Central Station

53 Results

• No room for humour in art? No room for humour in art?

  • From: MisterSmith
  • Description:

    A couple of weeks ago in a mischievous spirit, I decided to post an intentionally humorous (and gently satirical) 'Opportunity' on the Central Station Website. It never 'went up'. 

    As some time has passed, I cannot remember exactly the title or the text, but it was essentially:

    A Competition to Win a Space to Exhibit a piece of Art above my toilet. No public access. No art would be returned. And the winner had to pay £1000 in administration fees. 

    I do remember writing: "YOU GET ~ The opportunity to think, "oh well, it might get me somewhere...you never know". 

    It was - I hope - an amusing send-up of far too many 'opportunities' available to artists; i.e. fuck all cash & the dream of getting noticed. I'm from a musical background - and in music we call this 'pay to play'. There are so many people all scrabbling for the chance of exposure, that many people will give away what they have for free. Sometimes working for nothing for long periods of time. How can they do this? Only if they're already wealthy. It somewhat skews the professional realm of artistry in favour of the well-heeled middle-classes, dontcha think? 

    Maybe my satirical opportunity was too close to the bone, so that Central Station wouldn't put up a 'joke' opportunity next to a 'serious' opportunity for fear of offending 'the sponsors'?

    Or maybe some artists don't have a sense of humour? 

    I certainly think that there are far too many people in 'art' that take it far too seriously. They are the same people who - once they sniff humour in a piece of art, instinctively downgrade it, devalue it, or shrug it off as trivial entertainment. Which is bizarre considering how much humour or comedy is valued in our daily life. And it probably takes more skill to make someone laugh than it does to make them think. Because people will think anyway...but they won't always laugh... 

     

    God, I hate pious art wanks. Discuss. 

    Oh, and Central Station - what was it? Why didn't you run with a bit of fun? 

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• A needless faith in money A needless faith in money

  • From: benwerd
  • Description:

    Curated or uncurated, the festivals have strong themes running between them, if you care to see them: thematic through lines that connect one production to another. It’s hard to know if these are the product of zeitgeist, self-selection on the part of the audience-member, or the dot-to-random-dot equivalent of pictures in the static on a television set. It’s probably all three.

    Joseph Stiglitz was chief economist at the World Bank, served as an economic advisor to Bill Clinton and has been a leading critic of the Obama Administration’s financial stimulus plan – in part because it doesn’t go far enough. He spoke accessibly, bluntly and with remarkable humour about how an almost religious faith in free market capitalism combined with an unchecked appetite for risk led to the downfall of the financial sector. As the rain pounded on the canvas roof of the Royal Bank of Scotland Theatre, it became clear that a radical overhaul of global business practices, and even what banks are and how they work, will become necessary.

    Caledonia is the story of William Patterson, the founder of the Bank of England who came back to Edinburgh in order to help Scotland form its own colonies. An accomplished salesman, the new Scottish trading company he founded to colonize Darien was eventually connected to over half the wealth in Scotland. Unfortunately, it was a venture fraught with risk, and a lack of due diligence eventually led to the deaths of many of the colonists, the downfall of the entire Scottish economy, and ultimately, union with England and the creation of the Bank of Scotland. Patterson eschews detail for passion, inspires his country with a fervent belief in the power of commerce, and brings his country to ruin. For such a bleak tale, it’s told with intelligence and occasionally cutting humour, presenting itself as a musical cross between Blackadder and The Thick Of It. “Money begets money,” Patterson sings early on, convincing his potential investors in the value of the newly-established financial markets.

    Back in the present day, Joseph Stiglitz warned that China is likely to be a formidable economic player for the foreseeable future, in part due to their cautious attitude towards capitalism. Rather than assume that markets were infallible, China understands that they sometimes fail, and they are very wary of playing games of risk. Passion is not in short supply, but business and government needs to back it up with reason, moderation and considered, nuanced approaches to difficult problems. Money doesn’t beget money all on its own.

    Caledonia was a troubled production with a five figure budget, whose writer has allegedly returned to London having fallen out with the director. The policies of the Clinton administration, advised by Stiglitz, contributed to our current economic problems. We all borrowed, and hoped, and spent. No-one here walks out of here blameless.

    Blinking, worrying about money and the future, I emerged from the theatre into the rain and walked towards my next engagement.

     

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• Atomino Festival AKA Artists Atomino Festival AKA Artists

  • From: ExhibitionDJCAD
  • Description:

    I was approached by Atomino Festival in Germany to curate a small section for their festival and have selected several Scottish artists who all work with alter egos in some way or other. They are experimental, multi disciplinary artists who all operate under pseudonyms either because they have created alternative worlds where their character plays out another life or so they can control or subvert society more effectively or because they follow a performer tradition where the stage name allows the performer to live a different life on stage and in the eyes of their followers. 

    I proposed that this group of individual artists, some used to collaborating in art or music together, scatter among Atomino 2010 to carry out their participation under their assumed identities. The individuals may also come together during the festival for music, building stuff or performance. 

    The artists’ are all active across different types of practice. http://www.atomino.eu/

    
    

    Kyle McKelvie AKA Edward Shallow

    Edward Shallow is the founder of Shallowism. He is the messiah. He is the one true way. He is hope. Using video-game aesthetics and a bitter cynicism about religion (and other dogma), Edward Shallow performs, builds installations and creates video-pieces.

     

    http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=19621750&as=126249&b=

    http://www.myspace.com/edwardshallow  

    http://www.youtube.com/user/edwardshallow     and more videos if you search for Edward Shallow

     

     

     Alastair Smith AKA  Professor Sexian

    Professor Sexian is the lead scientist in The Maarhaysu Institute, an organisation, seemingly trapped in the 1970s, which investigates psychokinetic sciences.  Videos from the archive of The Maarhaysu Institute include titles such as Psychadeliktelekinesis and Dream Probe while the Institute also considers cloning and zero friction environments. 

     ‘An appreciation of the flawed, an enduring love of videotape, and a sense of humour lie at the root of Alasdair Smith’s work.
For the past year, he has been part of a collaborative performance project that sees Alasdair and his peers play members of the Maarhaysu Institute, a mysterious, underground scientific institution that exists to explore implausible fields of research.
They have developed a number of “instructional” videos on subjects such as Psychadelikitelekinesis and Cryptopharmacology, which manage to be as anti-educational as they are comedic.
For his Degree Show installation, Alasdair adopts the persona of Professor Ahabraham Sexian, and will be presenting the collection of videos as part of an installation which re-creates his office at the Institute.
Haggardism, a mode of appreciation that values the flawed, is at the heart of the videos. The subject matter is deliberately inexplicable and the content is displayed in deliberate state of degradation, with images manipulated and deconstructed almost to the point of abstraction.
Alasdair says his love of comedy is a big influence on his artistic practice, as is his resentment at the wholesale switch from analogue to digital formats.
“The low-res, dated presentation serve as a reaction to the wave of high-definition, crystal clear imagery employed by mainstream media producers,” he said.
“The videos are meant to be seen as incomplete fragments of a greater mythology which has been lost or at least forgotten.
“Through my dissertation research on videotape and its obsolescence I came to the conclusion that the only viable format on which the Maarhaysu artefacts can be presented is on VHS cassette tape.”’

     

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gammamoth/118024634905024

    http://0black0acrylic.blogspot.com/2010/05/th4y-review.html

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqI232sisOg

     

    Fraser MacDonald AKA The Garbologists

    Currently Fraser is running The Garbologists – a workers’ union run like an art movement. Inspired by his previous jobs picking up cleaning streets and emptying bins, he is doing this project as part of Nine Trades of Dundee www.ninetrades.com. He is filming with his colleagues on the bin collection lorries and building a picture of life in this working situation. He is also the administrator of the movement and so carries out paperwork, manifestos and education work in relationship to The Garbologists.

     

    http://www.ninetrades.com/projects/FraserMacdonald.htm

    http://ninetradesfraser.blogspot.com/

    http://www.youtube.com/user/Garbologists

    
    

     Euan Taylor AKA Inefficient Solutions

     ‘As Chief Director of Inefficient Solutions I over-see all operations. I ensure that we are striving to deliver the best in all our specialized areas which include.

- Creating and Solving Problems
- Purveyors of Superficial Commodities
- Digging a way out the Hole
- Futile Endeavor’.

    http://www.newartcriticism.co.uk/inefficientsolutions.html

    Together Euan and Fraser run a gallery in a locker :

    http://www.galleryanewcontemporaryspace.com/

    and have worked on other practical projects together and are also in a band together called Deliberate Crumbs.

     

    Laura Simpson

     

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• I Spend My Days in Ceaseless A I Spend My Days in Ceaseless Activity, Striving Not to Notice Anything

  • From: garethvile
  • Description:

    I bumped into an old friend today who said how much they hated the Fringe. Not for the usual reasons - braying students on a jolly, the busy streets, flyers handed out on the Royal Mile for shows that warn us how the environment is in danger from our wasteful use of resources - but because it encouraged a trivial response to performance. This rapidly let to a conversation about how we both disliked stand-up comedy.

    Leaving aside my lack of a sense of humour - nobody as pompous as me is likely to find the court jester funny when he bursts my bubble of jargon - there is a problem in the way the Fringe consumes performance. As a reviewer, I use it as a chance to research genres in which I am vaguely interested and about which I am deeply ignorant. So I bustle between shows: yesterday was Indian dance, tomorrow is American drama. The day after, I'll be telling you I know all about Hindu devotional dance and Southern American existential doubt, even though the nearest I have been to Alabama is the women I pick up in sex chat rooms.

    Of course, I blame late consumerism. It encourages us not to take time over things, to rush, to consume more. I think I am so much better because it isn't episodes of soap opera I am totting up, or home furnishings, but it is exactly the same mentality that made me an avid collector of comics ten years ago. I mistake seeing something for understanding, possessing it for owning it.

    My excuse is brilliant. I am just a victim of my time, and the freedom a reviewer's pass give me to roam the Fringe at will. Never mind that I am playing into the ultimate trap of the Bad Guy, to absolve myself of moral responsibility for my behaviour. Since I am in the victim's role, I can quickly slip in an obnoxious comment, then point to my dilemma as justification.

    Friday is probably going to be "human traffic" day. There are many shows about forced prostitution this year. Without wishing to sound obnoxious - are any of these plays really going to make a difference. There can hardly be anyone who supports the traffic of women for sex, yet every single play points out how bad it is. And yet it reminds me of an earlier response to my post about burlesque. When it comes to political engagement, everybody will defend the right of the artist. Few people will actually get their hands dirty and do some political action on the ground.

    I do have a natural aversion to theatre that preaches. And I know that each play will have seen a great deal of research. I am only asking, not condemning: but will any of these plays actually change the situation? Or are they each just another check on a ticklist, an hour of the day spent in worthy activity and distraction from the horrors of the world?

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  • 3 weeks ago
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• Docuementary Shoot Day One Docuementary Shoot Day One

  • From: PlanetEsther
  • Description:

    My Set Diary - 8 Aug 2010.

    Ah the glamourous life of a filmmaker, one day you're at home writing funding applications in Birmingham, the next you are on location in Droylesden shifting a couch...!

    The production crew, and interviewee were of course too gallant to let me do any heavy lifting (is my proneness to exaggeration a reason why I'm doing the funding applications?) and Droyleden may not be pretty or glamourous, but the welcome we got was fantastic and it was a great day out for me.

    I got to meet Ian Wilson,  builder and hoarder the man who uncovered a truly unusual artistic legacy.  He was full of stories - all captured on film, and his patience and good humour helped us get through the tedious bits (setting up equipment bores me to tears). He was a dream interviewee.  This one was quite informal and each future interview will have it's own rules, tales, POV and conflicts.  I'm looking forward to it all.

    Follow us on facebook and twitter if you want to know more.

    http://twitter.com/vaughanthefilm

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=146956898654327&ref=ts

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  • 4 weeks ago
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• Q&A: Martin Creed Q&A: Martin Creed

  • From: gailtolley
  • Description:

    

    Image: Martin Creed still from Work No. 732: Flower Kicking, 2007  © Martin Creed. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

    It’s difficult to know what to make of Martin Creed. The artist, most famous for winning the Turner Prize in 2001 for Work No. 227: The lights going on and off, alternates between dead pan humour and sincerity (with one often impossible to distinguish from the other). And his work is much the same; it is at once playful yet also challenges everyday perceptions. Take for example Work No. 850, where Creed set up runners to sprint, every 30 seconds, through the Tate. The artist said that the regularity of the running was something that might offer comfort to the spectator, yet at the same time the piece represents an almost violent disruption to the formality of the gallery space, not to mention a display of cheeky, childlike audacity.  

    This mixture of fun and intrigue has made Creed a popular artist among audiences and critics alike and his latest exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh will no doubt be a popular destination this Festival season. Down Over Up is a collection of Creed’s work which reveals the artist’s fascination with steps and increments. Alongside work from the last few years, the show includes a new piece by Creed: a musical staircase where each step is another note in a scale progressing up or down depending on whether you’re ascending or descending. Creed is also working on a commission as part of the refurbishment of the Scotsman steps – a public stairwell in Edinburgh which connects the Old Town and the New Town, due to be unveiled in the new year.

    If that isn't enough, Creed is also bringing his ballet (Work No. 1020), first performed at Sadler's Wells last year, to the Traverse Theatre between 8 - 15 August and is speaking at Edinburgh International Book Festival on 16 August about the release of two new books on his work.

    I spoke to Creed last week, in between rehearsals for his performance at the Traverse, about the events he's involved in in Edinburgh this summer, his latest commission to transform the Scotsman steps and why we might soon be seeing the Martin Creed opera show.

    

    Image: Martin Creed, Down Over Up at The Fruitmarket Gallery, 2010

    You're in the middle of rehearsals for the ballet at the moment, is that right?

    Last night was the first preview performance, which was effectively a dress rehearsal really because we’ve only had three days of rehearsals, so we’re kind of rehearsing while we do it!

    Did it go well?

    Aye, aye. Yeah it was just a really long day, so it’s tiring. Especially the ballet, because I’m in the ballet. But I think doing things like that for me is a chance to see what it’s like to be a thing that people are looking at, which is what my work is. It’s also different being with an audience in a room seated, not in a gallery where the audience is just coming and going and there’s no specific time that things happen.

    Do you see the ballet as an extension of your piece with the runners through the Tate? There are similar ideas for example the presence and movement of the body...

    Aye, that’s where it came from. You can think of the running as a really simple dance in which you’re just trying to move your body as fast as it can (because the runners at the Tate were running as fast as they could). It was that that got me into so called ‘dance’, in the sense of movements that are choreographed. 

    The ballet has five ballet dancers but it also has five band members who are playing the music for the dancers. One of the ideas for me is that when you’ve got five ballet dancers there on stage [and] 5 regular people next to them the people with the unchoreographed movements can look funny and diverting.

    You’ve said before that it’s important for you to work across many different mediums (and the ballet being one example of that). Are there any others you’d like to explore? Online? Opera?

    Yeah, I’d like to do an opera! The ballet is kind of… although it’s called ballet it contains singing, for me that’s a chance to do lots of bits and pieces. But that is on my list of one of the things I’d like to do is work with singers, trained singers. At the moment I’ve been working with me singing and other band members. 

    What sort of conversations did you have with Fiona Bradley at the Fruitmarket in preparation for the current exhibition there? 

    She put out a list of works and I kind of said yes and added some that I thought might be good and maybe took one away and she took one away and added something and that’s how it went. She put together the main list, because the Scotsman steps [commission] kind of came from the Fruitmarket as well so I think that’s how the steps thing started because we were working on this steps commission and she was saying ‘Oh there’s all these steps in your work’ so why not make the show, so that’s how it started and I think it’s true, there are lots of steps and increments.

    Are you interested in how audiences interpret and interact with your work?

    Yeah definitely, in the sense that I want people to like or love my work, me and my work. In a sense I think that I make my work because I want to be loved, so I want people to like my work because that makes me feel good. But I don’t understand how it does all work… I don’t know exactly what it is that I want from people. I know that other people are really important. I don’t think I can find out about my work until I put it into public.

    Tell me about the Scotsman Steps project…

    They’re renovating it and they wanted an artist to do something. I proposed to actually do the steps rather than doing something on the walls and to do them in marble so that each step is made from a different type of marble. I hope it will be like a beautiful array of all the possible different colours ad textures of marble that you can get. I did make a piece with tiles of marbles, so in a way that was an earlier version which led to this. 

    When you get into colours of marble there are some really good pink and blue and green marbles but a lot of them are beige. So you could have a staircase of loads of different types of marble but actually they could all be brown, beige and white and I want it to really be a full contrast of different colours although within the limitations of marble, because marble is made from the ground, so it’s no surprise that it’s brown!

    And are you interested in the contrast between its current state (very run down and mainly used as a toilet!) and that very precious material that you'll be using? 

    It is such a toilet and there’s piss all over the place but I thought the best thing to do would be to try and make it really beautiful. Also marble is piss-proof, you know? You can hose it down or whatever.  

    I think the fact that it’s mainly used as a toilet is because those people don’t have anywhere to live and it is a covered staircase. So it would be nice if those people could have somewhere to live. I don’t think they should be moved out, they should be given somewhere so they don’t have to sleep there or shit there. 

    Or to look at it another way, if that staircase is a toilet, when I go to the toilet I like a nice toilet and marble is also traditional toilet material. So those guys should just have a really nice toilet, you know?

     

    Martin Creed Down Over Up is on at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh until 31 October 2010. 

    Work No. 1020: Ballet is showing at the Traverse Theatre 8 - 15 August 2010.

    Martin Creed will be speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 16 August. 

     

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• JadeStoller

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  • Since: 2 months ago

• Genesis

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  • Since: 2 months ago

• Duo Duo

  • From: Simonthoumire
  • Description:

    This is an example of sharing! I'm am playing my concertina and my son sings along. Therefore Duo.
    
    Self Portrait 2009 is a new unique piece of video work concentrating on Scottish music and new media. It takes the form of a YouTube playlist (www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1516B8

    EF804A4C92) and Simon is the first artist in the UK to release an album on YouTube (source: UK editor of YouTube). It is a free work open to all to view. As the album title says 'Self Portrait 2009' looks at Simon's life in 2009. Simon is a musician, event organiser and director of footstompin.com who works from home whilst looking after his 2 children with his partner Clare.
    
    Whilst this album shows off Simon's first love of Scottish traditional music it also features his very eclective musical tastes. "I have tried to take my music and put it into situations that surround me. Everything you see and hear on this album is real life. From sitting on the living room couch practising to being inundated by the commercialism that is directed at our children from most TV channels. It also features frustration, sharing and happiness. There is a lot of humour on this album and I hope it makes you smile."
    www.footstompin.com/simonthoumire

  • 2 months ago
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• Darth Vader Meets Barney Kesse Darth Vader Meets Barney Kessell Meets Simon Thoumire

  • From: Simonthoumire
  • Description:

    In my house I am surrounded by marketing aimed at kids. I don't know how it always reaches them but it does. Darth Vader and Star Wars is all over our house and I want to take him out of his usual setting and put him on a concert stage improvising over a Barney Kessel tune.
    
    Self Portrait 2009 is a new unique piece of video work concentrating on Scottish music and new media. It takes the form of a YouTube playlist (www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1516B8EF804A4C92) and Simon is the first artist in the UK to release an album on YouTube (source: UK editor of YouTube). It is a free work open to all to view. As the album title says 'Self Portrait 2009' looks at Simon's life in 2009. Simon is a musician, event organiser and director of footstompin.com who works from home whilst looking after his 2 children with his partner Clare.
    
    Whilst this album shows off Simon's first love of Scottish traditional music it also features his very eclective musical tastes. "I have tried to take my music and put it into situations that surround me. Everything you see and hear on this album is real life. From sitting on the living room couch practising to being inundated by the commercialism that is directed at our children from most TV channels. It also features frustration, sharing and happiness. There is a lot of humour on this album and I hope it makes you smile."
    www.footstompin.com/simonthoumire

  • 2 months ago
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• J.Bolland-and-R.Dower-Inc.

  • Views: 17
  • Since: 2 months ago

• A CenSta Top 5: Bristol Member A CenSta Top 5: Bristol Members' Work

  • From: CenSta
  • Description:

    During July we're exploring the creative world of Bristol. To give you a flavour of the city's vibrant arts scene here's a selection of works from our Bristol members that have recently caught our eye. Beautiful!

     

    1. Sequin Apron - detail by KirstyHall

    Kirsty's work focuses on repetitive actions, such as sewing thousands of sequins onto an apron. It might be slow work but the outcome is gorgeous.

    

    2. Graphite Doily by CamillaStacey

    Camilla is an artist and curator whose work explores memory and the passing of time.

    

    3. La Manche by PeteB

    Photographer Pete Beck is inspired, among other things, by seascapes and the urban environment.

    

    4. Exploding Head by carly_ashdown_creative

    Carly Ashdown's colourful paintings encapsulate the myriad of human emotions in the human experience.

    

    5. Inagreement by zaraillustrates

    A bold illustration with a dash of humour by illustrator Zara Picken.

    

    To explore more work by Bristol members search in Portfolios.

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• Nine Trades of Dundee project Nine Trades of Dundee project Final Gathering

  • From: ExhibitionDJCAD
  • Description:

    This is the final week of preparation for the Nine Trades of Dundee Final Gathering event (Sat 17th July, 10.30 - 5.30, Visual Research Centre, Dundee Contemporary Arts).

    Nine Trades of Dundee is the first major off-site engagement project Exhibitions at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design have carried out. We wanted to work outside the gallery to reach out to people in Dundee in a way which would encourage confidence in engaging with contemporary visual art. We were inspired by finding out about a historic organisation called The Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee. They used to run the apprenticeship schemes and were really embedded in Dundee's society. Both elements seemed appropriate as a model for an art project. Through working with artists in the past, Jenny Brownrigg and I knew that the balance for many between paid - job and artistic practice is something every artist has to negotiate. We often found out about the day-job on the last day of a project because the artists didn't want to bring it up before. With other artists they used the same skills across both jobs and others wanted to keep things totally separate. The job / studio issue also came up in professional practice work we did with students getting ready for graduation. We wanted to capitalise on the working experience of the artists in a creative way while providing a significant commission opportunity. We therefor decided that the audience / participant focus for our project would be the working public of Dundee thinking that the shared experience and language shared by the artists and participants would provide a solid base for each of the projects and allow them to progress quickly.

    The last few months have seen the culmination of most of those nine artist commissions - so its been busy, exciting and inspiring. Of the first phase of three Dundee linked artists, two have stretched their collaborations to 6 and 12 months. The second phase artists, selected from an open call to artists with non-art second jobs, has seen artists from London, Nottingham, Bristol and Glasgow get settled into their Dundee homes and projects and progress their projects with small and large groups of workers.

    The event coming up next weekend going to be the biggest of the project, bringing together docmentation, artworks, souveniers and participants from all the projects. In fact it is not as final as we had expected as one of the projects, by London based sculptor Debbie Lawson continuing through October with The McManus and DC Thomson. We are also going to produce a publication looking over the whole project in more detail which will be launched in the Autumn. Further to this several elements of the live projects will continue (eg Tagtool work with Dundee Central Library) and our relationships with the audiences we have connected with.

    To see more info about each of the projects have a look on the site www.ninetrades.com and especially the individual blogs for the artists. There is a lot of humour, images and experience shown in their entries and I look forward to having the event next week and the next few months to savour and reflect on the impact of the art and interaction that has taken place.

    Over the time we have been delivering Nine Trades of Dundee, Annette MacTavish (Project-Coordinator) and I have taken time to reflect on the projects and our process. Moving into these final phases I want to do more of this and also welcome comments, questions and suggestions from others about Nine Trades of Dundee.

    Looking forward to seeing you at the Final Gathering.

    http://www.ninetrades.com

    Laura Simpson

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• Paul Vickers and The Leg @ An Paul Vickers and The Leg @ An Unco Site!

  • From: TaytoetTayto
  • Description:

    
    

    
    
    
    Paul Vickers and The Leg @ An Unco Site!
    
    
    

    Reception

    
    

    Saturday 7th August 11:59pm, following the zombie walk.

    
    

    Paul Vickers and The Leg is a reckless amalgam of the lyrical maverick behind John Peel favourites Dawn of the Replicants and Dan Mutch's equally single-minded trio formed from the ashes of Khaya and Desc.

    Paul Vickers and The Leg began working together when they were asked to contribute a track to The Art School Dance - a live DVD commemorating 100 years of Edinburgh College of Art. An album; ‘‘Tropical Favourites’ followed. Tracks from ‘Tropical Favourites’ attracted spins from Huw Stephens show on BBC Radio One, Rob Da Bank also Radio one, Vic Galloway on Radio Scotland and Marc Riley, Tom Robinson and Gideon Coe on B.B.C. 6 Music. Paul Vickers and The Leg also recorded sessions for Vic Galloway’s Radio Scotland show, Sky TV and enjoyed frequent video spins on MTV for their 'Paperboat' and 'Ballard of Bess Houdini' videos. They are currently working on ‘Itchy Grumble’ a rock opera epic.

    
    

    http://www.myspace.com/paulvickersandtheleg

    
    

    http://slrecords.net/paulvickersandtheleg/

    
    

    Paul Vickers can also be seen throughout the Festival in

    
    

    Twonkey's Cottage

    
    

    The Laughing Horse, Edinburgh Free Fringe

    
    

    Counting House, West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh

    
    

    Venue 170 (38 west nicolson street) 12:10 to 13:00.
    
    August 2010-The 5th -11th, 13th-18th, 20th-25th, 27th- 29th.

    
    

    http://www.myspace.com/visitvickers

    
    

    Twonkey’s Cottage is an off-centre treasure trove of tall tales, Featuring stories from across the globe and local. Tall stories to rival “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” with a demented puppet show as first realised on a night train to Liechtenstein. Paul stars in his first full-length stand up comedy show where he pushes the boat out bringing back a truly wonky catch.
    
    “Paul vickers is badly dressed with a shedload of odd toys,he would have had his vary own sitcom in the 70s”. N.M.E.
    
    Twonkey's cottage features adult stories of body popping livers playing fiddles, elephant chimney sweeps, and shape shifting shop lifting sausage dogs. Meet Paul and his puppets, Eerie Bill, Twonkey, Barbara Bananas and Bruntsfield Lottie. Look out for the reasonably priced warped new C.D “F**KING STORY’S” at all performances.
    
    Paul Vickers is famous for fronting "Dawn of the Replicants" a veteran of five John Peel sessions.
    
    "A loveable gonk/ a Da Vinci of lyrical invention”. MOJO.
    
    In January 2009 Paul started performing stand up comedy around Edinburgh. Bizarrely he supported Mogwai taking on the role of chief red coat for the 'All Tomorrow Parties' Rockumentary movie premiere. Recently he has also been busy working on a post punk musical fairytale "Itchy Grumble” with “The Leg”, the concert version was performed at the fringe in 2009 a full theatrical version is pending. A couple of years ago S.L Records released a comedy album "Recording the Impossible” featuring Paul and his flat mate Andy Currie.
    
    "Absurdist humour drawing on Cutler, Stanshall, Milligan and Lear, a little bizarre, but in small doses, delightful". UN-CUT.
    
    Read more: http://www.myspace.com/visitvickers#ixzz0tB4ffsW3

    
    

    This event has been made possible by support from the Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund for the Edinburgh Art Festival 2010, Central Station, New Media Scotland and Inspace. The Edinburgh Art Festival showcases the very best in Scottish, British and international visual art in Edinburgh during the August festivals.

    
    

    

    
    

     

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• 5 Hotly Tipped New British Dir 5 Hotly Tipped New British Directors

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    82 out of the 111 new features shown at last month's Edinburgh International Film Festival were by first or second-time directors. In the spirit of the “festival of discovery” John Gibb highlights 5 debut British Directors he expects to be seeing a lot more of in the future.

    5) Wayne Thallon

    Although A Spanking in Paradise is the third of his scripts to be developed, it represents Wayne Thallon’s first time in the director’s chair. Drawing on his own childhood experiences, Thallon’s semi-autobiographical work follows London law graduate Justin, as he takes over management of his uncle’s seedy establishment, the notorious Paradise Sauna in Edinburgh city centre. Unlike standard Hollywood fare seeking to sanitise the world’s oldest trade, Thallon’s film revels in its squalor. Spanking is a deft mix of humour and horror, delivering constant belly laughs, while at the same time refusing to shy away from the dark realities of prostitution and those who propagate it. A real crowd-pleaser at the festival, and one which signals the start of a promising career as a filmmaker.

    4) Hattie Dalton

    Having submitted an unfinished film to the selection committee, it came as no small surprise when Hattie Dalton, having just finished filming on Third Star, found that it had been chosen to close the 2010 EIFF. Watching the film, it becomes clear why the festival’s organisers did so. A small film with big heart, it follows a final camping trip to the Welsh coast, undertaken by four friends, one of whom is dying. What could have easily descended into two hours of sentimental navel-gazing is elevated not only by Vaughan Sivell’s knowing script but by Dalton’s soft, unobtrusive directorial style. Leaving room for improvisation amongst the four young leads really pays off, as their genuine chemistry is one of the film’s strongest attractions. With her first feature receiving such a big launch, we’re very likely to see more good things from Dalton in the future.

    3) Edward and Rory McHenry

    This must’ve been a hard sell. An alternative history of WWII, in which Nazis drill a hole through to England, Churchill forms an alliance with the barbaric antipodeans of Scot Land, and Hitler raids Her Majesty’s wardrobe while setting up camp in Buckingham Palace: all enacted by figurines. The real coup here is not just that Edward and Rory McHenry managed to get Jackboots in Whitehall made, but that they managed to populate its miniature world with some of the finest in home-grown talent; Ewan Macgregor, Timothy Spall, Rosamunde Pike and Alan Cumming are just a few Brits to lend their voices to the “tiny epic”. Working in live-action and puppet animation from an early age, Edward and Rory here display their talents on the big screen and the result is a bizarre, irreverent and at times hilarious take on the classic British war movie. Jackboots was quite unlike anything else at this year’s festival; what they will do next is anybody’s guess but whatever it might be, the Brothers McHenry are definitely ones to watch.

    2) Nick Whitfield

    Skeletons won the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film at this year’s EIFF. At the awards ceremony, director Nick Whitfield spoke of his embarrassment that his name should now be mentioned in the same sentence as Michael Powell’s. Despite his modest ambitions, Whitfield’s debut has been credited as one of the most original British features in recent years. The plot revolves around two agents working for a shadowy company, employed to rid people of memories they would rather forget. The film has shades of Kaufman and Gilliam, but remains firmly British in its rural settings and characterisation. It is in the latter respect that Skeletons is so impressive; the film is carried by the two relative unknowns. Getting it right on a small budget, with an unfamiliar cast isn’t easy, and it would have taken so little for the film to flop, but the casting is perfect, and the two leads Andrew Buckle and Ed Gaughan, both complement each other and Whitfield’s superb script. Adapted from an earlier short film, Skeletons, and the positive press that it is generating could well signal the beginning of a successful career in feature films for Nick Whitfield, in which case he may eventually wear the Powell tag with greater ease.

    1) Gareth Edwards

    Winner of the Moet New Directors Award and highlight of the festival (for me, at least) was Gareth Edwards’s Monsters. Reportedly shot for a staggeringly low $15,000, Edward’s debut feature is a monster movie to rival the likes of big-budget output, Cloverfield and District 9. Set in a militarised and quarantined Central America, six years after a probe carrying alien life has crashed back down to Earth, the story revolves around a photographer tasked with escorting his boss’s vacationing daughter safely back to the United States, whilst avoiding the monsters of the title. Edwards draws upon his background in visual effects to create the giant fluorescent space octopi himself, but in using them sparingly, allows the film to focus on the developing relationship between the two leads. This is what sets Monsters apart from many of its Hollywood counterparts. Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able have an authentic screen chemistry (they were married last month) and the dialogue, which is for the most part improvised, never feels forced or dishonest. The way in which the film is constructed relies heavily on improvisation: Edwards moved a tiny crew from town to town across Mexico, allowing the surroundings to dictate what could be filmed and what had to be revised. The end result is an indie film which stands head and shoulders above the many other products of a saturated genre. It all begs the question of what Edwards might be capable of achieving with the inevitable big budgets that exposure from this film will entitle him to. If Monsters is anything to go by, he will not disappoint.

    Read further articles by John Gibb in this months screenGRAB available online here >

    http://edinburghscreenworks.co.uk

     

     

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