The present is bleak, the future is bleaker
by kim bo huy
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Pick Me Up graphic arts festival cancelled, Somerset House announces
Somerset House has announced it will not continue its annual graphic arts festival, Pick Me Up. The exhibition has been a showcase for established collectives and studios as well as emerging artists in the illustration and graphic design fields since 2010.
According to a statement from the show’s original curator, Somerset House has cancelled the popular event to “focus on new projects”.
Claire Catterall, director of exhibitions at the venue and original curator of Pick Me Up, said: “I am immensely proud of Pick Me Up’s seven-year run and how it became an established event in the graphic art scene’s cultural calendar. It is heartening to see how the public has become more and more engaged with illustration and graphic design, and so many wonderful festivals and events springing up around the UK since the first Pick Me Up in 2010.
“With a host of new champions for this community, we feel the time has come to focus on new projects which are equally energetic and exciting, and look forward to championing great work from new artistic communities through our public programme.
“Although we say goodbye to Pick Me Up, we remain committed to providing a platform for the graphic arts through our diverse programme of exhibitions, talks and events. We will continue to work with many of the artists and designers who we supported through Pick Me Up over the years. We have an impressive group of alumni who have gone onto great things and we will certainly keep a keen eye on what they go on to achieve in the future!”
The last Pick Me Up took place in spring 2016, with a visual identity by Hato.
The institution recently opened Somerset House Studios, its own in-house affordable workspace for creatives.
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Curve
Winner of ‘Best Short’ awards at both Fantastic Fest and Sitges in 2016, Tim Egan’s 10-min Horror Curve is a dark, minimalist, and truly unsettling film. Simple in premise, but immeasurable in impact, prepare yourself for what is set to be one of the most tense and unforgettable shorts you’ll witness in 2017.
Reminiscent of one of my favourite long-shorts (if an almost 50-minute film can really be classified as a short?), Shinya Tsukamoto Haze, Curve is at its most powerful when putting you inside the headspace of its doomed protagonist. An uncompromising, physical watch, Egan’s film sends shivers down your spine as you imagine your own fingernails desperately clawing to that unforgiving concrete, in hope of getting any kind of traction. It’s really hard not to watch Curve without setting your mind racing about what you’d attempt in that situation – however horrifying and hopeless it might be!
Taking just 8 hours to write, from first concept to shooting script, Curve was inspired by two key moments in the director’s life – the first being hit by a car and the second a conversation with a depressed friend.
“I still remember the feeling of wet tarmac under my fingers” Egan recalls when describing his lucky escape after being knocked into the centre lane of busy traffic, where he gripped the asphalt preparing to be struck by a second car in a matter of seconds. Whilst this first experience was an undeniable physical one for the writer/director, the second influencing experience was a much more mental one.
“She said the earth opened up beneath her and the rest of her day was simply about holding on by sheer force of tension”
Describing a conversation he had with a friend struggling with grief, where she explained that “the only good moments of her day being the seconds after she woke up”, Egan obviously had some more symbolic intentions coursing under the surface of his thoughts when writing Curve. “Her mind was clear and at peace for a few seconds before she remembered her pain”, he recalls. “Then grief rushed in, a feeling not unlike vertigo. She said the earth opened up beneath her and the rest of her day was simply about holding on by sheer force of tension”.
Despite knowing this particular influence on Egan’s script, Curve feels like a film better left unscrutinised. Yes we could talk about all the metaphors (or is it allegory?) in the scenario of a bloody woman clinging to the precipice of life. But Egan’s is a short best enjoyed without all this bullshit. A film best enjoyed in the moment, a film best enjoyed for its raw, uncompromising approach – however uncomfortable that may be.
Samara Scott depicts night-time detritus for Art on the Underground’s Night Tube series
Artist Samara Scott has created the first artwork in a new Art on the Underground commission series for the Night Tube pocket map. The artist – known for her pools of water filled with the detritus of modern culture – has created a photographic collage of night-time-inspired items in cross-section, suspended in way that makes them seem otherworldly.
The items include cut electrical cables, batteries, an open lipstick, a felt tip pen, a bike light, a screw, a USB and a squeezed lemon, which were captured on a domestic scanner. True to Samara’s raw approach, the sweeping purple background was apparently created by shining a light on to an Ikea bag, while the dust on the scanner surface was left to add depth and movement to the image. Much like her existing work, it uses everyday products that surround our lives, depicted as simultaneously grotesque and beautiful.
The map will be released tomorrow (Thursday 15 December) with a special edition print also available. It coincides with the launch of the 24-hour Piccadilly line.
Kiera Blakey, head curator for Art on the Underground, says the new series is “a brilliant opportunity to support early career London-based artists, providing them with the opportunity to make work for our vast audience across the city. Samara made this work specifically for the pocket map format, thinking carefully about scale, function and distribution. That’s why the piece works so well in this medium”.
Artist Spotlight: Samantha Wall
Carl Burton is an artist and animator based out of New York City. We featured his award-winning animated short “Shelter” a while back and now he’s just released a new game called “ISLANDS”!
Described as a “surreal trip through the mundane”, familiar scenes become strange as you work to unlock hidden ecosystems within 10 different environments. Perhaps more art than game, it’s definitely a unique experience! Check out more images below.
We also have 4 promo codes to download the app for free! Just leave a comment with your current favourite iPhone game and we’ll pick 4 commenters on Friday!
Oakland United at Fox Theatre
The fire last week in Oakland has been a huge shock to the artist community here in the Bay Area with ripples far beyond. Sadly, as is often the case, it took a tragedy of this magnitude to start a dialogue about the issues and conditions that precipitated it.
I first discovered electronic music in the ‘90s through the Bay Area warehouse party scene. Later I moved back to Sacramento where I started making music myself and playing my first shows at underground parties. I owe a lot to the community and history of this area and it’s disheartening to know that fewer and fewer artists have the opportunity to benefit from this richly diverse community.
This Wednesday I’ll be participating in the Oakland United event at the Fox Theater. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Gray Area Foundation For The Arts Oakland Fire Relief Fund. Christopher Willits, whose Overlap Studio is based in Oakland, and I will be collaborating on a short DJ set and a lot of other local artists will be playing as well.
I’ve created this poster to promote the event and as a tribute to the victims of the fire. We will be selling prints at the show and online afterwards, proceeds of which will go to the Fire Relief Fund.
I hope you can support in whatever way you are able; more information about the event and the relief fund can be found at Oakland United.
To donate directly please visit Grey Area.
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Terekke: I Want to Know What Love Is
Terekke reworks Mariah Carey’s cover of I Want to Know What Love Is
“It feels sad to lose people, even if you might not have known them all personally, it’s still a very heavy feeling. DIY spaces have been so absolutely central to my life creatively, communally and spiritually that it hurts to the core to see friends lose their friends. It’s more than i can put into words.”
to those in Oakland, Rest In Power.
– Terekke
Donate to the Oakland Ghost Ship fire victims.
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