Boy talks Uncategorized: 100 Curators 100 Days Flora Fairbairn James Lake Outside In Richard Wilson Saatchi Online
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Carlo Still Exists…
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Yes, it’s true.. I still exist…
So, I haven’t been updating the blog in recent months. Fear not. I am still actively making my mark(s). What to tell you…. Well, I spent a couple of weeks assessing 2,310 art works for the Outside In: National competition/exhibition. Quite a dynamic process indeed! I’m really looking forward to the exhibition now. It’s interesting being on this side of things. 3 years ago, i was submitting work and was one of the 6 winners as an outcome, and have gone from strength to strength ever since, thanks to Outside In’s continual support too.
What else, what else.. Well, staying with the Outside In stuff, they’ve just successfully exhibited Outside In:London at the Cafe Gallery in Southwark Park. To go with this, James Lake‘s GoldRun:Remix was exhibited/performed at Dilston Grove, also in Southwark Park. I was in awe when I caught it last Sunday. Unfortunately both of these shows are over now, but I got a couple of photos of James Lake’s cardboard creations, as he cuts lots of thin strips of cardboards to create his work. Simply beautiful stuff.. It was good to finally meet him, and I also had a little chat with Richard Wilson who mentored James through the project. He’s a pleasant fellow. I expressed my inability to process logic in regards to the Saatchi Gallery’s re-assembling of his large pool of oil piece (’20:50′ I think it was called?), and their not letting people walk into the piece as originally intended. That is what makes the piece, in my opinion, and I was quite sure this was the point of it, physically/mentally. I experienced it the way it should be experienced, around the turn of the century. Wilson said he had no rights over it now and he seemed to agree it’s a shame, but even if they were to have people queuing, they are afraid that in that space, people would throw things in the oil, or that some would spill etc.. Was good to ask Wilson about it though, and to hear his view..
In other news, I was recently featured by curator Flora Fairbairn in her selection of 10 artists on Saatchi Online’s 100 Curators 100 Days. The concept, birthed by the Director of the Saatchi Gallery in London, is that each day for 100 days, a different hand-picked curator will ‘exhibit’ 10 artists that they’ve picked out from the 64,000+ artists on the Saatchi Online website.
That’s all for now but things are simmering. I’ll bring it to the table when it’s cooked.
Bye for now,
Carlo
Boy shows you his... Boy talks Boy travels: Brian Robert Gibson Dolly Sen Exhibition Fringe Arts Bath Mandie Saw Mandy Webb Mercedes Gil Michelle Kral Outside In Step Up Sugarglider Within Withou You
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Within Without You
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Fringe Arts Bath
So, I was in Bath last Friday for the opening of Within Without You, one of the group shows taking place at The Pet Store in Bath as part of the 2012 Fringe festival. I’d decided to show my Sugar Glider vs Octopus painting and a drawing I did of an owl prior to our ending up at the fitting animal-related venue, interestingly. I just googled it to see if there is any history on the place that I could drop some knowledge on. Mysteriously not. Here is a photo of the entrance though, and I’m super glad to be showing art here:
Speaking of animals, I found a nice little Italian spot where I had a luxurious dinner of cow meat. I ended up at a bar later and saw this though:
Maybe next time.
I was literally running to go pick up a sculpture for the show when I decided to stop and take a photo of the lovely scenery, and given I was sort of still running when I took the photo, it’s surprising that the photo is not blurred and actually not badly composed. Bath is full of picturesque scenery like this:
So, here’s a few photos of the show.. (by the way, if you click on the images, they get bigger)
Our two rooms with a hug in the middle
That winning art-and-alcohol combo
My bits
Guy photographing Mandie's wallpiece while her floorcreature observes his crotch
Mandie Saw
Action shot, room 2. Fun for all the family.
Mercedes Gil in a moment with her works.
Lady writing on the floor as part of a piece in another show taking place downstairs
It was good to catch up with a few of the Outside In and Step Up cohorts. Massive respect to Brian Robert Gibson for putting us all on and bringing this all together. Unfortunately I received a sharp instant pain in my lower back while painting a skirting board earlier in that day and am trying to recover from it now. Hope to be back in action asap.
The show continues until June 10th, so go check out Bath and the Fringe festival in the next couple of weeks if you aren’t too far away. Weather has been pleasant, so perhaps check out the open air natural mineral spring water pool at the Bath spas.. I did, it wasn’t half bad.
Until next time…..
Carlo
Boy shows you his... Boy talks Boy travels Uncategorized: Beirut circumlocutions david siepert emi miyashita laura pharaon lebanon reid peppard robert storey Running Horse Contemporary Arts Space songs of ordinary madness talar aghbashian yijun liao youmna habbouche
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Songs of Ordinary Madness
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Beirut Blogtopus May 2012
Well, the Songs of Ordinary Madness opening night came and went, though seemed to sustain over a period of nights of further ordinary madness. Here are some photos from the show:
Show me another exhibition opening with a variety of edible treats and drinkable beverages. Various salamis, prosciutto, pickles, olives, walnuts, dried apricot, home made cake, stuff I don’t know the name for, etc…
A sizable wheel of cheese that came from Ghana…
So, the piece I had on show was one I made especially to fit the theme. I am pleased with my result and response to the theme and was aware it’s pretty much commercial suicide in terms of creating something salable as I can’t imagine there’ll be many people who want my face rotating on their wall, but anyhow.. it’s called ‘Circumlocutions’. As far as I recall, the initial e-mail asking if I wanted to participate suggested departing from the idea of looking at what inspires you from how others see you. Yeah, so my reaction was that it is impossible. It made me think of the self, and then of subjectivity and objectivity, and somewhat fell into territory I was familiar with. Through this channel though, I did realize that all the things I previously felt as self-analytical actually say more about us as humans in general, than they do about me, considering how I see myself isn’t really how I am, and how you see me isn’t how I am either, etc.. So, I went ahead and painted my first ever self portrait with a text that spirals out, focussing on the push and pull of things, cyclical nature, complicated ways to say something graspable in one simple feeling that I find difficult to translate into words, etc.. Circumlocutions..
See a video of it here.
The show also featured work by Talar Aghbashian who will be in town next week, Youmna Habbouche who had some nice shoes indeed, Yijun Liao who presented a nice ass, Emi Miyashita whom I’m a big fan of, Laura Pharaon who remains a mystery, David Siepert who cleverly melted some Swiss sweets into the shape of a bathtub, which is now melting in the gallery in the Lebanese heat, Reid Peppard who had fellow exhibitor Robert Storey bring a dead pigeon with him from London to Beirut. All in all, an eclectic bunch.
In other news…
I spent a day last week with 12 year old Makhlouf Chris-Roi at the Paradis d’Enfants school in Jounieh, Lebanon, in order to create an art work collaboratively, which will go to auction, with money raised going back into the school. I think it’s a great project and there are several artists around town teaming up with some of the students to create art in this program. Here is the painting Chris-Roi and I created…
That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon with some more fragments of news, observations, etc…
– Carlo
Boy talks Boy travels: Beirut big river man gerhard richter maki hachiya mannequins martin strel paed conca raed yassin Running Horse Contemporary Arts Space
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Perusing in the LBN
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Beirut, April-May 2012
I was going to post a large and potentially difficult to digest entry after the ‘Songs of Ordinary Madness’ exhibition opening on the 8th May but I decided to write a post pre-exhibition, with some photos of Beirut as I’ve been clicking the camera.
So…
In some areas, you do see buildings like this, reflecting remnants of war time.
As you can see, it will apparently re-open in 2013 as a museum of some sort. Seems optimistic. Stay tuned..
There are pretty flowers and wondrous trees growing around the place, which brightens things up a bit. The architecture is quite beautiful in general. Some from Ottoman times, and then there are some with French influence, from the time of the French mandate.
A curious window display is visible from the main highway that runs through Beirut, showing off what is described as the ‘Teenager 2012 Fiction Collection’. A multi-coloured assortment of naked mannequins are representatives of this collection.. of invisible clothes? Or, are they themselves the collection? Teenage mannequins? The collection is fictional; it doesn’t exist? Anyhow, I pass by this window everyday..
I was also humored by this incredible life size horse item with lamp built into its head, that I saw through the window of an interior design gallery, which was closed. I would have gone in otherwise and stroked the horse.
Last night I went and checked this out at the Django Pub near Gemmayze:
So, it was Maki Hachiya on vocals, in Japanese (I wonder what she was saying), and other uses of voice including grunts, sounds reminiscent of animal noises, and vocal exercises. Raed Yassin on double bass. Paed Conca on clarinet. Both playing with exquisite technique. An enjoyable evening. Maki Hachiya is doing another show in a few days, playing ‘experimental guitar’ at a place called Metro (I think) in Hamra. Might go check it out.
To my surprise, Gerhard Richter currently has a show on at the Beirut Art Center. I missed the opening night, and it turns out he was there and selling 60 signed copies of the exhibitions’ accompanying book. Would have liked to be within smelling distance and possibly got a photo with the guy. Oh well. This photo of me bumping heads with the mystical Slovenian endurance swimmer, Martin Strel from a couple years back will have to suffice. If you don’t own his dvd Big River Man, I urge you to check it out. It follows him as he swims the whole length of the Amazon river.
I’m feeling like a bit of an endurance blogger now. Are you still with me? Here’s me, starting to work on some large paintings at The Running Horse, who have provided me with space to work in during my stay.
The opening of the ‘Songs of Ordinary Madness’ exhibition is on the 8th May and the show runs til June 12th. I am bored of typing and hyperlinking now but here is the flyer with info regarding artists in the show etc…
I’m looking forward to the diverse range of creations, art and cocktail contraptions. I’ll post some photos after the opening.
Catch you next time then.. whoever you are.
– Carlo
The triple B spectrum
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Beirut – Bath – Barcelona
I am aware I’ve been awol but my pens, brushes, eyes and actions have been progressively traveling, forward and sideways. Some one-step-back, two-steps-forward action has also been in effect.
Just a short note to let observers know, that I will have a new painting, ‘Circumlocutions’ on display as part of the ‘Songs of Ordinary Madness’ exhibition in Beirut, Lebanon as of May 8th with the Running Horse Contemporary Arts Space. More info on this soon.
From May 25th, I will have two works on show in the Within Without You group as part of the Fringe Arts Bath festival. This is the guide for anyone in the vicinity who cares to explore. The show will be on for two weeks in Bath, UK.
It’s likely I will have a few prints on display in Barcelona, Spain as part of the Circus Terminal project, in association with Uncooked Culture. More news on this as I get it…
I promise to post some photos next time.
– Carlo
Boy talks: Alfred Tarazi Daniel Johnston Don Van Vliet Hans Feibusch Nick Blinko Palais de Tokyo Pat Douthwaite Rasha Kahil Running Horse Contemporary Arts Space Saatchi Online Slick Art Fair Step Up vagina Wesley Willis
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Eggsciting Occurrences
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Eggsciting Occurrences
Several eggs have hatched as of late.
Firstly, I have been running a few workshops for both Hans Feibusch Club and Step Up, both having taken place at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. It’s been great fun and I hope to do more workshops soon. The Feibusch workshops were based on my own design and we looked at the work of Nick Blinko, Wesley Willis, Daniel Johnston, and Don Van Vliet, exploring the relationship between visual art and music when existing within a single person, and the way subconsciously, or consciously, often similar processes are used through the different mediums, due to the characteristics in one’s personality. In the Step Up workshop, we looked at the work of Pat Douthwaite and spent the morning drawing and painting with our ‘alternate hands’ in order to free up and execute the work from a different place. It can be quite enjoyable. Try it if you wish..
The image below of Wesley Willis’s lyrics mirrors the structures of his songs, and the way his lyrics are written also reflect his systematic drawing style. An example of how process is similarly applied throughout his output.
In other news, I seem to have found myself absorbed into a form of popularity contest. I first entered the Saatchi Online Showdown competition back in 2007 and realized that unless I was going to fully campaign to get all sorts of people to vote for me, there was no chance of ‘winning’. I think what happened this time was the competition is solely based on drawings and upon seeing this, for whatever reason I felt like entering a drawing in a momentarily passive state of activity. I didn’t look back at it until it came to my attention via email again a couple of weeks later, and I was made aware that I was in 364th place of 1200. Also, I discovered the top 300 make it to the next phase of voting, the jury vote. So I had a sort of incentive to apply further effort, having achieved this placement without telling a single soul about it, getting only votes from random people on the site thus far. The result of my asking for votes, and actually enjoyably connecting with people I may not correspond with often and having this little reason to underlying, was my floating between 128-270, which has been fluctuating quite dramatically, but remaining in the top 300. This public voting phase ends tomorrow sometime, so if anyone is reading this and hasn’t voted and would care to, please click here It’s my little over-loaded man again.
Lastly, but certainly not least, some of my work will be shown with the Running Horse Contemporary Arts Space at stand G3 alongside works by Rasha Kahil, Hiba Kalache and Alfred Tarazi from October 20 -23rd at the Slick 11 art fair taking place at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. I wonder how much has changed since I was last there as a pre-pubescent. I will find out and try to work through my more than ambitious list of places to go in the little time I have there. Private view is tomorrow (18th Oct) and I guess the 19th might be open to some people too somehow.
That’s all for now.. I will leave you with this little vagina I painted a month or so ago, come in if you wish. haw haw haw.
Boy talks: Henry Boxer Gallery Nick Blinko Outsider Art Pallant House Gallery Rudimentary Peni
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Nick Blinko exhibition…
Nick Blinko is one of my favourite living British artists and so I feel quite privileged to have written an article about him alongside the interview Marc Steene conducted in the latest issue of Pallant House Gallery magazine. This article was published to accommodate Blinko’s first ever solo exhibition (though he has been drawing for over 3 decades) ‘Visions of Pope Adrian 37th’, which is currently on at Pallant House in Chichester, UK. The exhibition is free and if you are intrigued but feel you are based slightly too far away, you can make a day of it and pop into the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition also currently showing there. I went along to the joint opening night private view and was blown away by the potency of both shows. It was also great to meet Nick Blinko after having appreciated his work for over a decade. Also coinciding with the show is a very nicely put together book of Blinko drawings, with each drawing published at the original A5 size and in the order that they were produced. Find out about the two editions here.
I first discovered Nick Blinko through hearing his band Rudimentary Peni.. He was/is the singer/guitarist and it’s pretty potent stuff.. check it out also..
Diary entries…
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I am making some diary entries…
Here is a complete diary document from last year, click on it to read..
Boy talks Uncategorized: Impact Art Fair James Lake Neal Pearce Nick Blinko Outside In Pallant House Gallery
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Outside In
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Writing About Writing…
So, I was ambassadoring (not a real word, apparently) for Outside In at the Impact Art Fair today. I got to sit beside a lovely Scottie Wilson painting of some fishies, and talk to people about the Outside In project and how thankful I am to have been involved thus far on several levels. To my surprise, among the many flyers and information sheets about Outside In that we had to give out today, was the latest edition of the Pallant Press, which contains an article I wrote when I was asked to select three Outside In artists in order to ‘curate’ an article accompanied by their images. I chose Nick Blinko, James Lake, and Neal Pearce. To see their work, click on the names in the previous sentence. Read my article here. Another pleasant surprise was that Neal Pearce actually had his own stand at the fair, so I got to meet the man and check out all the work he brought along with him.
A page from Neal Pearce’s Infinite Codex.
- Neal Pearce – Infinite Codex, book 12, page 55
Boy in Beirut
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When the Roof Touches the Floor…
Well, the opening of Desires, Nightmares, and Dreams II took place at The Running Horse Arts Space in Beirut last Monday, and as expected it was an enjoyable affair.
With limited access to internet and fragmented time allocation, I failed to post anything while in Beirut, but I had a dimensional experience as expected. Unfortunately the battery on my ‘less than impressive but functional none the less’ camera didn’t have much life and the only thing I forgot in London was the charger, so I don’t really have any interesting photographic evidence to post.
The food in Beirut is exceptional. I eat more here because of it. Notably, my favourite fruit ever, Pomelo, exists here. Sadly it was out of season but this didn’t stop me from eating a fair amount of Pomelo during my stay.
My guess would be that maybe 67% of cars in Lebanon have dents and scratches. In fact, driving through town one day, there was a car in the other lane that was almost cut in two straight down the middle, with the middle point of the roof smashed down so that it is touching the floor. How this can happen while a car is driving, I do not know, but more surprising is that there wasn’t a chain reaction of affected vehicles during this accident.
The opening of Desires, Nightmares and Dreams II was enjoyable and I was the victim of two interviews. One was with a young lady reporting for either 1) A feminist magazine 2) A magazine called Femme 3) A magazine called Fame. I’m undertaking the detective work to find out which of these is accurate. The other interview was with a young lady who I believe was visiting from France and I still don’t quite know what she was doing in Beirut but she said she’d found out about the exhibition and whilst there decided it might be interesting to document it for her video-something-rather. Who knows!?
The feedback from the show was positive and there have been some interesting results. I just may be selling my largest and arguably most valuable piece. I really enjoyed showing alongside Emi Miyashita, Aaron Johnson, David Siepert, and target=”_blank”>Greely Myatt‘s works. I am especially fond of Emi’s work and own a couple of her drawings myself. Aaron Johnson’s stuff is fun too.. Click on their names in the previous sentence to check them out, if you so desire.
I’ve brought back a few Giclée prints from the ever so limited edition of the drawing ‘Over-Load‘ which was in the show. These are for sale at £45.00 each or the equivalent in whatever currency you use, reader. Shipping will depend on where you are located. They are printed in K3 ink on 310g Hahnemuhle Photorag archival paper and are signed and numbered in pencil. Image size: 29.7 x 21 cm, Paper size: 40 x 30 cm. There were only 15 of these made and so don’t ponder on it too long if you think you might really want one!
Lastly, there was quite an enthusiastic Spanish girl interested in ‘found art’ at the opening to whom I recommended the three part documentary Journeys Into the Outside. Spanish girl, if you are reading this, I am aware that it’s quite difficult to find any copies of this documentary. I have it on my computer and can send it to you if you like, so let me know. I’m sure you’d be really into it.
Carlo