28/02/2012

Lino Printing, It's Piss Easy

To go with the lino printing workshop I am doing at Manchester Metropolitan University for their Interactive Arts students I have put a "How To' guide online.


I don't profess to being the best at lino printing, but i hope the guide is helpful for absolute beginners.

22/02/2012

Grand Theft WTF

So, I return home today and notice that some savage has stolen my letter cutting slab from off my door step.
The more I think about it the more annoyed I get...
That thing took me ages
I hope you put your back out trying to move it you thieving cunts...


I called the po po but I doubt anything will come of it
There is now an empty spot next to my front door and, if I had a heart there too...


Mark Leckey BigBoxIndustrialAction


I had the pleasure of attending the private view of Mark Leckey's BigBoxIndustrialAction last Thursday (16th February) I had seen him speak about his work at the Whitworth Tuesday Talk a few weeks earlier and was entirely enamored with him. 
The work he showed us at the Whitworth was not the kind of thing I generally have time for, as he works with video. However, with his explanation and extended clips of different things I slowly fell in love with him. If only because he appears to be a man who has taken far too much ecstasy in his time. 

BigBoxIndustrialAction has been specially commissioned for Manchester Art Gallery and incorporated an enormous three-tonne low pressure steam chest from Ellenroad Engine House referencing the industrial history of the North West. The performance is a one-sided conversation between this huge lump of metal and a sound system matching its dimensions. Initially the noise emanating from the sound system is cacophonous, so loud it makes you feel a little sick, but after a minute you begin to understand the sounds, it becomes apparent that this mash up is the result of a carefully selected mix of noises relevant to both the piece of industrial heritage and the setting of Manchester, which is of course the birth place of rave. 
The work brings to mind wasted (choose your intimation) nights underground, listening to music your father wouldn’t understand before attempting to get a bus home with people on their way to work. Towards the end of the performance, I began to feel a little bit sorry for the sound system as it was very apparent that it was going to get no response from the steam chest, which stood silent and monumental throughout. 


aloof

07/02/2012

#tweetart at Westgate Studio

As part of the Wakefield Artwalk, Westgate studio in Wakefield is showing work by artists using Twitter.
My (possibly reluctant) penpal Bob Milner curates the space with his collaborative partner Alice Bradshaw

Bob put out a call for work to be shown. 
I knocked this out.