This is this kind of event which propels creativity to the next level, this is when a collaborative effort becomes Art.
American R&B artist Aloe Blacc, musician and music-maker Mihalj “Miki” Kekenj and artist Jaybo got together and put on a what have been an amazing night at Berlin’s creative space MADE.
Aloe Blacc´s original music was interpreted by Miki and his string-quintet which transformed the soul and funk style of Aloe into classical music compositions. Jaybo got involved and took his inspiration from the lyrics of Aloe’s song “I Need a Dollar”and converted it into his own visual interpreation – one of the best piece of art I have seen so far this year!
Jaybo’s painting was put on dispolay for the first time during the event at MADE where Aloe and Miki’s quintet performed a bunch of aloe’s repertoire. The film below shows this performance and tell us about the project.
Hats off to MADE for pulling such a great show where great talents from different art disciplines get together for everybody’s delight.
I need a dollar by Jaybo MonkAloe Blacc - Jaybo Monk - Miki
“One of the reasons I source mainly from newspaper, television and internet imagery is because the way we interact with these media shapes so many of our opinions about the world around us. Most of what I know about the world has been drawn in a fairly disjointed and fragmentary fashion from this huge, seemingly ever present sea of information.
The sheer amount of available knowledge is so overwhelming that I end up feeling always frustrated that I know nothing about anything. Not knowing what I should be spending my time getting to know, I end up with a constant sense of only ever partially understanding even the most important current and historical events.
I am impelled by a great fascination but end up mostly confused about which direction to allow my fascination to lead me in the time I have. Although partial understanding can be frustrating and isolating, it does carry its own qualities. As events become jumbled and confused in our minds a kind of magical haze is thrown over everything. We start to create our own narratives, filling in the gaps between what we pick up from various sources with any number of unreliable memories and opinions.” Darren Nixon
Darren’s central theme of ‘not knowing’ brings up issues of ‘not remembering’ and when applied on a global scale, this “magical haze” created by the fragmented reality of media overload, threatens our formation of collective memories; memories we experience as part of a culture and a society, memories which connect our identity to the cultural experience of a larger social group.
In art since 1900, Benjamin Buchloh makes this encouraging statement in the final roundtable discussion, “The Predicament of Contemporary Art”: “…the effort to retain or to reconstruct the capacity to remember, to think historically, is one of the few acts that can oppose the almost totalitarian implementation of the universal laws of consumption…”
However, he concludes with this condemnation, “…to deliver the aesthetic capacity to construct memory images to the voracious demands of an apparatus that entirely lacks the ability to remember and to reflect historically, and to do so in the form of resuscitated myth, is an almost guaranteed route to success in the present art world, especially with its newly added wing of “the memory industry”. Chilling.
Lava Gallery has been cranking out quality shows on a week by week basis, this time, Co-founder and art director of the Lava Gallery Ashes57 presented her new body of work entitled “On the wild side”.
This show is simply good fun, the centre piece being a huge 3d installation featuring her trade mark line drawn city scape’s and characters like the sitting dog. Ashes’ line drawing style has a great flow and creates allot of depth, You will discover something different in her work every time you look at it.
The show features a collection of hand drawn city scape’s, hand painted canvases and limited run prints, a good mix of work and plenty to keep your attention.
There was a great vibe and good turn out on the night, plenty of drinks were had and a few tunes grooved to courtesy of live DJ’s.
See the rest of the pics from the opening night here:
The Duke of Lancaster, a decommissioned and abandoned cruise liner shipwrecked docked off the North Wales Coastline in Wales has become the home to a range of urban artwork murals.
Here are the latest pieces that came up : Mr Zero and Fatheat are part of Street Art Crew and Colored Effects Crew, a Hungarian Street Art Crew.
They have made the trip to North Wales from their native Hungary, to leave their own message about corruption on the 1950s cruise liner, with their works which are titled ‘The Prophets of Profit’.
This has been split into two separate portraits which are positioned either side of Bristolian Artist Bungle’s ‘Face of Authority’ piece.
Mr Zero has created a 12 x 7m pig character. Notably he has included the council’s own logo on the pig’s hat and incorporated provocative wording: ‘Greed’, ‘Power’ and ‘Corruption’ in the character. This message is further reinforced by his partner, Fatheat’s, 12 x 9m mural, which depicts a monster character.
Mr ZERO
This grotesquely includes human faces buried within the character and money surrounding it. Fatheat comments: “The faces represent the people affected by the Prophet’s corruption and how they have been swallowed up and used against their will.”
In direct contrast to these characters and the other artworks on the ship, Irish artist Fin DAC has created a beautiful image, depicting a Geisha Character. Titled ‘Mauricamai’, this painting is tucked away around the hull side of the ship.
FIN DAC
It has been purposefully positioned so it can’t be seen from the coastal path – it can only be seen if the ship’s dock is opened to the public.
The ship is now home to 8 pieces of artwork, with artists travelling from all over Europe to leave their mark on this historic vessel.
PimpArtworks cutting edge Acrylic artworks come complete with backlit neon Lighting.
The customised LED lighting has 8 changeable neon lighting effects via a RGB controller, including a rainbow effect which gradually cycles through all the electrifying colours.
Set it to your preference or let it cycle. Whatever option it will back light your artwork & wall in style.
These are limited. Once they are gone, they are gone…
The Project is an art competition that will allow emerging talents to gain exposure in one of East London’s cultural hotspots. The twelve-month project includes three commissions launched by three live events, hosted in conjunction with the start of Rich Mix’s new seasons.
We went to see the wall painted by Remi Rough and it is ace – see pictures below
More about the project below:
The Havana Club Wall Project is a celebration of the unique spirit of the Cuban city of Havana. It will embody the unique and inspiring attitude that reflects the true values of the Cuban capital – humanity, spontaneity and creativity – all of which are synonymous with authentic Cuban rum.
Artist Remi/Rough is launching the Havana Club Wall Project with his interpretation and vision of the values that make Havana so unique. The celebrated urban artist has been specially commissioned to design and paint an interior wall that runs the entire length of the Rich Mix events space. The Wall Project is then open as a competition to encourage amateur or professional artists to submit their interpretation of the true values of Havana.
Two winners will then launch the following seasons with their designs on Saturday May 7th and Friday 2nd September. Entries are submitted by e-mail to visualarts@richmix.co.uk, a selection will be posted on the Havana Club UK and Rich Mix facebook page to invite public feedback and final judging will be made by a panel led by Remi/Rough.
Entries must be submitted by: March 7th – with the winning wall design on show from May to July 2011 / OR / July 2nd – with the winning wall design on show from July to September 2011 For further enquiries please contact Krista Booker krista@theneonhub.com or 0207 729 5129
The guys over at END OF THE LINE were commissioned by Konami to paint three enormous murals across the UK for the release of their new game Metal Gear Rising : Revengance. They painted the sides of buildings in London, Liverpool and Leeds with original artwork by Yoji Shinkawa.
Photograph of the London piece and footage are included below. The video is just a must-watch!
