Friday 12th October: Absolut PSM for London Cocktail Week - Work In Progress

Absolut chose the nation's new favourite cocktail as inspiration for their presence at London Cocktail Week with their "Porn Star Martini Townhouse".  The immersive experience took each ingredient as an element to interpret across four floors of a beautiful Victorian building in Soho. I was brought on board to add my vision to the third floor for the zingy centre of the Porn Star Martini in a Passion Fruit Kaleidoscope. The multi-sensory journey through the townhouse brought to life the tastes, aromas and sensations of the cocktail which also includes Vanilla and Champagne.  The final stop on the top floor of the house was an Absolut Vanilla Bar, where visitors were given the opportunity to take part in a mixologist master-class.  The brand ambassador taught you how to make your own martini to finally taste all the flavours in the aromatic drink.

Here are shots from my initial development working with set builders "Scene 2" who helped convert by origami maquette into the final geodesic dome.  I really like these shots to see the complete construction of the semisphere that we built to represent the passion fruit.  This was concealed in the final installation as the experience was the inside world of the fractal form.  Here you could lay down on a soft undulating floor (the seeds) to look up at your reflection in a spinning kaleidoscope.  Part of the panelling was made from my favourite iridescent perspex which glowed a petroleum pink / purple / gold hue to perfectly echo the passion fruit colour palette.  Here are the plastic samples and tests where we tried out different foils.  These were also used in miniature icosahedrons hanging in the space as nectar pods to hold passion fruit marshmallows as the taste aspect of the immersive experience. 

(bottom two photos sourced from Scene 2)

Wednesday 19th September: Zandra Rhodes LFW SS19 “Looking Back, Looking Forward”

Zandra Rhodes “Looking Back, Looking Forward” at LFW for Spring Summer 2019, presented with jewellery by Andrew Logan

The title is an indication of Zandra's upcoming 50 year anniversary!  The collection has taken this theme by referencing her extensive back catalogue, incorporating prints and colours from 1969 to the present day.  Patterns such as her signature "Cacti, Frills, Punk and Wiggles" have been revisited and screen- printed by hand at her London atelier.  She has kept every single screen so here the racks are a real archive of her artwork which can automatically be re-visited.  These soft chiffons feature alongside her other trademark style of structural pleated metallics, my absolute favourite.  Total dream.    

Help fund the feature documentary "Zandra With A Zee" exploring the life & art of one of Britain's most iconic designers on the run up to this Jubilee Anniversary. Head over to the crowdfunding page to pledge here.

Tuesday 28th August: Carnival Hair by Tracy Hayes and Charz Couture

Ready for de road!  Maximum colours mixed for Notting Hill Carnival.  Thanks again to Tracy Hayes, the cosmic colour mixologist at Fudge Hair using "Paintbox" dyes for my fresh Rainbow hair.  You can see here how she sectioned a spectrum swirl to then dye a gradient with five different shades across the rainbow.  These layers were then given full visibility when Charz Couture plaited four separate braids to reveal the ombre tones and finished it off with a sprinkle of glitter for shimmer.  This is most definitely the best hairstyle I have ever had.  I couldn't be happier on the best weekend of the year to have the most intergalactic hair to enjoy it!  Incredible!

Friday 24th August: ANTHEA HAMILTON "THE SQUASH"

Anthea Hamilton's "THE SQUASH" sculpture and performance piece at Tate Britain until October 8th.

See archive posts on Anthea here and here.

Wednesday 15th August: Lizzie King studio visit

Since her book on the art of tie-dye, Lizzie King has become the authority on the multicolour fabric craft.  That, coupled with her love of Carnival has the combined credentials to make her the absolute expert on making tie-dye accessories for Notting Hill Carnival! Lizzie takes her workshops from schools to NIKE events for Pride to Music Festivals and beyond.  Now you can brighten up your wardrobe ready to Fete at her session at 3rd Rail Print Space where you'll be printing your own t-shirts in addition to learning the dye process.

Book a space for next Thursday here.

See her archive tie-dye posts here , here and here.  

See her archive Carnival posts here and here.

Wednesday 15th August: The Influence Project at Somerset House

I don't really like just posting my shots of photographs but I had to share this exhibition as it's such a great one to visit.  The East Wing of Somerset House has been filled with a myriad of portraits - all of legendary, incredible musicians and all totally new images.  Usually when you see this many iconic artists in one exhibition it will be of existing historical images but "The Influence Project" is all recent work by photographer Alexis Chabala and Curator Lorayne Crawford.  The duo have pulled together their personal favourite pioneers of R&B, Funk, Soul, Afrobeat and Hip Hop from Leon Ware and Roy Ayers to Chuck D and KRS-ONE.  Here are just a few of the stand-out sittings that I particularly loved including Erykah Badu, Anderson Paak, George Clinton, Sean Kuti, Tony Allen, Femi Kuti, Jazzie B, Thundercat and Jorja Smith.  Go and take a tour through time with a complete cross-section of International characters, mostly all captured in London!

Monday 13th August: Boiler Room's "System" at Somerset House

It's August, and that spells only one thing for me = Carnival! Specifically Notting Hill Carnival!

This year I began celebrations with Boiler Room at Somerset House, where they have partnered with musician / performance artist Gaika who is a resident artist in the studios initiative. Gaika has created an interactive soundsystem installation using historical audio and visual archive footage of the Caribbean and Notting Hill Carnival. This material spans times and settings which he has sourced from the Black Cultural Archives, the BFI and Boiler Room's own recent recordings.  The month long project coincides with Carnival and the 70 year Windrush Anniversary to celebrate the positive cultural impact of migration in London and the UK. This explores themes from creative expression to the more political aspects such as repercussions of the riots tied up in the roots of Notting Hill's own sound system culture.  

Gaika's own father was part of a soundsystem so the project has come from a very personal place to share the love for his heritage.  Carnival is integral to Caribbean identity in the UK and within that, soundsytems act as an extension of that voice. He has used this notion to demonstrate respect in the technical prowess of how the immense engineering has been built and developed.  England didn't have venues to host the music, so they took ownership of their own space by setting up the sounds to share.  At Carnival the soundsystems are literally termed "Static" which also alludes to their sheer physicality in being big imposing structures.  They are defiant, combative, menacing, like strategic warfare defence - all to command space.  

The design of his own interpretation on the stacks is constructed from scaffolding to mimic the Ghost Houses of Jamaica that are a result of generations changing hands and countries.  It's important to Gaika to make work that emphasises his own sense of place for many different related themes from ancestry that has been moved to the fact that his studio residency is inside an institution built from funds linked to slavery.  That's why it was fundamentally important to him to shake up the surroundings..........  to bring in Aba Shanti for a night to reverberate tremors enough to disturb the masonry.  To literally displace and conversely invite a new context and community into the space.  

To echo the chaos and spontaneity of Carnival, the sculpture is fully interactive for visitors to take over SYSTEM through an audio input jack. Once plugged in, the installation will be fully responsive to the beat with changing images and video. A webcam fitted at the installation will stream live on https://boilerroom.tv/ throughout SYSTEM's duration at Somerset House Studios.  In addition there is also a schedule of live events as mentioned, with a different headliner curating a night each week.  I went down to the opening with DJ Judah's roster representing UKG and Jungle with a sprinkling of Soca and Afrobeats.  Last week was the classic Dub takeover of Carnival stalwarts Abi Shanti and this week will be BBZ's takeover focusing on the marginalised LGBTQI+ POC collectives who are traditionally left out of Carnival celebrations.

There's so much going on with these Summer parties twice a week and talks and events around the installation, be sure to check out the listings here.

Tuesday 7th August: "True Colours" at Newport Street Gallery

"True Colours" is the new group show at Newport Street Gallery with three female artists exploring bold colour in painting including Boo Saville‘s gradients "Colour Fields" , Helen Beard and Sadie Laska.  Heaven for a colour hunter like me!