We Hold Hands

Quiet Press Issue 1 available

2010-06-28T16:11:00.000+01:00

Quiet Press Issue 1 available on website now for £1 + p&p. Quiet Press is a self published 12 page newspaper featuring recent work produced by ourselves.

Awesome Movement / Fantastic Motion

2010-06-07T11:20:00.005+01:00

Installation shots from Nous Vous exhibition 'Awesome Movement / Fantastic Motion' at Harewood House, Terrace Gallery.

Pick Me Up / Burton Gallery

2010-05-27T12:22:00.007+01:00

Bespoke display stands for 'Pick Me Up' at Somerset house, this was essentially our installation. Consisting of 4 boxes and a Print & publication tree. The tree was designed as a free standing display unit, as we weren't able to fix anything to the walls of our given room. Keen eyed folks, with a knowledge of our self-published material will notice lots of new items, which will be appearing & available on our website soon.

Design package for Leeds University 'Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery' show 'Obsession: Contemporary art from the Lodeveans collection'

A single line was used to create multiple different patterns to be applied to various different printed material. All were finished with an archival sticker applied to the front. The catalogue features two A5 litho printed books, one with essay's 'words' and one with images from the collection 'images', the books are wrapped in a fold-out poster, which documents all pieces in the Lodeveans collection.

After all that

2010-05-25T13:10:00.004+01:00

Hello, again it's been too long.

Nous Vous again is going through a transitional stage, an evaluation period after recent activities and changes in circumstances. Every now and then we like to take a short period to reflect upon what's been happening and allow other things, besides work, to happen. Over the past couple of months Nic & Will have moved down, settled and found a studio in London, which overlapped with 'Pick Me Up' at Somerset house, which was great, and myself (Jay) taking an opportunity to vacate England for a while and travel to NY, Toronto & Montreal, which I'll talk about briefly later.

After some consideration, we've decided to take our website down temporarily, but will be updating and developing gradually adding more and more content over the coming weeks/months, making it more exciting and interesting as we go along, we do have additional work and projects that are back dated now that we would like to make available to view in some manner (maybe just here) at some point soon. We simply didn't feel the website & content was representative of where our collective heart is aiming, and with Nic & Wills' the move and some time out (time to think) we've decided to change our tact a little - hoping to concentrate more on pursuits that adhere to our ideals. i.e. doing alot more self-initiated publishing projects as a focus of our practice, while we adjust to our new working method, something that we put on the sidelines, but were gratefully reminded of having produced lots of new things for 'Pick Me Up'. Hopefully that explains that... Any comments always welcome.

My Trip, I didn't take a camera with me so don't have any photo's unfortunately. The highlight of my trip and my main preoccupation was food, especially in Toronto & Montreal.

NY way in: Travelled quite a fair amount of the City in one jet lagged day, excitement prevailed. Highlight of the day was the 'Museum of American Folk Art' which is right next to the Moma, which I totally couldn't be bothered with, MOAFA was defo the best choice. Went to Whitney Biennial, which I personally didn't particularly enjoy and there was too much for my tired face. Had a quick trip to Greenwich & Soho, heard a loud obnoxious London accent in my ear walking through Soho later on, turned around- Jason Stathom.

Toronto: We stayed with my cousin who lives near Bloor St, where there's lots of nice places to hang out eat & drink coffee - as a general rule - book shops open in the evening. 'Mother Dumplings' in China Town - they just serve dumplings - really great & super cheap. Same day we'd gone to have a look at the Ontario College of Art & Design, ace! This image says it all really, great piece of architecture.

Kensington Market on a sunny day - West Queen Street, Magic Pony shop/gallery, Narwhal to see Paul Wackers paintings/drawings - really amazing, bought Paul Wackers book. Really nice friendly people working there. Here's an example of Paul Wackers work:

Went to Skydome to watch a ball game, BJ's vs Oakland. Open roof, streaker fun time - then to Karaoke bar for drinks.
Got a bus from China Town to Niagre Falls, went out on the maid in the mist, absolutely mind blowing natural scenery contrasted with a really horrible fabricated Casino town right next to it. Weird! but good.
Last Day went to 'Aunties & Uncles' for brunch (Banana & Oatmeal pancakes w/ maple syrup), had to wait 30mins to get in on a Sunday, but well worth the wait.

Montreal: Coffee at Olympico, Drawn & Quarterly book shop - brills!, Mile End, St.Viateur Bagels - free bagels for looking like/sounding like I just walked off the set of Coronation street, the owners wifes' favourite show. Patati Patata for Tofu burger, busy but nice atmosphere. Brunch at Aux Vivres, a vegan restaurant that I can highly recommend, most inventive and good value for money food I've eaten, again had to que for a while to get in, but more than worth it, went twice. Casa del Popolo for drinks, Cagibi's. Was supposed to meet up with Julien Vallee - but we missed one another (Sorry) - see you next time! Picnic on Mont Royal. Generally a lively, exciting place to be, recommend a visit.

NY 2nd: Stayed with Jessica Williams (aka paperheart) in Brooklyn - she was a lovely host and great hanging out with her and chatting. It was great seeing all her artwork in her lovely flat and the artwork she's collected off other artists I admire. Went out for food at Columbian restaurant & drinks together, along with Espen Friburg, who it was a pleasure to meet and chat with, sitting in bar with a boules court in it. Jessica & Espen drinking some nice fruit beer - not too sweet. Met up with Dave & Graham from Tokyo Police Club in Williamsburg (wasn't feeling great this day after eating my all American breakfast too fast), hung out there for a while. Bontanical gardens (Free on Tuesdays) really nice.

Miss plane home - got the next one.

I'm going to add some more Nous Vous related updates in my next post which will be happening soon, with some images and things of recent activities / documentations.

JC / NV

Don't Miss Today

2010-03-10T23:05:00.015Z

Don't Miss Today

I realise it has been over 5 months since my last proper post up here. To leave it 6 months may be a more rounded period of time but my lack of regular posting hasn't been so much about a planned event, or indeed as not having things to write about, more that the last 6 months have been tremendously busy ones. This is something we are constantly reminded to be happy and proud about, which I am, although not all the the time. I find I work best under a certain amount of pressure. Deadlines are always a good thing, within reason, as they stimulate action. However, too many deadlines and it can become difficult exactly how to organise specific efforts and maintain them. And deadlines, for me, rarely leave enough room for thoughts.

We seem to have been on a conveyor belt of projects and exhibitions for the last year. It has been a demanding time, I'm not sure when it will let up, I'm not sure I want it to, so we'll see how it goes.

Here is a bit of a whistle stop tour of recent things, in a very general sense.

Mash Up at the ICA

This is soon, we have been working alongside artist Harold Offeh at the ICA on a project that will culminate in a clubnight next Friday, more important though has been the series of workshops that have informed and inspired the event.

We always take a strong collaborative approach in our practice, both within our group and outside, our name 'Nous Vous' / 'We You' is as much a template for working as it is a moniker. Working alongside Harold and the rest of the practitioners on the Mash Up project is really a perfect symbiosis of our dream working method. There is a really exciting network of dialogues between people who we see as doing tremendously positive things in each of their fields. The chance to be working with and forming visuals through workshops also is very rewarding, as rarely do we get the chance to be running so parallel to the planning of an event that we are working on the design for, combining research so closely and consistently with the actual output. It is a perfect assimilation of all our interests, art, design, education and collaboration.

Lisbon

I went to Lisbon to visit friends in the winter. It was lovely to be away, I saw some beautiful things, got some heavy hang out time, seriously vibed off the place and some sun on my face. It was interesting to see how Leeds and Lisbon compared and contrasted, there is definitely a comparison in the fact it is cheap to live, but also that there may not be as much going on for some as may be desired, but the quality of life possible was so much higher, the way of life is so much more relaxed and conducive to creative endeavours but then perhaps there simply is not the level of opportunity in such a place. It would be an amazing place to live in later in life, and it was one of the most beautiful cities I have had the pleasure of visiting.

Good things I have seen:

Many things have been said about the Anish Kapoor show at the Royal Academy, it was awe inspiring
The Wellcome Collection got me hot and excited
Felt like I was delving into a treasure trove of work I never thought I would, should, or could see at the Museum of Everything
2 shows at IKON in Birmingham, both funny, fascinating and inspiring; Claire Rojas and João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva
The Grant museum, was truly like nothing I have ever seen, absolutely nuts.

Films:

Ponyo!
Orson Welles' 'The Trial'
Hunger
The cook the thief the wife and her lover
The work of Yasujirō Ozu and Satyajit Ray

music I have been really enjoying recently:
court gamelan
Karl Blau
Nikaido Kazumi

Now Owl

I released my first Now Owl CD and the first Hair Piece release a bit ago. Just over 30 minutes of music from the last 6 months of me messing about on my own. Hand screen-printed cover and poster with mini zine featuring new drawings, limited to an edition of 40. I am happy with it.

VFT

My band Vest For Tysso finally got round to recording some demos, find, download and listen to them from here.

CAS

We opened our show at the Contemporary Art Society back at the end of January. We were real happy with the show and it was so lovely that plenty of our friends could come down and quaff some nice wine.
See more photos here

and here is a free download of the piece of music I made for 'Rotate' at the Contemporary Art Society in London. It consists of two, fifteen minute passages recorded live. In the show it was on tape, in a walkman, with three pairs of headphones, so this is a rip from the tape, and is best listened to on headphones, with eyes closed.

Ball Game Songs (a) / Ball Game Songs (B)
Recorded live in two 15 minute sessions

Written and performed by William Edmonds, 2010
especially for Nous Vous at Contemporary Art Society,
‘Rotate’, January - April 2010
http://nowowl.blogspot.com

Draft

I was in the third Draft exhibition at the artmarket, an event mentioned on here before but worth giving props again. Jay has programmed this series of events, in a space run by his girlfriend Zoe. Both Zoe and Jay in doing this do such an important thing in my opinion, in going a long way to bridge the gap between the very DIY efforts of some and the high end galleries in Leeds, offering a space for students, graduates and emerging creatives of any discipline and providing a well needed social and community space for young creative people in Leeds. Well done to both of them.

See some photos of my work from this on my flickr

Harewood

I kind of feel like this at the moment, as the opening of our show at Harewood House is closing in. I still have a bit of work to do but I'm looking forward to the show. Will see us again stretching ourselves, exploring similar themes, in new, bigger ways, literally and physically.

We are also working on giving the Courtyard Café at Harewood a new identity and we had a tour round the old walled gardens there, as the café's menu will be based around produce grown here. It was really fascinating to be taken round the garden and glass houses and meet some super passionate, super friendly, super good people. There must be something in the soil there.

TPC

We constructed a large installation in our temporary studio (many thanks to the directors of PSL for this) for the artwork for the forthcoming release from Tokyo Police Club. Our first attempt failed, it crumbled, we (I) got a little grumpy, there were long days, late nights, dusty hands and cold bones. We built another one. Through failure, we found success. We photographed it and are super happy with the results. It felt good to be building something again. We hope these photos will surface soon.

Preston

A quick mention to say thanks to Steve, and Craig for inviting us to give a talk and workshop at the University of Central Lancashire last week. There was a super nice vibe there and the students were all super into it and positive and productive. It renewed my faith in Universities and teaching. We had a lovely day (and evening, beers and fizzy straws abound), in fact, we enjoyed it so much, we're going back next week. See you soon.

Somerset House

We are so so so stoked about being a part of this

Which kind of leeds me on to say that In April, depending on all things going to plan, I will be moving to London. I have been in Leeds since September 2003, over six years. I intend on writing a more detailed post about this next time, but suffice to say, I am excited, nervous, anxious, but most of all relishing the challenge and opportunity that will come hopefully come my way hand in hand.

Hopefully(?) it won't be so long till my next post,

Take care,

William

Long time...

2010-02-08T01:29:00.003Z

It's been a long time since our/my last post, needless to say it is a result of being very busy. You can see various documentation of aspects of activity on our flickrs / website if you're interested in catching up.

We're working on a couple of very exciting projects at the moment. In short, some promotional material for the ICA, album artwork for Tokyo Police Club as well as preparing for another solo show at Harewood House in April. We'll be exhibiting some installation work in the main gallery and some illustrative / works on paper in the rear gallery.

Thanks to everyone who has attended Draft so far , the events have been a real success and have been very well attended, great to see so many people supporting Yorkshire based illustrators. Myself and William are both in the next showcase alongside Frances Bickerdike & Jessica Thomas. The next event is on Tuesday 23rd Feb usual place (theartmarket & kunstfreund Gallery) 6-8pm. Me and Will are both creating new works for the show.

Ontop of that.... and my main reason for posting, is that I have recently got a pack of Moleskin sketchbooks of my mum, and have had a few minutes to do some sketches. I plan to put up all pages (numbered) on this blog as and when I can and have some new sketches to post, generally ideas and pencil practice. Here's the first short burst (Pages 1 - 5):

i

Take care,

J

working

2010-01-06T18:03:00.000Z

Towards our upcoming show in London at the Contemporary Art Society

Merry Christmas All

2009-12-22T14:14:00.001Z

Happenings

2009-11-22T14:31:00.005Z

We've recently departed our studio and have been working autonomously on a few projects, as well as keeping up with our commercial practice remotely. It's been a strange period of adjustment for us all, but we're finally gaining pace again. We left the studio because we felt we were beginning to take things a little too seriously and it wasn't helping our collective practice, friendship and most of all - it was impeding enjoyment of our practice. We make taking periods of adjustment and evaluation part of our practice from time to time. It helps greatly in keeping things fresh and exciting for ourselves as well people we collaborate / work with.

Nic & Will have organised a night this Tuesday (November 24th) at A Nation of Shopkeepers, showcasing their personal bands as well as our close friend Mechanical Owl (Mike), under the collective musical ensemble 'Hair Piece Champion'. They have both been taking some time to plan our show in January as well as further exploring their personal interests.

I have been working closely with theartmarket & Kunstfreund Gallery / Zoe Sawyer, Jess Young & Jen Conway in getting the new unit open. We've all been building, programming and promoting. I have organised a series of events which will span Dec 2009 - April 2010 called Draft. It's a series of one night showcases for Leeds based illustrators, I produced a set of screen printed posters (below) and intend to finish a publication showcasing all contributing illustrators this week. The events will exhibit 4 illustrators in one evening, after which the artwork will be moved to Opposite Café to remain on display until the following event the following month. 1st Draft 10th December 09 includes: Matt Hodson, Cameron Steward, Gareth Brew and our very own Nicolas Burrows.

Below: Shot of new spaces' new walls. Built by the talented Tom Railton, with a little bit of assistance from myself, Zoe, Jess & Jen.

Below: Shot of counter I helped build with Zo as well as bookshelf (right), which fits perfectly into window frame - nice.

Here's a line-up of events happening at theartmarket & Kunstfreund Gallery before Christmas & The new address:
theartmarket &
Kunstfreund Gallery
Unit 60/61/62/63
The Merrion Market
Leeds. LS2 8DB
www.kunstfreund.co.uk

Cartune Xprez - 25th November 09 - 6pm - 9pm
www.cartunexprez.com
Really looking forward to this - check out the video samples on their website - amazing stuff and a great line-up of artists being showcased. They'll be showcasing some animations and doing a live performance.

Draft - 10.12.09 - 6pm - 8pm

Fresh Leaf - 11/12.12.09 - 12pm - 5pm
A 2 day zine & artist multiple fair, with stalls from numerous local and regional zine & multiple makers. This will be the first in a series of artist multiple sales in the space.

Have a safe / ace week.
J

Don't Miss Today

2009-10-30T13:50:00.004Z

Today we're off to the Spike Island Zine fair in Bristol, I have a couple of new zines to sell, one of recent drawings, the other of photos from the latter part of my life. We'll have all our Nous Vous stuff to sell including zines, books, badges, prints and T-shirts. Come down say hi if you're about, I hope our car doesn't get towed again. Cider and Falafel. Things seem to have overtaken me of late but I hope to return to a more creative, clear and fun time s after this, including a return to regular posts up here. See you soon, you're patience is greatly appreciated...

Falafel King

2009-10-19T16:22:00.010+01:00

We're on our way down to Bristol not next weekend but weekend after 31st Oct. As well as attempting to enjoy what Bristol has to offer culturally, we'll be selling some of our zines etc at 'Spike Island book and Zine Fair'. There's a really great line-up of artists and publishers, last year it was loads of fun - very much recommended. This year they'll be doing talks, showcases etc - so there'll be lots of interesting things going on throughout the day. Additional info here.

I suspect we'll be paying an unhealthy amount of visits to Bristol's notorious 'Falafel King' - best street food vendor in the country. Well I reckon anyway.

Another thing of note I've come across recently was this piece of Design by artist 'Tom Miles', not even a designer and he's doing better than us supposed pro's. Nice considered use of type not to mention colour and paper stock makes for a really nice collectable item for my reference material. The events themselves are a series of one night exhibitions / showcases for up until this point - Leeds based artists. By curator / artist Harry Meadley & his Girlfriend / artist / fashionista Rachel Carter, really nice invite only evenings - a good time shared amongst peers, friends and enthusiasts.

I watched Up in 3D the Saturday evening. very much recommend seeing it. Pixar have got this one spot om - such a considered and impressive all rounder, there's good LOL humor as well as an effective, convincing and moving narrative. The characters are a really nice unusual, refreshing bunch who play off nicely amongst each other, the action and entertainment literally doesn't stop.

I've been working on a few things towards our upcoming January show in the 'Contemporary Arts Society' office in London - our artistic arm extended. Basically developing some typographic based posters by hand rendering and steering away from the computer but trying to adhere to that aesthetic - trying to develop ideas as much by the doing of it, the practical element as well as the basic and simple idea behind it. Letting the process inform my ideas. I'll get some pics up soon - it's a bit of a deviation of what you might usually expect to see from myself - or not...???

Also received our complimentary copy of 'Made and Sold' a book we have a few things featured in. All in all it's a really nice book, the concept behind it is really refreshing also post 3D Graphic Design books we seem to have been featured in alot recently. Nice to submit some of our other practice. It's home to images of self initiated projects by Graphic Designers / Studios, entrepreneurial enterprises in order to make a few pennies on the side - like ourselves. omething I always find interesting. Something I'll definitely be picking up regularly. Designed and written by Fl@33 Visual Communication studio - very impressive doing the design as well as writing the content all very cohesive. Good Job all round!

2009-10-02T15:51:00.004+01:00

FRIGG SALE

This week I'm simply going to offer you some goods:

VERY Limited Edition Tees for sale:

Charcoal T-Shirt
Organic Cotten
2 Colour
HandPrinted
1 of each

Size: Small - Price: £15 + p&p

Size: Medium - Price: £15 + p&p

These T-shirts were part the outcome of a screenprinting exercise. I printed a colour which was too transparant, so had to hand paint a green paint over the top to compensate.

Ecru T-Shirt (Off-White)
Organic Cotten
1 Colour
Hand Printed
1 of each

Size: Small - Price: £15 + p&p

Size: Medium - Price: £15 + p&p

VERY Limited Edition Bags for sale:

Tote Bag - Long Handles
1 Colour
Hand Printed
Edition of 5 - only 2 available

Price: £8 + p&p

Tote Bag - Long Handles
1 Colour
Hand Printed
Edition of 4 - only 3 available

Price: £8 + p&p

2009-09-25T13:51:00.006+01:00

Frigg

Weeks go by so quickly now - I barely register them. Nevermind. Well... as William Mentioned we've all but finished one of the major commissions we've had on recently and I find myself vigorously thumb twiddling. I managed to steal a few hours away the past couple of days to produce some new tote bags - a very limited run. 5 of one Design and 4 of the other. Nice to get my hands dirty again. We all bought some tote's for Nation of Shopkeepers - Freshers Fair, which is taking place all day Monday & Tuesday next week. We'll be selling numerous goodies. I decided to try and screen print mine. We haven't got an exposure unit at the moment - so I had to do it the hard way - basically hand painting drawing fluid onto the screen. Takes some time. But it does come up some nice unexpected results, i.e. adding textures to your design - nuances etc. It's only predictable up to a point, which in a way frustrates me - as I messed up my first design and didn't have the steam to do it again - so settled for a simple alternative for the remaining bags. I mixed and printed a deep navy blue to compliment the Ivory coloured bags. I have mixed feelings about the results, maybe next time I'll go somewhere with an exposure unit and see if that makes me feel any better about it. It's nice but not what I had in mind as the designs I produced are relatively clean and bold - I'm not positive the additions add anything to it. Maybe with an alternative design sympathetic of the process would suffice.

here's a snap anyway. I'll be selling them for around £4 - £6 - yet to decide.

There's a couple of things I'd like to go to this weekend if I had the opportunity. Both in London, 'Publish and be damned' and 'Whitechapel book fair'. Chums of ours David Steans and Hardeep Pandhal (Formerly / Collectively Xymphora) have a very nice zine published through Famicon Express who have an amazing array of zines & a table at the event - so go check that out. I'm sure there's going to be loads of Gems.

I'm going to go a few things here in Leeds Expo Leeds is on and Paul Rooney has a film playing at the Monolithic new Leeds Met building, which I'm definately going to watch. There's also a new space opening which I'm intrigued by - an old Church converted into an arts space.

Ta Ta !

Don't Miss Today

2009-09-23T23:30:00.007+01:00

The gravel, the stone and the marble

I did miss yesterday, this I admit, but I was away. Away from the studio as i was undertaking alternative employment and i was away from my head for a little while, enjoying a birthday treat to myself.

One of the bigger jobs we have been working on in the studio has pretty much been signed off, just a bit more liaising witht he printer and then the wait to see if the printed material comes out as we had hoped, and it is all done. This will be a relief. Then we have a week or so of the other job we have been working on alongside the other and there is a bit of clear water in sight. It has been an exciting, at times stressful but always enlightening experience working on two larger scale jobs simultaneously, whilst still trying to keep the daily jobs of our independent working and personal lives and the studio in check.

I have very recently started again with my other work that i do alongside my work in the studio. During term times I note take for disabled students at the University of Leeds. Apart from the fact it is really great to meet people with whom i would rarely get the opportunity to mix with and be around the occasionally inspiring, sometimes infuriating atmosphere of a lively university, I get to learn a lot. It also consciously makes you view things, or at least attempt to view things, from a very different perspective. Something which really is paramount to making accessible and inclusive design work and also interesting and more rounded and informed artwork. I don't think it is worth feeling bad about the fact that we as the majority of able bodied people do not regularly take in to account the occasionally greater needs of others, it is just important that once in a while we put ourselves in the shoes of others. Being aware of when, perhaps, we could offer a little help, move something out of the way or notice something that could exclude some and try to reverse this. Alongside this great benefit I get to sit on a whole range of lectures and seminars that show how vast the extent of knowledge is in a large education establishment. For instance yesterday i learned that a meat based diet can use seven times more resources such as land, water and food that a healthy vegetarian diet. And that just in 40 years the human population will rise by 50% and in some places by 100%. This factor alongside rising temperatures and seas, the trend that as more cultures become developed they turn from a vegetable based to meat based diet and the rise in the use of land for the growth of bio-fuels amounts to the worrying prediction that we will simply not have the land or resources to feed the world's population in just around 50 years. Scary but certainly inspiring and hopefully mobilising.

I have been trying to fill myself with inspiration and knowledge. I have been reading, slowly drawing, cycling, collecting treasures, watching films and finding some space for my thoughts. I had an Indian head massage yesterday which relaxed the hell out of me. I am beginning an exciting zine/mixtape project with Jaakko Pallasvuo and Matt Moroz. I am getting inspired by the work of Ilya Kabokov, perplexed by the films of the French Nouvelle Vague (particularly this), reading Dave Eggers incredibly humane and humble account of the life of Valentino Achak Deng and making plans for the future.

A HOPI ELDER SPEAKS

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the
Hour. And there are things to be considered...

1) Where are you living?
2) What are you doing?
3) What are your relationships?
4) Are you in right relation?
5) Where is your water?
6) Know your garden.
7) It is time to speak your Truth.
8) Create your community.
9) Be good to each other.
10) And do not look outside
yourself for the leader."

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said,"This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.

And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for."

I wrote a song:
The gravel, the stone and the marble

2009-09-22T09:19:00.005+01:00

Frigg

Imagine it's Friday, imagine a man who thinks it's Friday because he's been working too much and has his days mixed up. As Nous Vous say 'A day's a day'.

Yes I missed my post last week so thought I'd pop a blog today instead. Again I have been very busy - one job down and one to go. Exciting. After which time I'll be taking that down time I mentioned in my previous blog - with a view to drawing and preparing for a personal project we collectively have in mind - and are very keen to get into. Alongside another couple of my own personal projects. 3 people just aren't enough for the work we've had on - or it could be the case that we have made it too much work for ourselves being characteristically over ambitious. Or it is enough work for 3 people who don't want to do anything but work.

Here's a little bit of what we've been working on. They're a set of Flyers / Postcards for this years Light Night 9th October - for Leeds City Council. We've created a set of 4 Postcards, if you'd like to collect them all you'll have to negotiate your way around venues in Leeds and search them out. We didn't want them to be as throwaway as flyers generally are - so we made them into postcards and have hopefully made them collectible. One of the stipulations in this years promotion was that it had to be economically friendly as well as environmentally friendly. We printed them onto FSC paper stock using Soya based inks.

We came up with the strapline 'See things differently', which in all fairness has probably been used lots and lots of times. Nevertheless we thought it was fitting and wanted to focus on how you would experience the City on this one evening and how your perspective is changed - we focused the campaign on this idea. We used upcoming events from this years Light Night, whereas in the past the marketing has focussed upon what happened last year as a device to promote the coming year. We felt it would be more appropriate to look forward to what is going to happen rather than reflect upon has happened.

2009-09-17T23:48:00.002+01:00

HARRY POTTER AND...

I'm back. I've been busy practising and playing some festivals with a band i'm helping out. Good, fun times but also tiring and kind of expensive times all things considered. So i've literally not done a lot at all in the way of drawing, just been working on jobs in the studio with NV. Also going on a bit of a music drive at the moment, finishing off some recording, and starting to plan gigs with my band Glaciers. Playing in Portugal at the end of October too which will be lovely.

My head has been really full of work things recently so had little time to think and breathe. So hopefully this weekend I can get back on stuff I want to do, and plan the next few months out a bit.

Stuff i've seen and liked and done in the last few weeks:

Radiohead

Friends (not the programme)

Wildbirds and Peacedrums

Quack Quack

Somerset

Kedgeries in the morning

Bob Lind

A lot of dancing

Mud wrestling

The Castle by Franz Kafka

A presentation in BSL

Hitting drums

Sunglasses

Anyway, i'm still not in blog mode really and i'd like to scan some stuff in or post some images up of stuff i have seen and liked and made but i really don't think it'd be worth it. Just time for my favourite photo from the last two weeks...

Don't Miss Today

2009-09-16T21:21:00.003+01:00

I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read. I need to sleep, I want to read.

Goodnight

2009-09-11T14:24:00.003+01:00

Freedom Frigg

Well I don't really have an awful lot to say/show (again) this week. We've had a rather heavy workload of late, which in turn means I haven't been spending so many hours willfully researching and drawing. All is well though, these past couples of weeks have been a real challenge and I'm feeling all the better for sticking at it and putting a few extra hours in, I've learnt alot within a very short period of time. There's been many ups and many downs but I'm finally coming out the other side - mind refreshed and ready for some down time.

I'm looking forward to drawing again, I felt I was progressing quite well with where I'm aiming to be at with drawing before the work load came in. But a break inbetween has only encouraged my thirst for it as well as allowing me some time to reflect upon what I had been working on, with a view to re-approaching it.

Me and the other chaps (Nic, Will) have been doing the odd hour or 2 painting and installing the new shop / gallery 'theartmarket' located in the Merrion Market. It's shaping up real nice and will hopefully be ready / open early October. Conway & Young have recently come on board as co-directors, along with my Girlfriend Zo of the space - I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of it and getting involved further. Had a few ideas regarding promotional material that I will be collaborating on with C & Y.

I'm having a weekend off this weekend as Nic and Will have disappeared down to 'End of the Road' festival. Nic's playing in the Band 'Bear Driver' as their drummer if you're going and would like to see his moves.

Have a completely amazing time!

J x

Nic's Away (again)

2009-09-11T11:33:00.001+01:00

Don't Miss Today

2009-09-08T08:45:00.008+01:00

For the past couple of weeks I have been without pencils.
After our gallivanting around the country I left my drawing materials at a friend's and have been completely leadless. For a while, this certainly served as a sufficient excuse for not putting pencil to paper. But I think the truth of the matter is at the moment I don't want to draw anything. This could be for a number of reasons.

There is always a period of enjoyable 'down time' after working intensely for an exhibition. When you feel like you've spent all your enthusiasm, energy and ideas. I did however receive my pencils, kindly posted, this week, so I have been in need of an alternative excuse. Thankfully I have been rather busy. We feel rather inundated with work in the studio, working on several interesting through to exciting projects. There have been consistent 12 and 14 hour days. Which I am more than happy to put in when it is to get the very best out of a job. And there are few people I could and would rather spend the day with. Amongst this I have been focusing my out of hours creative urges on making and playing music. It is always nice to be able to flit between drawing and music. However recently it has been significantly more than a simple flit, an extended sojourn perhaps.

I certainly want to want to draw. I just don't want to. I feel I have nothing to draw about, nothing to add, and nothing to say. Which is probably why this weeks blog post is a bit of self obsessed whinge. Although it isn't so much of a moan, more a pointless (ha!) rumination on a confusing lack of a creative impulse. I'm not too sad or disappointed about my lack of graphite to paper contact, it is just strange when the one constant becomes less so. I'm sure it is a natural lapse, one where I am unconsciously acquiring inspiration and soon the desire will return. When we shall have to see, I guess the fear is that it may not do, I have faith though, through optimism and persistence, it will be back.

This is an image I made a week or two ago, a collage based on a piece i exhibited in our recent 'Massive Contact' show.

These happy chaps are a sneaky glimpse of work we are doing for the Light night Festival, whcih will return to Leeds on October 9th.

And this odd little chap got me through the later hours of a long day in the studio today, from the always fascinating BibliOdyssey Blog

Goodnight

Don't Miss Today

2009-09-02T23:19:00.009+01:00

From having to write this weekly blog I am made aware how rarely must we come into contact, in our everyday life, with something that arouses our curiosity. and how sadly lacking some lives (often my own included) are of cerebral stimulation. Easy entertainment and instantly readable and accessible forms of information are so readily available that we are not forced to really search for something that may test us, and when we find it, all too frequently we are not wanting to be tested by it, and when there is constantly something far more easily digestible available, it is easy to understand.

For while it has troubled me that there is more and more at our disposal that effectively limits our necessity to think. At home there are tvs, computers, video games. When we walk there are mp3 players, iphones, now billboards and poster advertisements move for us, taking away even the need to imagine how a product could enrich our lives. Films seem increasingly lifted from the pages of novels, reducing the need to read, you probably could just wait for the adaptation.

I recently made a decision that effects my eating habits. This is not a platform that I wish to use to promote certain ideas, but I decided after a number of years being vegetarian that I found it difficult to justify, to myself most importantly, why I still ate dairy. It was only really through talking about issues surrounding this subject, with someone who had opinions on it that really drew out my opinion. That is not to say that I assimilated that other viewpoint into my own, in fact we made the same decision for quite different reasons, it is just that by having someone to bring into question something that is not ever thought of as a choice, makes one choose, or at least give reasons for that choice. There are so many elements of our life that we would probably stand by if pressed, yet we were never given a choice about. How much of our belief system and ideals are simply something handed down by our parents or from our society or culture? Tradition is not justification and should not equal blind acceptance. We should question why we think, feel or act in certain ways. However, unless something is brought to light, it is very difficult to even notice it as something worth questioning. This is why it is important to mix with people who may challenge you, who may have differing theories, because of personal or cultural differences. You may not always if ever come to the conclusion that you have been misled, but it can feel reassuring if not enlightening.

This obviously can operate on such a level that can develop, extract or even re-form certain beliefs and ethical stand points one may have, but it also translates down to how we may approach daily tasks, even our work. A lot of the best, most affecting art and design asks why, challenges what we believe to be the normal, often so normal and unchallenged that it we barely recognise it when presented with it. I am surprised by my occasional willingness to accept something that is either in place or put in place, with no other explanation or justification than that's just how it is. In terms of designing something for a client a brief may be issued stating various demands and stipulations, but they may not even know why.

One of the main reasons for not adapting one's views on something may be a fear, a fear of acknowledging that you may have been misled, wrong is the incorrect word, with many such complex issues that can arise it is difficult to ordain a right or wrong. It can take a lot to admit that your thoughts may be based on little else than stasis. It is difficult but rewarding to look at why we think certain things, why others think differently, as this can either solidify or expose what may be either conscious or unconscious principles by which we act.

If we all took a little more time to think, then we may actually realise a few things.

Apologies for the lecture, it didn't start like that.
Some lightness:
From the marvellous 1962 Trauffaut film 'Jules Et Jim, a classic of the French Nouvelle Vague, this period of cinema is quite new to me (although it's devices now seem common place), and I am excited to learn more about it.

bye.x

2009-08-28T14:15:00.005+01:00

Frigg

Haven't really got an awful lot to say this week. This week we've just had a bit of a catch-up fest in the studio.

Wanted to say sorry to Dawn as someone had pointed out - I called Dawn who curated our show in Newcastle - Ruth. I'm putting this down to tiredness and meeting alot of people wthin a very short period of time between Newcastle & London. Excuses aside - I'm Sorry.

We're currently working on promotional material for this year's Light Night - a large scale one night art festival held in Leeds every year - there's over 80 events on the one evening this year so it'll be the biggest one to date. As well as ploughing on putting together a promotional package for the Leeds Universities: Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery for a show coming up featuring a contemporary art from the Lodeveans Collection. Both are proving challenging, with restricted budgets and us aiming quite ambitiously high in our production specifications. A challenge is always good for the create juices though. Hard work though.

I've also been chasing stock left right and centre for the re-launch of 'theartmarket' we're all chipping in getting it off the ground and I've been given the task of sourcing zines / artists books. Also an exciting challenge. Currently located stock from Analogue Books, Islands Fold, Cafe Royal, Its Nice That, Nieves, Soyfriends. So there should be a nice selection for the opening, still ploughin on though, so there'll be more to follow and it'll be the only place in Leeds stocking any of these types of publications - can't wait.

I'll be spending most of the day tomorrow painting / fixing, getting hands on in the new space which is always fun. Then I'll be spending the remaining part of my weekend entertaining my mum and brother - who have travelled over from the Isle of man for the bank holiday to spend some time with me. Nice!

Hopefully I'll manage to steal a few moments next week to get sit back and do some investigation. Until then here's some pictures of my pieces from our Newcastle show 'Massive Contact'

Good day & Good Weekend!

J x

Nic's Away

2009-08-28T12:24:00.001+01:00

Don't Miss Today

2009-08-26T16:43:00.021+01:00

I've missed a couple.
I've been away, building houses, exciting my heart and joying up.
This will be a bit of a photo bomb, with a few thoughts and words and explanations.

I made a collage of things found on my desk to some up the past couple of weeks.

Palagipsee Eglot
I made a zine, I need to photograph and I will put some better pictures up over on my own personal blog where it will then be on sale. Limited edition of 25 copies. A few screen shots below, tease...

Massive Contact

Our time in Newcastle was hecka tight. The show in my opinion was a real success. Below are quite a few photos, mainly of my work, I'm hoping the boys will blog their work and we will put up some full show pictures soon on the site. I was really stoked with my house and boat went, considering I had no plans and little idea how much wood there would be. Wood would be wood. Thanks to Dawn for assistance.

British Museum
The British Museum is insane. I've never been there before and got extreme excitement flutter heart. Like library times ten. The amount of stuff in there is mad. As Jay mentioned we went to the Garden and Cosmos show, which I blogged about a while ago, and that was simply incredible, the most intensely beautiful things I have ever seen.
There was some really fascinating displays on the Americas and Egypt also. I look forward to these visions filtering through to something that manifest itself soon.
+more booties

Green Man
In a hedonistic climax to an epic couple of weeks I went to Green Man festival. Other people will do far better reviews so I won't try, Andrew Bird was mesmerising, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Beach House, Fourtet, Dirty Three and Peter Broderick where all amazing. I spent the weekend with some really beautiful people and had a supremely lovely time, thanks to them, the bands (who obviously simply for me), The Brecon Beacons and Whiskey.

Spent
I feel a bit spent after the last two and a half weeks, hence my lack of interesting thoughts, if , indeed, they ever are interesting. All my thinking of the last few months turned into doing and then done, so I need to get back on the think train, this train sure is free.
I hope to give a few more thoughts soon and some words on interesting projects I have planned or am taking part in, it feels silly to talk about them when they are simply little olive stones of thought, with fruity goodness built up around them.

Shooting Stars tonight and Sleep.
Yes

2009-08-21T17:04:00.003+01:00

Frigg

First off I have to apologise on behalf of myself, Nicolas and William for not posting for the last couple of weeks. We've been busy busy in Newcastle & London. All good though, me and Nic returned on the train, Will has headed up to Green man festival for the weekend. Nic lost part of his ticket on the train, so it was an exciting ride back, Nic was convinced he was going to be thrown off the train - luckily the conducter was so busy chatting to someone else whilst we were handing him our tickets he didn't notice the missing element of the ticket and the excitment was over. What a story that was... tumble tumble.

My head is literally full of things to say. So much so that I couldn't possibly begin to recall everything and had thought that the other chaps might have been able to post before me and aleviate me feeling as if I must inform you of everything that has happened these past 2 weeks.

I'll attempt to mention things in a list and go into it where necessary:

Newcastle:
• Setting up our exhibition - building about 50% of work on site - tired
• Drank most evenings - which is rare
• Shared chats with Ruth, Noel & Iris on evenings - stayed at their place. Very nice.
• Met up and had dinner with Ant Macari, a friend who particpated in Morphic Resonance.
• Went to the Baltic - Seen Sarah Sze's show - which blew our collective brain - highly recommend it.
• Tired!
- 'A Duck for Mr.Darwin' was also on at the Baltic a group show a few of the pieces are really worth making a trip to Newcastle for. Namely Marcus Coates video work, Ben Jeans Houghtons (who we met on the Friday night - nice chap) Shed & Conrad Shaws performance / video / found object work.
• Drank lots of coffee at café attached to 'Alt' the nice record store and what has recently become Workspaces satelitte gallery.
• Took the metro
• Rachel & Laura Lancaster, Richard Rigg who we were familiar with also from Morphic Resonance came to the opening - had an opportunity to catch up / chat with them.
• Did a talk - got asked interesting questions
• Met a girl who bought my Sing Statistics drawing in Analogue books.
• Nic and Will played an improvised set and made alot of noise.
• Got really drunk and went home.
• Tired!
• I'm sure there's more but i forget.

London
• Went to Design Museum - got dissapointed by the show on - thought it was going to be amazing from what I had read and looked at online but it was all a deception. The actual exhibition is very uncohesive and a bit overbearing.
• Went to Tate Nic and Will visited the main exhibition and I looked at the free bits, bit disappointed because I'd seen it all before. Sat outside and read in the Sun.
• Met with Contemporary Art Society to look at their office and discuss a project we're doing with them next January. Looking forward to getting stuck into this one.
• Tired!
• Went to the British Museum. Astonishing! We all went in the 'Garden & Cosmos - The royal paintings of Jodhpur' exhibtion - which I highly recommend. Extremely detailed paintings / illustrations full of colour - detailing the happenings of the Maharaja and his court. The illustrations are really detailed and intense - I got tired looking at them after the first 5 or so, had to take a break and continue - that's how detailed they are.
• Went to watch Grizzly Bear at Koko's in Camden - wicked!
• Met with Danielle at KKOutlet, very nice shop / project space indeed, we may be doing a project there next year, proposal pending.
• Tired!
• Went to the New YCN hangout and had a look around - this also looks very nice, worth a trip.
• Walked around Covent Garden for a bit - had a look in Magma.
• Met up and spent the evening with Luke Best, bumped into Alex & Hattie, Chris Clarke as well as a few of their chums and had a very nice evening indeed.

I'm sure the other chaps will extend upon what I have mentioned, but I'm reluctent to give detailed accounts / reviews of everything that has transpired over the last couple of weeks because I'd have to write an essay about it all. All in all it's been a very enjoyable / productive couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into work again.

WE ARE AWAY

2009-08-14T12:41:00.002+01:00

No blogs this week, sorry.
We are in Newcastle installing our exhibition 'Massive Contact', if you're in Newcastle tonight (Friday) come down and say hello, the show is up for two weeks. Photos soon and a return to blogging normality next week.

2009-08-07T16:31:00.003+01:00

Frigg

I'm on tender hooks writing my blog this week. My computer is still antagonising me. It works for a period of time then persists in flipping out and making all sorts of crazy things happen. My screen keeps entering dashboard, the volume goes up and down - it writes 2's, 1's and 0's sporadically. Any advice on what might be going wrong would be much appreciated...

We've had much business to attend to this week, which is amazing, feels great to be busy, and mixing it up spending equivalent amounts of time on commercial and personal practice. When in this frame of mind / frame of practice, what you're producing really informs everything else you're doing, seems to keep the ideas fresh. I can't really say enough for being productive, it really does give you a different perspective, the processes you are working with are just - if not more - informative than sitting and conjuring ideas in mind - physical information!

Anyway in between all this messy business I've been making more messy business, working on artwork for our massive contact show. Here's a few snaps:

I've been painting a scale replica of our bookshelf, essentially a homage to all those we've felt it necessary to purchase a book from / of. I've made a series of drawings of Victorian men with sparrows. A stack of painted wood with my a backwards alphabet on. Some plush versions of my drawings, handmade hand painted. I'll be hand rendering some images onto the wall in the exhibition and have one more very simple installation produced by the exhibition. I may also frame some of the 'Yuquot - Nootka Trail' originals.

I'm very chuffed - to say the least - with how well the plush toys came out. I never thought it would be within my capabilities to create these and them turn out just the way I wanted them too. It's very refreshing to surprise yourself from time to time. Try things out!

We've had a tremendous week, tiring but tremendous. The other guys have really inspired me this week, with their visual treats they've brought in to the studio - alot of the work we've produced has been at home on an evening. Feel very informed by the other chaps at the moment - makes for good collaborative practice even if we arn't physically creating work together.

Have a fun weekend, thankyou for reading, again any thoughts on my computer problem would be appreciated.

j x

2009-08-06T21:36:00.005+01:00

COYOTE-BOAT

Busy busy week so far. been working on stuff for Newcastle, and been working on pitches, glass signage, magazines and postcards. I've been stitching, painting, cutting, sticking, drawing, rubbing out, clicking and dragging and scanning and stuffing. Haven't got any images to show, and this is the first evening this week that i've actually sat down and thought...

About what..?

I don't know. I think this blog may have to be some old writing thrown about, as I haven't even been looking at anything interesting on the internet. In a couple of weeks we'll all be down in London for a meeting at CAS offices in Bloomsbury, regarding an exhibition in january. Don't know much more than this at the moment, but it is exciting...

Also, today we received our copies of the Sing Statistics 'We are the Friction' Publication that our friends Jez Burrows (no relation) and Lizzy Stewart are responsible for. It looks great, and it is a pleasure to be featured in a book with Spencer Krug, Carey Mercer and Tao Lin among others.

Last week I watched the Twin Peaks film late at night. Having not seen the second series, I couldn't be bothered waiting any longer and plunged wight in with the film. I didn't expect it to be so dark, seen as the first series is often funny and beautiful as well as surreal and horrible and scary. The scene in the film where they are in the bar and the dialogue is barely audible is amazing. Films don't oftern transmit that kind of feeling across, but the length and the tension and the lighting of that scene and the horrible-ness of it all really came across and I thought it was pretty incredible, if a little harsh friday night viewing. Good to see Harry Dean Stanton in there too...

Ok so here is a lump of old writing that I haven' shown anyone yet. It is the first chapter in a story I haven't been able to get back into for ages

PART 1

The snow was big at that time of the year; fell in chunks and swallowed up the cars in hours. My apartment was on the top floor, and when the hail came it sounded like somebody hammering on an old typewriter by the window.

The room was small, with painted white wooden floors. I had a chair and a desk by the only window, looking eastwards out over Downtown, and a small single bed in the corner, over which the ceiling sloped down towards my feet.

I didn't have many things with me. Some blank books and a few clothes, melting out of a green canvas holdall in the middle of the room. I'd left in a hurry.

Often i'd go and take a walk in the mornings through the crisp air you can feel filling your lungs and chilling your insides. And the snow is lying all around and the sun reflects off it and everything is brighter. I'd weave up St Laurent past the coats stuffed with people, past the inevitable line-up outside Schwartz's, and turn right onto Duluth or Roy and spend hours getting almost lost (because how lost can you get in a gridded city?) around the Plateau. The multi-coloured apartments and balconies i'll probably never own and the Portugese chickens turning in the windows and maybe stopping for a coffee and then home when the cold starts to seep through the mittens. I used to look for bicyles buried under mountains of snow, maybe just a handlebar or pedal sticking out from an icy whiteness, and wonder if anyone would come back for them before they were eventually released, aged and bended, in the Spring thaw.

The winter wore on. Tapped at my window. I stayed at home most days, drinking tea and trying to write. Occasionally i'd watch a matinee at the cinema down the road. There was a particular point, at the top of the stairs, where all the various smells of the foyer congealed in the air; warm popcorn and cleaning fluids. Sour milk and sugar. It had contours, that smell. Sometimes i swear I could feel it brush my face as I walked by. Even later i'd catch it around the apartment, spilling out of coat pockets or sweating from ten dollar notes.

So anyway that is where i'm at, if anyone can be bothered to read it. Maybe i'll serialise it up to where I stopped. Anyways i'm past knowing or caring if its any good. It fills a blog-hole though...

If anyone's in Edinburgh this month go see the We are the Friction show, if anyone's in Newcastle next week come to the Massive Contact show, and if anyone is in London between 19th and 22nd August come and find us...we'll probably be in Atlantis.

Ta-da

Don't Miss Today

2009-08-06T00:27:00.007+01:00

I missed.
I have been very busy.

This week I have felt strongly the conflict between personal and professional practice. We currently have a lot of work coming through the studio and it has been difficult managing that alongside personal work for exhibitions. It has not necessarily been difficult to find time for the two, but my social life has suffered slightly. But it is good to be busy. When the two seams of my work run alongside each other so closely it seems like neither are given enough time, but what actually happens, it seems, is they become closer, ideas weave together and one informs the other so the differentiation of what has been commissioned and what hasn't, what we are getting paid for and what we are doing for the sake of making something, and what we see as might be beneficial or not becomes irrelevant. there are things to be done, and they must be done.
It also becomes strange when the people you are working with day in, day out, in a professional but also personal way are your very good friends. When working on studio projects it easy to draw a line between a business and friend mode, when time becomes tight and we are working every minute we can on various projects it can become a bit stressful and I am aware in myself the ability to get bummed out occasionally. When working so closely with others this can easily transfer to the other members. It is necessary to take a step back and realise what we have is pretty special and we are in a very fortunate position, that has arisen not only through circumstance but hard work.
So basically what this comes down to, although I'm sure they already know, is, yes, a day's a day, don't miss today and thanks.
We trudge on, and we will get there,

Beyond mountains, more mountains...

Mountain Patterns
Work has been continuing steadily on my work for Massive Contact. As well as a nearly three meter by 1 and a half meter banner that I have been stitching I am attempting to make some felt boots (with, I should add, the good help of my friend Hannah).

The goal:

My attempts

From a book on Chinese Nuosu mountain culture:

"Felting is a process requiring considerable skill, and one that is undertaken by males. But not every man knows how to do it, so a family that needs felt products will hire a known felter."

I think i should have enlisted the the help of a known felter.
It is exciting when the process starts. You are suddenly swamped with the idea of endless possibilities. You could make anything. Then the complexity of the process steps in, and whilst it doesn't exactly take the fun out of it, you are reminded that there perhaps is a reason why everything is not made in such a way.
The point of the objects i am crafting at the moment is not to have display a skill in crafting, a perfection, but to revel in trying something, returning to the handmade, trying something that may not be easy, exploring techniques of indigenous peoples. i am fully aware that the the items I am creating are not of a standard that these people would expect or maybe even appreciate, but for me the carry a beauty that will speak more about the process, and the activity of making something with your own hands.

Whether it will be successful or not will remain to be seen, but I have had fun in trying, and maybe that is most important thing.

'Fancy A Quickee?'
Something I saw this week that troubled me was a van, emblazoned with advertising for a company that offers 10 minute phone charging around the city centre. The product offered was called 'Quickee', the motto asking if potential customers would indeed 'Fancy a Quickee?'.
I do not consider myself a prude, and I think the reasons why this bothered me do not make me prudish, just concerned. I am not worried that our little vulnerable children will see this and run around the school playground asking classmates if they fancy a quickee. What it does exemplify for me is the trivialization and commodifcation of sex in our culture. It is not the fact that sex is being put in front of people who, upon seeing the frankly horribly conceived and designed advertisement on the side of a transit van maybe stripped of their innocence, it is the fact that upon having something that is meant to be something concentrated in emotion attached to such a mundane and frankly unnecessary nugget of capitalist culture, makes this seem dirtier and seedier than it ever should be. It is things like this that strip the simple beauty and bring it down to a level of it seeming filthy and something that children should be aware of.
Like the overuse of words like genius, love and hate, where do you go to when something that should be so special, potent becomes diluted. It just seems sad.
Not prudish but maybe traditionalist, which to some may make me prudish, but this is not something I'm ashamed about.

I am very much looking forward to going to Newcastle,
See you soon,
x

2009-07-31T22:32:00.008+01:00

Frigg

I'm posting late today, my computer broke early this morning, which to me is an absolute DISASTER! especially when I have lots of jobs stacking up & an exhibition looming. I've apprehended my girlfriends' laptop for the evening, it's 10.30 on a Friday evening, most people would generally be out socialising and enjoying merriment with their chums. I however am going to write this blog, solemn as I'm painting this picture to be, I've actually had a relatively fruitful day, I made the most out of my situation by concentrating on a painting I'm producing for our Massive Contact show making good headway on it. I'll post pictures next week, hopefully when my computer will be fixed and I'll be pressing on with the ever mounting commercial work we have on, which is great, it's just not great to not be able to get my teeth into it all.

Anyway, I sometimes walk to work in favour of cycling, simply to allow some time for thought and reflection before entering the studio to begin work. It takes around 40 mins to walk, which is more than adequate time to engage in some deep thought. However, I walk down a busy main road, one of the main access points to the city center for commuters, so as you might imagine along this route with so many cars traveling down it, it's the perfect place to place advertisements on every available wall space, not pleasant, the adverts are generally for mobile phone services and fast food takeaways, not things I'd say had a very creative marketing approach at the moment - personally, most simply replicate one another - attempt to work with the familiarity / security developed in the consumer by doing so. This doesn't please me. As I was walking along when the road sides begin to become occupied by trees instead of buildings soiled with advertising, there was a solitary bus stop with a poster on it:

Really nice refreshing piece of work, strategically placed for maximum impact. Commissioned by the good old BBC to promote educational show 'Bang goes the theory' about science. It's genuinely encouraging to see good work done for a good cause, it's nice to see promotion of education, especially when it's free to watch online. I'll tell you who the poster is by, if I can find out before my next post. But great whoever you are. Reminds me of Olle Eksell.

I managed to put my zine together 'Yuquot - Nootka Sound' it's available to purchase from the nous vous shop now - see site for additional details. You can view images of it on my flickr.

Goodnight & good weekend

J X

2009-07-30T23:18:00.004+01:00

CHILD

LUNGS

Today I and the rest of Nous Vous, and other people were shown around Temple Works in Leeds, which is an amazing space in Holbeck. Apart from it being a great space, and huge and possibly turned into a creative centre, what I found fascinating was that nothing has been touched in the rooms for a few years, and there's still letters in drawers and bits of paper lying around with things like 'CHILD LUNGS' and 'WRONG PICTOGRAM IN SHOE' written on. I actually got a bit scared. It was like Silent Hill or something, and i half-expected some zombos to come lurching out of the darkness or something. But if things get going with it, it'll be ace.

I have been getting into The Craftsman' by Richard Sennett this week. I remember someone blogging about it on Its Nice That a few months back, and thought about it when I was a bit drunk the other night and happened to be on Amazon. Could have been a recipe for disaster, thought I might get some ridiculous purchases through the post like a Jurassic Park box set or something, but as it was I only got sensible things. I'm really into this book, and it confirms loads of stuff that i'm thinking about / believe in. Its good to hear someone else who is a lot older than yourself and infinitely more experienced talking about things you are also into. Good advice. Crucial. Buy it / Borrow it / Steal it.

Still working towards this Newcastle exhibition, got some sketches here of stuff I may work into bigger stuff. Basically most of my work has ended up being based on 2 pages from Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse, and Ivor Cutler. Going a bit better though now,

So hopefully we will have enough stuff to make the space feel sort of used. I'll post up some more things next week, but not too much. Been making some test zines which i messed up a bit, so will get them up for sale asap and i'll take some to the show.

Oh yeah, thiought this was interesting, and tied in with the book i'm reading too...what he's actually saying probably only lasts like 5 minutes without the jokes, but still worth a watch perhaps....

Ken Robinson talking about creativity in education

Ok thats all from me this week i think

Bye-di-byes

Don't Miss Today

2009-07-29T21:40:00.003+01:00

I don't feel as I have much to say to the outside world this week. Least of all anything of much value or interest.
The majority if not all of my thought has been taken up with plans for our show in Newcastle which is only getting nearer.

I have finally formalized my plans for my part of this show.

I don't have masses to say, some words, some pictures...

In Answer:

A letter from an Inuit artist to a potential collector:

'...you wrote. I am answering a short letter . I read your letter. I do not recall your name... I am thankful to you to be interested in my carvings. I will carve, please do not doubt my words, now I do not have good stone. It is still winter. In July I will have good stone. The stone used now by Eskimos here is not good. I do not enjoy working poor stone. Do not get tired of waiting for my work. The white people will soon refuse our carvings if we use poor stone. I am not doing much carving now, also I am a slow worker. I like to think of something that would please the buyer... Please answer me soon. I like to hear form you. Do not doubt my words I will do some carvings for you. My hands are slow. Let me know if any carvings... were broken. I have not been carving much now for two years...'
[Emphasis Mine]

A Recipe:

6 cloves of roasted garlic
1 large roasted pimento sweet pepper
1 large red roasted chilli
roasted
fry with:

olive oil
about 50 fine green beans, topped and tailed
1 can of spinach leaves
tablespoon of peanut butter
sprinkle of pepper, oregano, dill
tablespoon of brown soft sugar
fry

add:
100g bulger wheat
boiled with teaspoon of vegetable stock

end.

some pictures:

Conc

2009-07-24T13:13:00.013+01:00

Frigg

Going to keep it short and sweet this week - after last weeks rambleathon.

First off I'm just going to mention a few Nous Vous related things, we've just learnt that our new book 'Lot Nine' has been featured in the latest edition of Creative Review. Big thanks to Patrick & CR team for that.

Last night was the opening of 'We are the Friction' a new book by Jez Burrows & Lizzy Stewart, collaboratively known as Sing Statistics. They've put some hard graft into producing it, looks like it's gong to be a brilliant publication, haven't actually seen it yet - but with the line-up of Illustrators (Including us) & Writers they've slected to contribute - it couldn't possibly be bad, especially since they're a veritably talented duo anyway.

The Amazing Analogue books (Edinburgh) is hosting an exhibition of the orginal works submitted to the book. Ltd editions of the illustrations made for the book, the book and the originals are all for sale. Pop along if you're in the area and check out the site below if you'd like to know more details.

'We are the Friction'
New Book and Exhibition
Analogue Books, Edinburgh
July 23 - August 31
www.singstatistics.co.uk
www.analoguebooks.co.uk

I'm now going to host a little exhibition of works that have really made me grumble, made me grumble because they're so good that it i'm irritates me - makes me want to pull my socks up in the best poissible way. Inspiration central:

1. Artist Unkown - Found via http://ured8yu.blogspot.com/ < href="http://www.livincompany.de/">Stefan Marx
3. Stefan Marx
4. Jaakko Pallasvuo
5. Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch
6. Luke Best
7. Himaa
8. Kai Asserson Nødland
9. Doris Lee
10. Nick Cortese
11. Kai Asserson Nødland
12. Nathaniel Russell
13. Chris Johanson
14. Carson Ellis

That about rounds it up, I've been working on a drawing for the last couple of days. A drawing documenting Victorian Chaps with their Sparrow chums - composed like a group shot that you might expect to see from that era, alluding to the existence of a Victorian Mens club - all members of which have their personal Sparrow friend. Here's a practice sketch I've done, there will be 17 Gentlemen & Sparrow composed in one image and it will be previewed in our 'Massive Contact' Exhibition in Newcastle's Square Yard Gallery, on August 14th.

Have a lovely weekend.

J x

2009-07-23T23:51:00.002+01:00

KINDER SCOUT 636

Thursday again.

I've been leaving my blog til very late recently, and as a consequence have made it short and not said what i'd maybe wanted to. Always forget what i'd like to say anyway...

So, starting with things done this week; finished installing a typographic piece at PSL, which is quickly becoming covered with grass. Painted the names of 18 vegetables on an 8ft by 8ft bit of wood and drilled it into a wall. Had a full band practice. Went to see Corsano/Flower duo again, which was amazing again. Drank some wine. Blah blah blah...

My friend Katty pointed me in the direction of David Lynch's Interview Project, which I then proceeded to watch in its entirety; its fascinating. Click on the link to find out, but basically a film crew took a road trip around the US and interviewed people they happened to pass by on the road or in a town, or wherever. They then got them to talk about themselves a little. Each interview lasts only a few minutes and has a simple but quite effective soundtrack. They're putting more interviews up every three days I think, as the road trip is still going on and they're editing it on the road as it were (again, I think this is the case, but don't take my word for it). Lynch does the introduction for each interview, summing up each interviewee in one sentence, which is interesting in its own right.

Writing this blog is actually making me realise how little I have to say, and how little i'm actually taking on board throughout the week. Maybe I am seeing things i like, but I don't really think i'm doing enough research really. Saw some paintings today I really liked an it made me really want to just draw, so that was good, but also weird. Maybe I just clam up when it comes to blog-time. I suppose i'm always thinking - probably too much. This weekend i'm planning to do a lot of drawing and painting and making things from wood.

For our Newcastle show in a few weeks i'm making some drawings based on a passage from the book 'Peter Camenzind' by Herman Hesse. These are some that i've been doing, they need working on, but feels like an ok start...

I'm also making some boxes in which I am going to collect darkness, a large painting of a mountain and four faux-livres. Possibly some small sculptures based on abstract paper shapes.

My friend Danny played this Richard Thompson song at a garden gig at the weekend and it stuck in my head. Though i've heard it many times before, I suddenly realised I really like it...

Enough. I have nothing interesting to say.

Don't Miss Today

2009-07-22T20:39:00.010+01:00

Champion Tree

The Tree Register would like to hear from anyone who knows of trees bigger than those listed or who can report on the death or loss of any tree listed as a champion tree

Please use the online measuring form to report a potential champion tree or it you wish to confirm a trees status, nationally or locally.

The tree in your garden may be more special than you think

Massive Contact

Work is slowly becoming more clear, in terms of what guise it may take, for our show in Newcastle as a part of the Future Focus Series. This is exciting as it is our first solo show in what is exclusively a gallery. Exciting and daunting.
The following pictures are sketches again working towards a zine and for this show. My work will be based around the few specific things that are fascinating me currently.

Fake Books
This is not a new thing and most are probably already familiar with it, but Project Gutenberg is a pretty amazing resource. I find it hard to really get into reading something on screen. For this reason I am confident that print will never completely die. Humans are tactile race, we like to feel to experience things. The amount of printed output may be decreased but this is by no means a negative thing. I think we will see a polarization in the quality of print. Cheap, quick and inconsequential pieces of print will still be released, but for those who take extra consideration in what they put out will perhaps have to justify going through printing something by making sure it is worth printing, in terms of making it a beautiful object. Hopefully also these people will make this as environmentally conscious as possible. Back to track, Project Gutenberg has a tremendous wealth of knowledge, if you can face downloading ebooks and risking a white screen headache it is worth it as I would think many of the books on here are hard if not nigh on impossible to get hold of.

'Once Upon a Time'
I hadn't really considered the complexity of this phrase until recently when t came up in something I was reading. It can be looked at as having a double sense of past and future, 'once' hinting at a time that has existed, 'upon a time' looking forward to some event that has not yet happened. This phrase embodies the true sense of 'an everlasting now'.

A Concise Dictionary of Alskan Indian:
All right, good...............A-shik-tuk.
Bad, ugly, no good............Asi-duk.
Beer--made of flour...........Ma-cooloe, or Bi-vak.
Big, large, great.............Bul-shoi.
Beaver........................Ba-luk-tak.
Beans.........................Bo-bik.
Breast........................Cat-gat.
Bear..........................Ta go ga.
Book, paper, letter...........Cali-kam.
Beluga or white whale.........Ba-tuku.
Boat..........................Ba-lia.
Clean, to drink...............Shak-shak.
Coffee........................Caffie-amuk.
Cold, old, year, winter.......Snik.
Dance, festivity..............Que-elat.
Dog...........................Sa-baccca.
Fire..........................Ca-nak.
Good, all right...............A-shik-tuk.
Get out of the way............Aw wa.
Hot cakes, slap jacks.........Alat-jes.
House.........................Domo.
I thank you for what I ate....Co-yana.
Kiss, to kiss.................Betchie-luko.
Know, to think................Ba-nem mia.
Keep quiet....................Slades.
Mittens.......................Lum-shuks.
Moose.........................Tun-tun.
No............................Neito, also cong-a.
Pants.........................Ut-ruks.
Pipe..........................Truth-ka.
Revolver......................Pistol-tak.
Seal..........................I-shor-it.
Tent, sail....................Blat-ka.
To-day........................Nu-tun.
Thank you.....................Que ena.
Undress.......................Enak ten.
Village.......................A-nit.
Vessel........................Skoo-nik.
Whale.........................Aror-un.
Wind..........................Ak lak.
Water.........................Muka-muk.
Wood..........................Mo-ruk.
Wolverine.....................Mats-jaro-alik.
What do you say...............Tia-cia-lou.
What do you want..............Tie-ens-lou.
Welcome.......................Qee-enaduk.
Yes...........................A-A.

A Song
I'm not sure how good this is, it doesn't sound like me which is odd to listen to, but I want rid of it, so away...

Some images of inspiration

2009-07-17T15:47:00.003+01:00

Frigg

Note: this weeks post is a big Ramble Bomb about Leeds, just a friendly warning to disinterested folks...

The problem with Leeds is;...

There are far too many shops that attempt to cater for the broadest market possible, the effects appear to resonate throughout the other sectors within the City.

What I think Leeds needs, before it needs art and culture, is a dynamic interesting marketplace, which caters for specific target markets, this to my mind would make a more general wealth, not only financially but in skills and satisfaction, obviously certain recent economic developments have been a catalyst for this kind of thought, but I think it's a fair point either way.

There would be more skilled people, more specific services provided by people, more jobs and an interesting environment to negotiate. Since Primark moved itself into Leeds, placing itself firmly on the Headrow (the main road dissecting the City center) and on the corner of Briggate (Leeds main shopping road) this marked a significant decline on the integrity of Leeds shopping area. More and more shopping plaza's seem to be opening, installing more replicas of shops that already exist in Leeds, which all seem to be replicas of one another anyway. I can't decipher who they're aiming at other than aiming to create some kind of homogenised being, so they can keep taking peoples money from them, to kindly hand them some thoughtless toss they've just knocked up out the back. I believe there's 3 H&M's and 3 Topshops, not only that there seems to be 2 or more of alot the major brands occupying buildings within the City Centre, and plans for more. They're literally 5 mins away from one another on foot. I think this kind of attitude, the fact that a few of the same shop exist, is too decadent! They must have multiple stores just so people don't have to walk five minutes to the other side of the City to shop there. Spreading thin is an understatement. This subject, to me personally, is poignant because there's a distinct lack of a cultural district and support from the council towards supporting creatives in developing a cultural area.

Incidentally I'm much more inclined to wander the Kirskstall market and Merrion market, there are people in there providing services and goods that are very specific, some are undesirable but I think it's a good model.

Here's a few comparative arguments; Edinburgh has many many specific stores, in fact it's littered with them a very interesting destination, not only in terms of its history and architecture, but as a shopping destination a cultural City with a festival that supports this, a City that attracts people to it. Manchester has just hosted an amazing festival supporting culture on all levels, attracting thousands of people to the City supporting its occupants financially as well as spiritually, surely that must sound interesting towards business owners .???? No? Business is a creative market and it can be conducted with integrity catering for peoples needs as well as your own in equal measure, I wish this was the case in Leeds.

Because of this, support and space being thin for the arts institutions that exist in the City, means none of them take chances / risks, focus is placed on getting people through the doors to prove they're worthy of the support they receive, I don't blame them, it's hard. They could do a few things; relinquish control occasionally to worthy benefactors, place faith in other people, there are hundreds of art & design students graduating every year in Leeds, alot of which don't stick around for very long because there's no employment or opportunities here in the arts. The things that do happen that attempt to support this kind of autonomous activity, support by the existing institutions only goes so far before the institution clenches it's hand and pulls the reigns back in, intervening on this activity and spoiling it in doing so, because they can't afford to have there funding stop, or for people think badly of them. This results in the institutions just doing what is acceptable not too much, not too little just right and enough to expand interest in the arts by the general public by about 0.5% by my calculations, which could be speculative.

Do exciting art, exciting projects, collaborate across the various sectors, work together. Do outrageous things, generate an interest, let people escape and take a different perspective on day to day things, don't always simply reflect society and general day to day happenings, people know what happens around them and what they do and what their friends and neighbors do, it's patronising to hold a mirror up to people, community art is occassionally guilty of this! Do things to develop their community, develop new ways in which these people can benefit from their community mutually, design initiatives, utilise people's skills let them help themselves. Or simply give them an out of this world experience by creating things that are mind blowing, inspire people, show them it's possible to re-imagine the uses for elements, present them with out of this world concepts and visuals, stimulate / provoke thought, that surely can't be a bad thing?

Another thing is Leeds City town planning, people always complain about the ring road, sort it out! Create more travel options, bike lanes in the City for example, people love that at the moment, being green whilst helping their health. Sorry if this is starting to sound like some rant directed at an empty void, but it kind of is. Another thing that has struck me about the city planning is how inaccessible the peripheral is, there's no easy way of getting there, and not even that, there is a definate divide in the City where the Industrial sectors sit on the peripheral, obviously, but in Leeds this peripheral seems to hug the City a little too tightly, squeezing pockets of interesting areas over the edges of its sloppy embrace.

Sorry these are all things that have occured / effected me recently and its all come to a head in this blog. Rantathon over!

I'm going to speak positively now about what all this has to do with, basically I've been designing for w while now and I'm getting involved in more and more interesting projects. I want to start designing things that are equally beneficial to all people concerned in producing them or aimed at. Not sure how to go about this, I'm not sure it's very far away from my ongoing ethical stance on Design, as I'm sure it's not among other designers, but it's all too easy to get carried away with things and get engrossed in what you're producing and how it is benefitting you or the person you're working for. What I'm saying is that I'm going to make sure I take measures to make the benefits of my efforts more equal, accross the board, clients / commissioners, their clients and myself, and if it's a more general creative brief with no clear market, simply attempt to make it inspiring.

Workwise:
I've built the Letters that will be installed in Project Space Leeds new Exhibition 'Town & Country'. Alot of hardwork, building large scale wooden frames, wrapping those frames tightly in grass seed and soil, 120 litres of it in total. So as you migh imagine they're quite large, heavy objects. All that remians to do is to hang them on the wall, which will be fun. If you'd like to see them, the opening of 'Town & Country' is this coming Tuesday. That as well as other 'Town & Country' related jobs is pretty much all I've done all week. It's been really nice getting my hands dirty, literally, and getting into some physical work, although admittedly I have felt the pain of my efforts, tired bones, achey muscles.

I've been thinking over what to do for our show in Newcastle Massive Contact. I think I mentioned I was making a phone in my last blog, but that may have to wait. Opting for a few more humble installations, I'm not overly familiar with electrical goods and it could be disaterous, think I'll stick to a few processes I'm comfortable with. I have a few ideas, but won't divuldge anything, not that it's sectret, I'm still ironing these ideas out. Some kind of scultural piece probably will manifest as well as a potential wall piece.

Inspirations this week = none between wood, soil & bed.

2009-07-16T23:06:00.006+01:00

DON'T

BELIEVE

THE

FUTURE

A week:

Heard

Morris and the Muslims

Walking with Whitman

Pueblo Songs

Plans for a sailing adventure

The backing track

Typewriter

The same phone-conversation three times

The voice of somebody I know, for the first time in months

"When you look into a mirror, it's actually a reverse image.."

Barabadabada

A Brave New World

Seen

Graduates

Psychoville

Flattened Dads

A tidy kitchen

Green enclave

6 AM

Received

A flight to Portugal

Phonecalls

Sandwiches

Moccasins

Contract

Instructions

A letter with a drawing of a french man on the envelope

Made

Plans

Decisions (not without difficulty)

Money

Sketches

Sandwiches

Songs

(garden poem)

The garden

Which, earlier

I had regarded as off-limits

Was suddenly thrown open.

A bicycle handlebar,

Black-rubbered and gleaming

In the seven o' clock sun

said, "look".

And two round faces

Beamed back;

The mean with white beard

and rolled-up jeans.

And purple,

Wobbled flesh about the hips,

Patched shadowy beard

Said "Goodbye".

Goodbye

Don't Miss Today

2009-07-15T21:43:00.008+01:00

Waving Leaves,
Weaving Lives,
Wavering, Leaves.

In the past week i have been likened to Jesus and Moses, simply an aesthetic connection I assume, I aim to keep my miracles to myself. It is strange how a beard can make one appear messianic.

I was hoping to get a song finished this week but none have come forward. It would appear I can't sing this evening. I bet Jesus could nail it...

Bone Snow Knives and Tin Oil Lamps

I have been busy this week, but amongst other healthy demands on my time I have had some time to really get stuck into some reading and have made some really good finds. The kind of words that somehow seem to solidify a lot intangible thoughts and seemingly unrelated ideas. They do not necessarily make the ideas immediately obvious but certainly seem to be a rung on the ladder.

From a book a friend sent my recently, I have been fascinated with a certain diagrammatic representation of a history of the Sioux . The chart plots a kind of time line of the these people that is simply marked by event. Clearly they were aware of the change of the seasons and of the passing of days, probably far more than we are now, more closely in tune, but the need for calendaring this information appears to be in their eyes unnecessary. Far more important is the, in this case, pictorial representation of, documenting important events. This seems to relate to a way of viewing time in many Native American Indians, and also many strong indigenous cultures, such as the Mayans and Eskimos.

Some Eskimo groups mythology see time differently from western 'civilised' selves. Historical and mythical reality are not the 'past', they are forever present, participating in all current being, giving meaning to all their activities and to all their existence. The past is present.Wherever they go, their surroundings have meaning for them, every rock, ruin and element of their landscape have mythical significance.

For many of these peoples, time has a far less tangible quality, this may indeed be a truer way of viewing time. How do we know tie is constant, we do not even know the origins of time, yet our Western world revolves around some invented measure of this incorporeal concept. Creation stories tell of a time before time, before the creation of the world, where beings looked upon the birth of the creator, of the fashioning of this time.

It is easy to forget how culturally restrained major concepts and even senses are. The Aivilik (an Eskimo group) have no word for history. To distinguish between different kinds of occasions they will say, for example, eetchuk, that is "time before time". not a previous phase of this time, but a different kind of time. MAterial objects, songs, prayers and stories can psess the pastas an attribute. I read about an ethnographer who when attempting to record an Elder's autobiography had to chronolgise events in a way he could understand as when speaking Ohnainewk would work backwards and forwards with ommissions and repetitions, seemingly uninterested in a 'typical' narrative structure.

This even carries through to their art which Martijn describes as an 'acoustic art', relying more on auditory than on ocular powers in aprehending reality. Traditional carvers would not preoccupy themselves with the task of placing a carving ina deliberate setting, mood or time, each carving 'lives in a spatial independence. Size and shape, proportions and slection, these are set by the object itself, not forced from without. Like sound, each carving creates its own space, its own identity and imposes its own assumptions'. (Eskimo Carvings in Historical Perspective.)
They do not represent static moments in time. They are small and easily handled, they lack a single, favoured side for viewing, achieving multpile perspectives. The soapstone carvings we see today from Eskimo cultures are largely inspired by the wishes of white men travelling through in search of trinkets and keepsakes, the proliferation of which came about when the Eskimos realised they could make money from the tourist trade, and began to represent domestic or outdoor scenes.

Everything is in mythology, and everything in mythology is and is together.

Some drawings
(apologies for use of photo booth, I forgot my camera)

A story:

Hi, High, Hill!

The weather forecast says heavy rain, storm, snow. The cottage, the site, Low Wray, the rain. Tom, the man, the national trust, his eyes, calm, gentle, honest, slight. The Outgate Inn, creepy, the couple signs above the bar, she reads them out, he ignores her, looks at the cricket painting, sighs, indifference. You say you are drunk, I hold the torch in the dark. The rain falls through the night, tapping on the tent, the sleep is cold, pushed to one side, against the canvas wall.

We wake, rain, indecision, we buy a map, waterproof paper, we walk. Green and luscious, moss covers everything, so much is green, so much green, around the lake and up. Long walk. I fall, embarrassed. Coffee and Kendal Mint Cake, they talk of hair, on backs, chests and women. Five Hellos. Up from the lake, towards the tarn. Tarn, torn, taw. The sun comes out, we go swimming in the tarn, we rest our feet. Cold in the instance, instantly freezing, clean and bright, slight of breath and blood to the head. I sink my chest, in up to my beard, you stand bottom dipped, arms held safe, we hold each other, sun on the side of our faces.

We remove our pants and walk on free, it feels American. The trees, tall slim, consistent in width, regular in branch, they creak in the wind as if they are regretful of growing so high. You stop to take photos, again and again as if you have never seen trees before. The map comes out, i find it endearing, a constant need to know, you are defensive of my glances, you snare them. Old Joy. We walk, long walk, misjudge our position, miss roads, ignore signs, Hole House, High-Tock-How. Tired legs, feigning tantrums, we trudge on, collective persistence, empty of stomach but wanton of little, a seat, soup, bread, ale. We reach the outpost, walk back slowly, sit by the lake, watch the ducks, they sit like the couple from the Inn the previous night, early to bed, calm to sleep. Jack Mountain and Luigi Milano, home, welcome.

We awake, wash, collapse the tent, you daydream. Taxi to the station, coffee, worry heart, train, we doze, between stops and changes and more coffee and delays. Houses near, with all its worries, concerns and distractions, this feels like goodbye. We get the bus, it is cheaper here, we delay with tea and I leave, bathe and sleep. A distant memory but a resounding feeling, re-sounding still now, in my ears, eyes and feet, still emanating through me. Such an ease of company and a light beauty, at once so temporary in experience but existent in its permanence. An eternal and internal peace and happiness. Trust a feeling before a forecast.

Work is progressing for our input in the next Project Space Leeds show and our forthcoming show in Newcastle in 5 weeks.

Bad Leg

Something less pretentious
poet/musician Edward Barton
Square Bears

A Recipe

Peanut Butter Banana
one banana, slit along inside curve (but not halved)
spread peanut butter (crunchy) into the crevice
grill, 5 minutes both sides, until the skin is crispy

grants me solace in a dairy free world

Speak to you soon

2009-07-10T17:52:00.005+01:00

Frigg

Well it's the end of the week and it's all coming to a close, I'm looking forward to a weekend of work and play. Tomorrow I'll be in the studio for a short period getting a few things finished up. Namely preperations for our participation in Project Space Leeds next project 'Town & Country'. We're creating some large scale letters spelling out the juxtaposed word 'Hortuseum' made up of words Horticulture and Museum, referencing an installation documenting plants, a living sculpture. We're building approximately 1msq living letters, which will sprout grass and grow throughout the exhibition period....hopefully....???? See Williams' previous post for images of experiments we've conducted using a similar method. The brief was simple. Typographically reference the installation and spell out the word 'Hortuseum' - so it's visible from the trainline, adjacent to PSL.

I'm going to break the day up by visiting the Kirskstall Festival for an hour or so, a 2 minute walk from our studio, set in Kirkstall Abbey, a lovely setting, which we induldge in from time to time when getting overworked and brained out.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I set off to the Isle of Man last weekend to attend a Family Wedding. I wore full Manx Tartan including Kilt (including underwear) the weather was fantastic and it was lovely seeing all my family in one place. Family were over from Canada and Scotland, coincidentally one of my family members lives very close to 'Yuquot' / Friendly Cove / Nootka Sound a place in British Columbia which I have been researching for drawings I've been working on, so it was really interesting to get a fuller insight to the place and potentially have a place to stay nearby if I can ever afford to go there.

My venture back home has inspired some thoughts regarding our next exhibition in Newcastle's Square Yard Gallery 'Massive Contact'. Me having to travel such a long way home, crossing the country and sea, made me think about maintaining contact and how hard I find it especially when I'm busy working, it was such a nice thing talking to my family and friends, having that contact, taking a moment, not talking specifically about work, people truely caring about you. So my thoughts were to extend that feeling, in some respect, to vistors of our exhibition by installing a custom made phone. I'm going to set about designing and constructing this phone as soon as other obligations are out of the way. This in turn led to the idea of building useful items, creating useful objects by hand from materials I have either in my studio or out of redundant objects at home.

The only thing I've observed this week other than the above was a show on TV the other night, Richard Dimbleby Lecture, on Wednesday, BBC 1. Price Charles gave a talk about sustainability and the countries economics. I found this fascinating, he was a great speaker. I'm obviously skeptical about people in a position to speculate and talk about issues, especially when the way in which it is being projected into the public indicates there is a huge class / power division between the viewer and the speaker. But I have to aside from that it was a very positive lecture about the future, explaining, in a very common sensical way, about what should be done to mend issues. I'll watch the rest, if I change my mind I'll let you know.

Ta ta

2009-07-09T20:14:00.007+01:00

SNARL

CATCHER

FILLET

Hello Thursday!

I have prepared nothing for this week so, as usual, this will be a meandering affair, though hopefully with some items of interest embedded herein. The title of this post refers to an item in a display case at MOSi, which I visited at the weekend. I have no idea what it is...

I went to Manchester to see Jeremy Deller's 'Procession', part of the Manchester International Festival.

I have not seen a procession or parade such as this for a long time, and I can't recall ever seeing one in this country. The participants were representative of Manchester and its history, from a group of 'Unrepentant Smokers' (with a banner designed by David Hockney) to a band of Sikh bagpipe players. I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure, as a piece of 'work', how successful it was, and I don't really care, but as an experience I found it interesting. It really felt like everyone watching and everyone involved was having a good time, and united in this shared experience. After the last float; a steel band playing some of Manchester's best known and loved songs (Love will tear us apart etc), people started to follow, and we walked down Deansgate to the Cathedral where the whole thing came to an end. Post-procession I was aware of wanting something else to happen. It was the middle of the day, hot and bright, and the event had been quite short, so the excitement that had built over a relatively short time had nowhere else to manifest itself apart from in the pub (in my case) or milling around the streets.

This sort of thing should happen more often, and the fact that it was a piece of 'art' but also I think really inclusive, so much so that it could be experienced as an event, regardless of the artist behind it. I would have enjoyed it whether it was created by Jeremy Deller or my next door neighbour.

Anyway, enough of that. Something that my friend made me aware of this weekend was IDEO, a website that I still haven't explored properly, so I would be unqualified to say anything more than take a look. It seems to be a very broad-ranging design-based organisation and business, with educational techniques, interviews, ideas etc. Potential brain-food.

Credits go to Will for making me aware of this picture, from Mexico. The man's face is amazing, and I may have to paint it.

I re-watched the film 'Paris, Texas' this week, directed by Wim Wenders and starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell and Natassja Kinski. I'd seen this before about a year ago, and wanted to watch it again for a long time now. The cinematography is amazing, nothing much happens and it is long and slow but i love it. One of my favourite things about it is Stanton's character, Travis Henderson. His outfits are amazing and he has a good beard / moustache.

There is a shot that makes me laugh, though it is not a funny part of the film...they're looking through a one-way mirror but it looks as though Travis has on a wig...

Today I ate too much, and Psychoville is on in 5 minutes, so i'm going to stop here, Tea-leaf...

Don't Miss Today

2009-07-08T09:31:00.013+01:00

I was listening to a discussion about Bernard Malamud's short story "A Summer's Reading." In the discussion, the author Aleksandar Hemon mentioned a study he read about in the New York Times where people feel they are a character in their own life story and try to act out this character as they want them to be seen. I can relate to this, not in a way that one may put on an act, but in taking control of your life to make it a more positive experience, living the way you want to, being aware of things, the nuances that, far from being unimportant, come together to form a more rounded whole, as opposed to hole.
I put a shelf up in my room, there I have placed some treasures, including my book of 'Six Fairy Tales' illustrated with incredible etchings by David Hockney. I found a painting on the street of a shepherd watching his flock in the Swiss mountains. It is up on my wall and looks like a window into a landscape where I can run to when I need to. It looks grand against the midnight blue. My firend gave me a shirt which makes me look like the lid from a jar of Bonne Maman jam and a denim shirt. These things make me happy.

Saltaire is Good Air

I travelled to Saltaire last weekend. Saltaire is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in between Leeds and Bradford, a village built by Titus Salt, an industrialist who viewed the living conditions of his workers as of prime importance. There are darker elements to this type of town planning, a kind of social control with restrictions on public houses and a visible sense of hierachy, with wardens having slightly taller, almost watchtower like houses so they can keep eye out over the proles below. This aside Salt firmly believed in rights for his workers, ensuring good housing, good schooling for the children of his workers and a high standard of working conditions throughout.

We walked about and I collected and looked and made some drawings, they are noit great but it was nice to be sketching with no real purpose again.

At Saltaire there is a superb collection of Hockney paintings and prints, in the Salts Mill. This collection is free and shows a good, broad spectrum of Hockney's work, from his early Rake's Progress prints through to recent landscape paintings and portraits. I would recommend a visit to anyone, if solely for this purpose.

Free Trains
On the way back from Saltaire I was overcome by the excitment of not only being on a train but the possibilites that are out there. The places. I firmly believe that train travel should be heavily subsidised if not free. If money was diverted from motorway and road construction and from handouts to the car manufacturing industry and put towards the railways our country would be far finer plae. This may seem like an idealistic train of whimsical thought but it is far more than this.
Free train travel would allow anyone to go anywhere they pleased. There would be no reason for people to be bored or miserable. More than this it would broaden our horizons. It would contantly educate, showing us new places, taking us to new people, giving us new experiences. It could stretch to the continent. It is easy to forget we are linked by a stretch of steel, be it under water. It would reunite us with nature, take us out of the cities and into the countryside, or to other cities, other countries. Being placed in one locale would not be an issue. Seeing places would no longer be a financial burden or restriction. Every person has the right to see the Scottish highlands, every person has the right to see the Cornish coast, every person has the right to walk up Snowdonia, traverse the Lakes, sail the Broads, ascend the Peaks.

Also on my journey, as we returned to Leeds Railway Station, an incredible noise reverberated around the carriage. I assume one of the rails, where it meets another must have been slightly bent and when the wheels ran over it it was forced to straighten then spring back. It felt as though the train was running along a piano string and was struck by a hammer. A Seventh rung around our heads and seemed to stay with us for the rest of the trip.

Recent Acquisitions
Treasures found in Saltaire, in my friend's garden and on my seemingly almost daily pilgrimage to Morrison's. Without trying to sound like I am obsessed with the man, as Mr. Hockney said in the documentary I mentioned last week, once you start noticing things, you see more. I begun properly collecting leaves and flowers and plants only a few weeks ago I am now constantly looking. Far more aware of my surroundings, seeing things I would before never have noticed, slowing down to revel in the beautiful minutiae of my habitat. It is simply not enough to have seen it, so I collect. I am greedy. I want to have. I have...

Garden Me
My urban garden is coming along nicely with some fresh sprigs of green slowly and shyly showing their heads. I have constructed a pretty rudimentary raised bed out of two pieces of wood, supported with bricks, and found two shelving units in my basement which have become two perfectly sized and already sectioned plots. I have planted purple sprouting broccoli, courgette, tomato, strawberries, broad beans (who are finally wriggling out of the earth), leek, onion, spinach, salad, rocket and some herbs. There is nothing finer than a broad bean straight out of the garden. I hope I am not too late.

In the Nous Vous studio we are working on a couple of pieces of work for the next exhibition at PSL, called Town and Country the show looks at some pretty self explanatory ideas surrounding the environments we live in or around. It is a nice position to be in, developing ideas of the artists and curators, where it feels more like a design project in an art gallery context rather than creating an artwork itself. It is not necessarily a more preferable position but certainly one that is welcome after our recent forays in to the art world.
The following pictures show an experiment that relates to one piece we are creating for the show. In a way another kind of urban garden. A tight, full of compost and grass seed, hung from our stairwell. I hope we have grassy clegg nut soon.

I read today that some 98 per cent of vegetable varieties have disappeared over the past century and regulations are hastening the decline. I also learned that very few vegetables and fruit we eat, even those we feel as typically 'British' are indigenous to this country. They, like us, are nomads, wanderers, migrants.

A couple of new (short and/or unfinished) bits of thoughts

Mini Weather Station (Netsuke?)
I saw a mini weather station on the top of a concrete plinth outside the Birmingham Bull Ring Centre on a Bank Holiday Monday morning, but this is not about me.
The weather station was about as big as my hand, outstretched, little finger to thumb, the diameter of a weather station. Three shallow cones, like a coolie hat, vertically tethered to a spoke extending from a central axle, the hat's owner fallen out, out of the hat, could not contest with gravity, the hat now filled with the passing air.
I can remember little of it now, but what little I can remember of it was that it was little. Small and grey. Measuring the obvious, making a note of the pointless. It cannot look ahead, it cannot give us warning or good premonitions. It can simply remind us of what we know, let us know it is windy without having to get our hair blustered, let us know it is raining without having to get our feet wet, let us know it is hot without having to get the sun on our face.

Squirrel Woodburner Owners Club
The men talk of wood and the burning of it. They may not know the meaning of rhetoric, be intersted in books or sit through all of 'Withnail and I' but they can burn wood. Burn it in a small black cast iron vestibule in the corner of their lounge.
They talk of wood sheds, chopping blocks, sizes of baskets, brown coal, flumes and the history of the law surrounding cordage. Do all men become wood burners? Do we one day stop observing the trees, see them as our fathers and chop them down and reduce them to hunks, fill our wicker baskets with them, transfer them to smaller wicker baskets so they can fit through our patio doors, handle them with heat resistant gloves, rotate them them manicles and watch as they smolder. I have seen it happen. Happen to the best of us. We men. Wood burners.

2009-07-02T23:54:00.002+01:00

HOT EYES

I have been busy, and I don't really know what to talk about. I have not been interacting with my environment that well. I watched some tennis, I drank some beer and some whiskey. In my neighbourhood it is moving out / in day, and all the streets and back alleyways are filled with all kinds of rubbish, that people can't be bothered to take anywhere suitable, for example the tip. If there are bags lined up neatly outside a residence, tied up with string, it is a rarity. I'm sure there are salvageable items in these crap-hills, but really the thought of digging through dirty plastic and rotting clothes is not particularly inviting, especially in this heat. Piled up on the pavements, these heaps resemble the half-digested contents of some vapid twenty-one-year-old, vomited on to the street at the weekend and left to congeal whilst they 'sleep it off' behind their blackout curtains...

I wander through this landscape, struggling past its half-naked, vacuous inhabitants, to a friends' house-warming and we sit out in the front garden, projecting films onto a bedsheet draped over the tall hedge to act as a screen. Tumbled boxes fill most of the rooms, as the new occupants only arrived earlier in the day, and there are no glasses so I drink wine from a brand new, white Ikea mug, straight from the box. It stays warm until late. The people across the road light up a second-floor window with a strobe-light, and people further down the street play their music louder than us. Later an old lady asks us to quiet down and we comply, politely, and she thanks us in turn.

I leave and walk back through the streets, where the unintelligible shouting continues, where the tinned snare and angry bass shakes the single-glazed window panes in their flaking, wooden frames. I want to leave this place. But I don't; I go home and watch a documentary about David Hockney on my laptop, and fall asleep.

But we have been busy, and I like that.

I've been reading some short stories by Chekhov, which are filled with beautiful observations and things that I can read myriad things into.

At the weekend we had the closing installation for the Morphic Resonance show at PSL, and we had to give an 'artist's talk', something which fills me with a sense of foreboding and and unwillingness to comply. but once in mid-flow it was fine as usual. I don't like dwelling on things I have already done, and I want to move on with the next thing, and I also question whether or not anyone is actually interested in what I have to say about something I did. Maybe people are, and it is probably a naive and romantic notion to still believe that the output should speak for itself, but I want this to be true.

I am so hot and tired. It is 10 minutes until blog deadline. My fingers are blistered, this place is getting to me.

2009-07-02T16:43:00.009+01:00

Frigg on Thursday

This blogging format has been slightly adjusted this week to allow myself a day out of the studio tomorrow, Nic will replace my Friday post tomorrow.

I'm returning to my homeland, The Isle of Man, for a Summer wedding, my cousin is getting married and I'll be adorned in full Manx National Tartan. as previewed below.

Last Sunday I went on a trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, to see the new exhibition there as well as getting out into the sunshine and walking through the splendid scenery. I was, in all honesty, most excited by what the YSP shop had in stock, various items from Vitra furniture, amongst which were Eames tables & chairs which I'm always fond of being reminded about and a set of Alexander Girard figurative sculptures / dolls, which I've shamefully never seen before, a very pleasant surprise.

I hovered around them for quite some time before I was dragged away to look at the exhibition on display by Peter Randall-Page, which was also great, I really enjoyed 2 scultures in particular located in the Underground Gallery, Two 8 foot+ Solid granite amorphous looking pieces, refercing plant seedlings, between seedling and plant state. I can only decipher that these monolythic sculptures try to solidify a moment in time, an amorphous stage in nature where something is neither one thing or another this stage would obviously be indicative of energy, movement and progress, presented fixed and solid, and to quote Ivor Cutler, "Larger than nature intended". The objects themselves are very impressive, not only because of there stature but that they have been carved out of solid granite to a very highly polished state, the shape is similar to an Aubergine sat on its axis with a slightly flatter bottom. The last truely amazing thing about the Sculpture park, which I have experienced before, is 'The Deer Shelter' by James Turrell, I can't really stress how amazing this piece is, so simple and experiencial, basically consisting of a hole in the floor with futuristic grey concrete seating around the outside with a hole at the top presenting the sky through a perfect 4m x 4m (appox) square with no visable edges. So yeah go to the Sculpture Park, one of the truely good things about Yorkshire.

That brings me quite neatly on to my next observation, what I really like about James Turrells' piece is it's immediacy, it is what it is and it does what it does and if you can do something like that and it still be truely facinating, you're onto a winner in my books. I was Listening to Radio 4's 'Front Room' last Monday, Radio 4's show about Art & Culture. There was a short interview at the end with Eva Rothschild, talking about her latest piece in the Turbine Hall (Tate Modern). I really like the way she talks about her work, very simple and concise but also very thoughful. I hadn't previously been familiar with her work but it led me to investigate further and I will continue to do so. She too is a fan of simplistic presentation, forms being presented for what they are, not referecing anything else. What I particularly enjoyed was her talking of the way she titles her work, basically by having a number of titles to hand and choosing one, the titles arn't referencial of the work either, they simply sit parrallel to the work and they play off one another. This is something we do in Nous Vous, but haven't had the brain powers to articulate it yet. You can tell she truely knows her own work, it's that truth and openess about it that I find endearing. You can listen to it here on iPlayer, it's dead on 24mins in ifyou want to skip everything else.

This week I've been working on a project for Friska a soon to be new health food store in Bristol. We've basically been commissioned by them & Thoughful (the super design agency) to illustrate characters for the store, there customers and colleagues. It's promising from our perspective to be a really nice place, so make sure you go give them a warm welcome when they open if you're in that area and have a look at some of our illustrations at the same time.

Lot Nine is obviously out now and will be on sale online soon, although I really enjoyed working on it it's a relief to see it finished. Very pleased with it. You can view some snaps by myself, over on the Nous Vous site now.

Have a pleasant weekend...

Don't Miss Today

2009-07-01T23:25:00.006+01:00

It is hot.
We shan't complain.
But we will.
We will.
I will.
Will.

Garden and Cosmos

This show looks beautiful and amazing. Paintings from pre-colonial India and he Middle East of this time are an incredible joy to behold. The delicacy and accuracy of the line is impeccable and astounding, but the compositions always abound with exuberant and mirthful figures, generally enjoying all life has to offer in its magnificent colour, wine, sex, music... It is interesting to contrast with western art of this time, where a definite focus was on portraying a very staid beauty and a mainly Christian and maudlin aesthetic. I know where I would have rather been.

A Snake and a Diamond

A couple of pictures from the 'Heavy Bones' show at in May/June at Analogue Books. These are A3 in real life.

Language

On a almost totally irrelevant side note, whilst in the supermarket last week I saw on a package the words 'glove box dates'. It took me a significant amount of time to work out was contained in the box, to me they seemed three entirely unrelated nouns. This has little meaning apart from the fact that it has got me thinking about language. I read a while ago about Foucault's 'Archaelogy of Knowledge.' I heavily paraphrase, and in doing so get it wrong, but from what I understood, our knowledge, thoughts and actions are believed to all stem from our language. The language available to us, in a cultural sense and in a personal sense has a heavy and controlling force upon us. How is it possible to do something when we do not how to articulate or carry out that action, let alone how do we do something if we do not even know there is a necessity for it or we have the ability to do something if it isn't even in our heads to begin with, not in a dragon's den sense of worthless invention but in the way First Nations peoples could not physically see ships the first time they appeared on their horizon as they did not exist in their language, their mind's language.

Strong small cultures have unique languages, that refer to ideas and physical objects and actions that only occur in their community. There is no need to have words and grammar to discuss the complexities of large hadron colliders when they simply don't feature. A common example given is our one word for snow, compared with the dozens of words that feature in the Eskimo language, they have the one word (aput) for snow in general, then many different describers for the myriad of different types, snow in different stages of hardness and softness, suitable for sledging or building houses. This is a valid example but also works conversely, we have many different words for exciting things such as games consoles, cars, ways of kicking a football and such.

In a more interesting example of the power of language, one that carries weight with me, is that the colour spectrum is divided differently from ours by the Eskimos, and the fact that, traditionally, the Eskimos did not distinguish between green and blue does not mean they suffered from poor eyesight or a peculiar eye defect, just that our language is specific to us, our surroundings, our cultures, needs and necessities.

David Hockney - Nature

There was a fantastic documentary on one of my heroes, as an artist and as a human, David Hockney, last night on Imagine on BBC1. I have little time before I fall asleep to go into this but basically he astounded me with his energy and constant desire to be creating, he is clearly fascinated by everything, by seeing, by using his eyes, and trying to translate his own immense pleasure into something others can get excited about, the overlooked, the everyday, the normal, these are what are fantastic to Hockney, and to myself.

He talked of a recent re discovery of nature, nature as something that is constantly inspiring, something that can be explored and observed and never really understood. He said that when you run out of inspiration, turn to nature, nature has done everything, it is impossible to imagine. My pockets are becoming increasingly filled with strange wild flowers and grasses, I often forget and pull something that no longer resembles the treasure I placed in there but now is a new beast entirely, a skeleton, a fossil of it's former.

In a nice cyclical return to the opening theme, I have made a very urban garden in my back yard, growing mainly vegetables. My concrete yard has been transformed. Raised beds and shelving units. Small pots on windowsills, clay and plastic, soil and earth. Sprout and the bean. In future weeks I will blog about this. It gives my strength in my quest to become a more independently sustainable being. bean-g.

I also wanted to talk about moving, placement and change, but it is late,

next time.

Boatswain

A new song, in a rough form, 'Boatswain'. A kind of shanty about weathering the storm.

'Fair thee night well
bed down and sail into the swell
see these hands made
feel these hands meld

curled into fossils and raised up high
a sail raised up towards the sky

anchor against the tide
talk in hushed tones

hands bent into pockets and curling paper
moulding like a wreck atop the sea bed'

2009-06-26T13:45:00.008+01:00

Frigg In Progress...

I'll make this brief because I'm busy. Essentially because I'm in the midst of finishing the manual processes we are applying to our book 'Lot Nine' to finish it off, post printing.

I've literally just taken a break to put some photo's in progress up here for my Friday blog, I don't think I'll have time today to mention anything else in any detail.

Here's some photo's in the midst.

Books / Selection of spreads

I'll just quickly explain what we're doing right now. We received the book back this morning, very last minute operation... We're applying a few post production finishing touches to the book:

1. We're applying a black (electrical tape) cross to the front, representing the tent which we inhabited and used as a studio for the last couple of weeks of the project. The tent had a cross section similar to the one we're applying, the actual book's dimensions are the same as the space 'Lot Nine' which we occupied over the period...so the cross is placed in the position the tent was.

2. We've cut down the work produced in the show, some simple illustrations, and we've screen printed a cross over them effectively voiding them. This is placed over the cross and should cover it entirely but is removable.

3. We're carefully going to wrap the books in the bubble wrap used to define the studio tent space. Essentially the bubble wrap was used as walls for the tent, containing us in the space... now it will contain the book and be sealed with silver duct tape as was the tent.

And that's that. We'll get some decent photo's up on our website as soon as we have them. I'm getting back on it now, lots to do and Nic and Will are looking at me not doing anything towards it...

Have a good weekend...

2009-06-26T08:56:00.002+01:00

THE LATE, LATE SHOW...

It is now Friday, and I am supposed to be writing this last night whilst it is still Thursday, so apologies for that. I've pretty much ruined the structure of this blog forever, and I know I can never be absolved for this heinous crime. But I do have some good excuses that are related to what I want to talk about anyway...

We are putting the finishing touches to the end of the Morphic Resonance show, to which we say goodbye to tomorrow. As I write I am awaiting a delivery of 25 books that will form a part of this farewell couple of days. So today we have a lot of work to do finishing off the covers, a bit of screenprinting and so on. Proper documentation should surface next week or even later today...

Patrick Burgoyne, the editor of Creative Review, gave a talk at the 'Creative Networks' event at Leeds College of Art & Design last night, which I enjoyed very much. He picked out a few projects to dwell on, some of which I am familiar with, others i'm not, and it was very inspiring, and i felt as if I was back at University (well we were at the Art College) listening to a great lecture. We have all been having thoughts about how to proceed as a group and individually, and the last week has thrown up things which have helped to clarify my thinking, last night being one of them. A very definite thing it made me realise was that, as practicing creatives, we are still so young and inexperienced, even though sometimes we slip into thinking that we know what we're doing. A lot of the work I saw last night (though not all) was of a standard that can only be reached by working at something for a number of years, and actually getting very very good at it. I don't want to regurgitate what was said at the talk, suffice it to say I wish that this happened every night of the week.

Afterwards, I didn't want to partake in the bowl of chicken drumsticks that appeared on the bar, next to the wine, but I didn't want to go home either, so I helped my friend move house, and got to ride around in a van for a while. I didn't get back home until half eleven, and then realised i'd left my laptop at my studio...hence this 'morning after' blog.

Finished 'In Patagonia' by Bruce Chatwin this week. I've been fascinated by Patagonia for a while, though not really done much research into it as of yet, so this was a good place to start.

This is going to be short because I have to go and make some books.

Until next week...

Don't miss Today

2009-06-24T17:35:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Wednesday soon comes round... this one's taking it to the wire...
This will be fairly image heavy (for a lack of time today (I should prepare earlier), and not necessarily a lack of ideas, but a lack of time to dwell on these ideas).

One observation:
There are significantly less whole bits of peanut in in the already dubiously 'crunchy' crunchy peanut butter from Morrison's. And it has gone up from 78p to 99p, in one price hike. I will try some consumer power and report back.

Eskimos

Amongst my reading I have started reading about Eskimos. I am becoming more attracted to a lifestyle that is, whilst I accept not truly 'living off the land', running more parallel alongside that of nature. Many indigenous cultures, although often strating as nomads, as the majority of us did, appear to have a much stronger kinship with their environment, a respect that runs beyond a simple aesthetic appreciation. What is created in these cultures is necessary, utilsed, adorned because of the genuine worth of it, not from a case of one up manship (although admittedly so, this does have a place in the formation and retention of certain social constructions and hierachies). The eskimos are thought to have been one of the most adaptive of cultures, in a physical and anthroplogic sense. The clothing and materials developed and made remain perfect for the job intended, rarely surpasses by anything modern technology and new processes can muster.

Quite how i would establish this desire of living my life more in this way I am unsure, most definitively a case of easier said than done, but one I aim to see what I can do, apathy is easy when we have far more than we truly need available to us, a filtering down of what is essential can reveal a beautiful simplicity. I think this relates to the ideas of the Encyclopedia I have discussed previously, but I'm not sure how yet...

Tattooing
This weekend sees the close of Morphic Resonance. During the show I have been offering tattoos, with a home made gun, free of charge. It has been an odd experience, often a quite exhiliterating if occasionally stressful one, and one that has been occasionally loaded with a great deal of emotional involvement for both parties. To make a permanent maek on someone, is a very empowering feeling, not one that should be taken lightly or flippantly, not to be that it can't be immediate and exciting but there is a great culture and tradition behind it, however, many of the things that make us turn our heads are not ones that simply go against this but are aware and twist this tradition. I have a great respect for professional tattooists but find it hard to understand why they look so down on DIY tattoos, mainly because of the poor workmanship, which is mainly down to rudimentary materials, and the lack of sterility. I would like to see thought if they would say a Maori tattoo performed traditionally is any less a tattoo than one performed on a town high street.

Any exploration into the notion of tattooing is a valid one, each just has it's own aesthetic, meanings, codes and symbolism, and each will ultimately be viewed differently, if it is done honestly at the time there should be no regrets, it is a memorandum, and is full of whatever feelings went into the ink at the time it was pushed into the skin, be it good or bad.

Treasures

I have always been fascinated by things which frequently occur but are often, not really even ignored but rarely noticed by most. The smaller the better. The more microscopic something appears, especially when it relates to something on a larger scale we are familiar with becomes all the more bewitching, perhaps because of its seeming impossibility, maybe because of the reality that there are many of things in this world that whilst much more minuscule than ourselves are as if not important to the sustenance of life or the way it alludes to the possibility that there are things, much smaller than us living amongst us, as in the tales of faerie folk that still resonate and enchant me.

Lichen specifically has for a long time amazed me. The hugely complex but regular and repeating forms would be incredible if at a scale of large trees, but as they are, tens of thousandths the size they are, structurally, truly beyond comprehension. They are also beautiful in their architecture and colouration. I was informed there is 1 million times more lichen in weight than humans. And that apparently they are thinking of maybe putting some in the clouds to help rain.

The first three photos are from the Lake Distrct, the second three from Arctic Norway and the last one of the set was taken in Northern Scotland. When I holiday I am forever picking bits of lichen or other such treasures, shells, wild flowers, leaves, pebbles, that take my eye. A nice coinicidence I realised recently was that I often place these treasures in a small zip up pocket on my kagool that is just over heart, my chest, and that the origin of treasure, "a concentration of riches, often one which is considered lost or forgotten until being rediscovered", is from the Greek θησαυρος; thesaurus, meaning "a treasure of the chest".

John Berger

I read last weekend that John Berger has donated all of his archive to the British Library, on the condition a representative from the library goes out to visit him in rural France, to help sort through the box loads of notes and sketches and also to assist him in baling the hay.

Drawings

Some more drawings working towards a few 'zines. Mostly based around many of the ideas that appear up here.

Print Club

I am a part of the Secret Blisters show, an exhibition organised by Print Club London of 35 screenprints – each by a different artist, each in an edition of 35, selling for £35 a piece. Artists signatures will be hidden at the show, to encourage peopple to buy the posters they like, rather than buying simply for the sake of who the artist is.

Opens this weekend at MC Motors in London's Dalston.

2009-06-19T12:31:00.000+01:00

Frigg

Not much to report this week, I've been living in a Book bubble, composing pages and finishing up 'Lot Nine' for print. Fun times selecting papers and pages. We'll be launching the book next Saturday (27th June) at Project Space Leeds, coinciding with the closing of the 'Morphic Resonance' show. Close-Launch. The book details our activities over the 12 weeks we've been in the space, lot nine. Our space has transformed over the period of 12 weeks, not specifically working towards anything in particular, just partaking in some creative action. We started off with just desks in the space working on various ideas, which were placed on the walls. We then decided to camp in the space for a few nights which transformed the aesthetic / atmosphere of the space, inviting other artists to stay with us or simply stay late and hang out, Will tattooed some people, Nic built some giant legs and I watched super8 films and made drawings based on them. This and the show coming towards the more formal 6 week exhibition period of the project led us to seperate the space by creating a bubble wrap ad-hoc studio tent in the middle. Exhibiting work we had produced around the tent, on the walls, so there was a seperation between us working and us exhibiting, we didn't want to leave the space and let it become a lifeless exhibition, a simple posit of our activity, so we decided to stay and carry on working. The book will have a short edition of 25, but we may re-publish it at some point if it proves popular. Its going to be packaged in the actual bubble wrap of the tent we created as our studio, containing it as we were contained by its parameters. There's 96 pages in reference to the days we spent in this project, so a page for each day, but its not strictly chronological. The dimensions of the book are the same as the floor space, but scaled down and perfect bound with light weight off-white recycled paper. The space for the opening will be empty apart from the book, we'll white out the walls and have the books sitting precariously in the centre of the space alone, apart from one wall with the spreads printed in black & white revealing the content to the viewers. You should keep hush about this because we were supposed to be keeping the books peramiters ambiguous, but I have nothing much else to talk about and this feels like an appropriate cathartic clensing of my soul after working on it so much over the last couple of weeks.

I've made a decision regarding my zine now. I'm actually going to focus on it for a while. I've been debating themes, names, content, methods, for a long while now. I'm annoying myself about it. So i'm focussing on it and whether it's what I want it to be or not I'm doing it. It is going to be called 'Yuquot - Nootka Trail' based on friendly cove work. It will be a rather fat zine, it will all be produced using brush & ink and bits of pencil. IT WILL!...

Here's an image I've started concentrating on, I'm doing it right now. Its an Indian chief who was on his holidays meeting a European explorer...

Got some nice music I got off Will. 'Venus in Cancer' by Robbie Basho amazing melodies.

Since my last post I have watched Twin Peaks movie which was incredible, there's a soundtrack playing all the way through the entire movie which made the feeling the scenes evoked intense, relentlessly impassioned and fuelled with suspense. It's much much darker than the series and much more surreal. There's alot of metaphorical dreamy scenes which knit in and out of the narrative, which to my surprise, me being very cynical about dream sequences in general, were not out of place or far fetched at all. Having only watched the first series, it gives the killer away, shocking-shocking-shocking but yeah! Horrible stuff but a really good film.

Other than that I have nothing to say, I will hopefully have dug out some interesting nuggets for next post, I'm looking forward to getting back into researching this week.

Have a lovely weekend...

Toots!

2009-06-18T13:01:00.000+01:00

THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE TIDES MEET...

As i'm writing this i'm listening to Jonathan Richman.

I have only recently become aware of his music, and that is largely through William playing lots of his songs in the studio. But his stuff is the only music i've gotten truly excited about for a long time...amazing. And live footage of him is great. I wish I could make music as fun and simple and touching as this...

Speaking of which, spent 2 days this week recording at the Hyde Park Picture house with Mike Payne (Mechanical Owl) who is producing my record. I don't know when this will be finished. Soon I hope...i'll post some things up when its sounding better.

Not been reading much this week, been working on something to enter into the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Haven't entered a competition for a while but I think it'll be worth doing this one. I'm doing a drawing based on an Ivor Cutler song. Feels good to get back into drawing outside of my sketchbook. Got the obsession back again...perhaps.

Having this blog to do is a really good way for us to clarify what we've been doing / thinking on a regular basis, and personally it is helping me to get my thoughts in order and also to help me realise how much reading and research i'm not doing.

Anyway something I do want to talk about is the design duo Conway & Young.

Jen Conway and Jess Young came up to Leeds from Bristol to Leeds in September last year. They initiate a lot of projects, run a residency programme and lecture on the Graphic Arts course at Leeds Met. They currently are running a project to find out how to go about using all of the empty spaces in Leeds city centre. Last Saturday they organised a walk around some of these spaces which also functioned as a way to bring people together and talk about how this could be achieved. This is something a lot of people in Leeds want to do, and have done for a while, but never seems to happen on a large sale. Conway & Young have done this sort of thing before in Bristol, and from the discussions at the weekend, and knowing them, I am confident that they can push this into the realms of reality. Their utilisation of design and visual art as a medium for social improvement is something I believe should be championed and supported, and their aesthetic is spot on.

C&Y's visual element of '92 Spaces' (part of Leeds Met's 'Recent Appointments' show) runs until 26th June.

Drawings from this week, and an old one i found in a drawer in my room...

Don't Miss Today

2009-06-17T17:40:00.001+01:00

I nearly did...

Don't feel like I've got a lot to say this week.
I have been researching quite heavily, so this will be more a succinct round up of thing I have seen and a couple of things I have made.

Seen:

Local Hero is a beautifully shot, observed and conceived piece of simple film making. Such subtle nuanced performances sit amongst majestic landscapes and are photographed with ease and a great natural joy. Although there is a clear and strong narrative the film is much more about people, relationships between people and the myriad of ways with which we communicate our lives. In short, absolute pleasure.

In almost direct contrast Paris, Je t'aime felt tried and lost within an overarching concept. Generally the 18 shorts, based on or in Paris, were disappointing, including directors I hold in high regard such as the Coens, Van Sant and Cuoron, the very short nature of the films seemed to not allow any real grasp upon an overall visual or storytelling style. Some shorts were instantly forgettable, some ill-conceived, some just bad. The final two films showed a marked improvement and also showed that with such time constraints, simplicity, a real focus on dialogue and characters rather than trying to establish an aesthetic and most of all a few years behind you really pay off.

Read:
At current I am reading about the myths, folklore and customs of a few different but often strangely alike cultures.

The Eskimos of the Arctic and Canada

Pueblo Indians of the plateau region of the southwestern United States.

The Zinacantecos, modern Mayans.

I find it interesting that all these cultures share certain similarities, especially in their harmonious relationship to the land and nature around them. Whilst their customs and folklore may occasionally seem naive and foolish to us, the sheer respect and knowledge they have for the flora and fauna has allowed them to survive their respective harsh extremes of landscape and climate they live in. The mythology from these peoples is honest and true, where a respect and love and often fear and awe for nature itself is embodied in the tales of their kind.

What follows is the creation story from one of the tribes of the Great Planes

Osage (Wazhá zhe group)

Way beyond, once upon a time, some of the Osages lived in the sky. They did not know where they came from, so they went to Sun. They said, “From where did we come?”

He said, “You are my children.”

Then they wandered still further and came to Moon.

Moon said, “I am your mother; Sun is your father. You must go away from here. You must go down to the earth and live there.”

So they came to the earth but found it covered with water. They could not return up above. They wept, but no answer came to them. They floated about in the air, seeking help from some god; but they found none.

Now all the animals were with them. Elk was the finest and most stately. They all trusted Elk. So they called to Elk, “Help us.”

[Pg 20] Then Elk dropped into the water and began to sink. Then he called to the winds. The winds came from all sides and they blew until the waters went upwards, as in a mist. Now before that the winds had traveled in only two directions; they went from north to south and from south to north. But when Elk called to them, they came from the east, from the north, from the west, and from the south. They met at a central place; then they carried the waters upwards.

Now at first the people could see only the rocks. So they traveled on the rocky places. But nothing grew there and there was nothing to eat. Then the waters continued to vanish. At last the people could see the soft earth. When Elk saw the earth, he was so joyous, he rolled over and over on the earth. Then all the loose hairs clung to the soil. So the hairs grew, and from them sprang beans, corn, potatoes, and wild turnips, and at last all the grasses and trees.

Now the people wandered over the land. They found human footsteps. They followed them. They joined with them, and traveled with them in search of food.

And a song of the Sioux

A SONG OF THE MARCH

Now set up the tipi,
Now set up the tipi,
Around the bottom,
Around the bottom,
Drive in the pegs,
Drive in the pegs,
In the meantime I shall cook,
In the meantime I shall cook.

Beautiful sentiments from a gentle people. I wish this was my life...

Made:

I have mostly been trying to learn how to draw again and decide what I want to draw, why I want to draw, these and various other existential deliberations.

Whilst not doing this I have been messing about with bits of music. Big Fire (which is myself and Nicolas) are hoping to release and do some things soon. We are wanting to record 3 songs we have been messing with for a week or two alongside 3 songs that are taken from songs and poems from our reading around the various peoples talked about above, for these three we hope to arrange a choir of friends and have a nice time singing loud and clear.

As Michael Jackson's Beer Companion I am hoping to try and get a release sorted and soon, some gigs. In the mean time here are some old and new things:
A Day A Week

A Song A Day A Week

Recorded between 02/03/09-06/03/09

This has been floating about for a while. In an attempt to return to spontaneous writing and recording I decided to try and record a song every day for a week. By Friday I had burnt out but I was reminded by how satisfying this can be. I don't practice and work on songs really, I do the majority of composing and writing of a piece of music as I record. This is sometimes frustrating as I maybe never fully realise the potential of a song, but then it does keep the pieces quite light and experimental and offers a different way of working to that of my drawing, which is usually planned and controlled. With my music I don't know what to expect of the outcome, which I find exciting.

Zip file of the week

2 New Sketchy Pieces

Now Owl

My Thumb, Like Your Big Toe

I hope to release something soon on Hair-Piece Champion, a collaborative group of musicians releasing material via CDRs, download and recycled media. We hope to make some interesting plans for exciting announcements over there soon...

until next Wednesday.

2009-06-12T10:02:00.000+01:00

Frigg

I've just had the opportunity to watch the ENTIRE! first series of Twin Peaks within about 2-3 days, marathon back to back sessions. Created by David Lynch & Mark Frost in 1990, following Agent Cooper (Played by Kyle MacLachlan) & Co attempting to discover the murderer of a local school girl with a mysterious background. I can't recommend watching this enough, I'm really looking forward to watching the Movie and the second series, although I hear the second series isn't as good. David Lynch stopped directing it halfway through and the network forced them to reveal the identity of the killer to boost ratings, sounds like a recipe for disaster. I'm going to watch it anyway and draw my own conclusion. There really isn't much I can legitimately criticize about it, the dialogue is amazing (I can't stress this enough), its a mixture of humor and dark drama, there's enough suspense to make a person cringe until they turn all sultana-like, ALL the characters are well constructed and all have in their constituent parts complex/interesting roles to play. If you haven't seen it already, most people have, I suggest you watch it. Its basically fun for everyone.

Something I want to see:

Beautiful Losers

This has probably been widely blogged already, my undiscerning eye doesn't catch everything on the radar. Anyway... it's a documentary about lots of amazing San Fransisco based outsider (not so outsider now) artists. I say 'not so outsider now' because they carry alot of contemporary artists in their wake, I'm probably one of them. Not that they the beautiful losers shouldn't still be considered outsider artists. They're some of my favourite artists working in various disciplines. I don't want to big any up above another, but you can check the link above to find out who's in it. I romanticize about about SF to quite an unhealthy degree. So I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

Recently I read 'Design as art' by Bruno Munari, really good read, something you can dip into and out of as well, which is something I like in a book. It's a series of short essays about designs role in society and how it should be utilised to make peoples lives better as well as a few case studies on other cultures and objects. Here's a quote from the book "There should be no such thing as art divorced from life, with beautiful things to look at and hideous things to use" and another snippet of another quote I found particularly poignant; on designers "...he works in such a way to re-establish contact between art and the public, because he has the humility and ability to respond to what ever demand is made of him by the society in which he lives... he responds to the needs of his time...". The essays on Japan and Japanese culture I found very interesting, this book also helped me to establish relatively accurately why I like certain things and equally why I dislike other, enlightening!

'Yuquot' - Where the wind blows in all directions.
A shameless (shameful) bit of self promo here for my 'Friendly Cove' print it's launched on 22nd June and is limited to an edition of 30, £40 + P&P. Here is link to the place the title of the print is based on: Yuquot. A Cove on a small Island off the Coast of British Columbia, a holiday resort for indians over 4000 years ago.

You can purchase one right > here

I've just over the last couple of days been screen printing one of my motifs that I have been doing for some time a 'Z - A' alphabet, aptly titled 'Z - A' I may or may not sell these online at some point, might keep them for more personal encounters. I had to draw it straight onto the mesh with drawing fluid, felt pretty good affording some time to do some manual print work after just having to send files off to printers to produce for some time now. Took me 3 attempts to get the screen right, but it was worth it, I'm really pleased with the results, using that luminous ink makes me smile. I'm going to get Will to Tattoo this on my right arm at some point too. Sorry about the crap camera phone photo:

I'm just going to dish out some respect for my last post. Himaa, who has a zine out with neives and has just launched another self published one called "1299" which I REALLY REALLY WANT. I think his work is incredible, the recent sculptural work in his exhibition "Installation set" in Kyoto, well is err... just... makes me speechless, apart from sighs & moans about how much better he is than me. Here's a little bag he made, Good day!