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.

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!

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.

Sanctuaries Exhibition and Illustrated Concert

I am curating with music professor Guy Harries this upcoming exhibition and performative illustrated concert for Rich Mix London to take place in February 2014. Supported by Diversity Art Forum, in partnership with Reportager, the Association of Illustrators and the University of East London.

 

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.

Sonic Rituals 2 at Servant Jazz Quarters

I took part in this event last night at Servant Jazz Quarters in Dalston. I will post soon the live drawings that I made that night as well as videos. It was great fun!

 

Books Worth Reading

 

I have a board on Pinterest entitles Books Worth Reading. I am a writer and I love to read a lot of books. I like to mix between fiction, biographies and facts or investigative writings.

ELCAF- The Festival Review

Last Sunday, I paid a visit to ELCAF, the very first East London Comics and Arts festival. The brain child of uber cool graphic novels publishers Nobrow, the festival took place at the Village Underground in the heart of Shoreditch.

Which was a good thing! When I arrived at the venue at 4pm, the queue outside was really gigantic and not moving fast at all! I decided to go to Brick Lane and the market and come back later. I found out later a few of my fellow comics enthusiasts were put off by the crowds and did not go back. But I did, at about 6 pm. It turns out the queue had vanished and it was not a problem walking in. That said, it was still quite busy inside!

I am really pleased to see quality comics taking off in the UK. Being from France,  I have for a long time despaired at the quasi non-existent comic book scene here in England. Of course, the likes of Paul Gravett and Becky Barnicoat (whom I interviewed for Amelia's magazine a while back) have fronted the resistance and championed home-grown graphic artists' books for a while but much of what has always been selling here has been either from the US or the mainland. Or ir's been low quality fanzines and some good stuff. But that seems to be changing significantly now.

I was really pleased to see my friends the Fancy Butcher and Lord Hurk selling at the festival. You will be able to see them again the International Alternative Press fair. This is where we met last year, when collaborated on murals at the Sassoon gallery.

I bought a few goodies from Self-Made heroes and discovered a few new bookshops and artists. Plus there were the usual suspects at these sort of things. The evening finished with a free concert from the Dead Pirates and my photograph above does not do justice to their amazing animation!

Circuit Acts at Power Lunches

I will be live drawing in the company of a group of electronic musicians tomorrow evening in Dalston. The event is an improvisation collaboration and I will be reacting live to the music using my usual iconography as well as trying new semi-abstract imagery. I have never met most the musicians and am looking forward to experimenting on the night! Below is the blurb advertising the event. Hope to see you there on the night! 

CIRCUIT ACTS
14 JUNE 8PM - POWER LUNCHES, LONDON

An evening of electronic improvisation ranging from reshaped vocalisations, homemade electronics, adapted turntables, guitar sounds you've never heard before and live drawing. Featuring the internationally renowned sax player and composer Luc Houtkamp on a special visit from Holland!

WITH:
luc houtkamp (sax, electronics) - http://www.luchoutkamp.nl/
john russell (guitar) - http://john-russell.co.uk/
sharon gal (voice, electronics) - http://www.myspace.com/sharongalmusic
graham dunning (turntables, homemade electronics) - http://grahamdunning.com/
guy harries (voice, flute, electronics) - http://www.guyharries.com/
valerie pezeron (live drawing and projections) - http://www.valeriepezeron.com/

some videos to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szwv4VptjJs&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l3bSTLfjG8
http://vimeo.com/26471106

details:
Power Lunches,446 Kingsland Road, E84AA London
14 June, 8pm, tickets £5

https://www.facebook.com/events/361233397269959/

We are the Future Collective

Poster designed by Lesh Parmar

"We are the Future" Collective would like to invite you to the opening of the illustrated concert and exhibition "What is the Future of Illustration?", on the Wednesday 15th of February at 5.30 pm, ADI Gallery, University of East London, London.

Work in progress- mural based on the theme of music

This event is co-curated by Illustration students and their two lecturers (including me) currently on their 3rd year of the B.A Combined degree. You will be treated on the night to a live drawing mural performance, a concert from one of our illustrators/singers along with an exhibition and projection of students artworks reflecting concerns facing the Illustration industry right now.

Flier designed by Lesh Parmar

Over the last two months, our students used online social networking platforms such as Facebook to have a conversation related to seismic changes rocking the commercial art world.

The rise of illustration collectives, the predominance of digital means of production as well as more and more illustrators using performance were all hotly debated topics. We are proud of of the result and we would live to invite you to be part of our future.



Mill 24 Mural

Videos of my live performances drawing and then painting at the Mill in Manchester last year for just 24 hours in front of a crowd and with music bands playing on the stage nearby.

Art Shop Collective Opening

This is the entrance of the Arthur and Albert studio where the Art Shop Collective have found a home for their twice a month contemporary artefacts sales.

The brain -and the red glasses- behind the 27 artists strong collective!

 Katie, a member of the collective and a lovely person to boot!

Taking place every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month, last Saturday was the opening of the venture.
There was cake, tea and rose wine on offer.

 This is me posing next to a row of my watercolor portraits and trying my best expressive face. It worked? Non?

Yep, there was music on the day! And the atmosphere was really chilled and friendly. The day was sunny and the public very supportive. We sold quite a few artworks on the day!

The till with tea, business cards and other promotional materials such as artists statements.

Yum! 

My watercolors and below, one of my digital prints on display at the very bottom.

More of my watercolors and digital prints above.

As you can see the collective is a collection of very disparate styles, the only selection criteria being it must be just very good art indeed.

Above another one of my digital prints, called "Fear".

The lampshade made of sunglasses was quite popular with the crowd!

The shop was pretty busy all day. Set right next to the Regents Canal in Haggerston, we benefited from a  fair bit of footfall from all those ramblers making their way to Broadway market.

Many of the collective came along with their friends. The collective is composed of a good mix of up and coming and more established jobbing artists such as recording artists who also paint.