scatterdrum

Way back, on a cold January evening, I went along to the Bloomberg newcontemporaries 2007 exhibition at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, UK. The exhibition took up every bit of available space in all their galleries and even the stairwells. It is primarily a showcase for young UK artists to display their work and those chosen must be final year undergraduates or current postgraduates from UK colleges. As you can imagine there was a massive array of styles, medium and standards on show. Two artist’s work stood out for me:-

This is probably my favourite shot “Koryo Hotel” from his series of 28 images, which was also made into a limited edition book published by Chris Boot. I find the colours, mood and composition utterly beautiful and transfixing. Tremendously memorable. Charlie has already won many awards and is probably familiar to many of you already, he lives and works in London, UK and his homesite is here.

The second talented artist I wanted to mention is Laurie Hill who had an animated story “My First Taste of Death” on show. In her own words it deals with … “The tormented offspring of half-remembered Hollywood adventure movies with a sting in its tail. Me and the boss discover Dodo island, I face a deadly struggle with my nemesis the demented sea scorpion and destruction looms when the terrible TRUTH is revealed.” It blends wonderful flowing animation and a strong narrative with a real feel for childhood imagination and wonder.

I have searched high and low for a stream of the animated piece shown at the gallery but I am afraid the best I came up with is these stills. Hopefully you can get a sense of the craft and individuality of the piece from the images but for the full effect I guess you must just see if you are lucky and can catch the work as it pops up around the world. At the moment it is showing as part of the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, USA. It has already been to London (UK), Utah (USA) and Manchester (UK). Check out here for further up to date listings and information on the director.

From summer 2005 to summer 2006 I was lucky enough to take time out of normal life and drift around New Zealand by bike. Near the end of my trip I stayed with a good friend of mine in Wellington and went to the City Art Gallery to see a quite amazing exhibition of work by Patricia Piccinini.

She is a challenging contemporary artist now living in Australia (originally Sierra Leone) who works in mixed media formats. Her combination of futuristic creatures with human characteristics proved a real winner for me, it must have made quite an impression as I found myself thinking about her work when I had a moment to switch off yesterday. She makes us think about humanity, mutation, evolution and genetic modification. Her work is designed to be deceptively unsettling toying with reality and invention.

If you haven’t heard of her or seen any of her work then take a minute to have a look, not everyone’s cup of tea of course but it certainly couldn’t be described as boring. This is her home site : www.patriciapiccinini.net and the exhibition I saw is archived here : www.citygallery.org.nz/mainsite/patricia-piccinini-in-another-life.html

I am intrigued by the work created by Patrick Blanc a french botanist and artist. We know all too well the huge need for green spaces especially in urban environments, he has a fantastic solution - Vertical Gardens www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com

He is based in Paris, certainly a city with many beautiful squares and buildings, but it is a geographical area with little room for expansion. There is very little opportunity for the creation of new open spaces or parks when demand for housing is so huge. However, where there is a blank building wall he sees an opportunity. He fixes a solid frame onto the wall and, by allowing water to trickle down, it provides soil-free habitats for various plants which in turn can provide a home for all manner of lifeforms from birds to frogs. The Garden can be inside or out and plant species are chosen to suit the climatic conditions.

Mr Blanc began his botanical experiments in his own home and now he works on commissions all over the world with projects ongoing in China, Spain and his native France. His first UK commissions are Leamouth Peninsula a docklands regeneration scheme ongoing in 2008 and the Pacha Club, Kings Cross, London. Due to the density of the growth there is no need for weeding, so over time they develop from a two dimensional design to a 3D living work of art and each project is protected by copyright. He has a book “The Vertical Garden: In Nature and the City”

Postcript to this article.  Click here for latest news on the Pacha Club, London commission.