra, Paris.

Parisian sibling duo Singtank is the pop/folk group causing a stir on the French musical landscape. One half of the duo is Josephine de la Baume, wife of Mark Ronson, who together with younger brother Alexandre has created The Party, a track designed to seduce the English radio! So we’ll see if that works out after a spring tour. But for now check out their video for farfetch.com that documents the inspirations of the band mixing interview with documentary with music. You also get an insight into the natural style of the band, with Josephine and Alexandre wearing personally-picked pieces from farfetch.com’s network of influential boutiques.

farfetch.com has also invited independent music stores to create a bespoke pop-up shop on the site for the next three months. The stores – Amoeba in Los Angeles, Dusty Groove in Chicago, BM Soho in London, Fargo in Paris, Avalanche in Edinburgh and Rise in Bristol – will showcase 12 or more exclusive, rare or cutting-edge music products unique to them. Each store-owner has applied their insider music knowledge to curate their perfect ‘playlist’ with products on offer including an out-of-print 18-track collectible sampler by Bruce Springsteen, the debut record from Star Wheel Press and a rare dance anthem vinyl by house maverick John Swing.

Paul Brine from farfetch.com, said of The Playlist initiative: “We’re really excited, at farfetch.com, to launch this project and not only expand our support for independent retailers from the fashion space into music, but to also connect our customers, many of whom are treasurehunters on the look-out for rare and exclusive items, with independent record stores globally. It’s also a great opportunity to work with musicians to create film content that unites cutting edge fashion with music.”

Kevin Buckle of Avalanche, Edinburgh, quoted: “We are pleased to be dealing with a website that understands the importance of bricks-and-mortar shops. It gave us an ideal opportunity to promote both the thriving music scene in Scotland and the vibrant Grassmarket area of Edinburgh where we are located.”

For more information see www.farfetch.com and www.singtank.com. Click here to see the S.C.U.M. video for farfetch.com.

farfetch.com supports Independent Music with Singtank video

New Album Review by Matthew Kinlin

There was likely to be a few raised eyebrows when it was announced that the new release for underground Los Angeles label 100% Silk would be from Fort Romeau – the alias of UK producer Mike Norris, who is best known as the keyboardist for pop group La Roux.

The label, home to artists such as Blondes and Teengirl Fantasy, typically puts out music that has a homemade, DIY feel. Their decision to invite a mainstream pop producer into their exclusive fold may have troubled a few tastemakers.

However, whilst the release from Fort Romeau varies slightly from the label’s previous output, it is also one of their most successful to date.

Previous releases from 100% Silk have been imbued with a sense of distance, of dance music passed though and distorted by filters. Whereas with Kingdoms, the new mini LP from Fort Romeau, that sense of distance is removed. The sound is closer and much clearer.

After hearing the music from pop outfit La Roux, one might expect Norris to have continued playing with 80s electronic pop. However, under his new alias, he has produced an album filled with polished and lush deep house. The beats found on Kingdoms are luxurious, deep and opulent. In coming from the field of pop music, a genre that is drenched in polish, the album stands out on a label that has previously been criticised for output not being fully realised.

Norris’s influences seem rooted in house music, taking inspiration from figures such as recent house wunderkind Kyle Hall. The dusky sounds also remind of Air. However, these elements are expertly mixed with jackin’ house, liquid-like R&B vocals and warm analogue sounds.

The record starts off on its weakest foot with “Jack Rollin’”, which as the title suggests, channels jackin’ house. The track carries an energy and smoothness that is present throughout the whole album. However, the repetitive vocal used on the track becomes a little grating.

The use of vocals is most successful of “Say Something”, which pairs a smooth house beat with a well-groomed Mariah Carey vocal. The catchiness of the track demonstrates that thankfully Norris has not lost his pop instincts.
“Theo” is one of the more hard-hitting tracks on Kingdoms, mixing warm analogue sounds with a propulsive house bass. The track uses a sample that states: “Every time I wake up to go out”, which captures the hedonistic, nocturnal feel to the record.

The album highlight proves to be the slower, moodier “I Need U”, which uses a more restrained beat, soft pads of sound and a haunting vocal. It comes as a surprisingly emotional moment on an album that itself has defied expectations.
The inclusion of a pop producer on an underground music label may have irked a few people but the results cannot be disputed. Through approaching dance music from a different direction, Norris demonstrates just how valuable a bit of polish can be.

You can listen to a track for yourself here:

New Album Review by Matthew Kinlin

Fort Romeau – Kingdoms – New Album Review & Feature

Music Article by Tom Hesketh

Carling Zest captures the Sound of Summer with DJ Food, Jaguar Skills and DJ Yoda plus win a rather special fully paid trip to this year’s V Festival

How do you capture the sound of a British Summer? The sound of bumble bees a buzzing, lapping seaside waves, the chime of crickets on a long, hot lazy day.  Well to celebrate its launch Carling Zest has laid down a challenge to 3 of the UK’s most respected artists and DJs. DJ Food, Jaguar Skills and DJ Yoda were invited to produce their exclusive tracks using only the sounds of British summertime. The tracks and the accompanying video can be seen at youtube.com/carlingzest.

These innovative compositions are part of the new Carling Zest ‘Summer Bottled’ ad campaign that aims to conjure up what makes for a Great British summer. All 3 artists were given a palette of 32 summer sounds and matching video clips to work with, and have come up with some refreshingly different tunes which vary in style from Yoda’s mix of Latin house and hip-hop to the summer style chillout of DJ Food.

“Sunspot is all about nostalgia for summer holidays in the 70s, that feeling of not having a care in the world. The sound of bees is the track’s hook they’re so much more than just a sound effect – they’re totally essential to the rhythm,” said DJ Food.

It’s not just top music producer’s though who can create a track in this way. Later in May any budding musician will be able to get involved via the Carling Zest app. So you too will be able to bend and twist those summer sounds into your own 2 minute track. To top it all the best three picked out by DJ Food, Jaguar Skills and DJ Yoda  will win a rather special fully paid trip to this year’s V Festival. Following the YouTube app launch, mobile and tablet lite versions will also be available.

Carling Zest is summer drink through and through with a light citrus flavour at 2.8% ABV. It is currently available in bottles throughout in stores and bars across the country. Carling Zest is limited edition and will only be available to buy until the end of September.

Music Article by Tom Hesketh

Capture the Sound of Summer – Exclusive Tracks and Competition – Music Article

Artist Feature by Claire Ramtuhul

The Many Masks of the Egungun

Amidst the wealth of photographs on offer at the Saatchi Gallery’s latest exhibition, ‘Out of Focus’, four modestly sized works tempt the eye more than many of the larger pieces combined: a series of masked figures clad in wildly beautiful ceremonial robes draw substantial clusters of intrigued visitors to their attention, through stances that command rather than invite. The lure of fascination is understandable: the portraits hold secrets as well as revelations, shrouded quite literally in gilded mystery.

Even after a period of prolonged gazing, it’s difficult to recall anything wholly familiar from existing points of reference. The colourful grandeur, the exquisite layering of material, and the sandy-coloured mud brick backdrops are recognisable as African, yet the connection is muddled by other styles, notably the pointed toes of Persian-esque slippers just visible under the billowing fabrics. The costumes are in fact derived from the little-known traditions of the Yoruba people, specifically those from south-Western Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. Born and raised in Benin’s capital Porto Nova, Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou was trained in photography by his father, the world-renowned Joseph Moise Agbodjelou. In his latest series, the junior photographer has brought one of the most captivating aspects of Yoruba culture, the Egungun masqueraders, to an international platform. Responsible for a plethora of community duties, the Egungun are effectively multi-purpose performers, taking on a variety of roles which encompass spiritual rituals as well as acrobatic displays. Revered to this day, they are pillars of the community that few outside Yoruba societies are aware of.

The costumes themselves are incredibly decorative, each crafted with the utmost care to include unique variations. Whilst some are made of glittering textured fabrics and embroidery, others, like the Adjeran, are made entirely out of animal skins – “they are savage characters”, says Leonce. The rounder figures, Ade, are responsible for entertaining the festival crowds in fantastical displays, and are particular favourites of the photographer. “The designs are created by specialist tailors called ‘Alarans’”, says Leonce. “These positions are sacred and often occupied by elders in the community. In the lead up to and during ceremonies, the designers dedicate 100% of their time to the costumes. The work takes place in hidden locations and it’s impossible to gain access to the studios without special permission”. It’s not only the process of making the clothes that is veiled in mystery – Leonce remains fairly tight-lipped about the inspiration behind the designs, careful not to compromise the trust of the tribal chiefs.

Despite there being a great deal of secrecy around the Egungun, the photographer’s artistic freedom was not compromised: “Stylistically, I had a lot of input”, says Leonce. “I chose the mud backgrounds because it was often used by photographers from my father’s generation. There is an element of tradition about it. It adds a timeless quality”. Interestingly, although the Egungun date back to the 11th Century A.D., the tradition that Leonce’s composition coveys is far from fixed in an established creative mode: “The styles are constantly changing, and huge amounts of resources go into creating new fashions. They change dramatically with generations”.

As well as skilfully setting up a contrast between tradition and change, the images also present a more visible dialogue between the supernatural and the earthly. Though the Egungun are deeply spiritual figures, their stances are unmistakeably human – some pose regally with hands on hips, basking in the glory of their own gravitas, performing for the camera. Their sense of pride is plain to see from the other side of the room, and it’s this humanising element which makes their appearances slightly less terrifying.

The theatrical tradition of ancient Greece crosses my mind when viewing the Egunguns’s covered faces, another form of cultural life in which masked performers did not merely entertain, but were called upon to participate in events more akin to religious ceremonies. But this vague appropriation of Western heritage does little to satisfy: whilst actors in ancient Greece were ordinary men picked randomly from the polis, the Egungun are as feared and respected as gods themselves, and present a much stronger connection to supernatural world for the Yoruba. Leonce’s work is truly unique in that it comes from within the world of the tribe, and is composed with a deeper level of understanding that an outsider would struggle to achieve. Both genuinely respectful yet subtly provocative, he makes it easy to get caught up in the mysticism of the Egungun.

‘Out of Focus: Photography’ is on at the Saatchi Gallery until 22 July 2012. www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk

Artist Feature by Claire Ramtuhul

The Photography of Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou – Artist Feature

Fashion film is one of those genres that is evolving so quickly, it’s just getting hotter and hotter, fuelled by the ability to showcase films so much more easily on fashion websites and blogs.

To help facilitate that, some exciting news today is that the first edition of Berlin Fashion Film Festival will be launched during Berlin Fashion Week in July this year.

Curated by some of the most influential characters on the international creative scene, the event will screen a selected range of fashion films alongside the live presentation of garments on a bi-annual basis.

In addition to the curated filmmakers and fashion designers, the festival is offering the opportunity to submit fashion films through an online open call. The submissions will assessed by an international jury, led by Fashion Film guru, Diane Pernet and Till Diestel, award winning CD and Innovation Director of Serviceplan Gruppe. And the best will be screened across Berlin throughout the duration of Berlin Fashion Week, and on selected websites, providing visibility to the emerging filmmakers and fashion designers presented. The overall winner will be rewarded with an exhibition space for 6 months in the recently opened Berlin concept store for emerging fashion designers, Konzept86.

So for all you fashion labels and filmmakers out there, check out www.berlinfashionfilmfestival.net and get submitting!

Berlin Fashion Film Festival launches with an Open Call

For all you grown ups out there, there is a music festival going on in Cognac, France in July this year that you might just be interested in. The Blues Passions festival, that takes place in the famous French town each year, will be supported by the most famous French Cognac, Hennessy, for an amazing 19^th year.

The music festival has hosted B.B.King, Gil Scott Heron and Ray Charles, and this year alongside the more well known big hitters like Sting, Hugh Laurie and Selah Sue, the Showcase stage brings exciting fresh Blues talent with the likes of France’s wonderfully named Snake Fuzz Moan who won the prize for young talent last year, and Vinz. Plus in the grand finale, Afro-Soul singer Imany will be performing on the grounds of the Hennessy Chateau Bagnolet. So wonderful setting, wonderful music and wonderful liquor – what more can you ask?

This year Hennessy continues to support new talent, inviting musicians to submit a video of their own music performance to win the chance to get themselves on the Blues Passions festival stage. The Chase the Music. Own the Stage talent quest are looking for musicians that can bring their own unique dimension to Blues Passions. With the wide musical remit of Blues, Soul, Funk, Folk, R & B, Boogie, Swing, Country, Gospel, Hip Hop, Slam, Rock’n’Roll there are few limitations unless you are a blips and bleeps act, so pass this on to any musicians you know! But you will have to be quick – the deadline for entries is Sunday 6^th May!

The top ten entries will be judged by Maurice Hennessy from the Hennessy family, Blues Passions festival founder Michel Rolland, Simon Harper from Clash Magazine and Rolling Stone India’s editor Lalitha Suhasini. Then from 14^th May it is down to Hennessy Facebook fans who can vote to pick their two favourites who will perform live at Blues Passions.

And if you’re thinking of entering, get a better flavour of the Blues Passions festival by taking a look at a series of videos made by Hennessy at last year’s festival at Hennessy’s facebook page. The videos feature backstage footage, artist interviews, live performances and bespoke acoustic sessions.

For more information on the music festival and tickets see www.bluespassions.com To enter the Chase the Music. Own the Stage see www.facebook.com/Hennessy

Hennessy Blues Passions Music Festival – Win & Vote!

Creative Photography Showcase on Romain Lienhardt

Born in St-Tropez in 1972 Romain Lienhardt was drawn to photography from an early age. This journey continued during his high-school years when he interned as a set electrician at the ‘Société Française de Production’ in Paris. After achieving an associate degree in Arts, he started his career as a set electrician and photographer at the TV channel France 2.

He met Dominique Issermann shortly afterwards in 1997 and went on to work as her assistant. This encounter triggered an unexpected turn in Romain’s career, as he became involved in fashion photography. He worked for ‘Studio Pin Up’ in Paris until 2000 and from 2000 until 2002 he freelanced as an assistant to many renowned fashion photographers including Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi, Patrick Demarchelier, Terry Richardson, Rankin and Mario Sorrenti.

In 2002 Romain set out to pursue his own solo career as a freelance photographer shooting for ‘Trend-Union’, a studio that shot style, trends and for magazines such as Wad, View on Colour, Bloom or In view. This broadened Romain’s knowledge and love of design, interior decorating and architecture.

The highly demanding, multi-faceted nature of the freelance world enabled Romain to hone his more creative photography side too. The fruits of this work is showcased in many collective as well as solo shows most notably in 2002 & 2003 and again in 2010 for Edelkoort Inc Agency in Paris and New York, in Belgium for the 175th anniversary of Delvaux’s birth and in the following Paris galleries – Espace Richelieu, Studio Pin-Up, Espace 43 and Espace Artcore.

Romain is now preparing several shows centring around subjects dear to his heart. His unique approach to his work is not confined to the bi-dimensionality of photography. For example: this might involve a child’s transformation of his toys in order to re-interpret them, in a timeless way through set decoration and production, or art installations combining sculpture, photography and video in order to communicate his slant on contemporary social phenomena.

Romain Lienhardt – Creative Photography Showcase

This track & music video release from Wave Machines has the slightly skewed electronic pop feel that should make a reasonable assault on the charts. It has all the ingredients. It’s a touch sinister and dark in places but still has achingly catchy melodies. There is nothing stopping this hitting the pop target accept maybe current tastes helped along by Radio 1’s narrow playlist. Why do we publicly fund such a dismal commercial radio station by the way?

Anyway, the brooding and twisted video, from Wave Machines’ long-time art-director Scott Spencer and producer Token Films, makes an excellent accompaniment to the track. It reflects well the brooding under-your-skin nature of the song with its simple but effective idea of distorting and twisting the singer’s head until it creates abstract patterns that dance and gyrate along with the music. A glamorously, warped pop gem from the Wave Machines. Just how we like it.

Wave Machines ‘Counting Birds’ music video release is out now on Neapolitan Records

Wave Machines ‘Counting Birds’ – Music Video Release

Fashion Article by Hannah Fleming

The preceding shows at ON/OFF during Paris Fashion Week was Yang Du, Bernard Willhelm and Cunnington and Sanderson but it was Andrea Crews show that became the pièce de résistance.

Led by Maroussia Rebecq,  Andrea Crews describes not an individual but a creative persona, made up of an eclectic assemblage of individuals and individuality. The Paris based design collective established in 2002 is ‘a platform of creation and multi-faceted art direction’ and the composition of the A/W 2012 offering is showed only a small part of what they do.

Their website talks of fashion, art and activism; their collection talked of grunge and street -nomad.  Located in a spacious studio 5 minutes walk from the Fille du Calvaire metro – the line of fashion glitterati was extensive and patient stretching along to the café at the end of the street  and suggesting that this was most anticipated.

Andrea Crews presented to electronic-industrial racket with occasional blasts of old internet dial-up. It was gargantuan.  Vast in assortment and ideas -  a mish-mash of everything, superimposed together with particular focus given to head-wear. Projecting a diversity of voices and handwritings, the Andrea Crews offering was difficult to conceptualise and even more to find words to describe.

www.andreacrews.com

Fashion Article by Hannah Fleming

Andrea Crews Collection – Tour de Force – Fashion Article

We all have fond memories of watching Star Wars for the first time. Everything about the film seemed new and exciting. Even the opening credits broke with convention as the words slowly disappeared off into space. Well to celebrate the launch of a rather special new Kinect Star Wars game, an app has been created that will get fans old and new – plus social networkers – in a bit of a lather. The new free mobile app from Microsoft lifts social networking on your mobile onto a whole new level. It enables you to see your Facebook and Twitter feeds at the same time, all displayed to you in that classic ‘crawl’ style from the Star Wars opening credits. Have a peek at the video below:

This is a rather fun way to herald the launch of the new Kinect Star Wars game from Xbox 360 that uses groundbreaking motion-tracking technology to catapult gamers into the heart of the action. So you can play out your fantasies and fight your ground like a real Jedi Knight. The game allows you to experience the Star Wars universe in a whole new way. With five specially created modes – Jedi Destiny, Dark Side Rising, Podtracing, Rancor Rampage, Galactic Dance Off and Duels of Fate – you’ll be spoilt for choice. You can also get your hands on the Xbox 360 Limited Edition “Kinect Star Wars” console which includes an R2-D2 branded console, C-3PO controller, white Kinect Sensor, The ‘Kinect Star Wars’ game itself and a very special C-3PO unlockable for Dance Mode.

The app itself turns your handset into a sophisticated social media platform by allowing you to stream your various accounts in one place. You can of course, also delve further into the game and purchase a copy straight from the app.

All sound like fun? Well, getting hold of the free app is easy – just click on http://unr.ly/HCh7xh and download away.

This post has been sponsored by Kinect Star Wars

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Sponsored Video – Feel the Force with Free Kinect Star Wars App

Imagine you’re walking the streets of Manchester of an evening, one eye on where you’re going and your mind on your destination. You turn a corner into the vast, cobbled Albert Square dominated by the imposing Town Hall only to be hit by an incredible sight. The façade of the iconic structure has been lit up and turned into a giant 80′s arcade game. You’re stopped dead in you tracks.

Who was behind all this? The perpetrator who hatched this plan was street artist Filthy Luke as part of his ‘Make with a Red Stripe’ urban art project. He used full sized plastic road barriers, road work equipment and LED lights to construct this artwork of monolithic proportions. If you haven’t had chance to see the art work in situ then here’s a video of the artwork itself and Filthy Luker giving his low-down on the urban art project.

This is part of the ‘Make Art On The Street’ initiative where Red Stripe is working with various artists up and down the land including a rather fantastical four wheeled mobile art exhibition set to hit Bristol, Leeds and London and a stop motion animation video soon to wow the people of Edinburgh. All these artistic shenanigans are designed to connect with the public and hopefully inspire some of them to get creative and get involved with the ‘Make with a Red Stripe’ project.

Sponsored Post

Manchester’s Town Hall turned into 80′s Arcade Game – Urban Art Feature

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

This is a wonderfully invigorating blast of Spring from the Tom Ford Private Blend collection. They never seem to put a foot wrong and this fragrance is another hit, with us. Neroli Portofino Eau Fraiche Body Splash is a lighter version of the best selling fragrance from Tom Ford’s Private Blend Collection.

The fragrance was inspired by the cool breezes, sparkling clear waters and lush foliage of the Italian Rivera. Eau Fraiche is made to be used as a splash – quite liberally over the body. It’s an exhilarating and intoxicating blend of citrus, floral and amber notes, crafted from some fine oils including Tunisian Neroli, Italian Bergamot, Sicilian Lemon, Winter Yellow Mandarin, Lavender, Orange Flower, Rosemary and Amber.

It comes in a classic bottle shape and style, more understated than the glass Eas de Parfum decanter, but in the same vibranat aquamarine – a colour that summons up memories of the Mediterranean. There is a hint of a wave in the interior shape that personifies the uplifting character of the fragrance. From our point of view this is a winning scent. As with all the Tom Ford Private Blend fragrances, you can really tell with each inhalation that they use only the highest quality ingredients. Whilst the overall blend is perfectly balanced, you can pick out the individual notes and they last well on the skin.

Tom Ford Neroli Portofino Eau Fraiche Body Splash is available at selected outlets nation wide. For more information visit www.tomford.com

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

Tom Ford Neroli Portofino Eau Fraiche Body Splash – Beauty Article

Artist Feature by Charlotte Hopson

If there was an artist that could perfectly emulate our masturbatory; that is self-gratuitous, consumerist and commercial culture, then Damien Hirst would be the perfect representative.

In the near quarter century, since he provocatively and uncompromisingly burst onto the art scene back in 1988 with the now infamous first exhibition Freeze, which he conceived and curated for himself and fellow Goldsmith art students and friends, [many of which would later form the yBas]; Hirst has been responsible for inordinately changing the look, the meaning, but perhaps most saliently: the value of art.

Best known for his iconic diamond encrusted skull, For the Love of God (2007), which reportedly cost an enormous £14 million to produce; his largely assistant-produced spot and butterfly paintings, and his macabre penchant for suspending various pickled animals in formaldehyde, such as The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), Hirst has created some of the most recognisable and expensively produced works in contemporary art to date. However, his notoriety has invited reverence and revilement in equal measure. He has been criticised for creating works specifically with hedge-fund or celebrity clientele in mind, and thus depreciated artistic value in favour for cash appeal. Although his artworks have become highly sought after collectables, it is as much for their association with Hirst as a celebrity artist, than as desirable goods for spectacle purpose; as Brian Sewell has written recently: ‘to own a Hirst is to tell the world that your bathroom taps are gilded and your Rolls Royce is pink.’

This association with money and excess came to a climax back in 2008, when Hirst made the unprecedented move to bypass his long-standing galleries, and sell an entire show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever at auction at Sotheby’s, which exceeded all predictions and raised a record-breaking £111 million. This was a pivotal moment in the history of the global art market, and has since redefined the commodity value of the art piece. However Hirst’s prioritisation of money has truly come at a price, as his oeuvre has been characterised by financial exchange, both by money spent on production and of price reached at sale, rather on artistic merit. This has also been aggravated by contentions to Hirst’s legitimacy as an artist. His career has been plagued by various accounts of plagiarism throughout the years, and his controversial methods of artistic production have been consistently contested. Hirst’s unashamed employment of huge teams of fixed-wage assistants in production-line studios, a sort of ‘Haus of Hirst’ if you will, responsible for the actual creation of his art, [yet who enjoy none of the monetary excess,] has sparked consistent critical debate, and foregrounded the questionable authenticity of his works. Nevertheless his shows continue to sell out and his highly collectable and exorbitant artwork sale prices, confirm that no matter the creative process, Hirst is unquestionably one of the most renowned and commercially successful British Artists working today. So when Tate Modern revealed that they would be hosting the first major survey of Damien Hirst’s work, there was no doubt that this would become one of the most hotly anticipated and talked about exhibitions of 2012. So far it hasn’t disappointed. Critics in their dozens have once again returned to review the artist’s controversial backlog of unprecedented sales and reignited critical debates. However, as interesting as these views might be, nothing is better than forming your own. So with an open mind, I went to experience this unique retrospective.

This show has been four years in the making; with head curator Ann Gallagher working closely with Hirst to create a show which chronologically traces artworks created during the artist’s career between 1986- 2008. All works displayed have been constructed onsite, and include, a remake of the shark in formaldehyde [now with mouth open], Mother and Child Divided, (2007) the bisections of a cow and her calf; his spin paintings; a room encapsulating the life and death cycle of butterflies, [a room proving popular with the children]; various cabinets filled with medicinal packages; a room transformed into a pseudo-pharmacy; and countless butterfly and spot paintings and more. Naturally one assumes that a survey of this kind should present an opportunity to trace artistic development and to witness an evolution of ideas; however, it seems that for Hirst, this collection of work in fact exposes his conceptual stagnation. Although rooms 1- 14 present works which explore monumental themes including life, death and dualities of beauty and horror, Hirst’s application is gaudy and superficial, leaving nothing to the imagination, and thus negating any potential for further investigation. Hirst has said that his art is ‘not made with meaning in mind,’ that they are ‘just triggers for people to input meaning,’ but I believe this to be a lazy motivation which has ultimately resulted in shallow artworks, which conceptual artistic intention could and should have replenished. The only work which I feel is truly engaging, is A Thousand Years, (1990); a double vitrine in which maggots, develop into flies, which congregate and feed on a rotting cows head, and then when unfortunately enticed, zapped by the insect-o-cutor suspended directly above. It is a kind of nihilistic, microcosmic universe, in which the determined cycle of life, sustenance and death has been apathetically encapsulated. Wafts of decaying flesh provide an unwelcome but powerful sensory dimension to this otherwise visually compelling work; however, it is as Lucien Freud said to Hirst about the piece: “I think you started with the final act, my dear.”

This survey provides a collection of works, which are essentially variations of each other. The frustrating repetition of taxidermy, vitrines, medical supplies and instruments, and spot paintings, left no real impression other than an exhaustive list of artworks mildly concerned with already overworked and underdeveloped ideas. Each display seems to be bigger and much shiner, yes, but essentially versions of the same product. It is disappointing to realise that over the course of twenty-two years, Hirst’s work essentially stalled from the beginning. It seems that the only progression has been Hirst’s increasingly blatant lucre, his overzealous grandeur and prioritisation of commodity value. However, this is not to say that aesthetically I did not enjoy the show. If considering a piece individually and independently from its neighbour, then sure enough, it’s highly finished and perfected composition accounts for [an albeit slightly pointless] decorative and visually pleasant artwork. However, as one of our nation’s most renowned artists, his collection of work is a little underwhelming and lack lustre. It seems that when Hirst made his name and the money came rolling in, he sold out; endlessly reproducing production-line artworks such as the mind-numbing spot paintings- putting in little effort for maximum gain. He has certainly cashed in on people’s eagerness for branding and susceptibility to publicity, and in that way his mastery has been his manipulation and careful construction of his art as a business, rather than as a practise. Perhaps in his death he will get his assistants to diamond encrust his pickled grinning face, suspended in formaldehyde in a gilded, butterfly decorated vitrine and call it The Inevitability of a Record Breaking Sale of an Artist who is Now Entirely Spent.

Tate Modern: Exhibition, Until 9 September 2012 – £14, concessions available

Open late Friday – Sunday until 22.00 www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern

Artist Feature by Charlotte Hopson

Damien Hirst – Rich but Lazy – Artist Feature

Culture Article by Freddie Reynolds

Much of what I knew about Paris came from friends and family. They told me it was lovely; ‘Paris in the springtime’, they’d say, ‘how lovely’.

They also told me it was expensive – it was – and that I must get a Vélib’ – I didn’t – and that I should watch out for pick pockets in touristy areas – I wished I’d listened as a young girl walked off with my tangerine. They told me about St-Germain and about a popular falafel restaurant in Marais that I had to go to. And they spoke of the Louvre and the Grand Palais and the Centre Pompidou.

We’d talk about how the city lived so closely with the arts and how the scene the city inspires is fixed down to earth by a thousand galleries and museums. And we’d talk of the old greats, now lying as foundations: ‘I’m going to see Jim Morrison’s grave’, I told them all. ‘How lovely’ they’d say.

They pretty much told me everything they felt I needed to know, but no one told me about the Gare Austerlitz, which waved me in stoically; all concrete and steel and pigeons. There’s a Paul, like in London, and a huge sign pointing to the public toilet. People rode their bags and traced departure boards with their squinting eyes and there was not a smile among them so I forced my way through the grey and out to the reviving flow of the Seine. And how the rain came down.

In 1932, one of Paris’s greats, the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, sat behind a station on the other side of the city and captured the scene as a man jumped across a puddle. The picture, Derriere la Gare Saint-Lazare, has become one of his best known photographs; the definition of the decisive moment. And behind the leap stand the same design of steel fence that corralled me through Gare Austerlitz eighty years later.

Cartier-Bresson was the other reason I ‘knew’ Paris before I’d even rolled in, thanks to a substantial album of images that he took of his home city. As I too bounced unsuccessfully across the springtime puddles towards my bed for the night in Boucicaut, I pictured him with his Leica, sheltering beneath the bridge arches and fringing the cafes for a moment to capture.

He grew up on Rue de Lisbonne and went to school nearby. In 1945, he famously liberated Paris with the press corps at the Hotel Scribe. The hotel’s still there, but the bar will forever be empty without Hemmingway, Capa and Cartier-Bresson drinking in the corner. His book, A Propos de Paris, is a typical love letter to the city, filled with glimpses of movement, of society, of community: it’s a beautiful chain of decisive moments.

I didn’t visit his home, or his school, but I visited his Paris. I followed his photographs and passed one thousand cafes and a handful of stolen kisses. I strolled along the Seine and remembered one of his most wonderful photographs, Île de la Cité, where a thick white fog adds deep mystery to the city’s well-trodden centre. And, of course, I visited the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson where I travelled to Mexico though his photographs in a gallery in Montparnasse. Run in conjunction with a set of photographs by Paul Strand, Cartier-Bresson’s images spoke to people as Strand’s conversed pleasantly with space.

And then I went to find Jim Morrison in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise. As I enjoyed a squashed croissant with the stillness of the dead, I find the words of Cartier-Bresson had followed me there too. He once said that ‘Photography is nothing, it’s life that interest me’. Here, his words ring true among the motionless stones.

As I strolled though the patchwork of stone and dappled sunlight, leaving puddles of crumbs behind, I spotted the grave of Théodore Géricault. It is adorned with the image of his most famous painting The Raft of the Medusa, and I imagined all of Paris’s many dead artists, lying beneath the ground, rising to their feet on a stranded raft, fighting not to live, but to not be forgotten. Here it ’s almost as if life is at its most active, running through visitors’ minds, not flicking through their lenses: the bodies decay, the icons remain. I follow an American couple who took a thousand pictures but the dead move in ways that no camera can ever touch. Or perhaps they see what I cannot.

Later I eat my one remaining tangerine inside of the Centre Pompidou and drink coffee by the Notre Dame. In the evening I walk through St-Germain and have steak frites and thick red wine from Bourgueil and I think of Gare Austerlitz and of everything I thought Paris would be and how I was wrong and how I’ll be back and how my friends and family were right that Paris is lovely. But it’s more, and though it doesn’t take a talent like Cartier-Bresson’s to show you that, it certainly helps.

Culture Article by Freddie Reynolds

Paris, Henri Cartier-Bresson & Me – Culture Article

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

As a tea lover and believer in the benefits of tea be it black, green or white and a user of Origins products I was very keen to try out this new tinted moisturiser, part of their ‘A Perfect World’ range. It contains antioxidant-rich Silver Tip White Tea – purported to boost the skin’s defences against the harmful effects of pollution and other environmental factors.

The moisturiser has a long name which is a bit hard to get your tongue around – A Perfect World™ BB SPF 15 Age-defence tinted moisturiser with White Tea. Not exactly short and sweet. This is a high performance skin care product aimed at giving a whole host of benefits to your skin. The overall result is claimed to be radiant, flawless-looking skin. Well this is the Holy Grail of course for brands and women alike. Origins kindly sent us some to try out for ourselves.

Well the first thing to say is that it feels great on the skin – it’s really refreshing and the aromas certainly helps boost your mood with the lovelyblend of essential oils of Lemon, Sweet Orange, Bergamot and Spearmint. The moisturiser really nourishes your skin giving it a much needed moisturising boost. Regarding its age defying properties it looks promising, but I need to give it more time to reach a verdict on that. But what I can say is that it made my skin look and feel great. It’s great too that it has sunscreen protection built in and that you don’t need to apply a myriad of creams to get these results. A great new product for summer I say.

For more information go to www.origins.co.uk

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

Origins Age-defence Moisturiser with White Tea – Beauty Article

Fashion Article by Emma Jayne Daniels

NATALIA BRILLI F/W2012-13 COLLECTION

Featuring a variety of everyday items, from laptop cases with embossed keyboard design to all sizes of bags, holders and pouches, in a mixture of unusual and exotic skins from pony and kangaroo to shark and ray skins, designer Natalia Brilli transforms these essentials into a luxurious contemporary, must-have collection for organised city life.

The bags and other classics are completed in warm, muted tones of ebony, ochre and taupe. Animal furs and skins and timeless leopard print adorn backpacks and large hobo bags ready to brave the urban jungle. The art and travel inspired pieces of the collection are a beacon of a cultured wearer. They are classic pieces that stand the test of time, with a hint of humour in ‘objects’ like the leather skateboard, the leather paper bags and the leather pouch embossed with the words ‘Skate and Destroy’ that harks back to the designer’s past. Writer Emma Daniels explores the brand’s foundations and extensive collection with owner, Natalia Brilli.

Emma Jayne-Daniels: Tell us a little about the background of your self titled brand ‘Natalia Brilli’.

Natalia Brilli: After studying at La Cambre in Brussels and completing a master’s degree at IFM in Paris, I launched my brand, of which it will soon be the 10th anniversary.

EJD: What’s the spirit of your brand? What are the ethics and values is has been built on?

Natalia Brilli: A mix of dark, ghostly and surrealist spirit from the North combined with a mixture of glamour and cultivated elegance from the South. I built my brand on the aesthetic influences of my dual cultural heritage, but also on the notion of an artisanal know-how in which creativity and quality play a fundamental role.

EJD: Who is the Natalia Brilli customer?

Natalia Brilli: I don’t know whether I have a precise type of customer, but I think it would above all be a person who’s not enslaved by trends, who is sensitive to artisanal objects but also has an artistic appreciation of said objects.

EJD: You use some very interesting animal skins for your products, what’s the reason behind this?

Natalia Brilli: As a matter of fact it is not the leathers themselves which are special but more the manner in which I use them. The leather covering technique I use is a time-consuming and meticulous process, everything is done entirely by hand: no machine can do it…For instance, it takes a minimum of one hour to make a pearl necklace, and some of the more complex pieces can take one, even two days to complete. Only human hands are involved in making the pieces, which makes each one of them unique.

EJD: Your collection is rather big – can you explain the structure of it?

Natalia Brilli: Throughout the years, certain pieces in my collection have been very successful; therefore they became “classics” of the brand, pieces such as the Sautoir, a leather-covered pearl necklace, or the Nolex, a leather-covered watch. I also think it’s important to have these “historical” pieces that are associated with the history of my brand and my work. And then of course there are always new pieces that are added, since every season I tell a new story…

EJD: What is your inspiration?

Natalia Brilli: People that I know and that are close to me, but also women such as Edih Sitwell, Nancy Cunard or Annemarie Schwarzenbach for their timeless beauty and their typically British spirit, their troubled and ghostly auras and the mystery that shrouds them. The poetic and surrealistic movies of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and Jean Cocteau, the “film noir” of Jacques Tourneur. “Midnight Movies”, from Dario Argento to Alejandro Jodorowsky. 1920′s and 1930′s decorative arts, such as decorators Janine Janet and Tony Duquette. Italian architects Carlo Mollino and Gio Ponti. Contemporary art, but also the Northern school of painting (Belgian, British and Scandinavian painters), symbolism and surrealism. Travelling, natural sciences and gardens, musical currents and urban cultures. The list is very long…

EJD: Is there an explanation behind the skateboard and the slogan ‘skate and destroy’?

Natalia Brilli: When I was a teenager I hung out in skate parks and therefore met a lot of skaters. For me the skateboard as an object is a symbol of an urban culture I love and the slogan “skate and destroy” is simply part of the language of that culture. We could discuss it for hours but then again it’s very simple and straightforward, it’s a clear message when you’re familiar with that universe, it’s a bit like punk’s “No Future”.

See more at www.antonioli.eu

Fashion Article by Emma Jayne Daniels

Natalia Brilli – Everyday Transformed – Fashion Article & Interview

We all crave that awe-inspiring travel adventure. The incredible, life-affirming one – not two weeks lying on a beach in Benidorm. Well, if you’re lucky enough to win this competition, you could find yourself embarking on that trip you’ve always dreamt of.

Stories Beat Stuff is all about discovering New Zealand and at the same time fulfilling the dream along with three of your mates. This is the second phase of Stories Beat Stuff and the newest experience has moved up to a jaw dropping value of 30,000 New Zealand Dollars. This is a travel experience you’ll never tire of gushing about in years to come and goes way beyond any normal holiday – after all Stories Beat Stuff is all about a life-changing experience over and above all that material stuff.

There are two experiences you can choose from. First up is Winter Highlife. This epic prize will land you feet first into New Zealand’s spectacular ski scene – perfect for pros or beginners. But it’s not just for snow lovers – imagine sky dives, incredible bungie jumps, jet boat rides. Plus you’ll be staying in style all the way with sumptuous accommodation. Add to that the adventure continuing at night as you and your friends use your VIP tickets for Queenstown’s Winter Wonderland.

Natural Goodness is the second experience you could choose and is every bit as exciting as the first. I think this would be my choice, but it’s a close call. The natural beauty found in New Zealand is known the world over but with this travel epic you won’t be just a spectator taking the odd snap. Exploring the South Island, you and your friends will be plunged into the thick of it. You’ll be climbing glaciers, rafting rivers and hiking through breathtaking national parks. Not to mention kayaking with dolphins and getting up close and personal with whales. After a hard day’s adventuring, a hot spring will be waiting for you to soak yourself in. This experience is all about immersing yourself in the natural wonders of New Zealand. A real voyage of discovery.

All you have to do to put yourself in the running to choose your own experience, is make a short video of an object you’d trade for this unforgettable trip to New Zealand and go to www.storiesbeatstuff.com to enter. The object should have a personal attachment to you – see an example here. You can check out the competition first if you like at http://www.facebook.com/purenewzealand/app_141439529289323. Then, simply name the three friends who you’d bring along, and share your entry around facebook and twitter to get as many votes as possible.

Sponsored Post

Stories Beat Stuff – Win Trip of a Lifetime to New Zealand

You can feel the punches and see the grimaces as our contender takes to the ring. This Thai Kick Boxing fashion shoot by Leonardo V doesn’t mess around. Some brilliant action shots capture the intensity of a fierce looking fight.

 Recommended (and to see full credits) view in fullscreen.

Photography, styling and hair by Leonardo V  (www.leonardovecchiarelli.com)

Make-up by Claudia Malavasi

Models Emanuela @ fashion Milan, Sara @ fashion Milan

Photography assistants Elia Spielberg & Ilan Wagner

All clothes by Lion, Rival and Stabile Team

Location Stabile Team, @ Novara Italy

Production Jacob Portman for Leonardo V Studio

The Contender – Thai Kick Boxing Fashion Shoot

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

Influential makeup artist and Estée Lauder Creative Director Tom Pecheux inspires a groundbreaking new mascara based on his own backstage techniques and own personal philosophy. To put it in his own words:

“My Favourite woman is a woman who looks like herself at her best. I love eyes that are made up without looking too made up. This is a trick I’ve been using backstage and on ad shoots for years. The simple trick of using two different shades – darker on top, lighter on the bottom – work together to really open up the eyes.”

The new mascara this idea has inspired is the sumptuous new Two Tone Eye-Opening Mascara. This is based on Tom Pecheux’s own secret backstage technique and now gives women the world over the chance to reproduce that beautiful wide-eyed look for themselves.

For stockist information see www.esteelauder.co.uk

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

Estée Lauder – Two Tone Eye-Opening Mascara – Beauty Article

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

‘In the freshness of dawn and the softness of sunset.’

Spring skies can take your breath away especially at daybreak and nightfall. Those dramatic sunrises and sunsets are the inspiration for Chanel’s latest collection, Spring Harmony.

Peter Philip, Creative Director of Chanel Make-Up has transformed these colours into make-up form – a true interpretation of that harmony of shimmering colours that hint at new horizons and the promise of long lazy summer days ahead.

For this latest make-up collection that means all shades of pink, coral and peach adorn the lips, cheeks and fingertips highlighting the twisting moods of Spring. The mood is punctured by the teasing manner of the lips – the sparkle of gloss, the lazy charm of lipshine or refined streak of satiny lipstick.

The cheekbones set the scene. A soft purity is the backdrop for the eyes cloaked in luminous nude tones or in a more flirtatious mood shrouded in a magical glow of amber flushed with gold. The entire collection is imbued with a soft burning glow of garnet. A reminder of the warm rays of summer and a touch of sensuality. This collection has all the hallmarks of Chanel, an elegant, effortless luxury. Spring captured and bottled and at your beck and call.

See more at www.chanel.com

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

Chanel Make Up Collection Spring Harmony – Beauty Article

Music Article by Richard Unwin

Ever since the surprising turn of following the bold, guitar-led rock of OK Computer with Kid A’s ambient electronica, Radiohead have established themselves as one of contemporary music’s most experimental bands. Nestled behind the quirky front-man genius of Thom Yorke, lead guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood has been at the heart of Radiohead’s genre shifting success, quietly drawing on his own classical influences for over a decade.

Greenwood’s talent as an independent composer has already seen him pen scores for the movies Bodysong, There Will Be Blood and Norwegian Wood. Now, in album format for the first time, listeners can savour Greenwood’s interaction with one of his musical icons, Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.

As reported by Flux back in October 2011[link], the collaboration between Greenwood and Penderecki began with a special concert in Wroclaw, Poland  as part of the government organized European Cultural Congress. The four-day festival, come diplomatic powwow, saw Penderecki go on to collaborate with Aphex Twin in a second concert that continued the theme of a contemporary musician responding to two of the Polish maestro’s 20th Century classics. While the latter, techno/classical clash would be a one-off, Poland’s AUKSO ensemble orchestra then recorded the Penderecki/Greenwood concert in Kraków’s Alvernia Studios. As in the concerts, Penderecki conducted the orchestra for the recording of his own work, while a second conductor, Marek Mos, led the pieces composed by Greenwood. Alongside the release of the album on 12 March, the orchestra finally came together again with Penderecki, Greenwood and Mos on 22 March to perform the music live at London’s Barbican Hall.

Penderecki is now 78, his short stature and well-turned-out appearance belying his standing as a giant of the 20th century avante-garde. For Greenwood, the opportunity to interact with the composer must feel particularly special, having first heard his work as a young music student. Greenwood’s first composition on the new album, Popcorn Superhet Receiver, was, itself, written back in 2006 in response to Penderecki’s seminal 1960 work Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. An enveloping piece that helped establish the Radiohead guitarist as a serious composer, Greenwood used Popcorn Superhet Receiver in both Bodysong and There Will Be Blood, proof of his enduring attraction to the dark tones of the Pole’s sonic world. Greenwood’s second contribution to the album, 48 Responses to Polymorphia (split here into nine separate tracks) responds, as the name makes clear, to Polymorphia, written by Penderecki in 1961 as a composition for 48 string instruments.

Now more than half a century old, the original Penderecki works perhaps require little new explanation, suffice to say that they suck the listener into a noise-filled chamber where a cacophony of scuttling insects and sharp shrieks seemingly lead the way into madness. Broken down on the album into four parts, Popcorn Superhet Receiver closely references Penderecki’s Threnody in its moments of quiet, its swift tuns of pace and its brooding desolation, but Greenwood also imparts a more traditional classicism with diversions into melody, beat and tune. The more recent 48 Responses, written by Greenwood for the concert in Wroclaw, arguably achieves greater heights, cleverly taking Penderecki’s brief reprise into harmony at the end of Polymorphia and reworking it again and again throughout a wider experiment in orchestral textures. The summit of Greenwood’s success comes in the final segment, Pacay Tree, with the orchestra switching their bows for curved rain sticks and concluding an uplifting stringed march with fifteen seconds of energetic, shaking sound.

Hearing the album on CD is obviously a very different thing to experiencing the music performed live. Greenwood has spoken about the greater acoustic depths of hearing an orchestra live, and the relative inferiority of recordings. While that is true, listening to the CD does provide greater control over the extent to which you can isolate yourself in the music; through volume adjustments, the use of headphones, or contrastingly being able to press pause if it all gets too much. For all its innovation, Penderecki’s music is certainly not always an easy listen and many will find it beyond their comfort zone. To be really appreciated, the listener needs to give themselves over completely to the orchestra, wrapping themselves in the sound. In concert, that effect was achieved best in Wroclaw’s eery Centennial Hall. At the Barbican, a combination of the orchestra playing with less confidence, and a shallower range in acoustics, meant the required sense of claustrophobia was less profound. Still, though, it was enough to receive a standing ovation.

Perhaps because the Barbican performance was less enveloping, the sense that this is music particularly suited to enriching film was apparent: not surprising given Greenwood’s commissions and the fact that Threnody and Polymorphia have respectively featured in The Shining and The Exorcist. Leaving the Barbican, though, what became even more apparent, haunting even, was the way the sounds of the nighttime city mirrored the music, almost as if the performance had never ended. Play the album loud at home at night, close your eyes, and you will probably achieve a similar effect.

Krzysztof Penderecki / Jonny Greenwood: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima / Popcorn Superhet Receiver / Polymorphia / 48 Responses to Polymorphia
AUKSO Orchestra/Penderecki/Marek Mos
(Nonesuch Records)
Available to buy now on CD

Music Article by Richard Unwin

Music Article – Sharp Strings for Radioheads – Penderecki & Greenwood Live CD

When you think of Piccadilly Circus you imagine the hurly-burly of shoppers on a mission and tourists clicking away for that all-important London landmark picture for back home. The traffic and the digital advertising boards crackling overhead. But this Easter weekend the usual hubbub was interrupted by large manic birds and some loud screaming and shouting as the global phenomena known as Angry Bird descended on London.

Angry Bird had teamed up with Samsung, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, for a crowd game that went down a storm with the gathered masses. Members of the public were invited to play a cleverly designed game on Samsung’s giant iconic Piccadilly Circus screen. The whoops and cries from participants transcended the usual Piccadilly Circus noise.

Crowds of people were hollering at the top of their voices into the Samsung Galaxy Note handsets which were connected wirelessly to the Samsung Piccadilly screen. The game has been designed so that the more decibels generated by the shout or scream, the further the Angry Birds fly across the giant overhead screen. People could also have their picture taken and share an Easter message ably assisted by the Samsung Angry Bird team dressed in their rather fetching plummage complete with oversized bird heads.

The Angry Bird team took some great pictures of the event that have been posted to the Samsung UK Facebook page. You can see for yourself the ensuing madness from the following video and get a feel for the strange Easter shenanigans that unfolded.

This post is sponsored by Samsung

Sponsored Video – Angry Bird descends on London

Perfume Launch Feature

A rock n roll attitude is infused within this latest perfume launch from Givenchy. Very Irrésistible Electric Rose, orchestrated by Parfums Givenchy, walks a fine line between the heady world of high fashion and the wilder side of rock fuelled abandon. To celebrate the launch Liv Tyler, the fragrance’s muse, takes to the world stage and sings her heart out with her version of INXS’s Need You Tonight. See the video of Liv’s performance here.

Very Irrésistible Electric Rose has been blended with Liv Tyler’s rock n roll spirit in mind. At once radiant and rebellious this is a scent that walks Liv’s walk and talks her talk. Take in the heady aromas of blueberry punctured with lemon zest with a basil-verbena twist. Get ready for the burst of electric anise rose softened by a tender green violet – all downy and carnal. There’s a deeper tone too with sulphurous cedar wood backing up a vibrant finale starring the fizzy brightness of a musky pearl.

Very Irrésistible Electric Rose struts its stuff with a certain swagger and personifies Liv Tyler’s spirited take on life.

Perfume Launch Feature by Claire Lomax

Perfume Launch – Very Irrésistible Givenchy Electric Rose with Liv Tyler

Exhibition Review by Richard Unwin

Taking in the full height of the cutting-edge Art Stations Foundation in Poznan, ‘Parellel Systems’ showcases three 20th Century female artists, Gertrude Goldschmidt (a.k.a Gego), Jadwiga Maziarska and Rosemarie Trockel, with the work of each displayed on separate floors of the foundation’s dedicated gallery building.

The most established of the three, and the only one still alive, German Rosemarie Trockel (b. 1952) has long been connected with original, feminist-inspired art, with her work included in the collections of the Tate and MOMA, New York. Placed in a neat dialogue on the ground floor, the three works shown here offer a brief introduction to Trockel’s oeuvre. The video Untitled (Wollfilm) 1992 draws the attention with its depiction of a woolen jumper slowly unravelling from a woman’s torso, its subject complimented by the two knitted ‘paintings’, Saw Dust (2010) and Untitled (1989), the first knitted by the artist by hand, the latter by machine.

A strong contrast to Trockel’s tactile aesthetic, the work of Gego (1912-1994) is given even more sparing treatment in a visually striking exhibit on the floor above. Born in Hamburg, the Jewish artist had an unconventional life, fleeing Germany in 1939 and emigrating to Venezuela where she took citizenship. Well respected in her new home, Gego’s practice focused on sculpture and print making that probed the concept of line and its mathematical context. As depicted here in a specially commissioned video, this focus reached its peak in her Reticuláreas series, where interconnected metal webs were created to fill entire rooms. Alongside a tiny Gego sculpture, Untitled (Study) (1964), also shown in the exhibition is an intriguing geometric print, Untitled (Almanacque for 1969) (1968) which shows the artist following a complex formula relating to days and months of the year.

Ending on the upper floor gallery with the work of Polish artist Jadwiga Maziarska (1913-2003), ‘Parellel Systems’ concludes with a more traditional, museum-style presentation, as a result providing a more rounded impression of Maziarska’s approach. A body of largely abstract works that allow time to contemplate different aspects of the image, included here is a large fabric patchwork, Spontaneous Cause [Automatic Reason] (1950), that communicates well with Trockel’s work below. The wax on canvas painting, Composition (1960), conversely adds a sense of organic macabre to the exhibition, while the centrally placed sculpture, Spatial Form (1985), with its horn-like, steel spike standing erect from a wooden block, asserts a final brutal flourish.

If a unifying theme can be found between these three, varied artists, then Spatial Form perhaps provides the best guide, evoking, as it does, a clash between mechanical and domestic worlds, and the prescribed roles of men and women within them.

Showing for free at Art Stations Foundation, Poznan, Poland until 26 August 2012

http://artstationsfoundation5050.com/en

Exhibition Review by Richard Unwin

Parellel Systems: Gego / Maziarska / Trockel – Exhibition Review

Travel Article by Richard Unwin

The pop-culture referencing contemporary chic of the Blow Up Hall 50 50 hotel lies only a ten minute walk from the medieval heart of Poznan’s old town. In between, international brands and busy bars line the cobbled streets, while narrow side alleys harbour baroque churches, their brash splendor preserved in cool, quiet air.

Little more that two and a half hours by train east of Berlin, Poznan is very much the image of thriving, modern Poland, the historic beauty of its buildings still standing out amid the social embrace of capitalist, commerce loving culture. Best known as a base for business conferences and trade shows, the prosperous city nonetheless plays a prominent artistic role, hosting the extensive Mediations Biennale, as well as the permanent residences of some of Poland’s wealthiest collectors.

Unusually for a hotel, the five star Blow Up Hall is, in its own right, a cultural attraction; its walls used to display part of owner Grażyna Kulczyk’s contemporary art collection. Amongst the vivid work on view are large scale, fashion influenced photographs and a giant installation hanging above the brick-clad, cavernous lobby. Guests at the hotel actually become part of the art as cameras placed along the corridors capture their movements, the resulting images dissected and multiplied, and presented kaleidoscope-like on numerous screens. The clever blend of intrusion and interaction is the brainchild of artist

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, whose riff on Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film, Blow-Up, has been used as centre point for the entire hotel. Managing to be less pretentious than it might sound, the quirky themes are continued by the use of iphones to open doors, a cocktail bar at the base of a former hop kiln, and a minimalist-futuristic, haute-cuisine restaurant.

Alongside the hotel, Kulczyk’s Poznan empire expands across the Stary Browar (Old Brewary) complex, a post-industrial shopping and entertainment centre that would look perfectly at home in central Manchester. Following Kulczyk’s self-styled ’50:50’ concept of equally balancing art and commerce, sitting at the heart of Stary Browar is the multi-storey Art Stations Foundation. Built to manage Kulczyk’s growing collection, the foundation stages regular temporary exhibitions that use Kulczyk’s acquisitions as a starting point for further enquiry. Recent exhibitions have included New Order, curated by the team behind Warsaw’s contemporary BWA gallery and featuring the likes of Mirosław Bałka and Donald Judd, and Parallel Systems presenting three non-conformist, female artists. [link exhibition review]

Poznan’s wider artistic offerings include a major division of Poland’s National Museum, housing a wide collection of international fine art, and fresh young galleries such as the impressive Galeria Stereo. With the 2012 edition of Mediations opening in September, and games from Group C of Euro 2012 taking place in the city’s Municipal Stadium in June (a fact that will see thousands of Irish fans descend on the old town’s bars) the year ahead is all set to showcase Poznan at its liveliest. Visitors unhampered by budget, though, will always be able to escape to the vapour filled cocoon of the Blow Up Hall’s black tiled steam room.

Links:

http://www.blowuphall5050.com/#/intro/

www.mediations.pl/en

www.uefa.com/uefaeuro

Travel Article by Richard Unwin

Poznan – Art, Room Service and European football – Travel Article

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

“A memoir is how one remembers one’s life…”

Amouage is a perfume brand with a whole load of mystique surrounding it. And its loyal followers or devotees hang on every whiff of their most enigmatic range of scents. It has to be said there is something quite special about Amouage.

Well those fans are in for a treat. The House of Amouage has launched the Amouage Memoir Woman Bath and Body Collection. So now women have an entire range to reward their skin with including Bath and Shower Gel, Perfumed Soap, Body Cream, Body Lotion and Hand Cream that have all been formulated to nourish the skin with the richest of ingredients.

Each product in the range is exquisitely presented as you’d expect. The black seashell pot of the body cream radiates quality. The whole collection is infused with that renowned Amouage Memoir fragrance that will envelop the skin for the whole day. The range has been meticulously researched and formulated by renowned experts in the field using the finest natural ingredients to nourish and rejuvenate the skin.

So if you fancy a touch of luxury for your skin and are a lover of Amouage’s inimitable scent this new range has your name on it.

Amouage’s Memoir Woman Bath and Body Collection is available from the Amouage boutique (14 Lowndes Street, SW1), Harrods, Selfridges, selected boutiques nationwide and online at www.amouage.com

Beauty Article by Fiona Shaw

Amouage Memoir Bath and Body Collection – Beauty Article

Artist Feature by Sophia Satchell Baeza

Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda, has created a playful and interactive minimal playspace in the confines of Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof museum.

Entitled <<db>> (or decibel), Ikeda has created two diametrically opposing rooms that break down and deconstruct audio and visual impulses by reducing them to the bare minimum – whether they be sine waves, numerical data, sound pulses, colour ranges or pixels of light. In doing so, Ikeda has created an ultra-heightened, incredibly spacey, and joyously playful sensory experience. Don’t be afraid to have fun with it.

<<db>> is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Germany, and the spaciousness of Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof museum seems perfectly suited to these pieces. Berlin, with its vibrant experimental cultural history, is regularly at the forefront of pushing new boundaries with sound art, which it does through a month-long sound art festival called Sonambiente (held in 1996 and 2006), the International Sound Art Festival Berlin in 2010, a gallery devoted entirely to sound art (Singhur), and the specialised store Gelbe Musik, among other outlets.

This exhibition is the first in the history of the Hamburger Bahnhof to span both halls of the upper level of the museum’s east and west wings. Whichever room you go into first – the black room or the white room – affects your entire experience of the piece irreversibly. We started with black, ended with white, and the experience created a peculiar sense of disorientation. One room is painted entirely black and lined with video projections on both walls of the space, encouraging audience members to walk through, underneath and past projections of numbers. These millions of whirling, ever-changing numbers speeding by at an ultra-fast frame-rate create a moving patchwork that alternates and stops at regular intervals, in synch with the minimal music (in fact, it has been calculated that 1.3 billion digits will be projected throughout the exhibition’s run).

This piece, known as “the transcendental [nº4]” (2012), uses esoteric mathematics to create an alternate space where numbers speed onwards towards infinity. Audience members can stand in front of the video projections, and watch numbers gathering and whirring onto their face, or raise their glasses against the screen to watch the speeding numbers expand. A beam of white light is projected by a searchlight into the centre of the black room, and is directed through a hole, so it becomes visible as a white circle at the other end. Again, the space encourages you to play – we stand in the light projection and watch as millions of dust motes swirl around in the light, pushed by other people’s movement; or we walk across the searchlight and stand in front of the empty circle, with a powerful white light glowing behind us.

In the white room of the museum’s other wing, the effect the space imposes on you is entirely different. The walls of the room are shocking white and anaesthetic, with the glowing and sanitary cleanliness of the room reminiscent of a hospital or a mental ward. A black super-directional parabolic soundspeaker at one end of the room stands out dramatically against the sea of white, and plays a constant sinus wave – this sound effect is at once soothing and disturbing. The black speaker projecting noise into a white room is an interesting visual counterpart to the beam of white light being projected into a black room. The black squares described as “the irreducible [nº1-10]” (2009) reveal themselves to be tiny numbers (of over 1 million between the ten paintings). The overall feeling of the two rooms is of a dreamscape between two worlds, and what’s more, its fun: couples kissing in light projections, people photographing themselves in front of number projections or behind the white circle. The audience’s participation is as much a part of the exhibition as the work itself.

Ryoji Ikeda’s <<db>> exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum, Berlin (28^th January – 9^th April)  www.hamburgerbahnhof.de

Artist Feature by Sophia Satchell Baeza

Ryoji Ikeda’s db Sonic Playroom – Artist Feature

Book Feature by Robert Leeming

Being the morbid type I recently whiled away a spring Parisian afternoon wandering aimlessly around Pere Lachaise cemetery in the 20th arrondissement. This rambling space is home to many illustrious old bones, including those of literary dandy Oscar Wilde. His tomb, newly restored by a grant from the Irish government, is protected by a glass screen, the graveyard equivalent of a buffet sneeze guard, shielding it, like a force-field around a holy-relic, from devotees who have defaced and kissed the stonework to the edge of disrepair.

Today the glass is covered in red lipstick and felt-tip verses, and I wondered if his legions of mourners knew that Oscar used to mill around Oxford walking a lobster on a short length of white string. The girls, it seems, have always loved eccentrics, for nobody is worried that lipstick kisses are eroding away Marcel Proust’s grave.

 Eccentricity in simple terms can be summed up as doing exactly what you wish without a care for the opinions of others. To harmless ends of course. The eccentric has largely, since the eighteenth century, been a character associated with our islands, but they are, in truth, to be found anywhere where freedom of expression is left unfettered. In his charmingly detailed and informative new book, The Eccentropedia, Australian writer Chris Mikul lists some of the most unusual people who have ever lived and considers their eccentric lives and achievements in a brief biography of each.

Mikul’s eccentrics are split into four broad categories, contrarians, theorists, visionaries and entertainers. Moneyed aristocrats, due to their large amount of free time and bags of money, often fall into the contrarian category, “people who do not give a fig for social conventions and determinedly go their own way, whether it is in their clothing, habits, beliefs, hobbies or living arrangements.” Like Sir George Sitwell for example, a man whose primary accomplishment in life was to invent a tiny revolver for killing wasps, or Henry Paget the 5th Marquess of Anglesey, who squandered his entire family fortune on theatrical costume and modified his car so the exhaust pipe sprayed perfume. Contrarians are not only to be found in the upper classes, they can also to be seen living on the streets, like Bee Miles, a bag lady from Sydney, who memorised all of Shakespeare’s verse by heart and made money by reciting passages on request, money she saved for extravagant splurges such as crossing the continent from Sydney to Perth in a taxi cab, paying the driver five dollars every hundred miles from a plastic bag.

The theorists instead of refusing to conform to society believe they have something to offer it, a grand idea which will revolutionise the way we live our lives or alter our perception of the universe and our place within it. They are often wide of the mark, like Dr. Charlotte Bach, who claimed that all creatures have an inborn desire to become the opposite sex, she was later revealed to be a man. Or William Chidley, whose unrealistic sexual notions combined with vegetarianism and nudism, would, he believed, save humanity from itself. Every now and then though someone does skim awfully close to a revelation, like Cyrus Teed, who believed we were living inside a hollow earth (which makes sense if you think about it and suspend GCSE science for a moment) although this delusion does lose some of its romantic allure when you learn that Teed also believed he was the second Christ. Nevertheless, he did attract some followers, and their attempt to create a New Jerusalem in Florida, a community formed upon communist ideals, was deemed, briefly, to be one of the more successful attempts at a utopia.

Visionaries, the third category, are dreamers, witnesses to usually religious imagery that only they can see, often attempting to recreate these insights through art, sculpture or music. The final category Mikul considers is the entertainer, the writer takes careful consideration not to highlight people whose eccentricity was feigned to support their public image, but studies people whose eccentricity affected their entire lives. Big name entries include Michael Jackson, William Burroughs, Tiny Tim and Andy Warhol, but it is the forgotten names which provide the most interesting stories. Like Oofty Goofty, the human punch bag. Originally a freak show act called “the Wild Man of Borneo” Oofty Goofty would sit in a cage eating raw meat, chanting his moniker while covered in tar and horsehair. The tar caused him to become severely ill and doctors failing to remove it without taking great chunks of skin opted to dunk Oofty in solvent and leave him on the hospital roof to dry out. This highly technical medical procedure left Oofty temporarily unable to feel pain and, sparking a whole new career, he began charging strangers fifty cents to rough him up with a baseball bat. His run of “luck” came to end when a bare knuckle boxing champion thrashed him over the back with a pool cue, fracturing two vertebra. Then there is James McIntyre, the Canadian cheese poet, whose principle muse was anything dairy, he would regale guests with his cheesy odes at club house dinners, “The ancient poets ne’er did dream, that Canada was land of cream, where everything did solid freeze, they ne’er hoped nor looked for cheese.”

These are just some of the hundreds of befuddled and bemused heads honoured within Mikul’s authoritative tome, from the original thinkers to the alarmingly loony, there is an engaging human story to be found on virtually every page. In a world which has so often proved itself to be outrageously unhinged, one book couldn’t possibly include all the eccentric characters who have made their own broadside against normality in their time, but the most resonant and effecting stories are here, together making a fascinating read. In today’s formulaic era an original mind is a gift and the confidence to sustain originality, in the face of disdain and ridicule, is a gift greater still. If eccentrics live the life they choose without concession and have no regrets for doing so then good on them, just look at Oscar Wilde, his detractors aren’t losing their tombstones to lipstick and love.

For full details visit www.worldheadpress.com

Book Feature by Robert Leeming

Eccentropedia – An A-Z of Eccentrics – Book Feature & Review

Footlocker have announced their new in-store collections for Spring this year and they’ve been very busy collaborating with the top brands to come up with some exclusive new trainers in colours ready for the sunnier seasons.

Neutral and perfect for this season, the formula is a mono palette of silvery-grey, black and white with splashes of brights on vintage shoes across the brands. So we see new trainers from Converse Denim, Reebok RealFlex, adidas ZX, Lacoste Platinum, Nike Vintage and Nike Air Max all re-coated and raring to go…..

Lacoste Platinum 

The Lacoste Platinum range for Footlocker this Spring features a premium collection of five sneakers. The Tabor Platinum, is re-designed featuring the classic tennis inspired upper and Lacoste crocodile logo in glossy black with red outline. The Centara combines the chukka silhouette with a soft suede collar and premium nappa upper. With its tennis heritage, the Grad Vulc sneaker has clean lines in white and dazzling blue with silver thread and a luxurious suede heel. And completing the set are the Europa and the Newsome.

Nike Air Max Correlate

The innovative Nike Air Max is updated to the Nike Air Max Correlate. The striking new bright blue and green leather works well against the dark mesh backdrop, while the instantly recognisable leather swoosh and tongue is a subtle reminder of Air Max heritage. This latest edition features three eye-catching volt green Air Max units.

Converse Denim Chambray

Converse’s contribution offers up two versatile sneakers in denim. The Padded Collar 2 Denim and Star Reverb Denim are part of a work wear inspired collection that takes modern classics and gives them a designer edge. The PC2 Denim uses dark navy and black denim in a double upper which can be worn folded down to expose an enlarged logo, or up, for a classic boot look. The Star Reverb Denim takes its influences from iconic Converse basketball sneakers but adds a designer edge complimented by stitching and seams that are found in premium denim.

The Nike Blazer Vintage and Big Nike AC

From Nike’s basketball heritage come new styles of two iconic sneakers. Exclusive to Footlocker, the Nike Blazer Vintage receives the full vintage makeover – epitomised by the yellow outsole detail that adds a ‘worn-in’ feel. The lightweight Phylon midsole provides cushioning, while the rubber toe offers extra protection – a smart addition to a stylish sneaker. The Big Nike AC is back with authentic yellow Autoclave midsole, split padded tongue and ankle collar and innovative Nike technology for extra comfort street ready for 2012.

Reebok RealFlex Racer

Reebok has combined the feel of a natural run, using inspiration from the Reebok Heritage running sneaker, with a modern take on street style, exclusively for Foot Locker. Providing the best aspects of barefoot running shoes with the protection of a street smart sneaker, the design of the Reebok RealFlex Racer promotes the natural movement of the foot, with more support and padding from the hard ground thanks to its thicker sole and foam lining. The upper features mesh textile and lightweight overlay.

Adidas Originals ZX Comp

Foot Locker and adidas Originals are introducing the ZX Comp this spring, a sneaker influenced by two vintage  adidas running silhouettes from the ‘80s: the ZX 750 and the LA Competition. The ZX Comp brings the ‘80s vibe back into the streets, alongside some new colours and materials for some old favourites. For the guys there’s a reversible windbreaker from the MEGA range, while the ladies have the LA Trainer and Hard Court Hi, which also integrate classic ‘80s details.

All available from Spring 2012 exclusively at Footlocker. Lacoste Platinum (£69.99), Nike Air Max Correlate (£89.99), Converse Denim Chambray (£44.99 to £59.99). Nike Blazer Vintage and Big Nike AC (from £61.99), Reebok RealFlex Racer (£64.99), adidas Originals ZX Comp (from £62).

For more information, please visit www.footlocker.co.uk

Footlocker new trainers for Spring

Artist Feature by Carol Huston

A new solo exhibition by Mary Griffiths recently opened at Bureau Gallery in Manchester. Established in 2006, Bureau is co-directed by Sophia Crilly and Mark Kennard, themselves both practicing artists. As a commercial gallery based in Manchester, the directors recognise the challenges included in the territory of working in a city known for its music rather than its contemporary visual arts. But, for some artists like Griffiths, working in Manchester as both artist and curator has proven to be beneficial.

After ten years of knowing Griffiths, Kennard remarked that it was an organic decision for the gallery to represent her work. As an artist whose practice is primarily drawing, this follows suit with the strong tradition of drawing artists that the gallery represents, although that was not their initial intention. Instead, it developed organically, as Bureau also represents an experimental filmmaker and photographer alongside more traditional artists.

Bureau’s current exhibition ‘Fathom’ displays a series of framed black and white drawings in addition to a massive wall drawing which was made in response to the gallery’s environment. Griffiths’ practice began with figurative drawing and has evolved into more abstract drawings since around 2008. Each of her works on A4 paper takes several weeks to finish, considering she works full-time at the Whitworth Art Gallery as Curator of Modern Art. By scratching into the surface of each work, Griffiths produces compositions which recall the architectural and defy traditional two-dimensional restraints proposed by the medium.

For Griffiths, working as an artist and curator in the North West was a natural fit. She said, ‘Manchester and the North West are very much my home and the place that I work in. I’ve lived in the city since 1987, so I clearly think that it’s a good place to be. Manchester has shaped who I am and the art I make. There is a good community of artists and galleries and much work being made, a lot of it excellent. People like Pavel Buchler and Ian Rawlinson have had a great influence over my work, and the exhibitions put on by the galleries and the Manchester International Festival have brought brilliant artists to the city.’

Regarding the overlap between her curatorial and artistic practices, Griffiths’ understands well that ‘one of the most important things for an artist is to look at the works of others. Working as a curator with collections for many years has given me close daily contact with art made by many of the great artists of earlier centuries, and contemporary work too’.

Next month, one of Griffiths’ drawings from the show at Bureau will be featured in Drawing Paper, a publication produced by an artist and designer in Liverpool, Mike Karney and Jon Barraclough. Her works will be featured in an exhibition this November at Plataforma Revolver Gallery in Lisbon.

Exhibition continues 30 March – 12 May 2012 www.bureaugallery.com

Artist Feature by Carol Huston

Mary Griffiths’ ‘Fathom’ at Bureau Gallery – Artist Feature

You can’t escape the onslaught. London 2012 is rumbling towards us at a pace. The marketing is omnipresent.

I had an Olympic dream myself the other day about being forced to watch a never ending advert featuring Usain Bolt endorsing a treatment for piles and with tickets pretty much sold out, save for the early rounds of the Archery, it means the rest of us are pretty much left to try and catch it on TV. That is unless you’re lucky enough to be picked out as a Samsung Global Blogger where you’ll be catapulted into the heart of the Olympic experience.

The electronics giant is offering a few very lucky people the chance of a lifetime to get right into the heart of the action and be an ambassador blogger in London during the Olympic Games. Bloggers will be able to share their personal experience of the games and the myriad of cultures that make up the city and capture their own ‘taste of London’, broadcasting their experiences to the world on the specially created Samsung blog www.samsungglobalblogger.com

If you would like to take part you’ll need to record a 30 second video stating why you should be one of the lucky people picked out to come to London to fulfill your own Olympic dream. Submit your video online at www.samsungglobalblogger.com. Entries will be accepted from March 30^th through to the 22^nd April.

Jamie Oliver, household name and TV chef extraordinaire is part of the Samsung Global Blogger campaign. As a foodie and London devotee he has recorded his own video setting out why he loves London so much and why you should take part and get a ‘taste of London’ for yourself and experience the very best the city has to offer. But don’t just take my word for it click on the video to get the lowdown from Jamie himself.

Calling all Bloggers – Win & live the Olympic Dream

 Fashion Article by Hannah Lindsay Fleming and Jim Morrall

Jim Morrall and Hannah Fleming muse on their encounter during Paris Fashion Week with Thomas Wylde’s founder Paula Thomas. Her rise from Dudley to LA was via skin heads, punks, skulls, stretch leather and silk. The presentation of Thomas Wylde for autumn winter 2012 was distilled and refined without forgetting Paula’s gritty and typically British eye for sub culture.

JM – So who would think that two brummies might meet so far from home?! Was not her journey, albeit surprising, just really visible in the collection…

HLF- Quite, however I struggled somewhat to get a word in with all the chatter of the ‘Black Country’. A delightful hour with Paula over a double espresso and some raspberries. As she conversed about her life, her influences, her quandaries; the more I could see her vivacity and how it was reflected in the collection. And your first impression? I noticed your little eyes light up over the accessories…

JM – Indeed the accessories were a highlight I thought that she was on it in terms of colour with that dusky nude and all the rock and roll hard- wear. It’s like you can see manifested in a clutch the journey to California’s very polished aesthetic through London sub culture via the medium of skulls. She was indeed a formidable lady and I think that strength is visible in the ready to wear….

HLF – I loved how the collection communicated subtleties from her past. The appeal for me was the careful and well thought out translation. It was very wearable. A grown-up adaptation of’ ‘r &r hard-wear’; who would have thought possible?

JM – It was very grown up wasn’t it?! But there was a kind of west coast optimistic, carefree mood. It wasn’t intimidating but it was nonetheless polished. A long way from ferrying samples in a mini and sub-letting in your Korean suppliers’ house to help them bond and sew your accessories in time to meet deadlines. I can and I cannot imagine Miss Thomas going there and doing that, she was very earthy and real but she looked so put together.

Fashion Article by Hannah Lindsay Fleming and Jim Morrall

Wylde for it – Musings on Thomas Wylde label – Fashion Article

Fashion Article by Jim Morrall

On doing a little reading around New York’s Maiyet one might imagine something more soft and natural about their aesthetic. Connotations of hippies and patchouli can turn off a fashion eye when considerate commerce is discussed. In fact for this reason, it seems less appealing to talk straight away about Maiyet’s philanthropic motives for want of not throwing a bias into your reading.

Clothes, jewellery and accessories; for a brand in its second season there is a very complete collection. The clothes scream that kind of quiet, smug, excellent finishing that you might be more accustomed to seeing from more mature French and Italian houses. Architecturally positioned pleats, darts and bonded felt seams build precise structure. On ignoring technicalities, a languid silhouette dominates. I’ve never been so excited about a slim cropped black pant. Louche and tailored seem no longer mutually exclusive. Hovering so expertly between dynamism and accuracy is not what you normally expect from a second show.

Another remarkable thread was their interpretation of the owl trend fluttering around the zeitgeist. At Burberry amongst others, AW12 sees graphic motifs appliquéd very literally. Maiyet talk of snow owls in a much more focused, introspective poetry. The closest semiotic reference to the animal was a ditzy block printed chiffon. Off white, layered and scientifically cut to reference a flighty precision.

Fabrications were uncompromising; with the aforementioned manually block printed silks, a glorious pile on cashmere outerwear and a mastery of leather and goat fur. Jewellery played with gold and horn, and aggressive toes and cylindrical heels were softened by pony skin. Strict control of sumptuous workmanship might be explained by the German upbringing of Maiyet’s Italian creative director Gabriela Zanzani. A neo-minimalist vision makes stints at Calvin Klein and Celine no surprise.

To talk about mission, Maiyet’s founders are fuelled by the creation of economically viable business models for dying artisanal industries. Having discovered Maiyet, I would see that less as part of the socially conscious fashion movement. Instead, it feels like a globally minded new generation progression of the euro-centric cult of the artisan at brands like Hermès and Bottega Venetta.

Available at Barney’s New York www.barneys.com. Also available at Paris’ Montaigne Market for Autumn Winter 2012.

Fashion Article by Jim Morrall

Maiyet – Crafted with Passion – Fashion Article

Travel Article by Hannah Lindsay Fleming 

January, I was told, is the most unremarkable month of the year to visit the Swiss metropolis of Zurich. Arriving at the Central Station, which 2 months prior had been venue to bustling festivities, I noticed the locals were departing.

The atmosphere was emotionless and unitising, a cold fact reiterated by the cities own citizens and the temperature. Serious expressions adorned the stampede out of Zurich, smoking furiously they transported themselves across the station with a gait that was amusing and unnatural; restricted through the clothing choice of salopettes and rigid Salomon ski boots. Destination: winter sport and gluhwein.

A lack of buzz, apart from mass exodus at the train station was apparent but quickly disregarded. In amongst the sea of water- repellent, dull-coloured ski-wear an occasional floor length opulent mink or Arctic Fox came into view on the shoulders of preened middle-aged women, sporting Jackie ‘O’ shades and carrying vast Bally handbags- abundantly available from the considerably sized flagship store on Bahnhofstrasse 66.   Monsieur Morrall disembarked mid afternoon for a much awaited reunion and was the first buoyant face encountered since arriving. His company was exceptional. The sparse interior of the Cafe Noir on Neugasse 33 seating a maximum of 10 stony-faced Swiss at any time, seemed as good a place as any for a hot ‘gourmet’ refreshment and a mandatory catch up en route to our accommodation.   Our hotel, The Old Gregory, located in the ‘rot’ district was the  crème de la crème of budget accommodation; clean and comical and a short saunter past a host of curious independent shops – and an oddly located American Apparel on Josefstrasse 74.

Rippling out from the epicentre Bahnhofstrasse, a recipe of high street and high-end  incestuously integrated, Zurich’s centre was quiet and subdued with few weekend shoppers. Monsieur Morrall led me unwillingly to the luxury locale; Bottega Venetta and Hermes were on his list – thankfully we didn’t have to queue at the entrance.

Visually more pleasing was the contemporary flagship of street and ski wear brand +Alprausch’s, located off Banhofstrausse in downtown Zurich, the persona echoing nineties Canadian series ‘Due South’ – but an uber-modern Swiss account. The interior, dominated with an actual-size deer on a t-shirt display table; looking down at shoppers with an expression of gargantuan self-importance was reminiscent of the Hermes Sales Assistant.  Over the river multi-label ethical clothing store Make Things on Grüngasse 20 had an equally no-nonsense  aesthetic; clean, delicious lines, housing an eclectic mix of innovative designers.

Saturday night was reserved for old friends and a traditional Swiss fondue or if preferred a ‘Fohlenfilet’ or ‘baby horse steak’ also available on the menu. During dinner Monsieur Morrall told the story of a man who had died from eating fondue; the cheese had congealed in his stomach- but we remained unmoved and continued eating and eating and eating. Gallons of wine and liquid cheese did not make for a peaceful nights slumber, nor did the raucous tranny who arrived back to The Old Gregory at 2.30am. 

On Sunday, Zurich was even more like a ghost town, the majority of the shops were closed and a visit to the Mondejar Gallery, confirmed this. The gallery situated on Zentralstrasse 18, ‘celebrating both Swiss and Filipino artistic talent’ had been recommended and I had previously read that one of their artists was threatened by religious extremists last year for exhibiting a crucifix with a wooden penis attached. 

Instead we decided on Brunch at Forum on Badenerstrasse 120. The fact that it had been formerly graced by Prince William and David Beckham was of no consequence to either of us; the warm atmosphere filled with high-spirited chatter and the menu with a choice of 11 European dishes was

more appealing. I chose Swiss, he chose the  Spanish ‘Valencia’ before a march around the beautiful 17th and 18th century architecture of old town; it was too cold to stroll. I wished for a balaclava, Monsieur Morrall disagreed, stating he didn’t like to have wet, vaporous wool against his skin- most disagreeable! Wandering through the narrow cobbled streets en route to the station, the perfect end to the weekend arrived in the form of a luscious, sweet-treat from the stylish cafe- come-restaurant Cake Friends situated in The Lower Village. We both agreed the cake was remarkable and the initial thoughts that the city may be lacking in va-va-voom were dismissed. Zurich we decided was deserving of a second visit sometime – perhaps just not in January.

Travel Article by Hannah Lindsay Fleming

Zurich in Hibernation – Travel Article

Artist Feature by Claire Hazelton

In a half-hung room, sitting by the window, illuminated by sun-light is painter Josephine King, colourfully dressed in painted garments, bright pink shoes, black hair piled elegantly and framing a gently smiling face.

We sit facing one another, a backdrop of her own self on paper, full-sized, exploding with colour, words and something indefinable- honesty perhaps, something dark, a sadness behind the reds, yellows, golds and greens. Where we sit is a glimpse of King’s second solo show at Riflemaker gallery on Beak Street after her hugely acclaimed debut, ‘Life So Far’, an exhibition of self-portraits in ink telling the story of King’s life living with bipolar disorder. ‘I told him I was an Artist. He said, ‘Can you cook?’’, King’s upcoming show tackles, not only King’s struggle with mental illness, but also her identity as a female artist and her relationships with men.

‘I was painting for a long time, years, but always other things, other subjects.’ Josephine says, explaining the conception of her first self-portrait. ‘But then I got very ill with my illness – I was in an extremely dark place and it just happened, just poured out of my brush. Just like that, it just appeared – this woman on the paper, myself, my portrait… And that was it. For the next four years I just painted non-stop, always expressing my illness, this text around the edge, framing it all.’ Sitting back in our chairs, a vehicle grumbles and growls beneath the window and the floor of the gallery vibrates slightly. ‘For this show the same thing just hit me again, it started to flow. This time though, I wanted full-sized portraits; I wanted to send my message through with the colours again and the clothes too, but there’s something else now too – it’s been more to do with looking at the outside world- the outer, rather than the inner.’

Together we look behind King at a large portrait, the artist draped in colour, clutching a sketchook, ‘see, it’s more me because it’s life sized!’ She laughs. ‘But it’s not all about me and my illness; it dawned on me that I had rather a lot to say about what it is to be a female artist, the reactions you get, how you’re seen as being (for the most part) selfish… or well, what I call ‘the selfish bitch.’ …You don’t often hear people say these things of course!’ Again she laughs, ‘but you do see it in their eyes, in where their conversations lead – a woman is seen as selfish if she does what she wants to do and doesn’t conform.’

I ask if the ‘modern woman’ in Josephine’s paintings is herself or perhaps all women and she says with a certain thoughtfulness, ‘it is me, yes, but it also represents what I see: that women still suffer a lot in the 21^st century, bad marriages, loneliness, violence – a violence which I myself have been through with men. I am addressing something which maybe lots of women can identify with. I want to show that these things are happening, but no one is talking about it. Women don’t come together now because they think equality is ‘done’ or we are free, but really, we’re not’

‘It makes the message stronger to have text around the edge too: people look a second time – they might read, then look, and then see it, my message. I can say what I want to say because I’ve got nothing to loose, nothing to hide.’ A huge, mischievous grin spreads across King’s face, ‘I’m not stopping! I’m going on! I’m going for it!’ she says.

The passion and the genuineness of King’s conversation astound me as we delve deeper into conversation, moving onto talking about her illness. Her smile, contagious, seems to rub of onto me as I grin and laugh with her as she turns even the darkest of subjects into stories full of colour and humour: ‘When I’m manic you cant stop me! I painted this for example!’ she says pointing at her outfit, ‘and these shoes too! I just get the bucket of paint and paint whatever.’ The sun floods the room with gold and an elongated shadow of Josephine’s regal hair stretches up the walls.

‘My sketchbooks are probably the most important thing to me…. Here in my picture, look!’ She points behind her at a painting on the wall. ‘I fill these sketchbooks with colours, animals, everything and anything of where ever I travel to and it all becomes painting in the studio. But I don’t have to go abroad to paint! I can travel in the British Museum because the whole world’s art is there! Clothes are really important too – I don’t like fashion, but I love clothes. I think they express something of me. The first impression people get is usually from the clothes, the bright colours. The paintings look happy from a distance but close up there’s this darkness. It’s a paradox really between what’s beautiful and what’s painful.’ I look up into the eye’s of Josephine’s portraits and see what she speaks of: a bleak, unfaltering stare peering through seas of shimmering colours.

‘The influences and the sources of the paintings come from a lot of places. It’s all experiences, life… My life is painting – it’s what I do and what I think. I feel wrong now because I’m not painting, very wrong. It makes me happy and it’s helped me enormously. It keeps me alive!’ She smiles once more as our conversation comes to an end and, lost in her paintings, her words and her great personality, I leave in a dream.

JOSEPHINE KING: ‘I told him I was an Artist. He said, “Can you cook?” ’ is on at Riflemaker Monday 26 March to Saturday 21 April 2012

To find out more go to www.Riflemaker.org

Artist Feature by Claire Hazelton

I told him I was an Artist. He said, “Can you cook?” Artist Feature on Josphine King

Fashion Article by Jim Morrall

A new type of marvel for mankind is the dimension that Boudicca’s Zowie Broach manifests as her area of exploration.

Their fashion week showroom in Paris was the scene for Flux’s short journey into a cosmos where the Higg’s boson serves as much as common ground as might the correlation between 1930s and 1970s dress shapes. Fashion is not facetious in this plane and a new way of seeing new concluded a thirty-minute chat over mandarins.

The collection was born of research into the idea of the 1930s, 1970s and 2030s. Revisiting both the past and the past’s notions of futurism, it is a tight offer of very limited edition dresses and tailoring sitting at the most artistic end of ready to wear. Indeed, in 2007, Boudicca was the first British independent house to be guest members of the chamber Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Geometric and anally precise laces matched their Swiss origins while muted meadowy florals were preened through superb construction and killer inverted box pleats on the cheeks of a wide legged pant. Having said that, black dominated and pops of acid salmon bought clout. It’s a very diverse set of influences that might not make sense in text, but together there is a kind of multi–referenced harmony that prevails. The time discussing the concept as a team can be felt through a cohesiveness and clarity that feels mathematical.

Indeed, discussion of the CERN’s potential findings concerning the speed at which neutrinos seem to be travelling (i.e. faster than the speed of light, thus confirming theories that propose to redefine conventional understanding of the universal laws of physics) left us with the distinct feeling that maybe there is no new in fashion if we see new as it has always been seen. There might be no room now for the mini-skirt to feel like a revolution, but there is a way of redefining newness itself through science, technology and truth.

Fashion Article by Jim Morrall

Boudicca – The Futurism Looks Bright – Fashion Article

A recently released film by Konstantinos Menelaou’s has highlighted Yang Du’s new AW12/13 collection, with Yang Du herself the stylist and designer on set. The art direction of the peculiar narrative tells the story of the Italian Ferry Disaster and Noah’s Ark.

Along with a contemporary performance by Ryan Styles, London-based Yang Du’s presentation in Paris entitled ‘Why do fools fall in love?’ was a light hearted occasion, to find it in any way objectionable, wasn’t possible.

YANG DU / AW12 from On|Off TV on Vimeo.

‘The animals went in two by two, Hurrah, Hurrah’, was both the colourful tribe of onlookers that queued up outside and the models that took to the catwalk two-abreast. They wore interpretations of giraffe, zebra and flamingo combined with comical knitted head-gear and gargantuan back-packs. Yang Du soaked a grey Paris day in bright jungle fever.

The foundation of the Chinese designer’s A/W2012 collection consisted of animal narratives on knitted dresses. An owl and a fox, giraffe and flamingo; some of the dresses were combined with unsophisticated, child-like knitwear. Unpretentious beanie hats and finger mittens, then a crocodile scarf disembarked down the runway – all highlighting Du’s flamboyant persona.

The A/W 2012 collection was presented to spectators, not shown. First to appear was the self-assured Elephant man; tail, trunk and all, his t-shirt declaring, ‘You are an Elephant, I am a God!’ The sound of bird squawks and animal calls set the scene. The models had faces streaked with tribal war paint of bright aquamarine, fuschia pink and daffodil yellow- a post-modern femme stopped off in Paris en route to her hidden habitat. The dancer’s wore exaggerated expressions, black body stockings and Yang Du accessories.

Styles’ contribution to the show was sufficiently unusual but what part of the Yang Du presentation wasn’t? Her offering was quirky and full of eccentricities, her imaginative presentation emphasised the concept and importance of reinvention, of optimism and most importantly humour. At one point, a frenzied tickling fracas between a roaring tiger and lion ensued on the runway. As they both battled for supremacy, the tiger quickly admitted defeated and wriggled off.

It was these intermissions of contemporary dance followed by knitted dress and animal racket that succeeded to be an undeniable crowd-pleaser. Styles’ involvement worked favourably alongside the collection confirming Du as a tenacious creative and one to keep an eye out for.

Words by Hannah Lindsay Fleming

You’ve got to Love Yang Du – AW12/13 fashion

It goes without saying that Lady Gaga is more than just a pop star. She’s a musician, music producer, artist, visionary, entrepreneur, philanthropist and LGBT advocate, but unexpectedly she’s also a fascinating study in numbers.

You may think Lady Gaga tickets selling out mere minutes from release is what is behind this global megastar’s vast fortune, but you might be surprised to find out that ticket sales only make up a small percentage of Lady Gaga’s income. Lady Gaga is worth big money, being estimated to have made over 90 million dollars in 2011 alone by Forbes and according to music news and reviews website NME, a third of her income, over 30 million dollars, was made through her Twitter account.

Lady Gaga is one of the world’s most impressive social media “influencers”, having been the first person in the world to rack up 10 million, 18 million and now 20 million followers on Twitter. This has given her an unprecedented level of influence over her fans, as having direct access to the singer has developed a loyalty that few can match. Gaga’s fans are less likely to illegally download her music as a result and are more inclined to purchase goods outside the singer’s music. In effect by carefully cultivating her Twitter presence, Gaga has increased the size of her fanbase and earning potential in one fell swoop.

It’s not just Twitter where Gaga reigns supreme though. She is also one of the most “liked” celebrities on Facebook, where she currently sits at half a million shy of 50,000,000 fans. To put that in perspective, this means that Lady Gaga has more Facebook fans than Spain has residents (the Spanish population being only 46 million strong). Many of her fans from Twitter are also her fans on Facebook, but this still leaves a gap of 30 million fans on Facebook that Gaga has further influence over.

The internet is not the only money spinner for Mother Monster – Lady Gaga still rakes it in when it comes to ticket sales for her enthralling concerts. Lady Gaga raked in a whopping 1.3 million dollars per concert in 2011 and topped this up with endorsements to walk away with a cool one and a half million per night. Much of these earnings were funnelled back in to Gaga’s shows, music production and other endeavours, but considering she played over 270 shows in 2011 it’s no wonder the singer made more money than any other musician in 2011.

One last figure to consider in the numerology of Gaga: she gives 50 per cent of her earnings to her father.

Lady Gaga by the Numbers

How does a spot of Polar exploration grab you? Ever wanted to release the inner explorer in you? When I think of more adventurous travel my mind conjures up the usual trekking in Nepal, braving the Tran-Siberian railway or maybe white water rafting in New Zealand. These have almost become travel clichés. Party talk for the chattering classes or the ‘what I did in my gap year’ warblings of certain thirty-somethings. When I saw the press release for Quark Expeditions though I sat up and blinked as it sank in. This was the real thing. What all those other trips hint at but never quite deliver. This travel company go that one step further.

For the last 20 years or so Quark Expeditions have been a pioneer of polar adventure travel. They take small groups of people to explore the frozen wilderness where you’re more likely to see a polar bear than another human being. So they are not your ordinary travel company then. In 2011, Quark was named a recipient of National Geographic Traveler’s “50 Tours of a Lifetime” for the company’s “Three Arctic Islands” voyage. They have all the back-up you’d expect from such an experienced polar exploration company with a diverse fleet of specially equipped vessels and seasoned expedition leaders. They offer travelers unparalleled access to the most remote regions on earth.

Quark feature in ‘The Frozen Planet’ the breathtaking joint BBC and Discovery Channel series which is about to hit US screens for the first time. BBC and Discovery Channel production teams travelled with Quark to capture the stunning scenery featured in the series. So if you secretly see yourself as a Polar explorer and fancy testing yourself in some of the most incredible but remote parts of the globe – maybe it’s your time.

For more information about travelling with Quark visit www.quarkexpeditions.com

Travel Article by Trevor Hodges

Release Your Inner Polar Explorer – Travel Article

There are many, many festivals vying for our attention these days. They range from the mega huge corporate sponsored to the much honed and specialised. Now the people behind the much touted End of the Road have come up with No Direction Home, a nugget of a music and arts festival that is as far away from the overblown MegaFest as you can get. And the location is truly magical with its first outing at Welbeck Abbey in the northern reaches of Sherwood Forest.

As you would expect the line up for No Direction Home is rather special including Andrew Bird, Richard Hawley, Gruff Rhys and The Low Anthem. The setting for the main stage is pretty special too situated next to a lake and with views of the historic abbey. The countryside around the abbey, first mentioned as far back as the Doomsday Book has never before played host to such a festival so this is a first in many ways.

There are lots of levels to the No Direction Home Festival much of it away from the main stage. One of the highlights for me is The Lost Picture Show Cinema, a lovingly realized vintage cinema, a cellulose time machine, woven from intricately sewn and draped fabric. This will screen everything from the Victorian experiments of Georges Méliès to the Hollywood product of today, via 20s musicals, 60s psychedelia and 70s schlock horror; Buster Keaton, Marilyn Monroe, David Lynch, Werner Herzog and many more.

A literary yurt will play host to readings by well respected wordsmiths including Jon Ronson, Nat Segnit, Richard Milward, James Atlee, Katharine Hibbert and Ben Masters. Next door there’ll be the Lutyens and Rubenstein bookshop and each morning the Crazy Comic Club will convene where kids can create their own comics.

Overlooking the lake will be The Flying Boathouse, curated by The Local’s Howard Monk. Here you’ll be able to grab an ale and enjoy instrument-making, songwriting, live bands, quiz olympics, DJs and much more. Welbeck’s own School of Artisan Food will run a workshop venue with opportunities to learn everything from how to make butter from scratch to how to make Indian flatbreads.

So it’s shaping up nicely with nine new bands just announced including Euros Childs, Woodpigeon and The Wave Pictures. This is well worth considering if you are looking for something more from your festival experience this summer. Sipping an ale with an ancient abbey as your backdrop while soaking up the sounds and atmosphere? Sounds perfect to me. This, we’re sure, is set to be a rather enchanting first year.

For more information and prices on this music and arts festival go to www.nodirectionhomefestival.com

No Direction Home – Unique Music and Arts Festival

Bethnal Green’s Museum of Childhood has always been a queer, wondrous hall of curios. Since Cathie Pilkington’s characters moved in, the mood has grown ever more strange – and her art has, she says “enthralled and appalled” children and adults alike with her latest London art show. Cathie, a graduate from the Royal College of Art, lives and works in Bethnal Green – right by her creations.

Singerie is the first model I came across in the museum. Seven monkeys sit along a table, their feet peep out under the white tablecloth, dangling from plastic chairs. They’ve been having a party. Bunting and balloons trail on the floor, and there’s a mess – used cups and spilled food.  It looks like fun. Such fun, in fact, that a little toddler tried to launch itself into the scrum.

But Singerie isn’t simple fun and games: some of the monkeys, peculiarly, wear skin-coloured masks. Cathie explained: “It’s always been important to me to communicate to people on lots of levels. It’s interesting to see how the children all think they’re really fun and lovely while the adults think they’re really creepy and unsettling.

“Sangerie means monkey trick. It’s an old French genre of artwork where animals ape human behaviour. The work is a kind of satire, which is funny and sad”.

For full interview & feature go to Fluxlings
The exhibition is on to May 5^th www.museumofchildhood.org.uk

London art show preview by Joanna Eckersley

The Value of the Paw – Cathie Pilkington – London Art Show

Photographer, Teddy Fitzhugh’s debut London photography exhibition is a vision of the capital’s underground music scene featuring some very private seconds of unsuspecting clubbers lost in the moment.

In ‘Have Fun Always’ the 24 year old Fitzhugh celebrates the absolute and elemental power of music through a series of striking black and white images.

The series captures those fleeting euphoric dancefloor sensations, how you imagine yourself, how you remember yourself. We can all associate with these images – and how wonderful to spot yourself afterwards. Privacy invaded maybe, but captured for eternity.

We spoke to Mr Fitzhugh on his photography and his debut show.

FLUX: Do you always shoot in black and white?

Teddy Fitzhugh: I shoot a mixture between black and white, and colour. For me, the decision happens in the edit. I choose the colouring of sets according to what I feel matches the atmosphere of the night documented.

FLUX: We see a lot of live photography and I think it is really difficult to make interesting. The thing I like about these is the way there is often one person as the focus – like private/internalised moments in a crowd. Is that intentional?

Teddy: In the selection of images for Have Fun Always, that definitely is a theme that runs through them. I like the fact that someone can be in a crowd of 1,000 but still having a personal reaction and experience.

FLUX: How do you choose the subject? Do you take lots and then sift them out, or do you watch and focus on a certain person? Are any of them people you know?

Teddy: I take lots and sift through. I shoot hundreds of images over the course of the night, and from there it’s a case of going through every single one and curating the selection so the final series reflects the night as a whole.
FLUX: I assume they don’t know you’ve taken the photo in a lot of instances beforehand. Do they get to see them afterwards? Have you ever been approached by one of your subjects after an exhibition who didn’t know they were going to be in a show?

Teddy: It depends. I mean they get tagged on Facebook, people use the images for their profile shots. I’ve never been approached by anyone who wants an image removed, and I would never intentionally put out an image in a nasty manner. As most of the images are taken for online only, rather than print, a lot get lost in the internet wasteland… the Have Fun Always exhibition seems like a great way to turn them into something physical.

FLUX: Is there a current fashion / music scene you are photographing that is really interesting to you from a photographer’s point of view?

Teddy: I am just interested in youth culture and subculture as a whole. I wouldn’t say I only document one group or anything, it’s just people with personality and individuality that capture my eye and interest me.

‘Have Fun Always’ is at 18 Hewett Street, London, EC2A 3NN until 18 March 2012. Fitzhugh will be releasing a limited edition book of photographs available soon.

For more on Teddy McHugh see http://teddyfitzhugh.tumblr.com.

Teddy Fitzhugh ‘Have Fun Always’ – London Photography Exhibition

March may be a little early to start whipping off the socks and donning the flip flops, but the bright young things at Havaianas have come up with the perfect way to bring some colour to winter-worn soles before the summer arrives. Sunday 25th March will see the launch of the Havaianas Origine Espadrille, a canvas shoe designed for lads and lasses in the spirit of Brazilian verve. Synonymous with the iconic flip-flop, but with added practicality in mind, you need never fear springtime showers again. 

 Available in a range of colours that will make a welcome change from last year’s tired, worn out pumps or stifling winter shoes, there’s a pair to complement every outfit. The new range proves that Havaianas are establishing themselves not just as beach wear, but as a stylish and comfortable option that can survive the unreliable weather of the urban space.

What’s more 3 lucky Flux readers are invited to attend the exclusive launch event in central London on Sunday 25th March, from 11am at a secert location to be revealed. If you’re up for some fun and frolics and like the sound of the new range, let us know in the comment box below. We really want some guys to join the party so come on, don’t be shy. You’ll need to arrive adorned in the colours of summer, have plenty of energy and be far from camera-shy – you’ll be expected to strike your best poses for plenty of lomo-snaps which will be featured on the Havaianas website. You’ll also receive a free pair of the new Havaianas Origine Espadrilles, which will be guaranteed to liven up your footwear collection in time for lazy, hazy days. It all promises to be a launch event with a real twist. Sounds good? Let us know!

See more at Havaianas Facebook page

words Claire Ramtuhul

Sponsored Post

Spring into eternal summer – exclusive invite to Havaianas launch happening

Serial traveller Lisa Wikander stitches her cultural sightings into her own womenswear brand, Mes Dames. Only 3 years old, Mes Dames is expanding rapidly and has many buyers worldwide. This fashion article from Emma Daniels traces its winding roots, delves into the new collection and quizzes the designer on the past, the present and the future of her exquisitely handcrafted brand.

What is Mes Dames?

Mes Dames is a new female fashion brand, currently expanding in Stockholm. Mes Dames is French for my ladies, and the name runs a thread through each collection. It all started in Paris 2009 when a friend who had a store wondered if I could make a collection to sell there. Since then Mes Dames has made two collections per year and has founded more buyers in France, China and Sweden. The French name signalises its Parisian roots, but it is neither completely French nor Swedish.

What has happened to Mes Dames and the people behind it so far?

A lot has developed since the start in 2009. I have learned everything from how to transform my creativity into clothes, to how to translate my inspirations and ideas into garments, to finding the running thread in different ideas that makes up a collection and defining my own style. Running a fashion brand is also about so many other things than just design, organising production with volumes and fabric choices and sample making are a part of my gained knowledge. It is important to find the balance between these roles.

Mes Dames states both Swedish and French influences, how do you feel these mould together and influence the brand?

In my life, I have been moving around a lot, I was born in Hamburg, raised in Stockholm and educated in Paris. In the last couple of years, I have been living between Paris, Shanghai and Rome, but I finally decided to settle down in Stockholm, my private and professional base. My designs are a mix of the sensual French and the clean Nordic, the result of an international lifestyle.

Mes Dames is sold in Shanghai, what is it about the brand that appeals to the Chinese market?

I think the feminine, more dressed fashion fits the Shanghai woman very well. When living there I often reflected over how they dressed up for work, always in heels. European brands are popular in China, and not only the famous fashion houses.

What is the Mes Dames philosophy?

I collect interesting, characteristic women as a source of inspiration. It could be a real life historic person, or just someone unknown in a portrait, they all become one of mes dames (my ladies). I am a bit of a romantic so my inspiration often tends to be from the past, but I try to convert it into a contemporary look.

Who is the Mes Dames girl?

Wearing my collections should make you feel strong and elegant, and inspire you to make an impact just like the characteristic women of my inspiration. Everyone who gets that feeling is one of mes dames!

The photographs by Anna Malmberg of the A/W 12 collection are amazing, what were the inspirations for the shoot?

19th century oil portraits, like the ones by Swedish painter Helene Schjerfbeck, inspired me. The three models could be sisters or just friends, coming alive through the camera.

What pieces are key to the collection?

There is always a base of clean cut silk blouses, this season the colours were white, blue, mustard and canvas. The canvas coat and pants, inspired by the structure of the painting canvas, are signature pieces of the collection.

Has Mes Dames been involved with Stockholm Fashion Week?S

During fashion week in Stockholm Mes Dames had a showroom, displaying the collection for autumn/winter 2012. I hope that for the next season we will be able to do a show as well.

What are the future aspirations for the Mes Dames brand?

I will continue to work with Mes Dames, developing the brand, collecting more ‘ladies’. The goal is to set up a bricks and mortar store in which I can fully develop the concept of Mes Dames.

See more at www.mesdames.se/

Fashion Article by Emma Daniels

All photography taken by Anna Malmberg

Growing up under the influence of her artist parents, Anna won a photography scholarship in Stockholm at the age of 18. For many years, she assisted numerous photographers until embarking on a career in art and fashion business. Anna has since had many of her own exhibitions in both Sweden and Taiwan and currently resides in Paris.

Mes Dames – Interview with Lisa Wikander – Fashion Article