Live Hazard Collective @ ELCAF

Live Hazard Collective @ ELCAF 2015 - Roshi Nasehi (music) and Louis Vinet (illustration) from Guy Harries on Vimeo.


Lately, I have been busy with curatorial activities. Do head over at Live Hazard collective blog for an update of our activities, including our participation to Nobrow's ELCAF festival in the summer.

Chinese Open 15 Group Show

I am exhibiting this upcoming week-end three posters as part of the Chinese Open 15 group show taking place at QPark, Chinatown.

Kitchen Sink Experiment No. 1

Music video I made for Live Hazard Collective; music is from Guy Harries and iPad drawings are mine. The drawings are the result of immediate experimental improvisations reacting to Guy singing and playing. It was great fun to do!

Live Hazard Collective Illustrated Concert 1

 Here are some photographs of my 20mns set in collaboration with musician Masol/ DJ Got Soul .

Masol's music is very funky. You can listen to what she does here. Masol came accompanied on the night with her mum and quite a few fans! 

This particular illustrated concert was part of an ongoing research project I am doing with music professor Guy Harries.  Live Hazard collective is a crossdisciplinary collaboration between illustration and music.

Formed of the two core members musician Guy Harries and visual artist Valerie Pezeron (see us above!), it invites each year a few artists and musicians, singers, poets, DJs, rappers... to join the collective for a limited period of time in order to collaborate via the format of the illustrated concert.

The formula is simple; a stage is filled musicians and a visual artist who improvise in front of a live audience. The artist brings his painting and brushes, Ipad and stylus or collage, etc... and with the help of a visualiser, the results are projected behind the stage on a big screen.

The artist's drawing  materials are as important as the musicians' instruments, and an integral part of the stage set-up.

Live Hazard Collective profile on AOI blog!

Photograph courtesy of the AOI 2014.

 After months of hard work, the Live Hazard Collective illustrated concert and private view of its Sanctuaries exhibition took place on the 6th of this month. Our partner the Association of Illustrators were there on the night of the launch. They took pictures, they enjoyed the illustrated concert and blogged about it. Have a look here!  http://www.theaoi.com/blog/?p=5657

Chinese Open Year of the Horse Art Show

 

Here are a few photos of my installation at the Chinese New Year of the Horse art show that took place at QPark Chinatown, right in the middle of Soho in London.

 

The show was curated by Vanya Bologh and Cedric Christie for Geoffrey Long and was a large group show comprising of over several dozen professional artists at different stages of their careers. 

 

Frames were attached back to back and hung from the ceiling at different heights on the strongest fish wire I could find.

The interesting thing with installing the pictures this way is that they were rotating constantly. A few visitors commented on how arresting the images were because they were following the viewer passing by with their gaze.  That was non intentional but a happy incident.

 

I knew I was going to compete with many artists for the public's attention so I knew I had to be inventive with how I displayed my work, hence the idea of putting them right in the middle of people's paths. I also deliberately created an imaginary 4 corners-sculpture in the way they were put up, so that all could stop by and have a drink while looking at the watercolours.

 

 

My exhibits at Chinese Open Year of the Horse

I am exhibiting a series of watercolours from my dolls collection at the Chinese Open- Year of the Horse, a week long event in a car park, in Chinatown in the middle of Soho in London. It is all taking place on level -7.

The drawings are based on an imaginary dolls' collection by a fictitious serial killer and are a commentary on childhood and innocence.

Chinese Open 2014

I am excited to announce I will be exhibiting a series of watercolours at the Chinese Open show on the 2nd of February 2014.

Sanctuaries Exhibition Competition

 

Call for entries to the Live Hazard Collective exhibition to happen at Rich Mix London in February 2014. Curators Guy Harries and I are aiming to have a mix of up and coming artists to be exhibited alongside more established names, in order to reflect the vibrancy of the area (East London Shoreditch) where the show is taking place. All selected artworks will be available for sale during the length of the exhibition, with no commission claim on the sale by the organisers.

My illustration in Resurgence & Ecologist

My illustration of green campainger Rob Hopkins can be seen in this month's Resurgence & Ecologist magazine.

Indigo Mag Interview

 

I have been interviewed for a feature for a soon-to-be-launched creative arts magazine named Indigo on the increased popularity of collectives and here are the answers to questions I was asked about collectives. As soon as I get the link I will post the online article.

1. Question: Would you say that collectives are the future of the illustration industry?

Answer: Collectives are no longer the future of the illustration. They have very much already taken hold of the industry. The concept of multi-disciplinary collaborations in groups is what I conceive as being the future, as it is getting harder and harder to make a living out of illustration alone and designers are asked more and more to be jack of all trades. It will be interesting to see what direction that format of pooling resources and skills will take.

Q 2: Why do you think they are so popular?

A 2: Collectives are popular because they are a great way to launch fresh faces, new blood into the public consciousness. There is always an an exciting vibe when attending group collectives shows or buying artwork where the talents of a few have produced outcomes that are often surprisingly refreshing in its audacity. Collectives fire its participants to try their best; people appreciate that DIY spirit and want to buy into that culture.

 

Q 3. Would you advise up-and-coming illustrators to think about joining a collective?

A 3: Yes, I would and as a matter of fact I do. Since working as a lecturer at UEL, I have encouraged my students to think of their class as a Collective. Every year, we have exhibitions where students think of a theme and title for their collective- the aim is to reflect what is going on in the industry, for them to think as a team, to create marketing, PR and manage finance in groups, ...all attributes that make great collectives work.

 

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Sonic Rituals 2 Images

These are the live drawing images I created while performing this Monday for the second instalment of Sonic Rituals.

Sonic Rituals is a live improvisation night between different musicians. A creation of Yumi Hara Cawkwell and Guy Harries, it has so far included a very diverse range of players from electronic musicians to more traditional instrumentalists. On Monday, we had Mark Hewins, Geoff Leigh and former member of Soft Machine Daevid Allen (now in Cong) come and join us.

My involvement is a visual one in that I react to the improvisation sounds by creating images that go with the moment and the music.

I am using now an IPad for these experimental nights as I feel such a device is more anchored for immediate and most effective broadcasting. I also like the IPad because it forces me to draw quite differently and not be so precious about doing nice pretty drawings- the idea of being freed in my expression of movement through the gesture of immediate mark making on a digital device is revolutionary for me. Last night I brought a clunky projector which in fact had great picture quality and everything went smoothly.

I had a good chat with the concert promoter and Jazz Servant Quarters owner (pictured above) who kindly agreed to pause for me for a portrait. All in all, it was a magical night; the music was excellent and the audience really enjoyed themselves. Feedback in my projections was really positive. There is much I want to do in terms of developing these experiments into a polished act and we will take out time and many more gigs to end up doing it.

L'ile Aux Trente Cercueils- le Feuilleton

This is the trailer for the TV series that is currently infuencing my children's book (work in progress)  "Coffin Island". The story was very dark and even though I was not allowed to watch it, I would get out of bed, sneak behind my parents' chair to try and catch a few glimpses.

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Cpyright 2012. Do not reproduce without permissions.

Of course what I saw made a lasting impression and I believesome of my work fits in the fantasy horror genre with heavy religious connotations because of that series! It traumatised an entire generation of French kids!

Circus Acts Performance

Last Thursday, I took part in Circus Acts, an improvisation and collaboration  event between electronic musicians and a visual artist. I was the artist who provided the projection of images on the night.

I had made some loose preparations for the gig that was meant to be an informal experimentation among friends, with a small audience witnessing the happy incidents that sprung out of responding to each of the participants' sounds- mine were visual sounds!

The beauty of such events is that one has to be flexible and quick to adapt! I had never been to the Powerlunches venue before and had made provisions for several eventualities. Still, one has to adapt to the actual conditions- i.e the lighting making the projection yellowy meant that my colours lacked in contrast. I understood fast I had to work more in black and white or darker tones.

Another issue was the position of the screen right behind the musicians, so that might nicely crafted illustrations were not really easily read by the audience. I responded by adapting my designs to work around of and with the musicians, so that an elephant's trunk looked like it was wrapped around Luc Houtkamp's wind instrument!

After the intermission, I decided to respond more directly to the music and go more abstract and immediate. After all, I give my students that exercise and I think it is good to remind oneself of the good results that come from playing and challenging oneself every once in a while!

I ended up enrolling some members of the audience towards the end to come and stick their thumbs in the art materials. And it was good fun! I intend to develop the art band to take on bigger projects and this was a good successful first trial.