Deerhoof x Ewan MacLeod

Long time no post. Welcome back. I’ll put the kettle on. In the meantime, enjoy the video. Ewan MacLeod, U.S. based director of loads of music film clips, video installations and all round goodness just released his latest on Rollingstone: a film clip for the hypnotic indy rock jingle Secret Mobilization by Deerhoof. I was fortunate enough to have a little hand in it’s production doing some character illustration and storyboards,  so there is a whiff of self promotion in this post. But to be honest, I just dig the track and the atmosphere! Hope you do to. Be back soon(ish) with new illustration and artwork updates, plus some new shows: all steadily approaching on the horizon.

Updates…

There haven’t been a lot of updates on my personal work in a while, but there are things going on in the background. In October and November I’ll be in a few group shows with my drawings and I’m busy working on a painting for a restaurant wall right now. Over the next week or so I’m hoping to update the galleries and get everything up to the minute too, so it’s been fairly busy recently!

I spent a good few days in the workshop with saws and hammers, perspex, D.I.Y lighting and wood glue with the ambitious idea of designing and making my own light desk. The results turned out satisfactory, but weren’t without incident. After a near scrape melting the perspex with a regular tungsten globe, I switched to environmentally friendly, energy conscious LED, and so far so good. So enjoy the results of my first work, and check back soon for those updates.

 

 

Hoholy-Nagy In Motion…

Being the Obon holidays in Japan just last week, I got some time off to go on a little road trip to visit the relatives in Kyoto. Fortunately, we had some extra time which we spent trawling the galleries within vicinity. The Momak had a great retrospective exhibition of the constructivist multidisciplinary artist Moholy-Nagy. So we spent an afternoon out of the heat of summer indoors, with some experimental photography and geometric painting. It was exhaustive and intimate, and by the end of the show (which covered everything from his early drawings, set-design and light/movement contraptions, to his late and final paintings) we felt we got an insight into a very diverse and productive lifetime within the space of 2 hours. If you have the opportunity to visit the Momak, check it out. The accompanying essays and book are well worth a look too, and don’t forget to grab a copy of the fantastic free poster.

This is the first one-man exhibition in Japan introducing the entirety of the Hungarian-born artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), who is known as a constructivist and a teacher at the Bauhaus.
His wide-ranging activities including photography, design, film, kinetic art and art education were consistently in pursuit of “the new vision” brought about by “artistic use of light and movement” and therefore he is esteemed as a pioneer in media art.

Tadanori Yokoo…

I’ve posted about Tadanori Yokoo a few times before. He’s a cool dude, and his old school designs still look as fresh as they did almost 50 years ago. These days he’s more focused on painting, and Japan Times has posted a great interview with him revealing some of the reasons he decided to drop design for more personal creative avenues. Enjoy.

vigilante vigilante…


Just checking out the trailers on Apple, as I frequently do, and this interesting documentary came up. Check out their trailer and website for Vigilante Vigilante: The battle for expression here.
Just checking out the trailers on Apple, as I frequently do, and this interesting documentary came up. Check out their trailer and website for Vigilante Vigilante: The battle for expression here.

updates…

Just a quick update, it’s been a while, and a lot of things have been happening over the last month or so. I mentioned the show I went to last time, and as yet, I haven’t been able to get any more info up on it, so hopefully, if I publicly promise myself I’ll do a write-up I’ll find time in the next few days to do it…right? Aside from that, there have been a few projects on the go.

I was asked to do some monster design for a film/music clip directed by Australian Ewan MacLeod, that is being shot in U.S. (Here is a sneak peak) It was an awesome experience, and I had a great time working (via email!) with Ewan, who was very professional and extremely supportive throughout the design process. Very exciting seeing my sketches get turned into something amazing too, all kudos there to Jessie, who has some mad sculpting skills. Can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

I’ve also been commissioned to do a large scale piece in a friend’s restaurant, which is looking like a mammoth task, and one I’m a little nervous about (noob). So if you are keen, keep an eye on this space over the next few weeks as I attempt to paint 3D fractal algorithms in housepaint.

Finally, there have been weird things happening in my sketchbook. Possibly the result of a week of sweating it out in my studio during the peak of summer with no air-conditioner. On the whole, kind of disappointing really, but I do like the effect I got with some of the colour combinations here, especially around the left shoulder. Anyway, too many words, gotta have some pictures…

Just a quick update, it’s been a while, and a lot of things have been happening over the last month or so. I mentioned the show I went to last time, and as yet, I haven’t been able to get any more info up on it, so hopefully, if I publicly promise myself I’ll do a write-up I’ll find time in the next few days to do it…right? Aside from that, there have been a few projects on the go.

I was asked to do some monster design for a film/music clip directed by Australian Ewan MacLeod, that is being shot in U.S. (Here is a sneak peak) It was an awesome experience, and I had a great time working (via email!) with Ewan, who was very professional and extremely supportive throughout the design process. Very exciting seeing my sketches get turned into something amazing too, all kudos there to Jessie, who has some mad sculpting skills. Can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

I’ve also been commissioned to do a large scale piece in a friend’s restaurant, which is looking like a mammoth task, and one I’m a little nervous about (noob). So if you are keen, keep an eye on this space over the next few weeks as I attempt to paint 3D fractal algorithms in housepaint.

Finally, there have been weird things happening in my sketchbook. Possibly the result of a week of sweating it out in my studio during the peak of summer with no air-conditioner. On the whole, kind of disappointing really, but I do like the effect I got with some of the colour combinations here, especially around the left shoulder. Anyway, too many words, gotta have some pictures…

zipangu update…

Just got back from Tokyo, where I saw the exhibition Zipangu. It was a hell of a day, braving the concrete island heat and tonnes of people eager to catch the last day of the show, but it was undoubtedly worth the bother. I’ll post some info in the next day or so, and compile a list of links for anybody interested in following up on any of the 31 artists shown. In the meantime, here is an image from Natsunosuke Mise called UFO, one of the artists featured.

little big bang…

Events recorded by the ALICE experiment from the first lead ion collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon pair. Pretty!

zipangu…

It’s a little late in the day, but a friend of mine brought in the newspaper with an article about a show currently on in Tokyo till the 20th. Zipangu, according to the introductory blurb, brings together 31 contemporary artists each with a unique perspective on Japan, and hopes to see, in a new light, what the much lauded Japanese spirit means. It’s an interesting group, with some of my favorite artists represented; Akira Yamaguchi, Tenmyouya Hisashi and Tomoko Kashiki to name a few, and with a bit of luck, I should be able to go and see it next Monday. Fortunately (for anybody willing to travel), it’s going to be on in Osaka and Kyoto so don’t miss a rare opportunity to see so many contemporary artists in the same place. (image: Masakatsu Sashie)

jesse balmer…

I have been a big fan of Jesse Balmer’s work for a little while now, and this may the 2nd, perhaps even 3rd time I’ve put something up here, cause every time I check out his website I’m see nothing short of genius. Anyway, enough with the gushing; I won’t go into the wierd science sub-conscious subject mater, the gorgeous line work, or the off-the-wall humour, you should just check out his site yourself.