Another month, another edition of The Creative Bubble and a myriad of emerging artists showcasing their work – visual artists, spoken word and Poetry, Music & the latest addition and now regular appearance of the guys from Let The Film Do The Talking who invite you to immerse yourself in short films and augmented reality.
As always, we are providing a selection of artists we feel should get some exposure just because we appreciate their work and hope you will to.
We are delighted to have James Kinsella involved in this pop up show. James currently resides in Austria, yes The Creative Bubble is international (!), who will be showing three of his screen print on acrylic paint latest work. We included below ‘Herschelgasse’ for you to see what you can expect to see on display if you come down.
‘Less is more’ is what we felt when we first saw James’ work. We like the “sketchy’ feel of this piece and above all the contrast between black outlines and bright and bold colours.
WHAT – The Creative Bubble, POP UP Art Gallery, Spoken Word, Poetry, Short Films, Music & Networking WHERE – Roxy Bar and Screen, 128-132 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB WHEN – Wed 29/4/2015 (POP UP art gallery opening night) / Thursd 30 (Spoken word)
Click to enlargeKathrina was born in Mexico City and studied visual arts and photography at the University of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Her native country means that her work is infused with a rich vitality and a colourful exuberance. As an Urban artist, she produces work which is perhaps softer and more lyrical than her male contemporaries. She has a deep admiration for iconic female figures, especially her compatriot Frida Kahlo.
Over the last couple of years Kathrina has lived and worked in Dublin, Ireland and has become a vital fixture of the vibrant street art scene there.
Kathrina uses an array of mediums to achieve an extraordinary effect – From spray paints, newspaper collage and urban markers to assemblage of cardboard, door parts and even Popsicle sticks. She is constantly challenging the means of urban representation, reinventing the genre in a feminist context.
Her work is deeply tied to her Mexican roots, addressing social issues such as racial discrimination and embracing a culture without the curse of violence and gangs.
She is the voice of a new generation, producing artwork that is bold and seductive. Like Frida before her, she is conscious of the innate power of her gender. She excites the male gaze with her portraits being alive with a raw sexual energy. They are alluring and even provocative.
Kathrina’s technical ability and artistic representational skill are first rate, creating both an awareness of environmental issues and tapping into the Mexican concept of the cycle of life, seen in the celebration of ‘Dia de los Muertos’.
The physicality of life in Kathrina’s work is seen in her numerous performances and live events, which is a crucial aspect of her practice. She wants the work to be alive, she wants the audience to see the process in action and feel the creative energy as it happens.
8-bit type of art is just so simple and so brilliant. It gets even better when it depicts characters we all know such as PacMan and Mario Bros. Enjoy the pics below
Untitled Nude, (c)2011 Shireen Qureshi, oil and charcoal on canvas
I recently interviewed London artist Shireen Qureshi for This ‘Me’ of Mine. Her ‘Untitled Nude’ is a compelling expression of the struggle in the violence of existence; of being flesh and bone. We discussed an interesting point of the Deleuzian ‘event’…
Jane Boyer: Deleuze suggests we are an event; meaning that out of a chaos in which conditions have come together to form a ‘one’ or have passed through ‘a screen’ which allows something rather than nothing to happen.[1] There is a sense of ‘event’ in your tableaus and the figures are that ‘event’, as if we are witnessing the coalescing of a self, how do you see this? Do you feel the passage of time is relevant to the self?
Shireen Qureshi: It is interesting that you suggest that we are witnessing the coalescing of a self in my work because in my mind I am more interested in breaking down the body, of rupturing boundaries. I often initiate a painting by making it look real and then trying to break it down, by overlapping bodies or breaking apart skin and bone, I suppose in that sense the aim for me is towards chaos rather than from it. But I think that this is a very interesting idea, especially the sense of an ‘event’ you describe in my work, forcing my viewers into the role of witness. I think that if the paintings have created any sense of inescapable drama pinning both my figures and viewers in place, then this is an achievement in itself. From my point of view, the passage of time is interesting because it is within a space of time that metamorphosis and transformation can occur. I would like to create a sense of movement, an undulation within each of my paintings as if they were bubbles of captured space and time. I think that time is inescapably relevant to the self because it is within time that a self is built or deconstructed, subjected to the violence of existence, and within which the self moves, inevitably, towards death.
Fall, (c)2010 Shireen Qureshi, oil on canvas
Whether we think much about it or not, we live every moment of our existence with the thought of our extinction – every one of us could cease to exist at any moment. This latent threat is one aspect of the ‘violence of existence’ mentioned by Shireen. From her point of view the violence exists in the visceral reality of living in flesh and bone, a violence we understand first hand. Often through serious illness or accident, the loss of loved ones or violent personal threat we realize the fragility of our existence and the latent threat of our extinction become a conscious reality. Once aware of this imminence our sense of self undoubtedly alters; we become a self with limited time.
The visual breakdown of bodies, flesh and bone is an interesting interpretation of this psychological awareness of our mortality. The ambiguity of whether the bodies in Shireen’s paintings are coalescing or breaking down is indicative of the struggle in the moment of ‘difference’ described by Deleuze, and as such, is also the ‘violence of existence’ Shireen speaks of. Deleuze said, “Indifference has two aspects: the undifferentiated abyss, the black nothingness, the indeterminate…in which everything is dissolved – but also the white nothingness, the…calm surface upon which float unconnected determinations like scattered members: a head without a neck, an arm without a shoulder, eyes without brows. The indeterminate is completely indifferent, but such floating determinations are no less indifferent to each other. Is difference intermediate between these two extremes [the undifferentiated and the determinate]? Or is it not rather the only extreme, the only moment of presence and precision?”
Hand in Hair, (c)2010 Shireen Qureshi, oil on canvas
He continued, “There is cruelty, even monstrosity, on both sides of the struggle against an elusive adversary, in which the distinguished opposes something which cannot distinguish itself from it but continues to espouse that which divorces it.”[2]
Living is difference; it is the precision of presence. Living with the imminence of our extinction is the violent struggle of divorcing that which continues to espouse us; a struggle “within which the self moves, inevitably, towards death,” as Shireen says.
Read more of our interview, ‘Straight from the Nerves’ on the This ‘Me’ of Mine blogsite.
Adam Neate (as much as Joram Roukes) is the sort of artists that will challenge whatever perception of portraiture in art you might have by giving you something radically different to look at. Do not look for resemblance in Adam’s work, his portraits are more expressions of characters in their social environments but what makes his work unique is the mediums he uses – Perspex, metal, fabrics, lenticulars and film.
“Neate’s subject matter is in the strong British tradition of social realism, yet the materials he uses to make his brush strokes challenge tradition. In his iconic portraits, as well as in his portrayals of domestic life, the self-taught artist continues to push boundaries and challenge himself. Neate wrestles with new ideas in painting while working through the powerful emotions that are ever present in his overtly personal work.” Elms Lesters Painting Rooms.
What – ‘HISTORY’ ADAM NEATE . PORTRAITS FROM 2006 – 2013 Where – Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, London When – 16Nov 2013 – 14Dec 2013 | Tuesday – Friday 12 noon – 7pm Saturdays 11am – 5pm
Stickers fans out there have been waiting for this one – yes Stickers Bomb 3 is out today!
We published a similar post last time round when Stickers Bomb Skulls came out and gave you the opportunity to grab a free copy.
We are reiterating this again and have 2 copies of latest Sticker Bomb 3 up for grabs! Look to your right to find out how you can win a copy –>
We were delighted to receive again in the post this collection of over 240 peelable stickers from our favourite publisher Laurence King.
This book is part of the ever growing Stickerbomb series which includes other similar books such as Stickerbomb, Stickerbomb 2, Stickerbomb XL, Stickerbomb Letters and Stickerbomb Monsters.
D*Face foreword
As D*FACE warns us in his foreword for this edition of Sticker Bomb, “Stickers are seriously addictive, self indulgent, egotistical, and can be life altering – and thank fuck they are. They rescued me from a life of punching hours in the 9-to-5 grind, working for the man”
Artists in this edition includes –
Bisser (Belgium)
BareOne (UK)
Dres13 (US)
FatGomez (Italy)
Killer Acid (US)
Luis Pinto (Mexico)
Mr Four Fingers (UK)
Space MCK (Australia)
Train Of Thoughts (Switzerland)
About Studio Rarekwai, the studio behind the StickerBomb book series –
Ryo Sanada and Suridh Hassan of Studio Rarekind (SRK) specialise in the promotion of international culture and music through documentary production and film. Their documentary film on Japanese Hip-Hop culture – “Scratching the surface: Japan” – has been broadcast Europe. This was followed by successful screenings at the 12th Raindance Film Festival in London and Vancouver International Hip-Hop Film Festival.
When I first saw these pictures by photographer Jean-Paul Bourdier, I was completely amazed by the clever compositions and juxtapositions and even more by the colours which shine in front of your eyes.
My immediate second thought was that these must be digitally manipulated but I was glad to find out that they do not appear to be, the models used here would get body painted.
What a superb piece of body art mixed with photography these are.
All the pics below were taken in the deserts of West America with an analog camera. You can find more of these body paintings photography in his book entitled Bodyscapes
About the author
Jean Paul Bourdier is the author of Leap Into The Blue, Bodyscapes (introduction and dvd by Trinh T. Minh-ha), co-author with Trinh Minh-ha of Vernacular Architecture of West Africa, Habiter un monde, African Spaces and Drawn from African Dwellings. Production designer of seven films and co-director of two films directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha.
Awards include Guggenheim, American Council of Learned Societies, NEA, Graham, UC President’s Humanities, and Getty. Professor of design, drawing and photography in the department of architecture at UC Berkeley.
This work is the result of an exploration into the area of masculinity and social stereotypes. As a documentary photographic essay the work opens the doors to a lesser-seen area of society in an attempt to challenge pre-existing British stereotypes surrounding male identity and firearms.
Our aim is to aim is to survive focuses on Blackpool Pistol and Rifle Club: it’s physicality as a space, the people who use it and the inter-relationship between the two. These images are bound together through their formal presentation yet each image contains a strong individual presence in many cases confirming expectations but in others, interestingly confounding and challenging both the preconceived ideas attached to firearms and Shooting Clubs.
The Blackpool Pistol and Rifle club as been running since 1948 and is a typical example of what you would find in many shooting clubs throughout the United Kingdom. After a 1997 firearms amendment outlawed all but muzzle loading and single shot pistols, the membership to these clubs dwindled. As with many things within contemporary society the unfashionable quickly becomes lost and the
traditions of old soon turn to nostalgia. The walls of this club speak of a time gone; the faux wooden panels and the photographs proudly displayed offer an insight into “the good old days”. However they spoke as much about an acceptance of their fate as it offered a reminder into the past. The unfashionable has already become nostalgic whilst still in existence. To emphasize the idea of ever shifting social opinions I have offered a critique on the normative opinions associated masculinity and firearms by mixing the past and present contained within each frame.
Throughout the work the viewer is encouraged to draw off there own pre-existing opinions before eventually having these opinions subverted. By using masculinity as a focal point, symbolic links are drawn between the continually changing view of masculinity and the decline in popularity of those things that
do not fit within today’s society.”
““an acceptance that photography at the least can capture the present and the visible, he (Coekin) adds an understanding that what we know of the present what we know, and don’t know, of the past and the future”
David Campany on Chris Coekin’s piece Knock Three Times.
One of the best thing of a work do is to find myself stumbling around the streets of Shoreditch quite to very late at night and snap away the many graffitis or street art pieces I may encounter.
If you are even luckier, you may find yourself alone and this is the best bit as you get some kick-ass photographs as those I included below.
Another month, another edition of The Creative Bubble and a myriad of emerging artists showcasing their work – visual artists, spoken word and Poetry, Music & the latest addition and now regular appearance of the guys from Let The Film Do The Talking who invite you to immerse yourself in short films and augmented reality.
This work is the result of an exploration into the area of masculinity and social stereotypes. As a documentary photographic essay the work opens the doors to a lesser-seen area of society in an attempt to challenge pre-existing British stereotypes surrounding male identity and firearms.
