A Landmark Photographic Exhibition

Exhibition: 10th March – 6th April 2010 Somerset House
Private View: Tuesday, 9th March 2010
Auction: 15th April 2010, Christie’s, King Street, London

The must-see photographic event for London 2010, showcasing the finest 20th and 21st century photography from around the world

For one month only, from 10th March to 6th April 2010, A Positive View returns to showcase an extraordinary range of photography on a truly international scale, under the Royal Patronage of Prince William supporting Crisis, the homelessness charity.

The third edition of this fully curated, museum-scale photographic exhibition, to be held at Somerset House, will bring together more than 100 rare and signed vintage works across almost a century of photography; classic and contemporary works will cross a variety of genres, from still-life, fashion, landscape, portraiture and reportage. It will be followed by a Royal Gala reception and auction at Christie’s on 15th April, in aid of Crisis.

Two outstanding masterpieces by Henri Cartier-Bresson will be on show; his renowned Seville (1933) and the magical Queen Charlotte’s Ball, London (1959). Other highlights will include a rare landscape by Elliot Erwitt, Wyoming Steam-Train Press, (1954); Friends of the Spanish Press (1968) by the winner of the 2007 Venice Biennale Golden Lion, Malick Sidibe, a haunting image from Robert Polidori’s New Orleans series (2006) and Corinne Day’s iconic and first-ever seen photograph of the supermodel Kate Moss, Kate (1990). These will be shown along with a stunning still life of Francis Bacon’s Studio (2001) from Perry Ogden’s 7 Reece Mews series and Wim Wenders’ classic Lounge Painting, Gila Bend, Arizona (1987).

For the first time, A Positive View will also feature work from contemporary artists whose creative practice incorporates photography, with geographically diverse representations from Korea, China, Japan and West Africa.

With signature works by Seydou Keita, Yum Joongho, Bohn-Chang Koo and Weng Fen among others, A Positive View will provide an unusual and interesting opportunity to consider how practitioners beyond Europe and America are working with photography. In another departure, the 2010 edition of A Positive View will also include works by unknown photographers, all clients of the homelessness charity Crisis who have been studying photography at the Crisis Skylight, education, training and employment centres in London and Newcastle.

Exhibition Curator, Nadim Samman states: “As A Positive View benefits people on the margins of society, this exhibition brings together images of a notional ‘centre’ – social icons, home, the West – with peripheral visions. In some cases the display suggests their unsettling interdependence. At the same time, as with previous editions, A Positive View continues to showcase the achievements of leading photographers past and present.”

Each of the works donated by the photographers, or their representatives and estates, have been included in the exhibition following a stringent selection process by A Positive View Patrons, who include Philippe Garner, International Head of Photographs at Christie’s, and Tim Jefferies, Director of Hamilton’s Gallery, with exhibition curator Nadim Samman.

Patron Philippe Garner said: “This exhibition is truly international in scope and represents the contemporary vitality and authority of the photographic medium across many genres. I have spent forty years as a champion of photography and I find it very rewarding to be part of such a stimulating project – one that invites us to celebrate the medium for so very worthwhile a cause.”

The exhibition will be followed by a Royal Gala reception – co-hosted by Barclays Wealth and Vogue – and the charity auction of 100 of the most collectible works at Christie’s London on 15th April 2010 with 100% of the sales proceeds going to Crisis.

Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “We are delighted that the third edition of A Positive View will be in aid of Crisis. The quality of the international work donated has been extraordinary and the generosity of the photographers and their representatives without rival. The exhibition also poses a unique opportunity for our clients’ creative achievements to be recognised on an international platform. Prince William’s interest in homelessness and generous involvement as patron is a key ingredient to what promises to be the most impressive A Positive View yet.”

A 200-page fully-illustrated coffee-table book will be published in March, and will be available for purchase from Somerset House, Christie’s internationally, specialist art bookshops and online (£25, March 2010). A limited edition, signed and numbered hardback edition will also be available (£100, March 2010).

To date works have been donated by photographers or their representatives below:

Berenice Abbott
Bryan Adams
Miles Aldridge
Dick Arentz
Eve Arnold
Richard Avedon
Enqrique Badulescu
Roger Ballen
Bae Bein-U
Lillian Bassman
Cecil Beaton
Denise Bellon
Harry Benson
Rut Blees
Liu Bolin
Julian Broad
Richard Burbridge
Edward Burtynsky
Byun Soon-Choel
Bob Carlos Clarke
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Cho Seihon
Chun Kyung-Yoo
Jim Cooke
Tom Craig
Corinne Day
Patrick Demarchelier
Susan Derges
Robert Doisneau
Terrence Donovan
Arthur Elgort
Elliott Erwitt
Weng Fen
Tierney Gearon
Oberto Gili
Goo Kang-Hong
Brian Girffin
Roderik Henderson
Thurston Hopkins
Horst P Horst
Frank Horvat
Tom Hunter
Stephen Inggs
Yousuf Karsh
Seydou Keita
Steven Klein
William Klein
Koo Bohn-Chang
Jacques-Henri Lartigue
Kurt Markus
Jean-Pierre Masclet
Don McCullin
Mert and Marcus
Ryan McGinley
Shelia Metzner
Min Byung-Hyun
Abelardo Morell
Helmut Newton
Simon Norfolk
Perry Ogden
Oh Hein-Kuhn
Gwon Osang
Norman Parkinson
Irving Penn
Matthew Pillsbury
Robert Polidori
Wan Qingsong
Mark Quinn
Rankin
Herb Ritts
Grace Robertson
George Rodger
Willy Ronis
Malik Sidibe
Peggy Sirota
Manit Sriwanichpoom
Mikhail Subotzky
John Swannell
Juergen Teller
Mario Testino
Tessa Traeger
Ellen von Unworth
Albert Watson
Bruce Weber
Wim Wenders
Amiran White
Yoo Hyum-Mi
Tim Walker
Angela Williams
Richard Young
Yum Joongho

Editor’s Notes:

A Positive View
This is the third edition of A Positive View, a photography exhibition and auction founded by Andrew Page.

A Positive View was first held in London during 1994, sponsored by Vogue. The exhibition was held at the Saatchi Gallery and the auction was hosted by Sotheby’s. The event raised nearly £250k, benefiting the Chicken Shed Theatre Company. The Princess of Wales was Patron.

This success was followed by a second A Positive View in 2000, sponsored by Getty Images. The exhibition was held at the Atlantis Gallery in the Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, and the auction was hosted by Christie’s, raising almost £250k for national youth charity Fairbridge. Princess Alexandra was Patron.

Each exhibition featured over 200 donated and signed works, 120 of which were selected for auction. Images were attracted from 14 countries including the UK, America, Canada, Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Australia, India, Brazil, Peru and South Africa.

Works were donated by photographers, agents, galleries and foundations representing major names such as; Parkinson, Snowdon, Erwitt, Hoyningen-Huene, Stern, Weber, Lucas, Alvarez-Bravo, Sirota, Demarchelier, Elgort, O’Neill, Lartigue, Ritts, Hanson, Deakin, Lagerfeld, Weegee, Penn, Weston, Horvat, Karsh, Miller, Hardy, Brandt, Salgado, Bailey, Arnold, Arentz, Moon, Beaton, Donovan, Lategan.

Crisis
Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing services and campaigning for change.

The charity’s award winning education, training and employment centres, Crisis Skylight, offer practical and creative workshops to over 3000 homeless people a year in an inspiring environment together with formal learning opportunities that lead to qualifications and finding work. The wide range of courses include art, drama, photography, literacy, numeracy and IT, help people to restore their well-being, regain confidence, develop their skills and raise aspirations.

Members of the photography class in both London and Newcastle have been trained to such a high standard that a selection of the best photographs produced will be included in the exhibition.

www.crisis.org.uk

Nadim Samman – Curator
Nadim Samman read Philosophy at University College London before completing a Master’s degree at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he is currently pursuing doctoral research on the reception of post-Soviet art in the West.

He has curated exhibitions featuring critically acclaimed artists and photographers including Tarkovsky, Parr, Teller, Ray Jones, Sutkus, Ponomarev and Makarevich. His writing has appeared in publications including The Art Newspaper, Contemporary, Art India, Asian Affairs, Erotic Review, WestEast (Hong Kong), and Naked Punch.

He has previously lectured at the 798 Beijing Biennale (2009), The School of Oriental and African Studies, The Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Christie’s and The Courtauld Institute of Art.

Sponsors
The profile and legacy of previous A Positive View exhibitions have attracted an impressive line-up of blue chip sponsors and supporters ensuring all overheads are covered. 100% of all income will benefit Crisis

Sponsored by Barclays Wealth
Gallery partner GlaxoSmithKlein
Book partner Samsung
International carrier FedEx

Philippe Garner – Christie’s
Philippe Garner is a Director of Christie’s and the firm’s International Head of Photographs and 20th Century Decorative Art & Design. He has been professionally involved with photographs since co-ordinating the 1971 auction that marked the launch of this subject in the international art market. In the intervening decades he has brought to auction a great diversity of material including major collections such as those of Marie Thérèse and André Jammes, Paul Walter, Gert Elfering and Leon Constantiner. Philippe is well known as a passionate advocate of the medium and has published widely on various aspects of photography that particularly interest him. He has curated exhibitions in London, Paris and Tokyo.

Contacts:

For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Natasha Hoare: natasha@ideageneration.co.uk
Natalie Tacq: natalie@ideageneration.co.uk
A Positive View website
Crisis website
Somerset House website

Vauxhall Motors announces the completion of a landmark photographic commission by Seba Kurtis

A new body of portraits by photographer Seba Kurtis explores the rich diversity of the British population in a new commission by Vauxhall Motors

Photographer Seba Kurtis first arrived in Europe as an illegal immigrant from Argentina. He followed the dream of a perfect life that attracts many to first world countries, considering Europe as a Promised Land. In this stunning series of portraits commissioned by Vauxhall, Kurtis explores his pre-conceptions of British people whilst simultaneously re-inventing what it means to be British in today’s multicultural society.

Fascinated by stereotypical characters like the English Rose and the British Gentleman, Kurtis wanted to analyse how their modern re-incarnation differs from the original, drawing a parallel between the idealised classic British life imagined as an immigrant, and the everyday reality.

In this cathartic work he travelled to London, Manchester, Blackpool, Cheshire, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bradford, Rhyl and Brighton, where he spent days shooting on a large format camera, documenting hundreds of people. In his personal re-interpretation of classic British characters, Kurtis captures an insightful snapshot of the UK today whilst getting to know the people who are now part of the country’s population.

People like Agata, born in the UK from Polish parents, who spent her childhood in Britain. She moved back to Poland as a teenager, but has now returned to London as a young woman. Agata belongs to two countries and embraces two different cultures; she suffers an identity crisis, a situation mirrored in Kurtis’ portrait, where the young woman is suspended in a dreamy reality and yet conveys her determination to succeed in life.

Gemma was born and bred in the UK. Having left her family, she chose to be a traveller, and makes a living out of performing with her two horses in circus-style events. The portrait depicts the English girl in her bright pink costume, jarring against her dilapidated surrounding.

Sata, an Iranian Kurd, known as Star to his friends, was only 14 when he escaped Iran by swimming to Turkey. It took him two years to get to the UK, during which time he was homeless in Greece, France and Italy. After 6 attempts he finally managed to enter the UK hidden in a lorry, four years ago. He will not be able to see his family ever again, and should he return to Iran, he could face hanging. He still doesn’t have a passport, but has been granted permission to stay in the UK. He works in a kebab shop in Cheshire.

Ahmed, a grocer who has lived in the UK for over 20 years, Jordy, from Manchester, who has been raised in foster care and is now a social worker, Sweet, who works illegally 16 hours a day to support her three children in South America, and many others, contribute to the series of portraits reflecting Kurtis’ view of the UK: multicultural, illegal, aspirational and, moreover, deeply human.

As a trademark of his work, Kurtis purposely ruins the films whilst still undeveloped, exposing them to the sunlight for a few seconds. This action results in the photographs taking on imperfections and light, symbolising both a positive message of hope and a reminder that the dream of a perfect life is always to be balanced with reality.

Winner of the Vauxhall Collective Photography category Seba Kurtis was chosen by a panel of industry experts for his ability to create powerful and yet delicate work, drawing from his own personal experience to reflect on universally shared emotions. Commissioned by Vauxhall Motors to create a body of photographs on the theme “reinventing British classics”, he has produced a series of portraits capturing the essence of British people today; whether they are born and bred in the UK, second generation residents or illegal immigrants.

Editor’s Notes:

Seba Curtis
Seba Kurtis is an artist and photographer who grew up in Buenos Aires. He studied journalism and was a political activist. With the political difficulties in Argentina, he left for Europe and remained in Spain as an
illegal immigrant for over 5 years. This experience became the main inspiration for his work, an exploration
of the dynamics behind irregular migration and the subsequent impact on culture, society and the individual.
His recent work 700 miles, a series of portraits of illegal Hispanic immigrants living on the US border, explores the identity of these often nameless people and celebrates the story behind the sitter. In Drowned, Kurtis highlighted the plight of tens of thousands of Africans who head for the Canary Islands every year. Many are suspected to have drowned off the coast of Spain, Kurtis recorded scenes around the Canary Islands and dropped the negatives into the ocean. The images that washed up on the shore are the images that survived.

Vauxhall Collective
The Vauxhall Collective is one of the most ambitious commerciallyfunded creative support schemes in the UK. Members of the Vauxhall Collective are supported financially to carry out projects, consequently raising their profile in the industry and in the media, and giving them the resources to fulfil their creative potential. In previous years Vauxhall successfully ran the VX Collective based on collaboration between members. Previous members have included Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Kelsey, Simon Hasan, Ben Rivers, Gayle Chong Kwan, Matthew Darbyshire and Gideon Reeling. With an ongoing commitment to championing style and design in the UK, British car marque Vauxhall is a keen supporter of creativity through additional initiatives such as the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair 2009 and the Vauxhall Fashion Scout. Latest models include Insignia, the 2009 European Car of the Year and New Astra, a car that shares the same design language as Insignia and that will be built in Ellesmere Port, Liverpool. Vauxhall is reinventing the car as we know it with Ampera. Vauxhall’s first electric car. The wheels are turned electronically at all times and all speeds and can be plugged into any household 240v outlet for charging.

Contacts:

For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Marta Bogna: marta@ideageneration.co.uk
Vauxhall Collective website
Vauxhall website
Seba Kurtis website

Festival of light to become a regular event for Durham as Lumiere is hailed as spectacular success

Producers of extraordinary live events Artichoke announced today, Wednesday 18th November, that Lumiere would become a biennial event in Durham, after at the spectacular success of the festival which took place over four consecutive nights, 12th – 15th November.

At least 75,000 people thronged the city’s streets during the festival, filling the city’s restaurants and cafes, trains and buses, and every available parking space. Staged as part of Durham’s bid for UK capital of culture in 2013, Lumiere is the largest festival of its kind to take place in the UK, and included no less than seven new commissions and more than 50 UK and international artists. Lumiere is part of the 2009 Sky Arts Artichoke Season.

Festival highlights included the brand new commission Crown of Light, a collaboration between projection artist, Ross Ashton, composer and arranger Robert Ziegler, and sound designer John Del’Nero, whose remarkable son et lumiere projected onto the Cathedral exterior enthralled crowds. Inside the Cathedral, United Visual Artists had recreated Chorus, 8 swinging pendulums of light suspended in the Cathedral nave: thousands filed underneath this and then into the Cathedral cloisters to experience Daan Roosegaarde’s Dune, an installation of illuminated flowers turning this way and that in response to movement and sound. Durham’s dramatic architecture and landscapes were transformed by artworks and installations by Ron Haselden, FIELD, Speirs and Major Associates, Simon Corder, Creatmosphere, Mia Kosminksy, Bureau of Silly Ideas, Filament, Air Vag, Tae Gon Kim, and Tim Etchells, while French theatrical companies, Quidams and La Salamandre led magical processions through the nooks and crannies of the city’s medieval streets.

Simon Henig, Leader of Durham County Council said: “Lumiere has been a spectacular success for Durham. We are delighted that Artichoke agreed to work with us and we are now talking to them about a biennial festival of light, one that would continue to forge links with artists and communities throughout the county, up to and including 2013″.

Helen Marriage, Artistic Director of Artichoke said: “We were really delighted to have been invited to produce Lumiere in Durham. When our local co-producer David Bilton of dgb events came up with the idea of a collaboration, we were immediately inspired both by the very strong partnerships that exist within this extraordinary city as well as its wonderful architecture and landscapes.”

Durham County Council in partnership with the University and the Cathedral is rightly proud of its historic cultural heritage with the world renowned World Heritage Site. All Durham’s institutions are backing the city’s bid to win the newly designated UK City of Culture for 2013.

Artichoke’s involvement, together with principal sponsor Sky Arts, meant that an ambitious programme designed to animate every nook and cranny of the city was made possible. Sky Arts co-commissioned the Sky Walkers – living artworks that took to the streets to distribute information to passers-by. The channel will also create a series of short films following ten of the Lumiere artists, exploring the inspiration behind their installations and the technical challenges involved, as well as a 30-minute documentary of the whole event to air in December.

“We were delighted to see how Lumiere came to life on the streets of Durham,” comments John Cassy, director of Sky Arts. “We’d been following the artistic process of many of the artists involved, and so to see their work realised, and to see the thousands of people that were engaged and inspired by it, was truly exciting.”

Lumiere forms part of North East England’s world-class programme of festivals and events, developed by culture10. Supported by Durham County Council, Lumiere is also a measure of Durham’s scale of commitment to developing the city’s cultural offering for its communities and visitors, underlined by the recent announcement of its intention to bid to be the first UK City of Culture in 2013.

Lumiere will air on Sky Arts 1 HD and Sky Arts1 on Sunday 8th December at 7pm and 15th December at 6.30pm.

Editor’s Notes

Artichoke
Artichoke is a registered charity, funded by Arts Council England. Artichoke works with the best creative minds to produce extraordinary shows that live in the memory forever, and believes that the arts should take place not only behind the closed doors of theatres and art galleries, but also in public places. In May 2006, Artichoke presented the biggest piece of free theatre ever seen in the UK, Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant. The story of the little girl giant and the 30 foot tall elephant won the hearts of the nation and the press claimed a million people filled the streets of London to watch. In 2008 the company joined London and New York by means of Paul St George’s Telectroscope, and people gathered day and night on both sides of the Atlantic to reunite lost family members or simply to catch a glimpse of life across the pond. Also in 2008 the company mounted the flagship event for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations, with La Machine’s 50-foot high mechanical spider and her adventures in the city. And in 2009 the company has produced Antony Gormley’s 100-day long invasion of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, One & Other.

Sky Arts has generously committed to working with Artichoke for the next two years. Their support will enable Artichoke to develop new opportunities for artists to create work across the country and new ways to delight, surprise and challenge audiences everywhere.

About Durham Festivals and Events
In 2008, Durham hosted the award-winning Enlightenment, its first-ever international light based arts festival featuring outdoor arts installations by Asian and British artists and inspired by the county’s religious and industrial heritage. 30,000 visitors saw Durham’s bridges, river, landmarks and shop fronts transformed into a stunning exhibition of light based art. BRASS: Durham International Festival is one of the world’s fastest growing festivals celebrating global brass music. Over the past three years, Durham has welcomed musicians from five continents and more than 20 countries and annual audiences in excess of 80,000 for two weeks of free street performances and big band concerts in July. At the same time, work is underway to revive the lost tradition of Mystery plays in Durham. These biblical stories are being reinterpreted through contemporary media by local Durham artists under the direction of the city’s Gala Theatre. Durham’s Book Festival attracts leading literary figures each year to celebrate the power of the written word. In 2008, the festival was headlined by best-selling authors, Kate Atkinson (Whitbread prize-winner – Behind the Scenes at the Museum) and Bernard Cornwell (Sharpe series), TV comedian, author and activist Mark Thomas, and veteran BBC War correspondent Kate Adie.

Sky Arts: On Screen, Online, Onstage, and On the Streets
Lumiere is produced as part of a major two-year sponsorship with Artichoke, the ground-breaking company that brings art to the streets of towns and cities across the UK. Sky Arts is one of the largest corporate sponsors of the arts in the UK. With four arts channels in over 9 million customer homes across the UK and Ireland, Sky Arts has doubled output to 36 hours every day of the week on Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2, with Sky Arts 1 HD and Sky Arts 2 HD offering the best programmes in glorious high definition Sky supports the arts and make them accessible off as well as on screen, to the broadest possible audience. Recent programme highlights include The Book Show – the UK’s only television programme dedicated to books, hosted by Mariella Frostrup; Songbook, a series on some of the greatest songwriters of the day; and Sky Arts Theatre Live! which saw Sky Arts return live theatre to television for the first time in twenty years.

Partners
Lumiere is produced by Artichoke in partnership with Sky Arts and with the support of Arts Council England. It is part of the 2009 Sky Arts Artichoke season and forms part of North East England’s world-class programme of festivals and events developed by culture10. The event is generously supported by Durham County Council and culture10, and a range of other sponsors and supporters including the European Union, Lumalive, JCB, Durham University and Durham Cathedral. Artichoke was invited to produce a large-scale event in Durham at the suggestion of Newcastle-based producer DGB Events.

About the City of Culture 2013 Bid
Durham’s culture bid is led by Durham County Council, in partnership with County Durham Partnership, Visit County Durham and Durham City Vision. The bid will centre around the following strands: ‘Cultural City – Cultural County’: a series of activities reconnecting the communities of the county with its capital city and vice-versa, reenergising the City as the economic, social and creative heart of the county. ‘Creative Durham’: a series of activities designed to enhance the county’s cultural life, encouraging community participation in cultural activities and promote Durham as an area where creative people can live and work. ‘Festival Durham’: an ambitious programme of events and festivals which will take Durham into the next decade, cementing its position as a true cultural destination. The new UK City of Culture competition was proposed to enable towns and cities to access the type of culture-led benefits that Liverpool achieved as European Capital of Culture in 2008. Evidence of the impact to Liverpool in 2008 can be accessed at www.impact08.net . Durham will be the first predominantly rural area to bid to take advantage of the benefits culture-led regeneration brings. Funding for the proposed bid comes from Performance Award Grant money awarded to local authorities who perform well.

About culture10
Lumiere forms part of North East England’s world-class programme of festivals and events in 2009, managed by culture10. culture10 is an annual curated programme of exceptional cultural events and festivals across NewcastleGateshead and North East England. Established in 2004, it is managed by the culture10 team, funded by Newcastle City Council, Gateshead Council, One North East, Northern Rock Foundation and Arts Council England, North East, working in partnership with NewcastleGateshead Initiative. For further details see www.NewcastleGateshead.com

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Emily Airton: emily@ideageneration.co.uk
Artichoke website
Lumiere website
Durham City of Culture website

A celebration of the life and work of Nat Finkelstein – photojournalist, political activist, fugitive and veteran of the 1960s New York scene

Idea Generation Gallery
20th Jan – 14th Feb
Private View: 19th Jan 6.30pm – 8.30pm

Nat Finkelstein was one of the most respected photojournalists of modern times. Renowned for his iconic and intimate documentation of Andy Warhol’s infamous Factory, and later for his political activism including an allegiance with The Black Panthers that forced him to live abroad for 15 years, Finkelstein remained at the heart of the cultural zeitgeist up until his death aged 76, 2nd October 2009.

This retrospective brings together Finkelstein’s diverse portfolio of work achieved across five decades: from the Factory scenes, to the civil rights and anti-war protests of mid-60s America, to his continuing exploration of the subcultures of 80s and 90s New York; Nat’s photographs not only depict their subjects and scenes, but also provide a visual record of the life and times of the photographer himself.

“When all is said and done, when everything is gone, the photograph is what’s going to remain. The photographer is the producer of history.” Nat Finkelstein

After his expulsion from Brooklyn College where he first studied photography, for his fervent protest at the censorship of a college publication, Finkelstein trained under the legendary art director of Harper’s Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch. It was after meeting Warhol and his band of freaks and followers at a Factory party in 1964 that Finkelstein was to take the most iconic images of his career; chronicling the scenes, names and faces of this underground world.

“I stayed at the factory for close to two years. I watched pop die, I saw punk being born. I participated in a cultural revolution that shook the superstructure of our society.” Nat Finkelstein

Finkelstein captured all the Factory’s faithful inhabitants including Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground and of course Warhol himself, as well as the luminaries whose cultural factions merely collided with the Factory set – Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg, Marcel Duchamp, Bob Dylan and more. His images presented one of the most comprehensive and intimate insights into this exclusive world ever seen: from some of the most intimate and unguarded photographs of Warhol, to hauntingly soul-capturing photographs of Sedgwick and the moment where Warhol met Dylan.

Alongside his work at the Factory, Finkelstein became increasingly involved in the civil rights and anti-war protests of mid-sixties America. A staunch political activist himself, Finkelstein took pictures from beyond the barriers, depicting the spirit of a generation desperate to make a change – a stark contrast to his self-obsessed, fame-hungry Factory subjects.

“I was getting ready to go back into what I considered to be the real world, marching with, fighting for and reporting on the folk who were out there in the streets trying to build a better world for all and not newspaper space for themselves.” Nat Finkelstein

Following a near-fifteen year break from photography, living as a fugitive in the Middle East after fleeing a federal warrant for his arrest resulting from his associations with the Black Panthers, Finkelstein returned to his native New York in 1982 after the charges had been dropped. Ever the intrepid cultural explorer, Finkelstein remained at the cutting edge of the social extremes, managing the post-punk band Khmer Rouge, and documenting the deviance and debauchery of the club kids of Manhattan’s Limelight club for his 1993 book Merry Monsters.

A photographer whose work now hangs in the permanent collections of some of the world’s leading institutions and museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the V&A in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and the Smithsonian Institute, National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, and has featured in such publications as Life, Time, Vogue, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, The Times, The Observer and Harper’s & Queen, Finkelstein’s archive is brought together for this first ever major retrospective.

Eloise Rowley, Idea Generation Gallery Manager, commented: “Idea Generation Gallery is privileged to be hosting this celebration of Nat’s life and work, a man who always lived at the cultural vanguard, and whose work always managed to be iconic yet genuine. From his unrivalled documentation of the inner-workings of the Factory scene, to his lesser known archives of political, erotica and club scenes, whist straddling various subjects and contexts, his photographs all remain testament to his continued exploration and infiltration of the subcultures of Western society.”

Co-curator and widow of Nat, Elizabeth Finkelstein said: “Nat was thrilled about his upcoming retrospective in London, a city which he loved. A man with a singular vision, From One Extreme to the Other is a poignant tribute to my late husband’s life and work.”

Idea Generation
Idea Generation was founded in 2001 around a simple proposition: find something you enjoy doing – and then try to do it better than anyone else.

Eight years on, Idea Generation now stands as one of the UK’s leading arts, entertainment and cultural PR agencies – having worked with, for, and in support of some of the most exciting projects, people, institutions, fairs, festivals, tours, exhibitions, books, magazines, films, gigs, auctions, launches, parties and premieres across the UK and the world.

In 2008, Idea Generation embarked on its biggest and most ambitious project to date: by opening its own gallery space in the heart of Shoreditch. With a soaring 50 foot wall and over 200 square feet of gallery space, the Idea Generation Gallery is one of Shoreditch’s biggest exhibition spaces.

Nat Finkelstein
Born in Brooklyn in 1933, Finkelstein studied photography under Alexey Brodovitch, the legendary art director of Harper’s Bazaar, and worked as a photojournalist for the Black Star and PIX photo agencies. Finkelstein entered Andy Warhol’s Factory as a photojournalist and remained there until mid-1967; his photographs from this period are now regarded as some of the most iconic of the time.

Since then, Finkelstein has exhibited his work worldwide in over seventy-five solo and group shows at museums and galleries including the International Centre of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Tate Modern, Victoria and Albert Museum, the Photographer’s Gallery, the Saatchi Gallery, London; and the Ludwig Museum, Cologne, among many others. Finkelstein’s photographs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and The Andy Warhol Foundation, New York; the Smithsonian Institute, National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC; the V&A, London; The Stedlijk Museum, Amsterdam; Hedendaagste Kunst Museum, Ghent; Ludwig Museum, Cologne; and the Pompidou Centre, Paris, among many other public and private collections.

The author of The Andy Warhol Index (with Warhol, 1968), Andy Warhol: A Portfolio (1990), Girlfriends (1991), Merry Monsters (1993), and Andy Warhol: The Factory Years (1999), Finkelstein’s photographs have appeared in top publications including Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, Harper’s & Queen, Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, The Times, The Observer, Rolling Stone and many more.

Finkelstein died at his home in New York on 2nd October 2009 aged 76. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth and brother, Howard. At his death, he was close to completing a memoir, The Fourteen-Ounce Pound.

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Emily Airton: emily@ideageneration.co.uk
Natalie Tacq: natalie@ideageneration.co.uk
Nat Finkelstein website

Local community smash Rolf Harris’ previous record

Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre, Wrexham, Wednesday 28th October 2009

The world’s largest ever reproduction of the Mona Lisa was unveiled today at the Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre in Wrexham.

The entire community came together to create their own version of the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting. The world’s largest known reproduction painting of the Mona Lisa, which was unveiled at 9am this morning, covers a massive 240 square metres beating Rolf Harris’ 45 square metre canvas attempt of 2005. The extraordinary spectacle unveiled this morning at the Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre, Wrexham covers the same space as 24 double-decker buses!

Hundreds of people were involved, including school children from Victoria Primary School in Wrexham and members of the Haulfan Centre, which offers a wide range of activities for adults with learning difficultiesdisabilities. They gave hours of their time to help local artist Katy Webster complete the mammoth task. The work will take pride of place at Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre, Wrexham for two years. Shoppers will not only have the chance to scrutinise every detail of Mona Lisa’s famous expression up close, but will also be able to touch the giant piece, made up of 82 different vinyl squares.

Previous record holder, Rolf Harris has yet to comment on being beaten to the record by Wrexham’s finest and if he will attempt to beat this effort.

Artist Katy Webster, who was in charge of the project, is more known for her abstract art, was delighted to see that the famous smile is intact earlier this morning. “It’s mind-blowing just how big she is but the smile is still as enigmatic as ever. It took over a week to do her face – that was the hardest part because everybody knows what it looks like so we had to make sure it was exactly right. It is really great that this project by Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre has brought art to the community with so many members of the local community involved in creating this amazing piece of art we see before us today. It is really important for me that art is accessible and adorns public spaces, like this wonderful centre, instead of locked away in galleries! This has been the best bit today – putting her together so we can see the Mona Lisa in all her glory. The balcony overlooking our Mona Lisa will allow people to bask in the spectacular view of one of the World’s most recognisable faces!”

The painting will provide a much-needed source of income for Hope House, a charity that provides for terminally ill children through specialist care, family support and fundraising events. Those donating to the charity will able to own their own small piece of record-breaking history. This is a great cause; with the money raised going straight back into the local community to improve the lives of both patients and their families at Hope House, which Holly Willoughby is patron of.

The construction of concept to the finished article has taken months to come together, with over 245 people involved from start to finish. 2013 man hours were used to produce the stunning work unveiled today with close to 1000 of those painting alone. Painting the World’s largest Mona Lisa has used 86 litres of paint to create that show-stopping smile with 86 tiles used to create Da Vinci’s masterpiece. If anyone fancies taking on the Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre, Wrexham’s record, they should buy a lot of brown paint, the majority of the 53 colours of paint used were all shades of brown.

Eagles Meadow Manager Kevin Critchley came up with the idea to involve community groups in an exciting art project. “Our Mona Lisa has a lot of advantages over the original. It’s a lot bigger so she is much easier to see, admirers will not have to queue to make her acquaintance, there isn’t any entry charge to Eagles Meadow, and unlike the version in Paris you will be able to touch her!”

Fine art graduate Jude Davies has seen the project as a labour of love and after 200 hours of work on the project, was barely able to contain her excitement. “People see different things – the more you look, the more you see. I didn’t realise that she hasn’t got any eyebrows. On her face everything is blended in. Her smile changes depending on how and when you look at it. Her eyes seem to follow you wherever you’re standing.”

Eagles Meadow
Eagles Meadow opened in late 2008 as a leisure and shopping destination. It houses a 24-lane ten-pin bowling alley and a cinema with a 3D screen along with a wide range of shops, including fashion, food and drink outlets.

Address:
Eagles Meadow
Wrexham
LL13 8DG
Tel: 01978265033

Opening hours:
9am – 8pm

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6854
Andrew Soar: andrew@ideageneration.co.uk
Megan Thomas: megan@ideageneration.co.uk
Eagles Meadow website
Katy Webster website

Exhibition: 23rd Oct – 22nd Dec, Annroy Gallery
Book Launch: 22nd Oct, Annroy Gallery

Launch of a new book and exhibition celebrating the work of Alex Box, a make up artist who boldly uses the face as a canvas to explode conventional concepts of ‘beauty’

In the first ever extensive collection and exhibition of her work Alex Box gives full access to images which radically unsettle and deconstruct conventional images of beauty in fashion. Using everything from pigment to post-its to magically transform her models Alex opens up the human form to a fantastical and expressive range of new possibilities.

Her unconventional approach to make-up emerged from her Chelsea art school experimentations in sculpture and performance, Alex Box’s mature work uniquely merges fantasy, fashion, science and illustration. Almost anthropological in her exploration of the face, Alex liberates each image from the constraints of reality in arresting images which are colourful, humorous and sometimes disturbing.

Hosted at Annroy, Rankin’s new Kentish Town gallery space, the exhibition moves from dark Berlin cabaret to kaleidoscopic clown. Each creation is an instinctive response to the moment, the model and the mood to form a moving expression of the many faces of beauty.

Her collaboration with Rankin who shot the images for the book, and her work for designers including Gareth Pugh and Karl Lagerfeld, creates a powerful fusion of art and performance with fashion. She imaginatively investigates fashion’s many modes of representation and as such is both a critic and a confidant.

‘’The minute you obliterate somebody’s spirit, you’re abusive” These images by contrast show mysterious, moving and exotic creatures, empowered by their abstraction and the endless possibilities of transformation.

Address:
Annroy Gallery
110 – 114 Grafton Road
London
NW5 4BA
Tube: Kentish Town

Opening Hours:
Monday – Sunday 11am – 6pm
FREE

Published:
October 2009 by Turnaround Publisher Services
To order email: orders@turnaround-uk.com
It is also available in all good book shops.

Alex Box
Alex Box studied and exhibited as an installation artist exploring the relationship between body and environment. As a makeup artist she went on to explore the relationship between art science nature and the magical.

Today Alex creates out of the box looks for designers from Gareth Pugh, Karl Largerfeld and Alexander Mc Queen to Stella Mc Cartney and Chanel. Leading the field in experimental beauty she is a regular contributor to Vogue, Numero , I-D, Dazed and Confused Another Magazine and V.

Alex is also the creative director of leading cutting edge makeup brand Illamsaqua, and has been shaping and creating the brands image and product from conception.

Annroy Gallery
The Annroy Gallery is a stylish component of Rankin’s new development in Kentish Town. Alex Box’s exhibition is the inaugural show in this, London’s newest and most exciting, photographic space.

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Natasha Hoare: natasha@ideageneration.co.uk

Two legends of music and art are brought together in spectacular fashion for a once in a lifetime publication. Brian Wilson and Peter Blake collaborate on stunning new art edition.

The UK launch of the 12 new artworks is at the Paul Smith Mayfair store on 18th November 2009.
Exhibition runs from 19th November – 28th November 2009

That Lucky Old Sun is a book and print publication, inspired by the latest critically-acclaimed album by Brian Wilson. As Brian’s band prepares to tour the States, Sir Peter Blake unveils a series of new artworks created in consultation with Brian over the past year. Each of the artworks illustrates a different song and the complete collection – a tribute to Brian Wilson’s life and career – is published as 12 original silk screen prints (16×12 inch size).

A cloth-bound book is presented by both authors. Sweeping new interviews with Brian Wilson introduce the volume and an insight into Peter’s creative process follows. Brian’s handwritten music and lyric sheets to his new track ‘Midnight’s Another Day’ are reproduced in facsimile, and are suitable for framing; an original VIP pass from the live performance of That Lucky Old Sun is also included; a CD pressing of the album completes the set. The entire set is contained in a handmade case bound in Italian blue cloth.

As an edition of only 1,000, each signed and numbered book and print box set is a creative point of note in the career of each artist.

The UK launch of the book will be at the Paul Smith shop in Albemarle Street, Mayfair. Sir Paul Smith is a huge fan of music and popular culture and an exhibition of 12 of Sir Peter Blake’s unique artwork for the book will be on show for 10 days in November, there will also be a preview of the art work at Paul Smith’s Terminal 5 store. Paul Smith was delighted to display these stunning pieces in his shop, saying: “Bringing together Peter Blake and Brian Wilson in this project is very special. Peter’s amazing work over the years has always been fantastic and by mixing this with such a musical hero results in this fantastic book and prints.”

From concert to canvas:
Sir Peter Blake based each of his new works on a different song from Brian Wilson’s album, That Lucky Old Sun. A celebration of Brian’s life and a moving tribute to Southern California, Peter explains, ‘It’s about capturing the mood of Southern California and the mood of LA in the Fifties and Sixties. It’s Brian’s California.’ His prints make use of an array of postcards, newspaper clippings and other ephemera – ‘That Lucky Old Sun is a collage of sound which I’m very happy to make visual’

When talking about music, Brian Wilson is quick to mention the Beatles. ‘I have the Sgt. Pepper’s album in my music room’ he writes in the new edition of That Lucky Old Sun. Sir Peter Blake’s cover for that particular Beatles album is recognised the world over. Almost as well known is Peter’s affection for the music of Brian Wilson whose group he first celebrated in 1964 in the oil painting simply entitled, Beach Boys. These artists mutual admiration of each other’s work has happily resulted in their working together on this project to create a fascinating crossover between art and music and an emotional tribute to the power of music to transport and delight.

Genesis Publications
Genesis Publications is an independent British publisher specialising in signed, numbered, craftsman-bound limited edition books on modern music. Each title is produced to the highest standard in the tradition of the private press and with the full co-operation of each author or artist concerned, and their autographs signify their approval and authentication of each edition.

Genesis was founded in 1974 by Brian Roylance, a former student at the London College of Printing; his aim to create a company true to the art of printing and craftsmanship. For this reason Genesis books are printed and hand-bound in Italy by top artisans. Brian’s son and daughter, Nicholas and Catherine Roylance now run the company.

Genesis Publications has become the world’s leading limited edition publisher in the field of modern music, in the last 30 years producing over 50 limited edition collectors’ items, featuring pop and rock icons of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Subjects have included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Bowie, Lennon, George Harrison, Dylan and Pink Floyd founder, Syd Barrett. Authors and/or contributors include: George Harrison, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Peter Blake, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Ravi Shankar, Ronnie Wood, Pete Townshend and Sir George Martin. Working with many of the world’s leading musicians, artists and writers, Genesis has established a reputation for quality which is second to none, and it was this that led The Beatles to invite Genesis to compile, edit and prepare for press their book The Beatles Anthology which was published to acclaim in October 2000.

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Natalie Tacq: natalie@ideageneration.co.uk
Genesis Publications website

Katie Paterson contemplates the ecosystem in a new commission for Vauxhall Motors

21st December 2009 – 30th January 2010
Deal Pier, Kent

Katie Paterson’s evocative new artwork, Streetlight Storm, transforms Deal pier into a monitoring system for global storm patterns

Scottish artist Katie Paterson, one of the most exciting and closely watched artists of the moment, has been commissioned by Vauxhall Motors to create an art work on the theme of re-inventing British classics. Paterson has taken a British seaside town as her inspiration, and will create a work for Deal Pier. Along the length of the pier, out to sea, the lights will flicker in time with lightning storms as they occur live across the globe.

Starting on the winter equinox, the shortest day of the year on the 21st December, Streetlight Storm will take place throughout the darkest months of the British winter, silently conveying the weather patterns of a whole planet. In this contemplative and evocative place, the gentle flickering of the lights will unfold between dusk, darkness and dawn, reflecting on the water through the night, contrasting with the drama of the lightning strikes that spark through.

Pairing the commonplace with the sublime is a recurring theme in Paterson’s work. Viewers can gaze out to the horizon from the pier as these everyday streetlights connect the imagination with faraway places and the Earth’s ecosystem at large. A simple concept, yet expansive in scope, the work will connect people with diverse geographies, collapsing distances and timescales, the artificial and the natural.

Central to Paterson’s practice is collaboration and this commission is no exception as the artist works with technologists, engineers, meteorologists and lightning scientists within the UK and internationally. Ambitious in scale, Streetlight Storm will fuel new cutting-edge partnerships and innovation and reflect Vauxhall’s use of advanced technologies and ethos of excellence in design and engineering. The theme of re-inventing British classics chimes with Vauxhall’s own work re-inventing the car as we know it in the form of the Ampera, its first electric car.

Katie Paterson commented, “I am interested in the way the ordinary and the otherworldly intersect, and much of my work uses everyday technologies from doorbells to record players and connecting with vast and intangible phenomena such as dying stars and the moon). I hope the work’s universal content will ignite the imagination of many.”

Katie Paterson is a member of the Vauxhall Collective 2009 www.vauxhallcollective.co.uk Streetlight Storm is supported by Vauxhall Motors and Albion Gallery, in partnership with Turner Contemporary and Whitstable Biennale and runs from 21st December – 30 January 2010.

Katie Paterson
Katie Paterson’s artistic practice is multi-disciplinary, cross-medium, and conceptually driven, often exploring landscape by means of technology, and connectivity by way of moonlight, melting glaciers, and dead stars. Recent works include Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon), which involved the transmission of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to the moon and back; Vatnajökull (the sound of), a live phone line to an Icelandic glacier; and All the Dead Stars, a large map documenting the locations of the 27,000 dead starts known to humanity.

Paterson graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2007, where her final exhibition gained much attention and recognition among art critics, academics and the media, and was restaged a year later at Modern Art Oxford, where she was the youngest artist to be granted a solo-show. She has recently exhibited at Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, Tate Britain, Universal Code, Powerplant, Toronto, and Lifeforms, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm. Upcoming shows include PERFORMA 09, New York.

Katie would like to thank Vauxhall Motors, Albion Gallery, Turner Contemporary and Whitstable Biennale for supporting the commission, along with Martin John Callanan, Kent County Council, Dover District Council, Future Creative, Ken Doyle, Martin Fullekrug and Dieter Lang.

Vauxhall Collective
The Vauxhall Collective is one of the most ambitious commercially-funded creative support schemes in the UK.

Members of the Vauxhall Collective are supported financially to carry out projects, consequently raising their profile in the industry and in the media, and giving them the resources to fulfil their creative potential.

In previous years Vauxhall successfully ran the VX Collective based on collaboration between members. Previous members have included Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Kelsey, Simon Hasan, Ben Rivers, Gayle Chong Kwan, Matthew Darbyshire and Gideon Reeling.

With an ongoing commitment to championing style and design in the UK, British car marque Vauxhall is a keen supporter of creativity through additional initiatives such as the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair 2009 and the Vauxhall Fashion Scout.

Latest models include Insignia, the 2009 European Car of the Year and New Astra, a car that shares the same design language as Insignia and that will be built in Ellesmere Port, Liverpool.

Vauxhall is reinventing the car as we know it with Ampera. Vauxhall’s first electric car. The wheels are turned electronically at all times and all speeds and can be plugged into any household 240v outlet for charging.

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Marta Bogna: marta@ideageneration.co.uk
Vauxhall Collective website
Vauxhall website
Katie Paterson website

A groundbreaking theatrical experience from Duncan Speakman

London, 12th November 2009
Bristol, 13th November 2009
Liverpool, 14th November 2009

“Putting on a pair of headphones you find yourself immersed in the cinema of everyday life. As the soundtrack swells, people in the crowd around you re-enact the England of today. Sometimes you’re just drifting and watching, sometimes you’re creating the scenes yourself. This is no requiem, this a celebratory slow dance, a chance to savour the world you live in.” Duncan Speakman

Duncan Speakman, Vauxhall Collective member and critically acclaimed theatre practitioner, invites you to join him as he re-examines the classic British street scene. Our everyday lives are set to be re-invented as Speakman takes to the streets and asks us all to reconsider the ground we walk on. Famous for his “subtle mobs” and cinematic style of theatre using soaring soundtracks and beautifully presented framed scenes, Speakman is asking the people of London, Bristol and Liverpool to arrive at a secret venue at a specific time and date in November, armed only with an MP3 file and headphones. The audience, who can sign up to take part in the free event through the website www.subtlemob.com, will be sent an MP3 file to download onto their i-pod or mobile phone prior to the event, and asked to gather at a given time and location, put on their headphones and press play to begin their own simultaneous experience of the subtle mob.

The audience will at once be transported from an average street in a big city to another world where nothing is quite as it seems. Speakman applies the poetry of our routines to his work, creating invisible public artworks, inviting us all to look at the everyday in a creative light. Working closely with a plethora of performers, actors, sound engineers, musicians and contemporary “makers”, as well as speaking to local residents in each of the cities and asking them to contribute to the voiceover in each location, Speakman will lead the public in a very personal re-interpretation of life today in Britain.

Each individual audience member will become part of a larger group, all experiencing slightly different versions of the same events. A pattern of activity will slowly emerge as participants see a plot unfolding through the events and information presented throughout the walk. Both spectators and participants, the audience members will see the street they walk down framed in a very different way as Speakman offers them an alternative view of their surroundings.

Winner of the Vauxhall Collective commission for theatre, Speakman was chosen by a panel of industry experts from Soho Theatre, Pleasance Theatre and interactive theatre specialists Gideon Reeling who were last year’s Vauxhall Collective members for the category. The Bristol based theatre practitioner was selected for his ability to create compelling experiences that both physically and emotionally engage audiences in public spaces.

Speakman was commissioned by Vauxhall Motors to create a piece of theatre with the theme of “re-inventing British classics” and he has produced the three performances as part of his ongoing exploration of how the use of sound influences the perception of public places. He toured the three UK locations in his Vauxhall Astra EcoFLEX to get a feel for each city. The theme of re-inventing British classics was chosen by Vauxhall as it fits well with the re-invention of the car, something the car company is doing with Ampera, their first electric vehicle.

As If It Were The Last Time soundtrack has been co-written with Sadie Anderson of Chrome Hoof, with additional contributions from Laura Groves (Blue Roses) and will be devised with members of Uninvited Guests (Lynn Gardner’s Edinburgh festival favourites), Action Hero and a number of other contemporary theatre/performance makers and performing arts students.

To sign up to be part of Duncan Speakman’s subtle mob performances visit www.subtlemob.com

Duncan Speakman
Duncan Speakman is an artist based in Bristol, UK. Originally trained as a sound engineer at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, his work now examines how we use sound to locate ourselves in personal and political environments. Seeking out the poetics of the everyday, he creates socially relevant experiences that engage audiences emotionally and physically in public spaces. Alongside his art practice he is a senior lecturer in Media Practice at the University of the West of England and is currently developing site-responsive soundwalks, street games and pervasive theatre works.

He has been exhibited internationally and in 2001 was awarded the Clark Trust Bursary for digital arts and has received critical acclaim for his videoblog, 29 fragile days. In 2007 he was peer advisor on the Almost Perfect locative media residency at Banff New Media Institute and since 2008 has been an artist in residence at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol.

Vauxhall Collective
The Vauxhall Collective is one of the most ambitious commercially-funded creative support schemes in the UK.

Members of the Vauxhall Collective are supported financially to carry out projects, consequently raising their profile in the industry and in the media, and giving them the resources to fulfil their creative potential.

In previous years Vauxhall successfully ran the VX Collective based on collaboration between members. Previous members have included Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Kelsey, Simon Hasan, Ben Rivers, Gayle Chong Kwan, Matthew Darbyshire and Gideon Reeling.
tables.

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Marta Bogna: marta@ideageneration.co.uk
Vauxhall Collective website
Vauxhall website
Subtle Mob website

A new wave of Vauxhall Collective commissions are announced

Katie Paterson, Duncan Speakman, Seba Kurtis and Studio Glithero are this year’s brightest creative talent to be commissioned by Vauxhall Motors

Four of the most hotly anticipated artists, designers, theatre practitioners and photographers in the UK have been commissioned by the car company Vauxhall to create art works around the theme of re-inventing British classics. The result of the commissions is four stunningly imaginative and exciting works that throw open the concept of what is a British classic and highlight Vauxhall’s commitment to supporting style and design in the UK.

Chosen by a Style Council of industry experts and previous Vauxhall Collective members including Gideon Reeling and the photographer Gayle Chong Kwan this year’s members are the latest in an impressive line-up of up and coming artists that the initiative has supported, enabling them to take their work in new directions with complete artist freedom.

For 2009’s commissions, Scottish artist Katie Paterson has taken the British seaside town as her inspiration and will create an entrancing installation named Streetlight Storm, where a series of lights along a pier will flicker in sync with storm patterns around the world. The location of the installation will be announced later in the autumn. Paterson was chosen for her innovative approach to reinventing the British classic. The combination of this exciting work, bound up in the relationship between connectivity and the landscape through technology is eagerly awaited.

Theatre practitioner Duncan Speakman, using his unique form of “subtle mobs”, will take to the streets of three major cities in the UK. Combining cinematic style soundtracks and narrative on downloadable MP3 tracks, Speakman invites you to join him on a street near you and re-examine the everyday classic British city scene.
The Style Council chose Speakman for his pioneering approach to interactive theatre experiences and was excited to see how he would frame the UK’s urban landscape, turning the performances into a unique experience for each of the individual audience members.

Photographer Seba Kurtis will examine what it is to be British; combining images of Kurtis’ stereotypical idea of the classic British resident, from the English rose to the country gent, right through to his own modern interpretation of multicultural Britain. His proposition to capture the UK’s residents won the Style Council over and will be at once a compelling and a beautiful representation of Britain today.

Design partnership Studio Glithero will create a selection of ceramic objects entitled A Brief Moment of Happiness using an innovative technique that involves impregnating the surface of the ceramics with light sensitive chemicals to create ethereal and fleeting images of flowers. Taking inspiration from the blue and white china of the 18th century and detailed scientific drawings by British botanists, the Style Council was impressed by Studio Glithero’s ability to take inspiration from antiquated objects and bring them up to date with new technologies.

Last year’s commissions were based on the theme of The Great British Road Trip and saw photographs of the Scottish landscape inspired by Daguerre’s dioramas, a film that visits the self-declared King of the British Eccentrics, an art exhibition inspired by Funhouses, a 1950s tea party followed by a 1980s wedding reception, a glamorous, metallic leather driving set and a collection of design objects based on lost British craft techniques. With such strong commissions from the last year, the work of the Vauxhall Collective 2009 promises not to disappoint.

Each of the creatives will have the use of a Vauxhall car and will travel around the UK seeking out inspiration for their individual commissions. The commissions will be completed between October and December 2009 and will see a range of art works being produced by this exciting and varied group of artists.

The theme of re-inventing British classics was chosen as it chimes well with Vauxhall’s own work re-inventing the car as we know it in the form of the Ampera, its first electric car.

The Vauxhall Collective 2009 members’ biographies:

Fine Art: Katie Paterson

Katie Paterson’s artistic practice is multi-disciplinary, cross-medium, and conceptually driven, often exploring landscape by means of technology, and connectivity by way of moonlight, melting glaciers, and dead stars. Recent works include Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon), which involved the transmission of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to the moon and back; Vatnajökull (the sound of), a live phone line to an Icelandic glacier; and All the Dead Stars, a large map documenting the locations of the 27,000 dead starts known to humanity.

Paterson graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2007, where her final exhibition gained much attention and recognition among art critics, academics and the media, and was restaged a year later at Modern Art Oxford, where she was the youngest artist to be granted a solo-show. She has recently exhibited at Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, Tate Britain, Universal Code, Powerplant, Toronto, and Lifeforms, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm. Upcoming shows include PERFORMA 09, New York.

Theatre: Duncan Speakman

Duncan Speakman is an artist based in Bristol, UK. Originally trained as a sound engineer at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, his work now examines how we use sound to locate ourselves in personal and political environments. Seeking out the poetics of the everyday, he creates socially relevant experiences that engage audiences emotionally and physically in public spaces. Alongside his art practice he is a senior lecturer in Media Practice at the University of the West of England and is currently developing site-responsive soundwalks, street games and pervasive theatre works.

He has been exhibited internationally and in 2001 was awarded the Clark Trust Bursary for digital arts and has received critical acclaim for his videoblog, 29 fragile days. In 2007 he was peer advisor on the Almost Perfect locative media residency at Banff New Media Institute and since 2008 has been an artist in residence at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol.

Photography: Seba Kurtis

Seba Kurtis is an artist and photographer who grew up in Buenos Aires. He studied journalism and was a political activist. With the political difficulties in Argentina, he left for Europe and remained in Spain as an illegal immigrant for over 5 years. This experience became the main inspiration for his work, an exploration of the dynamics behind irregular migration and the subsequent impact on culture, society and the individual. His recent work 700 miles, a series of portraits of illegal hispanic immigrants living on the US border, explores the identity of these often nameless people and celebrates the story behind the sitter. In Drowned, Kurtis highlighted the plight of tens of thousands of Africans who head for the Canary Islands every year. Many are suspected to have drowned off the coast of Spain, Kurtis recorded scenes around the Canary Islands and dropped the negatives into the ocean. The images that washed up on the shore are the images that survived.

Craft & Design: Studio Glithero

Studio Glithero is a London based Anglo-Dutch design alliance. Founded by Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren, who met at the Royal College of Art, the studio creates miraculous time-based installations, and processes which give birth to unique and wonderful products. With their own concoction of design performance, they aim to bridge creative disciplines and reach a universal audience. Recent projects include Pique & Double Pique, a pair of self-supporting candles, a series of vases impregnated with light sensitive chemicals and Big Dipper where an audience can witness the complete life of a product, from the moment the chandeliers are conceived until the moment they burn and perish.

Editor’s Notes:

Vauxhall Motors

With an ongoing commitment to championing style and design in the UK, British car marque Vauxhall is a keen supporter of creativity through initiatives such as the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair 2009, the Vauxhall Fashion Scout and the Vauxhall Collective.

Latest models include Insignia, the 2009 European Car of the Year and New Astra, a car that shares the same design language as Insignia and that will be built in Ellesmere Port, Liverpool.

Vauxhall is reinventing the car as we know it with Ampera. Vauxhall’s first electric car. The wheels are turned electronically at all times and all speeds and can be plugged into any household 240v outlet for charging.

Vauxhall Collective

The Vauxhall Collective is one of the most ambitious commercially-funded creative support schemes in the UK.

Members of the Vauxhall Collective are supported financially to carry out projects, consequently raising their profile in the industry and in the media, and giving them the resources to fulfil their creative potential.

In previous years Vauxhall successfully ran the VX Collective based on collaboration between members. Previous members have included Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Kelsey, Simon Hasan, Ben Rivers, Gayle Chong Kwan, Matthew Darbyshire and Gideon Reeling.

Contacts:
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Marta Bogna: marta@ideageneration.co.uk
Vauxhall Collection website
Vauxhall website