Brains on the Brain

Ever since I started this blog I've been drawing and painting loads of Brains. It started out as me trying to create an image I could use as a background for this blog and then every time I ended getting side tracked.

After spending some time looking at Laura Ashley wallpaper designs for inspiration (as you do) I noticed that many are pictures of plants. That set me off on a path to the Brain plants below. Which are cool and all that, but as anyone who looked at this blog in the last week will testify, don't make a particularly good background.

Then I realised that my problem was that images on old wallpaper are stencils, not proper pictures. This set me off doing a stencil brain, which ended up with the picture above, which I'm pretty happy with, but still not a suitable background. I think I'm going to give the old brain a rest for a while, although i'm in the process of creating a companion picture (or two) for it.

Light Show at the Hayward gallery

Early this week I braved the arctic tundra that was the South Bank to see the Light Show exhibition at the Hayward gallery.I had a great time but unfortunately didn't manage to get any photos, because of those dreaded 'No photography' signs. I guess it means that the place is not full of flashes going off and people actually look at things, rather than just through a viewfinder. But annoying none the less. We'll have to make do with some stuff I found on Google images instead.

The exhibition is split between sculptures and installations that use light in some way, either via bulbs, strip lights, shadows or reflections. In my personal opinion the quality of the pieces varied quite a bit. Some were clever and raised a smile, some generated an audible 'Meh' and some were genuinely amazing.

My favourite exhibit was definitely the last image above, Carlos cruz-Diez's 'Chromosaturation'. This consists of three white rooms each strongly lit in a different colour and some wooden blocks dotted around the place. Doesn't sound like much but the effect is amazing. It's a little difficult to explain what happens, but my description would be that the strong light causes your eyes to react in a way that makes you step back and go 'woooooohh'. As you move between the rooms the colours seem to morph into colours that aren't actually there, I guess because of how your eye reacts. We spent ages in there and came back again before leaving the exhibition and every time there was people in there with massive smiles on their faces.

Other notable exhibits were 'Model for a timeless garden' by Olafur Eliasson, which consisted on a set of small water fountains in a blackened room lit by a strobe light. The effect was to turn the fountains into what looked like glass sculptures. Stunning but it was difficult to stay in there for too long. Although my rave and nightclub training held me in good stead. I would also recommend 'Slow Arc inside a Cube IV' by Conrad Shawcross (2nd to last image), which used a moving light inside of a mesh box to cast strange and hypnotising shadows on the wall.

The show runs until 6th May at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank and is definitely worth a couple of hours of your time. You can get details of the exhibition at www.haywardlightshow.co.uk and get tickets at The Hayward Gallery website

A Crouch End safari

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take my camera and explore my local area for anything that might be interesting. Here's is the wikipedia article on Crouch End en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crouch_End best swat up, they'll be a test at the end (Disclaimer: there is no test at the end).

First stop Priory park. A dash of colour at the play area, some cool shadows through the trees, a rusty gate and a grade 2 listed drinking fountain. It's a start. Check out some more details about the fountain here

Next stop Crouch End high street and a rather imposing picture of the clock tower. Then on to the wonderful Hornsey town hall. I love the main gate, Check out the detail on the metalwork. Here are some details about the project to regenerate the town hall www.hornsey-town-hall.org.uk. Last stop on this leg is Hornsey community library and the 'Reclining figure in Bronze'

Now onto the final part of my mini tour and the bit I was looking forward to the most. The day before I'd been travelling home on the W7 bus and spotted some graffiti as we travelled over Crouch Hill. I'm a sucker for a good bit graff and decided to check it out.I half expected a few rubbish tags and so was well please when I discovered some quality work, being created there and then by some authentic London hoodie types. Out of respect to the artists and to protect the innocent, the names and pictures have been removed. Don't get why this isn't illegal though, certainly Brightens up an otherwise boring railway arch and makes for good blogging.

What I had found was Parklands walk, a 7K path that runs from Finsbury park all the way up to Alexandra Palace. A great place to walk the dog, go jogging or spray some graffiti. I'd recommend it and if you want to know more check www.parkland-walk.org.uk

To finish off here's some more pictures I took on Parklands walk

Candid arts exhibition - Feb '13

What's that phrase? Better late than never? Here are some images from the Candid art exhibition held back in February. I've tried to keep the number of images down to just my favourites. Check of my Flickr account for more. Sorry that I don't have the names of all the pieces, if by some strange twist of fate someone reads this and knows the names then please feel free to let me know.

We start off at the top of the page with a great image from Paul Robinson. I'm currently using this image as my desktop wallpaper, really like it.

Now that's a cool coffee table. For some reason the inclusion of a Starbucks in the building collages made me chuckle. First sign of madness?

The shark is pretty damn impressive close up, seems to be made with plaster, string and twigs

I really like the first two images above, by Jenny Bush. If I had the cash to buy anything here I may well have brought one of these, pretty reasonably priced

Without wanting to cast aspersions, I'm wondering if Charles Cross is a bit OCD, I would have gone nuts putting that much repetition and detail on a picture. Bleak but beautiful stuff from Paul West

The last two pictures by Francois-Xavier Touzard are made with a lot of paint and many implements including ropes and Nunchucks! The picture below was made as part of a live performance by Francois.

If you want to find out more about Candid arts centre visit them at www.candidarts.net