Vauxhall Motors presents a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the Blueprinting process

Design partnership Studio Glithero complete a series of ceramic products reinventing the classic “white on blue” Jasperware style for the Vauxhall Collective

London based duo Studio Glithero present a cutting edge collection of ceramics for the Vauxhall Collective. In a contemporary take of the Blueprint, chemically infused ceramic surfaces react to ultraviolet light capturing the ghostly impression of botanical specimens, including those of weeds taken from social housing projects across the UK, bringing the theme of Reinventing British Classics right up to date.

Asked to reflect on the Vauxhall Collective’s theme, the Anglo-Dutch design studio found inspiration from the Victorian period of great discoveries, when British explorers travelled the world in search of new exotic species. In 1840 chemist and botanist John Hershel invented the Blueprinting process, marking the advent of photography and offering his fellow pioneers an invaluable tool to record and document their discoveries.

Studio Glithero travelled to the UK’s centre for ceramic heritage, Stoke-on-Trent, in a Vauxhall Astra ecoFLEX and worked with master ceramicists to produce the highest possible quality products. The result of this research is an innovative process bringing together an artisan approach to ceramics with a rare use of photography.

In keeping with the early Blueprinting techniques, a series of white vases and tiles were embedded with light-reacting chemicals. A combination of weeds and images of botanical specimens inspired to Kew Garden’s Herbarium were arranged on the ceramic surfaces and exposed to UV light causing an intense colour transformation from white to Prussian blue. What is left is a crisp white silhouette of the specimens, creating intricate floral designs on the deep blue background; a homage to the classic British Jasperware tradition of white on blue ceramics.

The series of light sensitive objects include a selection of tiles and two editions of individually numbered vases, all of which bear a unique impression on their surfaces. They can be bought from the Vauxhall Collective website, for more information visit www.vauxhallcollective.co.uk. Studio Glithero continue to work on this technique and are currently developing a lightshade as part of the range.

Blueware Tiles, 2009

Set of 12 tiles, £150

Botanical specimens are arranged on glass plates placed over tiles, exposed to UV light they operate like a photographic negative. The plates are flipped to achieve symmetrical compositions and ordered patterns.

Blueware Vases, 2009

Large numbered, limited edition vase £700
Medium numbered, limited edition vase £500

Botanical specimens are fixed to the surface of the vases using flower pressing techniques. The vases are exposed to a UV light on a rotating spit, capturing the plant-life from leaf to root, reminiscent of white on blue Jasperware cameos.

Editor’s Notes:

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.

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 Collective website
Vauxhall website

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

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