Artists

Monya Riachi – Graduate Award Scheme winner

30th January

Monya Riachi is an interdisciplinary artist. Her practice is material driven and research-led and centers matter as a site of meaning, narrative and archive. She works across a range of
mediums including sculpture, installation, moving image, sound and writing. Born and raisedlain Lebanon before moving to the United Kingdom in 2013, her practice explores themes
around loss, ecological transformation, the governance of time and the politics of land. Drawn to materials that are at risk or under threat, she works in attunement with matter’s agency and temporality, guided by Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism – where matter is generative in bringing forth [new matter and] new worlds.

Monya is based London and works between the United Kingdom and Lebanon. She holds an MFA with distinction from Glasgow School of Art and has a prior background in architecture. Her work has been exhibited in Glasgow, Beirut and London. She was awarded a Material Futures residency at Cove Park in 2023 and completed a residency with Ashkal Alwan Beirut in 2022. She is the 2024 recipient of the Lewisham Arthouse Graduate Award.


Open Studios 2022


24th – 25th September 2022, 12-6pm

Explore artists studios, meet the artists, buy art at affordable prices or just have a look around at our Grade II listed historic building.

Lewisham Arthouse supports over 40 artists, as well as arts-based learning, through creative workspace and specialist facilities. We run a varied exhibition and events programme of visual art and live performance. This echoes the original intentions of the Carnegie library building we occupy – to enrich communities by nurturing their creativity.

Open 12-6pm Saturday and Sunday
Free entry
Café with homemade food
Free guided tours daily at 2pm and 4pm (meet in the entrance hall)
Live performances
Childrens’ art trail
Step free access to ground floor – please see our access information for more details (scroll down)

Lewisham Arthouse
140 Lewisham Way
London SE14 6PD
www.lewishamarthouse.org.uk


Interview with Leila Ziu

October 2021

Leila Ziu makes live art, video, performances and installations. She works with music and musicians. In her work she often improvises for the camera in strange online spaces. Our interview took place at Lewisham Arthouse shortly after the lifting of lockdown. In our conversation we explore themes of art-making, including isolation, movement and ways of multiplying yourself.

How’s it going?

Well, I’m currently working on a series of live a/v dance shows that are coming up in October / November. I’m also thinking of studying again, to have that interaction with other practitioners, post covid isolation.

Does this relate to your recent work?

Yes, I recently finished a project (Altered States on the Dancefloor, 2021) which acted as a creative coping mechanism during lockdown. I spent every day for several months building these 3 cgi dance/club worlds, getting lost in creating them – the space, performance, what sounds belonged there.


Lost in the software, or other things?

I got Arts Council funding to develop my practice – it was brilliant. I built my own editing PC machine, learnt After Effects animation, collaborated with dancers, musicians, artists and developed 3 new works all very organically. I never planned to create a ‘virtual club’, I just missed dancing and the work started to branch into these 3 worlds, where I felt I could live. But then it was a shame I was unable to show the work in a more critical way. I think ultimately it got lost online.

Did you check the YouTube views?

Kind of. I didn’t think about that part perhaps as much as I should have. But I learnt an incredible amount which I am happy for. Ultimately, I was left with a feeling of burnout and exhaustion. The project marked a culmination of certain ideas, explorations and technical skills that I had been building on for a couple of years, and after I was ready to move on.

How does it feel to move on?

It’s exciting to adapt one of the works into a live show, in a real physical space, with a real live audience. Working alongside Rian Treanor we’ve developed a new live audio-visual dance piece which we are performing at 3 festivals, No Bounds (Sheffield), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht) and Mira Festival (Barcelona). It’s great when the work travels and opens new doors where I can try something new out.


Praying for us all, 2021

Talking of mysterious things, the figure in your new work – well, it’s not really a figure – the fractal or multitude or group version of the same person doing different things, wearing the same balaclava, framing the same eyes… Is that really you?

Yes. I’ve always put myself in my work, more so now by duplication. Exploring characters, voices, things I want to say through performance and costume.

How do they get there?

Nothing is planned, everything is improvised. I shoot and improvise and ideas start forming in that moment for the character or what I’m trying to do. It’s a kind of chaotic rebellious spirit, not overthinking things. I’m just trying to keep playing as an adult.


This puts me in mind of ‘Praying for us all’ – your fans simultaneously swatting us away, and beckoning us over some kind of weird threshold…

I like three-dimensional digital realms, and people being voyeurs into them. We live in such a silently voyeuristic world with social media. It’s a strange place.


They’re intense!

Really? I think I’m quite inspired by this Tik Tok, voyeuristic setting and cranking it way up. It’s as serious as you want to take it.


How do you survive in that compressed realm?

By being perverse! Taking the idea of intense, me-me-me and smudging it, shining some light on those cracks.

So, you’re not like an Instagram Influencer?/strong>

I’m just trying to be and exaggerate and make mythologies!

How does it feel to watch them back?

I suppose it feels like I’m watching a feeling. And some videos transmit the feeling better than others when I play them back, and if one’s not communicating what I want it to communicate, then it’s a failure.

How do you feel about failure?

I think about failure a lot. Feeling like you can continue even when your art ‘fails’ is good. Some projects are catalysts, some punch bags, some no one will ever see, others win. But you’ve always got to keep going and pushing back.


Hi Hello Hey, 2021

Do you try and avoid failure?

I make something, I step on it and I go somewhere else. It’s a transformational thing and so sometimes it needs to fail for me to get to the next place. Sometimes I probably even induce it.

Do culturally-encoded expectations make this more difficult than it needs to be?

Expectations are a big part of it now. There’s something about becoming a stereotype and then perverting it, regurgitating / smudging it that helps me breathe. It’s important for me to feel uncomfortable, to keep growing.


With ‘Hi, hello, hey’, you activate a kind of girl band. But the moves are crashing up against other things – the costume layers, for example, hiding as much as they reveal…

I’ve always enjoyed playing with the aesthetics and rules of pop culture – trying but somehow messing it up – adding my faults and something less perfect or preconceived. It makes me feel human and real and palpable for a moment.

Learn more: www.leilaziu.com


Interview with Sam Petherbridge

October 2021

Artist, educator and Arthouse member Sam Petherbridge talks to us about his experience running ‘Art On Your Sleeve’ art classes for young people aged between 8-13 and the tricky transition to teaching online. He shares some tips with us below…

Could you tell us a bit about Art On Your Sleeve?

I wanted to start classes at the Arthouse because there are so many materials, techniques and lessons that students are not offered in school. I was buzzing with ideas and so were the students. We’d begin each term sharing our desires, thoughts and feelings, then jump into a term of arty activities. Classes would vary each week. One week I would be making ambitious still lives for the students to work from, then other weeks we’d doing embroidery, stop-start animations or collaborative drawing. I was determined to change it up every time. Art on Your Sleeve, gradually became an excuse to be creative with a collective of young people who lived locally. We were like a family – I miss them all.


Art On Your Sleeve – In the Studio

How did you and the students adapt to moving the classes online during the pandemic?

It was a bit of shock at first but we quickly learnt how to adapt. We learnt that we could find ways to be creative at home and didn’t really need paint or anything commonly associated to the practice – so the limitations taught me and students to think outside the box. We created zoom animations and used our personal environments to create work that we wouldn’t normally be able to in the workshop space. The only unfortunate aspect, was that I was unable to see the students’ work develop over time. It was an eye-opening experience for us all!


Art On Your Sleeve – Online

Do you have three top tips for others offering online art education classes?

Although I no longer run Art on Your Sleeve, I have continued to work for the Saturday Club at Ravensbourne University. For several months we have continued to work online and the experience I received from the Arthouse has been incredibly beneficial.

1. Working at home is a very different experience from working in the studio, but it is often a common experience for many artists living in an expensive city like London. So the experience is useful. A home can always be a resource for inspiration and each home can tell us more about the artist who inhabits it. Invite your students to find creative ways to use the space they have and share in the session what makes it different or the same to others. Give them the freedom to step away from the screen because no one enjoys being in front of the screen for so long. Flip what we would normally see as a limitation and make it an opportunity to learn more about each other.

2. Padlet is a useful tool for students to upload their work and for the facilitator to share resources. I’d often create a write up for the class for students to look back at if they are having trouble understanding. The write up would be in the same format each week, colour coded and with plenty of imagery. If a student is unable to attend the session, they are always welcome to log in to Padlet, read the write up and do the work in their own time.

3. Don’t assume that every student has paint, brushes or even paper. Get creative with the ways we can make marks, build and play. Land Art is a perfect example of ways we can make art with the environment around us and it invites students to step outside and dive deeper into their surroundings.

Does inspiring and teaching the students have benefits for your own art practice?

I don’t think I would be making as much as I do if it weren’t for teaching. I’ve always had a thirst to learn about new materials and techniques. So teaching is really an excuse to learn more and to share it.

Could you explain your work in bookbinding and marbling?

I’ve always made books as a practical way to use up paper waste that accumulates in my working space. During the pandemic, I was given a good push from friends to start making a small business as a book binder and fortunately it has grown into a consistent form of income. My company is called Bōk Bindery and it’s currently running only on instagram. It never bores me. The process of marbling, bookbinding and paper making is endless, plus it’s useful! We forget to write, to draw or to record our thoughts, feelings or our ideas and a book is a great way to archive this. Technology has killed the romance of writing and mark making, it’s time that we pick up a book again and fill the pages.


Bōk Bindery – Commissions


Bōk Bindery – Teaching Suminagashi

What else do you have coming up?

Big question! I will be marbling on fabric soon and collaborating with Elle Bras to design a line of lingerie. I will hopefully be running more classes in marbling, suminagashi and bookbinding at the Arthouse because it’s been a while since I’ve really made a mess in the space we have there. I’m still quietly drawing away and finding ways to build my bookbinding practice into my artwork. I will continue to teach at Ravensbourne University for the Saturday Club. Hopefully I will also get more opportunity to collaborate with Lewisham artists. There is nothing I enjoy more that working with other people, so fingers crossed!

For more information about Sam Petherbridge check out some the following –

Top image by Bōk Bindery – Book Binding at Brainchild Festival
Bōk Bindery Instagram Page
Artist Website


Interview with E.M. Parry

March 2021

Photograph by EM Williams

E.M. Parry joined the Arthouse in December, we interviewed them to find out about working with history in a different or queer way and what it feels like to share a smoke with a ghost.

What attracted you to joining the Arthouse?

So many things about the Arthouse were really appealing. I was drawn to a space that felt very embedded and invested within a community, not just within the artist community but the wider community of South East London, where I’ve been based for around 20 years.

The Arthouse co-operative model is very exciting compared to other studios in London, which can be incredibly unaffordable, perpetuating a culture of the arts being a luxury for elites. I liked the idea of being part of a co-op structure and have always been interested in alternative, non-hierarchical models – especially at a time when we urgently need to be re-thinking a lot of traditional structures of power and organisation. I was interested in finding out more about this type of art space model, as my ultimate ambition – building on an online queer space I helped set up during lockdown – is to create a queer community and art space in South London.

The Arthouse has been a life-line for me during lockdown, being close to my home, and it’s been really nourishing to feel like my work was in conversation with other artists during the group show recently.

How would you describe your art?

My background is in theatre, primarily design, but I’ve always worked in quite a multidisciplinary way – I also devise, perform, and write. My personal practice draws on the vocabulary of theatre making. I find it quite hard to describe exactly what ‘it’ is, because it’s a lot of different things. Sometimes I describe it as durational sculpture, or performative installation. I use objects and costumes, usually with some time-based element. I work with bodies a lot, mostly my own, but sometimes engaging with other bodies.

My work is essentially collaborative, including with people who aren’t necessarily with us in the flesh. This ties in with my PhD, which looks at meeting the past using queer ways of doing history. This isn’t the traditional idea of history as something written and stored in an archive, where only certain people are allowed to decide what even is history. This is not history as we were taught in school, a history that’s linear, with the kings and queens of England represented in a neat line like a ruler sold in a castle gift shop. A queered way of looking at history is non-linear, messy and unruly, meeting the past in more embodied and imaginative ways.

What are you working on at the moment?

I did a residency last year at Harts Lane gallery, New Cross, where I developed an ongoing strand of work which I’m continuing in the Arthouse, using pipe shards which I collect from the banks of the Thames, as a way of physically connecting with the past. I make installations, sculptures and wearable objects out of them, often with time-based elements, such as melting ice. Engaging with these objects feels like craft, but also like a performance, a ritual, or seance even.

I recently created an installation connecting hundreds of these pipe fragments, laying them out across the floor in snake-like trails. I think about how these fragments represent people connected to a part of London – perhaps some of them knew each other, maybe they were neighbours, friends, lovers, enemies, perhaps they walked the same streets, but hundreds of years apart. The moment when I stopped and looked at them all laid out, I had a sense of all those people in the room with me – it was quite overwhelming and I actually found myself crying.

Each shard represents possibly the only trace of a person’s existence in this world. Usually the way history engages with people is through the written archive, recorded when people are entering into a relationship with the state – dying, being born, getting married, or in trouble with the law. So it boxes people in particular ways. In the early modern period many people couldn’t read or write, or could only read but not write. I’m fascinated by the idea of a material archive, especially of anonymous and forgotten lives – a kind of queer archive.

One of the things I do with the pipe shards is a ritual performance where I smoke tobacco or just breathe through them. It feels very haunting, and very moving. I try to be really respectful in how I treat these objects because each one is a life and a person; when I breathe through that little channel it links me with the last person who smoked it. This is what I mean by a different or queer way of doing history. It’s basically sharing a smoke with a ghost.

Has the pandemic influenced your art?

I’m very grateful for having a practice that takes a long view, this queer view of history and of time. I think we experience time as a social construct, and the past year has really revealed this. Viewing things in this way has helped me process the strangeness of these times and to find some hope – which isn’t to say it’s been a breeze! I’m aware this is a really tough experience for everyone, but I do feel a lot of curiosity about the situation, even at its most challenging, and it’s certainly informed my thoughts and practice.

What other work inspires you?

I’m very inspired by other queer performance and drag artists, such as Cyro, Nando Messias, Furious Brown, Rubyyy Jones, Prinx Lydia, Emma Frankland, Oedipussi Rex, Travis Alabanza, Prinx Chiyo, and many others.

What do you have coming up?

I’m developing the pipe fragments work for a show at the VSSL Studio gallery in Deptford, in May. I’m also working on some photography projects and learning film editing, making little films and performing to camera. Joined with this I do drag performances – which haven’t been possible in the flesh during lockdown, but I’m exploring ways to keep up drag practice using digital platforms. I’m working on new characters and costumes, and weaving that into the photography work.

E.M. Parry’s website

Pipe shards project on the Shakespeare’s Globe blog

exhibition and performances at VSSL Studio – further details coming soon


Interview with Sola Olulode


August 2020

Today we’re inviting you to join us on catching up with Sola Olulode, LAH’s Graduate Resident for 2018-2019.

Lewisham Arthouse: Hello Sola! First of all thank you for your time, we’re excited to have the opportunity of interviewing you. Could
we start by learning a bit about you and your work?

Sola Olulode: I’m an artist from south London mainly working in figurative painting. My paintings focus on the lives of black womxn
and non-binary people. I paint tender visions of relationships and intimacy. In my paintings people express love unhindered by the outside world in a bubble of freedom and happiness.

LAH: What are your materials of choice and could you please tell us a bit about your process?

SO: I mostly work using batik techniques on hand dyed or stained canvas, using paint or other mixed media once stretched on a frame.

LAH: Is there a piece you are particularly proud of, something you felt has been really important to you, or has changed the way
you work? If so could you tell us why?

SO: She’s Like My Sister – A painting I did in my second year of uni. It
focuses on sisterhood and the close friendships between Black womxn. It perfectly captured the energy I was going for my work and the colours in that piece have stayed with my work since.

LAH: What interests you? What influences you?

SO: People in my life influence me the most but also music and film is where I get a lot of inspiration. I’m always playing music
when I’m painting. It can capture the feeling that I’m trying to convey in painting with words and beats. Listening to the vibrations can often set the mood of the painting or the lyrics inspire the title. I also look at films and music videos especially for
examples of relationships or poses for figures.

LAH: Are you working on anything particular at the moment?
Is there a theme you are currently addressing?

SO: The theme I’m currently addressing is romance. I’m looking at couples and physical intimacies between lovers.

LAH: You were the Lewisham Arthouse’s Graduate Resident Award holder in 2018-2019. What did you think of that experience?

SO: Having the space allowed me to create many new pieces of works and continue to experiment following my degree at a time when
I couldn’t afford a studio so had no opportunity to continue making work and pursue a career out of making art. It was great to have a studio space free for a year and remove some of that stress and be free to focus on creating!

LAH: In October 2019 you had your Residency’s final exhibition, Hold
My Hand, at the Arthouse Gallery. What were you mainly focused on during its preparation?

SO: Finishing the works! I wanted to show all new works and really fill up the gallery space so I had to dedicate a lot of time in
the run up to get everything finished!

LAH: Could you please tell us about the series of Creative Crits you conducted during your time at LAH and what motivated your initiative?

SO: I held two crites for creatives of colour during my time at the Arthouse. I think having a critical discussion about your work
with other creatives and receiving feedback is really essential to pushing your work forward. Having a safe space dedicated to people of colour helps alleviate some of the pressures I and other Black and POCs have felt receiving feedback from white dominated
spaces where often work is overlooked or misunderstood.

LAH: Do you have more similar plans in the future? If so how can those interested get involved?

SO: I have plans to hold more of these events at the Arthouse.
Look out for posts on instagram about it!

LAH: We understand you’ve been very busy! Can you please tell us about your most recent and current exhibitions, what are you working
on at the moment and how can we follow your practice?

SO: Recently I’ve been included in quite a few online exhibitions as the art world adapted to lockdown. Now I’m back in the studio,
I’m finishing off a lot of new works so I can focus on the current series I’m working on (romance). The best place to find out what I’m up to is my instagram page.

LAH: Great, Sola! Thank you very much and we look forward to seeing you again at the Arthouse!


Olulode received a BA in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton in 2018. Since graduating she has succeeded residencies with solo shows: von Goetz, Moving in the Bluish Light (2018); Lewisham Art House, Hold My Hand (2019); V.O Curations, Where the Ocean Meets the Beach (2020); and featured in the V&A’s In the Palm of Your Hands (2020). Various group exhibitions include: BBZ BLK BK: Alternative Graduate Show (2018); Twilights of the Idols (2020), Alice Black; Build Love Break Walls (2020), Shado Magazine; Blacklisted: An Indefinite Revolution (2020), Christie’s Education; and most recently When Shit Hits the Fan (2020), Guts Gallery (online).
You can follow Sola Olulode’s work on Instagram and www.solaolulode.co.uk


Interview with Kemi Onabulé


April 2020

It is certain that, as recommended, Lewisham Arthouse members have been keeping their distance from their studios, but that doesn’t mean they don’t keep in touch and try to reach out to fellow artists, particularly to those who are recent new comers, such as Kemi Onabulé, who we had the pleasure of getting to know better through an interview we’re now delighted to share with you. Needless to say we’re eager to see Kemi again in the Arthouse and we’re excited to make her feel as welcomed as possible. Please join us on this tour through her experience in LAH so far and her work in her own words.

1. Hello Kemi, welcome! How long have you had a studio at The Arthouse?

Pre-Corvid-19 I had just started a new sublet at Lewisham Arthouse in February of 2020. I was so far enjoying my time at the studio spaces.

2. We’re glad to know that, what is it that you like about them?

They offer the right balance between privacy and community. Giving me the chance already to meet some great people. I am someone who has for much of my professional life shared studios and moved spaces a lot so I have had to get used to new places quickly. LAH has definitely been the most welcoming. I find the building itself quite inspiring with its moulded ceilings and grand staircase, there is something encouraging about stepping into the space. I am amongst fellow artists who are all dedicating themselves with a steady energy to their chosen subject. I really love this.

3. We couldn’t agree more and look forward to working by your side. Could you tell us a little bit about what you do?

I am a painter, printmaker and musician, I work fluidly going from each medium during the course of a day. My work mainly focuses on the close connection human beings have to the natural world, exploring ways in which we have distanced ourselves from it. The figures in my paintings and prints are in many ways an ancient version of a human being. They are stripped of all signs of culture or civilisation and often stand naked in the landscape. For me this is something akin to the religious in its importance to being a fully rounded person. The further away from nature we become the less human we are.

4. We’re sure your different practices can bring so much to the studios, where there are other painters, printmakers and even a music studio. Would you be able to tell us about any specific project that you’re particularly proud of or has been really important to you, perhaps even triggering a change in the way you work?

It is hard to pick out a single work as I feel like all my art is a development onto the next project. Saying this there is a series of prints that I completed in 2017 that have given rise to a whole new language within my work. The series was called ‘Before Midnight’ – all 10 or so prints and drawings were an exploration of the relationship between the female sexuality and the natural world. The fact that it is such a mercurial and beautiful thing. I feel like women still see themselves through so much abrahamic guilt when it comes to their bodies and wanted to shed that through the work.

5. It seems that you have a special relationship with nature and the female body. What else interests you? What influences you?

So many things have influenced me! Films, Books, Movies, documentaries, my love of gardens and nature in general as well as my own cultural histories have made a huge impact on my work. My family come from Nigeria, Greece and England and I have always used elemnets of the art and culture within the work subconsciously I think. The Literature and essays of Arundhati Roy made a huge impact on me as a teenager. Her book ‘God of Small Things’ is such an intoxicating tangle of sex, family, cultural ideas of sin all mixed in with vivid descriptions of subtropical Kerala. Something has always fascinated me when it comes to human beings’ relationship to their environment and in turn with one another.

6. The way we connect to each other is certainly going through a new scrutiny during these current times. Are you working on anything particular at the moment? Is there a theme you are currently addressing?

I think now is a really interesting time to be making artwork. In a way we have all been forced in to a kind of artist residency on our own homes. Oddly given the free time at first I found it hard to focus on making work in the first few weeks of self isolation. In the last week however I have seized the opportunity to make more works on paper. The drawings all relate to my feeling of discomfort to do with what might happen in the coming years. The paintings I am making are looking to find a road map through these trying times by engaging with the possibility of reverting back to a more basic way of life. The themes I have been exploring for the past years seem oddly pertinent at this time.

7. Exactly, we were just thinking of that! We’re almost at the end of our interview now, and would like to ask you if you have a mentor or a piece of advice which has influenced your practice?

I am lucky to have parents who are both artists and musicians and I have learnt so much from them just by watching their example. I would say they have taught me to be resourceful and to work hard despite what may come. There are always opportunities no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in if we use our natural talents and initiative. I think this is a way of living we may all be forced to live by in the coming years.

8. Thank you for generously sharing your thoughts with us, Kemi. Lastly, we’d love to keep in touch while we maintain our safe physical distance. Where can we find your work online?

You can find my work online at kemionabule.com and on my instagram @kemionabuleart


Carry On


March 2020

An evening of performance and film marking International Women’s Day 2020 with artist Tischler Wood aka Alma.

Friday 6 March
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Freud Museum London
20 Maresfield Gardens 
London, NW3 5SX

“Carrying On” is a new short film by art collective Foreign Investments, directed by Tischler Wood aka Alma in collaboration with Femmetasia as part of “You Burn Me”. The film focuses on endurance and fragility
Taking the Sappho text as a starting point, join members and friends of the Subjectivity and Feminisms Research group at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London for an evening of immersive performance and film exploring the timely issue of burnout. ‘You Burn Me’ will offer attendees the space to reflect on what burnout means particularly in relation to gender, against the backdrop of International Women’s Day. Together the works will walk the fine line between desire and exhaustion.


Tickets for the event can be bought here.

www.foreign-investments.com


Leila Ziu – Successful Arts Council bid


February 2020

Successful Arts Council bid – ‘Develop Your Creative Practice’ Round 7

Leila Ziu is Over the moon to be awarded Arts Council DYCP Funding to develop new explorations in audio-visual and animation works. Learning new skills, collaborating and developing work in her Arthouse studio.
Congratulations Leila!


A music video directed by Leila Ziu for Pearson Sound,
2018

For more work by Leila Ziu click here


Graduate Award Interview: Rosie McGinn



October 2019

1. How long have you had a studio at The Arthouse?

I moved into the studio on November 1st

2. What do you like about The Arthouse?

Having the studio space at Lewisham Arthouse is amazing, after working from my bedroom since graduating in 2018 I’m feeling quite overwhelmed with the size of the space! Even in the short time I’ve been here there have been a succession of really interesting shows downstairs in the gallery and everyone has been really welcoming. Just a bus away and I’m a Catford resident so I’m well impressed with the Lewisham Arthouse reputation in the area and it’s emphasis on public-facing, free and inclusive community events and activities.

3. Could you tell us a little bit about what you do? “An Introduction to Rosie McGinn”

As an Artist I am interested in unpicking moments of euphoria and despair through a plethora of mediums including motor-based sculptures, inflatable installations, videos and prints. From a monstrous writhing Paul Gascoigne puppet [connected to a hand-winch] t oa giant inflatable bingo woman to stuffed Torvill and Dean figurines reliving the Boléro [on robot hoovers], my recent work has gravitated towards [British] sport and leisure whilst observing the provincial areas and communities where rituals, such as Bingo, going ‘out out’ and football, provide a sense of faith and escapism. Whilst the artworks look at primal psychological drives and concepts, the mechanisms can be as complex as the feelings they are trying to portray.

The priority in my practice has always been to incorporate and collaborate with sections of society who are otherwise uninvolved and uninterested in the art world. The work remains unashamedly accessible and connected to a wider audience through its familiar references, use of humour and acute observations of human behaviour.

4. Is there a work your particularly proud of and why-
Something you felt has been really important to you, or has changed the way you work

‘HOWSE’ came at a really important time, when the work was shifting from video to moving sculpture. Video of installation: https://vimeo.com/274089466
Video of installation at Picnic Gallery, Peckham : https://vimeo.com/311287725
It’s probably the most attention-seeking piece I’ve made, the image is of my grandma [who was banned from her local bingo] and it’s relentless inflating and deflating is both joyful and terrifying. Taking you through the highs and lows of winning a full ticket at the Bingo.

The publicly engaged installation ‘GET IN THERE’ with OOF Magazine at Tate Exchange for WHO ARE YA? Exploring Art, Identity and Football this summer was also really important : https://vimeo.com/369549630
Several months of promotion prior to the event asked football fans to send in an image of themselves celebrating [and who they support] which I then turned into an interactive jumping jack. We started with 342 fans installed on the wall in a crowd at Tate Exchange; visitors could then come along and pull down each football bead and the mini fans arms would rise in celebration. Throughout the week visitors [peaking at 1,130 on the Saturday] could come and have their photo taken and turn themselves into a jumping jack, joining the ever-growing installation. We finished with 489 football fans joining the crowd “..in a simple joyous statement about humanity, togetherness and the unwavering power of football..” It was one of the most fulfilling experiences and reaffirmed my beliefs that art should be opened up to the masses [rather than stay insular and elite.] Football is rich in that it draws out extreme emotions and human insight, it’s community based as well, it’s where people go as a collective to support one team. It has power to stir emotion and it felt good to channel this in order to make people think about art differently.

5. What interests you? What influences you?

There’s definitely a lot of links to sport in the work as well as leisure [raving, bingo] but I think it’s more to do with being human, finding our placement in the world and a sense of belonging, chasing these ‘euphoric experiences’ in order to feel alive…my main influences come from sitting on the bus or going to the pub or watching the tele. When my minds switched off and I can watch the world go by.

6. Are you working on anything particularly at the moment?

I’m currently working on ‘The Mountain’ a small stuffed World’s Strongest Man sculpture who will be connected to a pulley block [so the viewer can pull his giant weight up and down]

7. Anything coming up?

I’ll be showing ‘The Mountain’ at the ‘Giblet Bayes Award Show’ at the Royal Society of Sculptors 16 Dec – 20 March.

You can see more of Rosie’s artwork on her website – www.rosiemcginn.co.uk


Studio sublet available


Deadline to apply: 30 October 2019, 6pm
from 1 December 2019

Studio G1 – 12month sublet 229 sq ft at £127.72 per month

Studio G1 is on the Ground Floor and has natural light
Deadline to apply: 30 October 2019, 6pm
Shortlisted Applicants will be contacted for interview shortly after this date.
Interviews will be held: The week commencing 11 November

Lewisham Arthouse is pleased to announce that we have a new studio available for a 6 month sublet commencing from the 1st August. We are an artist run cooperative based in the old Deptford library on Lewisham way. Studio rent includes electricity, water, building insurance and service charges. Access to WiFi and an outdoor working area is also available. 

Besides paying rent studio members are required to contribute at least 5 hours work per month in support of Lewisham Arthouse. These work hours provide staffing for our Learning, Exhibition and Events programmes as well as the running of the building and keep both the studio rents and facilities affordable.  Roles are hands-on and include; working on the rolling program of exhibitions and events, fundraising, implementing education programmes, PR, health and safety and building maintenance. It’s a great way to gain professional skills and valuable experience of working within an active and friendly community organisation. Studio membership is allocated according to artistic consistency, the qualities a candidate can offer the working cooperative, a positive attitude and a commitment to be present in Lewisham Arthouse for a minimum amount of time each month. We are an equal opportunities group and will endeavor to meet each individuals needs as much as possible.

If you are your interesting in joining The Lewisham Arthouse Studio Cooperative please do send an application in. Below is the information that we require in the application. Please apply either over email to studios@lewishamarthouse.org.uk or by post to:
The Lewisham Arthouse 
FAO Allocations
140 Lewisham Way
London
SE14 6PD

Application procedure:
* A statement (no more than 500 words) outlining your practice and areas of interest and an indication of how you wish to use this opportunity
*A statement (no more than 350 words) highlighting what you could contribute and how the cooperative would work for you.
* Artists CV (no more than 2 sides of A4)
* Equal opportunities form – click to download here (word .doc)
* CD or files with up to ten images or for time-based work DVD (pieces or excerpts should be no longer than 5 minutes). If you are sending over email where possible please keep the files to a reasonable size. We will except whatever format is easiest for you to render the work in.
* Corresponding list of titles, media and dimensions should be included.
* Two details of references we can contact if your application is successful

Please note that due to the high number of applications we will not be contacting those who are not shortlisted and will be unable to offer feedback.  For the same reason we are also unable to organize viewings prior to the interview.

If you have any queries regarding your application please contact us at studios@lewishamarthouse.org.uk and we will respond as soon possible.

Please note that sublets are not members of Lewisham Arthouse and cannot be guaranteed a permanent studio.


Open studios

Open studios

21st-22nd September 2019

Explore artists studios, meet the artists, buy art at affordable prices or just have a look around. This year we’ll be also be running a children’s workshop, screening artists films, and our vegetarian and vegan café is back.
We are excited to be part of Open House London, and we’ll be running tours of the building and have materials from our archive on display.

Lewisham Arthouse supports artists and arts-based learning through creative workspace and specialist facilities. We run a varied exhibition and events programme of visual art and live performance. This echoes the original intentions of the Carnegie library building we occupy – to enrich communities by nurturing their creativity.

Saturday 21st 12 – 6pm
Sunday 22nd 12 – 6pm
Free entry
Step free access

Lewisham Arthouse
140 Lewisham Way
London SE14 6PD
www.lewishamarthouse.org.uk


Studio sublet available

Studio sublet available

Deadline to apply June 30th 2019, 6pm
from August 1st 2019

Studio B6 – 6month sublet 114 sq ft at £63.45 per month 

Studio B6 is in the basement, has natural light and a locking door
Deadline to apply: 30th  June 2019, 6pm. 
Shortlisted Applicants will be contacted for interview shortly after this date.
Interviews will be held: The week commencing 14th July

Lewisham Arthouse is pleased to announce that we have a new studio available for a 6 month sublet commencing from the 1st August. We are an artist run cooperative based in the old Deptford library on Lewisham way. Studio rent includes electricity, water, building insurance and service charges. Access to WiFi and an outdoor working area is also available. 

Besides paying rent studio members are required to contribute at least 5 hours work per month in support of Lewisham Arthouse. These work hours provide staffing for our Learning, Exhibition and Events programmes as well as the running of the building and keep both the studio rents and facilities affordable.  Roles are hands-on and include; working on the rolling program of exhibitions and events, fundraising, implementing education programmes, PR, health and safety and building maintenance. It’s a great way to gain professional skills and valuable experience of working within an active and friendly community organisation. Studio membership is allocated according to artistic consistency, the qualities a candidate can offer the working cooperative, a positive attitude and a commitment to be present in Lewisham Arthouse for a minimum amount of time each month. We are an equal opportunities group and will endeavor to meet each individuals needs as much as possible.

If you are your interesting in joining The Lewisham Arthouse Studio Cooperative please do send an application in. Below is the information that we require in the application. Please apply either over email to studios@lewishamarthouse.org.uk or by post to:
The Lewisham Arthouse 
FAO Allocations
140 Lewisham Way
London
SE14 6PD

Application procedure:
* A statement (no more than 500 words) outlining your practice and areas of interest and an indication of how you wish to use this opportunity
*A statement (no more than 350 words) highlighting what you could contribute and how the cooperative would work for you.
* Artists CV (no more than 2 sides of A4)
* Equal opportunities form – click to download here (word .doc)
* CD or files with up to ten images or for time-based work DVD (pieces or excerpts should be no longer than 5 minutes). If you are sending over email where possible please keep the files to a reasonable size. We will except whatever format is easiest for you to render the work in.
* Corresponding list of titles, media and dimensions should be included.
* Two details of references we can contact if your application is successful

Please note that due to the high number of applications we will not be contacting those who are not shortlisted and will be unable to offer feedback.  For the same reason we are also unable to organize viewings prior to the interview.

If you have any queries regarding your application please contact us at studios@lewishamarthouse.org.uk and we will respond as soon possible.

Please note that sublets are not members of Lewisham Arthouse and cannot be guaranteed a permanent studio.


2 studios available


Deadline to apply 2nd March 2019
from April 1st 2019

Studio G5 (pictured above) – permanent space 173sqft £93.60 per month available from 1 April
Studio G10b (not pictured) – 6 month sublet 96sqft £53.60 available from 1 April

Both studios are partitioned spaces on the ground floor with natural light.
Deadline to apply: 2 March 2019, 6pm.

Shortlisted Applicants will be contacted for interview shortly after this date.

Please note that due to the high number of applications we will not be contacting those who are not shortlisted and will be unable to offer feedback. For the same reason we are also unable to organise viewings prior to the interview.

Application procedure:

*A statement (no more than 500 words) outlining your practice and areas of interest and an indication of how you wish to use this opportunity
*A statement (no more than 350 words) highlighting what you could contribute and how the cooperative would work for you.
* CV (no more than 2 sides of A4)
* up to ten images or for time-based work (pieces or excerpts should be no longer than 5 minutes).
* Corresponding list of titles, media and dimensions should be included (please do not send originals).
* We will accept hard copy or email applications.

If you are interested in applying for these studios please go to our website for more information about our organisation www.lewishamarthouse.org.uk

Contact: studios@lewishamarthouse.org.uk

Please note that sublets are not members of Lewisham Arthouse and cannot be guaranteed a permanent studio.


Sophie Chapman + Kerri Jefferis

Guttural living

Guttural living
Guttural living

Arthouse artists Sophie + Kerri hit the north this month for a residency and solo show with fellow artist-led studios Ebor. They have been invited to spend time exchanging with the artists working from this space and to develop the first exhibition of their recent work in progress ‘Guttural Living,’ sharing their work and processes with a new audience in Greater Manchester.

During the residency the artists will shape their newest performance-based work bringing ‘philosophy to the bodies archive’, started during a residency at Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Aberdeenshire in 2018. They will develop ideas exploring the body, material practice, sculpture, sound and furniture design in conversation the artists of Ebor Studio.

Gallery FRANK is set in a former mill in Littleborough and having this space will open up a new environment within which to explore and further their ideas and experimentations posing questions such as: how do bodies orientate in the world? What shapes the way they move?

The residency starts with a movement based workshop exploring themes in the show and runs until 8 March when the exhibition will open to the public with an artist talk, the show will then continue until 17 March.

Residency: Feb 27 – Mar 8
Exhibition: opens 8 March – runs until 17 March (10 – 4pm Mon and Tuesday, ever other day by appointment)
Workshop: Sat 2 March, 11.00 – 13.00 Book it
Artist Talk: Friday 8 March, 6pm

All free, open to the public

Gallery FRANK

Ebor Studio,
William Street,
Littleborough,
Lancashire OL15 8JP

Credit: Sophie Chapman + Kerri Jefferis


Lewisham Arthouse – Project Space Residency Open Call 2019

Project Space Residency Open Call

Deadline February 17th 2019

Lewisham Arthouse is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Project Space Residency 2019.

Based in Deptford’s former library, Lewisham Arthouse provides access to artist studios, workshops, exhibitions and learning. We are looking to build on our proud history of supporting artists, their audiences and the wider community by offering a 4 week residency in our Project Space, with a fee of £2,500 and production budget of £2,000. The residency also includes valuable mentoring from Turf Projects, The White Pube, Cinetopia & the London Drawing Group, as well as our artist studio holders. The artist/s selected for the residency will also be supported to plan their project, connect to local audiences, manage their budget, run their public programme and evaluate their residency.

The Project Space Residency is open to all artists, curators, musicians, performers, collectives, activist or community groups – interested in engaging audiences in art, beyond traditional forms of exhibition making. This might include visual art, music, talks, screenings, educational events, classes, workshops, meals, demonstrations, discussions, study groups, performances, dances etc. We are open to applications from individuals and groups with varying levels of experience: no qualifications necessary to apply. (The fee is based on 1 artist working full time, or a group working part time. We have additional budget to support artists with access needs.)

Download the application form
Need help applying? Read our info day handout.


Rosey Prince


From the City to the Sea
30 January to 3 February 2019
Private View Friday 1 February 7-10pm

Art house member Rosie Prince is showing her work at Deptford does art.

This solo exhibition features work that has been inspired by walks around and along the river Thames over marshes and tributaries out towards the Thames estuary and the Isle of Grain. This sparsely populated region between two rivers, the Thames and the Medway, has a complicated mix of industrial and literary history as well as being an important natural wetland area. So close to London it is always a knife’s edge away from major development and yet has not changed very much (apart from the odd power station or gas silo) in centuries.

I am drawn to this desolate yet hauntingly beautiful landscape and the uneasy relationship between the semi-rural and semi-industrial. These are the margins and edgelands the anonymous overlooked corners that are unremarkable and commonplace, so ordinary they are immediately familiar and recognisable.

Many of the prints I am showing have been exhibited before in various group shows and selected exhibitions but it is the first time they have been shown all together.

http://www.roseyprince.com

Deptford Does Art
28 Deptford High St
London SE8 4AF

open Wednesday and Thursday 12-7pm
Friday and Saturday 12-11pm
Sunday 12-4pm

http://www.deptforddoesart.com/


Eleanor Watson

Eleanor Watson
An interview

1. How long have you been a member at The Arthouse?
On and off since 2013 (I think)

2.What do you like about The Arthouse?
It is a beautiful building and an incredible space to make work in. My studio is upstairs under the glass barrel vaulted ceiling; the light is always wonderful, even in the winter. The temperature can be less wonderful, but it is worth the sacrifice for the light.
It is also great to be a part of the community working together to run the studios and sharing the space with lots of inspiring makers in different disciplines.

3. Could you tell us a little bit about what you do? “An Introduction to”
I make contemporary figurative paintings of interiors from found photographs. These are usually very ornate, ostentatious spaces from old museum houses. I am interested in playing with the illusionistic depth of interior paintings; the way in which we perceive positive and negative spaces and shifting the ways which these are read across the picture.

4. How do you use your studio?
I like to keep the central space flexible with a table which I move about, either with a palette and paints on top, or clear for drawing, printing or working on my laptop. I hang the paintings on the walls whilst working on them, and stack works in progress and finished works in the corner. I try not to have too much unnecessary visual material on show, as it can make me feel a bit claustrophobic.

5. Is there a work your particularly proud of and why-
Something you felt has been really important to you, or has changed the way you work
I find this a really difficult question to answer – I tend to be focused on the next piece. Different paintings come to mind as I am working and tackling similar issues, but I don’t like to linger to long on old work. Perhaps I should do a bit more and that is perhaps why I am returning to do a Masters this year. I hope to spend more time reflecting on why I make certain decisions in my practice.
I have been making paintings of interiors from photographs since my BA which I completed in 2012 – I suppose that was a breakthrough moment. Time for a new one!

6. What interests you? What influences you?
I read novels. I also I listen to audiobooks as I work. I find it easier to escape in to work with head phones on and a story I can drift in and out of. Listening and reading help me to explore my place within the world and to develop an emotional understanding; I am sure that sounds pretentious, but I think that is why I am compelled to read.
My partner is an architect, which is perfect as there is no persuasion needed to explore new buildings and gardens. We spend a lot of time discussing how we experience these spaces.
I also enjoy the charged atmosphere of theatre, although I don’t go as often as I would like. I am fascinated by the economy of information needed on stage; how structures, furniture and props elude to a world without having to fully describe it.

7.Are you working on anything particularly at the moment?
I am working on a large commission currently, as well as a few other works. Commissions are always more challenging, but interesting as they force me to confront new territory, and find new solutions.

8.What’s in the pipeline? What’s Next?
I am really excited to begin a masters in Fine Art at City and Guilds in September. A chance to really reflect on and challenge my practice.

END


Charles Hayward at Whitechapel gallery

Charles Hayward
18th October 2018

Interdisciplinary artists Charles Hayward, Simona Sharafudinov and Thomas Stone present new sound from inside the Gallery’s Foyer.
Charles Hayward presents his ongoing improvised ritual 30 MINUTE SNARE DRUM ROLL which takes a basic drum technique and extends it into an epic acoustic space.
Using a collage of choreographed movement, sound and projected images, Simona Sharafudinov will present a new work _Denial_ inspired by the structures of authority and oppression.
Hear Thomas Stone’s post-classical / post-techno soundscapes that explore themes of memory, restraint, ritual and presence.

18th October 2018
8pm
Whitechapel Gallery,
77-82, Whitechapel High Street,
E1 7QX

Lewisham Arthouse Open Studios

Open studios 2018
22nd-23rd September 2018

Lewisham Arthouse opens its doors, offering you a chance to experience a range of new artworks. Wander around the warren of studios, talk to the artists about their work, buy original pieces or simply enjoy the grandeur of a beautiful Edwardian building. Tours of the building will run twice daily at 2pm and 4pm, plus a special kids fun trail for families. Our pop-up café is back to provide a wide selection of scrumptious handmade cakes, savoury nibbles and drinks, as well as a bar and DJ’s on the opening night.

Our project space features group exhibition by members of Lewisham Arthouse, as part of Deptford X Fringe. ExLibris looks to explore the local area both socially and geographically, scoping varied histories and possible futures. To top it all off we have a special programme of performances throughout the weekend.

Saturday 22nd September 12 – 8pm
Sunday 23rd September 12 – 6pm

ExLibris
22nd September – 1st of October
Weds – Sun 12 – 6pm

Performance program
Saturday 22 September

2.00pm
Gallery Space
30 mins duration Raju Rage: There’s More at Stake than 5 Metres of Cloth

3.30pm
Gallery Space
30 mins duration Charles Hayward Drumming Solo

4.30pm
Gallery Space
3 mins duration Lucienne Cole: REACH

Sunday 23 September

3.00pm
Gallery Space
3 mins duration Lucienne Cole: REACH

4.00pm
Gallery Space
60 mins duration Fanny Aboulker: An Hour of Communal Reading

Part of Deptford X and Open House London


Jocelyn McGregor

Jocelyn Mc GregorAn interview

Arthouse Members Interviews 2018: no.3

Jocelyn Mc Gregor

1. How long have you been a member at The Arthouse?

I’ve been subletting since last November.

2.What do you like about The Arthouse?

The space is great, the biggest studio I’ve ever had and it’s nice and light. Plus there are always people around and things going on. It is easy to get involved and meet the other artists in the Arthouse and contribute to the community.

3. Could you tell us a little bit about what you do?
“An Introduction to”

I’m a sculptor on the hunt for the point of transition between internal and external, real and imagined worlds. Using my own body as a starting point, I explore the inside/outside topography of the female form, looking to folklore, surrealism and supernatural fiction to investigate the identification of women with the earth, the home and the machine.

The materials that I use – domestic fabrics, beauty products, earth pigments and industrial materials, represent for me a point of transition for the body, the moment it meets the organic or the manufactured world. This closeness comes with bed sheets, towels, furniture and beauty products, which cleanse us, support us, modify our appearance or take us from conscious to unconscious/dreaming. These are also absorbent materials and due to their proximity to our bodies, often play into tales surrounding the haunted object, where inanimate objects assume human qualities; from dolls and charms to animated furniture and aircraft parts. For my sculptures, I combine these signifiers in order to blur the boundaries between the natural world and the manufactured one, resulting in a super-natural hybrid of the two.

4. How do you use your studio?

I kind of split the space in half using one part for making smaller more detailed objects and the other part for spreading out and making more large scale things. I had a studio visit the other day and they commented that there was so much on the floor and literally nothing on the walls. I use the floor and I hang stuff; so that’s really highlighted to me how much my work is about getting stuff out into the space, it’s volume, it’s weight, how it supports itself, etc.

5. Is there a work your particularly proud of and why-
Something you felt has been really important to you, or has changed the way you work

Hmm the first cast I made of my boob, where I replaced the nipple with a Cats-eye road reflector, remoulded it using a vacuum former, made a plaster cast and then polished it up with Vaseline – not many people have seen it, and it’s never been exhibited but I’ve kept it in one piece so that says something!

It was the first object I think I made on my MFA at the Slade. I can’t even remember what lead me to make it (I just remember catching my own eye in the mirror, tied up with thread and covered in mod-roc and thinking, “well, this is a first”) but it totally changed my practice, kicked me out of the habits I’d fallen into during/after graduating from my undergrad – which had been to try to separate my work as much as possible from the body, from the hand, from myself; making work that looked like fragments of a structure, machine-made barriers. Those old habits are an artistic concern of mine, but I’d never really asked why, I’d just made them and researched the materials I used in an equally distant, impersonal, academic way. So that strange weird, hybrid version I made of my own body, when I look at it now, represents the point when I started to question my work on a personal level. I was drawing it back to myself to better understand the things that were driving me to make it, strengthening it’s foundations – basically, that work was the point when I opened up.

6. What interests you? What influences you?

Mossy walls and fallen down trees rotting, horror movies (rural horror and eco horror in particularly) and surrealism, gothic literature, ghost stories, superstitions, folklore – because they explore histories we don’t like talking about, usually involving women or people who subvert societies conventions – monsters, malfunctions and discomfort.

7. Are you working on anything particularly at the moment?

I feel like I’ve made a lot of low-lying, stand-alone sculptures recently and now I want to make a ‘space-changer’, so a sculpture that can alter a whole space in some way. And I’ve done a lot of sewing lately, so I want to get back into a messy, heavy process again – or something altogether different, just to rebalance myself.

8.What’s in the pipeline? What’s Next?

I run a residency project though, ‘Doremifasolasido’ (www.doremiresidency.com), and that’s happening up in Barrow-in-Furness with Art Gene (www.art-gene.co.uk) and Octopus Collective (www.octopuscollective.org) towards the end of the year hopefully, so that’s next.

Jocelyn is showing in New Contemporaries, opening 14th July- 9th September In Liverpool and showing ‘new work that you can sit on’ as part of ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’ at The Art Foundation, Athens. Τhe exhibition’s title pays direct tribute to Rebecca Solnit’s book ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’ from 5th July- 9th September.


Amanda Francis: an exhibition

Amanda Francis

7th July – 3rd September 2018

Lewisham Arthouse member Amanda Francis is featured in a group exhibition at Galerie peyrusse in Southern France, alongside Artists Bridget Sheridan and Simon Tozer. Her installation explores the interplay between memory and place focusing on an ordinary terraced house in South London.

7th July – 3rd September 2018
Friday – Sunday 3pm -7pm
Galerie Peyrusse
18 rue Paul Gleyrose
12220 Peyrusse-le-Roc
info@galeriepeyrusse.com


Chris Alton

Chris Alton in his studio
An interview

Arthouse Members Interviews 2018
Chris Alton- English Disco Lover

1. How long have you had a studio at The Arthouse?

I’ve been subletting a studio since June 2017, but prior to that I held the Lewisham Arthouse Graduate Studio Award from May 2015 through to May 2016. I’m hoping to become a permanent member in the future.

2.What do you like about The Arthouse?

It’s a beautiful building, filled with kind and interesting people, of a range of ages, experiences and disciplines. I’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with a number of other Arthouse residents on projects of various scale, including; a film, a stage for performances and the organisation and curation of the current member’s exhibition.

3. Could you tell us a little bit about what you do?
“An Introduction to Chris Alton”

I’m an artist and (occasional) curator. Throughout my practice, I combine geographically and temporally distant points of reference to produce images, objects, films and events. Whether deploying disco music in opposition to fascism, recording a rhythm ‘n’ blues album about tax avoidance, or crafting banners that prefigure the future, my work addresses the interconnected nature of prevailing social, political, economic and environmental conditions. I use humour, radical joy and speculative fiction to disrupt our lived reality and imagine the world otherwise. In doing so, I hope to bring this seemingly distant ‘otherwise’ closer to hand.

4. Is there a work your particularly proud of and why-
Something you felt has been really important to you, or has changed the way you work

In 2012, I started a project called English Disco Lovers (EDL), a multifaceted protest movement, which aimed to reclaim the EDL acronym of the English Defence League. Drawing upon the history and etymology of disco, as a site of musical resistance, it redeployed the genre in opposition to contemporary fascism. That project was pretty fundamental with regard to shaping the work that I do now.

6. What interests you? What influences you?

Growing up as a Quaker was a pretty major influence on the work that I make now. Quakers have a long-standing commitment to social justice, which manifests in various ways; from collectively lobbying of our government through to lying down in front of lorries that are carrying missiles into arms fairs. I also site skateboarding as a key influence, as it fostered in me an engagement with my built environment that was subversive and creative.

7.Are you working on anything particularly at the moment?

I’ve just wrapped up a few projects, including a billboard commission for Spit & Sawdust in Cardiff and a small body of work about Quakerism & punk for a group show in Birmingham. After a bit of a break, I’ve a few ideas that I’m looking forward to researching further; a board game about perpetual growth economics and climate change and a book of children’s nursery rhymes about arms dealing and the monarchy.

8.Anything Coming up?

I’ve a couple of exhibitions coming up, including Bloomberg New Contemporaries, as part of the Liverpool Biennial, from 14 July – 9 Sept 2018, which then comes to the South London Gallery in December. I’ll also be showing new work at Jerwood Space in October, as part of Survey, a group exhibition of 15 early-career artists. Other than that, I’m coming to the end of Syllabus III, an alternative peer-led learning programme that I’ve been participating in since September 2017.

END


Chris Alton: a billboard

Crudely Plucking the Strings
10th May- 12th November 2018

Spit & Sawdust are pleased to announce their first Billboard Commission, Crudely Plucking the Strings by Chris Alton, which launches with an event on May 10th 2018. The Billboard structure will be sited in the outdoor yard space, as the first point of contact for visitors to Spit & Sawdust. The Commission’s aim is to provide a large-scale, site-specific platform for artists to develop new work, and increase the visibility of the creative programme within this multi-aspect venue. The first two Billboard Commissions are supported by The Arts Council of Wales and curated by Freya Dooley.
Throughout his practice, Chris Alton dredges up moments and ideas from the past, attempting to rethink them for and apply them to the contemporary world. Crudely Plucking the Strings reimagines the story of the 1607 flood of the Bristol Channel, which some hypothesise to have been caused by a tsunami. 2,000 or more people drowned, houses and villages were swept away. The local economy along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary was wrecked by the destruction of 200 square miles of farmland it’s livestock. It is believed that Cardiff was the most badly effected town. A woodcut print is one of the only surviving visual representations of the disastrous event.

For Spit & Sawdust’s first Billboard Commission, Alton has created a speculative reworking of this woodcut, re-telling the 1607 flood with a new cast. St. Mary’s Church, the image’s original focal point, has been replaced by Hinkley Point C; the yet to be completed nuclear power station that sits on the southern bank of the channel. When it is finally completed, Hinkley Point C will be the most expensive power station in the world. It will perch on the edge of a precipice, vulnerable to the increasingly prevalent instances of extreme weather that are being experienced globally.

By mimicking the style of the original woodcut print, Crudely Plucking the Strings prefigures that which is yet to pass, training a sceptical eye on nuclear power as an answer to climate change. In many ways, this science fiction inspired image operates as an ‘early warning system’ and a call to action.

10 May – 12 Nov 2018
Launch: 6 – 9pm, 10 May
Open: Tues-Fri 5-10pm, Sat/Sun 10am-7pm, 11 May – 12 Nov
Spit & Sawdust, Cardiff


Charles Hayward

Charles Haywards
An interview

Arthouse Members Interviews 2018
No.1- Charles Hayward- Lucienne Cole- Jan 2018

L. How long have you been a member at The Arthouse?

C. I joined in 2001 and became a full member in 2002.

L. What do you like about The Arthouse?

C. Two things- First, ever since I’ve been making music, it’s been in parallel to visual artists.
When I was in THIS HEAT we moved to an ACME studio in Brixton. After that, I moved to Mumford’s Mill studios in Deptford Creek. Coming here to The Arthouse was like coming home.

L. So was it a considered choice to be amongst visual artists?

I don’t like being amongst lots of other musicians. To be honest, it gets a bit boring. We end up talking about bass drum sounds. It’s not about that for me. I like to be with people outside my discipline.
The other thing I like particularly about The Arthouse, compared to all the other places I’ve ever been involved in, is that they have a link with the neighbourhood. They feed their energy in from the local people as well. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
Like Dada – it’s about doing stuff, it had a sort of grass roots level street vibe. The Arthouse can be a thing of great joy. There has been a lot of evenings programmed here with a particular take on how to present things that’s built up a reputation.

L. Are you referring to ’SOUND IS SOUND IS SOUND’ an event you instigated at the Arthouse?

C. Yes- I was doing it every month here. We had a very successful night with Thurston Moore, from Sonic Youth, that sent up a big wave of energy in the neighbourhood. We have now moved SOUND IS SOUND IS SOUND to The Albany in Deptford so we can showcase to a higher spec and a larger audience.

L. Do you invite people to take part in ‘Sound is Sound is Sound’ events or are more people getting in touch directly?

C. People now get in touch and I try to go along and see them – Part of the criteria of what we’re doing is to engage local, London, UK and if possible, international. So there’s a cross pollination of expertise and so it’s not just one scene speaking to itself.

L. You work a lot collaboratively – sharing, giving and receiving, seems to be very important to you.

C. I’ve been watching my peers, people my age, and often this thing happens, which is a little hat with a small brim; really good equipment and a technique that’s settled in, but it doesn’t question itself. So I’m wary of that.
One way of avoiding that is I’m playing less. I also work with guys 25-28 years old, reconnecting with that early energy. DATA QUACK is one group I’m in, where we are all equal members in the group but I’m one and a half times their age.

L. You are known as a drummer, but you make and use a lot of other instruments and bits of kit. Your drum kit has to fit, didn’t you say, its like putting on a suit- So it’s different for every drummer isn’t it.

C. Yes. I have several different drum kits for several functions and also to stop that signature thing. Also I have drum kits based on portability.

L. Yeah, that must be a factor. Physical and economic limitations can make a difference to what kit you use, what you might play?

C. Yeah. I try and integrate my aesthetic back into everything. I try not to be this guy with this big thing in my head I’ve got to express, like Wagner or something, but much more a person who’s a conduit for all these different circumstances, some of which are non- musical or completely incidental.
I get a lot of my instruments off Deptford market and I’ve got a friend who climbs in skips and sells me things. My brother used to work with all sorts of different media and he would go to scrap iron places. He bought these alarm bells he didn’t use and gave them to me. I’m still doing versions of things with them. I’m working out what notes they are by measuring them against the keyboard. I’m missing some, so I’ve integrated the whole concept of this missing minor 7th chord so the whole tonality has got this gap in it and I’m completely fascinated by this.

L. How did you get you into music?

C. I can’t really say there was ‘a moment’ – I sort of slid into it and found it was music.
We had a band in school; in the class everyone would play something. I played a snare drum one week and the teacher said I played it well. The next week she gave me a triangle. And I said, where’s the snare drum, that’s mine! And she said, no it’s not. I was completely like, I should be playing the drum! I wanted to get better at it.
I started Piano lessons when I was about 4 and when I was about 8, I played a duet with a thunderstorm on a piano and these were things I didn’t really think about, I just did them.
Also My Dad had a great collection of 78s, Ben Webster, Teddy Wilson, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Ella, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, loads of big bands, Duke Ellington, Count Basie…

L. That’s obviously been quite a big influence?
C. Yes and he took me to see amazing stuff, like Nat King Cole.
Then when I heard THE WHO, there was like a baptism of fire – that’s MY music! Not my Dad’s music!
Music has been around me all my life- it was my rebellion. That inner space when I was playing, I kept secret from my parents, from everybody actually. I’m not quite sure what it was… It was the space I wanted to use to change things – like that Greek thing, like when the mode of the music changes. I sort of feel, sometimes when I’m really into it, or mostly when I’m hearing something amazing, that music holds everything.

L. Is there a particular collaboration or place you’ve worked with that has had an effect on who you are and what you do? That’s had a real impact in your development?

C. l was making music in Acre Lane in Brixton for a long time, and I learnt a lot. When I lost connection with that space, I started working on youth music projects and disability arts projects at Lewisham Academy.
I’d become a Dad with three small children and it meant for once I wasn’t away all the time and could earn regular money. I still made albums and wrote songs. Some people think I seemed to disappear. I don’t think of it like that at all. I had a huge development creatively, spiritually and emotionally, just by being a Dad.
I did ‘T in The Park’ with Hot Chip, I was filling in for their regular drummer and I’m backstage in this big field and I see this guy running across the field with his mobile in his hand, saying ” I’ll call you back, I’ve got to go, I’ve just seen my drum teacher!”- He was playing with Paloma Faith, it was someone I’d taught years ago.

L. That’s surely a great feeling.

C. It’s a fantastic feeling. It’s also against this academic thing- it’s about making it about where you live, the people where you live. The actual sounds I make, feel like they belong to the people around me.

L. It’s part of life, a way of life.

C. It becomes a way of life yes. Going to the shops becomes part of the music. The Arthouse too has been a big influence.

L. It is a community here.

C. Yes it is. It took me a couple of years to get it. You can learn here, you can share things here, what more can you ask for! And it’s only 10 minutes from where I live.

L. It does make a big difference doesn’t it. Having a studio here has changed my life already and I’ve only been here since the summer.

L. Are you working on anything particularly at the moment?

C. Yeah, I’ve gone back to the piano. When you play acoustic piano, the sound bathes the body, you’re completely inside the sound. I’ve got an album called, ‘Begin Anywhere’ and that’s all at the piano.
Then I’ve got this 30-minute thing called, ‘Snare Drum Roll’ and I’m playing that acoustically in places like cathedrals. I excite the acoustics of the space via the snare drum. More like a sculptural piece.
Also this slightly out of control electronics thing, I’m doing that a few times in the next few months- I call that, ’ Zig Zag and Swirl’
And THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT, going back to things I made 40 years ago.

L. That must be interesting to re- visit. Seeing how it stands up and is still relative now, that those relationships can still exist. Finding a new audience for something you did that was important.

C . We were originally a three-piece. One of us has died, which is why we are called, THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT. We’ve now added, sometimes four or five others and my daughter is in the group.
The first album we made, Deceit, was in response to where we were at in the world. The cover is a face, which is a mushroom cloud with an American Flag.

L. Which is very pertinent now!

C. It is and suddenly, it’s like, “Oh my god we are singing about the Roman Empire!” but really we are singing about the American Empire. We actually sing The American Declaration of Independence and we’ve added the final lines of the poem at the foot of the statue of Liberty, which is all about, ‘bring me your huddled masses’. The true sense of irony inside doing this music is, ‘WOAH! – We have to do this music’! So we are doing it, but the sense of of going backness is spiritually… although it’s fresh and new.

L. Just do it why you feel it’s worth doing it, you’ve got all these other interesting things to develop.
Sounds good to me.

C. Yes. Absolutely, I’m very lucky at the moment.

END


Sound is sound is sound

Sound is sound is sound
21th April 2018

Lewisham Arthouse in collaboration with the Albany presents an evening of genre fluid music from South East London and beyond including installations and performances by Arthouse members.

LEWISHAM ARTHOUSE and The ALBANY present
Sound is Sound is Sound
sound is sound is sound returns with another night of genre fluid music, tuning in to the edges, echoing new sounds and beyond.
RATTLE
V4V (DJ BPM, Charles Hayward, Vern Edwards, Nick Doyne-Ditmas)
LOFE
ALEX WARD
DJ Barry C
VJ Flickering Light

April 21st
7.30pm (doors)
£10/£12/£8 under 25 with ID
The Albany, Douglas Way, SE8 4AG

Free entry:
Children’s workshop SoundHoppers 3 & 4.30pm
Films of Karel Doing 5-8pm

To find out more about this performance, follow the link: http://bit.ly/2CrZK4Z


Richard Parry

Who owns the art world?14th March 2018

Who Owns the Artworld?

An online panel discussion with Hayley Newman, Richard Parry and Morgan Quaintance.

The short panel debate will take place during DACS’ Annual Strategy Day, as we think about the context in which artists are currently working and how best DACS can support artists and artists’ estates in the future.

Speakers:
Hayley Newman, artist
Richard Parry, artist
Mark Waugh, Business Development Director, DACS
Morgan Quaintance, writer, musician, broadcaster and curator

The event will be an opportunity for you to join a discussion about the political, social and cultural complexities around artists’ engagement with art institutions and the art market. Our panel of speakers will be exploring questions of power, transparency and the circulation of capital in the art world and how these impact artists.

You can watch the event streamed live on DACS’ Twitter, or here: @DACSforArtists.

The debate will be followed by a short Q&A. Get involved. You can tweet us any questions for the panel before or during the event @DACSforArtists.

#OwnTheArtWorld

Charles Hayward plays Telegraph Hill festival

Modern ritual
21th March 2018

Lewisham Arthouse member Charles Hayward performs new songs at the piano as part of the Sonic Interventions event for Telegraph Hill festival.

Sonic Imperfections returns to The Telegraph Hill Festival with another line up of stunning musicians working in the experimental area.
Charles Hayward – This local boy needs no introduction, An endlessly inventive musician who has spent decades at the forefront of the cutting edge music scene. There are simply too many songs, groups, recordings, gigs to mention. This will be a truly special performance.
Extext – Renowned Harpist Serafina Steer and singer Catherine Carter bring their improvised Operetta to The Telegraph Hill festival.
Rotten Bliss – Cellist Jasmine Pender plays a unique brand of darkly brooding weird-folk and drones. It is our absolute pleasure to welcome her to The Telegraph Hill Festival.
Nostalgia Blocks – Mark Browne (Reeds and Percussion) is one of the most striking improvising musicians working today. Richard Sanderson is fast becoming one of the most influential people in the South East’s experimental music scene. A record label owner, a promoter and a musician. Tonight he plays Amplified Melodeon and Electronics in a duo with Mark. Two musicians at the top of their game, expect 100% commitment, invention and a few surprises.

21st March 2018
7.30pm-10.30pm
Saint Catherine’s Church, Telegraph Hill, SE14 5TY


Arthouse member Rosey Prince

Rosey Prince March 2018

Lewisham Art House member Rosey Prince has pieces of work in two exhibitions this March.

The Royal Watercolour society Contemporary watercolour competition showcases new talent and innovative approaches to water-based media on paper.
2-14 March 2018
11-6pm
Bankside Gallery 48 Hopton St, London SE1 9JH

Rosey Prince

The Royal Society of British Artists Open exhibition is sourced from member artists and through open submission, to produce works of the highest standard brought together in an eclectic mix of style and media.
21-31 March 2018
10-5pm
Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1

THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT

THIS IS NOT THIS HEATMarch 3rd 2018

Lewisham Arthouse member Charles Hayward plays with his project THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT as part of New Music Dublin festival March 3rd.

Within their two albums and an EP, This Heat perfected a strange and volatile new strain of avant-garde rock that time has proved to be massively influential, a blueprint for much that would follow: post-rock, math rock, homemade musique concrète, experimental electronica.
Although widely considered to be Post-Punks finest they actually began performing their music in the early days of London’s punk era. Ahead of their time, their music sounds as startlingly original and relevant, live and on record, as the day it was created.
This Heat’s music has had a huge influence on generations of musicians in the decades following their break-up. Hot Chip included the song “Radio Prague” on their DJ-Kicks: Hot Chip album with Alexis Taylor commenting that the band “were truly committed to experimentation in the studio, and making a highly-charged music of great originality and dynamics.” Dan Snaith of Caribou fame noted that the band “sounded like the future then and still do now”. Avey Tare of Animal Collective revealed that This Heat “are one of those bands that (as a person wanting to be in a band) I aspired to be like”. Damon McMahon of Amen Dunes called them “the Beatles of modern experimental music”. Both Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Oneida covered the track ‘S.P.Q.R.’. Robert Del Naja, one of the founding members of Massive Attack, covered ’24 Track Loop’. Danny Brown sampled Horizontal Hold on the track ‘Adderall Admiral’ off the album XXX. The band were mentioned in LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Losing My Edge’. Viet Cong cited the band as a huge influence with bassist/vocalist Matt Flegel claiming in an interview that he was trying to ‘ape’ Deceit.

March 3rd 2018
8.30pm
National Concert Hall, Dublin
https://www.newmusicdublin.ie/Online/this-is-not-this-heat

Molejoy, Scrotum Clamp, Cult Figures and H.A! Live at The Gunners.

Molejoy, Scrotum Clamp, Cult Figures and H.A! Live at The Gunners.2th March 2018

Art house member Sophie Chapman and Kerri Jefferies’s band Molejoy is playing.

A night of live noise with molejoy, Scrotum Clamp, Cult Figures and H.A! Live at the Gunners tav. Post-punk, post-cabaret, post-new year blues and resolutions – come on down and shake it out with frenemies and frengers. Expect arty crass, the sex pistols in dresses, classic singles, upbeats, down beats and not quite songs… all veiled in healthy dose of disdain and disbelief.

TICKETS ON THE DOOR!
£4 waged/£2 unwaged with no-one turned away for lack of funds.

CASH FROM THE JAR!
All proceeds from the jar will go to one of THE MOST IMPORTANT affirmative initiatives in London RN. First Timers Fest where EVERY band gets their first gig!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/first-timers-2018-music#

2th March 2018
First band 20.00 – 23.00
N5 Live at the Gunners,
204 Blackstock rd,
N51EN, London

We need to talk

We need to talk

We need to talk

We need to talk

We need to talk

We need to talk

14th December 2017
“We Need To Talk is a series of peer to peer crits organised by graduate resident Kate Fahey at Lewisham Art House. Through the presentation of works in various stages of production and development, We Need to Talk aims to facilitate constructive feedback and a forum for the discussion of critical issues relating to art, design, culture and politics. The crit runs without any introduction to the work, followed by an opportunity for the artist to speak about their practice and ideas. This facilitates the opportunity to engage with how the work is read primarily, aiming to create a diverse, open and constructive discursive environment.

The first of these sessions were held on Thursday the 14th of December from 7.30 – 10pm. The artists presenting were, Saelia Apraicio, Hadas Auerbach, Philipp Dorl, Kate Fahey and Yonatan Zofy.


Late Junction Collaboration Session: Man vs Machine – Charles Hayward and Zamyatin

Charles Hayward

18th January 2018
Late Junction on BBC3 Radio presents Lewisham Arthouse’s very own, Charles Hayward in a collaboration session : Man vs Machine – exploring the relationship between creativity and technology. Can a piece of software, designed specifically for the show, hold its own improvising alongside one of the leading left-field musicians of the last 50 years, drummer Charles Hayward, an artist known for collaborating with musicians across the spectrum.
Available on iplayer for the next 30 days

Resonance FM in association with I-D.A Projects presents: THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT

Resonance FM in association with I-D.A Projects presents: THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT

10th February 2018
Arthouse member Charles Hayward plays a benefit for Resonance FM with his project This Is Not This Heat.

Resonance FM in association with I-D.A Projects presents: THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT
£32 £30 SOLD OUT £28 SOLD OUT
Within their two albums and one EP This Heat perfected a strange and volatile new strain of avant-garde rock that time has proved to be massively influential, a blueprint for much that would follow: post-rock, math rock, homemade musique concrète, experimental electronica. Although widely considered to be Post-Punk’s finest, they actually began performing their music in the early days of London’s punk era. Ahead of their time, their music sounds as startlingly original and relevant, live and on record, as the day it was created. Exactly 40 years to the day of their first gig in 1976 the two surviving members (Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward) of the original trio came together with a large group of collaborators to play under the project title of THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT. Selling out a two day residency at Café Oto in a matter of hours, the consensus was unanimous that all present had been witness to something of cultural significance. Flooded with invitations from around the world, 2017 saw THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT take to the road. Today they return to Cafe Oto for a benefit for Resonance FM, presented in association with I-D.A Projects.
“It does feel like we’ve been witness to something special. A fine body of work has been brought to life with energy and vitality that seems improbable nearly 40 years after the fact.” The Wire
“This doesn’t feel like nostalgia but a new beginning” The Guardian

10th February 2018
7.30pm
Café OTO,
Ashwin Street,
London E8 3DL

We need to talk

We need to talk
14th December 2017

We Need To Talk is a series of peer to peer crits organised by graduate resident Kate Fahey at Lewisham Art House. Through the presentation of works in various stages of production and development, We Need to Talk aims to facilitate constructive feedback and a forum for the discussion of critical issues relating to art, design, culture and politics. The crit runs without any introduction to the work, followed by an opportunity for the artist to speak about their practice and ideas. This facilitates the opportunity to engage with how the work is read primarily, aiming to create a diverse, open and constructive discursive environment.

The first of these sessions will run on Thursday the 14th of December from 7.30 – 10pm. The artists presenting are Chris Alton, Saelia Apraicio, Hadas Auerbach, Philipp Dorl, Kate Fahey and Yonatan Zofy. All are welcome to attend. Festive drinks and snacks provided.

Chris Alton is an artist and curator, whose practice spans; documentary film, music videos, online interventions, clothing, disruptive design, live events and exhibitions. Whether deploying disco music in opposition to fascism or playing table tennis in competition with aggressive architecture, his work addresses an array of interwoven socio-political phenomena. His practice is research led and often interrogates symbolic manifestations of power, such as; coats of arms, Latin mottos, corporate identities, mythological weaponry and national flags. He works to destabilise or subvert their logic, revealing and undermining their shaky foundations through humour and play.

Saelia Aparicio lives on a secret island in London. She graduated in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2015. She has had solo shows at La Conservera (2012, Murcia, Spain) the Patio Herreriano Museum (2013, Valladolid, Spain),Da2 2002 Domus Artium (2015, Salamanca, Spain), TURF projects (Croydon, UK) and The Tetley (Leeds,UK). Group shows include Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016, the bluecoat ( Liverpool) and the ICA (London), Retour Sur Mulholland Drive, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud at La Panacée, Montpellier, France, And A Mysterical Day, curated by Tai Shani and the Serpentine Gallery public program. In 2016 she was a resident at Sema Nanji, (Part of the Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea) and is currently enjoying a New Contemporaries studio Bursary with Sarabande, The Lee Alexander Mcqueen Foundation. She is working towards show where all the works will be collaborations with the product designer Attua Aparicio. Her multidisciplinary work dwells on ideas of the organic, establishing analogies between corporeal and social mechanisms.

Hadas “BhadasS” Auerbach was born 20 minutes from Jesus, in Israel. She is currently living and working in London. Her favorite animals are honey badgers, tortoises, and armadillos; her least favorite are dolphins, swans, and baboons. Her favorite people are identical twins, as they are the same person twice. Her research proved that twins have super powers since they can be in two places simultaneously and they can teach each other fast as they have same exact genes but two different bodies; therefore they have double the database compared to regular people. Her favorite colour is yellow. Her work evolves around how charming and stupid people are, she is telling us stories; most of them are stupid charming ones, like the ones from the Bible. These stories are non-narrative & non-linear. The characters exist in an imaginary theatre and there aren’t really any actors & actresses. There isn’t even a play.

Philipp Dorl lives and works in London. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2013 where he studied with a DAAD studentship. His work has been presented in exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum Kulturspeicher Würzburg (GER), The Photographers Gallery in London and the Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH), where his work is part of the museum’s collection. He recently have had shows in project spaces in London and Berlin such as; Dreamcatcher, Zona Mista, London, Snæfells (two-person), Filet, London (2016), Taupe (solo), Art Lacuna Space, London (2015), Slit Backdrop (solo), Pavlovs Dog, Berlin (2014), DashDotDash (two-person), Projects, London Art Fair (2013).

Kate Fahey is an artist based in southeast London. Recent projects include, Secret Stations, a solo exhibition at Callan Workhouse Union (2017), Inarticulate Landscapes at Unit 1, London (2017), and the Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA, London (2016). She is an AHRC funded practice based PhD candidate at the University of the Arts, London and a recent recipient of the Mead Residency Award to the British School at Rome.

Yonatan Zofy, is an Israeli artist living in London. He received a BFA degree with an Excellence award from the Bezalel academy of art and design, Jerusalem. He has exhibited in different galleries in Israel, among them: Barbur Gallery, Jerusalem, The Artists’ House, Jerusalem, Julie M. Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Hamidrasha Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Artspace Gallery, Tel-Aviv. In 2016 he exhibited in the 6th Jerusalem Drawing Biennale, and in 2017 he received the Osnat Mozes Prize for a Young Artist.


Modern ritual

Modern ritual

2nd December 2017

Daylight Music 267: Laura Cannell presents – [Modern Ritual] The Bell Agency (Charles Hayward), Laura Cannell & André Bosman, These Feathers Have Plumes + Jennifer Lucy Allan

In 2017, Laura Cannell created the [Modern Ritual] series, which is currently on tour throughout the UK. It’s a series of performance events which explore ideas of ritual through music and words, and evokes real and fictional landscapes.

This performance at Union Chapel features Laura Cannell and André Bosman’s experimental early violin duo, as well as Charles Hayward’s The Bell Agency. There’s also Jennifer Lucy Allan’s performance of ‘Foulis’s Daughter: A short history of the foghorn in 30 interrupted acts’, and glass and electronics from These Feathers Have Plumes. A lazy afternoon with music, tea and cake. An event for all ages. Produced by Arctic Circle. Pay-What-You-Can ticket on door (suggested donation £5.00). Midday – till 2.00pm

Saturday 2nd December 2017
12.00pm-2.00pm

Union Chapel
Compton Terrace, N1 2UN., N1 2UN London.

The launch of the Adam Speaks treehouse

The Adam tree house
25th November 2017
In April 2017, Chris Alton received the Adam Speaks commission from the National Trust to develop and make new work responding to Robert Adam’s vision and designs at Croome Court. He ran workshops with St. Barnabas CofE First and Middle School, Writing West Midlands, Birmingham Institute of Theatre Arts and Kimichi Independent Secondary School. These workshops informed the final artwork.

Chris has created a new folly for the parklands of Croome Court. It takes the visual language of Adam and speaks it anew with playful intonation, riffing on the neo-classical architect’s style and applying it to the form of a treehouse. The work will be opened on 25th November 2017 and will remain at Croome Court until November 2018. It will be the site of an ongoing programme of workshops and events

25th November 2017
12:00-16:00
Croome Court, Worcester, WR8 9AZ

www.chrisalton.com
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/croome/projects/adam-speaks

Noisy night

Noisy night
25th November 2017
Members Kerri Jefferis and Sophie Chapman are playing with their band Molejoy.

Emerging artist musicians will share their sounds on this cosy noisynight at Laines Organic Farm… Once again The Round Building, (known locally as ‘The Pumpkin Palace’) will host an evening of fun, food, fire and friends. Suggested donation entrance £2-£8/pay what you can.

Vegan food and drinks will be made using farm produce and sourced from a local brewery served from 5pm on a suggested donation basis.

25th November 2017
5pm-11pm

Music will begin at 6pm and run until 11pm.
F*CHOIR
MOLEJOY
CHARISMATIC MEGAFAUNA
AK PATTERSON
POPPY TIBBETS
DJANGO SPEARS O-M-B
LIAM GEARY BAULCH
JOE SAYERS

Last few trains back to London depart from Haywards Heath at 23.26/23.30/23.58.

Laines Organic Farm, Newbury Lane, Cuckfield, West Sussex, RH175AA.

Trains from Victoria/Clapham/Brighton to HAYWARDS HEATH > 30mins walking to Cuckfield Village > bus no.40 to Cuckfield High Street > roadrunners taxi 01444443300 is £5.50

Once you’ve reached Newbury Lane look and listen out for signs/lights/vegetables/The Round Building! Welcome!!

Facebook page for the event
Kerri Jefferis
Sophie Chapman


Get to know…Kate Fahey

September 2017

Secret Stations (install image1) Photo Credit_Brian Cregan

Meet Kate Fahey the winner of our 2017 Graduate Studio Award!

Member Since June 2017

Website: www.katefahey.co.uk

An introduction – please write a few sentences to introduce your work to the public.

At the core of my practice lies a concern for the surface and skin of the image through which I attempt to channel affect and a more embodied type of visuality, positing the surface as a site of mediation, transfer and transformation. Through the haptic nature of the work, I examine humans’ relationship with the digital and seek to connect with and to slow down our experience of images, calling on lost lore and old forms of knowledge to negotiate technology and scientific advancement.

Are you a self-taught artist or have you been to art school? Has this helped shape the artist you have become?

I studied fine art printmaking at undergraduate (Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen) and masters (Royal College of Art) and both had a profound impact on my practice.

Which exhibition have you visited which made the greatest impact on you and why?

Its impossible to choose one as so many types of work and practices have an effect on the way I think about my work. I’m a big fan of craftsmanship, antiques, clocks, and the old masters so probably the collections at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath and the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.

Who and/or what inspired you to become and artist?

I wasn’t exposed to much art in my childhood and went on to study a bachelors in science at university. In my early 20’s I was particularly inspired by an artist from my home town called Tony O’Malley. He had a previous career in banking and went on to become an internationally renowned painter later in life. I went to his retrospective at IMMA in 2005, and a couple of years later I went on to study fine art in Scotland.

Discuss a recent project, exhibition or event you have been involved in.

Secret Stations is a recent body of work developed in collaboration with two crafts people; a diviner and a wood turner, on a residency at Callan Workhouse Guild in August 2016. Guided by Richard Sennett’s suggestion in The Craftsman that touch delivers invasive, ‘unbounded data’, the research related more obliquely to embodied forms of sight and knowledge, in particular haptic vision. The project culminated in Secret Stations, a solo exhibition with Callan Workhouse Union and Trasna Productions and a Divining Walk in the town in July 2017.

Do you see collaborative practice and working with others as an important part of your practice?

Recently I collaborated with a dark matter scientist, a water diviner and a wood turner, all of which were fantastic opportunities. I have also previously collaborated with other artists in projects but find it just as exciting to work with people outside / on the peripheries of the art world. Collaboration is not essential to my practice but I have found it to be rich terrain in the past.

How do you use the studio and what you do in here? Do you have studio rituals?
I use the studio for everything, admin, writing, thinking, reading and making. I don’t have any rituals but I’m a messy maker so I try to tidy up every so often.

How does the studio become a part of your everyday life and work?

The studio has become so essential to my practice and life that it is a space I need to be in. Everything and nothing happens in the studio and most of my week revolves around my time there.

What do you get from working in a studio community? How has it impacted your work, if at all?

When I graduated from my MA, I couldn’t afford a studio and I told myself that I didn’t need one. However, having a studio has made me more ambitious and motivated. Having space to think and make, changes how you process your work and the outcomes. Being in a studio environment has exposed me to many other forms of making, conversations and ways of thinking about a practice. Having other artists around with critical distance from my work can be very useful!


What are you working on at the moment? Do you have any forthcoming exhibitions to promote?

I am working towards a four person group show entitled ‘All the Elsewheres of the World’ at Zona Mista project space (http://www.zonamista.co.uk/) which also houses many artists studios. We were particularly drawn to Foucault’s text ‘Utopian Bodies’ and we will use the space not as a white cube but as a body, exploring all the passages, storage and transient spaces. We intend to work together to install the show as something living, with some pieces dependent on others for their realization. The installation will play with ideas of perception, deception, and proximity and will ideally yield many unpredictable and exciting outcomes. The show opens on the 23rd of August.

Will you be showing work at Open Studios in October? If so, what can the public expect to see?

Yes, my studio will be open and people will be able to view some recent works from my Phd research and recent shows.

Kerri Jefferis and Sophie Chapman: Group Show Podcast Series

Listen Now!
Kerr_Sophie

Group Show is a five episode podcast series by artist and curator Caitlin Merrett King featuring Arthouse members Sophie Chapman and Kerri Jefferis, amongst a number of others. It covers topics like work, collaboration, education and criticism through a mixture of interviews, sound commissions and regular features covering artist-led activity around the UK.

The first episode was released 30 July and subsequent releases will continue through August and September. Group Show is an attempt to draw links horizontally between people and organisations to promote all the fab work everyone’s doing. An audio interpretation of the busy, messy, exciting squishing together that happens in group shows.

The podcast was conceived of as part of 12ø’s S/S17 curatorial residency and is sponsored by Cuvva, and supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

ME, MYSELF ’N’ YOU

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15th – 19th August, 2017

Zoe Richardson and Vanessa Omer’s exhibition “Me, Myself ’n’ You” provides an experience for the viewer that they will never forget. This experience is dependant on the after affect that will be created for the viewer, in how it’s possible for the self and one’s body to be constructed in fragments. The work proposed will be installations such as projections and audio pieces, as well as some prints.

The self, the mask and ideas of identity form the conceptual axis of Zoe Richardson’s practise. Working mostly in film and photography to explore these ideas, Richardson takes herself as the subject, and within this exposes vulnerabilities and anxiety. The self (herself) presented masked or unmasked, hidden or revealed creates a highly personal viewing experience, but one in which collective contemporary concerns about identity and self-image are raised. While the work can make for an uncomfortable and challenging watching, the viewer becoming implicated as a possible voyeur, they also captivate and hold ones attention, leaving a lasting image that can haunt.

Vanessa Omer’s practise displays a heavy interest in the anatomical body with the use of functions and movements. Her work often is presented as a sensory based experience that aims to mesmerise and physically ‘affect’ the viewer within the space. With this sensory experience and atmosphere it provokes the essence of the familiar but also alienation of the body. Omer displaces the viewer from the environment in which the work is exhibited.

Private view:
Thursday 17th August 2017
6-9 pm

Exhibition open:
15th – 19th August 2017
12-6 pm

Free entry
Step-free access


Alison Day: Reflection and Meditation

1 August – 31 August 2017

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Alison Day is a Fine Art Photographer and Botanical Artist. The series of images seen in this exhibition are selected from photographs taken along the Northumberland Coast several summers ago.
They are abstract landscapes that come about as a result of meditations and wandering along the shoreline. Originally grouped under the title ‘Surface Reflection’ which was intended as a double word play, relating to that which is on the surface and below. The notion of reality being objective and subjective thus can be seen at many levels. The images allow both a reflection in ones own image, which appears in some shape during the gaze. They also prompt a deeper dredging of memory and consideration of other images. The meditation comes through the act of allowing thoughts to emerge take shape and change state. Ultimately disappearing like clouds that break up in the wind. They are therefore to you the viewer that of your own creation acted out on a fluid arena.

The Duke, 125 Creek Road, SE8 3BU
Venue Opening Times: Mon – Thur Noon till 12 am
Saturday Noon – 2 am Sunday 11pm 12
1 August – 31st August 2017

good good, double good

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20th – 23rd July, 2017

The web was meant to be our way out but has just become more corporate than the real. But what is real anymore anyway? The past is now the present. The press has always been biased but is BuzzFeed really that different than the Daily Mail or the Sun? And why is it now that we have the possibility to be free that we are locking ourselves up? We had a glimpse of hope but it’s far away now. Politics has become just another word for perception management. The definitions of truth and knowledge have changed within our lifetimes – but nobody can quite pin down their new meanings. Whistle blowers are becoming this generations rock-stars. But what does it all mean? Meme’s replace movements. Witchcraft over science. A collapsing façade. A coherent picture that doesn’t add up. Things are good good, double good. Or are they?

Preview:
Thursday 20th July 2017
6-9 pm

Exhibition continues:
21st – 23rd July 2017
Open Friday to Sunday 12-6 pm

Free entry
Step-free access


Less Navels, March! March!

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March 2017

Sophie Chapman and Kerri Jefferis have been invited to be The White Pube’s artists in residence for the month of March. During this time they will use TWP’s web platform as host, interface and instigator to test out, document and start conversations through a series of public interventions.

On a defined website page, the actions will appear sporadically alongside fragments, residue and reflections. Acts that ask for input, are transitory or locational will be announced prior to their undertaking. These notices will be posted on TWP’s twitter and consequently, engage both online and offline publics, participants, audiences, observers and individuals in their enactment.

The works will take a range of forms considering the physical, the sonic and the poetic in relation to affect, contagion, situations and embodiment. Some engage with aspects of homage, drawing clear desire lines to the past considering the pace and nature of social time; others, introspection, networks, difference and commonality. Each act in dialogue with the others will appear in a different form or context; as counter-information, confrontation, prompt, proposition or pretext.

Kerri and Sophie will take an experimental approach to the month, seeing it as ‘a play in many acts’ and ‘small gestures in specific places’ because, ‘the skin is faster than the word.’

Acts will be announced on The White Pube’s twitter.
March residency page here.

The White Pube is an art criticism website and research project ran by artists Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad. They publish a new text each week – often exhibition reviews, though sometimes baby essays. In August (2016) TWP curated Zayn Malik Zindabad, an evening of artists moving image at Lewisham Arthouse which recently toured to the ICA, London.

Graduate Studio Award 08

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May – June 2017

Lewisham Art House is an artist cooperative of over 20 years. Based in a Grade II listed building, the organisation provides access to artist studios, workshops, exhibitions and learning. We strive to build upon our organisation’s proud history of supporting artists, their audiences and wider communities, fostering diversity and an ongoing commitment to capacity building.

Continuing our commitment to support emerging talent, we announce the 8th round of our Graduate Studio Award Scheme.

We are inviting recent London-based fine or applied arts graduates to apply. The award offers a free 200 sq ft studio for 8 months (commencing May/June 2017), culminating with a project/exhibition in our Project Space. The successful applicant is encouraged to participate in our lively artistic community.

Applicants should be London based MA or BA level, applying within two years of graduation. Please do not apply if you are currently studying or graduating in June/September 2017.

Deadline Friday 28th April 2017
Interviews 11th May 2017

Please see the attached forms and submit as outlined. Good luck!

Graduate Studio application outline

Equal Opportunity Form 2017

Robert Hitzeman: StoneLicker Dessins

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25th January – 16th February 2017

Le Hic Brussels is pleased to present a new series of drawings by Robert Hitzeman from his StoneLickers series as well as his sculpture Sweet Dredge exhibited installed throughout the space. Le Hic will also host the publication Floor and Ceiling: 3rd Edition a Photo-zine dedicated to Robert’s Floor and Ceiling photographs and designed by Michal Kozlowski. Robert Hizeman’s work uses visual languages to subtly disrupt readings of interior and exterior in the body and the built environment, as well as examining the relationships between ideology and the physical conditions of space. The idea of the subtle abjection; a way of transgressing the viewer quietly, is a central theme to his work. He is interested in how a transgressive force can appear seductive benign or comical but still disturbing on another level: subverting traditional separations between attraction and repulsion. “Stonelickers” are a series that include several works relating to parasitic relationships, feeding or mating and their potential as a model for artistic production and cultural exchange. The drawings for this permutation of the series are based on images of the mouth and teeth of several species of Lamprey, a parasitic fish and several models of angle grinder bits used in stone and metal work. Lamprey comes from the latin lampetra, which translates roughly as “stone licker” (lambere “to lick” + petra “stone”). In sculpture, Robert’s work is made from assembling building materials gathered from a particular area; creating a link from that area’s history to a totemic object or artifact

that connects it to the present while questioning notions of location. “Sweet dredge” is another take on this idea, using animal remains gathered from the Thames at the site of a former meat processing plant and colorful rope. The area directly above the river now houses a rock climbing wall and gym built on the foundation of the meatpacking district. Robert is interested in linking the gym’s conception of the body as a malleable object to be conditioned or changed to the “processing” of animal remains into meat; both systems that attempt to alter the original into a state that conforms to a normative ideal.

The Exhibition will be open from 25th January until the 16th February 2017.

Get there: Le Hic Rue de Rodenbach 51, 1190 Brussels
Tram lines 3-4-51 stop Albert/Berkendaal
Bus 48 et 54 stop Albert Tram 92 stop Darwin
Opening times: Monday to Saturday 10 to 18:30

For Further information: info@lehic.be +32 465 594 216

Lewisham Arthouse Open Studios 2017

Open Studios

30th September – 1st October, 2017

Explore over 30 studios, meet the artists, buy art at affordable prices or just have a look around. There will be an ‘I Spy’ children’s activity trail, café, guided studio tours and a programme of exciting live performances throughout the weekend. We’ll have a pop-up café and jerk chicken stall to keep you going, and a bar in the evening.

Deptford X Platform artist Sam Austen will be presenting his exhibition Run!! For The Present in our Project Space.

Sam Austen makes 16mm films that create new worlds and landscapes by filming objects he’s made in the studio, often floating or moving somehow through specially-made rigs, utilising a range of in-camera effects, superimpositions and mattes. The process is much like a collage yet allows an element of chance into its construction and tempo. He said of his work: ‘My interest is in looking and how humans see themselves, how the gaze is locked into our being, how the image in our mind with eyes open or closed is constant, and never really switches off.’

Lewisham Arthouse supports artists and arts-based learning through creative workspace and specialist facilities. We run an exhibition and events programmes of visual art and experimental music. This echoes the original intentions of the Carnegie library building we occupy – to enrich communities by nurturing their creativity.

Saturday 30th September 12-8 pm Sunday 1st October 12-6 pm

Free entry
Step-free access


Kerri Jefferis and Sophie Chapman: Of The Hand That Point Out, Of Fingers That See

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16th-18th December 2016
Preview: Friday 16th December 2016, 7pm, gig from 8pm
Saturday 17th December 2016, 12-5pm and Sunday 18th December 2016, 12-4pm

“Maybe I have written to see; to have what I never would have had; so that having would be the privilege not of the takes and encloses, of the gullet, of the gut; but of the hand that points out, of fingers that see, that design, from the tips of the fingers that transcribe by the sweet dictates of vision. From the point of view of the soul’s eye: the eye of a womansoul.” – Helene Cixous

We have to live in the future. Anyone practicing politics that goes against the current socio-economic nightmare* is practicing the future. They live in the future, by desire and by necessity. We have to start somewhere. We have to start with the micro.

So what are the gestures of our collective desired future? If language isn’t working for us, can we use our bodies? How can we communicate trust and solidarity to one another through our bodily language? How can we include contradiction within our gestures? Attempt to cover the distance that is perceived and experienced of difference? Include complexity? Seepage and slippage? Overflowing subjectivity? A sense of humour?

Gestures are conceived through metaphor. Bodies signifying, expressing. Therefore we cannot decontextualise movement and we are unwilling to separate discourse and materiality, language and embodiment. Bodies give permission. They alternate power. They co-author. They use shared and marginalised history. They follow desire lines. They identify with the past and with the present. They assemble. They have to unlearn. They change.

“There is a body wherever there is resistance. But their potential to speak is waiting to be mined.”
– Zsuzsanna Soboslay Moore

Of The Hand That Points Out, Of Fingers That See will be a collection of works in progress by Sophie Chapman, Kerri Jefferis and others.

Rosey Prince: Shifting States

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29th November – 11th December 2016

Richard Brayshaw, Deborah Burnstone, Janety Curly Cannon, Robert Fitzmaurice, Nick Hazzard, Maria Lena hedberg, Stephanie Herbert, Alison Lumb, Maureen Nathan, Rosey Prince, Ann Simberg, Sally Tyrie, Erika Wengenroth, Edward Winters

Lewisham Arthouse Studio Member Rosey Prince is taking part in the group show Shifting States.

“The condition of liminality is a state of transition, of suspension on the threshold between one place, time or state of mind and another. It involves ambiguity, uncertainty and the dissolution of order, identities and outcomes thrown into doubt, speaking of borderlands, faultlines and indeterminate places… The exhibition features print, photography, film, installation and sculpture.”

Rosey Prince’s work in the exhibition, which includes mezzotints, drypoint and painting, has been inspired by a series of walks along the Thames estuary, and continues her interest in the transience of place. The marshes and the river remain constant yet shifting against monumental structures such as power stations and pylons which temporarily dominate the horizon, until demolished or left to ruin allowing the landscape to reinvent itself. These images focus on the desolate yet hauntingly beautiful landscape of the estuary and the uneasy relationship between the semi-rural and the semi-industrial.

Exhibition Dates: 29th November – 11th December 2016
Espacio Gallery, 159 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 7DG
www.espaciogallery.com

Tube: Liverpool St station, Bethnal Green Station
Overground: Shoreditch High St
Buses 8, 388

Open Tuesday-Saturday, 1-7pm, Sunday 1-5pm
Closed Mondays

Sara Willett: City Kaleidoscope

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22nd October – 5th November 2016

At the end of a five week residency in Beijing at the invitation of Being 3 Gallery, Lewisham Arthouse Studio Member Sara Willett presented a solo show of paintings, drawings, sculpture and installation entitled City Kaleidoscope. View images here: www.sarawillett.com

Being 3 Gallery, Caochangdi, Beijing, China
22nd October – 5th November 2016

Works by Rob Reed featuring in NOA 2016

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27th October – 4th November 2016

National Open Art is bringing its 20th Exhibition to the heart of the City this autumn.

Curated by Robin Muir, following his hugely successful curation of the National Portrait Gallery’s Vogue 100 earlier this year, this free admission exhibition at Mercers’ Hall features 160 selected paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, wall hung installations, digital art pieces and short films.

The artworks have been selected by an expert panel, including Robin Muir and Royal Academician David Remfry, from thousands of pieces by the very best professional and amateur artists working today in the UK and Ireland.

More than £50,000 worth of prizes will be awarded to 35 artists, including for the hotly anticipated Best Emerging Artist and Best Young Artist, when Lord Mervyn Davies opens the exhibition on Thursday, 27 October.

Winners of the children’s competition, judged by Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell, will also be announced when the exhibition opens.

Mercers’ Hall
Ironmonger Lane
London EC2V 8HE

27th October – 4th November 2016

Opening times

October | Thu 27th & Fri 28th | 10am – 3pm
Sat 29th & Sun 30th | 10am – 4pm
Mon 31st | 10am – 6pm
November | Tue 1st & Wed 2nd | 10am – 6pm
Thu 3rd | 10am – 5.30pm Fri 4 | 10am – 6pm

Free Admission

All exhibition and shortlisted works are available on the online Galleries.
Please contact us if you would like to purchase works from any of our artists.
We are in constant touch with all our artists who will readily undertake commissions.

By Underground:
Bank Station on the Central, Northern, Waterloo & City and DLR
Exit to Princes Street
Walk west on Mansion House St towards St Mildred’s Ct (125 ft)
Continue onto Poultry (338 ft)
Turn right onto Old Jewry (177 ft)
Enter from Cheapside or Gresham street
Total about 3 minutes

By Bus:
Routes 8, 25 and 242 travel along Poultry
Routes 11, 21, 23, 26, 43, 76, 141 and 388 travel past Bank station.

Click here for a Google Map

Guided tours of Lewisham Arthouse

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1st & 2nd October 2016

As part of Deptford X Visual Arts Festival we are giving guided tours of the building and selected artists’ studios. With the benefit of an Arthouse guide, have a look around the 3 floors of the building including our open access dark room, the kiln, chat to artists in their studios and have a look at their work.

The tours are scheduled at the same times on both Saturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd October:

1pm
3pm
5pm

No need to book! Please note we are sorry you will not be able to look around the building without an Arthouse guide.

For more info on Deptford X see www.deptfordx.org

In addition to the tours of the building, in the gallery we are hosting a month long residency, Acts of Translation a programme of free workshops, talks and exhibitions by The London Drawing Group.

Phil Ashcroft: Finissage, Fallout

Phil Ashcroft, Qwazars, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200cm, work in progress, July 2016. Photo: Tom Horak

Thursday 1st September 2016, 6.30-8.30pm
CANAL, 60 De Beauvoir Crescent, London N1 5SB

A final chance to visit Lewisham Arthouse studio holder Phil Ashcroft’s solo exhibition Fallout at CANAL for the finissage on First Thursday 1st September 2016.

The finissage for Fallout will include new work completed during his live painting sessions at CANAL over the summer plus the launch of Monkphat’s new Obelisk EP (Gamma Proforma) with cover artwork by Phil. Monkphat and Phil Ashcroft have worked together on previous Gamma Proforma releases and he recently painted live alongside Monkphat’s set at MATA at The Social, London. ‘Obelisk’ will be free to download via Gamma Proforma on the night. For more on Monkphat go to soundcloud.com/monkphat

Refreshments will be served.

www.whitechapelgallery.org/first-thursdays/exhibitions/fallout/

http://www.canalprojects.info/

http://www.philashcroft.com/


Laura X Carlé: Material World

meet the artist

23rd July – 4th September 2016

Summer Family activity for all ages
Tate Modern, Macaulay Gallery

Touch, bend, balance and play with large scale, colourful shapes and forms.

How do artists handle materials in their studio and how is this different to the way we experience the same materials in a gallery? Material World invites visitors of all ages to experience an immersive artwork and to handle, compose and play with materials together. Improvise with materials. Try touching the ceiling or two walls at the same time. Try connecting all the shapes together. Go under. Go over. Wrap a shape around you!

Material World is linked to the Materials and Objects collection display on Level 4 and devised by Laura X Carlé with Tate Families.

Drop-in for special artist-led sessions with the creator of Material World; Laura X Carlé.

Monday 8th August 2016, 2 – 5pm
Saturday 13th August 2016, 11am – 2pm
Friday 19th August 2016, 11am – 2pm

www.lauraxcarle.com
www.tate.org.uk

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Open Studios 2016

Lewisham Arthouse Open Studios 2016
4th June – 5th June 2016

Lewisham Arthouse Open Studios 2016
Part of Brockley Max Arts Festival

Explore over 30 studios, talk to the artists, buy art at affordable prices or just have a look around. There will be a children’s activity map and guided tours of selected studios will be at 2pm and 4pm each day. If you get hungry we have a café and a jerk chicken stall.

In our gallery we are very excited to present the exhibition “Two Minute Studio Visits” speed selected by Jeremy Deller. For more information click here

Come and join us!

Saturday 4th June, 12-8 pm, with DJs and a bar from 6 pm
Sunday 5th June, 12-6 pm

Free entry
Step-free access

[toggle]Image credit: Image courtesy Lewisham Arthouse, 2016[/toggle]

Graduate Studio Award Scheme 2016-17

STUDIO

Deadline Monday 11th April 2016

Lewisham Arthouse is an artist-run co-operative based in an Edwardian ex-library in Deptford. We run 45 affordable studios, a busy gallery, classes, workshops, community activities and events.

As a commitment to supporting emerging talent, the Arthouse has a Graduate Scheme which is now entering it’s seventh year. We have been very fortunate to have had Chris Alton as 2015-16’s winner and you can read an interview with him here.

Applications are now welcome from BA or MA level graduates who have graduated within the last two years from 2014 and 2015. Please do not apply if you are currently studying or graduating this June.

Please see the PDF below for more information about how to enter and remember to also submit the Equal Opportunities form with your application.

The deadline is the 11th April with interviews being held on 18th April 2016. The residency begins on 22nd April 2016. Please be aware that this is a postal application only so leave enough time for us to receive it.

Good luck!

To download the Equal Opportunity Form 2016 (word doc) click here

To download information on how to apply to the Arthouse Graduate Award (pdf) click here

Image: Graduate studio 2016

Anita Gwynn: Wildflowers and L.P.s – it’s a thing

Dandelion and Root

March 2016

Anita Gwynn is exhibiting new drawings of at Vinyl, 4 Tanners Hill, London SE8 4PJ until mid-April.

Anita says “I am interested in the indigenous and wildflowers, especially in my local area and my drawings in this exhibition are examinations of some of these flowers.  If I have drawn them it is because I have been excited by their shape and beauty. Coming from surburbia and its tidy gardens, I enjoy the plants that break through the concrete and walls and grow, beautifully and subversively. They can be part of the heritage of a place and each plant has a story, a myth or a legend attached to it.  My artistic practice helps me to look outside of my own life and to see the world. It helps me to relate to it with curiosity and to understand that I am part of it and not separate from it.  Ecology and stewardship are important to me and I have come to see that we do not exist in isolation, but as part of a whole. Without plants we wouldn’t survive.”

Links below for more information on Anita’s work and Vinyl
anitagwynn.blogspot.com
https://vinyldeptford.wordpress.com/
[toggle]Image: Anita Gwynn, Dandelion and Root, 2016[/toggle]

Chris Alton: Under the Shade I Flourish

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March 2016

The non-uk domiciled billionaire Michael Ashcroft is a controversial figure, notable for “opaque tax practices” and “operating in the dark”. Whilst serving as a member of the House of Lords, he remained a non-dom despite promises that he would become domiciled in the UK for tax purposes.

In the mid-1960s Ashcroft briefly managed “an unknown rhythm and blues band” called Trident. Under the Shade I Flourish (2015-2016) imagines that he continued to do so. However, this is not a direct speculation upon another possible timeline. Incorporating feedback from the life Ashcroft did lead, Chris Alton engages in a cartographic process that involves the cross-pollination of both fact and fiction.

Working through simultaneous satire and celebration, Alton invokes seemingly incongruous juxtapositions, as a means of visualising the power structures in which we are all embedded – narrativising something that is too complex to be immediately comprehendible. The extrapolated band becomes a vehicle to explore the the very real exploitation of post-colonial countries as tax havens.

Alton’s recent exhibitions include; Outdancing Formations, Edith-Russ-Haus (2015), MEIL, Chisenhale Studios (2015) and each other, Wysing Arts Centre (Open Weekend) (2015). He was recently awarded; the Edith-Russ-Haus Award for Emerging Media Artists of the Sparda Bank 2015 and the Lewisham Arthouse Graduate Studio Award 2015.

Exhibition dates: 12th March – 3rd April 2016 (Saturday – Sunday, 12 – 6pm) at Xero, Kline and Coma
Preview: Friday 11th March 2016, 7– 9pm

For more information go to: www.xero-kline-coma.com

Alma Tischler Wood: Liverpool Provocations

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Wednesday 20th January 2016

Alma is one of a number of artists to have participated in Alan Dunn’s FOUR WORDS. Alan Dunn, artist/curator, presented FOUR WORDS The Media Wall on 20th January 2016 outside Lime Street in Liverpool as part of: Liverpool Provocations: A series of artistic interruptions
Between 3 and 4pm the adverts will stop and the giant screen will host an alternative stream of provocative, 10 second animations of just four words each.

Alan Dunn, a Liverpool Art Prize 2012 nominee, has collaborated on or appropriated existing texts from 108 individuals, from world-famous artist (Gerhard Richter) to lesser known contributors (Captain Pengelly, a retired seafarer).

Each set of FOUR WORDS will act as a counterpoint to the sales season and the invisible pressures of this time of year, with ruminations on value, money and exchange.

This was followed by an evening event at the Small Cinema where the animations were screened again.

The other contributors include Gerhard Richter, Douglas Coupland, Shaista Aziz, Pavel Büchler, Fiona Banner, Levitt & Dubner (‘Freakonomics’), David Shrigley, retired seafarer Captain Pengelly, Hala Al-Alaiwat and ex-Liverpool FC striker David Fairclough, Hala Al-Alaiwat, Sean Ashton, Clarisse Aubert, Chris Bishop, Jessie Brennan, Billy Cancel, Jayne Casey Roger, Cliffe-Thompson, Ade Blackburn, Zak Dunn, Nina Edge and Jack Ehlen.

Sheena Patel: Cologne’s Gold + Beton

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Friday 15th January – Monday 8th February 2016

Sheena Patel’s 16 minute performance film, NOW BREATHE. is being exhibited as part of a group show on female identity at Cologne’s Gold + Beton, in conjunction with Bradford’s FUSE Arts Space. Exquisite Corpse​ explores female form, self-image and stereotypes from the perspective of eleven female artists. Through video, painting, performance and illustration, the exhibition also considers the potential of contemporary technology as a tool to examine female self­ identity and evaluates the impact that it has upon constructs of ‘femininity’.

Internationally acclaimed visual and performance artist Poppy Jackson ​explores the female body as an autonomous zone, and has produced a new performance work commissioned by Fuse Art Space; she will also be exhibiting a series of paintings. Based in Toronto, Rupi Kaur​​ found notoriety as the poet who critiqued Instagram earlier this year with her “period.” ​​series – these photographs feature in the show. Delicate and charged illustrations from Sue Williams ​draw the viewer into a world of provocative sexual politics. The exhibition also includes work by artists from Austria, Russia, UK and US including Anastasia Vepreva​, Evelin Stermitz, Faith Holland, Julia Kim Smith, Kate Durbin, ​Lacie Garnes, Sarah Faraday​ and Sheena Patel​.

“The internet poses significant problems in female representation, from pornography to the use of female form in advertising and notably the use of sexually violent language as a form of censorship and aggression towards female expression”, comments the exhibition’s curator Sarah Faraday​. “Exquisite Corpse presents an array of female artists using both online and material forms for creativity, empowerment, and subversion, whilst reclaiming control of the representation of their bodies”

The exhibition has been covered by The Independent and Dazed Digital

Gold + Beton
Cologne, Germany

Spotlight Interview 03 : Chris Alton

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[toggle]Image credits Laura X Carlé[/toggle]

Interview
An interview with Chris Alton, our 2015 winner of the Graduate Studio Award. We have been very proud to have Chris with us, and as he enters the final quarter, we ask him to reflect about his time here.

Can you introduce yourself?

My artworks often draw upon multiple, seemingly un-associated, cultural phenomena. Whether deploying disco music against xenophobia or playing table tennis in competition with aggressive architecture, I seek to highlight unlikely parallels and produce bizarre situations. Through these, I aim to implement or imagine alternative ways of being in the world. This desire stems from my Quaker upbringing, which resonates throughout my practice.

You won this years graduate studio award, how has this impacted on your work? What do you get from working in a studio community?

Winning this award has given me the time and space to focus on and develop a number of projects that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise. The opportunity to realise an interim-project and a concluding solo exhibition (in May 2016) is fantastic as space is so scarce in London – especially free space.

The Arthouse community is great, people are incredibly generous and have often offered their support on projects, from lending kit to helping to build a stage – complete with sparkling curtains, lighting and mirrorballs.

Are you a self-taught artist or have you been to art school? Has this helped shape the artist you have become?

It’s impossible to imagine the hypothetical artist that I would have become if I’d pursued a different route, but I don’t think that my time at art school was what shaped me. I’d like to think that my practice has been influenced more by my upbringing as a Quaker and by encounters with particular people and artworks.

Which exhibition have you visited which made the greatest impact on you and why?

There are two. I saw them at around the same time; during the summer of 2012, between my first and second years of University. The first was Yael Bartana’s And Europe Will Be Stunned, a trilogy of films following the rise of a fictitious political movement, called the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland. The second was Joy in People, Jeremy Deller’s solo show at The Hayward Gallery. These exhibitions triggered a pretty radical change in my own practice by showing me that art could actively engage with society and its current issues.

Who and/or what inspired you to become an artist?

My Mum.

Discuss a recent project, exhibition or event you have been involved in.

I had my first solo exhibition in September 2015 at the Edith-Russ-Haus in Oldenburg (GER). I won one of two emerging media artists awards with my ongoing project English Disco Lovers (EDL) (2012 – present), a satirical campaign that redeploys the utopian vision of disco music in opposition to the English Defence League. The exhibition featured photographs, posters, videos and other materials from the project, as well as a 4 meter-wide, glittery hashtag.

Do you see collaborative practice and working with others as an important part of your practice?

Absolutely, I often develop works through conversations and collaborations with a number of people. Recently I’ve been trying to develop a more inclusive crediting system for my projects, so that the people involved are acknowledged and thanked. It works in a similar way to the credits at the end of a film or TV programme.

How do you use the studio and what you do in there? Do you have studio rituals?

I always begin by making a coffee, the Arthouse is pretty cold in winter and something hot with a little caffeine gets me off to a good start. The wifi in my space is dreadful, so I often take a little wander down the corridor to answer my emails and buffer an album. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of mid-’60s rock. Then I crack on with whatever I’m working on at that time, which tends to be pretty varied – I could be writing a script, editing photos, trying out wallpaintings or making watercolours of shells.

How does the studio become a part of your everyday life and work?

I actually find that it’s a place to get away from my everyday life. Instead of doing the washing up, scrolling through endless cat memes or alphabetising the book case, my studio is a place where I can put the distractions of home to one side and focus on my work.

What are you working on at the moment? Do you have any forthcoming exhibitions to promote?

I have my first solo exhibition in London opening on February 25th at xero, kline & coma. It’s a project that I’ve been working on for over 7 months now, in which a fictitious band is used as a vehicle to explore the exploitation of post-colonial countries as tax havens.

Will you be showing work at Open Studios? If so, what can the public expect to see?

My studio, slightly tidier (but not much tidier) than it normally is. I’ll probably empty the bin. I have lots of diagrams and mind maps on the walls, along with exhibition floorplans, scribbled ideas and simple doodles. There are a few finished pieces hanging around, but it’s mostly populated by work in progress and fresh ideas that may never get realised.

Sound is Sound is Sound experimental music showcase featuring Studio member Charles Hayward.

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Saturday 24th October 2015

Sound is sound is sound showcases and celebrates the curious mix of forward motion and DIY attitudes that have flourished in the SE postcodes.

A highly motivated gathering of outsider sounds, exploring the logics of punk, free jazz, electronica, sound art and breakbeat, and melding them to suit the intentions of the musicians.

Featuring: Albert Newton, Aine O’Dwyer, Soft As Snow, The Balloons and DJ BPM

Afternoon workshops, sound installations and interventions in and around the Albany will precede the show…

Tickets £10

For full information and booking visit http://www.thealbany.org.uk

Sound is Sound is Sound 4Sound is Sound is Sound 2Sound is Sound is Sound 1Sound is Sound is Sound 3

[toggle]Sound is Sound is Sound. Image credits: Francesca Oldfield[/toggle]

Outdancing Formations: A two-person exhibition featuring Art House Graduate Studio Resident Chris Alton

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18th September – 4th October

Outdancing Formations is a dual exhibition by Chris Alton and Marta Popivoda that presents one activist and one research based project in the form of two large scale installations.

English Disco Lovers (EDL) by Chris Alton and Mass Ornament by Marta Popivoda investigate distant, yet related contexts of the organised body and the mass demonstration. Their equally radical approach reveals a critical reading of moving together as a political practice.

Chris Alton’s project, English Disco Lovers (EDL), which started in 2012, is a multifaceted protest movement that aims to reclaim the “EDL” acronym of the English Defence League, an extremist organisation commonly associated with racism, Islamophobia, and violence.

Mass Ornament by Marta Popivoda from (2013-2015) is an artistic take on the na- ture of spectatorship and the role of the public sphere, which starts with the mass performance of the late Yugoslav era — the Youth Day celebration in 1987 — and launches into an elaboration on “inattentional blindness” and the troubles of today’s public sphere. The work is done in collaboration with dramaturge and theorist Ana Vujanovic

Edith-Russ-Haus, Oldenburg, GER
Award for Emerging Media Artists of the Sparda Bank 2015
Opening Night: Thursday, 17th September 2015, 7pm
Open: 18th September – 4th October 2015

Julia McNeal

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Studio member Julia McNeal with artist group fourfour at the Affordable Art Fair

22-25 October 2015

Affordable Art Fair Battersea
110 galleries with 1,100 artist’s

Get ready to add a splash of art to your walls as the Affordable Art Fair returns to Battersea Park this October. New galleries will fly in from across the globe to exhibit alongside fair favourites, so whether your taste is traditional or trailblazing, classic or cutting-edge, you’re sure to find an artwork to suit your space.
Don your talent-spotting spectacles and check out the Recent Graduates’ Exhibition featuring 2015′s most exciting new names, and get involved with our action-packed, art-filled Education Programme!
Whether you’re an art aficionado or a fair first-timer, we hope you’ll explore, adore, collect and create at the Affordable Art Fair this autumn.

For tickets and booking visit www.affordableartfair.com

Laura X Carlé 8-14’s Studio: Sculpture

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Tate Modern, Clore Studio, Saturdays 19 September, 17 October and 21 November, 2015, 11.00–16.00

Artist and Sculptor Laura X Carlé will invite you to join her with a creation of growing large-scale structure at Tate Modern.
Using materials she uses in her studio, you can explore balance, composition, connectivity and more! Laura X Carlé works primarily with sculpture medium, drawing her themes from situations that she witnesses in the social space.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/courses-and-workshops/8-14s-studio-sculpture

Sara Willett: SPECTRE

Spectre

Elevating and transforming the humble domestic craft of crochet to obsessive and neurotic heights, Sara Willett has created tensions both literal and psychological as the fantastical forms fashioned from stretched shirring elastic colonise and consume the space.

This new installation created for Curious Projects evolved from her series of forest web sculptures, which she developed particularly during two residencies in China. Each piece is time-consumingly made by hand.

Sara Willett works in a variety of media, including, painting, photography, printmaking and large-scale installations. She studied at Camberwell College of Art for both her BA (Painting) and MA (Fine Art). She has exhibited widely in the UK and her work is held in collections in UK, USA, Australia, Europe, Japan and China.
Her work was recently selected for the Creekside Open and she was awarded a residency in China for the second time running.  Sara Willett lives and works in London.

Preview and artists’ talk: Sat 26 Sept, 1pm

At Curious Projects Eastbourne
26 Sept –27 Nov 2015

http://www.curious-projects.co.uk

Lynda Laird: Urban Beekeeping

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The next pop up exhibition, to be held at the Peckham Pelican from 2nd to 8th March 2015, will showcase Lewisham Arthouse member, Lynda Laird’s  2014 series of photographs, Urban Beekeeping.

Primarily a documentary photographer Laird’s work is concerned with the environment and our connection to it. Her photographs have been published in a number of newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, and she also works with NGOs around the world.

Born in Orkney, Scotland, her fascination with nature is innate, ‘I grew up surrounded by farming and fishing, with people who had a deep understanding of how nature works, what the seasons mean and how to work with, instead of against, our environment.’

Urban Beekeeping follows the work of Camilla Goddard, a full time beekeeper for Capital Bee in South London. She first started keeping bees eight years ago and now has hives all over the city: in parks, churchyards, primary schools and on the roofs of hotels. She collects swarms from people’s attics, holds talks and about beekeeping and sells honey at her local shop.
The Honey Bee population has declined massively in recent years. In 2008, a million honeybee colonies in the United States mysteriously perished – a third of all their hives. This phenomenon was happening all over the world and became known as colony collapse disorder. The reasons behind it still remain unclear but links have been made to GM crops, habitat degradation – including the loss of flowering plant species that provide food for bees – and the increasing use of pesticides. Bees pollinate over 30% of our food and 90% of our wild plants.  Without bees to spread seeds, many plants, including food crops, would die out.

In response to the bee crisis, there has been a huge increase in the number of people taking up bee keeping, especially in cities.  Since 2008, the British Beekeepers Association’s membership has more than doubled to over 22,000.  Thanks to the lack of pesticides in the air, the diversity of our cities’ green spaces and people like Camilla, bees are now thriving in urban environments. We hope this exhibition of stunning images of Camilla and her colonies will inspire new generations of beekeepers as well as raising awareness of this important environmental issue.

Urban Beekeeping marks the first pop up exhibition in Telegram’s 2015 residency at the Peckham Pelican. A vibrant bar and gallery space, the Pelican is a keen supporter of emerging artists. Summer and Autumn exhibitions will follow including a showcase of portraits by Telegram artist Hayley Nia Thomas in June.

telegramgallery.com
capitalbee.co.uk
http://www.ruthbeale.net/

Exhibition
2nd – 8th March 2015
The Peckham Pelican
92 Peckham Rd, London SE15 5PY