ORGAN THING: The beautiful printmaking of Lynne Blackburn, the glorious wallpaper of Ian Bailey, both at Debased this week…

Posted on September 20, 2016 by seanworrall

Lynne Blackburn – Ghost Building

Debased is almost upon us, we’re rather looking forward to it, I’m especially looking forward to seeing Ian Bailey’s work in the flash. This will be Ian’s debut in terms of Cultivate, he was last seen at the V&A where some of his beautiful hand-printed wallpaper was being on show..

Debased is a maximalist art show, a group show, Debased is about cross-pollination, about artists who probably don’t cross paths that often being on the same walls, sharing spAce and ideas and energy. We rather like the idea of street artists sharing space with contemporary painters, performers, print makers, dress makers, and in Ian’s case, someone who created beautiful hand printed wallpaper. There’s something exciting about a good repeat pattern, especiAlly a slightly rebellious one – “Student of the late seventies and still angry. Ian’s art and repeat pattern wallpaper designs are inspired by Pugin, Strummer, Jamie Reid, Ickey, Banksy, Orwell and Delia Smith CBE” I’d throw William Morris in that pot as well but then William is a hero of mine and I am a frustrated textile designer, I was delighted when Ian asked if he could take part in Debased, I can’t wait to see his wallpaper hanging next to a This One canvas or an Emma Harvey painting.

: IAN BAILEY wallpaper

: IAN BAILEY wallpaper

: IAN BAILEY wallpaper

CULTIVATE DEBASED is at BSMT Space 22-25 September 2016. Opening night: Thursday 22 September, 6pm until 9pm then open: Friday 23, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September 11am until – 7pm each day. BSMT Space is found at 5d Stoke Newington Road, Dalston, London, N16 8BH

CULTIVATE returns to Dalston and that beautiful basement knows as BSMT Space. In March it was DEBASER and slicing up eye balls, on September 22nd it will be DEBASED. Another gathering of pro-active artists and a maximalist exercise on cross-pollination. A room alive with contemporary painters, so-called street artists, performers, print makers and more…. Artists taking part include: ADAM ESPIRA, AMY KINGSMILL , APPLE TART , BRUCE LOVELOCK, CHRISTOPHER CACHELIN (aka Kidd Feather), DEBORAH GRIFFIN, DIANE GOLDIE, ELIZABETH SANDFORD RICHARDSON, EMMA HARVEY, IAN BAILEY, MUTINY, LYNNE BLACKBURN, MARNIE SCARLETT, MEGAN PICKERING, MIA-JANE HARRIS, QUIET BRITISH ACCENT, ROSSO, SEAN WORRALL, THIS ONE….

Gill Saunders, curator of prints at the V&A, talking about Ian Bailey’s ‘Rebellion’ wallpaper

LYNNE BLACKBURN has been quite a regular at Cultivate, we always get so much out of Lynne being involved in out group shows and exhibitions. Now I’m no printmaker and I don’t really know how she achieves what she does but her beautiful multi-screened prints are so alive with colour, with texture, depth and I guess (although I don’t know) alive with technical dexterity – and although there’s obviously a high degree of skill involved, with all due respect and admiration, I don’t really care that much about that side. I’m more interested in the result of whatever it is Lynne does, the interest is in the piece that ends up on the wall – beautiful colours, delicious repeats, glorious textures and often with a not to obvious slice of a social or political undercurrent, There’s print makers and then there’s artists who really do explore the possibilities of print making, the layers and relationships of shape and colour, the glory of texture. Lynne Blackburn isn’t an artist who comes jumping off a wall demanding your immediate attention, her work is just there, quietly waiting for you to take a proper look rather than a polite glance, art there to really be discovered and get lost in. I can spend hours just looking at a Lynne Blackburn print, indeed I have done just that when we’ve had shows on, why do you think we keep asking her back, there’s something rather special about a Lynne Blackburn print, rather looking forward to seeing what she has for us this Thursday evening., she promises a new series of prints called Ghost Building….

: Lynne Blackburn – Ghost Building

: Lynne Blackburn – Ghost Building

: Lynne Blackburn – Ghost Building

Here’s a load of past Lynne Blackburn images “borrowed” off social media and such, click on an image to enlarge or run the slide show and get a small flavour of her world….

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

: Lynne Blackburn – printmaker

Both Lynne Blackburn and Ian Bailey produce their work at Hippo Screeenprinting studio.

“HIPPO SCREENPRINTERS is a fine art printmaking studio, specialising in hand-pulled screen print editions for artists, art galleries, band merchandisers, interior designers and publishers. At our studio, which is situated in the Essex countryside, we also have facilities for etching and digital printing”.

Hippo Screenprint studio

ORGAN THING: This One’s street art style gets Debased this week…

Posted on September 19, 2016 by seanworrall

This One is a Yorkshire man slowly painting his way through every wall in London, well rather rapidly actually, This One is a prolific street artist who’s tattoo-flavoured illustrative style kind of stands out on cluttered the walls he’s adding to. Unlike a lot of the current crop of London’s street artists This One‘s standout black and white style translates rather well to canvas on a gallery wall, his paintings on canvas or on doors, or boats or bike frames look as fine inside a gallery as they do fighting through the clutter, the advertising and he estate agents boards on the the East London Streets.

This One has become an almost regular contributor to Cultivate shows over the last year and a half, he’ll be joining us again this Thursday for the Debased show over at Dalston’s Basement space

CULTIVATE returns to Dalston and that beautiful basement knows as BSMT Space. In March it was DEBASER and slicing up eye balls, on September 22nd it will be DEBASED. Another gathering of pro-active artists and a maximalist exercise on cross-pollination. A room alive with contemporary painters, so-called street artists, performers, print makers and more…. Artists taking part include: ADAM ESPIRA, AMY KINGSMILL , APPLE TART , BRUCE LOVELOCK, CHRISTOPHER CACHELIN (aka Kidd Feather), DEBORAH GRIFFIN, DIANE GOLDIE, ELIZABETH SANDFORD RICHARDSON, EMMA HARVEY, IAN BAILEY, MUTINY, LYNNE BLACKBURN, MARNIE SCARLETT, MEGAN PICKERING, QUIET BRITISH ACCENT, ROSSO, SEAN WORRALL, THIS ONE….

This One

CULTIVATE DEBASED happens at BSMT Space on 22nd to the -25th September 2016. Opening night: Thursday 22 September, 6pm until 9pm then open: Friday 23, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September 11am until – 7pm each day. Find: BSMT Space at 5d Stoke Newington Road, Dalston, London, N16 8BH

Find out more about the Debased show and the artists talking part over on the Cultivate blog, come along and find out who Apple Tart is…

Apple Tart

Here’s some photos of This One’s art that we just blatantly stole off social media, click on an image to enlarge or run the slide show….

: This One bike frame

: REVEAL – This One

: Debaser @BSMT Space, March 2016, This One

: This One bike frame @ Play

: This One bike frame @ Play

: This One at Play (2015)

: This One door and Deborah Griffin @ Play

: This One at Play (2015)

: This One

: Debaser @BSMT Space, March 2016, This One

: This One

: This One

: This One

: This One

: This One

: This One

: This One

ORGAN THING: Green Bastard, orange baked beans, churning doom monsters, Listening Woman? Who are Listening Woman?

Posted on September 19, 2016 by seanworrall

Sr. X @ BSMTspace

Monday morning, paint to throw, in-box busting with music submissions – “you’re gonna love this band, they’re right up your street” said the PR guy. No, we’re not! They sound like every other unremarkable personality-free indie-landfill band championed by the NME over the last twenty years, next….

We’re going to stick with the in-box and work our way through until something worthy of the honour that is Organ Thing of The Day, we shall plow through until something bites our ears.

This next band being just about tolerated now are apparently “channeling the spirit of northern soul” so says the press release,. If this is channeling Northern Soul then that half eaten piece of toast over there is most certainly channeling the spIrit of GG Allin – look, that burnt bit with the strawberry jam splattered on it does look a bit like GG! The northern soul wannabees actually sound like an insipidly awful take on everything bad that came with all the Arctic Monkeys hype without the occasionally good bits that that dreadfully average band ripped off of Sir John Cooper Clark, positively chickentown! They sound like the Libertines without the drugs or the songs, Nolan Porter must be spinning on his head with laughter, Northern Soul? Come on PR man how can we take any of your e.mails seriously when you make claims like that about the bands you’re pimping at us? Next please…

The Sweet Shop

Stillhound? I think I’d rather go hang out with Shed Seven and take up yesterday’s invite, next…. Next up, yet another rule-obeying baked-bean flogging generic cookie monster heavy metal copycat band who want to sound like all the bands they listen to. The dragon on their disaster of an album cover has to be one of the worst we’ve seen for oh at least two weeks, “Their music is influenced by the current metal scene” too right it is! Very much so, not the slightest hint of a desire to add a tiny bit of something original. Heavy metal these days is rather like street art, everything must conform, be the same as all the others, make a stencil just like the rat Banksy copies off that other bloke. Who was that band who once told us the metal they made was like baked beans? Apparently according to said band, no one wants blue baked beans, it all has to be orange, people want their baked beans orange. They really did say that, in to a tape recorder, back in the days of cassettes in the Wardour Street Marquee dressing room, Blue Blud they were called (yes, that is how the bean pushers spelt it, what would the Stormchild have said, now there was a band worth their beans), they were opening for Faith no More at the Marquee and really struggling to get their bean-brain metalheads around why the Marquee was full of people there for this strange new band from California who’s beans really didn’t sound very much like orange baked beans.. next… .

Green Bastard – Pyre

Green Bastard are a “New England stoner-doom trio who have just announced their debut LP, ‘Pyre’ due out November 16 on Midnight Werewolf records on cassette and download. Does anyone have a cassette player anymore, surely not? There are mountains of tapes in here, not had a player for years, do people just buy these hip-this-week cassette releases as ornaments to put on their shelves next to their Star Wars dolls and their cans of orange baked beans? Got a pile of eight track cartridges over there, beat that one retroposers, you’re not a serious musichead unless you’ve got Slade Alive on eight track cartridge, don’t come here with your newfangled cassettes you lightweight hipsters!

This second Green Bastard song, is it a song? This second Green Bastard track has been churning along for almost fourteen minutes now, we’ve heard it all before but there is a little something extra in here and it is positively hypnotic in a St-Vitus does Earth kind of way, stoner soundart rather than just the usual aimless bludgeon riffola. These guys are pounding us towards submission, we give in to the relentless churn! We like it, we like the doom and damnation, hell, we love it! love the raw stew of sound, have there been any vocals yet? Not noticed, seems like they’ve been playing for hours now, is this three track album on repeat? Hang on, it isn’t on repeat, this third track is rather different, this is serious doomy depression and he claims he woke up screaming in the dark – the vocals have kicked in, is that bit there sounding like Stone Roses wanting to be Candlemass? Did they say they were playing Manchester soon? Manchester New Hampshire you say? Rebuild the Hacienda and get them booked over here! That bit there 8.26 in is Stone Roses for doomheads who have no idea who the Stone Roses are let along what they sound like, Green Dream is the name of the song, this one certainly is a song, another fourteen minute song.. We’re back to the first track now, Thorus, they did have vocals in there with the churn and the riffs and cement mixer and the holding of heads under the sea. This is an impressive wall of fog and fuzz and doom and stoner puss and low-end rumble and most of all positive repetition, positively pounding at you until you give in to the raw power of it all….

Green Bastard

Here’s the official press release and some much-needed clarity

GREEN BASTARD ANNOUNCE DEBUT LP ‘PYRE’: New England stoner-doom trio Green Bastard have announced their debut LP, ‘Pyre’ due out November 16 on Midnight Werewolf records on cassette and download.

‘Pyre’ is an immense listen. Comprised of three sprawling tracks, it takes just under an hour to run its course, but has an intangible gift of drawing the listener into its own reality. In the vein of Sleep, Green Bastard churn out groovy, driving riffs, which are further blended with the filthy fuzz of Boris and Monolord. Touches of post-rock and post-metal reveal themselves in evocative guitar lines that glide over the top of the rolling mass. Mastered by Will Killingsworth of Ampere and Orchid, it is an excellent new work from the fertile New England heavy music scene.

Opening track ‘Thoros’ is a fitting introduction to the album, luring the listener in with atmospheric droning before monumental riffs pummel down the channels. When the track turns onto a new path of its journey midway, soaring guitar separates itself from the thick fuzz, a patient payoff from the minutes of hypnotic build before it. These transitions mark the milestones of ‘Pyre’; the outro to the monstrous second track ‘Cyclopean Walls’, for instance, has the relentlessly thick riffs disintegrate into noisy, disharmonious wails reminiscent of Neurosis. ‘Green Dream’ closes off the record, a brooding piece that contemplates the existential anguish of a clairvoyant. The tone of the track begins mournfully, progressing into a heavy catharsis as singer and bassist Spencer Benson moves his dynamic voice from contemplative singing to a raucous shout. The music follows, using chord progressions that build in the manner of post-rock and delivering angry, lamenting guitar and bass riffs. Drums crash through forceful rhythms beneath, and the combination constructs a potent emotional imagery, capturing the sense of the character and the fantastical nature of the track’s setting. ‘Pyre’ is an assured, sophisticated, and downright filthy statement from a band who, like the seer in ‘Green Dream’, appear to know themselves a little too well for comfort – but more than well enough for riffs.

Green Bastard, nice shirt, no orange bean sauce there!

Here’s an old Green Bastard track that’s nowhere near as good as this new stuff, the new stuff isn’t on line yet, you’ll have to make do with Furious George here, nowhere near as good as the new album though, hang on, haven’t we posted this before? .

Here, have a Cardiacs cover while we wait for Green Bastard ot post up thir new album

Meanwhile “here’s my new favorite band, Listening Woman” said Gregory

“Room Divider” from Listening Woman’s second release “Getting “Mystic. Coming Fall 2016 on OSR Tapes. Directed, shot, and edited by Ari Ratner, here’s some links, we’ll go find out more, we always take note on what Gregory has to say….

Listening Woman
https://listeningwoman.tumblr.com/
https://www.facebook.com/listeningwom…
http://osr-tapes.com/

Here you go, these baked beans were never orange, these were the finest of baked beans, what were Blue Blud on about that time? How on earth did Trespass morph in to Blue Blud antway? What were they thinking?

More tomorrow…. maybe… here, have some of Dark Star‘s blue baked beans

…

ORGAN THING: The Splendour and Misery of Clipping….

Posted on September 18, 2016 by seanworrall

Clipping

Clipping have a new album, this is a good thing, a very good thing, splendid indeed, no misery here. Splendor & Misery is the name of the cutting edge album, it came out earlier this week on Sub Pop, it smells like something or other. The Los Angeles outfit have been putting together some powerful musical collage for some time now, you don’t really need our words, music doesn’t need be written about, there it all is, judging it for yourselves, we merely need to point you in the direction, not like those days when the written word was everything and the music press chose what to feed us. Will we ever work out why, when there were so many fine bands, the mainstream music press chose to champion so many of the dreadful things they did while ignoring so many of the fine things that were right there under their noses? Here’s the new Clipping album (now if only they could spell Splendour it would be perfect) .

STOP PRESS “Hello. Saw your clipping post, thank you. Going to get one correction on it: the album is a corelease between sub pop and Deathbomb Arc, not just on sub pop Thank you! Brian” (Brian is from Deathbomb Arc….

What kind of fresh hell is this? Imagine it, stuck in a Butlins holiday camp in the rain and wind of an English November and the only way to escape the grey wet weather is to go inside and endure the even greyer and wetter Shed Seven. The return of Bentley Rhythm Ace for gawd sake, stuck in some kind of nightmare with loads of fat middle-aged men in faded washed Wonderstuff t-shirts that don’t fit them properly. An exciting offer!? God help us, Ash for gawd sake!? We spent the 90’s avoiding this lot the first time around

“Hi Sean, Hope you are well! Got an exciting offer for you here! We’re looking after the hugely popular Shiiine On Weekender this year (with Echo & The Bunnymen, Happy Mondays, Ash, Black Grape, Ride & more confirmed to play) and we’re looking for people to review the event. There’s only a limited number on the list for this one (the whole event is already over 80% sold out), but I just wanted to drop you a line to see if you’re free 11th – 14th November and if you might be interested in coming down to Butlins Minehead Arena to review the festival? It’d be great to get you involved!

It’s a big one for the festival this year, following the sell-out success of the Shiiine On Weekender 2015, further quality has just been added to its already stellar line up making this unique event a must-see. The event combines some of the biggest names in Britpop, indie and dance, with this year’s line-up featuring the likes of: Echo & The Bunnymen, Happy Mondays, Ash, Black Grape, Mark Gardener (Ride), Steve Lamacq, Shed Seven, Cast and more – full line-up here. There will be a tonne of other stuff going on too, with theatre performances, cinema screenings, talks from Britpop legends and Bez (Happy Monday’s) will even be hosting a pool party! Anyway, I’d love to hear what you think about coming along to review this one. If you want any more info on the festival then just drop me a line! Many thanks, Will”

Really not sure Will would really like to know what we think, Cast!?!* Shed Seven?! Surely this wasn’t a serious invite? So much exciting rewarding music around, why would anyone want to be stuck in a holiday camp in November with Cast and Shed Seven?

ORGAN THING: Cultivating in a Dalston basement, the art of cross-pollination…

Posted on September 16, 2016 by seanworrall

Been a few days over five years since we started this Cultivate thing, we’ll we had been cultivating before that, the Stinging Netil fair, the Hundred Paintings show and such, but it was just over five years ago that we formally started Cultivate. The first four years were on that now infamous corner smack bang in the middle of the now sadly missed Vyner Street, since then we’ve been moving around, nomadic contradictions, basements, warehouses, formal galleries, dog shows, beachfronts, railway bridges…

Next Thursday we’re back in Dalston, the edges of Hackney where east becomes north London Cultivate returns to Dalston and that beautiful basement known as BSMT Space. Back In March it was Debaser and slicing up eye balls, on September 22nd it will be Debased. Another gathering of pro-active artists and a maximalist exercise in cross-pollination. A room alive with contemporary painters, so-called street artists, performers, print makers, wallpaper creators and more…. . Opening on Thursday evening (6pm until 9pm although I expect we’ll go on a bit longer) and then a short sharp shock of a show through the weekend and closing on Sunday – no messing about, just artists, walls, people and ongoing Cultivation

Debaser, March 2016, Bruce Lovelock

Artists taking part include:
ADAM ESPIRA ,
AMY KINGSMILL,
BRUCE LOVELOCK,
DEBORAH GRIFFIN ,
DIANE GOLDIE ,
EMMA HARVEY ,
IAN BAILEY ,
MUTINY ,
CHRISTOPHER CACHELIN aka KIDD FEATHER,
LYNNE BLACKBURN ,
MARNIE SCARLETT ,
MEGAN PICKERING ,
QUIET BRITISH ACCENT,
ROSSO ,
SEAN WORRALL,
THIS ONE

And we rather expect one or two more may join us for the opening night and the weekend for the debased cross-pollination. This is about taking art and artists out of those comfortable little boxes that the London art scene appears to need, mixing things up, messing with the rules – a wallpaper printer (currently hanging in the V&A), alongside a street artist currently painting East London walls, a London dress-maker currently raging against London Fashion week, a contemporary painter currently exploring the view found through a circle, a performance artist freshly returned from her LA performance next to a pro-active artist still questioning the destruction of he mining communities. Expect previews and features on all the artists here on these pages throughout the weekend and the days leading up to Thursday’s opening (SW)

Debaser, March 2016

Diane Goldie…

Bruce Lovelock

Debaser, March 2016, Rosso

ORGAN THING: The art fair season is upon us, The monster that is the Frieze Art Fair is almost upon us, the sculpture park details have just been announced…

Posted on September 14, 2016 by seanworrall

29: Frieze 2015

We’re coming up to art fair season, I have a love/hate relationship with the whole idea of art fairs, they can occasionally be good things when they’re done right. Art Fairs are very rarely are though all art shoehorned in, a badly lit hall or a million room dividers squashed into warehouse, art fair season is rarely a good thing, certainly not a dignified thing..

From a working artist’s point of view I’m really not a fan, especially not of the smaller ones that pop up as an almost cynical fringe cash-ins on the main events during art fair season – the cram them in and charge the artists an arm and a leg merchants whose practices really do need to be questioned (you want some actual light shining on your painting, that will be an extra £40 on top of the vast fee you already paid to take part please artist). I’m not a fan of art fair cattle markets, if you want to see art go somewhere where you can breathe, where the art can breathe, then go to a gallery.

2: Frieze 2015 – the entry tunnel

If an art fair must be attended then it may as well be the mother of them all, at least at Frieze you have some elbow room and a curatorial policy that means it isn’t just going to be full of the art made by anyone who can stump up the cash required. Frieze is about the world’s leading galleries showing us what they have to offer, the art that the high-end galleries from around the globe think is the cream, the exciting artists and the art they are are making from the galleries point of view, a window in to that high-end world. Is their art any more exciting that the art we encounter most weeks around the back streets of London? We shall see, we shall be at London’s Frieze Art Fair again this year to bring you more opinionated thought and fractured imagery, words from the galleries and artists and whatever else we find. Well they did invite us again, it really would be rude not to accept the invite really.

128: Frieze 2015

The Frieze Art Fair is high-end I know, but then Frieze is nowhere near the cynical cattle market that the others can be. Went to one so-called London art fair earlier this year and you really could not swing a sketch book let alone a cat. Angry artists tripping over each other as they counted their loses, no way to get in and get a decent view of what the cynically-exploited artists did have in there on the stalls (that they’d paid a fortune to hire and be part of said print fair). No, if it is to be an art fair then it has to be Frieze. You can breath at Frieze, there’s space to spread out and explore the art properly at Frieze, space for the galleries to hang the art properly. Of course there’s no way for small galleries or artists to take part, it is all seriously high-end and expensive and we were actually invited once, the price to rent a space in “emerging gallery” was more then our entire year’s rent in Vyner Street. Frieze is the serious high end, the top of the tree, the entry ticket isn’t cheap but do be warned, if you decide to go then you really do need (at least) one full day. What giant 30ft cat, I didn’t see a giant 30ft cat? Where was the cat?

61: Frieze 2015 - Adam Pendleton

Of course one of the best things about the giant Frieze Art Fair in London’s Regent Park is the sculpture park. The free to enter (again and again should you wish) Sculpture park is right there out in the open, in the park, open to everyone, right next to the giant (and we mean giant) tented contemporary art fair. The sculpture park stays there long after the fair has been packed up. You don’t need to pay to visit the sculpture park, you don’t need a ticket. And the sculpture park remains in place for three months this year. Has it been there for three months before? The Sculpture park, right in the middle of the city, is always a treat.

Frieze Sculpture Park

Frieze Press Release: Frieze Sculpture Park, a Free Outdoor Exhibition for Three Months

Frieze is pleased to announce that the Sculpture Park will be open from 5th October 2016 until the 8th January 2017, with free entry to all. Selected by Clare Lilley (Director of Programme, Yorkshire Sculpture Park), 20 iconic works by 20th-century masters and new commissions by contemporary talents will be placed throughout the English Gardens of The Regent’s Park, creating a free outdoor exhibition at the centre of London.

Frieze Sculpture Park

World-leading galleries in Frieze London and Frieze Masters (6–9 October) will extend their shows outside the fair, dramatizing the landscape of The Regent’s Park, and beyond Frieze Week, with 19 works remaining on view until 8 January 2017.

Robert Dingle, Contemporary Projects Manager, Art Fund, said: ‘The Frieze Sculpture Park is without a doubt one of the key highlights of Frieze week, and we are so pleased to be its programming partner this year. To have a sculpture exhibition, for free, right in the heart of London, is fantastic and its staying open long after Frieze London and Masters have closed will mean everyone will have even more time to visit.

The exhibition includes the park’s first-ever conceptual work – a remaking of a rare 1969 piece by Ed Herring – and classic painted sculptures by Claes Oldenburg and Jean

Dubuffet alongside a newly created work by Eddie Martinez

British post-war artists are represented by Eduardo Paolozzi, Barry Flanagan and Lynn Chadwick, whilst young and established international artists Nairy Baghramian, Zeng Fanzhi, Claude Lalanne, Huang Rui, Jose Dávila, Matthew Monahan and Goshka Macuga amplify the selection. Mikayel Ohanjanyan, Renato Nicolodi, and Fernando Casasempere

each offer newly made works, as does Conrad Shawcross, whose six-metre-high steel sculpture is a study for his major 2016 commission for the Greenwich Peninsula, while

Henry Krokatsis’ imaginary sauna-shed reflects the traditional bandstands and shelters found in London’s parks.’ The exhibition will captivate and energise both Frieze and Park visitors and I’m gratified that Camden Council has again agreed to extend the end date until January 2017, giving Londoners a wonderful cultural resource over the winter months.’

In place from 5th October 2016 to 8th January 2017, the Sculpture Park is located in the English Gardens of The Regent’s Park, a short walk to the east of the entrance of Frieze London. Entrance to the Sculpture Park is free to the public.

Frieze Sculpture Park 2014

And here’s some footage of Anri Sala (with André Vida): To Each His Own (in Bridges). Live Performance, Frieze Sculpture Park 2015. Regent’s Park, London (UK), October 14, 2015.

“As part of its 2015 Sculpture Park, Frieze Art Fair London presented a live performance by the Albanian-born, Berlin-based artist Anri Sala. The piece is called To Each His Own (in Bridges), and was made in collaboration with the US composer and saxophonist André Vida. It is based on 74 different pieces of music, combining fragments of jazz, folk, and pop songs (i.e. from the Beatles). The work is played on the saxophone, clarinet and trombone. For the other works in this year’s Frieze Sculpture Park, click here”

22: Frieze 2015 – Yngve Holden

The London Frieze Art Fair takes place in Regent’s Park from October 6th to October 9th, more details via that link right there. The Sculpture park is open n place from 5th October 2016 to 8th January 2017, the Sculpture Park is located in the English Gardens of The Regent’s Park

PREVIOUS FRIEZE COVERAGE ON THE ORGAN PAGES

ORGAN THING: Ice creams, Chicago potholes, Anri Sala in the Frieze Sculpture Park, the Chrome and Black Winter Graff battle and a classic bit of Hackney…

ORGAN: Five art shows the Frieze whinny whiney-arse from New York should have checked out this year before shouting his mouth off…

ORGAN: Frieze part two, back for more. A whinny-arse New Yorker, a giant cat, some washing machines and…

ORGAN THING: “We are a challenge to Frieze because in many ways we don’t exist…”, one year on and we still can’t agree…

ORGAN THING: Frieze time once more, brothers and Sisters, time to kick out the art fair jams…

ORGAN THING: More Frieze week, more from the car park, the Sculpture Park, Kaws, Yayoi Kusama, We Could Not Agree…

ORGAN THING: “We are a challenge to Frieze because in many ways we don’t exist…” Next week’s We Could Not Agree art show in a car park

120: Frieze 2015 – Kate MacGarry Gallery and space for art to breathe

Footnote: All fractured photos (Sean Worrall), we have no idea who wrote the official Frieze sculpture park press release, pretty sure no one is going to moan about us reproducing it as part of the coverage though

ORGAN THING: Upsilon Acrux set out on their epic European adventure…

Posted on September 13, 2016 by seanworrall

upsilon_photo

Consider this an advance warning, The man we know as Paul Lai tells us that “On Tuesday I’ll be leaving for Upsilon Acrux‘s European tour for about 26 days, this will an epic journey w/ many places I’ve never been. Truly insane playing Rock In Opposition festival w/ my idols Magma and this will be my first trip to Poland, Sweden and Norway. Hope to see some of u there or somewhere around there. below are the actual dates to help navigate our path of destruction., P.S for those that wanna ask what kind of music, i would refer to it as very apical rock music w/ 2 drummers so a f*ckboat of drums are involved”.

upsilon_tour

Upsilon Acrux are of course one of the finest bands out there, consistantly challenging, deliciously defiantly hard-boiled, progressive in all senses, real prog, avant experimentalism and gloriously good. The US band are on their way over, a rare tour or Europe, our ears are in for a treat, a f*uckboat of a treat as Paul puts it…. Here’s some tastes on and new, expect more as we build up to the UK dates both here and on the Other Rock Show….

upsilon_rockinop

FOOTNOTE: Art must always be written about in the correct formal academic way, no not smile while viewing art, do not act like you might be excited by it.

ORGAN THING: Gob on you ’cause you talk about art…

Posted on September 13, 2016 by seanworrall

#43ArtDrop, Hackney Wick, July 2016

Art excites me, sharing news of where the art is to be found seems like a rather positive exciting thing to do, talking about art, writing about art, it excites me, posting up words, photos that hint at things to be found on the actual gallery walls should you choose to go actually experience it for yourself, gt t othat gallery, art is exciting! Posting links to galleries where the shows are happening, writing about art, sharing art, writing bout artists, art is exciting, art excites me,.

Art excites me enough to want to write about it, to erect signposts pointing the way to the energy of a rewarding painter that excite me, to bands that really matter. Art excites me, a really good gig excites me, going to see an in-your-face band gets me excited. An exciting art show thrills me, a new painting up on a street wall excites me, a new album (or a these days a new track on a soundcloud page) excites me (okay, maybe not so much whe nit comes to a soundcloud post). Going to galleries excites me, almost addictive, when’s the next one? Art excites me, that’s why I do all this, this is why Organ has carried on (in one fractured form or another) for far (far) too long now.

Not for one tiny moment is the suggestion here that we should dumb art or the coverage of art down, to suggest that is to insult the art, the artist and most of all the audience.

What doesn’t excite me is academic bullshit and all the dancing around architecture that comes with the coverage art, the intellectual elitism and art school formality that alienates rather than invites and engages. Writers, galleries, radio presenters, publications and journalists who think their words far more important than the art or artists they’re supposedly covering (at least the late Brian Sewell has some personality and a bit of credibility to add to his self-important arrogance, I rather miss him, at least there was some vitriolic substance there).

SPACE STUDIOS Summer opening 2016, Wildcat Will giving zero…

There’s a tediously formal structure upheld by those who seem to think that writing about art and actually engaging and informing is a bad thing and that art should remain aloof, that art should remain an elitist sport. and that the coverage of art should be very very (very) academically formal, that galleries should be seemingly uninviting worlds (and no signs telling the general public where the art might be, heaven forbid no! Don’t tell them where the gallery is or that it might be actually open!). An art world only for those who like to stroke their formal chins and pontificate “in conversation” in a formal situation where the critic or writer is all, the gallery is in complete formal control and their world and word the law – the art and the artists are somewhere further down the pecking order.

Apparently art must always be presented “properly” and in the established formal way, the correct way, the only way – we don’t want your filthy punk rock attitudes here, we don’t want you here writing positive things in excited ways about the art in our galleries, upsetting the apple cart and the established way of doing things, no no no…

Thierry Noir, Howard Griffin Gallery, June 2016

Maybe somewhere along the way during their expensive middle-class masters degree on how to be an art critic they forgot how exciting it all can be? Maybe they forgot how the sight of a Norman Ackroyd piece on the wall and the sun in that piece still glistening in your head a week later can be so damn exciting? Maybe they forgot the buzz of being down the front of a Miraculous Mule gig or how a new Aida Wilde paste-up cutting through the advertising noise and estate agents boards on a street wall can be so beautifully challenging? So exciting! Or getting lost in a new release from Sea Nymphs or the prospect of a PnkSlm night next week or how the energy and excitement of Julie Umerle’s on-going series of abstract paintings last week was conveyed so well on that stark white wall in Bermondsey. Art excites me.

Emma Harvey at Wall and Jones, art excites….

Art excites me, journalists who’ve forgotten the emotion and excitement of standing in front of a thrilling painting and then wanting to write about it in an excited way and instead have to present it all like some formal academic piece of stick-up-yer-arse art-school essay writing three weeks after the show bore the hell out of me, they turn me off, tedious essays. This is 2016, the internet is our doorway, react now, share it, tell us about it! I don’t want some writer more concerned with the accepted formal way of doing it all “properly”, footnotes all in place and everything just as they were taught at art critic school, how very very unexciting, flip me, who the hell cares outside of some student trying to bluff their way through the same course you just finished? Where’s r excitement? Where’s the challenge?

Norman Ackroyd

If you really so wish to substitute the excitement of art for the art-school formality of a review conducted in the correct and proper way, and you want to moan about our way of doing it, then you really are in danger of just presenting it all as some kind of aloof elite club where most of us are made to feel like we are not welcome. All rules must be observed, a club where the critic is “in-conversation” and where the critic is the “star” and the artist an inconvenient after thought – the me me me writer who starts bleating when their name isn’t big enough on the page or in the credits or on the event advert. Did they really forget the thrill of it all? The adrenaline rush of an exciting piece of art?

Julie Umerle – Rewind

Apparently a rather formal London gallery run by (we later learned) a rather formal art magazine had a problem with a very positive review we ran on these Organ pages only last week. The problem apparently was that, even though we had links all over the review, we had links to the gallery site as well as to the show’s (uncredited) formal statement on their own gallery website, none of that was enough. It wasn’t enough that we rushed home and stay up composing and then posting an excited review of a rather good show that was in their gallery in time for people to read it and hopefully engage with the show while the show was still actually on the walls of said gallery. Apparently it wasn’t enough that the quotes were in quotation marks and came with the very obvious links to the gallery statement, it wasn’t enough that we were very enthusiastic about a rather exciting show and that we were encouraging people to go while the show was still happening at the rather formal Art Project Space over in Bermondsey. None of that was enough because the small quote (that wasn’t credited on the gallery’s own website in the first place) wasn’t credited in a formal way by us and as you know there is a proper formal established way to do these things, the proper academic way, the rule of art that must be obeyed at all times. Jesuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz h, who the hell cares?! The links were there, the words were there, thre quotation marks were there, go see the damn show before it ends, go explore the art! No, not enough, the me me me critic needed a name up in neon, the links ot her gallery were not enough, coverage of something happening in her space was not enough, the same critic who doesn’t ever appear to leave the white cube comfort of her formal gallery world to actually go check out anything outside of the formal oh so correct everything done the right way art bubble. I’m rather surprised she even noticed the review on the Organ page last week, I though what we said was of no importance what so ever? Why was she so bothered about some half-formed informal reviews on some website that isn’t part of her art establishment world? Sure what we say is of no importance?

Scott Hunt

Sometimes the art media and the establishment art galleries can be so full of their self-importance and it almost feels like it might be a crime to get excited about any of it. Do not smile in the art gallery, do not show emotion, do not get excited! Art excites me, going to art shows excites me, excited enough to want to share that excitement, it isn’t an academic exercise in formal footnotes, everything formal and proper, punctuation all in place (shall we have a full stop now?). We’re not handing it in at the end of term so it can sit collecting dust in the library for ever more, that was a damn fine show last week, the paint excited me, the process the artist went through excited me. We’ll probably go to another exciting show next week and we’ll probably have ten largers then have ten more , then gob on you, then write about it in the wrong informal fractured way again, art excites us, art school formalirt bores the hell out of me. Wonder if Chris judge Smith has finished his new album yet? Gob on you ’cause you talk about what? I’m out of here, got another art show to go to… (SW)

Gob on you ’cause you talk about art, enough of all that, we’ve just be interrupted by Gregory Jacobsen again, he the painter and he of Lovely Little Girls (let’s give him proper credit now, and not in a footnore either!). Here comes The Four Three – “Mike Hagedorn, trombonist for Lovely Little Girls and Cheer Accident, has a new band with Alex Perkolup and Jeff Goulet, also of Lovely Little Girls. Here is them playing the other night at Beat Kitchen. I have no idea what name to drop in order to entice you to watch and listen. just know that there is soprano trombone doubled with voice. So there”.

We really should have a footnote, maybe we’ll add one to every page from now on? Today’s footnote is a Julia Maddison piece of art, julia’s art excites….

JULIA MADDISON

ORGAN: Prince Buster, ska pioneer, dies aged 78…

Posted on September 9, 2016 by seanworrall

Prince Buster, photographed in London’s Finsbury Park. Photo: Antonio Olmos.

So Prince Buster has checked out, the “Jamaican musician who helped pioneer ska music in the 60s and who provided inspiration for a subsequent generation of British musicians..” and we really can’t let his passing pass by without a more than respectful mention in these pages 9without prince Buster no Madness and no Cardiacs Arrest and no….) . “The first Jamaican to have a top 20 hit in the UK, he defined the sound of ska in the 60s before going on to inspire the Two Tone movement of the late 70s…”

It’s unclear who broke the news or how Buster died, but reggae and dancehall DJ David Rodigan said on Twitter he confirmed with the Jamaica Music Federation. Tributes to Buster have since poured in on social media.

There’s an excellent piece from Peter Mason on the Guardian pages this morning

It was boxing ability as much as musical talent that helped Prince Buster become a key figure in the birth of Jamaican ska music. During the mid-1950s Buster, who has died aged 78, sang in a number of small-time bands in the island’s capital… further reading

ORGAN THING: More exploring art, Julie Umerle at Bermondsey Project Space, Norman Ackroyd at Eames

Posted on September 9, 2016 by seanworrall

Wednesday night? It has to be Bermondsey doesn’t it? Well no, it doesn’t have to be, but there were a couple of late night openings at the Art Bermondsey Project Space that really needed to be seen in the flesh and we did chance on a rather fine show at Eames (and a quick glance at the Satanic goings on at Underdog, they were busy setting up some kind of film show in there though so checking out the art wasn’t easy), Wednesday night and we’re overseas, gone abroad, south of the river…

Julie Umerle – Rewind

The sun is out, the bottom of the Shard is looking frighteningly futuristic, the whole place looks and feels like we’ve fallen through a timehole in to the over-polished future (and what is that dastardly evil looking yacht moored up next to HMS Belfast on the Thames?)

Julie Umerle’s current solo show Rewind at the Art Bermondsey Project Space is the main reason for being on the other side of the river tonight. It looked powerful on line, it looked bold, Julie Umerle “focuses on the balance between precision and chance, exploring the materiality of paint and the processes of abstract painting. Pressure of the brush, viscosity of paint and speed of application are just some of the variables that play a part in their making” Pieces alive with thought, with precise energy, precise yet free, one appearing to lead to the next, a flowing on-going series, exploring, minimal and at the same time anything but, pieces alive in their boldness in the stark white of the very white uncluttered almost naked rawness of the gallery. There’s a serene sense to the drips, nothing feels random, the process is intriguing, she’s over there chatting away and as tempting as it is to go and quiz her I really don’t want to know about the actual process that resulted in this strong set of paintings, sometimes knowing less is more.

Julie Umerle – Rewind

Julie Umerle is an abstract painter currently living and working in London, he current work focuses on an open evolving set of works where one leads to the next (we did have an interesting quote from the official gallery biography/statement for the show pasted here that explained it rather well, you can read it via the link…). I could rewrite the piece without the small quote, I could write about the rewinding process, where one painting leads to a question potentially addressed in the next, leading to another question and another painting, the process, the questions, the moment has kind of gone now though… read it all on the artist’s own website, the statement is on there

Julie Umerle – Rewind

Sometimes it is just enjoyable to stand in a white-walled room and soak up the results of an artist’s time, this a rewarding show, a strong show, intriguing pieces, thoughtful, graceful, powerful, bold, beautiful, a celebration of paint and the art of the mark and the artist;s energy, her need to explore, to engage, to take it all on, the result is a beautifully minimal show, uncluttered works, refreshingly honest, slightly flawed in the most human of ways, an ongoing process a painter must go through again and again (and again).

Meanwhile upstairs there’s another gallery, still part of the Art Bermondsey Project Space, very much unrelated to anything downstairs. Upstairs Iain McKell has an opening and a show called Dark Side of Pink: Re-Psycho Re-Punk

“Photographic artist Iain Mckell shows 16 colour monographs of an all women neo-native performance tribe living in Tottenham – The RePsychos. Alongside this is an installation of 34 Black and white monographs titled Re-Punk which is a series of unseen monographs from Weymouth and London during the late 70s and early 80s”.-

Iain McKell

A stylised ID magazine take on punk? A Dazed and confused coffee table affair, a stylised warping of The Mutoid Waste Company or maybe the crazed frence punk-performance group than took aprt in those 2000DS scrap metal things back in the anarchic days of proper free festivals?. The RePsychos are apparently a “neo-native tribe of Tottenham. The concept and costumes were conceived and created by Ellie Walker and brought to physical life by her fierce team of women, with props by Camilla Maison, co-ordinated by Lily Colfox“, it isn’t clear if they exist outside of this photoshoot? Nothing wrong with fiction. . The night is apparently a “celebration of the underground, the past and the present of punk and the aesthetic creations of youth, both past and present” Don’t know about the Repsychos or the fire juggler guy who’s hanging around over there (he doesn’t really want to talk). There’s one or two nice enough black and white shots from back in the day but mostly this feels like a bunch of middle class people who’ve dyed their hair pink for the night standing around drinking wine and selling glossy coffee table books to each other. There’s a group of “beautiful” people (in the Marilyn Manson sense) over there, they claim to be a band but haven’t come up with a name yet, I guess their clothes look good though…. The black and white social documentary aspect is interesting, the “vivid colours of the RePyscho creatures” less so (that one over there looks like Martin Degville, in his Kensington Market glory days). Nice enough show I guess, we’ll politely leave them to their wine and chat and be on our way….

Iain McKell

Back up along the road and past the White Cube there an opening of glorious Norman Ackroyd work at the Eames Fine Art gallery, “A wonderful selection of etchings and paintings from Norman’s visits to the Hebrides and North West coast of Scotland. While half of the exhibition features new works from Norman’s latest trip to the area this year, we also have an important collection of older works from previous visits”.

“He will take ink, plate and acid into the field in order to, as he puts it, get to the root of ‘the things that stirred me’. The plate can be worked on directly, the acid painted on as if a watercolour, and the ‘bite’ stopped by a quick rinse in a stream or a wipe on the wet grass, giving a freedom and immediacy which produces truly captivating images”

Radiant pieces of etched or sketched landscape, gloriously so, light alive in black and white, monochrome beauty, light on the water, the sea, light above the Scottish islands, is there anything better than an artists really communing with landscape, with space, with the weather, the light, is there anything better than an artist in touch with the land? These etchings are beautifully alive, the sunlight on the water, the paint is wonderful but the black and white is where this becomes especially emotional. This may be a very traditional old school take on art and the artist, but this is a show to delight in, this is art alive and glorious, this is wonderful, this is painting, this is the glory of art, love it, a privilege, do go and enjoy it… (sw)

Norman Ackroyd

Norman Ackroyd‘s Some Hebridean Islands is at Eames Fine Art until October 2nd at 58 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3UD

Julie Umerle‘s current solo show Rewind at the Art Bermondsey Project Space until September 10th at 185 Bermondsey St, London, SE1 3UW

Click on an image to enlarge or run the fractured shaky phone-camera slideshow….