Wednesday 19th July: Africa Utopia at The Southbank Centre

Africa Utopia is a free annual festival celebrating the arts and culture from the African Diaspora at The Southbank Centre.  There is a market of independent traders with a whole range of products from Kente textiles to Shea butter cosmetics, beaded jewellry, letter-press prints, photography and books.  There was a fashion show of new emerging designers and block party of music and live performances on the embankment stage till the end of the day.  The final song to be played out was by Fela Kuti which was a perfect soundtrack for our dancing feet in Fela socks!!!!

See archive Africa Utopia posts here and here.

See Phoebe Boswell 's 'Duniake' cushion fabric in an archive post here.

Friday 14th July: "WALALA X PLAY" at NOW Gallery

If you go down to the Greenwich Peninsula today, you're in for a big surprise!  Camille Walala has turned NOW Gallery into her own version of a funfair playground.  The installation of patterned and reflective walls take you on a journey through colour with intersections conjuring up different combinations of line and shape.  The theme for her "temple of wonder" is to play.   She's inviting the audience into a 3D world of her 2D murals so they can become lost in the twists and turns of the Memphis style maze.  

For the opening night we were given allotted times to venture into the tardis to run round and out again so that everyone could have a turn.  This added to the frenzied fun of getting lost and confusion in the mirrored surfaces merging the graphics as optical illusions.  I joked that it might be like a sportive where a sweeper truck would appear to clear us up.  Sure enough the invigilators had the impossible task of peeling people out of their selfie modes and move them on.   Im looking forward to returning for the complete submersion experience and also play on the ping pong tables she's positioned outside.  How French!  How Camille!  The perfect opening for Bastille Day! 

14 Jul - 24 Sep 2017

NOW Gallery, Peninsula Square, Greenwich Peninsula, SE10 0SQ

Thursday 13th July: Lakwena's "The Future's Gold" at KKOutlet

Thanks to Magda Kagwa for these photos from Lakwena's preview at KKOutlet for her new show "The Future's Gold". I CANNOT wait to get there myself to see the joyous work that connects the floor to the walls and the list of works displayed.

It's full circle with my book that is stocked in their shop and features the gallery, whilst the cover is shot infront of Lakwena's mural at FRAME around the corner!  Totally cosmic!!

Wednesday 28th June: Paintbox Hair Dyes at Fudge

Here is my latest rainbow wave hair thanks to Tracy Hayes at Fudge using their Paintbox hair dyes.  We are creating a hidden spectrum under my blonde so I have a blank canvas to start afresh each time.  The colour is revealed when I wear it up as you can see in the still from my "Bun Drop" movie clip above.  Head over to my Running Rainbow blog for how it looked braided from my weekend at Be:FIT Festival here.

Tuesday 27th June: Royal College Of Art MA Shows

Congratulations to this year's graduates from the Royal College of Art who just presented their final static show, including the textile students who I recently visited for tutorials.  My favourite was Lok Ka Kong who weaves recycled waste material to make these cosmic plant pot solutions called "Turn Trash into Treasure"(top photo).  

Other works here include Pratik Ghosh's plant air purifiers, Emma McCusker's mixed media textile sculptures,  Kyungmin Han's Colour Toolkit for VR, Pasquale Totaro's pyramid synth, Nathan Webb's solar panel pattern blinds, Monika Haeussler-Goeschl's knitted installation and Jacob Patterson's knitted socks!

Monday 26th June: Francis Kéré's Serpentine pavilion

 

Francis Kéré's beautiful Serpentine pavilion for 2017