Soho House Video: Tereza Zelenkova, Photographer

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Tereza Zelenkova is a photographer whose work I first encountered at the RCA graduation show this year. Given the massive scale of that show and the amount of things I looked at in such a short space of (press view) time, I'm amazed I remembered anything. But Tereza's work resonated in my mind long after, so I was really excited when she agreed to be filmed for House Seven. I also wrote a short article on her for House Magazine, which is due out soon. To see her work in the flesh, it's not long until New Sensations.

Human is Video of the Week on Crossfadr

 

My music promo 'Human' is video of the week on Crossfadr!

New Music Video! 'Human' for bassDrumsnareDrum

Here's a music promo I made for 'Human', a fantastic track by bassDrumsnareDrum, featuring the magnificent moves of artist and dancer Roberto Ekholm. Thanks also go to Matthew Holder and Jake Ridley. You can by bassDrumsnareDrum's new EP featuring 'Human' on iTunes now.

Soho House Video: Gavin Esler teaches Lessons from the Top

A short video I made for Soho House following a talk Gavin Esler gave for Books for Breakfast there last week. After all those episodes of Newsnight, he's an amazing speaker, so I kept things simple and let him do all the hard work.. His book Lessons from the Top explores how leaders and influential figures have harnessed the power of storytelling on their way to success, and how we can learn from their techniques (and mishaps). Well worth a read.

Soho House Video: Edible Cinema

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Combining two of my favourite things - food and film - Edible Cinema is a hugely fun concept from the folks at Soho House to bring a new taste dimension to the film experience. Here's a short promo I made to capture the atmosphere and concept at their screening of Spirited Away. Bon appetit!

i-D Video: Tom de Freston, On Theatre, at Breese Little

In our snap happy age it’s reassuring to know there are still people out there who’ll painstakingly mull over a single image for weeks before they’ve even got to the time-consuming stage of picking up a paintbrush to commit it to canvas. Makes you think there must be hope for us yet.

With its long and complicated history involving multiple reinventions and reincarnations, painting resonates heavily with its own meaning as a medium as well as the stories and opinions that the artist is trying to express. So working as what he provocatively calls a “contemporary history painter”, Tom de Freston plunders these narratives and melds them with scenarios from literature and his own imaginings to create paintings that startlingly depict historically grand themes from a modern perspective.

Here he talks i-D online through the process of translating ideas into brushstrokes, and gives us a sneak peek into his studio and the processes behind his work.

Tom de Freston, On Theatre runs until Saturday 15th September at Breese Little, 30d Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DU.

Text and Film: Laura Bushell

Music: bassDrumsnareDrum

Music Video for bassDrumsnareDrum... coming soon

Some stills from the music video I made recently for bassDrumsnareDrum for the release of his EP on 6 August, featuring the dazzling dancing skills of Mr Roberto Ekholm. The video itself will emerge shortly..

FAD Video: Jacob Hashimoto, The Other Sun, at Ronchini Gallery

Here's a recent video interview with artist Jacob Hashimoto for FAD. His latest exhibition consists of hundred of handmade kites strung from the ceiling of Ronchini Gallery in Mayfair - time consuming, but worth the effort!

Jacob Hashimoto
The Other Sun
Until 28 August 2012
Ronchini Gallery, Mayfair, London

i-D Video: Jenny Saville at Modern Art Oxford & The Ashmolean

Flesh is monumental in Jenny Saville’s paintings, something you can only truly appreciate when you’re dwarfed by a two metre high canvas that’s been slathered, scraped and smeared in fleshy tones and visceral reds.

Nothing beats seeing her paintings for real, yet this is her first exhibition in a public gallery in the UK since she hatched fully formed and critically acclaimed from the YBA hype of the 90s. A studio dweller rather than a publicity magnet, Saville has developed a body of work that’s as much about the anatomy of paint itself as it is about the anatomy of the (mostly female) body, and the results are both stark and intricate.

Ask today’s upcoming painters who inspires them and many will name check Saville. Along with this solo show at Modern Art Oxford, two of her drawings sit alongside the likes of Titian and Veronese at the Ashmolean. Not many contemporary artists could hold their nerve in such company, but Saville does.

i-D online’s Laura Bushell met Saville at the gallery to talk about YBAs, bodies and babies.

Jenny Saville is at Modern Art Oxford and The Ashmolean Museum until 16th September 2012

Text and Film: Laura Bushell

Music: Peppi Knott

Clifford Chance Exhibition Opening

Last night was the opening reception of 'A Question of Sport: LGBT artists and their relationship to inclusivity', curated by Michael Petry for Clifford Chance in Canary Wharf. 

I worked as Editor on artist Roberto Ekholm's new video 109C, inspired by diver Tom Daley. See below for some stills, video to follow...

i-D Video: Grayson Perry on Taste, at Victoria Miro and on Channel 4

Here's a video interview I did with Grayson Perry for his new exhibition of tapestries at Victoria Miro and the accompanying documentary on Channel 4.  We talked about taste, television and tribes for i-D online.

Grayson Perry wants to talk about taste: the good, the bad and the sometimes unfathomable. It’s a treacherous terrain to negotiate, let alone find a consensus within, since one person’s expression of refinement can be another’s gaudy nightmare. Grayson Perry believes our in-built inclinations are tied up with class, so in his latest quest to chronicle contemporary life through art, he took to the roads of the UK to seek out class tribes who could best encapsulate the taste of their particular strata of British society. The result is a series of narrative tapestries charting what he labels “a contemporary Rake’s Progress”, plus a TV series documenting the empirical research that was sewn into those threads. Now whether you’ll prefer the fine art tapestries in the London gallery or the reality TV on Channel 4, comes down to your own perfectly honed taste...

 

The Vanity of Small Differences at Victoria Miro runs from 7th June until 11th August 2012. Watch the first episode of ‘In the Best Possible Taste – Grayson Perry’ on 4oD here. victoriamiro.com

FAD Video: Edward Burtnysky on Oil at The Photographers' Gallery

Here's a short film I made for FAD with the photographer Edward Burtynsky, who I was lucky to meet at the opening of his exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery.

FAD Video: Brett Rogers on reopening The Photographers' Gallery

The Photographers' Gallery is open again, hooray! I spoke to the gallery's Director, Brett Rogers, about the work behind the recent refurbishment and extension of the space. This video appears on FAD. 

New Video for i-D Online: Bauhaus: Art as Life at Barbican Art Gallery

I made a little film at the Barbican's new Bauhaus exhibition for i-D online, which you can view by clicking here, see below for a short intro...

Bauhaus: Art as Life

Barbican Art Gallery host the biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over forty years.

Bauhaus is design for life. Despite its mere fourteen years of existence, the German school spawned some of the most innovative and imaginative thinking in art and design post-WWI, and we’re still living with the results. With a sense of common purpose and the bettering of society in mind, students and teachers including Walter Gropius, Josef Albers, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and László Moholy-Nagy set about fashioning a better way of living. The results spanned art, design, craft and fashion, and embraced tradition as well as technology, rigor as well as experimentation. But it wasn’t all work – those Bauhausers also knew how to party. Visual culture today wouldn’t be the same without the Bauhaus design principles. Based as they were in a sense of idealism rather than commerce and with some absolutely stunning results, there’s still a lot to learn from this school of thought.

Bauhaus: Art as Life runs from 3rd May until 12th August 2012 at Barbican Art Gallery, London EC2Y 8DS.

barbican.org.uk/art

FAD Video: Samsung Art+ Prize at BFI Southbank

Here's a video I made for FAD at the opening of the Samsung Art+ Prize for new media artists at the BFI Southbank. I interviewed the curators and a few of the artists, including the eventual winner of the prize, Semiconductor. For more info on the prize and the nominees, see here.

(Originally published on FAD)

Murder Disco! at Pop-Up Circus, Sunday 27 November

My video installation Murder Disco! will be screening as part of Pop-Up Circus in Hackney on Sunday 27th November. See their website for a full list of screenings, performances and art.

FAD Video: Pipilotti Rist, Eyeball Massage at Hayward Gallery

Here's a video that I made for FAD at the Pipilotti Rist, Eyeball Massage exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, when the artist and curator gave a tour to the press. Directed by me, music by the marvelous Jake Ridley.

FAD Video: Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács at Moving Image

A video I made for FAD when I met the makers of Mastering Bambi at the Moving Image Contemporary Video Art Fair.

FAD Video: Edward Winkleman at Moving Image

I met with Edward Winkleman, co-founder of the Moving Image Contemporary Video Art Fair, to make a video introduction to his fantastic event all the way from NYC. Originally published on FAD.

FAD Video: Christian Jankowski's Casting Jesus at Lisson Gallery

A recent film interview with artist Christian Jankowski for FAD talking about his brilliant new film Casting Jesus, showing at Lisson Gallery:




If something good came out of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ it was that Christian Jankowski was inspired to make his latest film, Casting Jesus, now showing at Lisson Gallery. For it was the vision of Jim Caviezel dressed as the Big J taking acting tips from a priest that prompted the artist to stage a talent contest, much in the style of X Factor, but this time with professional actors auditioning for the role of Christ in front of a panel of judges from the Vatican. The resulting dual-screen film is often comical, but never disparaging towards its participants, pointing the finger instead at our quick-to-judge, image obsessed culture. Casting Jesus is a must-see, at the Lisson Gallery until 1 October 2011.