Artists & Makers

Freedom of expression, the Law and the 'New Atheism'

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:51:18 +0000

In March 2010 Harry Taylor a philosophy tutor and militant atheist, was charged in court for the offense of religious harassment. He was caught dumping literature in the prayer room at Liverpool's John Lennon airport, including "sexually abusive and sexually unpleasant cartoons". Taylor defended his action saying that a prayer room in an airport named after John Lennon was an offense and that he was just spreading his own 'religion of reason'.
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This court case brings up an issue that so many artists do not wish to confront, and yet it underpins our very role as communicators. Is Harry Taylor's act a crime, or is it valid expression and protest? Is it the cartoons that are on trial, or the act of leaving them in a place of spiritual contemplation � the kind of place where people of faith seek comfort? With the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, where the artist is still under police protection, the images were printed in a newspaper, not left in a mosque. However, I can imagine many artists who want to express their concerns about religion feeling that the law is turning against them.
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A book entitled 'God and the New Atheism' by John F. Haught of Georgetown University examines the phenomenon of militant atheism in the wake of the writings of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. In his opinion there is little about such books that are new and they aren't atheist enough. The only aspect of the new atheism that is 'new' is their desire to ban religion � even though their atheism developed within a society that tolerated both religion and atheism. Haught taught a class entitled 'The problem with God' in which students were encouraged to read the works of Neitzche, Sartre and Camus. These were 'hard core' atheists who saw their beliefs as a dangerous adventure that the faint hearted could not follow them on. In comparison, Dawkins et al are really quite 'light weight', appealing to the status quo in the same way conservative Christians do. In fact the only revolutionaries around today would be the militant Islamicists who the new atheists use as examples of evil.
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The new atheists also have no problem expressing anger towards religion, but have no good reason for this anger. Dawkins states that evolution has to be the reason for all phenomenon, physical or mental. He claims that evolution is amoral and unguided � but doesn't face up to the conclusion that if religion is the result of evolution, why get so angry about it? Haught demonstrates how Dawkins also struggles to explain why belief in God should be an evolutionary advantage.
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In America a new campaign has been launched by atheists on university sites, to hand out pornography to people of religious faith. It is called the 'smut-for-smut' campaign. They claim to be offended by religious literature and are returning the offense by distributing sexually explicit material. Is this more of Harry Taylor's 'religion of reason', or have the new atheists just lost the plot? If the new atheists set themselves up as the pinnacle of intelligence, is this really intelligent behaviour? Or is it art?

The Near Far Pool.

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:30:23 +0000

Worthing Museum and Art Gallery has teamed up for the first time with Creative Future, charity working with marginalised artists and writers in Sussex to present a special exhibition in the Studio gallery, entitled The Near Far Pool.

The artists and writers featured are all highly talented, and many have been published or exhibited before. Most artists’ careers are hard enough without the added difficulties of homelessness, mental ill health or physical disability. Prejudice, and the social exclusion that can follow, adds to these difficulties. The organisation Creative Future was set up three years ago to facilitate and promote artistic development amongst talented individuals who find themselves excluded for reasons that are often beyond their control.

The Near Far Pool showcases some 30 contemporary paintings, prints, photographs and creative written work, by a wide range of artists based throughout East and West Sussex. All the works on show are for sale at affordable prices.

Simon Powell, Project Director for Creative Future said:

“What is striking about this exhibition is not that the artists and writers exhibiting have challenged severe limitations, but that the quality of the art work is so high. It is most often lack of resources and opportunity rather than lack of genuine talent that prevents excluded artists and writers from gaining wider audiences. Creative Future would like to thank Worthing Museum and Art Gallery for bringing the far pool a little nearer…”

The Near Far Pool runs from 27 March – 26 June 2010. For further details about Creative Future contact Simon Powell, simonpowell@freeuk.com, 07795 691 579

Tom Conti stars in Wife After Death at Theatre Royal

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:06:58 +0000

Tom Conti, one of the UK’s finest comic actors, leads the cast in the world premiere of comedy Wife After Death by Eric Chappell, BAFTA award-winning author of Rising Damp, Home to Roost and Only When I Laugh.

Wife After Death opens at Theatre Royal Brighton on Wednesday 17 March and runs to Saturday 20 March at the start of a 10-date tour of the UK.

The play tells the story of Dave Thursby, a highly successful TV comedian, national treasure, devoted husband, model client for his agent and a staunch friend to his faithful gag writer, Harvey.

But when Dave dies unexpectedly, his close companions are bereft. There's now a huge void in their lives, and, worse still, some of them may be out of a job. Unless, of course, the repeats, television specials, biographies and newspaper tell-alls can fill the vacuum.

As family and friends gather for his funeral, it turns out they know less about him than they thought and a series of revelations uncover some home truths about the popular comedy legend. Choking back the tears and protesting their love for Dave, the mourners set about exploiting his comic legacy for all it is worth.

Eric Chappell understands the ego of comic genius better than most and turns his formidable talents to this rich subject with hilarious effect.

The production is directed by Tom Conti and Tom Kinninmont, designed by Norman Coates and lighting is by Leonard Tucker. Performances are at 7.45pm (Saturday matinee 2.30pm).

Box Office 08448 717 650 (bkg fee)
Groups Hotline 08448 717 617
Access Bookings 08448 717 677 (bkg fee)

Tickets from £13 at www.ambassadortickets.com/brighton

New self-penned album inspires new Locorriere date at Worthing Pavilion

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:00:48 +0000

Just a few weeks after the release of Dennis Locorriere’s new album Post Cool, the much-loved local and singer whose distinctive voice features on every Dr Hook hit will visit the Pavilion Theatre in Worthing.

As the lead singer with Dr Hook, Dennis Locorriere featured on over 60 gold and platinum-selling albums, with songs such as If Not You, Sylvia‘s Mother and When You‘re In Love With A Beautiful Woman. Dr Hook’s angst-filled songs made them one of America’s most successful acts of the 70s and 80s, now Dennis’ solo career continues to attract famous fans as his self-penned hits are recorded by artists such as Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

This year sees the release of Dennis’ first real studio album as a solo artist. Post Cool features 13 original Locorriere tracks sung in Dennis’ passionate style. Dennis will be performing live with his band at the Worthing concert and will air some of the new album material for the first time alongside the Dr Hook tracks

Dennis will be joined by Andy Fairweather Low who originally rose to fame as vocalist and teenage heart throb of Amen Corner. His distinctive voice can be heard on tracks such as Hello Suzie, Bend Me Shape Me, Gin House Blues and the international hit (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice.

The early 1970s saw Andy emerge as a talented singer-songwriter who had three classic albums, Spider Jining, La Booga Rooga and Mega Shebang. He then became the guitar player of choice for many artists over the next 25 years and played with some of the biggest names in music including Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Dave Gilmour, The Who, BB King and Joe Cocker.

More recently Andy re-launched his solo career with the album Sweet Soulful Music and is now touring Europe with his band The Low Riders and joining Dennis, as he will in Worthing, to create an evening of music by two influential songwriters and musicians.

The gig is at the Pavilion Theatre, Marine Parade, Worthing. BN11 3PX on Saturday April 03, doors at 7.30pm.

Veritable Verbosity as London Word Festival launches

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:45:00 +0000

What’s your favourite word? After years of consideration, I have narrowed mine down to a top five: ‘discombobulated’, ‘drat’, ‘serendipitous’ and ‘free food’. My particular passion for the last two led me to the launch of London Word Festival, a month-long celebration of verbal dexterity, lexicographical tomfoolery and linguistic expertise. Or ‘talking and writing’, for the laymen in the back.

Crammed into a teeny bar in Shoreditch was a crowd of hipster wordsmiths, who had taken a night off from reading the dictionary to meet up and affirm the fact that Words Are Cool. Plied with wine and lettered cupcakes, guests got down to the serious business of playing scrabble and ‘adopting’ the new words that lined the walls, while organisers let us know what to expect from the festival.

Kicking off on Sunday 7 March with The Chip Shop, an innovative screen-printing workshop manned by Henningham Family Press, the festival boasts 13 different events throughout March including comedy, art, storytelling, poetry, and play-of-voices and a scrabble tournament. The actually-related Henningham Family team return with the Keep Printing and Carry On poster-making night on Saturday 20 March, and the Art of Storytelling on Wednesday 31 March

Also participating in the festival is trendy performance poet du jour Laura Dockrill (she’s, like, friends with Kate Nash from their days at the Brit School), aka Dockers MC. The 23-year-old ‘poet for the iPod generation’ writes her material using hip hop beats and references to London street culture, with refreshing results. Laura entertained the masses at the launch with her verbal stylings, a warm-up for her spot supporting ‘grimly hilarious’ poet Tim Turnbull at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club on Wednesday 24 March.

Meanwhile, the funny words look set to flow. King of the comedy rant Robin Ince is hosting the School for Gifted Children: Space Special on Thursday 11 March, which promises to give both sides of your brain a workout in ‘an evening overflowing with affectionate joy towards all things scientific and massive’. The show also features an appearance from Large Hadron Collider keyholder Professor Brian Cox, and a stand-up science class from Helen Keen. Like school, only funnier.

Another highlight is comedienne and panel show regular Josie Long, who will be doing some soul-searching in One Hundred Days to Make Me a Better Person on Wednesday 10 March. Taking a band of comedians, writers, musicians and normal Joes on her journey of self-improvement, Josie’s premise is simple: vowing to do one thing, each day, for one hundred days, in the hope of ‘creative betterment’. Onstage back at the launch party, Long mused on the results of her experiment: ‘I’ve begun to have a new vibe about me. For a start, I’m the kind of person who uses the word ‘vibe’ now…’

So I recommend you follow her lead, pay the festival a visit and pick up some new favourite words of your own. If the free cupcakes were anything to go by, it should be a cracking month.

London Word Festival runs from 7 March to 1 April, in various venues across London. Tickets from Free to £10, available on www.londonwordfestival.com.

'Skin Deep' Exhibition at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery.

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:00:55 +0000

Worthing boasts a fine stable of living, breathing artists, and the jewel in Worthing's architectural crown, Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, is the perfect setting to display this collection of art by the Sussex Road Group, exploring interpretations on the theme of Skin Deep.

The Sussex Road Group has been painting and drawing together for 2 years. It was formed by Dudley Sawer, a textile designer based in Worthing. A wide variety of students attend his life drawing courses and workshops held at the Sidney Walter Centre, Worthing. Skin Deep is a collection of nearly seventy paintings, drawings, and mixed media ranging from bold oils to closely observed line drawings. There are limited colour palettes as well as quirky and obscure connections with the theme of skin deep in the display.

This exhibition, which is held in the first floor art gallery, features over twenty artists individually responding to and interpreting this subject. It is a show that not only examines the surface but looks deeply into the human temple. Some artists have never exhibited before and this is a wonderful opportunity for them to share their work with a wider audience.

Skin Deep is at Worthing Museum & Arts gallery, Chapel Road from 13 March – 28 August 2010

To coincide with Skin Deep, Sawer will be running life drawing sessions at the Museum. To find out more information, or to book, please contact Worthing Museum on 01903 221448.

Skin Deep is sponsored by Worthing Restauranteur Andrew Sparsis of Fish Factory and Food fame.

For more information about The Sussex Road Group please visit www.lifedrawingcoursessussex.co.uk

Jon Edgar: Carvings and Claywork at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:30:31 +0000

Worthing Museum and Art Gallery presents forty sculptures spanning the last decade, by the Frink School-trained artist Jon Edgar. We are proud to be hosting Worthing’s first solo show of Edgar’s work, which extends beyond the Garden and Garden Gallery to all around the museum and art gallery.

There are a number of reasons why Jon Edgar wanted to exhibit here at Worthing. After returning to live in West Sussex, he was drawn to Worthing’s Frink Desert Quartet, Worthing Museum’s quality public collection, and the proximity to his birthplace in Rustington.

Strong local connections run throughout his work, including a new portrait study Triptych Sussex Siblings (278 years) works in Sussex marble (Winklestone), quarrying for which ended a hundred years ago. A bust of Duncan Carse, Antarctic explorer and voice of 'Dick Barton' is also on display; the landscape to the north of the Downs was his home for 40 years.

Working in the same tradition as artists like Jacob Epstein, Edgar’s warm direct carvings in wood and stone, contrast with closely-observed terracotta portraits of eminent sitters such as Sir Roy Strong. His influences include the medieval artists as well as the octogenarian sculptor and teacher Alan Thornhill whose working methods dispense with the pre-conceived. Edgar has several works in public collections in the UK and abroad.

“Disregard artist statements and intellectual pomposity in favour of spending the time letting the eyes and fingers decide whether one connects with the work... or not. It really should be as simple as that.”
Jon Edgar

The effort required collecting and curating a collection of forty sculptures - weighing nearly two tonnes in all - is considerable, but Worthing’s 12 week exhibition schedule enables a show such as this to take place. Visitors of all generations should fully experience this very tactile, contemporary, non-conceptual artist’s work.

Jon Edgar: Carvings and Claywork is at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery from 20 March - 19 June 2010.

Rude Britannia: British Comic Art

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:29:59 +0000

In summer 2010, Tate Britain will collaborate with a host of comic talent to present Rude Britannia: British Comic Art, a ground-breaking exhibition about the role of humour in British visual culture.

Through a great diversity of art forms – including painting, drawing, sculpture, film and photography – comedy, the comic, and visual humour will be explored in their many dimensions. The exhibition will be presented and interpreted by some of the country’s best-known cartoonists and comedy writers including Steve Bell, Harry Hill, Gerald Scarfe, and the team at Viz Magazine. Their expertise and opinion will offer visitors a fresh take on comic traditions from the 1600s to the present day, and encourage debate around the wider role of humour in British life.

Drawing on material far beyond the traditional realm of visual satire, Rude Britannia will bring together sculptures, installations and performances. Works by contemporary artists such as Angus Fairhurst will be contrasted with key historical pieces by Gillray and Cruikshank. Radio, film and new media will play a part in the show, reflecting how technological developments have consistently reinvigorated the genre and engaged new audiences.

Rude Britannia will focus on a group of key topics, devised in collaboration with the guest curators. These will show the wide variety of ways in which Britain’s thriving tradition of comic art has taken shape, and the links between comic practices of the past and present. Donald McGill’s saucy seaside postcards will be shown alongside works by Aubrey Beardsley and Sarah Lucas, in a section devoted to all things bawdy. Meanwhile, Britain’s love of the absurd and the visionary will be represented by such diverse material as Edward Lear’s illustrations and David Shrigley’s sculpture. Politics, social commentary and morality will each be explored, from Hogarth’s satires of Georgian society to Gerald Scarfe’s caricatures of the Thatcher government.

Harry Hill said: "I love comedy and I love art. The absurd is my area of expertise and it will be good to get the disparate strands under one roof, from Edward Lear to Spike Milligan to David Shrigley, plus a few surprises on the way. We have all laughed at art for one reason or the other, this time it will be for the right reasons! It is a thrill to be asked to curate a room for this Tate Britain show."

Martin Myrone, Curator of 18th & 19th Century British Art, Tate Britain said: “The comic has always been thought of as a key aspect of British culture, but while other exhibitions have looked at the classic story of graphic satire, Rude Britannia will offer a much bigger picture. The result should be a rich, exciting, and sometimes challenging, new vision of British art.”

Celebrating the vivid history of comical images, the exhibition will ask some provocative questions about humour in the visual arts: Is satire truly effective as a means of political messaging? What role have cartoons played in spreading and reinforcing prejudice? Are some things in life truly beyond a joke? Rude Britannia will explore these and other complex issues, reflecting the way that changing social attitudes and identity politics have always played an important role in both comedy and art history. .

9 June – 5 September 2010
Tate Britain, Level 2 Galleries
£10 (£8.50 concessions)
Open daily 10.00 – 17.50, and until 22.00 on the first Friday of every month for Late at Tate
For tickets visit www.tate.org.uk/tickets or call 020 7887 8888

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera at Tate Modern

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:14:57 +0000

This summer Tate Modern will present Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera, a fascinating insight into photographic images made surreptitiously or without the explicit permission of those depicted. Spanning a variety of lens-based media from the late nineteenth century to the present day, the exhibition will offer an illuminating and provocative perspective on subjects both iconic and taboo.

Aided and abetted by the camera, voyeurism and surveillance provoke uneasy questions about who is looking at whom, and whether for power or for pleasure. The show will examine the history of what might be called invasive looking by bringing together more than 250 works of photography and film by well-known figures including Brassaï, Guy Bourdin, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Dorothea Lange, Lee Miller, Thomas Ruff, Paul Strand, Weegee and Garry Winogrand. The exhibition will also include images made by amateur photographers, press photographers, and in some cases automatic systems such as CCTV.

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera will explore themes of eroticism, celebrity and conflict, as well as instances of surveillance in the world around us. Taking the idea of the unseen photographer as its starting point, the show will include images of clandestine, informal or candid situations, impromptu and even intimate moments. It will feature a wide range of works made by photographers who have worked in ingenious and inventive ways, often using small or easily concealed cameras. The exhibition will explore the ambiguity of exposing private moments to public scrutiny and will examine the complex issues raised by voyeuristic looking. It will focus on examples of erotic photography, on the cult of celebrity and the paparazzi, and recent works engaging with the phenomenon of surveillance. Highlights will include images from Brassai’s Secret Paris of the 1930s, Walker Evans’s subway portraits, Weegee’s iconic photographs of Marilyn Monroe, and important recent work by artists and photographers such as Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Nan Goldin and Shizuka Yokomizo.

The issues raised by Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera are particularly relevant in the present context, due to the increasing availability and use of street surveillance and mobile phones, and the circulation of pictures taken in this way in the media and on the internet. These are subjects that have engaged contemporary artists featured in the exhibition including Merry Alpern, Thomas Demand and Harun Farocki.

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera is organised in conjunction with San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It is curated by Sandra S. Phillips, Senior Curator, Photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with Simon Baker, Curator of Photography, Tate, and Ann Coxon, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern. The exhibition will travel to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the autumn of 2010 and then the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis in spring 2011.

The exhibition runs from 28 May – 19 September 2010 on Level 4 at Tate Modern, admission is £10 (£8.50 concessions), and Tate Modern is open every day from 10.00 – 18.00 and late night until 22.00 on Friday and Saturday.

Practical advice as Empty Shops Network tours UK

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:57:57 +0000

Artists from the Empty Shops Network are currently touring the UK with a project which helps artists understand the challenges and opportunities of working in empty shops. Experienced empty shop artists will create an exhibition in one week, exploring local place and distinctiveness in a variety of media.

Throughout the week, the Empty Shops Network's founder, author of the Empty Shops Workbook and well-known speaker (Central St Martins, Chain Reaction, AIR Time, Arts Council England 'Art in empty shops', RIBA, Space Makers) Dan Thompson will be available to talk to artists about how to use empty shops successfully, with friendly, informal but practical meetings to discuss projects available free of charge.

And open events throughout the week will help artists network, with a coffee morning from 10am-12 noon each Wednesday and a workshop on using online publishing tool bookleteer.com each Friday.

The Empty Shops Network tour is at 1a New Road, Shoreham by Sea, Sussex (8-13 March), 17 Lowther Street, Carlisle (15-20 March) and in City Arcade, Coventry (22-27 March).

To book a meeting at any event contact Dan Thompson

The Empty Shops Network tour is funded by the Meanwhile Project and supported by a-n magazine and Worthing Regeneration.