Tues 31st May: Arnhem Mode Biennale - "Elements" - Bless

Its always a joy to see the work of Bless in different settings and scenarios. At this years Arnhem Mode Biennale they have taken advantage of the large expanse offered to utilise in free reign for an installation. Initially Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag wanted to implement their surreal interior design by creating a labyrinth of string. Experiments were made working with twine but unfortunately the fire risk meant the Health & Safety regulations put a stop to developing this concept. But the limitation was turned into advantage when they discovered a Spanish manufacturer to collaborate with on recreating the illusion in metal. Links are put together by hand to construct chain curtains which meant pixelated images could be recreated in enameled links. Inbetween the hanging hardware images nestle a mix of their integrated and morphed mechanics e.g a vacuum cleaner table or saddle chair. The best part is a car clad in a camel leather outer covering, sewn in panels to replicate the fixtures and fittings of the chassis. Inside the hard looking shell is bouncy foam from a sofa so perhaps its function could end up as a large bean bag to crash out on ..........

Tues 31st May: Arnhem Mode Biennale 2011 - RA "The Sugar House"

I have come to Arnhem for the Mode Biennale 2011 entitled "Amber" = A for Arnhem, M for Mode, B for Biennale..........
The last time I came to visit ThreeASFOUR exhibiting here was in 2007, when I covered the event in real time as a contributing journal for SHOWstudio, which you can view here.
Today started with a sneak peak and explanation as part of the press tour from curator Joff .........all of which will be unveiled officially at the opening night tomorrow. Celebrations kicked off around town this evening with Antwerp's initiative RA who took over the Biennale offices to hold a one off pop-op up installation for a select crew of the designers they represent. Here are images of Narelle Dore's purple crystals, Elise Gettliffe & Fahd El Jaoudi's foam flowers and leather patchwork back-pack and Romain Brau's Mermaid............... a little collective taste of what more lies in store for the rest of the month long festival.

See the full line up of exhibitors for this years Biennale here.

Mon 30th May: Alex Noble and I Guest Edit Swatch MTV Playground

Playground 11 - Guest Editor - Fred Buter - Ambition and Advice - GB from Swatch MTV Playground on Vimeo.

Playground 11 - Guest Editor - Fred Butler - Collaborations - GB from Swatch MTV Playground on Vimeo.

Playground 2011 - Guest Editor - Alex Noble - Ambition - TR from Swatch MTV Playground on Vimeo.

Whilst Alex and I are guest editing the blog over on Swatch MTV Playground they are editing bite size snippets of our interviews into subjects. Here are a couple I have selected that I think are the best............. especially Alex's fantastic story about Lady Gaga. To see more head over to the site.

Sunday 29th May: Burger Queen Beauty Contest

Scottee held a little soiree in Soho to announce his new project "Burger Queen" at a reception complete with glittery burger cupcakes. The idea behind the competetion is a spectacle to celebrate diverse personal beauty in protest to the promoted encouragement of adapting to "accepted" ideals in current media. Instead of staying in to watch "Supersize vs. Superskinny" use your precious time to better effect and get down to The Royal Vauxhall Tavern for a much more enriching and fun experience. Better still, why not enter the competition to impress an array of judges with your fashion, culinary and talent skills in order to take home the £100 prize and crown of Burger Queen 2011.

The doors open for the first heat this Wednesday with resident judge Amy Lamé (seen here) joined by a stellar lineup of famous faces......... concluding with an incredible crew of judges for the final including Paloma Faith and Lisa Stansfield.
Tickets are £6 or £9.99 with burger & chips or £19.99 if you fancy attending all four shows. For dessert Scottee will be showing a video diary documenting his weekly self inflicted fad diets running in conjunction with the contest. This week's film follows a cabbage soup diet........ good luck Scottee, I think I'll stick with Sue Tilley's homemade burger cupcakes.........

1st June - Heat 1, 8th June- Heat 2, 15th June- Heat 3, 22nd June- Final
RVT, 372 Kennington Lane, SE11
Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm

Sat May 28th: Gwilym Gold's Flesh Freeze

Gwilym Gold Bronze Preview from Gwilym Gold on Vimeo.

I have a funny relationship with new music when I first acquire it - I kind of don't want to listen to it just as much as I cant wait. I know that the first few listens of the unheard material will never sound the same again once I'm familiar with it. The magic of the unknown discovery can only be experienced a few times before its ruined and you can never go back.......... OR can you?! ..........
........In this instance, the shortfall has been addressed by a musician (Gwilym), producer (Lexxx) and scientist (Mick Grierson) who have invented a format for a song to never sound the same twice - "Bronze". Gwilym Gold's solo single "Flesh Freeze" streams thru this software to reconfigure the tune on every play resulting in the lyrics and notes falling in a forever shifting melodic mesh. It will literally be impossible to make the classic mistake of playing a song to death.
I went to see Gwilym perform his new psychedelic repertoire which wafted over me like Aslan's comforting breath and left me feeling distinctly woozy-doozy. The gig was a fascinating format with the crowd very still, silent and transfixed on watching a close-eyed Gwilym play one celestial strain to the next. He was joined on stage by Dave (Invisible 3) who added layers of guitar effects over his samples and keys. The audience comprised of a healthy dose of supporters from Gwilym's London contemporaries of fellow musicians who have all risen through the years of the Golden Silvers clubnight showcase "Bronze Club". Its occasions like this when creatives congregate together to witness something of significance ......... you know its going to fly............

To find out more, I checked in with Gwilym's visual collaborator Colin Henderson to find out about the identity for the new venture.........

"The artwork is presented in a very different way to the traditional notions of album / single artwork. Gwilym and Lexxx have created a piece of software where the song is presented in its own standalone player, so it was about integrating the design and artwork into this.

Here is a snapshot of the player, with Gwilym's logo and also the 'symbol' for the single - which acts as the artwork."


To download "Flesh Freeze" for yourself head over to gwilymgold.com and to witness the live performance, he is playing How The Light Gets In tonight.
To read past posts on Colin's work for Golden Silvers click here.

(Thanks to Anna for the portrait of Gwilym from Tues night at The Shacklewell Arms)

Fri 27th May: Bethan Wood

Always an absolute delight to see Bethan Wood and her riot of colour and wonder. A rainbow llama wool boa and big Bakelite ball bearing earrings were my favourite element to the fantastic and intricately put together attire yesterday.

Thurs 26th May: Quentin Jones vs. CHANEL for Vogue

Quite a few bits of news from Quentin Jones HQ ........... first - the Chanel fashion film commissioned by Vogue has launched, secondly her 2nd animation for CHANEL MAKEUP CONFIDENTIAL has landed and thirdly (as all the best things come in threes)....... Quentin has just joined the home of HALL to sit alongside Juergen Teller, Katie Hillier and Fergus Henderson.
Quentin's painstaking and luminous animation skills were sparked off with a set of props and a ballet dancer to model and literally animate the Chanel garments for this Vogue.TV exclusive. Agata Belcan styled the Spring/Summer 11 collection mixed with a complimentary injection of sportswear, knitwear by Craig Lawrence and a couple of my archive pieces which you can see envelope a 2.55 in the frames. The twinkling firework lights and mirroring movements of Ruby Chadwick's delicate dancer's frame are highlighted with Peter Duffy's "musical box" sound design.

To keep up to date with Quentin's moving image and illustration see her site and see her latest press on German vogue here.

You can see behind the scenes / on set photos from my previous blog post about the making of the film here.

Weds 25th May: 5th Anniversary of Estethica with Dr.NOKI's NHS

Last evening The British Fashion Council celebrated the 5th birthday of its sustainable initiative Estethica with presentations from a few of the designers selected to show next season. Here are images of Dr.NOKI's NHS installation ............... and the birthday cakes served for the party!

Tues 24th May: Independent Label Market with House Anxiety Records

On Saturday, Soho's infamous Berwick Street Market had something a little tastier to the normal apples and pears of the daily fruit and veg stalls ............. in the form of sweets and sounds being sold as part of "Independent Label Market". For the first time the country's small enterprises rallied together to celebrate their passion by trading wares direct to their keen customers. A myriad of music buffs from Moshi Moshi to Merok dug deep into their limited edition archives for special offers to be snapped up on Saturday - such as House Anxiety's last copy of The Big Pink’s debut single. Here is Jaimie Hodgson of House Anxiety snapped by Victoria Hesketh (a.k.a Little Boots) who had lovingly baked these little cupcakes and Oreo brownies specially for the stand. Thanks to Victoria for sharing her photos from the day - here we can also see Kate who runs the sister label Roundtable Records and Joe from Angular Records who helped organise the whole event.
In addition to the vegetable market, fabric shop and sex shop heritage of Berwick Street, it was also a major destination for independent record shops in the 90's. I remember Saturday's spent "up west" with my sister, visiting "Mr. CD" to purchase the latest releases. Disappointingly the number of shops has dwindled with dawn of digital downloads, so the aim of the event was to bring back a bit of the original old-school excitement in to the local trading community. With the support from Westminster Council to provide the space and opportunity for 17 of Europe's leading independent labels to host the event, hopefully it will become a regular feature. With the likes of Steve Mackey and Jarvis Cocker manning the decks on the Rough Trade soundsystem and punters for the punnets of tunes including Bernard Butler and Steve Lamacq - I'm sure the success will prompt a follow up next year!

Thanks to Victoria for her photos from the day.

Monday 23rd May: Diane Pernet's “Inspirational Gallery” of jewellery designers at Vicenzaoro

Incandescent Meta-morph-incessant Fred Butler A/W 2011 directed by Elisha Smith-Leverock from Elisha Smith-Leverock on Vimeo.

Diane Pernet was asked to curate a selection of seven jewellery designers who communicate their brand through film for a show as part of the Gold Fair "Vicenaoro" in Venice. Diane asked Elisha to use our "Incandescent Meta Morph Incessant" film s part of the programme alongside work of Jordan Askill, Mario Salvucci, Heaven Tanudiredja, Jules Kim, Vernissage Project (Ilenia Corti and Matteo Mena) and Arielle De Pinto.
Here is a still of our film being projected in an open-air screening which complemented an exhibition of the designer's accessories called the “inspirational gallery”. Head over to Diane's site to see photos from her trip and the fair .......
Diane's pioneering Fashion Film Festival ASVOFF is currently open for submissions to be part of the 4th year's schedule launching in Fall 2011 .......... click here for submission details.

Sun 22 May: Diesel School of Island Life - Customisation Class with Fred Butler & Katie Eary - hosted by i-D

On Thursday evening Katie Eary and I held our customisation class put on for the public to attend and hosted by i-D Magazine. The perfect number of punters turned up to get stuck in and have fun making something they could take away at the end of the night. Katie and I spent the afternoon prepping and conjuring up a demonstration piece as guidance for what skills we would be sharing (then awarded as a prize at the end). I bought some paper flowers from previous jobs as reference and guided my class step by step how to interpret the styles for their own Island theme headdress. Katie rigged up a row of heat presses and helped her group turn their jeans into shiny animal patterned artworks......... the whole thing was great success so I'm looking forward to seeing which festivals these bits and pieces turn up at.........

You can read reviews on saveourshoes and AlexLoves (snapped here)
(Final photo here of Sarah Duncan wearing the winning piece, taken from her Twitter.)