14.5.11

240 Art Show


The art show for the 240 project where I run a workshop is now up and running... It looks brilliant. It opened on Thursday to a receptive crowd and a small buying frenzy. If anyone is around west London Thu, Fri, Sat of next week I can recommend it (completely without bias, of course). It is in the lovely gallery space of the newly renovated St Peters Church. Above is a fuzzy and crappy shot of a painting by, the very prolific, Bob.

9.5.11

Sunny may


Hello plats friends,
I too have been busy, or Im not quite sure but the days have gone very fast, and there has not been much to write about, I read and make images and spend a lot of time in the studio, I travel to Leipzig and back to go to meetings and hang out and cycle in Berlin, We even went swimming at the weekend in Teufelsee, a little lake in the south west of Berlin, my parents came to visit last month and some friends too, and slowly Berlin is starting to feel a little bit more like a home. So that's great! Apart from that, there's a group show in Norway now with my work in it , have a look here: Vestfossen. I think it runs all summer and it is an exhibition about fear, I hope to get to see it too! I've also been to see the work of photographer Leigh Ledare, whose book I would really like to get, and then afterwards we went to see an exhibition by Boris Mikhailov,
whom I really like, strange presentation of the exhibition but somehow it suited the topic. All the days with sunshine makes it hard to go into museums and into the studio but these two shows were well worth it. But mainly I feel like eating ice cream, my new favourite being strawberry- mint and white chocolate.
The studio house has turned into something like a treasure box, I keep opening doors and there's the next room waiting, so it feels great to be there and make work. I think Im lucky to have found this place, and that's where Im going now. Rather fun to get to know a new city though, especially now when it's showing itself at it's best.

3.5.11

Five Dials


The new issue of Five Dials is out now and ready for your perusal. Craig Taylor invited me to respond to the theme of parenting. Having never had any children and still in the stage of being the child and not the parent, I decided to explore the personal reasons why the thought of being a mum at 27 years old still seems like an impossibility to me. Or at least a bad decision...
I have just updated my website with the projects I have been working on over the past two months (I also moved, which is why I have been so slow at getting organised.) Have a look HERE. Thank you's to Craig, Marco, Laura and my fam for the brilliant holiday in Thailand.

wee esben drawing...


Just thought I'd share.

27.4.11

Curious Books.


So lovely Simon Marriott of the Society for Curious Thought has introduced a Curious Cafe Book inviting writings, drawings, collaborations, pastings-in and all sorts into the hard copy of the book (details here). I propose a wee get together at Lemon Monkey in Stoke Newington to join the book and make a contribution. When I'm back from Vienna... the week of May 9th?

And then we should enjoy the launch event on June 4th during the Stoke Newington literary festival. Eh?

Apartamento and Tasca



Event poster for the lovely people at Apartamento. I have found that if I imagine the crockery and glassware that I would want at a dinner party then it becomes even more fun. I think that it is another sign of getting old.

26.4.11

Stella Magazine




Just some images for a commission I did for Danish magazine 'Stella'. The theme of the issue was beauty and it is available now here.

20.4.11

Studio at the Elephant Den.







Thanks to Becca and Studio at the Elephant for a lovely week and brilliant Saturday of building and mapping the elephant.

18.4.11

animal kingdom


The days go quick in Berlin, it is finally proper spring here. I keep travelling back and forth to Leipzig but I really enjoy getting back here every time. Have spent some days doing up the studio and today I hope to find some furniture and manage to transport it there somehow, something that without a driver's license is kind of tricky.
We went to see an exhibition in the beautiful Schinkel pavillon called Animal Kingdom, lots of short films about animals from artists like Douglas Gordon, Fischli/Weiss and Werner Herzog. But my favourite were two underwater films from Jean Painlevé, one about seahorses, L'hippocampe, and one about the love life of an octopus. Beautiful! I couldn't find them online, but here is another film from him. Was quite nice to sit in the gallery for one and a half hour and watch different animal film, everything from slugs to grizzly bears..

12.4.11

the Elephant Den



This Thursday Emily and I start our residency at Studio at the Elephant and on Saturday we are running a kid+friendly workshop... Come! Come! The details are all below:

THIS SATURDAY 16TH APRIL

THE ELEPHANT DEN
12-5PM: Help us map the Elephant & Castle and leave your mark
THEN! 7PM-LATE: Join us for the launch of LAWAS' upcoming residency at the studio

On Saturday the 16th of April, PLATS collective will be running a workshop around the building of a big cardboard map complete with a den inside.

Come along to see & help us by adding your home, school or your favourite places to our map. Or, you can just crawl inside the Elephant's den and write or draw your stories and memories about the area.

PLATS is a group of visual artists who work together and produce interactive installations, workshops and events.

The Elephant Den will be run by PLATS illustrators Sophia Augusta and Emily Robertson. To find out more about their collaborative and individual work have a poke around www.seeplats.com

7PM - LATE

The LATIN AMERICAN WORKERS' ASSOCIATION PARTY - OPEN TO ALL with music/dancing/food

http://www.lawas.org.uk/joo/

11.4.11

more fooood.


The latest issue of Scoff! is out now in the Spectator with some of my foodie drawings.

4.4.11

Apropos skulls & drawing


I've just discovered Gerhart Richter's drawings... I don't know how I've missed them. His hand is so clearly his throughout, but it's nice to see it in paper and pencil. I saw one of his pieces at a show about modern drawing from the British Museum's collection which I can really recommend...

1.4.11

Viennese Pathology Sketch


This baby skeleton was playing the violin with a twig and chunk of compost in the Narrenturm in Vienna. It stuck with me. It looks so animated, and a bit buoyant and silly. Then you remember it is the skeleton of a baby, and the whole thing feels quite different.

30.3.11

Puttin' It Down.


After a good run at Pick Me Up @ Somerset House and hundreds and hundreds of pictures, we can all just sit back and sift through the photos of our's and other's ingenuity.... The photos are all here and prints are available from us, if anyone fancies it.

24.3.11

PLATS at Somerset House's PICK ME UP exhibition.



This Tuesday PLATS' held their first workshop at Somerset House as part of their PICK ME UP exhibition, the UK's first contemporary graphic art fair. We created exquisite appendages and encouraged visitors to make themselves into amazing silhouette characters, immortalizing them in a weird world of pattern and shadow. We were very excited about the response to the workshop and if you missed out (and you are in London this weekend) then you can join us again this Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th for more shadow play! We hope you can make it. Images from Tuesday can be viewed on our Flickr page.
We would like to thank Gareth, Annette, Sarah and Rosie for all their brilliant help and expertise!

23.3.11

exhibition in Leipzig


Hello, the sun is shining on Berlin, which makes the city look a hundred times more inviting.. I am on the search for a studio still and have been looking in many odd places, mainly basements without light, and now Im hoping to find something with light so that I can actually work. But tomorrow,Thursday, Im heading back to Leipzig to see an exhibition by a friend, Steve Viezens in Gallery Kleindienst, which would translate into gallery "small service". The same night there's also an opening in Gallery B2 with the artist group VIP that I really like so this should be fun. Apart from that I am only too happy to see the spring coming since I have been ill for most of the last three months and I hope that will finally come to an end now.

Greetings to you guys in London, from me at a very big, strangely built and home made working desk in Berlin, our "livingroom" has turned into an office.

21.3.11

The Cut



Luke made a new animation while I was away... I think it's brilliant. Have a peek.

14.3.11

distinguished animator


Joachim just showed me this at breakfast and it's great! So I thought I'd throw that into your preparation for the workshops.

It is a 1927 animation from german animator Oskar Fischinger . He also made other beautiful films with forms and patterns and some of the first music videos ever, so well worth to have a look at! It sucks that Im not in London and can be a part of this workshop and shadow play, but I bet you will have a good time. Well, last night we came back to Berlin and now we are listening to the excellent cd from Lime Headed Dog, trying to keep a bit of the London feeling alive. But it's nice to be back home, there's a lot to do and my fingers are itching, I want to work.. but trying to focus while working on a table balancing on banana boxes is very hard so Im hoping that either we build a table this week or I finally get into the studio that I want to rent and can get started there before my head explode. Better get started but thank you guys for the great time in London, again! I wish I had a Wellcome trust library just around the corner here and that my home was in the Barbican but then again, can't have it all. Have a look at the animation, it's great! ciao.

11.3.11

Distinguished bits and pieces


Some of the beginnings for our workshop at Pick Me Up...

3.3.11

Elephant Launch and Shadows Galore



The brilliant Studio at the Elephant is open again and launching tomorrow from 6pm with mask-making, Laurie's next shadow puppet show, music and lovely people. Over the next few months the space will also be an open studio and exciting space hosting some residencies and workshops, including one with Plats. Should be grand...