Gil Scott Heron

RIP Gil Scott Heron

Makes this video a bit darker still: http://youtu.be/adq_e_NSzQ8
But then you can listen to it with the heavy beat and appreciate him another way... http://youtu.be/WiuorrXsngM

Laurie at Taktal

A still of Death from Laurie's show at Taktal at Testbed last Saturday. Twas lovely... Acapella interludes and love and sex in metaphor and some really lovely intricate shadow scenes. Death was a particular beaut.


My camera died, so I poached this photo from here but there should be video and more stills floating around.

Yto Barrada and Shaun Tan

I went to see a really nice exhibition tonight, Yto Barrada at the Deutsche Guggenheim, she has been nominated to Deutsche Bank artist of the year, her film "handed-down" was great and I liked the large size of the images, 100x100 mainly, although some of the things portrayed were rather small, like paper cut ups for dresses, or a wall with traces from picture frames. Mainly images from Tanger where she lives, I found them beautiful, here.
Then I came home, early, because I fell of my bike today and felt kind off tired of my clumsiness, but on the telephone my mum told me that Shaun Tan, above, has won the ALMA prize and is coming to give a speech in Vimmerby, my tiny hometown, on Saturday. So I looked him up, here, and I would love to see his books, the drawings look great, so for once there is a cultural activity in Vimmerby that might be interesting! well well, incredible.

weekend

hello! that above is my studio, or a part of it, it's the wall that I rebuild and try to make photographs in front off, on the other side is now a giant rather ugly sofa that we picked up yesterday and from the window in the distance I can see the tv-tower at Alexanderplats. I hope you guys can come and visit me there soon! Tonight there is an opening at a gallery here called Reception, it's the Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri and I think there could be some nice works there, I like the gallery although it is maybe a little bit too small, but it seems like an interesting place. In the last week I have had some kind of eyeinfection os I have been rather dizzy and trying to cycle when everything is out of focus and in tunnelvision is not really the best idea, now I have a pair of glasses so I can kind of see and it's only a few days until I can wear the contact lenses again, this brilliant invention, can't wait. I am trying to make photographs but it is hard when your vision is all blurred. But now I will go to the market at the Canal and see if I can find some cheap fabric for background material and then to a store to try and rent two costumes, there's a lot of organizing and finding to be done, but that's the good part. Also because Arnold is again in the media light, we watched a great documentary last night, Pumping Iron from 1975,
I can only recomend it.. Bodybuilding intrigues at it's best. What an odd world this extreme bodybuildning. And how incredibly strange that this self loving youg musclemachine went on to be the Guvenor of California.
So, I hope you guys in London town have a good weekend in front of you too, ciao!

more triangles!

Lovely Manu & Sabine's new mural in Vienna, and their soon to be backdrop for lots of baby family photos...

Sketchbook Thailand

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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..

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 16^th 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/

more fooood.

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

Finally Got It Together

Fabulously Finished. For now.

Check out

Katherineannerose.com

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...

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.

Thailand Sketchbook #3

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.

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!

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.

The Cut

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