The URANIAN SATELLITE

The Philosophy of Football

2011-07-04T17:07:00.002+01:00

And so from the plastique arts, we turn to football. Footballer Jimmy Buzzard discusses his "almost Proustian display of modern existentialist football... " in this classic interview, elevating the sport to almost dizzying philosophical heights:

Another hilarious classic by Monty Python, of philosophers at play:

A Royal Occasion

2010-05-17T18:54:00.002+01:00

Birds and Electric Guitars...hmmm

2010-04-23T13:39:00.000+01:00

A review on the sonic artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot's 'Rhytyms of Life' exhibition at the Barbican Arts Centre, London by me and Zoe Throughton, for Murmur Art.

RCA Painting Interim Show, 2009

2009-12-20T14:27:00.001Z

Originally reviewed for MurmurArt's Dialogue section

James Harrison, 'Wall Drawings' 2009

It’s difficult not to be wowed by the immaculate interior and super-high ceilinged space of the Sackler Building (the new RCA studio development on the other side of Battersea Bridge) that houses the Interim Painting Exhibition. Though that’ll soon change once the students are set loose, and next year it’ll be back to looking like what the typical artist studio should look like- a refugee camp.

Once that initial awe subsided, I particularly noticed the works of a few artists. Firstly, James Harrison. For ‘Wall Drawings’ (2009) he covered a large section of wall with a series of dynamic abstract watercolours, which ricocheted and repeated shapes and colours across the pages, like a visual chinese whisper. They were reminiscent of telephone conversation doodles, music and even psychoanalysis blobs.

Gareth Cadwallader, 'Gingham' (2009), 'Cairo' (2009) 'Dead Horse' 2009

Next was Gareth Cadwallader, who creates these small yet highly charged oil paintings on board, somehow transforming something mundane into an intense scene. These sensitive renderings are a departure from his previously huge and grotesque, dark humoured works that were once bought by fashion photographer Mario Testino. These newer works have a surreal quality to them (such as the painting of a golden women who seems to disappear in the next painting, or the frozen horses stopped in time) while others such as ‘Gingham’ (2009) are more ambiguous, showing what could either be a figure cuddled up by a fire or a captive adorned in terrorist attire. Around the corner from these are a canvas of plush black feathers by Annie Fernberger, seemingly sexy and fetishistic at first, but on the second glance rather camp.

the 'squished orange' piece

Overall the works were highly laboured and committed, as one would have expected, with many of the students having already won numerous awards and competitions, such as the Celeste Prize (Avis Underwood) or the Bloomberg New Contemporaries (Adam Bainbridge)- and except for one odd video, it was a refreshingly aesthetic exhibition. There was only one artist, who divided opinions and this was Lea Provencano with the work ‘Untitled 2009’, also known as the ‘squished orange’ which consisted of the orange in question woefully placed under a bit of geometric chipboard. It was either dismissed as a lazy ‘conceptual’ piece or hailed as humorous and playful- and it reminded me of something Matthew Collings said on ‘School of Saatchi’ (something along the lines of) “the best artists are the ones who are part geniuses, and part charlatans.”

PIG Magazine

2009-11-22T22:25:00.000Z

I found this among some of my Dad's old stuff. It's a picture of him on the cover of 'PIG' magazine, most likely from his student/doctoral days in Hull. At first I thought it might have been from the '68 student revolution in Paris, but the guy on the left is unmistakenly an english 'bobby', definitely not a french 'flic'.

I'll try to find a pic of my English grandfather and post it sometime soon. (he was a policeman in Lambeth, South London)

I've been collecting a lot of mugshots these days...

2009-11-22T21:56:00.000Z

Some more criminal inspired artworks, or rather unorthodox experimentations (also see last post on the St.John's head sculpture inspired by a decapitated criminal's head).....here's some mugshots by Alphonse Bertillon / from the 'Presume Coupables' (Presumed Guilty) exposition organised by le FNAC in 2008:

The last is Bertillon himself.

Exhibition- 'Un siècle d'affaires judiciaires en France'

Exhibition Outing Gore

2009-11-17T22:46:00.005Z

Last week Lisa Milroy took us to see the 'Sacred Made Real' exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. After dodging a myriad of mangled-guilt-inducing crucifixes (the ones the spanish are so well known for) I came across this gem...a delicately carved pair of statues of wood and wax depicting St. Francis Borgia and St.Ignatias Layola, who were originally holding crosses and skulls in their expressive hands. But they could just as easily have been sashaying down a runway with Karl Lagerfeld or been starring as extras in the Matrix.

St Francis Borgia, 1624 and St.Ignatius Loyola, 1610 by Juan Martinez Montañés and Francisco Pacheco

Apart from that the exhbition was filled with old age pensioners, some downright strange stuff (like the virgin mary lactating milk into a grown man's mouth) and plenty of gore. Like this macabre head for example, complete with intricate detail of severed jugulars:

I thought it was probably a severed "Goliath" head, but on closer inspection of the title, it was actually St.John the Baptist...I didn't remember ever learning he met an untimely death? Even stranger the original was modeled on an actual freshly decapitated criminal's head ("as a lot of people were decaptitated in those days" ). What a weird contradiction. If Jake & Dinos Chapman had been incarnated 1,000 yrs ago in Catholic Spain, one can't help thinking they most likely would've been working for the church...

These images weren't in the show, but I thought I'd put them in anyway (both St.Ignatius Loyola)

Unspeaking Engagements / Chulalongkorn Art Centre / Bangkok

2009-09-16T22:38:00.003+01:00

Some pics from the recent 'Unspeaking Engagements' exhibition, as curated by Brian Curtin and Steve Dutton. The second part will take place in January 2010 in none other than Coventry! (at the university's Lanchester Gallery) where we'll probably be developing on the work shown in the current exhibition. If you missed the opening, you can still catch the end of the exhibition, until the 27th Sept 2009 at the Chulalongkorn Art Center (7th floor) near Siam skytrain / Bangkok.

Review by Rathsaran Sireekan in the Bangkok Post (click to read)

Carl von Weiler's installation.

Below: Jonathan Shaw, Takerng Pattanopas

A still from Adam James' 'Mr Posy' performance-video piece. Adam likes to dress up like a tramp in his spare time and scare people. He recently collaborated with Lucy Pawlak for a hilarious performance at Alma Enterprises. We're currently planning a show in London next year that will also include Thai artists Sakarin Krue-on and Tuksina Pipitkul. (watch this space for more.....!)

Welcome to Your Mind, Version II (CMU Art Museum, Chiang Mai)

2009-06-13T11:16:00.000+01:00

Nic & Sly Sing a Duet

2009-06-13T04:49:00.000+01:00

The next video installation will include a video montage of Nicolas Cage and Sly Stallone singing a duet, for the exhibition 'Unspeaking Engagements' curated by Brian Curtin and Steven Dutton.

'Unspeaking Engagements'

Art Center of Chulalongkorn Unviersity, Bangkok (27th Aug-26th Sep 2009)
Lanchester Gallery, Coventry University, UK (January 2010)

Also with the works of:
Tintin Cooper
Adam James
Michael Lee
Tanya Mahoun
Brigid McLeer
Ho-Ming Kuei
Be Takerng Pattanopas
Kamol Phaosavasdi
Nigel Power and Elias Wyber
Hester Reeve
Jonathan Shaw
Steve Swindells
Carl von Weiler

'Duet' , found footage, digital video, 2009

A Conversation between Bruce Lee and Sly Stallone

2009-02-21T09:59:00.000Z

Testosterone Paradise (Bruce & Sly), excerpts from the two video projections in conversation.

Tang Gallery, Mois de la Photo, Bangkok 2008
Brunswick Gallery, Divination, London 2008

2008, digital video on loop, approx 8 min

INFORMATION
STILLS, AND IN PROGRESS
ROCKY, THE HEPTOLOGY AND/OR SEXOLOGY

Shaking Tunnel

2009-02-10T08:43:00.000Z

Motors, corrugated metal, wood.

Short video documentation of the installation 'Welcome to Your Mind' created as part of a group exhibition for ArtAids Foundation, Netherlands. The installation consisted of darkened passageways through which the audience had to pass, and a primitive sort of 'earthquake simulator'.

The machine has been exhibited in Bangkok, ChiangMai and in Barcelona in Jun 2009.

Images In Progress
INFORMATION

Kitsune Masks

2008-08-25T12:02:00.001+01:00

Some drawings for the Kitsune project, coming soon!
Right: Kitsune Mask, Left Kitsune Facial Muscles

Thai 80's Music Videos

2008-08-25T09:55:00.000+01:00

Here are some hidden gems from my ever-growing collection of good/bad/fab 80s music vids! Enjoy the design and choreography as much as the music!

In "Manut Karng Kow" (translates as "Human-Bat" or "Batman") singer Tik Shiro is scared his heart's going to tear apart worrying that his girlfriend might find another guy while he's out working late everynight, becoming a nocturnal "batman".

Another Tik Shiro gem, "Mah Joi Gan" (Let's Get Together). People of the world, whether you're from America, Esarn, if you're a caveman or an Egyptian mummy, let's get together and hang out! Unbelievably cool music video!

Ood Siriboon "Wun Ti Ror Koy" (The Day I've Waited For)....slow tearjerker...

Asanee Wasan & Wasan Chotikul "Krungtheppramahanakorn....etc" The whole song consists of singing just one word, the full name of "Bangkok" which goes on for about 3 pages!

"Pe" from Hi-Rock, Thailand's answer to Guns n Roses (He's so Hot). This song is called "Nao Nua" which means "goosebumps"..

"Young Love" club soma night

2008-08-13T05:27:00.000+01:00

Our Club Soma night Young Love consisted of a triple video projection designed by Cheque (Duckunit/BORED) and VJ-artist Gerald Van Der Kaap, a kissing and vibration booth by myself, Jim and Putt, and DJs Dookie and co. (part of the ArtAids weeklong exhibitions and events)

Hanging out in the Vibration Booth....

photos: Rune Kippervik

On Second Thoughts, Eddie!

2008-07-21T04:52:00.000+01:00

My friend from back in our art school days Eddie Peake is starring in this bad-disco-style art flick called "On Second thoughts, Eddie!". You can see it in full at the Jerwood Space/London on 29th Jul.

Trailer for film "On second thoughts, Eddie!" by Paul Richards, Jason Dungan, Jenifer Evans, Claire Hooper, Eddie Peake, Guy Rusha, Gili Tal, Joseph Walsh.

Eddie's a fabulous artist, and it's pretty refreshing to see art that is humourous and unpredictable at the same time. I also like the "Put Out the Bin" collective, whose philosophy is "Choreography VS. Chaos":

Cat-Nap VS. British Gas Eyes

Rancid Glamour Photography by Mike Topping

Also check out: Eddie's online chef d'oeuvre: "The Discrepancy Between My Intentions and Your Understanding" here.

How to Make An Earthquake Simulator

2008-07-04T10:08:00.000+01:00

Section Cut: "Disaster Simulator (Welcome to Your Mind)", 2008

I'm currently working on a project to make an earthquake simulator (Disaster Simulator-Welcome to Your Mind) with Vaccine (carpenter) and Nuk and Nun (my technician-mechanic uncles) to be shown as part of an ArtAids project that'll travel through Thailand/France/Amsterdam (2008/2009)

Basically, you walk up to the gallery, and you're like "Oh Shit! The only entrance is through that dark, cramped passageway in the corner...what do I do now?" Suddenly this hand (probably mine) pushes you inside and you're forced to feel your way around this completely dark, twisting passageway. You keep walking for what seems like ages and ages and every now and then the whole floor shakes really violently. When you finally reach the end (if you do)....there's a door, which you push open, and then...........SURPRISE!!!!

Apparently the queene will be visiting on the opening night (merde!!!!).

Also, all I keep hearing about these days is the news that Bangkok will be hit by earthquakes and floods sometime within the next four months, apparently similar to the recent catastrophes of China and Burma. So I thought this would be a good piece to recreate now, in our day and age where everyone fears everything.

Section cut closeup: under the floorboards, motors, springs, timing device and sensors.

General View (without walls)

Bird's eye view.

Tesla's Earthquake Machine (part 1)

2008-06-27T10:37:00.000+01:00

TESLA ROCKS!!!!
Nikola Tesla in front of his Wardenclyffe Laboratory where he tested his "deathray",
and uranus in background.

Nikola Tesla's pretty much known as the inventor that created the alternating current electrical system which is now used worldwide. But some of his lesser known, slightly quack- theoretical inventions also include the electric submarine, and the death ray (dubbed the "PEACE RAY" by Tesla himself) that could be projected from massive power houses 200 miles apart to create "an impenetrable wall for a country in time of war". Anything that came in contact with the WALL would be obliterated. "Planes would fall, armies would be wiped out so that even the smallest country might so insure its security".

Though my favourite so far has to be the earthquake machine, which aptly applies to us in these times of worldwide destruction.

In fact, the "earthquake machine" consists of a simple handheld vibrating assembly, no bigger than an alarmclock, that worked on the principle of matching a frequency so that any object can be shook to pieces. The most obvious example is the wine glass that breaks when an opera singer reaches that certain note.

While walking along Wall St, he found a ten-story high, half-built steelframe building. He fastened the resonator to one of the steel beams and set it in tune until eventually the frequency coincided. The steel structure started to creak and warp to the point that the builders ont he 10th floor freaked out, called for the police and ran down to the ground, thinking there had been an earthquake. Just 10 minutes more would've bought the whole buidling shattering to the ground, and even bring down the Brooklyn Bridge. He even boasted that it could split the earth in half...and no one ever knew if he was joking...or not.

Back at his inventor's studio, he set up a small machine based on the resonator and proceeded to get on with other more urgent inventions, while the surrounding vicinity suffered for the next few weeks from shaking bookshelves, shattering windows, policemen donuts falling off tables, pipes breaking and furniture creeping across the floor.

The earthquake machine ended up being smashed by Tesla himself. No one knows why exactly, but it may have had something to do with its "laxative effect" which had you constantly running to the nearest toilet.

sources:
"Nikola Tesla's Earthquake Machine" by Gregory Bishop
New York Sun, "Tesla Invents Peace Ray", 10 July 1934
Manipulating and Harnessing the Schumann Resonance by Brian David Anderson

Wittgenstein's Loveur - A Cacophony of Sound

2008-06-22T18:29:00.000+01:00

Wittgenstein's Loveur - 01 Wittgenstein's Loveur.mp3
Mr.Kite - 02 Mr.Kite.mp3
Intermission - 03 Intermission-mozart.mp3
Disco Whore - 04 Disco Whore.mp3

Testosterone Paradise Part II (Month of Photography, Bangkok 2008)

2008-06-09T05:50:00.000+01:00

I have no idea how this happened but the videos I've been "remixing" from the tonne of Rambo/Rocky/Kick Ass Slyvester Stallone and Bruce Lee movies I own... has somehow turned into a melancholic love story.

See Also "Testosterone Paradise Part 1" and "Rocky, the Heptology or Sexology"

Divination III (Hamburg-Paris-London)

2008-06-05T04:24:00.000+01:00

If you're in London from 21st June 2008, then visit our exhibition Divination III at the Brunswick Centre (Russell Sq/Warren St tube), which is the culminating exhibition in the Divination series. Many of the artists are graduates from the Slade School of Fine Art, Central St. Martin's and the Royal College of Art in London.

Some of the works from across the three exhibitions pictured below.

Hamra Abbas - Battle Scenes (2006)

Left: Adham Faramawy - Nut and Geb (2007) Middle: Adham Faramawy, A3LAA EL MA3ALY, 2007
Right:Millie Brown & Adham Faramawy - Vomit Window (2007)

Marenka Gabeler & Lucy Pawlak - Gabeler and Pawlak in Major City Exclusive (2007)

E.M.C. Collard, Zahnderzeitpasta 1, 2006 Loukia Alavanou, Chop Chop (Video Still), 2007

Ludovica Giosica, MOIRA, 2008 Momo Ando, HappyBirdsDay, 2006 Noa Edwards - Angel of Amundsen (2007)

DIVINATION (Part III)

Group exhibition at Brunswick Gallery, London
21 June - 28 June 2008

Divination is a traveling exhibition, which has so far taken place in Hamburg
and Paris, showing 20 international artists in each part of the series.
Working in a variety of media, the participating artists share an affinity with
a cryptic form of communication, which considers ‘seeing’ in a wider sense.

The series aims to explore the ritualistic and social character implied by the title, in
many ways parallel to the processes of cultural production and consumption.
The selection of work acknowledges notions of non-rational structures of
knowledge and experience: to quote Lewis Carroll "It‘s a poor sort of memory
that only works backward"

Participating artists:

Hamra Abbas
Loukia Alavanou
Momo Ando
Helene Appel
Jessie Brennan
Millie Brown
William Cobbing
E.M.C. Collard
Tintin Cooper
Juniper Daumier
Noa Edwards
Adham Faramawy
Melissa Frost’s
Marenka Gabeler and Lucy Pawlak
Richard Gasper
Ludovica Gioscia
Lia Anna Hennig
Jonathan Murphy
Ursula Llewellyn
Usman Saeed
Michael Stokes
Mimei Thompson
Gaea Todd

Divination website

Divination, by writer Martin Holman

Life Boat #2551 - Thai Contemporary Artists Battling it out at Sea

2008-06-02T08:33:00.001+01:00

For the next exhibition in Sydney at the Asia-Australia Arts Centre / Gallery 4A....

...Michael has come up with the peppy theme "Lifeboat", which I think sounds rather like a gay club-night. But actually it's even scarier- the idea is that he's going to throw in 12 random Thai contemporary video artists into one show and see how much it clashes.

Everyone in the show happens to be linked in some sort of way, the Thai art scene is totally incestuous. For example, Jim Brewer's showing one of his music videos for Momokomotion (my ex-flatmate who I play guitar for), Manit and I have been in about 6 shows together in the last 2 years, Michael is in our next exhibition "Face a Faces" which is also co-curated by Manit. Wit works downstairs with his team DuckUnit. Sakarin Krue-on, who made a massive rice field at Documenta last year is practically my uncle, and Som (Sutthirat Supaparinya) showed her work with us in a make-shift art-party-rave last year at our scummy artist house....

I wish we do the lifeboat thing for real!
Let's see how the legendary Thai passive-aggressiveness works out then!

Anyway I could really do with more gay, peppy exhibitions at the moment. Sometimes serious, intellectual, condescending art can get...well rather heavy (see *serious art exhibitions*, Divination III and ArtAids if you're feeling masochistic).

It's Only A Swastika

2008-05-15T11:31:00.000+01:00

Last week my proposal to make a gigantic wooden swastika was totally censored.

"Why is that?" I can hear you all asking yourselves. Well apparently it wasn't anything to do with the shape, as they've claimed to have seen this sort of thing a million times, that no one even cares it's a swastika.....but then later they asked me if it would be possible to change the construction to a different shape, such as...... wait for it..........a cross!

A cross! How totally depressing! I've never understood why people consider them "holy" and wear them on their necks, how's mangalation, blood and nails got anything to do with "ascension" into heaven? Sounds like some christian-terrrorist propaganda to me....

How typical, this is the first time I tried to actually make something beautiful and aesthetic, and of course it had to go and backfire. My filmmaking neighbour, Sander, says I should just send them a video of Rambo saving the world from AIDS (but killing 10,000 people in the process)...they ought to have some sort of intellectual banter about that.

The funny thing is, this time the curators were not even Thais (nor German), who often censor trivialities such as a monk kicking a football in Apichatpong Weerasetakul's "Syndromes and a Century" or Michael Shaowanasai taking a photograph of himself dressed as a monk, and being arrested because he's gay.

QUESTIONNAIRE: Which do you prefer?

a) Christians doing something silly with a cross.
b) Beautiful, sacred, remover of all obstacles-the original swastika.
Answer below.

(A)

This image is too gross

too be posted on this blog.

Click here to see it.

(B)

Well anyway, if you want to buy my swastika drawings, you can contact me here (and if you happen to meet any curators that were once daredevil motorcyclists or original members of Spandau Ballet, please also let me know)

Rocky1-6, the heptology...or sexology... or whatever

2008-05-06T14:58:00.000+01:00

OOOOHHHHH.........OOOOOOOHH.......OOOOOHHHHH

I've been getting shifty glances at the video rental shop down the road for the last two weeks, ever since I forced "Gene-Machine" our unofficial new housemate to make me a membership card..... in his name. They'd probably feel more at ease if I was renting out hoards of midget-porn, but NO, what I'm looking for is way more extreme, way more testosterone fuelled, and filled to the brim with lines so bad that they are nearly philosophical............................it's Sylvester Stallone in the ROCKY hexology (I'm assuming that's what you call a series of "six")

Usually my converstation with "Bling" the video-store guy goes something like this:

Me: "Do you have Rocky 3 and 5? I can only find 1,2,4 and 6.....?"

Video-store guy: "er......no"

(5 minutes later)

Me: "Do you have Rambo?"

Video-store guy: "No we lent that to you last year and you never returned it"

Me: "What about Bruce Lee?"

Video-store: "Yes, right at the back, but its dubbed in Thai..."

Me: "IN THAI? why? don't you have it in Cantonese??"

Video-Store Guy: "ermm...do you know we can't let you borrow more than five movies at a time, but I can reserve Rocky 6 for you........by the way is your name really Gene Mahasamut Bunyarask.....?

Some more hidden gems from the 80s action flick.

Anyway, I totally don't understand what's so strange about borrowing the whole sexology/heptology of Rocky, or even Rambo for that matter. It's purely for "research" for the next exhibition. This is where my ultimate fantasy comes true- to see a film where Stallone, Bruce Lee and Nicolas Cage get sweaty and battle it out among each other. I don't really like Jaa Panom because I don't think he's had enough time to "age" and grow "character", but I had to throw him into the equation to make the gallery happy.

.......Sylvester Stallone is totally underrated!

If I have any regrets in life, it's only that I didn't go meet THE MAN himself when my friend was producing ROCKY BALBOA in Chiang Mai (that's Rocky 6 for those of you who don't know). My neighbour, Christian who lives down the road, and has worked with Stallone on "Judge Dredd" (fabulous movie by the way) insists that he's a moron. Here is Christian's website, in case you want to send him hate-mail:

www.lostinspace.com

Unfortunately, he also made this nifty special effect in Terminator 2, so you might have to forgive him.

Testosterone Paradise, Month of Photography, Bangkok 2008

2008-04-04T10:58:00.000+01:00

Some sketches for an upcoming video installation "Testosterone Paradise" that I'm doing at Tang Gallery, Bangkok as part of "Month of Photography" in June 2008.

This year the "Month of Photography" is curated by artist Manit Sriwanichpoom under the loose theme "Portraits"- so I've chosen my favourite action heroes Bruce Lee, Sylvester Stallone, Jaa Panom (Tony Jaa) and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

They are paired off in a systematic rotating video installation, but all the actual fighting from the original films are cut out, leaving only shouting, moaning and strange 'power' sounds. The 4 projections leave a clashing of repetetive noises, which sounds like an obnoxious nagging housewife.

From a more instinctual form of physical aggression it becomes an ‘intellectual’ form of aggression, much like the mental warfare of a chess game. The result is just absurd, a feeling like banging your head against the wall over and over again.

Also see: Rambo REMIX

2008-04-01T12:25:00.000+01:00

!Wowow! Transmediale Festival, Berlin 01/08

2008-02-07T21:40:00.001Z

Get-your-schnapps-here ! (Crappy Cardboard Photobooth 'Schnappy Schapps' splurged out hand-drawn "photos" for queing clubbers in Club Maria in Berlin, as part of Transmediale Festival 2008. The derogative term "Schnapps" actually alluded to 'photo snaps', though this still left a queue of german clubbers queing up in hope of receiving free booze (schnapps= alcohol in german).
By Tintin Cooper & Boo Saville.

In January 2008 the London-based art collective !wowow!, looking more like a bunch escaped convicts/refugees rather than the group of intellectual artists/performers/DJs/writers that they really are, boarded a plane to Berlin to take part in Club Transmediale under the fitting theme....."UNPREDICTABLE".

Impromptu robot dance

Me and artist Boo Saville spontaneously decided to make a cardboard photobooth for the unsuspecting. Following a set of simple, germanic-style commands (ie- 1) comb your hair 2) wait your turn 3) sit down...etc) the person sat down and pulled the paper curtain across, all the while a big googly eye stared out greedily.

Ta-dah! After only a minute's wait, delighted sitters showed off their truer-than-life portraits.

For a good hour or two happy clubbers queued up, eagerly awaiting their very own hand-drawn masterpiece. That is, until a pale-looking Kraut with black boots and a shaved head decided to trash the whole thing.

The remains:

Below: Artists Katsunobu Yaguchi, Tintin Cooper, Gareth Cadwallader, Matthew Stone, Millie Brown, Till Simon, Detroit Grand Pubahs, Karley Sciortino.

http://www.clubtransmediale.de/club-transmediale/program/25/the-children-of-wowow.html
http://www.clubtransmediale.de/club-transmediale.html
http://www.transmediale.de/site/

!Wowow! films and performances at Tate Britain, London 01/08

2008-01-04T13:48:00.000Z

Promethean Invention, a vdo-performance piece screening at the Tate Britain auditorium, Jan 2007.

Films screened across the Tate as part of "Late at Tate Britain" in Jan 2008, alongside Plastique Fantastique and numerous performances by !Wowow! London art collective. Over 4,000 people attended on the night!

Works pictured by Adham Faramawy, Theo Adams, Chycca and Tintin Cooper.

In Promethean Invention, (4:30 min, digital montage of stills and archived footage) the promethean myth is bought into today's existence, where electricity signals the beginning of the world. The music in the antenna and revolution scences is by this amazing new hungarian-japanese trio called Agaskodo Teliverek, which translates as "rearing stallions" in Hungarian (www.myspace.com/agaskodoteliverek).
!WOWOW! LATE AT TATE BRITAIN, Fri 04/01/08, 18:00 onwards

!WOWOW! is an undefined group of artists, designers, musicians, writers and performers known for hosting ambitious artist-led projects in disused South-London spaces. For Late at Tate Britain, !WOWOW! will present a series of songs, actions, films and performances exploring the myth of Prometheus. !WOWOW! is a context, a reason and a way for creative people to do what they do together.

Artists and performers include:

Adam James, Sean Michael, Adham Faramawy, Tintin Cooper, Kerri Gallagher, Lauren Dillard, Amy McDonough, Hugh Chapman, Luke Sellers, Chycca, Matthew Stone, Theo Adams, Hanna Hanra, James Balmforth, Isabel Gonzalez-Toro, Rachael Haines, Miss Match / F.Lunaire, Plastique Fantastique.

Performance details/times at: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/lateattatebritain/lateattatebritain2008january.htm

More info on Dazed and Confused Digital and Plastique Fantastique:
http://www.dazeddigital.com/incoming/wowow-at-tate-britain/
http://www.plastiquefantastique.org/performance03.html

Wit "Father of the Duck", Jiro "Tanuki" Endo, Kota "Tako Method" Sake and all the (momo)Komotion

2007-12-06T15:31:00.000Z

Pictured: Kota "Tako Method" (loser shirt), Black Cupid (on break) and Tanuki (red glasses)

We at the Cassette Cafe in Bangkok all went to Tokyo in December to take part in the Digital Arts Festival (DAF). Below are some pics from the "Overhead Night Club" project, a collaboration between Wit's "Duck Unit", Jiro and Hajime's "Soi Music/Soi Project" and Momokomotion and Cliquepar:

JAPAN in a nutshell: Momo got drunk, me and Jiro sung Bon Jovi at the top of our lungs at karaoke, I found some money on the street, Black Cupid was born*, we went to the pink floyd bar (post-brothel), me and Ote spoke to a stuffed Tanuki, Hajime taught me to spell in japanese/chinese, I got addicted to Rainbow canned coffee, met a tonne of cute japanese actors and, finally, pestered Kota to take me to a love hotel.

Before and 5 minutes after at the soba shop: Momo passed out, I had an apple and then found 7,000 yen on the floor.

Hanging Out! Me and Momo getting into the japanese spirit of "victory" and "christmas" on the lawn of the Panasonic Centre, some 80 kilometres from the centre of town... (phot and reindeer hat courtesy of Kota Sake)

*A Sketch me and Momo did for "Black Cupid", and an accompanying music vdo.

"Poison Arrow" by Black Cupid: (I'm the one with the arrows, see 02:20, 02:40 and 03:15)

And here are the lyrics so you can sing-a-long:

(man)

Who broke my heart?

You did, you did

Bow to the target, Black Cupid, Cupid

You think you're smart Stupid Cupid.

CHORUS (man):

Shoot that poison arrow to my hearrrrrttttttttShoot that poison arrowShoot that poison arrow to my harrr-harr-harrrrttt Shoot that poison arrow!

CHORUS

(man)I thought you loved me but it seems you don't care

(girl) I care enough to know I can never love you

(mimic bow-pulling action)

(man)Shoot that poison arrow to my heartShoot that poison arrowShoot that poison arrow to my heartShoot that poison arrow etc etc etc etc

Preliminary Ideas for a Stage Outfit

2007-09-09T18:19:00.000+01:00

Stage Outfit: (top) loony-bin style strait jacket, and below, acessories.

... now that I'm a fully fledged guitarist for Momokomotion I need some sort of new stage look. Here are some of the initial ideas we came up with. I'll keep you posted with more on this as, "Haru" (who made Momo's elephant outfit pictured below) is in the middle designing me a rooster-outfit. Suggestions welcome, as usual!

Momo's outfit, by wacko Thai artist Tuksina Pipitkul, Nov 2007.
(Left, as worn by Momo during our TigerTranslate gig which featured Momokomotion, some other band and Ladytron . And right, after me and Rune stole it to perform a ritualistic elephant-birthing process)

And what she (Haru) did to our livingroom:
:

Yeah! We were well into elephants then!!! Here's some shots from when my students came over to paint the the wall for Haru's installation, in our Cassette Cafe livingroom (when they left she quickly painted over the whole thing though, that schizophrenic cow!)

Above: Students and Kuro painting our livingroom wall for nutcase artist Haru (Tuksina Pipitkul), and right, detail of droopy-looking elephant by "Herb".

machine to contact celestial forces (coffin), 2007

2007-09-01T12:20:00.000+01:00

Design for a machine to contact celestial forces (aka. "coffin") was shown in La Generale in Paris, as part of "Divination", a three-part exhibition in Hamburg/Paris/London.

[People often forget that outside the mundaneness of everyday life and its frequent frustrations (i.e. being caged inside a physical body, being pulled down by gravity, or constantly striving to control thought and emotion), there exists simultaneously another dimension; one of incomprehensible complexity and profundity, and it lies just beyond the stratosphere of our dumpy little planet earth- it's the universe.

If you could just imagine yourself violently projected into the outer depths of space, looking back at planet earth, and suddenly any financial struggle, family squabble, lost love or other daily inconvenience seems insignificant, even absurd. Who are the people who naturally have or are born with this ability to become 'empty' and connect to this raw energy, which gives their work that 'eternal' feel? "Where exactly were they getting it from? Could it be pinpointed to somewhere more specific than just 'the universe'?"

The 'coffin' takes an aggressive and slightly quack-invention approach to solving the stunted / repressed creative expressions of the general public by acting as a sort of 'propaganda machine' (think 'Clockwork Orange'). Its guise is to 'restore' creative function, but it actually acts more to establish a social collectivity among its participants, who will probably gang-up against the artist, who has made a useless, stupid 'machine' that is forcing them into awkwardly close proximity within the confines of a sweaty, dark, nail-ridden, coffin-shaped box.]

www.divination.org.uk
www.lagenerale.org

War Drawings, 2007

2007-02-09T16:25:00.000Z

Exhibited as part of the installation "You Only Live Twice" in PSG Gallery, Bangkok.

These drawings were made every morning with the morning newspaper and a cup of coffee- they're a mixture of both imagination and political events.

For more drawings, or more info please contact me.

Big Nose, pencil on paper, by Tintin Cooper, 2007

Slimer, left and Untitled, right, by Tintin Cooper, 2007 (from You Only Live Twice installation)

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, Bangkok 02/07

2007-02-03T14:00:00.000Z

Pictured: My assistants "Pinnochio" (chief technician) and Yekhaung (burmese refugee) hang out in the radio-transmission section of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE while we were building the installation. "Pinnochio" (otherwise known as Knock) suffered from diarrhea on the last day of installation due to high amounts of stress/not enough menthol fags, over making the 200 sq m construction and having to spend 24-7 with me and the burmese manual labour force!

Entrance to You Only Live Twice

For 6 months leading up to Feb 2007 I did an artist residency at Silpakorn University that culminated in an installation covering over 100 sq m of the PSG Gallery in Bangkok.

Walkways / Passages / Holes:

Rambo and Terminator:
Films projected on either side, some excerpts from "Rambo"

Chicken:

I bought a chicken from a guy working on the university campus, but unfortunately after its presence was discovered it wasn't allowed to stay in the installation ...hopefully can squeeze it in for a next show at the Bangkok Art Museum?

Uranus Box (installation, also showed at About Cafe/Tadu Gallery 2005)

I had a bloody head for about a week after stubbing my head on this corner (see student above), and received quite a few angry comments (in the form of letters taped to front of the installation) about various injuries that people (mostly fat) had received from the excessive athletic ability needed to crawl, jump and squeeze through such a space.

Radio Transmission area!

I made a radio-transmitter from scratch and transmitted synthesiser music across the vicinity of the Grand Palace / Sanam Luang area for all the locals. I love radios. Here's a local family listening to my station:

Jean-Michel Jarre : some more throwback inspiration for this exhibition

Thank you Mic, Will, Pinnochio, the students of Silpakorn, and Ye / the Burmese Refugee Workforce.

PRESS RELEASE:

The new solo exhibition by Tintin Cooper combines installation of video, drawing, sound and 3-d works in a schizophrenic labyrinth of narrow wooden tunnels and dimly lit passageways. Viewers bend or crawl through a series of makeshift funhouse structures (made of old wood and corrugated iron) in order to interact with the works, which include drawings pinned on notice boards, a mini-pirate radio station playing only synthesizer music, a “machine” to make contact with Uranus, and even a live chicken. Re-edits of Hollywood action film “Rambo” subverts discourses on masculinity and violence, reenvisioning these texts as slapstick 1900’s black and white films. "Terminator (Judgement Day)" starts off in a similarly lowkey, in the black and white style, but ends in an unexpectedly flamboyant synthesiser finale of MTV style re-edits of the film. The music of both films are well known but slightly off key, as they are taken from unexpected home pianists on YouTube. Viewers sit watching the two screens on haystacks scattered throughout the gallery space.

Echoing the logic of the blind alleys, twists, and turns of the Winchester House in California, the pieces inhabiting the space resist any final, totalizing formation, instead incessantly hammering out questions of balance and conflict.

Tintin Cooper is a mixed Thai-English artist who graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in London (2004) and has worked with large installations of a mixed media nature, including most recently, “Police and Houdini” which was installed in two rooms in London, 2004. She has exhibited and screened works in England, New York, Istanbul and Tadu Gallery and Siam Art Space in Bangkok. Upcoming exhibitions include a groupshow at Guang Dong Art Museum, Guang Zhou, China in March 2007.

REVIEWS:

Art 4d/ A.Art Magazine
page 1, 2, 3, 4

Nation (Weekly Edition)
1, 2, 3, 4

Modern Cave
1,2

Guru Magazine / Bangkok Post
1

uranus box, 2005

2005-10-01T13:34:00.000+01:00

"uranus box" was made at About Cafe/AARA (About Art Related Activities) studio residency and shown in Tadu Gallery, Bangkok 2005.

interview with Channel 11:

random drawings II (hare formation)

2005-09-06T06:55:00.000+01:00

Dead Hare Formation, I and II, 2005.

1+2, Bloomsbury Theatre, London, 2004

2004-07-19T00:08:00.000+01:00

Police and Houdini, 2004

2004-06-01T17:47:00.000+01:00

An older installation of vdo, drawing, construction and sound from the Slade Degree Shows in London, 2004.

My Top Three Fantasies

2004-02-16T07:09:00.000Z

After living in more than 17 countries (and travelling in countless others) it shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone that all my fantasies involve aeroplanes.

Top Three Fantasies:

1) Accidently board the wrong aeroplane, end up in some random totally unheard-of barrenwasteland, with no possible way back to boring civilisation. (check!)

2) Narrowly survive a planecrash, then get free air tickets for life. (soon to come!)

3) Die in planecrash.

Goodbye Tintin!

Alamtini

2004-01-01T09:58:00.000Z

Charcoal animation, made in Istanbul/Slade School of Fine Art, London, 2004.

Jab Jab, 2003

2003-12-01T20:00:00.000Z

Short stop-motion animation about boxing, made in 16mm film on exchange in Cooper Union University in New York.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wqnATsi-tuo

PRESS

2000-01-02T07:53:00.000Z

Click to zoom in

'Dissolving Boundaries', Bangkok Post, by Rathsaran Sireekan

You Only Live Twice, A.ART magazine,
By David Teh, April 2007
+ Art 4D, by David Teh, April 2007

Gift of Tongues,
by Brian Curtin
Art4D exhibition reviews, Sep 2007

Page 1 and 2

Labyrinth Slum,
Nation (Sut Subda, Thai edition)
by Thanom Cha-packdee, 23 Feb 2007

Page 1 Page 2

''Modern Cave''
by Paisarn Plienbarngchang
Siam Rut (Sut Subda) Newspaper, 16 March 2007

''Adventures of Tintin'' ''Violent But Funny'' Space Quest, Art4D
Guru Magazine The Nation Feb 2006
Bangkok, Feb 2007 Bangkok, Nov 2004

What's in a Face?
Bangkok Post, Jul 2008

Man of the Week: Kota Sake

2000-01-01T19:29:00.000Z

MAN OF THE WEEK MAN OF THE WEEK MAN OF THE WEEK

KOTA SAKE

Our very first Man-of-the-Week! blog is dedicated to none other than sexyyyyy Kota Sake (pronounced Sarr-kay like the drink). Kota is a real renaissance man, an encyclopedia for all sorts of untouched knowledge, like electrical cable laying, drinking, star-signs, the fine art of hand photography, and japanese pop band "unicorn".

Although better known as the "silent-moody" type, Kota is not averse to the odd fist-fight (he's not nicknamed "Tako Method" for nothing you know) But the best thing about Kota is he can always show you a good time....

KOTA: SPECS

Star Sign: Probably something scary (like Pisces or Libra)
Blood Type: D-
Age: Undisclosed
Occupation: "Cable Layer" (so he says)
Preferred Method of Transport: White Van
Hobbies: Art, photography, soba-making
Most Overused Phrase: "Fuck you"

KOTA SAYS:

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

"Some people say that one's personality is reflected in their car...well I don't have no car"

The many, many different (in fact even schizophrenic) sides of Kota Sake:

VIDEOS, 2004-2008

2000-01-01T17:00:00.000Z

Testosterone Paradise is a systematically rotating video installation, wherein the 4 main characters- action heroes Bruce Lee, Jaa Panom, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Stallone are paired off together as if in the boxing ring. But the fight is a verbal one, as all the actual physical fighting from the original action films are cut out, leaving only shouting, moaning and “power” screeches between the two confronting screens.

The viewer is straddled in between a clashing of two larger than life-size bickering characters that sound at times more like an obnoxious nagging housewife than the super world-saving heroes they are portrayed as in their films.

Here physical aggression is manipulated into mental
aggression, much like the mental warfare of a chess game. But the mental version is neither better nor loftier than its physical counterpart. The result is just absurd, and the constant shouting and verbal spats are like repetitively banging your head against the wall over and over again.

Conflict works on many levels, whether it’s within one person, between two individuals, or even two countries. The pairing of Bruce Lee and Sylvester Stallone could, for example, also allude to the struggle between America and China to be the superpower of the world.

Short video documentation of the installation 'Welcome to Your Mind' created as part of a group exhibition for ArtAids Foundation, Netherlands. The installation consisted of darkened passageways through which the audience had to pass, and a primitive sort of 'earthquake simulator'.

Motors, corrugated metal, wood.

More images/documentation: uraniansatellite.blogspot.com

PROJECTS

2000-01-01T10:07:00.000Z

Welcome to Your Mind (Earthquake Simulator)
Tadu Gallery, Bangkok, Jul 2008
CMU Art Museum, Chiang Mai, Dec 2008
Barcelona, 2009

Testosterone Paradise (Bruce & Sly)
Face to Faces exhibition at Tang Gallery, Bangkok Jun 2008
Divination III, Brunswick Gallery, London, Jul 2008

Promethean Invention
Wowow! Tate Britain, London, Jan 2008
Wowow! Transmediale Festival, Feb 2008
BEFF 5 (Bangkok Experimental Film Festival 5), Bangkok, Apr 2008
BEFF 5, Israel, Nov 2008

Schnappy Schnapps
Wowow! Transmediale Festival, Berlin 2008

Rambo REMIX
Lifeboat #2551 Gallery 4A (Asia Australia Arts Centre),
Biennale of Sydney Parallel Exhibitions 2008

Swastika Building

You Only Live Twice
PSG Gallery, Silpakorn University, Bangkok 2007

Alamtini
Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou 2007
Obsession, GaleriX, Istanbul 2005
BEFF 4, Bangkok 2006

Coffin (to contact celestial forces)
Divination II, La Generale Paris 2007

Uranus Box
Battlefield at Tadu Gallery, Bangkok 2005
Platform, AARA/About Cafe 2005

1+2
Bloomsbury Theatre, London 2004
Siam Art Space, Bangkok 2004

Police and Houdini
Slade School of Fine Art, 2004

LINKS

1999-01-01T12:01:00.000Z

ARTISTS/FRIENDS

Adam James
Adham Faramawy
Anna Voronoff
Apichatpong Weerasetakul
Boo Saville
Gareth Cadwallader
Minou Norouzi
Nathaniel Rackowe
Gerald Van Der Kaap
Yugo Nakamura
Marc Horowitz
Jim Brewer
John Michael Boling
Will Self
Blu (graffiti/animator)
Sutthirat Supaparinya (video artist)
Rana Begum (artist)
JT in Paris (Jakthong's fashion blog)
Eddie Peake (fabulous)

EyeTeeth, journal of incisive ideas
Prae's Podcast (interviews with Bangkok locals)

Post Theater [New York/Berlin/Tokyo]
Corpus Soma Theatre
Station House Opera

Bad Album Art
Strange Maps
Now Now

ArtAids (Amsterdam/Bangkok)

FILM-RELATED

Limitless Cinema
Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal
Stranger's Paradise (Thunska Pansittivorakul's film blog)
ArtSceneTV (documentaries + info on contemporary Thai artists)

COLLECTIVES/PARTIES

Blame it on Berlin
Centre of Attention
Club Soma
Human Eye Corporation
Lost in Space
DuckUnit
NoSpace
Ura! Istanbul
Wowow!

MUSIC

Fluokids
Momokomotion
Stylish Nonsense
Agaskodo Teliverek
Diva International
Dalston Oxfam Shop

1990-06-26T18:41:00.000+01:00

1990-06-26T18:36:00.000+01:00

1990-06-26T18:30:00.000+01:00