Immersion

By Millie Findlay

Fight that sickening feeling of dread following graduation with Immersion, a collaborative programme between University of the Arts London, Passport and Palmer Hamilton Partnership which aims to give graduates the skills they need to get their foot in the door of the creative industries.

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We have all had it - that panicked feeling and the question, "What am I doing with my life?" You may have just graduated with flying colours, but now what? Perhaps you have been picked up by a gallery, or landed a huge commission, or perhaps you have not been so lucky. Those first few steps after finishing your degree seem the hardest ever, and with times as hard as they are, the job market can seem a daunting prospect.

Help is at hand: Immersion is an intensive programme designed to help art and design graduates fight their way through the quagmire that is graduate employment, identify their goals and give them the skills to achieve them. With a diverse programme including CV writing, portfolio assistance, mentoring and networking events, Immersion is unique in offering creative graduates advice from a business perspective, which can be hard to find!

With a stellar line-up of industry insiders including Ian Nelson, Worldwide Head of Design at Ellesse and Alistair Hall, Director of We Made This, Immersion aims to provide a wealth of knowledge to new graduates from those who have already made it. Learning takes place in the form of workshops, expert presentations, peer learning and practical group exercises, all of which encourages participants to identify their goals, enhance their skills and get the contacts to take those all-important first steps into the world of work.

The cost is £160, and the programme takes place over 12 weeks part-time.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, check out the jotta Immersion group, or the Immersion website for more details and the application form.

Maureen Gubia and Eoin Ryan Join jottaBoutique

By Millie Findlay

jotta presents two brand spanking new artists to the Boutique. Artists Maureen Gubia and Eoin Ryan make works to bewitch and beguile, drawing the viewer into their illusive imagined worlds.

Maureen Gubi, Tripii series 2009, Crow and faces by Eoin Ryan. (Click any image to enlarge it)

Maureen Gubia’s whimsical line drawings and photographs capture the attention of all who see them. Hailing from Ecuador, her work retains the essence of her homeland, acting as a series of tantalizing snapshots into her life, supported by the photography posted on her blog. Maureen describes her drawings as being “driven by longing” , and her fluid style helps her to explore that dark, volatile world of human emotion. Her work was recently shown in the Swanfield pop-up shop, exploring the darker side of living in a tropical climate, where the carnival is over and laziness and apathy reigns.

The dreamy watercolours now available in the Boutique transport you directly into Gubia’s world of childlike figures peeping out from the page in between carnival-coloured vegetation.

jotta had Eoin Ryan down as a ‘ones to watch’ in July, after he had attracted our attention with his alluring illustrations on his jotta profile. Eoin draws inspiration for his illustrations from sources as diverse as propaganda posters and Japanese woodblocks to create his unique and haunting images.
Having produced work for Art on the Green, Eoin is currently indulging in some ‘shameless self-promotion’ ready for his next show in the autumn. Eoin is releasing a series of limited edition prints exclusively for jotta, these have their origins in the enticing combination of miscellaneous research and ‘scratching around’ in Eoin’s head to provide the content.

All the work is available on the jottaBoutique for your perusing pleasure - so snap the opportunity to own some rare gems!

Face Off

By Millie Ross

In the final week of THIS IS WHY WE MEET, jotta asked the last two teams in the 6 week series to interview each other, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design team and Wimbledon College of Art. Wimbledon’s seven steps to becoming a more personable person were a hit, they give retrospective responses while CSM respond from the thick of creation fever.

Wimbledon, CSM, Wimbledon, CSM (Click any image to enlarge it)

Wimbledon College of Art responds to questions from Central Saint Martins

What was the thought behind your exhibition?

Consumerism, Propoganda, Cosmetic surgery of the personality. Inspirational moment was a recent trip to Vidal sasoon: where we were told we would come out 'better.' We were also inspired by the cliches of 'The Apprentice'...and any self improvement and mindwashing institutions.

Did you all know each other before you started this project, if not, how was it to work with people you have not worked with before?

Wimbledon is a very little college, and the nature of studying theatre means you all get involved in others projects a lot too, so three of us knew each other roughly, through various collaborations with paper and films and also through the Design for Performance Degree.

Did you encounter any troubles along the way, and if so, how did this affect the final outcome of the project?

Yes, many. We had to continually refine and adapt the outcome of the project as the week went on, and even after the private view. It was an ambitious project, creating the company entirely from scratch. We found we dedicated so much time to creating and making the products that the window display suffered at the start of the week, but it's on now and looking as we hoped.

At what point were you stretched beyond your elastic point and did you ping back to another direction that you didn’t expect?

Many points, lots of strecthing. Expectations pinging all over the place.

What has been the most interesting way you have engaged with those living and being in the area?

This weekend is our main time for face to face interaction, and more active convincing of our company, which will be interesting. We have observed peoples response to the video which has been amazing- many people don't know if it's real or not- whilst many have laughed. Creating something which people ask and are unsure of, "is this real", has been great, normally we don't have the facilities to do something like this so convincingly. It's been a lot of fun.

Has this project altered your approach to your work?

It has made us all more confident to do things we wouldnt normally do, realise we can take skills into other areas - product design, graphic design, directing, advertising etc. Our work on our degree has been more traditionally 'theatrical' possibly (see some at www.edithtsang.com and www.zoejosephine.com)

What are the positive/ negative outcomes of this project?

We are still awaiting the final result, to be objective about it all but thus far- Positives: Creating recreation, fruitful friendships, getting people to laugh at dominating consumerism/self help ideas/adverts
Negatives: Suspected Narcicissm, Possible Sound pollution.

Directional Glasses For Forward Thinking

By Millie Ross

The four Wimbledon College of Art students unveiled their interactive installation in the windows of W+K for the penultimate installment of the great This Is Why We Meet collaborative experiment. Personality conditioning and corporate video camp is the order of the week.

Head down to Hanbury St in East London to witness Wimbledon's Personality Conditioning Corporation. Complete with infomercials, bespoke products and the red attired P.C.C. persuaders, the seven steps to becoming a more personable person would be a crime to miss.

Living Dolls

By Millie Ross

The London College of Communication team from the almighty This Is Why We Meet collaborative experiment took interaction to new levels of hilarity with Get A Life, a live platform set up on Hanbury street in London.

View video here

The installation invited the public to experiment with social participation and human dialogue using different kinds of communication and allowing people from all over the world to interact and be part of the platform. The “Humannequins”, as they dubbed their couple Emma and Joseph, were miked up to a Skype phone, so whe people stopped to look or walked past the Humannequins would often pipe up and start speaking to them. Public reactions was varied – some people were quite scared, others became engrossed in really long and quite serious conversations with them, and others just laugh!
Basically they were playing with dolls.

Get Your Artwork Displayed Across London

By Millie Ross

VICE UK and Levi’s 501s can help you bypass the whole languishing-in-a-cramped-studio-eating-pot-noodles part of becoming an “artist”. All you have to do is tell them how you would incorporate the ethos of Living Unbuttoned into a large art installation and you could have your art displayed in public sites throughout London, and then BAM – you’re the next Emin.

Maya Huyuk, Felice Varini, Richard Sarson, BLU (Click any image to enlarge it)

If you are selected from the teeming hordes of hopefuls to have your work featured as part of the Live Unbutton campaign, you work will be blown up to HUGE proportions, and displayed in Camden, Shoreditch and Soho.

The winner of the competition will work with the project mentor, Ben Freeman, expert on design, graphics, photography and the publisher of all round amazing magazine FUN, to translate their work from small scale, to ‘size of a large building scale’.

Once up, your work will remain on show for one month.

Your work need not be in any fixed medium or format, be it oil painting, papier-mâché, carved granite – whatever, we want to see it. All entries simply need to reflect the essence of the 501 jeans Live Unbuttoned campaign.

The competition opens on the 3rd of August and closes on the 1st of September, that allows you artistic types about a month to submit your ideas to VICE via the entry form.

Inspirational images above by-

( Remember, your work can be any format, any style, and any medium. So don’t take these examples as guidelines, only as little squares of inspiration that you are totally free to ignore).

Maya Huyuk

http://www.mayahayuk.com

Felice Varini

http://www.varini.org/

Richard Sarson

http://www.richardsarson.com

BLU

http://www.blublu.org/

Art Takes on Acton

By Holly Willats

London’s Acton may seem a creative desert, yet a group of artists have just grabbed themselves a super studio spot in a disused Perfume Factory. jotta could not resist a sneak peek of their upcoming opening on Sunday and as a result, reminisced over the artistic history of the West, and started hoping for a shift in the London creative compass.

Emma Cummins Remember To Forget THis, Ten Days Issue1, The Perfume Fcatory, Emma Cummins Where Art Lied (Untitled 1), Inkjet 2008 (Click any image to enlarge it)

In setting up their studios within The Perfume Factory, these artists intended to work in the spirit of creative collaboration. With a knowledge of the historical legacy of the area in which the studio sits, Ross Taylor, Royal Academy MA graduate, hoped to organise something that would bring artists and writers together to create something that was both good fun and creative. The result? – both an exhibition and new artist magazine that will launch simultaneously on Sunday 23rd August.

The initial idea was to make a magazine - a quick, cheap, fanzine style book of writings by artists and writers. The editors, Ross Taylor and myself, were both interested in how artists make work, why, when and how this could materialise. From this first idea came the concept of 10 Days. 10 Days is an artistic collective that has come together to interact with one another and create a magazine. The publication hopes to act as a device to vibrate and encourage ideas that do not have to be definite. The nature of the publication is that the contributor is asked to be spontaneous, being given 10 days to respond to the title of the relevant issue. The first issue centres on eleven individual contributors’ MANIFESTOS. From this title, the artists responded by looking at their own creative personal beliefs. 10 Days is a collective idea and is does not function for profit. The editors are interested in writing, ideas, pictures and diagrams and will allow anyone interested to contribute.

Whilst co-editing 10 Days Ross Taylor curated Perfect Answers for Perfect Questions.

“Voices and characters appear all the time in everyday life. We summon them in opinions and in stereotypes, stories and examples. They can seem unemployed and clueless, they can also be our best friends. Long hair, short hair, fictional, historical, blind or overweight in appearance. We have to give them clothes and beliefs, they some times need a family." Taylor describes the exhibition, "This exhibition brings together eleven artists who each individually deal with aspects of invention, especially in terms of the cast that play out their ideas. It is an extended and combined exploration of meetings between artists work where unexpected happenings will be generated. Through painting, sculpture and photography the work will be presented on islands, and like in a Kurt Voonegut story this troop of actors will have to meet.”

This collective of artists are proof that there is still call for a pure enjoyment in art. There is no financial motivation – with 10 Days selling for just £1 to enable the collective to fund the second issue. Those contributing and making the magazine, get to take away enjoyment and satisfaction in seeing evenings of discussion turned into a reality.

You might wonder what these artists are doing out West, away from both the galleries of the West End and the busy arts scene of East London. However, not so long ago there was much art and music activity in leafy (safe) West London, in the 50’s and 60’s the area was a magnet for musicians and art students, who could hear bands such as The Who and The Rolling Stones at the iconic Ealing Club.

In the same area and at the same time there was a radical change that altered the way art is taught and created, a movement that remains influential to this day. In the 1960s, Ealing Technical College & School of Art began its Groundcourse, run by Roy Ascott. The course was informed by the principles of cybernetics and the title focused on what Ascott described as, ‘learning from the ground up’. This course transformed the agenda of education in art in both this country, and as a result, abroad. Students included Pete Townsend, John Challis, Gilbert & George, Richard Long, Brian Eno, Stephen Willats and Michael English who would all go on to push the British art and music scene forward. All the avant-garde artists of the sixties such as Noel Forster and Bernard Cohen, who sparked many ideas and theories were teaching at Ealing, and the school became a key institution in the formation and influence of British conceptualism.

Going further West two artists, Peter Dunn and Loraine Leeson introduced Ruislip to the equation. Creating installations in local libraries around their community inspired art practice. Appropriately enough, given the focus of 10 Days publication, the artists produced their own Manifesto at the time, which ended:

"We declare that art needs people as much as people need art: the two should be inextricable linked with each other, and never divorced so damingly again."

With the Acton area surrounded by such a solid artistic legacy, Perfect Answers to Perfect Questions sees contemporary young artists working together to create something that to spark excitement in the area.

‘Perfect Answers to Perfect Questions’ and the launch of the new artist magazine 10 Days is on Sunday 23rd August, 4 – 7pm.

The Perfume Factory, 140 Wales Farm Road, London, W3 6UG
1 minute from North Acton tube Click here to view a map.

10days.booklet@gmail.com - website coming soon.

‘Perfect Answers to Perfect Questions’ will run until 30 August, opening hours: Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 12-6pm.

DIY LONDON SEEN

By Millie Findlay

DIY LONDON SEEN is an exhibition based around the world captured in Aaron Rose’s film ‘Beautiful Losers.’ Join us for the opening Thursday 20th and the closing, for which jotta will host the evening with music and live visuals.

images by Chrissie Abbott, Aidan O'Neill, Cheryl Dunn, Ivory Serra. (Click any image to enlarge it)

Chances are you are already familiar with Beautiful Losers, the traveling art exhibit turned documentary film celebrating the legacy of the artistic movement which was spawned in and around New York’s Alleged Gallery in the early 90s, joined together by the DIY aesthetics of punk rock, hip-hop and skateboarding. The marks of artists like Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Geoff McFetridge, Mike Mills and Harmonie Korine are widely acknowledged in popular art, design, film, and fashion.

Now, a new exhibition in London takes up the Beautiful Losers calling to “Make Something From Nothing,” featuring a group of and emerging UK artists. DIY LONDON SEEN, an exhibition documenting the work of, and inspired by the artists featured in the film, coincides with Beautiful Losers UK DVD release and screenings at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Curated by Watch This Space, the show features a group of young London artists whose work embodies the spirit of the film, alongside the photography of original Loser, Cheryl Dunn, and Ivory Serra, who documented the rise of the Beautiful Losers’ artists throughout the 90s.

The artists contributing to DIY LONDON SEEN include: Arran Gregory, Aidan O’Neill, Best One, Chrissie Abbott, Clare Shilland, Charlie Woolley, Cheryl Dunn, Gustav Svanborg Edén, Graham Hudson, Harry Malt, Ivory Serra, Jethro Haynes, Marc Silver, Marcus Oakley, Niall O’Brien, Nick Jensen, Robin Clare, Sam Ashley and Toby Shuall.

DIY LONDON SEEN illustrates the growth of the movement inspired by the ‘Beautiful Losers’, which is now a global phenomenon, by showcasing the work of local artists whose work takes the ethos of the Alleged gallery Artists and runs with it.

DIY LONDON SEEN runs from 17th August - 5th September 2009

11, The Market Building, Covent Garden, London WC2 8RF (next to Lush)

The Ultimate Party Animal

By Millie Ross

A chameleon with retro-futuristic skin, Arran Gregory’s Grizzly Bear reflects it’s surroundings. After graduating from Chelsea College of Art and Design’s Graphics and Communication degree with a his handcrafted pet in hand, Arran, skater, illustrator, sculptor and Slam City Skate t-shirt designer, exhibits his mirrored bear in DIY LONDON SEEN this week.

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Why a grizzly bear?
I'm not entirely sure where my interest in bears comes from... I like to represent animals graphically and I find the Grizzly bear has the most impact. It is said that the Grizzly bear spirit is the most powerful of all animal spirits. I find this quite cool.

Did you look to other artists or designers for inspiration when creating this work?
No. my ideas never derive directly from another persons art. i don't search for inspiration, it comes to me naturally, as a result i have found that my ideas are often quite surreal.
Once i get a really exciting idea, I have to see it through. It's a test for myself to see whether it can be done. That's how it worked regarding the Mirror Bear- the idea was there and i could picture it perfectly, so i had to make it happen.

What research did you do prior to and during the creation?
I had to research a lot of different materials and think through exactly how I was going to build the Bear as I'd never made a sculpture before. I researched the muscle and bone structure of the grizzly bear so that I could accurately picture every angle whilst sculpting.

Is this the first lifesize mirror animal you've created?
Yes

What would you do differently next time?
I want to make a smaller animal which is easier to manage. Then after that i want to make something four times as big.

I noticed on your blog you'd approached BAPE to create a mirror animal sculpture for their retail outlets- was this self initiated? Are you a fan of the label- what drew you to them? Would you like to work on interiors more in the future?
Yeah I approached Bape as the project seemed to suit their company so well. I proposed to build an Ape. I haven't really considered interior design until you mentioned it. I guess I'd like to, but i want to concentrate on developing my drawings for now.

Would you call yourself an illustrator or sculptor? I'm an artist, who illustrates ideas; usually I put pen to paper to release them, sometimes I have to take a photograph or make a sculpture. I wouldn't want to restrict my creativity by confining my ideas within the boundaries of traditional illustration.

What or who inspires you?
I'm inspired by animals, nature, sega games, skateboarding, travelling and the city.

How did you come to be exhibiting in DIY London Seen?
My friend Gareth who runs Pointer footwear and Slam showed my work to Bakul and she got in contact. Oh and because I skate.

How can you relate to the artists and work featured in the film? Are you a fan?
I'm a big fan of Beautiful Losers. Actually, I concentrated on the book in quite some detail for my dissertation. I wanted to find out why skateboarders feel the need to create art and why the act of skateboarding is so inspirational.


What's up next for you? Are you working on any new projects?
Proposing to create a giant mirrorball strawberry for Spitalfields Market.