Closing the Stars in Stripes Rotherham exhibition

It's been an extremely hectic couple of months and already we've reached the closing date of our Rotherham exhibition at the Old Market Gallery in Rotherham. 

Here's a little retrospective on the exhibition which has now seen around 500 visitors in 3 weeks. We certainly observed a transformation of Rotherham's art scene and along with it some presumptions about this Northern town. Now we're looking at a sustained programme, with challenging and ambitious shows and events in this gallery space over the coming years as programmed by Peter Martin who curated this exhibition, and who even took these great photographs. 

More occurances like this please...Rotherham has grown on me.

Faram au fait - Iceream boxes / Bird Boxes / Hot off the Press!

Late in the proceedings of the Rotherham show setup, the Stars in Stripes flew with the idea that we could do more than just paint and draw on the windows / have a central wall built through the space to hang recent and brand new works, but that we could also paint / build things on the floor & walls. The epic floor size warranted as much intervention as possible.

So I started constructing bird houses for the exhibition space columns out of [tesco neopolitan icecream and frozen berries] cardboard boxes. 

It was a suprisingly rapid process - I knocked-up five in total onto which I selectively painted and illustrated. Menageries of birds inside the boxes were a dexterous addition at the last minute by Nick Deakin , for peering through I placed a little light inside each box.

 I'll make some of these again sometime it was great fun...amazing what you can do with a cardboard box.


The show in Rotherham has drawn a broad audience, do make sure you catch it before the show ends, it's extended until Friday 18 February.See the  Stars in Stripes website.

All pictures are courtesy of the witty top fashion blogger, Style Factory, who gave the show a cracking write-up - an interesting and flattering spin on the exhibition!

 

OTHER PRESS:

• 'Don't Panic' magazine - The Rotherham Renaissance 

• 'Ballad Of...' review

Faram au Fait in Rotherham - Stars in Stripes exhibition opening!

The Stars in Stripes will imminently launch the large scale exhibition in Rotherham this THURSDAY 27 JANUARY 2011 with an event which opens 7pm till late. (The show runs till mid-February). Our window based art work began in December and we took to the interior space of the Old Market Building in January. We'll accompany our show with cakes and booze, prints by each artist (here's a preview of mine) and live tshirt drawing. We'll play music too. Renaissance Rotherham!

Faram au Fait Wedding illustrations

The bride and groom and their wedding invitation

Stars in Stripes - our show is just around the corner...

a-n magazine review of publication Failure by Lisa le Feuvre

I recently won a copy of Failure and with it the opportunity to review the book for A-N Magazine  Interface. I became so involved in reading this publication, finding Lisa le Feuvre's topic to be as inseperable from our approach to working and living as (what we perceive to be) our pursuit for success. I advise everyone to read this book and not see the sense in finding some happy medium, it's somewhere between  success and failure and it's where the fun happens!

See http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/980838

 

A book with Failure written boldly on the cover is terribly appealing. There is something tantalising about the concept and Lisa le Feuvre has finally granted failure the long overdue recognition in this impressive anthology which ‘establishes failure as a core concern in contemporary cultural production’. Finally we see how involved we are in failure, not just in the recent contemporary art which proudly strives to fail, but in art which has failed throughout history both accidentally and intentionally.

Stars in Stripes Rotherham Adventures - window artwork

The Stars in Stripes were commissioned by ROAR (Rotherham Open Arts Rennaissance) and Rotherham Council to fill the ground floor space of a relatively new tower block right in the centre of town. The original ask was for the Stars to produce window based artwork, and as a group of eclectic artists and illustrators to pursue their individual ideas and build these into a cohesive whole. This vast space in a central location lacks definite purpose, and offers an unusual opportunity for artists to be ambitious - the scale of the windows truly shows off the Stars in Stripes exploits to passers by.

 We were instantly taken with the idea because being offered a space like this to work in and subsequently exhibit is such a rarity. Though we are all based in Sheffield, it would be extremely unlikely for us to happen upon this opportunity there, particularly not with council funding for our troubles. 

The train journey to Rotherham is so swift you barely feel it. (Unless your train breaks down because of the ice. Brrrr.) So the next step in the operation is encouraging the Rotherham public to visit along with people from Sheffield, who surely could brave the ten minute journey to check it out. Remember, Rotherham is the new Berlin.

We've been met with sub-zero temperatures, so putting pen to window has been difficult (at times painful!) but we have persevered. The space now certainly has our stamp on it, from bears, carousel horses and sheds, to winding vines, chains and parachuting foxes. I have met the eyes of bemused passers by through the window whilst drawing on it, and I hope people in Rotherham will keep looking in on us as we fill the space. It is essentially like working inside a great fish tank - there is no escape if we blunder.

We're building up to our first group exhibition in mid-January, exhibition title TBA....content TBA...but keep an eye on the Stars in Stripes website to see our progress into the New Year. We also hope to plan in a number of events from Live Art, screening nights, to workshops.

Special thank you to Peter Martin who is helping to curate our work, and manages the use of the space. He's been a great support and encouragement to the Stars in Stripes thus far.

 

Many more images and info can be found on the Stars in Stripes website.

Rotherham is the new Berlin

The next issue of Article Magazine will be out in early February. In the interim, I've been writing a bunch of articles to be fed onto the online version of the mag, you can read the first of these on the website today! :

S1 Artspace relaunch - interview with Louise Hutchinson the curator. S1 is one of the most significant artist led spaces in the North and it's celebrating 15 years of being established, coincidentally this anniversary also ties in with their move to a new premises...exciting times for them. (If you're in or close to Sheffield, their relaunch event is this Friday 10th December at 6pm!)

Rotherham exhibition!

 It's been snowing like there's no tomorrow in Sheffield. In fact we've had way over foot and now we're dealing with the icy aftermath...We haven't been able to get to Rotherham as much as we'd like (seriously) but the thrilling news is we've got the ball rolling for our forthcoming 'Stars in Stripes' exhibition! 

In the few weeks before Christmas we'll be drawing on the windows of the exhibition space, they're a huge feature as they make up 3 of the 4 walls.We will keep a record of the work in progress and upload it to the Stars in Stripes website.

Rotherham is the new Berlin! But I'm sure you already knew that. It's time we give Rotherham another go.Buy a tshirt to express your optimism.

Live illustration by Kikayis an illustrator based in BCN.

Putting pen and brush to paper more often

A little note to explain the delay. I'm on the brink of a few art projects my time has sadly been stretched lately! Doc/Fest was in Sheffield last week and normal life paused a little. I saw a lovely new film about the old favourite Rolf Harris, and was blessed to share the first screening of this film with the star in question.

It should be showing on television around christmas I think...The film confirms what we already know of Rolf as a wonderful person and accomplished painter, tracking his painterly process executing several interpretations of the scene from Midsummer Nights Dream where Titania falls in love with Bottom the donkey. Much like the Henry Fuseli masterpiece of the 18th century. He is shown getting on famously with Lily Cole and Jade Jagger amongst other females in pop culture who pose as Titania for him. It's a real comfort to see that everything we find endearing in Rolf Harris is quite true.

• There's writing to be done for the cracking Article Magazine , with the next issue out just before Christmas! 

• Review for AN Interface (AN magazines website) on the book Failure by Lisa le Feuvre which I'm hankering to read now and feel it's publication is timely. Failure has almost become a familiar friend, as we're all having to face it to some degree and it is a healthy way to work particularly as an artist with failures often leading to better, more reasoned results. Not something to be afraid of.

• Project in Rotherham (where you must believe me, some thrilling art and music projects and events have come to fruition in 2010, certainly something has been revived!) The Stars in Stripes will be doing something special at 'Histogram' in December!

• I'm also working on an illustration commission for wedding invitations, goes without saying that this is a treat.

 So that's plenty. Be right back with evidence of new work!

 

Stars in Stripes go bird crazy for road safety!

Stars in Stripes appear at Sheffield City Council event to produce artwork to promote safety on the roads for young people. We hope our toucans, pelicans and zebras did the job! 

The artwork will be shown elsewhere in Sheffield including the Winter Gardens too apparently...  

* Click here to find out more! *

Photographs by Geo Law