LUX / ICA Biennial of Moving Images

ICA, London SW1Y 5AH.
24 – 27 May 2012

A new four-day celebration of contemporary artists’ moving image launched by LUX and the ICA, offering a wide-ranging and diverse perspective on contemporary moving image practice. The LUX/ICA Biennial is the only one of its kind in the UK, exploring contemporary work through screenings, courses and talks in both the ICA cinemas and theatre.

The event will also feature a series of live performance commissions.

Visit the ICA website for further information, and to book tickets.

‘Swamp Juice’ shadow puppetry

Canadian puppeteer Jeff Achtem’s  Swamp Juice is playing at London’s Soho Theatre until 5th May before doing a 3 month UK tour.

The comedic shadow puppetry features punk snails, opera singing mice and a  toothy swamp monster all made from bits of rubbish. The show will be of interest particularly to theatre design and animation students.  It features an innovative 3D section. The creator, Jeff Achtem, is not hidden behind the scenes;  he works from on stage so you can see how he creates his special effects.

The show has previously played at the Edinburgh Festival to rave reviews and was the winner of the Edinburgh Festival Total Theatre Award 2011.

“The 3D finale is the absolute highlight of show and beggars belief as we follow these characters underwater and through the air, dodging jellyfish and aircraft as we go. This is brilliantly magical entertainment for the whole family” – Edinburgh Festivals Magazine.

“One of the greatest innovations in shadow puppetry” – The Scotsman

For more information see http://www.bunkpuppets.com

Benedict Phillips talk

Wednesday 27 July 2011 : 1-15 pm
V&A Museum, Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre

In a humorous and thought-provoking lecture artist Benedict Phillips will reveal his dyslexic projects, highlighting and examining presumptions about intelligence, communication and perception, unravelling the numerous misconceptions surrounding dyslexia and presenting the unusual advantages it brings.

You can find out more about Benedict Phillips, and this talk on the artist’s website.

Giant ball rolling a UCA Maidstone degree project

A six foot silver ball was rolled from Kings Hill to Mereworth Castle – a journey of about a mile – by art students from Maidstone as part of their degree project.

The ball replicates the silver ball of the iconic “A Different Ball Game’ sculpture by Kevin Atherton at Kings Hill, which has become synonymous with the development. It was pushed by six Fine Art Media students studying photography and video at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Maidstone. The event was filmed and photographed by the students as part of their degree project and the results will be on show at an exhibition at 30 Tower View, Kings Hill ME19 4UY from Friday 20th-Sunday 22nd May between 12noon and 6pm.

The students involved in the project were Elin Karlsson, Fleur Alston, Jane Sellman, Caroline Smith, Louise Gage and Hayley Burgess.

For more information visit www.kings-hill.com and www.ucreative.ac.uk

Rabih Mroué: I, the Undersigned – The People are Demanding, showing at Iniva

23 March – 14 May 2011

Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) presents the first solo exhibition in the UK by Lebanese artist, theatre director, playwright and actor Rabih Mroué at Rivington Place. A last minute intervention by the artist directly responds to current political events, the original title I, the Undersigned has been replaced with The People are Demanding and a new work produced. The exhibition explores politics, conflict and the relationship between personal responsibilities and the wider narratives of Lebanon and the region.

The iconic slogan ‘The People are Demanding’ is being heard in cities across the Middle East where a revolution is unfolding, and becomes the title of a new installation for the window space. Including this slogan with a list of actions, the work is an acknowledgment of the extraordinary revival of popular unity, linking the exhibition to the street and elsewhere.

Jarman Award winner Lindsay Seers on Channel 4’s 3 Minute Wonders

Four new works by the winner of the 2009 Film London Jarman Award, Lindsay Seers, will air on 27,28,29 and 30 September at 10.55 pm on Channel 4′s acclaimed 3 Minute Wonders.
Seers, who won the commission as part of the Award last year, uses a dark combination of performance, film and installation to interweave history, literature and philosophy in works founded on strange truths. For her 3 Minute Wonders commission, Seers has produced four films that chart aspects of her life and artistic practice, related through a myriad of tales told by those who have known her.

Video is the Only Constant

More information about this event can be found on the Video is the Only Constant webpage.

John Bock at the Barbican

The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery, London
10 June – 12 September 2010

John Bock is well-known for his surreal installations, which combine performance, film and sculpture. In his current exhibition at The Barbican, a modified mobile home lands like an alien space ship in the middle of The Curve, where it docks with parasitic structures suspended from the ceiling. Live performances by Bock and other actors periodically animate the installation and can be viewed on screens in the gallery.

Find out more from the Barbican website.

5TH WHITSTABLE BIENNALE 2010

 

The 5th Whitstable Biennale will open on Saturday 19 June 2010 on Whitstable’s main beach at 12 noon. The Biennale has commissioned major new works, all of which explore different aspects of performance and film. For two weeks the seaside town of Whitstable will be transformed into a centre for contemporary art.

See the Whitstable Biennale 2010 calendar online for the main festival programme. 

Special performances and talks on Saturday June 19 2010:

12.00-13.00

Main launch on the beach, with Whitstable Brewery Ale, at the Biennale HQ next to the Royal Native Oyster Stores, Horsebridge Rd CT5 1BU.

14.15-15.45 

UR-NOW: The Ruins of the Contemporary. Talk at the Sea Cadets Hall by Brian Dillon with some of the artists from the film programme he has curated for this year’s festival

16.00-16.45

67 Made in Heaven, Luciennne Cole choreographs a performance at the Oxford Bingo Hall

17.00-18.00

Social History and Telling Tales, Karen Mirza & Ruth Beale host a screening of vintage films with local historian and collector Tony Blake at the Sea Cadets Hall

Whitstable Biennale full programme details : click here

The Paper Eaters: Long Live the Photo-Story at Selfridges

1 – 29 Apr 2010
Location: The Ultralounge, Selfridges

Encapsulating the punk DIY aesthetic, The Paper Eaters: Long Live the Photo-Story! makes a defiant stand against the digital world.

Artist duo The Girls (Andrea Blood and Zoë Sinclair) adopt the roles of editors-in-chief of a photo-story magazine with a difference. While the Ultralounge at Selfridges is transformed into an 80’s inspired den, where they will create three photo-story magazines. Selfridges’ staff and customers are taking part in shoots, and will be invited to contribute ideas and shape the stories as they are shot. Each issue is being compiled using traditional cut and paste techniques, and include contributions from guests from the fashion and art world.

You’re invited to relive the 80’s by interacting with the drive-in photo-story viewing booth, customised 1980’s make-overs, a dry ice dance floor – or even take a lead role in a photo-story for the magazine.