Secret Wars

At Festibelly this weekend was my first encounter with Secret Wars, a live art/performance art, where two urban artists battle it out in the form of a tag-team competition in front of an audience. I found it fascinating watching an artist at work and i feel it makes art alot more enjoyable/accessible. It definitely makes normal confined exhibition art, more here and now in the form of a show. This experience gives the crowd a slight insight and understanding to the mind of the artist and is exciting and very-watchable! Below are the two examples from Festibelly, the first was the winning piece:

After the weekend I wanted to find out more about Secret Wars, so decided to research it further. The title was inspired by the Marvel comic – where many characters were summoned to a planet in a duel to the death. It is the World’s first live art battle, which works in a similar way to Fight Club - Battles are set up and promoted in and around the country and all over the world through word of mouth.

No pencils or sketches are allowed! The artists are simply placed infront of a 90ft white wall and given black paint to apply their individual creative flair, all in a time restriction of 90 minutes. No themes or directions are given but artists are encouraged to woo the crowds and intimidate their opponents. They are being hosted in basements of bars across London to abandoned meat factory's in Sweden. The Secret Wars network is continually growing, with more battles constantly happening in different locations, with new emerging talented artists.

Rules of the Secret Wars Battle:

- 90 MINS ON THE CLOCK

- BLACK PAINT ONLY – ON WHITE WALLS!
- NO SKETCHES / NO PENCILS
- INVISIBLE MIDDLE LINE WITH AN ARTIST EITHER SIDE

JUDGED USING A 3 POINT SYSTEM – 2 GUEST JUDGES AND A CROWD VOTE
(USING A DECIBEL READER)

Not only does Secret wars provide an high energy, visual entertaining night, but also gives artists the confidence and platform to raise their profile infront of 100's of people. A spokesman from Secret was said: "Artists can be anyone from a fine artist from Central Saint Martins to street artists and graffiti artists; it's a platform for any artist to come and perform freestyle. There's enough talent out there and they need a place to show.".

Secret Wars live art battles (www.secretwars.co.uk)

Festibelly!

Set amongst fields full of yellow buttercups, in the beautiful, peaceful New Forest just outside Lymington, was the one day festival....FESTIBELLY!

Following its success last year, this boutique festival provided 1000 people an intimate, chilled day time and fun dance-filled party night. For only £20, your ticket included camping for one night, great music from emerging talent in the rock/indie/acoustic/pop/reggae scenes and for a second year in a row folktronica, James Yuill.

Alongside the music was Secret Wars. This is where two urban artists battled it out in the form of a tag-team competition on two giant white walls, either side of the main stage. The crowd could watch/cheer as their walls became filled with amazing illustrations and designs. At the end of the 80 minute set for Reggae Roast, the champion was crowned. The champion..Reeps one, was also the Beat Boxing Champion in the UK and also performed on stage where he quite literally flabergastered the audience with his talent. Mouths dropped all around. He put on a highly technical and entertaining set, which proved to be so popular that he performed not once, but twice on stage.

Inside the festival, adding to the hippy atmosphere was a t-shirt stall, where for only £7.50 you got a plain white t-shirt and had the pleasure of creating your own personalized tie-dye effects on it. If like me, you didn't trust your capabilities at tie-dying and also didn't want to walk around with dyed hands all day, you could also buy a pre-tye-dyed t-shirt for £8!

The Babooshka shisha stall was somewhere to sample different flavoured molasses, whilst siting back on piles on cushions, enjoying the bands. Also the festival supports neighboring traders and provides tasty food from the local area for both meat eaters and veggies. There was venison burgers and wild boar sausages, a hog roast and an ice cream van. I sampled the delicious and generous serving of jerk chicken with rice and peas and towards the end of the night i had a slice of chocolate brownie cheesecake, accompanied by a warming cup of hot chocolate. The Festibar was well staffed and stocked full a supply of soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages.

The music began at midday and the last act finished at 12am and then the dance tent took over. Unfortunately due to the prior night drinking, i went shortly to bed from a headache i had been battling with all day.

Waking up the next day with a headache gone and a peaceful, quiet campsite sleeping, I queued up for my bacon sarni and innocent smoothie...used the still exceptionally clean and non-smelly toilets and then i was ready and fueled for packing up and heading home!

It was a brilliant day, where with friends and people of all ages, I listened to some great music that i had never even heard before, sampled some delicious fairly priced food and danced the night away! I will be returning next year for sure!! This was the first year i decided not to go to Reading Festival and it was definitely the right decision. FESTIBELLY was smaller, friendlier, cleaner, more intimate, boutique and lots of fun!

The Line up also included: Man Like Me, Colouring In, Reggae Roast featuring Brother Culture, Brass Roots, The Pepys, Rob Cowen and The Dissidents, Tarrbaby and Alex Parsons.

Rough Trade - Mariachi El Bronx Free Gig

Whilst on work placement in a digital creative agency just off Brick Lane, I was researching the local record store Rough Trade, when I found that there was a small free gig with the band Mariachi El Bronx being played that night. Literally the day before I had been enjoying listening to the bands new, first album titled 'el bronx'... so was eager to turn up!

Mariachi El Bronx at Rough Trade

Me and Lead Singer Matt Caughthran

Mariachi El Bronx is the mariachi side project of los angeles hardcore punk band The Bronx. The music is soulful, with romantic, hopeful and tragic melodies, with passionate influences of Mexico. The bassist (Brad Magers) had replaced his usual instrument with a trumpet and there was an additional member playing a large acoustic spanish guitar. Other instruments included marrachas.

The band were all dressed in authentic black velvet mariachi outfits and gave an intimate, acoustic 25 minute set performance to a small crowd of about 50-60. Their sound is something quite uniquie and original and completely alternative to their hardcore, punk tracks produced by The Bronx. I think they have remarkably replaced rock-riffs with authentic Mexican sounds and enjoy listening to their relaxed, 'not-so-serious' album.

Twilight

Twilight is set in a gloomy, rainy small town named Forks, where Isabella Swan moves to go and live with her father, where she starts a new high school. This is where she meets the very mysterious, irresistible, pale faced, golden-eyed and bronze haired Edward Cullen.

I hardly ever read books, as reading is not one of my strong points. It is something I usually find more of a chaw than an enjoyable hobby, but Twilight was an exciting and hypnotic page-turner, I couldn't put down.

Isabella Swan, otherwise known as Bella is determined to uncover the mystery that surrounds Edward Cullen and his family. Once she discovers his dark secret of his true identity, she becomes closer and more involved with dangerous and risky situations that threaten not only her life, but others that are close to her. Her love for him makes everything she encounters worthwhile and he also will do anything to protect her.

The author Stephanie Meyer writes in a very seductive way, which really encapsulates this teenage love story. It is high in sexual tension that grows even stronger throughout the book as they become closer. Edward has to fight against the will to both make love to her and resist her infectious potent perfume her human body exudes.

I have just started the next book in the series, New Moon and am looking forward to seeing the film adaptation and how well it compares to the read. I really recommend Twilight and especially for those like me, who often find it a little too easy to put a book down!

Inglorious Basterds

After enjoying watching True Romance and Kill Bill, both by Quentin Tarintino... I was looking forward to watching his latest film, Inglorious Basterds. After reading its slightly mixed reviews, I was pleasantly surprised when I came out of the cinema, having really enjoyed the tense and quite dark witty humour contained within the story. 

The main story-line is focused on two seperate attempts to kill Hitler and The Third Reich. A group of Nazi-hunting Americans, 'The Basterds" are on a mission in france to kill the Nazi's during the Second World War. Running alongside this, a young woman named Shosanna Dreyfus owns and runs a cinema, left to her by her late relatives. Three years prior she escaped and was the only survivor of her family left from a raid run by Landa, a member of the Third Reich and plans her revenge when the Premier of Landa's film is going to be held in her theatre, where Hitler and his closest advisors will be in attendance.

Christopher Waltz plays an incredibly evil Hans Landa, whose performance was convincing and blood curdling. His intelligence, power and evil combined with Waltz's acting, made a frightening and memorable role. From watching the trailer, i was prepared to be slightly unimpressed by Brad Pitts performance and thought he might come across to over the top and cheesy... but after I was pleasantly relieved that he gave Lt. Aldo Raine a humorous, compassionate role, which was the main hero of the film. 

Almost all of what happens would have been impossible, but is very entertaining and has an alternative ending, which everyone would have preferred for the Nazi's. Although most was watched through the gaps between my fingers, if you can handle seeing a lot of blood and guts, for example the many scalps which were ripped from the heads of the soldiers,  i would recommend watching it!!

Fashion Photography - Summer School CSM

Fashion and photography have always been real passions of mine, but I have always felt I have lacked the knowledge of techniques and procedures in order to take a professionally lit and directed, beautiful photograph. I am always buying and reading fashion magazines like Vogue and ID. In these magazines not only am i drawn to what clothes the model is wearing, but also the set and story which goes along with each shoot, making each photograph like a piece of art to me. I knew Central St. Martins offered short courses over the summer, so I enrolled for the Fashion Photography course for one week in August.

The course taught me the basics of how to take fashion images for magazines to fashion designers. We analysed the various phases in the organising of a fashion photo-shoot, from the initial concept to its realisation. The course wasn't cheap, so I hunted around my home to find something I could take in and use as a prop, that would add to the rock/metal/sexy mood I wanted to create. I ended up bringing in two rolls of tin foil and covered the floor and even fruit with it.... although the fruit ended up making some of my photos slightly pornographic, therefore in my final edit they were discarded!

Aswell as bringing in props, I chose to bring in my own variety of clothes i wanted the model to wear. The model I used was a girl called Jade McSorley, who had previously come third in Britain's Next Top Model. She was a really lovely girl and great to work with/direct!

We worked closely with the model and hair and make-up artist/stylist to create the mood/atmosphere we wanted. We also had to carefully consider the location, construction of studio sets, propping, accessorising, camera settings, lighting control, use of backdrops, reflectors and other practical techniques applied in this branch of photography.

After the shoot we went through a series of edits of all our photos and cut them done to just 3/4 photos, in order to produce two double page spreads for a fashion magazine. We went through further editing of these selected photos in RAW editor and photoshop. In these programs we learnt many techniques such as, smoothening/softening the skin and getting rid of any lines/blemishes.

Below are my two double page spreads, consisting of my chosen three final edited photographs: