jotta Pops-Up!

With the jotta Craft Fair, February 14- 28 at 29 Foubert's Place, W1

January blues are a thing of the past here at jotta HQ, as this February we take our maiden voyage offline and into Central London, where jotta will take over a vacant shop space amongst the cobbled alley ways of Carnaby St.

Not just any run of the mill pop-up gallery/shop, jotta's inaugural Craft Fair is a fortnight of interactive creativity, during which anyone and everyone will get the chance to step into the jotta world and take something away with them.

Kicking off on Valentine's Day with Scratch 'n Sniff Cinema helmed by gastronomic wizards and jotta members Bompas & Parr. A cinematic experience with an olfactory twist, smells concocted in the Bompas & Parr kitchens will be transferred onto absorbent paper, giving the first ever UK audience the opportunity to scratch n sniff their way through a film - Peter Greenaway's classic "The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover," while cigarette girls hand out aphrodisiac cocktails supplied by Bulldog Gin.


From olfactory scents to sartorial sense, next up on the crafty agenda is Sweatshop, jotta's fashion workshop will be abuzz with sewing machines just in time for London Fashion Week, also starting Feb 18th. One for those of us who have looked longingly at style.com, wondering if we'll ever have the pocket change to afford designer threads. With a pattern donated by London's highly anticipated and talented fashion designer Richard Nicoll, try your hand at making your own garments - no experience necessary. Choose a pattern, choose your fabric and embellishments and get to work, with fashion students on hand to assist. Once you've finished, step into the photo booth to commit your design to film and share your artistic vision.


Following on from Sweatshop, spend Sunday Feb 22nd getting your hands dirty at our Illustration Market. Complete with bawling cockney market slang ("pound a bowl!"), fruit and veg stalls will spawn potato print cards, create costumes using life size illustration cut-outs and vinyl prints for windows and wall ornamentation. Illustrator Emma Rios, who has run workshops at the V&A and National Gallery, will host the day.


From 23rd February, the space will be transformed into a gallery for the group exhibition, 'It's A Mess and Probably Irreversible', curated by Five Storey Projects, a five-strong collective fresh from curating the critically acclaimed 'Matter of Time' show in Hackney. The show will see a selection of the best of jotta.com's artists exhibiting and selling works along side other young artists. Unrestrained by boundaries of medium, their discourse questions the world around us, and by doing so attempts to translate the intangibility of our current cultural climate. The Jotta.com gallery will be run as non for profit, all proceeds of eventual sales will go directly to the exhibiting artists.

Closing with a bang and pop, our Craft Fair will end with a special party on Thursday 26th, when all the crafty people from the previous fortnight can come and have a drink on us!

 


Pictured - Bompas & Parr architectural jelly events, Emma Rios' life size illustration banquet, and sniff your way through the menu from Peter Greenaway's The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover.