Wednesday 30 September 2009

unveil

No laptop for a few days while a few last-minute tweaks were made to the zine. Now it's all about the glittering premiere:

Join us in the Hannah Maclure centre’s luxurious penthouse gallery for an evening of art, music, performance and a FREE copy of your favourite Scottish art fanzine. A stellar cast includes exclusive DJ action from stella999 and the FlexiDJs plus the mighty Edward Shallow brings the motherblimmin’ live performance ruckus. The fun starts at 8 so don’t dilly dally on the way! There is also a bar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday 26 September 2009

Fears That I May Cease To Be

So last night's plan was to go to the opening of the Generator show Fears That I May Cease To Be. I would hand out flyers for next week's Yuck 'n Yum launch and possibly go on to the afterparty at the Queen's Hotel. I'd just left the flat and realised that I'd not taken my wallet, so I put the key back into the lock to open the door. Then the key snapped in half, instantly turning all my intentions arse over tit. I got a taxi to the show, paid for with money from the lovely people at Generator. I phoned for a locksmith, handed out flyers and dashed round to take some photos that can be seen below. After a taxi back to the flat, I was left sitting on my windowsill for two and a half hours waiting for the locksmith, who eventually arrived just shy of midnight. Not the best night out I've ever had, but then nobody died and nothing got broken except the key.







Friday 25 September 2009

forthcome


The autumn issue of Yuck 'n Yum is launching soon, so be prepared...

Wednesday 23 September 2009

night


Untitled, 1961

Extract from Unica Zürn, Dark Spring:

Her dream is about violence, forced upon her by some dark man. With all the strength of her imagination, she longs for this wild, murderous man. At night, while lying in her room, she imagines herself in a black hall lit by torches and glittering with diamonds. This image is dominated by black, the most frightening of the colors she knows. She finds herself lying atop a cold, sharp-edged block of black marble. She has been bound by her kidnappers. She is naked, trembling from the cold and the excitement.The gloomy torchlight is reflected by the black marble walls. The edges of her torture bed cut into her back. The circle of men appears and they close in on her. Glowing eyes stare at her through the eyeholes of the repulsive masks. Some wear gleaming helmets. When they tear off their masks, she sees the wild faces of Arabs, Chinese, Blacks and Indians. She prefers the colored men to the white ones. None of them look like any of the men she knows. They are silent and practically immobile. She is frightened of them. This fear is very important to her. She loves to feel dread and terror. She feels greatly honored to be the center of these men's attention. Each of them is armed. They came to kill her. For her, this is a high honor. These are kings, lords and princes. Suddenly, she hears the deafening sound of an organ. A threatening and woeful music. It is Captain Nemo playing. She tears at her bonds so that they cut deep into her flesh. Her imagination is so strong that she actually feels the pain. It is not always possible to remain conscious to experience this scene up until the point of her death, which takes place by means of a thousand slow and extended knives. She is not allowed to scream or change her facial expression. Gradually a knife drills into her "wound" and turns into the dog's hot, agile tongue. As she experiences the pleasure of this, an Indian slowly cuts her throat. She can imagine these scenes only in the dark, when she is alone. Nobody is there to rescue her. Night after night she suffers death anew.

Monday 21 September 2009

Blue Russell - I Wanna Fly Away



A few of the YouTube comments:

flagio1983 (8 months ago)

beautiful song, bellisima!

RoccoEsse (9 months ago)

AMAZING!!!

One of my favourite songs. Great synths by Cangelli. Lory looks fantastic.

rt16 (11 months ago)

I love this song. I paid 400 US dollars for a vinyl copy of this song, and I don't regret it one bit.

Thanks for posting.

Saturday 19 September 2009

Thomas Hirschhorn, It’s Burning Everywhere


Thomas Hirschhorn, It’s Burning Everywhere, Dundee Contemporary Arts

In the supplementary notes to Thomas Hirschhorn’s show It’s Burning Everywhere, there’s a telling quote from Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed: “I really don’t know if it’s possible to watch a fire without some enjoyment”. For the huge, immersive installation that fills Gallery 2 of the DCA, it’s impossible not to feel a shiver of pleasure when confronted by the sheer spectacle of all this chaos of stuff. The room is filled almost floor to ceiling with painted cardboard, dismembered mannequins, strip lights, wooden objects and masses of jerry cans, much of it held together by miles of parcel tape. Some mannequins (termed “subjecters” by the artist) stand mutilated behind glass in an improvised shop window display, while others have come in wedding regalia bearing silent witness to the carnage before them. The middle of the room is dominated by a vast fallen tree sculpture diagonally intersecting the area, and slogans have been spraypainted around the place; WAR shouts one. It’s very clear indeed that bad things have happened here. The experience is one of overload, overkill, a deliberate assault on the viewer with text and image used as the artist’s weapons of choice. There’s no chance of escape from the barrage of visual information that assaults the eye from all angles.
Elsewhere, in the gallery’s ancillary space, works from Hirschhorn’s Ur-Collage series pair fashion magazine adverts with war photography to create, in the artist’s words, “a new worldview”. These works are utterly consistent with the defiantly unsubtle tone of the whole show, a (lack of) feeling inherent in twenty-four hour rolling news channels being just a punch of the remote away from fashion week catwalks. Supermodels share newspaper space with disasters of war, a state of affairs that may strike as jarring and discomfiting, but then that’s entertainment.

Friday 18 September 2009

It's Burning Everywhere

To the DCA earlier for the Thomas Hirshhorn exhibition, and a full review is to follow tomorrow. In the meantime I took a few photos and here they are:














Thursday 17 September 2009

YYADU


Yuck 'n Yum Art Distribution Unit



Dundee-based Yuck 'n Yum is a distribution conduit for emerging artists. We promote local, national and international artists through a quarterly art ‘zine, as well as organising events in and around Dundee. At this year's festival we will be giving away free art.
We have commissioned artists, who are past contributors to the zine, to create limited-run special edition artworks ranging from pots of marmalade to prints.



The artists are: Luke Collins, Sanna Dyker, Derek Lodge, Anna Orton, Sam Spreckley, Andrew Maclean, Amy Todman, Kevin McPhee, Nadia Rossi, Ben Robinson, Ewan Manson and Gayle Meikle. 



The works will be distributed to the general public by the Yuck 'n Yum Art Distribution Agents [YYADA for short]. The distribution team is comprised of volunteers, who will shuttle between the festival venues, each easily identifiable by their Yuck 'n Yum branded skip hat, knapsack and sunny disposition. The agents will hand out the free art whilst informing the public of the 'artist of the day' and the festival.

There will also be an accompanying blog, in which each YYADA will detail their day of distribution. Information on all of the featured artists can also be found here. Check out the blog at www.cupar09.yucknyum.com

We are looking for volunteers to become YYADA's for the day. This is a great opportunity to get involved, engage with the festival and get to know Cupar. Each YYADA will receive travel expenses, a free home cooked lunch plus their very own YYADA hat! This is a great opportunity to experience how an artist run organisation works as well as learning about current trends within contemporary art.


If you are interested in this opportunity please contact info@yucknyum.com for more details

Wednesday 16 September 2009

couper

A new haircut for the new season:

Saturday 12 September 2009

documenta

To the Dundee Masters' Show last night at the college and at the DCA's Visual Research Centre. I took a few photos and here they are:
















Friday 11 September 2009

plunder

Last night I bought a few records for the first time in a good long while. There's a couple of DJing opportunities on the horizon so it's as well to be equipped with some weapons:


1 x NACHO PATROL aka LEGOWELT: Futuristic Abeba (Kindred Spirits Holland)
12": (KSE-02) - [6.95]


1 x JUNIOR RAFAEL: Darkroom Traxx II (Mighty Robot Recordings)
12": (MRR 00000012) - [5.21]


1 x GRACKLE: Desert Acid (Supersoul Recordings)
12": (SUPERSOUL 012) - [6.95]


1 x COWLEY, Patrick/JORGE SOCARRAS: Soon (Macro Germany)
12": (MACROM 13) - [6.95]

Thursday 10 September 2009

MMMM


Deadline day is today! So submit something: LINK

Monday 7 September 2009

Automatic Drawing Project (Service Class) / Six


The last of the Nine Trades classes took place earlier this evening, and we rounded off a very busy session with a mountain of beautiful artworks. The official blog has been updated accordingly: LINK