Vintage Posters.

Just bought a CD containing over 3000 prints of vintage posters including categories; food, drink, women, fashion, beauty, tobacco, cars etc etc...GOLD!

Marina Abramovich Presents...

Part of the Manchester International Festival, guests are invited to the Whitworth Art Gallery, which has been completely taken over by performance art.

The evening begins with an intorduction from renowned peformance artist Marina Abramovich, who leads a group meditation, to relax us, make us more aware ourselves/our surroundings in preparation for the 13 performance artists that followed. Marina wanted to 'deprogram' us in order for us to be able to absorb what we were about to see and fully immerse ourselves into the strange encounters of the next room. It was compulsory for everyone to wear a white coat for the duration of the evening, in order to unify all participants. Marina main difference between performance art and acting, is that performance art is real, the artist becomes something, rather than an actor who pretends to be something. If a performance artist cuts themselves, they use a real knife. It was required of the audience to endure ( and I mean endure) a full four hours within the gallery, which had been completely taken over by performance art, all permanent collections removed. The gallery had been transformed into a living breathing space. I encountered each artist in a hypnotic state, apparently unaware of people around, just concerned with the space around them and with the 'art' they were creating. There were only a couple of the artist which i was genunely intrigued and impressed by;

Kira O’Reilly – naked, apart from the appearance of black leather gloves,contorts her body to make it look like she is falling down the stairs. The strength and physical ability she needs in order to do this so gracefully leaves you mesmerised. Every movement and details of the fall has been carefully considered, to create the sense that this is a slow motion snap shot of a rel fall. Whats more impressive is that she does this for four hours, twice a day!

The undisputed highpoint of the evening is Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich’s “glory hole”.

With only his mouth visible, members of the audience are encouraged to approach him to feed him food and water and brush his teeth; an interesting, if slightly unsettling experience.

Full list of featured artists; Marina Abramović, Ivan Civic, Nikhil Chopra, Amanda Coogan, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Yingmei Duan, Eunhye Hwang, Jamie Isenstein, Terence Koh, Alastair MacLennan, Kira O’Reilly, Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich, Melati Suryodarmo and Nico Vascellari. http://www.fpavlovandreevich.com/ http://www.kiraoreilly.com/blog/

A is not for Apple, Z is not for Zebra.

This project began with a smmer trip to Berlin..during my time there I became intrigued by the history of the city, which seemed so prominent in the surroundings, only 20 years since the wall came down, and Berlin has re-built and re-generated itself into the city it is today, amazing what it has achieved in such a short space of time. Eager to find out more about the cities infamous history, I visited a concentration camp named Sachsenhausen. I found the experience extremely educational and emotional. Mainly I realised how little I knew about the history surrounding WW2 and the holocaust, despite thinking that I knew a reasonable amount. I think it takes to see a place in context to really understand the history behind it. Emotion came not only from the horrific tales from the camp, but also from my own family history. The thought that parts of my distant family were living in Germany at the time, resonated throughout the visit. I also learnt that the concentration camps were not only used by the Nazis, but also by the Russian Soviets as a prison, with much the same conditions. So I decided whilst I was there that I needed to make a permanent record of the story being told, something, which would tell more than pictures ever could. So armed with my dictaphone I began to record the tour. It was not until returning home, after I had experienced the rest of the trip, that I decided come back to the recording, as well as all my other Berlin experiences. The whole point of tours of concentration camps is so as people do not forget what happened, I felt I wanted to create something to expose and remind people what happened. I transcripted the tour from an analogue tape, and began to try and represent the meaning of the words, by my use of typography. I wanted to be restricted in dimension, therefore i kept the text confined to width of my dictaphone, and the length of 26 inches (a loose representation of the alphabet)

Che Guevara.

Living With The Wall: Berlin 1961 - 1989

http://north.iwm.org.uk/server/show/conEvent.3070?utm_source=Main+List&utm_campaign=3ac6395fc3-MIF_News_September_099_17_2009&utm_medium=email

Angels of Anarchy.

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/angelsofanarchy/ Some thoughts on my visit to 'Angels of Anarchy; Women artists and Surrealism.'/ Manchester Art Gallery.

Women Surrealists of the 20th century; Glamourous, powerful, revolutionary, outrageous, radical, adored, provocative and ignored. For the first time in Europe, Manchester Art Gallery became host to over 150 works of female surrealism. I went to see this exhibition as part of my lecture series ;The Hidden Thread,' but also for my own personal interest. I found the collages of Penny Slinger powerful and intriguing and a great example of how juxtaposition of imagery can be so clear and hard hitting. The whole exhibition was a celebration of women, and I felt empowered by these women who had gone before me, striving for success in a male dominated world.

I enjoyed the seeing the work of Francesca Woodman in a gallery space, as next to the photographs there was a film of the work being completed. It made me relate to the work even more, as it showed her testing and trying out techniques and hearing her comment on her own work, was strange. Woodman has become somewhat of an icon, but seeing her in the film at work, it make me think she was just like anyone else, proud and excited by her own work, just as I am when a particular experiment works out. She seemed happy and playful, and so far removed from the idea of suicide and depression. It was empowering to see her enthusiasm and joy she got from her work.

When I considered the time of the exhibition, it strikes me as more remarkable how these artists still pionered to unashamedly express their femininity, paving the way for female artists of today. I find that often I think about Graphic Design in Britain as male dominanted, and although the majority of students on our course are female, it seems that we have a very male bias when it comes to guest lecturers. Last year there was not one female guest lecturer, this year there have been more i.e Morag Myerscough, Helen Murgatroyd, and I hope this will continue to reassure and inspire that there is a place for women in graphic design.

visual stimulating...here are a few whom especially caught my eye within the exhibition; Penny Slinger. caught my eye NM. Penny Slinger. 'I hear what you say' This collage piece amused me, i could relate to the visual communication,through a juxstaposition of imagery. Something, which is integral to graphic design. the visual pun of 'i hear what you say' - literally an ear (hear) inside a mouth (say). Lee Miller Miller uses the landscape, to reflect human bodily parts, and take on human characteristics. Lee Miller Portrait of Space, (detail) 1937 This can also be seen in the work of Jane Graverol.. Jane Graverol L’Esprit saint [The Holy Spirit] (detail), 1965

DDR Berlin.

Notizblock

One of many pieces of 'found ephemera' from Berlin.

Reel2Reel.

Just look at it's beauty!

The Big Issue.