The event opens tonight and runs until the 20th of November.

Obviously it won’t actually look animated although it might depending on who the drink sponsor is.

She uses the truly fascinating medium of light painting, a technique that I’ve been interested in since Rachel Freire introduced me to the work of Aurora Crowley. The technique is quite straight forward – all the images are shot on a long exposure and the daubs and splatters you see are created by literally painting with light. Static garment details are higlighted with UV light with movement and energy created by the graffiti-like swirls of all kinds of light from lazers to simple torches.

Designers used in the below shoot include club-kid favorites Pam Hogg, Kokon To Zai, Bernhard Wilhelm, Andrew Logan, Craig Lawrence, Jeremy Scott and Manish Aurora. The effect achieved by using club lighting in a fashion shoot lends a whole other neon lit dimension we only usually get to see in basement bars and clubs of the afterhours.

The exhibition runs from the 22nd of September to the 23rd of October at The Book Club Leonard Street.

I’m sure this has all been written up in the Metro but we live in a .5 mile radius bubble(we never have occasion to take the undeground) so when things happen like Volcanoes erupting etc we generally don’t hear about it until someone abroad calls us and tells us they’ve been stuck in an airport in the arse end of nowhere. Luckily we did actually hear about the riots because the riots were in our .5 mile radius. Well actually that’s half true, Kath didn’t hear about it because she was in a Volkswagen van in a valley somewhere in the misty rain in Ireland and all her mates in Australia thought she’d been burned along with all those books – hang on that was that Salaman Rushdie? I dunno, I only do fashion.

So yeah, back to the question, if you were in the market for a swimming pool you could potentially get Zaha Hadid Architects to build you one of these.

The concept is inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion, an undulating roof sweeping up from the ground as a wave. Grandiose architecture quite often serves to make man feel insignificant. Acts of nature such as massive waves and bodies of water are similarly humbling. Pretty amazing that they’ve managed seamlessly connect a manmade object to the natural world.

The future is now. Go swim in it.

To be totally honest, prior to this exhibition I wasn’t familiar with Tracey Emin’s actual work. I’d seen her at times outrageous behaviour in interviews which I thought was pretty badass, knew she was fond of a drink or two, heard about her unmade bed and all the dudes she’s slept with but for some reason her work has so far passed me by. Maybe it’s because if an artist needs to make so much noise then I just assumed that the work wouldn’t actually back it up.

Having unintentionally dissed Tracey I couldn’t turn down an invitation to review her current exhibition at the Hayward. The exhibition titled “Love is What You Want” is the first major London survey of her work. The large-scale exhibition includes many unseen pieces as well as a series of outdoor sculptures created for the Hayward.

Tracey Emin
Hotel International
1993
Appliquéd blanket
257.2 x 240 cm 
copyright the artist
Private Collection, courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York

The impressively curated show opens with the big guns a double story room of her infamous quilts onto which are sewn details of love affairs and thoughts relating to same. This intial room was swiftly followed by a black room with statements such as “You Forgot to kiss my soul” realised in seedy sex-club-neon signage, clearly uttered in bitter irony through Tracey’s cheeky grin. The Alton Towers momentum is maintained throughout simply becuase Tracey’s just a really really interesting person. It was some of the smaller details that got my attention such as her little nineties curly bob, hoopy earrings and pinstripe suits to the glass case containing a mementos from the “The Shop” in 1993, a disused butchers on Bethnal Green Road from which she launched herself onto the British art scene.

The one thing that really strikes you is the gruesome honesty. Some of the glass display cases(used Tampons anyone? letters to her aborted child?) reminded me of those jars with pickled brains in the Natural History Museum only this person is very much alive which is what makes it so arresting.  We all have an incessant barrage of thoughts difference being ours reside bubble-wrapped, firmly on the inside. Tracey’s are realised in cold stark, flouro, high definition filling the walls, floors and glass cases of the Hayward Gallery.

Tracey Emin
I’ve got it all
2000
Inkjet print
10.5 x 9 cm
copyright the artist
The Saatchi Gallery, London

There’s something kind of bossy about the title of the exhibition “Love is What You Want” – you can help feeling that this is something she’s persuaded herself to believe becuase you never sense that love is what she got. There’s a real sense of melancholy from a girl who’s tried to find it(through her numerous lovers which amounted in little more than casual sex), been close to it (pregnancy), lost it(abortions) and never really found it.

The exhbition runs from the 18th of May until the 29th of August at London’s Hayward Gallery.

Now stop making excuses, get out to an Art Gallery and do some thinking, if you visit one show this year make this it- love it or hate it you won’t be disappointed.

Tracey will also be answering qustions on Facebook every Tuesday at Text Tracey Tuesdays so if you fancy asking the women herself then you can.

3D seems to be huge at the moment, with TV’s, Games, Computers and all sorts bringing out versions of this new technology. Fashion is also embracing the trend with the likes of Burberry streaming shows in 3D and Ralph Lauren going as far as 4D! Fashion editorial is also taking it on, with the trade mark blue and red shadows and free glasses appearing more and more often (Dazed&Confused for example) in magazines. I have to say my only experience of 3D (with glasses) was a recent nuts magazine laying around guys friends flat, amusing but not really artistic! I still have to see a movie in 3D too! I do actually like 3D ready images like the ones shown above with out glasses as well tho, it kind of makes them look a bit mystical!

I remember having a lecture about Nagi Noda a couple of years ago and I recently came accross her work again. I think its so cool, completely original and so creative! She also does lots of other work including book covers, music video’s, art and design. My favourite is definitely the afro dog, second to last picture…maybe thats because I secretly wish I had afro hair! Hope you enjoy!

Gareth Pugh debuted at Pitti Imagine #79 with a fashion film created with Ruth Hobgen and projected onto the ceiling of a 14th Century church.

The collection was inspired by religious iconography and Florentine opulence. It reminds me of Baroque and Renaissance frescoed ceilings and sculpture in the churches of Italy. Everything from the perspective and writhing physical forms to the gold and cornflower blue colour palettes directly reference artworks of the 16th and 17th century. The inflated billows and folds of undulating fabric are regularly found in images of female saints and madonnas of this era. Even the lighting nods towards the technique of using strong contrast of light and dark(chiaro scuro) by artists like Caravaggio

Contemporary inspiration is apparent in sequences of images reminiscent of digital prints. Gold shines in rays like the light of god shining through clouds as was often seen in paintings of this era. Altogether a very clever and considered work of art.

Much like the frescoed ceilings I imagine this is best viewed in situ, watching the projected film from below. We can more than make do with it projected on our Macs.

A detail of perspective from the Sistine Ceiling by the Renaissance painter Michelangelo

St Theresa in Ecstasy by Baroque Scultpor Bernini.

The Taking of Christ by Carvaggio – one of my favorite paintings of all time.

I could go on about all of this at great length but I won’t.

Ok art wanky over. Back to sticking studs on things.

We don’t know how it happened but somewhere between putting the carrot out for Rudolph and kissing under the mistletoe Christmas turned into some awful retail cliche. Sitting at the top of the cliche hierarchy is the sequin beret, it harks back to my previous life as a fashion buyer where every Christmas I’d have to place quantity on the aforementioned offender(don’t make me even mention those words again).

So now that we have our own labels and website we wanted to do something a little bit different, a bit more creative for Christmas. We’re surrounded by so many talented people in East London so it seems only fitting to collaborate with them on various projects.

We’ve always had a passion for illustration and we believe in creative freedom so we loosely briefed Crabwolf, made up of five up and coming illustrators, to create a Christmas illustration based around several of our brands. See the results for yourself on our homepage.

I don’t visit art exhibitions to get fashion inspiration but things I see find their way into designs I work on. Roger Hiorn’s Seizure has been simmering away for a while and it’s starting to bubble.

In chilly November 2009 I made a trip down to a grim boarded up housing estate in Elephant and Castle, South London to behold the spectacle that saw him nominated for the Turner Prize that year. Using a chemical solution he covered the entire interior of a small council flat in blue crystals. I’ve always been a magpie – yes I know it’s a jewellery designer cliche – so this was kind of like Narnia and reignited my crystal obsession.

Taken on my visit to Artist Pierro Gareffa’s exhibition, Hackney Wicked 2009.

Amazing crystal pieces by designer Lauren Tennenbaum of Indecorous Taste..

Australian Designer Elliot Ward Fear on Bryan Boy

The Rainbow Collection by Nova Dando

Looked at this girls work in a previous project in uni..stylist, designer, DJ, director, Nova has no limits! She has worked with the likes of M.I.A, La Roux, New Young Pony Club and the Klaxons. Her work is truly inspirational, a truly individual style, i love her!! Check out her website for more great vids and pics!

Triangles and Evil Eyes – score!!

We spent the whole Summer partying pretty hard – I’m Irish and Bitchy Kath’s Aussie so it’s going to be dangerous. There’s something a lot more depressing about coming home in the wee hours when it’s freezing and raining so I’ve made a decision that over the course of the winter I’m going to do some more cultural things, see more exhibitions and not write-off my only day of rest(we’ll see how that goes wish me luck).

Ping – I receive an e-mail from The Book Club inviting me to Any Willsher’s Private View as well as whole host of interesting events they have coming up over the next few weeks. Couldn’t have arrived at a better time – I’m bored and in need of visual inspiration that’s not on a computer screen.

Andy’s story is rather Rock n Roll fairytale…..growing up in Bedford and was strongly influenced by the Goth bands of the late 80’s. He started his career taking pictures in a local venue where a lot of those acts performed. Whilst working in a West End bank he took a holiday to follow a band called “The Hollow Men” and decided that music photography was the right direction for him. Around the same time he started printing his own pics, sending them to the music press and after having a few shots published was beckoned to the altar of NME whom he continues to shoot for now.

This exhibition celebrates 20 years in music and photography. The exhibition runs from Friday until 31st of November at The Book Club, 100 Leonard St, EC2A 4RH.

Stumbled across this exhibition in London about a month back. There is something about using birds in this way that I really love and appreciate. I love the elegance but vulnerability of these birds and their positions. The effect is much better in the actual gallery but I hope these images will do!

I feel like every second blog is about press at the moment which is necessary as we are getting a huge amount of support from the UK and International press about what we’re doing but at the same time it clogs up my random ramblings about cool stuff. I’ve always been into Art and Illustration and like to paint when I have time. Actually I’m going to be selling some of my work on the website closer to Christmas – need to get back into it.

I’m genearlly in awe of people who can turn a really simple concept into something very cool. I sit on the “overcomplicate it, do it the wrong way round, turn it upside down” side of the table masticating(yeah ok could v said chewing but great word yeah.) till my jaw aches. Sandrine Etrade Boulet’s cleverly nailed simplicity. Kind of reminds me of street sculpturist Liesbeth Busshce I wrote about a few months back

Imagine going on holidays in a UFO in the middle of a forest!

Fittingly called Tree Hotel It’s located just outside the small Swedish village of Harads 60KM south of the arctic circle. There treehouses are designed by 6 separate architect and situated high above the forest floor. Snow, cold, fur, silence and isolation – beats Benidorm any day.

“The tyranny is question, the insatiable need to please, of youth’s domination, of a quest for immortality and a denial of time past” – quoted from the press release. The insatiable need to please, a statement on consumerism? a denial of time past, not entirely sure if I agree with this. Although fashion pushes forward at an alarming rate the past is constantly referenced , designers perpetually looking backwards to inspire new shapes and direction. Surely the fact that modern brands have been used to obliterate works of historical art demonstrates this.

Personally I’m a massive fan of Pop Art(which in itself was a statment on consumerism – the most obvious example Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup repetition prints) and I think it has been cleverly combined with identifiable classical paintings. Branding was initially created to identity of a specific, service, product or business. The use for which it was developed is now outdated in the age of social media where we see self branding for people who are neither a service, product nor business. Bearing that in mind we can now say that painters in created their own form of brand, images which have stood the test of time, identifiable generations of visual artists to come – the ultimate brand combined cleverly combined by JCDC with contemporary pop-brands.

The exhibition runs until October 23rd at Le Bank Gallery in Paris.

See out their other work including Louis Vuitton Stores and Glastonbury at The Dark Room.

MAX VOLUME PLEASE…

Two Weeks label came about this AW10 in order to represent both our design aesthetics, my background in jewellery/accessories and Kath’s in clothing design. We’re loving menswear just as much as womens and both our own styles are kind of sporty(occasionally slutty but our remade label serves that purpose well) so we decided to do a Unisex collection – we also just wanted a pair of tracksuit bottoms we could throw on and still look cool(guess it’s a bit lifestyle).

I met Gabriel Gettman several months ago and we had a brief chat about fashion and film. I’d brushed shoulders with him a few times since and hadn’t really followed it up until we decided to shoot a film with 2 days to pull it all together. I don’t really see our film as a lookbook and I don’t think a film can replace a lookbook as it serves a different purpose. We wanted to cross-over art and fashion, to create something dynamic, slightly sinister, a mood, a texture as a backdrop to our collection. I approached Gabriel to make our film with ideas on opposites black/white, male/female, light/dark and I knew there was going to be paint bubble or splatter involved – I just didn’t realised quite how much(80 litres in total).

We love a good challenge and work best under a stupid deadline – it’s just not exciting unless someone’s rolling their eyes and exhaling heavily(but smiling a little bit too)!

We managed to pull together a whole cast of  models, hair and make-up, cameraman, studio manager, art director in two days and shot a film that we’ve watched time and time again.

Big thanks to everyone involved and especially to our models Miguel Dare and Jade Mc Sorely(who you might recognise from Britain’s Next Top Model) for letting us cover them in paint in a freezing cold studio on Valentine’s Day. Super big thanks to Gabriel who realised our vision to perfection.

We’ve already got SS11 ideas and we’re stepping it up again – possibly not with a 2 day lead – how about Two Weeks?

]]> http://blog.bitchingandjunkfood.com/2010/05/two-weeks-our-new-uni-sex-label-and-film/feed/ 5 http://blog.bitchingandjunkfood.com/2010/03/elephant-dung-shoes-by-wah-nails-and-insa-chris-ofili-tate-britain/ http://blog.bitchingandjunkfood.com/2010/03/elephant-dung-shoes-by-wah-nails-and-insa-chris-ofili-tate-britain/#comments Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:01:03 +0000 M http://blog.bitchingandjunkfood.com/?p=3276  

Chris Ofili inspired shoes by WAH Nails and INSA

A few weeks back I blogged the Chris Ofili Exhibition at Tate Britain. By now Londoners should be well familiar as you’ll have noticed the posters all over the underground.

I wrote about potential fashion inspiration for the 90’s tribal look coming through at the moment – we’re loving everything nineties, I guess it’s the era grew up in so culturally it resonates more than any other era. I’ve never really understood the whole 40’s and 50’s thing. I don’t dip into eras to which I don’t belong.

It seems the show provided a shit load of inspiration for Wah nails owner Sharmadean Reid and Graffiti artist INSA. And yes, pun intended(I’m full of puns and cliches at the moment) becuase INSA created some elephant dung heels WAH worked on some not elephant dung nails for visitors to the show – and no I’m not shitting you(damn there’s another one, on fire.)

All my friends know that I have a little ghetto nail obsession so when I heard WAH was involved my ears pricked up. Before BITCHY, I managed to work as a Jewellery designer with 2 inch talons which were regularly spray painted all shades of neon – as Dolly Parton says, if you can’t do it without nails it’s not worth doing. Does that meant the last year of my business has not been worth it – they had to go, I just didn’t have the time to keep them looking nice but I loved them. They’re another little canvas for me to doodle on, an extension of my creativity. The joy of discovering they glow in UV! Too much fun. So I must pop over to WAH, I’ve been meaning to for aaages although hopefully there won’t be any dung adornments. 

It’s really nice to see Tate stepping out of traditional Art Show protocol and just making it fun. I think that’s the problem with so many galleries, they just don’t know how to reach out through contemporary cultural associations and make art accessible. Personally I think the Underground campaign could have reached even further if the the shoes and some of the fashion/beauty events as well as the work of the artist had been featured. I’m just not convinced it conveyed the pop-culture, hip-hop FUN element involved and that as well as the work of the artist of course is what’s made this exhibition a success.