tantramar

Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself

A few days back I mentioned an exhibition at the Kemistry gallery where you stand in front of five writers who then (in two minutes) write an impression of you. It's a curious idea. Generally people said I looked nice, a little uncomfortable but nice. One woman said I would give my life selflessly for others, which was intriguing. I was wearing a turquoise scarf at the time which nearly everyone had an issue with for one reason or another.

I'm told some people (who featured in the exhibition) have complained about what the writers wrote. It's interesting how much different people care about what others think of them.

It's certainly curious to get a peak inside someone's brain as to their response to you. The snap judgments people make about others are often so harsh and final.

This was my favouite page written by some crazy old sea dog of a writer.

Some of the profiles are very funny, it's worth popping by.

FM Interference

This is the Curve gallery at the Barbican (which is free). There is nearly always good stuff in the Curve. It's always playful in nature and I think this one is one of my favourites for playfulness.

Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has created a sort of interactive radio interference project. As you walk through the Curve gallery a bright light from the left shines on you creating a large shadow of you on the right hand wall. This shadow is mapped with a red outline, pinpointing your location and movements.

Then as you move you body you find and interrupt Fm radio frequencies that are aimed at certain points. Making your shadow larger and smaller raises the lowers the volume.

So it feels like your body has suddenly become an antennae to enable the broadcasting of Rinse FM or Meteor data. The little speakers along the floor line then play the sound of what you have found.

It's very playful and I saw kids having a great time dancing around and making the radio turn on / off and change channel. It's as you step back that you realise the journey of walking through the gallery is exactly like scrolling the whole way though an analogue radio dial. A lovely idea. I felt like one of the borrowers on the set of Predator!

The show runs until January 18th.

Update: between 15th - 23rd Nov courtesy of the ICA Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will be creating the worlds largest interactive video installation in Trafalgar Square!

What A Stranger Thinks...

Kemistry Gallery have an interesting show on right now. It's a collaboration with the renowned ad agency Fallon.
Over nine days, 283 people stood on a cross on the floor in the gallery and five writers (from different disciplines) each wrote a first impressions portrait. They were only allowed 2 minutes.

The show is currently in the second stage, so you can only view the portraits, sadly no longer get one written of your own. One was written about me but I haven't had time to get down there to read it yet.
I'm very curious though...
The show is on until 22nd November.

Banksy Pets NYC

Banksy opened his little pet store recently in New York (89 7th ave). It's a series of visual puns on pets stores and fast food in America. Some of it is quite amusing although more amusing are the comments you'll hear from tourists and locals in the shop, such as 'oh look, Tweety has cancer'!

There's nothing for sale and there are a series of cheap looking generic pet shop products on the wall. Bansky has been in some news of late after completing a series of very large murals in NYC, on walls that he rented as apposed to merely commandeering. It's also in the wake of some negative feedback from his New Orleans work. I was getting rather tired of the stencils so I'm glad he's exploring other ideas aside from painting livestock.

There are some more pictures in my Flickr set.

Futura and Jose Parla Show

I've just come back from the Jose Parla and Futura show at the Elms Lester Painting Rooms. I've gotta say it's easily one of the best shows they've had there. I like Futura's work but I feel he should stop drawing those point guys he's been doing for 15 odd years and concentrate on the more fine art pieces he does which are way better. I didn't know Jose Para (above) before I went and I was pretty impressed. Like Futura, not all of his work hits the mark, but when it does, it really has an impact.

Are there more pictures? Of course, there's a Flickr set. 

Geoff You Laid Back Guy You

I like Geoff McFetridge, he's such a like, nice laid back guy. This show in Holland looks pretty interesting.

Made For Skate

I ambled on down tho the Made For Skate exhibition in The Truman Brewery this weekend. I don't know what it is about exhibitions in the Truman Brewery - they all feel half cut...like this one. It was small and had some nice artifacts borrowed from a museum in Stuttgart - Skateboard Fever, but it felt like they could have had a slide show running or some films.

There were nice things though, like I said...

I'm a bit of a Vans fan. It's what I wore in 1989, and I've come back to them in the last 6 years or so. Because of this, I always like seeing some Vans I've never seen before.  I didn't know anyone had made any breakdancing specific shoes! How crazy are these bad boys and check out the tag too. Re-pro please!

Why don't we have any museums over here that document modern style and fashions fads / trends of each age. That would be pretty funny. Perhaps each previous year could be unveiled on January 2nd and you could re-visit the styles of the past year. That kinda appeals to me.

Marcus Likes His Music

I popped down to see the new Marcus Oakley show last night in the Old Shoreditch Station.

The inspiration for much of Marcus's work seems to come from music from the seventies, which is fine with me.
In the show were portraits like this one of Kenny Rogers as well as ELO, The Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac. Random Beach Boys lyrics seemed to be the titles of other pieces too.

He had completely taken over the venue covering nearly every spare piece of wall. The work is visually really appealing and full of inspiration and ideas. Keep it up Marcus!
I think I might get him to do me a Neil Young portrait.