exhibition @ The Foundry, opening night Weds 22nd August. BE THERE.

[helenic]

OKAY SO I was totally going to finish posting the art from Monday before I posted about this, but it's nearly midnight already, so. Skip to the end...

On Tuesday I took Kristen to the Foundry, because everyone needs to see it, especially artists. For those not in the know, it's a bohemian pub in Shoreditch, which is in a converted bank. Outside they have graffiti and sculpture and random amazing bits of urban art - recently they had a whole bunch of robots made out of trash and shopping trolleys and things. There are outside tables, currently nestled among a forest of scaffolding pillars, all of them covered in beautiful diverse graffiti and collage.

Inside is a riot of dingy urban charm. There is an ancient grand piano, a library/snug, loads of sofas with the springs coming out, and drippy candles everywhere. There are bizarre bits of sculpture hanging from the ceiling, and neon signs, and cacti. There's a metal dinosaur by the stairwell and the DJ booth is surrounded by ancient computer monitors. It's a comfortable, crazy den of random bits and pieces. The bar sells organic beer from local breweries, and at almost-student prices. There are graffiti and scratches and candlewax on all available surfaces. The walls of the bar and the library are available for local artists to exhibit. All the other walls are covered in graffiti, most of it extraordinarily high quality.

They have open mic nights, play readings, open mic piano and poetry nights, DJs and live acts. Every Friday lunchtime they produce a radio show from the bar, which you can listen to here (I've been working my way through the archives; it's well worth listening to, political and wry and random, with various people just coming along and talking about demonstrations and culture and art and doing their thing). Downstairs (the stairwell is also used to exhibit art, and is a particularly fine graffiti spot; installations and light shows frequently hang above your head as you descend) the old bank vaults are used as additional exhibition space. They put bar tables and chairs in some of the rooms, and others are used entirely as gallery space. The doors are all heavy old vault doors half a foot thick. There's interesting junk in all the dark corners and graffiti on all the spare walls. It's dark and dingy and urban, the stairs and passageways are narrow, and the vaults themselves, while low-ceilinged, open up into surprisingly large exhibition spaces.

There's a poster upstairs entitled I COULD FUCKIN DO BETTER THAN THAT, which explains their exhibition policy. Anyone is welcome to exhibit. They're a pub, not an art gallery; they don't want to see any samples of your work beforehand, they don't care if you're shite or the next big thing. All they care about is that you can fill the space by the date they book you for, and that you bring loads of your mates round and boost bar sales. You can sell paintings from the exhibition if you like, they won't take a cut. What they will do is keep one of the works from your exhibition, to add to the growing Foundry Collection which in years to come will be worth millions. Once you've had a crack at the upstairs area and proved that you'll deliver on time, they'll let you book one of the larger downstairs spaces. They won't do joint exhibitions: if you can't fill the space, go away and do more work until you can. That's it.

I've known about this for months, because it's on my way to Denny's from Old St tube. We've only been there a few times; I really need to go back more, because the art changes every fortnight or something. I don't have the paintings to exhibit yet, and I won't until I've cleared my backlog of commissions (particularly the long-awaited religious ones for amberspyglass and romauld).

When I saw cuteevilpixie's paintings, my first thought was that she should sign up to exhibit them at the Foundry. By the time we got there on Tuesday, we'd spent the weekend together, and the last 24 hours doing art. We turned up with our hands in each other's pockets and without really thinking about it, we were asking about whether their ban on joint exhibitions extended to collaboratiions. Turns out it doesn't: if every painting in the exhibition is by both of us, that's fine: we're effectively exhibiting as a single artist. Which wall did we want - the bar wall, the far wall or the library? The bar wall, we reckoned: it was the biggest, the most visible, and it included a whole snug area by the window with a broad windowsill and various ledges for putting sculptures on.

So Kristen and I are exhibiting at the Foundry from Tuesday August 21st to Sunday 2nd September. It'll be entirely collaborative work. Organic, kinetic, hippyish paintings; painted sculptures. We're going to hang coloured fabrics, totally fill the space. Tuesdays are the open mic piano night, so the launch party will be Wednesday 22nd August. We can organise our own DJ if we like (we're thinking of asking one of the Planet Angel resident DJs if they're interested, but if any of you would be up for it, let us know?). Oh! And also we need a photographer to take opening night photos, so let me know if you want the job? Not sure what the exhibition's going to be called yet - we're toying with the idea of K~nesis. I'll be posting a flyer when I've drawn one up.

Tuesday August 21st to Sunday 2nd September. The Foundry, EC2. EXHIBITION! Me and Kristen! Our paintings! Exhibited! In London! OH MY GOD I HAVE AN EXHIBITION. And it's all thanks to Kristen :) We have two and a half months to produce ALL THE ART IN THE WORLD and I totally could never, ever, have done this so soon if it wasn't for her and what she's done for my art and creativity.

YOU ALL HAVE TO COME AND SEE IT. Please. Bring your friends, your family, random people you meet in the street. Especially bring any friends you have who enjoy hippyish paintings and might have, say, about £300 to spend on a big beautiful piece of art this summer.

I has a Kristen, and an exhibition: life doesn't get better than this. :)

Comments

Re: DJ...

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I was thinking possibly arachne or kilinrax, if they were up for it. Thanks for the link - I'm downloading the EPs and will see what I think.

Ideally I think we want organic, hippyish, energy-raising music. Ambient jungle, psytrance, acid house, possibly some drum and bass? I don't really know what kind of music is best for an opening night party. It wants to add atmosphere and energy, but still needs to be talkable-over, and there won't really be room for dancing. I need to consult someone who knows more about this than I do :)

Re: DJ...

[arachne.livejournal.com]

I'd say to ask Kilinrax *way* ahead of me on this one - the kind of stuff you'd be wanting's really more his bag than mine, in the DJing sense.

Opening night *photos*, on the other hand... ;)

(with a promise that I wouldn't be anywhere near as tardy on them as I've been on yours)

Also - Woot and yay! Congratulations, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the work you two produce together :)

Re: DJ...

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I was wondering who to ask about photos. No reason not to have more than one photographer, of course :) It'd be fantastic if you could do it.

Many thanks for the congratulations - I'm sorry I've not left comments on your recent entries, by the way. I have been reading all of them, and thinking of you with much sympathy. I can't imagine how you must be feeling. Many hugs, also deliverable in person next time you're in town. xx

Re: DJ...

[arachne.livejournal.com]

Thanks - and no worries, please ignore my pathetic lashing-out "nobody cares" post - wasn't feeling quite myself ;)