scatterdrum

Last night I joined a sell-out crowd for an early peek at Mike Leigh’s latest film “Happy-Go-Lucky” at the Cornerhouse in Manchester. Not only that, the director himself sauntered into the bar prior to kick-off and in his softly spoken way chatted freely with anyone who wished to say hello. A rumoured appearance by Ken Loach never materialised (though he is in the area shooting his latest film) but we were treated to a surprise guest in the form of one of the cast namely Kate O’Flynn.

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.