please mr. britto won't you paint our portrait?

tuesday last saw the opening of pop artist romero britto’s royal portrait series,  at the imitate modern gallery in marylebone- and what a splendid soiree it was!

more synonymous with painting the kings and queens of pop, from  michael jackson to  madonna, britto  has now turned his pop art eye to the duke and duchess of cambridge. the three-part exhibition features four original oil-on-canvas royal portraits as well as a further series of numbered, limited edition prints and other collectibles including mixed media, fine art and sculptures.

the renowned brazilian born, miami based artist, is himself a modern day pop culture icon and has established himself as one of the leading pop culture artists of our time; counting elton john, bill clinton, madonna and prince charles as collectors. which is incredible, when you consider that he went from being a self-taught artist painting on newspaper, to sharing accolades with andy warhol and keith haring.

the trouble with private art viewings however,  is what with  the prosecco pouring aplenty, as you study each painting, your nose a little too near, you feel elated and enlightened and think, “hey, he missed a bit” and reach for your liquid eye liner. on this occasion however, we resisted. mostly, because britto himself was behind us, but also because  there is a sort of seamless perfection to britto’s work. his vibrant pieces are fun, fluid and dreamy-like an lsd trip through the land of love.

on  painting the royal portraits, romero commented "it was wonderful to create their portrait. i just adore their love story and what they represent for all of us…love, longevity and history”. try as we might, we didn’t quite convince britto to forever capture us on canvas, but hey, i guess for us lowly commoners that's what crap family holidays in the south of france are for...

To find out more visit: www.imitatemordern.com or  www.britto.com

[aine herlihy]

fashion news flash: in which kendal boyle talks large endowments

the poxymash office is buzzing on young guns recently, and as of a couple of days ago, there is one young gun in particular who is literally loaded, courtesy of the cfda/vogue fashion fund. This award is definitely on every up and coming designer’s wish list: not only does its panel include anna wintour, but the prize is an outstanding $300,000. this year’s winner is bryant park favourite joseph altuzarra, who has previously worked as design assistant to marc jacobs and riccardo tisci at givenchy (that's a right of passage if ever I saw one).

in 2009, altuzarra made the wise decision to branch out on his own, a task which has now been made infinitely less stressful with the help of the cfda. previous winners of this prestigious award include alexander wang, prabal gurung and derek lam, so it’s fair to say altuzarra is in the best of company. his s/s12 collection encompasses all of my summer beloveds: leather and lots of black and vibrant prints, which we will no doubt soon see on the pages of vogue... or even better: on anna wintour’s back.

condolences to pamela love who also would have been a much deserved winner; if I had altuzarra’s winnings, you can bet my jewellery box would be feeling the love.

[kendal boyle]

[image: style.com]

'the illusion of illusion'

think:  ‘it's a wonderful life’ meets ‘the tenant’

harvey bumblege was the world's most powerful media mogul, but was he happy? after yet another day of throwing out the facts, reinforcing prejudices, and hammering another nail into the definition of 'information', he lost his grip on what was valuable in life... “is this all there is?” he implored his $2 million dollar granite desk.  once upon a time, he truly believed that preposterous wealth and influence would mean he could live up to his boyhood dreams, going into space, time travel but no... that night he threw himself from the top of his skyscraper and hit the ground, dying instantly and bruising the kerb as he did so.

but harvey was brought back ham dowager, his guardian angel."take my hand" he asked "and i'll show you the world without you".  through the grace of a loving god, harvey is given a unique perspective on the world we live in, a world in which he never existed.  his newspapers and channels didn't swallow up the money and influence that crushed lesser publications, where he did not systematically reduce every facet of life into the lowest common denominator, where his newspapers did not solely report on celebrity scandals, folk devils, and fake tits... as harvey looked over this world without him he cried with anguish... for this world was really no different to the one he thought he’d created.  there were still tits, there were still celebrity scandals, and there was still a huge corporate entity that dumbed the world down to the lowest common denominator... it just wasn't harvey's corporation.  harvey realized he made absolutely no difference to the world, even if he'd never existed there was always going to be another corporate, self-interested piece of shit who was going to do it.  he wept bitter tears as ham tried to console him by informing him that “at least they haven't switched to 3-d yet".

STUDIO VERDICT:

PASS

NOTES:

we’re not convinced we like the arc of the main character.  by showing someone a world where they do not exist and concluding that they never existed anyway does not quite have the ‘feel-good’ factor we want to convey right now.   we are far more interested in marrying the markets of ‘bruce almighty’ and ‘transformers’, where god is a robot (hmm this needs development).

we don’t like having a character named ‘ham’, its just wrong.

we like the fact that in the story-world they haven’t switched to 3-d… this means we could shoot the picture in 3-d and it would provide the audience with a sense of fulfilment that they live in a world with 3-d.

the title is confusing, and from repeated pronouncing of the title we have established that it confuses further and highlights political topics that are ‘sensitive’.  eg: fallujah. 

where is the love interest?  currently we are looking to re-launch the career of eva longoria and the only character we can see available for her is ham… none of us see eva longoria as ham.

[illustration: joel macpherson]

[dal whittaker and francisco silva]

look at this rad thing we found # 4

deborah tchoudjinoff kind of melted our minds when she told us of her innovative silicone vase creations. the silicone works in such a way that when the vase is full of water, it bloats, and as the water begins to evaporate, the vase begins to droop. thus, one always remembers to feed the flowers. we caught up with deborah to find out more about her work and resisted the urge to ask her "why not expand into making silicone fish tanks!?"

poxymash: where did you grow up deborah?

deborah: born in france and grew up all over.... in asia, us, and europe. mother is taiwanese, and father is french-mongolian (explains the last name).

pm:how did you come to work in design?

deborah: i went to art school in philadelphia initially for painting, something that i had been doing for as long as I can remember. in a lot of ways design made sense to me. it allows for a more holistic way of engaging in the creative process. also design requires a broad range of skills and discipline in a different way than someone in fine arts. you can do independent interesting work as well as more commercial projects. the shift over to the industrial design department was only natural...so yes, it was my undergraduate degree.

 

pm: could you tell us exactly what it is you design and what materials you use?

deborah: i have been doing a range of design work in different cities. lighting design in new york, information architecture in paris, furniture design in beijing, and most recently the design/construction of a house in ecuador as part of a 'revamping the farm' project. with that being said one of my pet side projects includes a vase made out of silicone. it is done so in a way that when you pour water in the vase 'bloats' up. as the water slowly evaporates and the flowers decay the vase slowly droops...a visual reminder for those who often forget to water their flowers. i am working on finding a way to expand this project and really play with the idea and material. a series of vases that do exactly this but perhaps in different forms. But I guess to best sum up the range of my work from swiss army re-imagined, furniture design, to a mapping book for protestors keeps a theme of exploring the potential of human interaction with object/space. the design process for these projects showcase a cultural-contextual and socially-minded approach.

pm: what is it about your chosen materials that attracts you to them?

deborah: i have not restricted myself to just one material for the moment. However, to best answer the question, during my year in beijing working for dynamic city foundation, i was in charge of the design and manufacturing of a line of furniture. one of the constraints was using only factories and materials accessible within beijing - rattan, recycled cork, aluminum, recycled foam, local textiles, chinese wood. first off setting the limits by location, and then finding within that the list of materials to use, called for really fun design studies. but using silicone is like being a child again with a few tubes of face paint.

to view more of deborah's work please visit :  http://cargocollective.com/deborahtchoudjinoff

 [aine herlihy]

tess leak exhibition- sky like and the monkey minds.

"i think monkey mind is our ordinary mind, it's when we can't really settle our mind. looking or searching for ground, "trying" to understand...like a process of developing....it is an experience of chaos.

"sky-like" is our natural state of mind, without chaos, without clouds, just that. like space, quiet and limitless; clear, calm, without questions and needs.

i'm not sure...is this really what it is? but i like the idea of working with both concepts, knowing both states and accepting them as human experience."

( an email from melania lynch to tess leak and george pados, regarding the exhibition, april 2011.)

                      …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

exhibiting her work alongside chilean artist melania lynch and australian born george pados, tess leak’s works are delicate, pensive pieces inquiring into the solitary, nebulous nature of our own interior landscape. inspired by rauchenburg’s idea of 'the generosity of finding surprises' the english born, irish based artist uses a fusion of collage, charcoal and cardboard  to create arrangements that left us lurching and longing after encountering images of faint figures emerging from bleak, blurry landscapes. or the resounding melancholy of stumbling across a character who races home to try out her new ‘resurrection machine’, only to realise ‘after the unveiling of my secret resurrection machine i could not shake the feeling that perhaps there were things in life that should be left alone’. equally, much of her work leaves the viewer light and delighting with carefully selected text’s that carry all the brilliance of a becekttian incongruity, ‘let’s go out into the garden and expect nothing together’.

but what could be more beautiful than a cardboard construction of a compass with the words ‘an inner turbulence error dropped us silently earth bound’!? her works are pieces of poetry in themselves, that found us ruminating that nothing is to be feared, only understood.  or, at the very least, as tess illustrates, explored. 

poxymash: tell us a little about your most recent exhibition?

tess: my work in the 'sky-like and the monkey minds' ( which sounds like a band, which is a good thing because i have secretly always wanted to be in a really loud band which is a bit interesting because people often say how 'quiet' my work is) show was inspired by, among other things, the disappearance of the pilot amelia aerhart, bad landings and victorian inventions. i found this amazing book on victorian inventions in a charity shop and it's so funny, this mixture of extreme eccentricity and stiff upper lip. also, my friend sharon gave me this old book she found called 'the book of happiness' by bo yin ra, what a treasure! he's very bossy about what humanity needs to do to be happy but the translation makes it all a bit confusing ... you wouldn't want to be counting on it! i cut up text from both these books to use in my collages and mixed them up...

pm: what do you wish for your art?

tess: i want to surprise myself when i am making things and i want visitors to the gallery to be surprised, to discover things. for instance, a little cardboard resurrection machine 'in which nothing or no one is ever really lost' on a shelf in a corner. i want the experience of the visitor to be a rich and engaging one... i want people to feel they have found some little thing for themselves. 

pm: whose work are you feeling particularly drawn to at the moment?

tess: today my favourite is this piece i just saw in the crawford art gallery, cork, by dorothy cross called "whale". it's in the middle of the gallery's permanent collection of sculpture, some works are over 200years old and they are all made of either marble or plaster so they are all white. cross’s piece is a whale skeleton, scrubbed white, suspended from the ceiling, nose-diving into a rusty bucket of sea water. it’s amazing and so at home there that i almost walked right past it.....

pm: what is the scariest thing about being an artist?

tess: the scariest thing about being an artist...interesting question. actually i think for me making art make things LESS scary. instead of being someone who is only reacting... i am creating things too. this helps.

to see more of tess leak's work, please visit, http://tessleakdrawings.blogspot.com/

sky like and the monkey minds takes place at the sarah walker gallery, Castletownbere, Co. Cork, Ireland.

[aine herlihy]

a date for your diary: craft music speed listening.

on friday november 18th,  the note well and the create place are hosting  ‘craft music speed listening’- a madcap original event for making new friends via rotations of one-to-one djing. now, what’s not to love about that!?

the note well is an international music friendship project that runs unique social events in the spirit of sharing music and making friends. on the night, the note well are hosting the ever-popular speed listening. the idea is that you make new friends while swapping new tunes. here’s how it goes:  you sit opposite a stranger and plug your earphones into their music device.  then, you listen to  your new friend's music choices for a few minutes, while simultaneously playing them some music of your own choice.  after about ten minutes, you rotate and play private dj (but preferably not private dancer!) for another person. 

chances are, you may even have encountered the note well ladies already. they are renowned for their  fiendish feeding ways, popping up throughout london  handing out chocolate guinness cake- goodness, gracious, great gastric juices! the create place is a social enterprise that runs an active workshop space in bethnal green. they specialise in delivering arts and crafts workshops for the local community. they are good folk.

the event runs from 7pm until 10pm in the create place on old ford road. tickets for the event are £15 and include a cocktail, a craft pack, copious homemade cake, and the authentic speed listening experience. limited to just 18 places, it promises to be intimate and relational, so let’s get relating. at the very least the organisers  promise that you will leave with a badge pinned to your lapel, a song in your cerebrum and the feverish excitment that accompanies a nascent friendship!

all proceeds go toward supporting not-for-profits the note well and the create place.

visit these bad boys for further details: http://www.thecreateplace.co.uk/?p=580

http://thenotewell.com/

[aine herlihy]

it's time we talked tyres.

jake wilson craw is a craftsman, entrepreneur and general man-about-town, recycling bicycle tyres into belts, bags and other accessories. we caught up with him to inquire where he got the idea from, other products he’d like to turn his hand to and also got some cycling tips along the way.

poxymash: what inspired you to work with tyres?

jake: i came back to newcastle with the idea to learn new skills, and ended up both volunteering at a bicycle recycling charity called recyke y'bike and learning leatherwork. with many worn out unusable tyres otherwise headed to landfill, i decided to put two and two together. it started with belts, then I started making purses,satchels, saddlebags and sculptures.

poxymash: how long does it take to make a belt?

jake: if i broke down all the steps i think i could get a belt done in an hour. i tend to do them in batches while watching bbc iplayer, which slows me down a little.

poxymash: what is it that you like about working with the material?

jake: tyres are actually a pretty horrible material to work with, you sometimes have to wrestle with them to get them to do what you want. i suppose i like the challenge, and thinking up new ways of working within the limits of something tough, thin and circular.

poxymash: do you intend to work with any other materials in the future?

jake: i've done a few things with leather recently, which is a lovely material to work with. i'd like to make luggage- i have a penchant for old suitcases, big tea chests and the like, but I'd need to develop some woodworking skills before that i suppose.

poxymash: have you seen any other exciting examples of sustainable fashion recently?

jake: a friend of mine makes dresses from material she finds in charity shops. she made one from a thunderbirds duvet cover that was particularly splendid. i own a pair of cycling spats that are made from old boat sails.they're practical and look dapper.

poxymash: finally, if you could have any bicycle in the world what would it be, and what would be suitable attire for a ride about town?

jake: i've a fondness for old racing bikes and bianchi. so maybe a bianchi pista. though i really like the attention to detail and ingenious features you get on vintage bikes, so maybe an old bsa town bike with a self lubricating chain. i'm thinking of winter here. as for attire, i'd rather crash than wear lycra. i'm fond of the message behind the tweed run and one of the best things I've ever seen is a cycling cape by dashing tweeds. It has reflective thread woven into it, so in headlights it glows a check pattern. it's sadly out of my price range, but a man can dream.

to see more of jake's work visit : http://www.etsy.com/people/ooManAboutTownoo

[callum dickson]