Liverpool Biennial - Part 1

Last week I was able to take a gander at some of the Liverpool Biennial, themed around the notion of hospitality. I really enjoyed a lot of the work I saw, so I'm here to shove some photos in your pretty faces!

First me and my friend Jen (one of the lovely ladies behind the Nottingham-based curatorial organisation 'The Cutting Room') visited FACT on Wood Street. We were greeted with an array of posters on show - explaining the rules to a variety of games that we could play; completing one of these games meant we could take a poster home with us! Games included a pillow fight, slow-motion fighting, keeping a feather up in the air using a blanket, as well as many others! Jen and I tried out a game in which you threw a life-size doll (very elaborately dressed) up in the air…

It was quite fun randomly throwing a guy in the air - I think its a good stress reliever, I may get one for my room!
Here is some shots of a few of the posters on show:

The last poster was my favourite - it was a board game inspired by the classic game, Snakes and Ladders!
This work was created by Pedro Reyes and was called 'Melodrama and Other Games'. It created a nice relaxed atmosphere, as everyone is just playing these silly games and letting their hair down a bit; much like what happens when you play games at a friend's house!

Featured as gigantic wall decorations across the bottom floor of the FACT gallery is Jemima Wyman's 'Collective Coverings, Communal Skin'.

The artist uses second-hand camouflage material and weaves them around hula hoops - turning material that is associated with violence into objects that are playful and comforting. Visitors to the gallery can help with this project by sitting down and constructing some of these hula hoops themselves!

The next stop was 28-32 Wood Street (in which the Open Eye Gallery used to be located) to look at Ming Wong's 'Making Chinatown'.

I was quite surprised at this exhibition, I wasn't sure what to expect and I really enjoyed it! Ming Wong uses Roman Polanski's film 'Chinatown' to explore the stereotypical role of the 'Chinese detective' within cinema. The exhibition includes various scenes in which the artist plays multiple roles to explore this concept (at least thats what I gathered - I apologise if I'm wrong! I've found a much through explanation of the work by the artist himself HERE). The exhibit also featured scores of lovely posters:

We then made our way to the Bluecoat and were greeted with a little caravan in the courtyard, which aptly goes by the name of 'The Caravan Gallery'.

The caravan held a large number of photos taken at various locations showing humble signs of hospitality (or some cases the opposite of hospitality!) in public places such as in local cafes or on street signs. A lot of the photos gave me a good chuckle and a book was available to buy from the caravan. Its definitely worth a look!

Within the Bluecoat were a number of exhibits featuring work by John Akomfrah, Dora Garcia and Jakob Kolding:

Akomfrah's work is unfortunately not pictured here as the room in which his work was being shown was very busy! But his work was very engaging - using three large screens to project different scenes, I found it a very interesting technique (I wonder if this could take over the 3D trend currently in cinemas?)

My favourite piece of work in the Bluecoat was by an artist called Sun Xun entitled 'Ancient Film'. He created large hand-drawn pieces as well as animations (therefore I loved it instantly) exploring the traditional forms of hospitality within China.

A room on the first floor of the Bluecoat hosted the artist's animations - the room was dimmed with the animations playing on two large walls (acting almost like spotlights) accompanied by his gigantic hand-drawn scenes which helped to create an engulfing atmosphere. I really enjoyed it, and became generally excited by the use of animation (especially in a hand-drawn style) in an art gallery! I must have seen animation in an art gallery before, but I felt it was employed particularly innovatively with Sun Xun's work!

So there we go, that is Part 1 of my Liverpool Biennial Day! I will post Part 2 soon, which will be all about the Tate Liverpool's showcase of art work. (Psst, psst, its pretty AWESOME!)
The Liverpool Biennial is on until 25th November, so you have got bags of time to check out all the exhibits, I seriously recommend going to the ones I've mentioned cause they were pretty darn cool! You can find out more about the Biennial by visiting their website here: Liverpool Biennial Website

A Love to Flush For

Hey ho! Remember that short comic I was drawing a month or so ago? Well, I finished it! I submitted it to the new independent comic/magazine, Off Life a few weeks ago, but unfortunately my comic wasn't chosen to feature in their publication; so I thought I'd put it on my bloggy blog instead! (You can also find it on my website!)

Its a tragic love story…you'll laugh…you'll cry…and you may click off this blog in disgust, but there it is in all its glory!

The first issue of Off Life is now available in a number of shops, cafes, etc in London and Bristol - you can find a stockist near you by checking out the Off Life website.
And if you don't have the fortune to live in these areas, they also have an online version on their website too! Theres some talented artists featured - including an interview with Tom Gauld! So go take a looksy!

Kin launch

Thats right! I'm back! Within a week - it must be a full moon!
Just a quick post to say that I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the recent Kin launch event at the Camp & Furnace the Thursday just gone.

Here are just some of my photo spoils:

It was a pretty hip party!

This event was to celebrate the re-launch of the liverpool company Kin's brand spanking new look and website: kin2kin.co.uk
The website was designed by the clever new media people in my office at Splinter Design, and they've done an amazing job! They also organised a lot of aspects of the launch party, such as the groovy badges, lanyards, drink tokens - even massive rhubarb & custard flavoured rock!

So if you haven't already, and you're a creative in Liverpool or are looking for a creative FROM Liverpool then get your faces over to kin2kin.co.uk!
I'm on there, and I'm following a bunch of cool people who you could follow too! So go have a look! Nafftastic on kin2kin

Be Hospitable - Opening night!

Heeeeeeeeey! 'Be Hospitable' opened last night! And it was awesome! Do you want to see some photos? HERES SOME PHOTOS!!

The swanky flyer for the show:

I really liked this wall of postcards - were guests were encouraged to take one for themselves. A lovely idea and a nice selection of designs to choose from! (Which are all themed on hospitality).
(Psst psst, me and my boyfriend slightly helped in putting up the postcards a few days before the show! FACT!)

One of my favourite pieces! Its an interpretation of a popular dish in Germany called Currywurst - and its made out of towels! Its pretty cool, and the chips look so tasty!

The word 'welcome' created out of pins.

A piece done by a suave illustrator whom I've had the pleasure to work with at Splinter Design called Stephen Chan! You can check out more of his amazing work at his website OVER HERE!

Heres a collection of some of the work - and thats mine peeping out at the bottom of the photo!

Wa-hey! There it is! The second piece I've created themed around the Channel 4 show 'Come Dine with Me'! (You may have seen my first piece a couple of years ago which was for my boyfriend's birthday) In this piece I was trying to explore rudeness/a guest's true opinion of their host's hospitality; and I think 'Come Dine with Me' shows a great cross section of what a mix of people are thinking... so I thought, 'Yeah, I'll do that!' So it was done!

This was another of my favourite pieces in the show - it was a piece of actual collage and it was made by a lady named Amy Husband. She illustrates children's books and I remember seeing her work about 5 or so years ago at the JMU degree show (it was this particular degree show that swayed me to choose JMU as my uni as I loved all the work I saw there!) and you can see her work by heading on over to her website: Amy Husband's website.

Another great piece by one of the exhibition's curators (one of the members of The Souvenir Collective) Marie Jones! Guests were encouraged to send some Fan or Hate mail to a loved one (using the unique postcards provided) Who doesn't love some voluntary interactivity at an exhibition? Hmmm? Now go look at Marie's work at Kochi Kochi!

Heres some coolio wall art that was created especially for the show, made by faunagraphic

And heres just a few more awesome pieces that you can see if you head on down to the show!

See? See? Its awesome! I thoroughly recommend that you go see it! Right now! Or when you've got time or whatever!
'Be Hospitable' is on at the Camp and Furnace (which is located on Greenland Street, about a 15 minute walk from Liverpool city centre) and its going to be on until the 29th September, so go get your bum bums up there!
(The Camp and Furnace is a very nice bar/exhibition space where you can get a drink and choose from a range of very suave meals to put your face into as well!)
Now fly my pretties! Fly!

The first story I wrote...

Its Sunday, I've just baked two batches of biscuits and I'm watching Come Dine with Me - so its time for another blog post! Whoopee!

I clambered into the attic yesterday to root out a story I wrote when I was a wee child (about 9 years old). It is an account of a family holiday to Tenerife, and I thought I would share some of the amazing illustrations accompanying the one-page chapters of my book! So here goes…

My brother was kind enough to bind my book for me and make a snazzy front cover!

Its funny looking back at drawings you did as a kid, I always thought I did perfect colouring in and that I was being good drawing each individual finger on person's hand!

And this is how I saw myself as a kid! Wowzer!

And here is a couple of extra pictures I found - the following was supposed to be in the style of those painted plates you can get (to go on your wall and such) and it was of one of our pet dogs! (I loved them to pieces!)

I also went to a pretty religious school, and we got a piece of work once were we had to illustrate each stage of Jesus' crucifixion (gritty stuff!), so heres a couple of my interpretations (I particularly remember feeling like I was experiencing an "art funk" when doing this piece of work!)

So there we have it! Whats especially strange is if you look at any bits of my hand writing in any of these pictures I can say that it has not changed much now that I'm 25! Eeep!

To end the blog post here is just a couple of pluggy plugs! Splinter Design (the place I work!) has designed the new Kin website - a place for the creative people of Liverpool to post their work, be discovered by clients and generally just mingle and meet other like-minded people! And the website was officially launched this week just gone, and I highly recommend that people go check it out cause its pretty darn awesome! Go here to see it and sign up!---> kin2kin.co.uk

And also, the 'Be Hospitable' exhibition I have been mentioning the past few blog posts is approaching ever nearer and opens this Thursday at 5.30pm at the Camp & Furnace! And all are welcome to come and enjoy it! Woo! So come on down on Thursday to see some amazing work for the Liverpool Biennial. You can check out the 'Be Hospitable' website here: Be Hospitable