Artists & Makers

Carnival for the dead at Viktor Wynd

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:55:28 +0100

The contradiction of art is that the most bright, colourful and joyous work may have the darkest meaning.

In a vibrant, colourful and anarchic exhibition at Viktor Wynd Fine Art, Stephen Wright has produced a mass of work which explores his sense of loss and bereavement after the death of three close family members.

The work is a series of constructions, stuck together and painted and daubed. It resembles South American folk art of Haitian voodoo. There are dozens of distressed and destroyed dolls, reams of scrawled text, hundreds of beads, buttons and sequins. The work is powerful and primal, vibrant and visceral. It's a carnival for the dead. Wright is channelling memories, fragments of time and moments of very personal narratives through worn, discarded and decorated objects.

It's an overwhelming experience, a total environment where it's hard to separate single works from the overall installation. In fact, Wright has turned his home into a complete environment, the House of Dreams Museum. This is his first solo gallery show.

The work has a clear debt to outsider art, although Wright's background is far from outsider. He's run a studio designing handpainted and printed fabrics, worn by the likes of Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench and Shirley Bassey. He's designed his own fashion collection sold at Liberty, Harvey Nics and Bloomingdales. And was head stylist at Elle Decoration.

It's obvious though that that work � mere decoration � was just a warm up for this, an artist in full swing.

John Hegley to headline first Worthing Comedy Festival

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:35:34 +0100

Comic performance poet John Hegley is to headline the first ever Worthing Comedy Festival.

Set for 10-12 September, the festival is hosted and organised by Matt's Comedy Club, the up and coming family-friendly comedy showcase that has been running nights in Worthing since 2008.

Author, musician and performance poet Hegley (top), a regular at clubs and festivals all over Europe during the past 25 years, brings his high energy set to the St Paul's Centre on 10 September, backed by BBC Radio 4's musical maestro of mirth James Sherwood, in an evening fronted by Matt's Comedy Club MC Russ Bravo.

"We're chuffed to get John Hegley down to Worthing," says Russ, "and we're looking forward to a great few days of high class comedy for all ages. It's a great chance to put Worthing on the comedy map and start a new festival we hope will become a regular part of the town's entertainment landscape."

Rapper, singer and stand-up Jude Simpson (left) headlines two punchy 60-minute shows on Saturday 11 September at The Dome Gallery Bar, with support from Worthing's own quirky comic and storyteller Ben Salter.

Earlier in the day, Ben, Russ Bravo and guests will be popping up in coffee shops and restaurants in the town around lunchtime with Comedy Lunchbox, a free 15-minute taster session of songs, poems and silliness.

And everything is rounded off on Sunday 12 September with the Comedy Brunchbox – a special topical lunchtime show starring BBC writer and stand-up Paul Kerensa (co-writer of popular sitcoms Miranda and Not Going Out) and the ever popular comedian Andy Kind (below right).

Paul and Andy will be joining Russ Bravo for a topical wander through the Sunday papers, bouncing off the cuff gags off the day's news stories – with plenty of help from the audience at The Dome Function Suite.

The festival schedule – and ticket details are below. Matt's Comedy Club and the Worthing Comedy Festival have pages on Facebook, and you can also see videos from the club's shows at www.youtube.com/mattscomedyclub.

The festival has received welcome support from Worthing Arts Council, Sea Change and Worthing Borough Council.

FRIDAY 10 SEPTEMBER
8pm at St Paul's Centre, Chapel Road, Worthing:
Performance poet legend John Hegley + musical mirthmaker James Sherwood + MC Russ Bravo
...
SATURDAY 11 SEPTEMBER
Comedy Lunchbox with Russ Bravo, Ben Salter & friends – FREE 15-minute taster sessions at coffee shops and restaurants around Worthing, 12pm-2pm. Watch this space (and local press) for details

7.30pm and 9pm at The Dome Gallery Bar, Marine Parade, Worthing:
Poet, singer and stand-up Jude Simpson + Ben Salter

SUNDAY 12 SEPTEMBER
12.30-2pm at The Dome Function Suite, Marine Parade, Worthing:
Sunday Comedy Brunchbox – a satirical wander through the Sunday papers with Paul Kerensa, Andy Kind and Russ Bravo

HOW TO GET TICKETS
Tickets for all shows are £7 adults and £5 concessions, available now from:

Parklife, 6 Bath Place, Worthing
Madisons Coffee Shop, 3-5 The Royal Arcade, Worthing
Green Cuisine, 37 Rowlands Road, Worthing
Music Mania, Crescent Road, Worthing
Eclipse Cafe Bar, Goring Road, Worthing
The Dome Function Suite, Marine Parade, Worthing (11 & 12 Sept shows)
St Paul's Centre, Chapel Road, Worthing (10 Sept show)
St Matthew's Church Office, Tarring Road, Worthing (weekday mornings – 01903 207024)
Or call 077200 40456 or 01903 218026

We're also offering a special Friends of Worthing Comedy Festival Pass for £35 – this will admit TWO people to ALL gigs over the weekend (one Saturday night show), saving you £7! Limited numbers available at ticket outlets.

For any further details or enquiries, please contact Russ Bravo.

Pier Day gets Revolutionary

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:09:30 +0100

Make Do & Mend, Dig for Victory and Keep Calm and Carry On. Three well-known messages from the past which have a particular resonance today have inspired the organisers of this year's Pier Day, a one-day festival held on Worthing's art deco pier.

After being involved in running the event since its conception, this year Revolutionary Arts will be taking over the artistic direction of Pier Day, after securing the support of Worthing Borough Council. The annual event takes place on Sunday 12th September, from 12 noon-4pm.

Pier Day celebrates the architecture of Worthing's award-winning art deco pier. So this year, the event will have a historical flavour, celebrating seaside style from the 1930s-1950s. With a topical nod to an era that mixed austerity and celebration, organisers are bringing together artists, community groups and local businesses to celebrate grow-your-own, local food, austerity and the spirit of make do and mend with a great big street party on the pier. Revolutionary Arts will also be commissioning a range of original artworks inspired by the pier.

Already Revolutionary Arts have offered grants to Adur & Worthing arts and community groups who would like to use the day to promote what they do locally by staging some activity on the pier. And Revolutionary Arts have created a dedicated team to spread the word about the event through Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

'This year's Pier Day is part street party and part bohemian arts festival,' says artistic director Dan Thompson, 'created by the community, artists and local business coming together to celebrate all that's best about Worthing past, present and future.'

Wabi Sabi - enjoying the moment

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:47:27 +0100

Agora, Shoreham-by-Sea: Wabi Sabi – ordinary beauty

An exhibition capturing the essence of Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi – finding beauty in imperfection, enjoying the moment, and celebrating the transience of life – is a perfect fit for the Empty Shops Network's Agora HQ in Shoreham-by-Sea.

There is an overwhelming sense of peace, coupled with a light-hearted curiosity, as you explore the carefully constructed mix of photos, artworks, small haiku poem books and delicate pottery, that even extends out into the back garden with a spiral of slates, and a small Buddhist altar.

You are encouraged to contribute to the exhibition with your own haiku poems, and join the mischievous nature of the concept by employing the element of surprise in your offering. And it's as you slow down, think and enjoy the detail and artistic skill on offer that you discover the unexpected moment of transcendence, and a glimpse of deeper truths.

While Buddhist thought informs much of the work on show, I also found traces of Christian theology in the devotion of each artist to creating something beautiful, even if only for the moment.

The 'Wabi Sabi - ordinary beauty' exhibition runs until 24 July and features Brighton ceramic artist Gill Parsons, Worthing-based photographer Nigel Thompson, and Steyning artist Debbie Zoutewelle who uses drawings. Other artists contribute film, haiku, and installations.

Russ Bravo

Ragged socialism in rich Chichester

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:12:03 +0100

There are moments as a reviewer when you need to step back from what you're looking at and consider the context. And a hot, sunny afternoon in well-heeled Chichester, watching a new adaptation of Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist provides one of those moments.

The book is a masterpiece, an at least partly autobiographical story about the class struggle, the quest for craftsmanship under capitalism and the rise of socialist thinking. It's an odd thing to be watching with a very upper middle class matinee audience.

Adapting for the stage what is essentially a radical political manifesto will never be easy, but on the whole Howard Brenton has done a good job. And of course, the clash of culture between today's audience and the play itself show exactly why it is still relevant. Over a hundred years after the working-class housepainter finished writing the novel, the famous 'Money Trick' he explains is still relevant.
But despite that relevance it's not a good start. Our play opens and ends in the present day, with a couple viewing a battered house with an estate agent. Sadly, this top and tail adds nothing to the plot, and the wooden characters jar with the well-rounded working men in the main body of the play. It does, however, give Simon Higlett's amazing set a chance to shine.

The main body of the play, however, is a delight � dirty, angry, bloody and rough when it needs to be, largely thanks to a brooding performance by Finbar Lynch. He plays Frank Owen, a radical among a group of house-painters restoring a house in the late nineteenth century. He believes, as do his fellow workers, that they should be able to do the best job possible. They want to be 'worker, craftsman and artist all in one', says Owen. This is nothing mystical, though � Owen explains to a younger colleague that 'it's not clever. It's a skill � you can learn it'.

Sadly the owner of their company Mr George Rushton believes in profit above craft, and is aided by vicious foreman Dennis Hunter, played with dark menace by Des McAleer. Of course, even he's not safe, with Nicolas Tenant's Bob Crass willing to do what it takes to usurp Hunter and take the foreman's bowler hat crown. And of course weaker workers like Old Joe Philpot (Larry Dann) are always going to struggle in a competitive market.

As well as watching the housepainters at work, we see young Will Easton at home. He's desperate to keep in with both his foreman and his wife Ruth, played by a young Laura Rees. Sadly she's struggling with a script that doesn't give her much more than a cliched weak woman. A stark contrast to her friend and Owen's wife Nora, beautifully portrayed as a woman ahead of her time by Louise Bush.

Alongside the work at the house, we see the fat cat capitalists at the town council, portrayed by the same actors in masks. The initial transformation is handled well, the actors changed before our eyes. However, this bigger story of a town council, run by a greedy clique, is less developed and could almost be dispensed with. The characters cartoon names don't help � Didlum, Sweater and Slyme.

It's the working-class housepainters who are believeable, sympathetic and relevant. It's their story that touches. And it's their struggle which, after a hundred years and in the depths of a recession, is still worth watching.

Brian Eno's appeal: prioritise arts funding if you want a healthy society

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:46:18 +0100

The Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries says on this website: "The arts and cultural sector will feel its share of the painful spending decisions that are being taken." Some sectors, however, are being protected from cuts. This article makes a case for prioritising arts funding.

On the eve of the UK's budget cuts announcements, 23 May 2010, in the Brighton Dome, Brian Eno appealed to government to fund the arts. Without the arts, ran the subtext of Eno's message, our society can�t develop properly.

Eno started out by explaining that he was addressing the proposed cuts in arts funding by the British government. He noted there are no proposals to cut funding to the Trident nuclear missile programme, and said he was not proud of the fact that Britain is the number two arms producer in the world. He said the arts community is failing to sell itself to government as successfully as the arms industry. The arts community is failing to convince government of the importance of the arts.
Eno said we are at a Darwinian moment � at present the arts are considered to be interesting, but not essential to human development. He compared this attitude to the study of nature before Darwin's theory of evolution changed our idea of the place of humans in the world: we discovered that humans are not isolated, but are connected with all life, part of the same evolutionary chain. Now, says Eno, we are going to realise that the arts are connected with human development and healthy society.

He illustrated his point with an overhead projection of screwdrivers. They all had the same business end. The other end was the stylistic end, in many variations. He showed slides of screwdrivers with curved and straight, spotted and pink, and even be-feathered handles. Hairstyles were another example. On one end of the scale, we might think we don't need to cut our hair, or only need the most utilitarian cut, on the other end we see an infinite variety of styles.

The arts, said Eno, are �anything we do, that we don't have to do�. But, in both examples of screwdrivers and hair, we can see that the whole does not work without the stylistic part.

Eno made his points obliquely. His strategy was that of the creative writer: show, not tell. Describe the situation, and let the reader draw his or her own conclusions.

Imagination, he said, is key to how we develop as humans, particularly how we learn to communicate. He talked about behavioural experiments with monkeys. And he talked about behavioural experiments with autistic children. They cannot communicate because they cannot imagine any reality other than their own, so it is hard for them to understand another person's point of view. They have not developed their imaginations in a way that allows them to function according to our society�s norm.

He talked about control and surrender. Our lives are increasingly about individual control, for example control of what we buy, and less about surrender of our individuality. From my point of view in the audience, I was thinking of the ego and the communal consciousness, common themes in philosophy from Buddhism to Christianity to Jung. But Eno avoided referring to any established schools of thought; he said he wanted to avoid jargon and elitism. He said he would not be mentioning any French philosophers. Who might they be, I wondered? Is he talking about the French revolutionaries who, with their battle cry of �liberte, egalite, fraternite�, proclaimed the rights of man and held up the individual as an ideal. Or was he thinking about Sartre, who romanticised the self-centred narcissism of the existentialist. Or maybe he was talking about the designer of the mind-body split himself: Descartes, creator of the ego concept of being: "I think: I am". All these intellectuals became wrapped up in the rotations of their minds and maybe forgot the real reason for existence: to simply be.

And what is simply being? Living in the present. Accepting, observing, wondering, imagining. Surrendering our instinct for control. Being is the art of living. These are my words; Eno limited himself to sketching a sort of umbrella called �surrender� which contained four words: "Sex", "Drugs", "Art" and "Religion". These are all spaces where we can surrender, and commune with a world outside our limited selves.

Eno did not give us conclusions. But it is not hard to draw them. Control has to be about materialism and science. If we do need "surrender" in our lives, to develop properly, what will happen if the possibility for �surrender� is taken away from us? Why are so many people developing autism? If art is not a possibility, will we increasingly take refuge in sex, drugs or religion?

Thought provoking stuff, and good that Eno got me to think it through for myself. But in case the government officials listening are too far gone in the their world of control to puzzle through the illustrations of life provided by Eno, here is my executive summary: we must support and encourage the arts as worthwhile pursuits in life. We must cease denigrating them as unimportant luxuries that must be cut in favour of spending on arms and anything else. For, if we don�t, we will stop functioning properly as individuals and as a society. Even if we cannot prove links between the arts and psychological development, think of where our present course is taking us. Think of autism, child violence, child abuse, drug addiction, alienation and more.

What can we do to make or society a better place? Make people feel valuable by supporting the arts. Not simply the high arts, but all the things we do but �we don�t have to do�: circus, street performance, comedy, cabaret, design, hairdressing and play. I mean: will more guns, roads or even more NHS walk-in centres stem the tide of casualties in our damaged society? What if we tried circus schools and dress-up competitions instead? Increase arts funding because it is essential to our proper development. Art is a safe way out of our problems, not an optional extra.

These are my conclusions from Eno�s observations. My companion, a talented artist, echoed these thoughts with his observation that his art is what keeps him sane (relatively - ed). He wondered where he would be now if he had not had access to art.

Brain Eno presented �Brian Eno: This is an Illustrated Talk� on the last night of the 2010 Brighton Festival, of which he was this year's Guest Artistic Director.

By Russell Honeyman
Originally posted on http://www.russellhoneyman.blogspot.com
24 May 2010
Labels: Arms Industry, Arts Council, Brian Eno, Brighton Festival, Consciousness, Spending Cuts

Writing's on the wall with Twitter artwork

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:37:38 +0100

Over the past few months Wasted Spaces has been on a mission to put a smile (literally) on the face of Wembley. This ongoing project involving interventions and temporary installations is set to expand through London in the summer months.

With funding from Brent Council Wasted Spaces brought together three internationally renowed artists – David Dope, Robert Hodgin and Rafael Rozendaal to create a six week long exhibition. The digital works came to life at dusk as they were projected onto a 50 metre high wall on Wembley High Road creating wonder and intrigue for the passers-by.

Meanwhile, Wasted Spaces also commissioned London-based artist duo Hellicar & Lewis to develop a piece for this location, which resulted in The Hello Wall, a piece that uses Twitter to let the public interact with the huge wall projection.

Wasted Spaces is currently in talks with two London Councils about taking over empty retail spaces for temporary installations. Wasted Spaces is a non-proﬁt art organisation that transforms vacant properties and other unloved spaces into exciting art experiences. The collective was set up to provide a platform for up and coming artists, and to engage with communities through site-speciﬁc installations. By creating art that is both accessible and of high quality these projects provide a gateway for people who wouldn't usually encounter modern art.

Wasted Spaces website

Surreal gallery opens for free

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:17:29 +0100

Visitors will have the chance to explore Pallant House Gallery's summer exhibition, �Surreal Friends� without paying a penny when the Chichester gallery opens for free for the day to mark the annual London 2012 Open Day.

Described by the art critic Richard Cork as �really fascinating and impressive�, �Surreal Friends� features works by the English painter Leonora Carrington, the Spanish painter Remedios Varo and the Hungarian photographer Kati Horna, and tells the story of their personal and artistic friendship since meeting in Mexico City in 1943.

Visitors will also be invited to take part in a special Open Weekend event to mark the annual UK-wide countdown to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Led by the Portsmouth-based artist Jon Adams, visitors will be encouraged to make flags from recycled book pages and �plant� them in the Gallery studio.
The event, entitled �Dysarticulate� is part of a country-wide initiative to create tens of thousands of unique temporary public artworks over the Open Weekend.

Other events include a free drop-in sewing workshop as part of a fascinating art project exploring the global abuse of women from 10.30am-12.30pm and 1.30-3.30pm in the Library, a free �Highlights of the Collection� talk at 2pm, and free coffee tasting, provided by De�Longhi, the headline sponsors of the Gallery for 2010 in the Galleria. Children�s trails will also be available for families to pick up throughout the day.

Pallant House Gallery opens for free on Saturday 24 July.

Free photo print offer

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:52:09 +0100

To celebrate the launch of his new website, photographer Justin Sainsbury is giving away 5 free 10’’x 15’’ prints to the first 5 people that contact him via www.justinsainsbury.com.

Justin will print, package, send (or deliver in the Worthing area) any picture from the site as long as it’s dated 2006 or later (see ‘image info’ for dates).

The catch? There is none. Inspired by a recent blog interview with the photographer, Craig Hickman, he was taken with the idea of expanding a limited audience by circulating good quality prints.

Justin has previously been a member of the Revolutionary Arts Group, exhibited in the south of England and published a limited edition monograph.

Justin will be following up this initial offer in the near future via his Facebook and Flickr stream so keep watching for a chance to build a little collection.

A Dark Day In Paradise

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:45:35 +0100

A Dark Day In Paradise is an installation by Clare Twomey at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton until January 2011. Thousands of black ceramic butterflies swarm in the Banqueting Room, the Great Kitchen and the Entrance Hall, and flutter darkly throughout the ground floor of the royal palace.

The work is a response to the excesses of the building, with the butterflies symbolising the transience of life and the vanity of earthly things. They are both beautiful and menacing, an invitation for visitors to reflect on the history of the building and to draw contemporary parallels.

Clare Twomey is a British ceramicist/artist who works with clay in large-scale installations, sculpture and site-specific works. She has exhibited at Tate, Victoria & Albert Museum, Crafts Council and the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan.

More:

Royal Pavilion website