Westworld - Issue 4 - December 2010

DECEMBER 2010

004

– FREE –

EXPLORING ARTS, CULTURE, MUSIC, FILM WITHIN BRISTOL.

WESTWORLD INCLUDING – Dot-Dot-Dot Exhibition Review

Andreya Triana Metropolis Review

Picton Street

The Best Street in Bristol

Banksy Q

Exhibition Review

Harry Sankey Life of a Graduate

Jerwood

The Big Draw

Oceansize The New Girl

FEATURED ARTIST – Emily Foster Illustration

Emily Foster Emily Foster is a passionate, practicing Illustrator from Falmouth, Cornwall. Her favourite way of working is with Raw materials, be that metal, textiles or plain old drawing.

www.emilyfosterillustration.carbonmade.com www.emilyfosterillustration.tumblr.com

Follow her on twitter at – www.twitter.com/IlluminatedYou.

A massive thank you and apologies to Hattie Barnes whose name was omitted from her Andy Tokyo article in November - Issue 3.

Submit Artwork westworldinfo@gmail.com

Publications Editor George Rowe

Submission deadline for the January issue - December 20th

Editors Sean Guest Alice Palmer Brown

Join us on Facebook Westworld news Twitter twitter.com/Westworld_news Tumblr westworld-news.tumblr.com

Creative Directors & Design James Somerfield hello@jamessomerfield.co.uk Alex Green alexinleeds@gmail.com

Contributors Rob Ali Sophie Pettifor Emma Bowles Olivia Bew Miller Joe Buzzard Suki Bentham Lydia Staniland Emily Foster Alex Green Harry Sankey

Contact UWE Publications Frenchay Campus Coldharbour Lane Bristol, BS16 1QY www.westworldmagazine.net Typeset Grotesque MT Std Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk & Warnock Pro

I found the exhibition, which ran from the 2nd till the 8th of November, thanks to the small dots placed around the Bower Ashton campus. Following them lead me to the space, F-block 1st floor corridor, a nice play on the title of the show 'Line Presents...DOT DOT DOT'.

The show was a selection of work by the artist collective 'Line' 6 Drawing & Applied Arts students, Emma Bowles, Bridie Dunbabin, Claudia D'Arezzo, Ella Paine, Lydia Staniland and Mehnaz Zaman, all level 2 students.

Dot-Dot-Dot Exhibition Review

By Rob Ali

The work was created in an array of styles and techniques exploring the use of drawing and the various forms it can take, each artist having their own way of working.

Displaying the work in a corridor, instead of a studio, was refreshing and allowed for a more relaxed viewing of the work on display. It also made the work accessible to anyone passing through the space that may not normally take the time.

The work itself was very different however and it was all pulled together by the 'Dot Dot Dot' theme as each piece of work had three 'dots' on the floor beneath it.

From the work on display, my favorite was Claudia D'Arezzos Traditional Mandala inspired pieces. Greeting me as I entered the space, her work, digital prints on board featuring vivid colours and odd imagery, is reminiscent of vintage wallpaper and the two pieces on display were well made and quite beautiful.

The exhibition also feature altered book works from Ella Paine, a series of paintings from Bridie Dunbabin, based on the relationship between people and nature, collage work from Lydia Staniland, focusing on creating a sense of nostalgia through recognisable English images, three etching prints made by Emma Bowles, that depicted the idea of creating a self portrait through personal belongings, and two paintings by Mehnaz Zaman, that portrayed the movement of time through an optical illusion.

If you’d like to see some of the work featured, you can via the following blogs‌ Bridie Dunbabin www.bridridie.blogspot.com Emma Bowles emzz_b@hotmail.com www.emma-bowles.blogspot.com Lydia Staniland lydia.staniland@hotmail.co.uk www.lydiastaniland.blogspot.com

Photography Isabelle Pullen Lydia Staniland

Over all the exhibition was very professional and the selection of artwork fitted nicely into the space, leaving room for a comfortable viewing of some great pieces. A small but very well presented show by six aspiring artists.

Greeting you as you enter the space her work (digital prints on board featuring vivid colours and odd imagery) is reminiscent of vintage wallpaper. The two pieces on display were well made and quite beautiful.

Also on show were altered book works from Ella Paine, a series of paintings from Bridie Dunbabin based on the relationship between people and nature, collage work from Lydia Staniland focusing on creating a sense of nostalgia through recognisable English images, three etching prints made by Emma Bowles that depicted the idea of creating a self portrait through personal belongings and two paintings by Mehnaz Zaman, that portrayed the movement of time through an optical illusion. Overall it was very professional; the selection of artwork fit nicely in the space and left for comfortable viewing of some great pieces. A small but very well done show by 6 aspiring artists.

Adreya Triana

By Sophie Pettifor

Photography - Sophie Pettifor

At the end of October Bristol’s Metropolis was lucky enough to feature the up and coming singer-song writer Andreya Triana for one night. Andreya, from south east London, performed in Bristol in May with the well established Simon Green, or as he and his band are better known, Bonobo. I was lucky enough to see her then, just before the release of her debut album Lost Where I Belong, and she blew the audience away with her smoky tones and soulful lyrics.

Performing with a little music box, a bassist and lead guitarist she captured an atmosphere that many artists find difficult to achieve with twice as many instruments and equipment. The gig was personal and intimate; she beckoned people to come closer to the front at the beginning of the set, so we all felt as one the deeper she got into her music.

Andreya sings with all her soul and you can literally see it flowing through her. When she came on stage I could see her enter a trance like state, delivering her music (I almost want to call it poetry) in an honest and beautifully vulnerable way.

With the audience in close proximity and Andreya’s ability to immerse herself in music, it felt as if we were listening to her deepest, darkest and most intimate secrets.

Never have I seen an artist manage to express themselves through music as Andreya does, and with such eloquence.

Looking around, people were under her spell, silently in awe.

As heavy and lulling as it sounds though, she was very relaxed and jovial throughout; joking that people would be falling asleep before performing some of the more upbeat songs from the album like Something in the Silence and A Town Called Obsolete. Towards the end of the set she jumped down from the stage and sang one on one with the audience, engaging us even further.

She used the music box I referred to earlier to record her voice and then play it back. This was very impressive and effective as it enabled her to harmonise on her own and with the absence

of drums give a beat also. The effect was amazing as it split her voice across many notes giving a possessive, magical element. Having studied music tech at Leeds University however, it is not surprising she knew her way round this little box of wonder, turning her own voice into any instrument she desired.

As you can probably tell I really love Andreya Triana, and on seeing this gig it has only heightened my adoration. If you enjoy soul, folk and jazz music and aren’t afraid to get a bit emotional, I highly recommend you see her, you will be changed by the experience. Her next gig is at The Tabernacle in London on the 13th December. Go.

Jerwood Drawing Prize

By Emma Bowles The work in the exhibition, which runs from 29th September until 7th November, showcases around 70 examples of different styles and techniques creating a dialogue about drawing and the various forms it can take. Shortlisted from a total of near 3000 works, ranging from the traditional practices of sculpture, print and embroidery to more contemporary forms such as animation, digitally rendered work and even sound drawings, the Jerwood Drawing Prize always encourages an eclectic mix of styles colours, mediums and subjects . Established in 1994, the prize is the UK’s largest open submission exhibition devoted solely to drawing.

– First place of the 2010 show, and a £6000 grant, went to Virgina Verran for her work ‘Bolus-Space (Signal)’

a pen on canvas drawing using pattern, symbols and repetition.

However favourites for me were the work of Sarah Tynan, ‘Untitled’, 2010, a detailed pencil on paper drawing depicting mattresses and curtains that used perspective to create the illusion of an expansive space, and ‘Untitled (A Distant Mirror)’, 2010, by Bristol based artist and former UWE student Aaron Sewards who creates simple yet charming watercolour works on paper.

I was less than impressed by the piece that won this year’s student prize. Compared to last year’s contribution by UWE’s very own Roxanne Goffin, currently in her third year of the Drawing and Applied Arts programme, who presented an attention grabbing experimental drawing of beetles applied directly onto animal bones, this year’s submission was just a little disappointing. ‘David M. Hutchinson Drawing Device no. 436’, by Warren Andrews was a small painted cardboard structure that looked unfinished and left me bemused as to why it had beaten so many obviously more skilfully accomplished works in what is, after all, an exhibition celebrating one of humanity’s oldest skills, drawing.

At half 2 it was it was time for The Big Draw to begin.

Jerwood Prize 2010 artists Mark Farhall, Maryclare Foá and Donna Huddleston were present to talk about their practices before participating in a hands on workshop exploring the material processes behind their work, as part of the free annual nationwide month long Campaign for Drawing. Due to the plate full of piping hot food only just placed in front of me I missed Mark Farhall’s talk, however I did manage to finish in time to slide into the group of people making their way towards the work of Donna Huddleston. ‘Poppy’, is a drawing in watercolour, pencil and gouache on paper. This piece, is part of a body of development work for a future performance collaboration. It had a bright, beautiful aesthetic clearly showing the artist’s interest in stage and costume design.

Next it was the turn of Maryclare Foá to speak. At first I was not so interested in Foá’s work, having skipped past it in the exhibition, disregarding it as too experimental for my personal tastes. Yet when forced to take more notice through listening to the artist’s description of her own work and working methods, I began to appreciate where the artist was coming from and the extent to which drawing can be so much more than just simple lines on a piece of paper. Her work, ‘Whispering Song’, (DVD) 3 mins: 3 secs, was essentially a

documentation of what she described as a sound drawing, her explanation of this being that ‘sound is a drawing when received through your ear and then internally transformed by your mind’s eye’.

After these two talks we were then able to participate in workshops with the artists. Huddleston’s used collage to create images quickly before working them later in pencil and paint, while Foá’s, the more interesting of the two, also used collage to encourage the creation of a layered musical score based on the sounds around us at that given moment.

Due to the nature of the workshops there was no right or wrong, everyone who was involved managed to create visually stimulating experiments and the use of sound in drawings is definitely something worth exploring.

Overall I was very impressed with the standard of most of the work the exhibition offered and I was pleasantly surprised to be able to get involved with the one of the free Big Draw Campaign events, something I would recommend to anyone given the chance, whether an artist or not.

The Jerwood Drawing prize is now touring and can be seen at the following locations: 27th Nov 2010 – 23rd Jan 2011: South Hill park, Bracknell (www.southhillpark.org.uk) 5th March 2011 – 16th April 2011: Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Camarthen (www.oreilmyrddingallery.co.uk) 7th May 2011 – 12th June 2011: DLI Museum & Durham Art Gallery, Durham (www.durham.gov.uk/dli) More information about the prize can be found at: http://www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/page/3095/ Jerwood+Drawing+Prize+2010 More information about the Campaign for Drawings annual event The Big Draw can be found at: http://www.campaignfordrawing.org/bigdraw/

"If you don't know it, get to know it!"

The Best Street in Bristol

Picton Street

By Olivia Bew Miller

Picton Street is an unassuming little back street somewhere between Montpellier, St. Pauls and Stokes Croft and it embodies all that is wonderful about Bristol. Walking down the street you feel as if you’ve been brought into the small circle of people guarding Bristol’s best kept secret. The residents of Picton Street (of whom I am proud to be one… nearly) are artistic, friendly and driven by a sense of community.

The joy of Picton Street as a modern consumer is made all the more relevant by the looming prospect of a new Tesco being built on the adjacent road to Picton Street.

The Say No to Tesco group are tirelessly campaigning for Tesco and the Council to rethink the build, primarily in defense of our beloved local shops like those found on Picton Street.

So, why else is Picton Street such great place to live? Here is my rundown of why Picton is where it's at…

The Bristolian This lovely little cafe, at the top of Picton Street, is a great place to while away an afternoon supping on an all-day breakfast or munching on whatever delicious dish Cath, the lovely owner, has cooked up. Think great value soups and stews and happy food. The cosy, rather kitsch interior makes it a perfect place to go for a quick bite or an afternoon chill. They also sell beer. What more could you ask for?

Licata & Son This place really is a gem. Founded by a Sicilian couple, you know Licata is going to be as authentic as it can get in drizzly Bristol.

With their meat counter and selection of imported Italian cheeses (they have a really yummy pecorino), guaranteed stock of Peroni and more types of pasta than you shake a lasagne at, this is a real slice of Italy on our doorsteps. They also stock a huge range of fruit and veg, some locally sourced, at the most reasonable prices ever. A lot is sold by weight, so you never end up with loads of surplus. I happen to believe that I am in love with this shop.

Radford Mill Farm Shop Although it’s inevitably a little pricey due to its dedication to 'fine organic produce', Radford Mill is an absolutely amazing place to go for high quality stuff, or if you fancy a treat.

If I'm ever baking something a little special or I feel like making a top notch omelette, I head straight down there for some top notch eggs. Most of the produce they sell has been

grown on the local farm and again, although expensive, sometimes it is definitely worth it. They are particularly good at catering for vegans so if you are one, this is definitely a place to pop into.

La Freak Boutique The clothes are only half the charm of this little vintage shop, because there are so many other little trinkets to peek at. On top of this, the people who work there are all so friendly that I always seem to end up chatting with them every time I go in. They also have a £1 box and some amazing vintage fancy dress stuff.

Galliford Stores From the outside this looks like a fairly bogstandard corner shop, but it has a whole other section round the back which sells fruit, veg, a huge range of condiments and specialty flat breads for curries and the like. It's sort of like a tiny little supermarket.

The Thali Cafe This restaurant, though not technically on Picton Street, but only 5 seconds walk away, offers traditional Indian street food in a really relaxed atmosphere. Think fairy lights, sparkly cushions and colonial Indian memorabilia.

For about £8 you have a choice of two or three curries that have been freshly made that day.

They arrive on a metal platter divided into five sections generously filled with different dishes. Alongside the main curry with rice, I had a pumpkin curry (I went just after Halloween), a creamy spinach and panneer cheese curry, a salad with a yummy dressing and pomegranate seeds and a yoghurt dip.

It was so good. Oh and I also had a Gin and Tonic with homemade tonic that blew my mind. The best thing about this place, so I hear, is their tiffin tins. As we were sitting in the restaurant, loads of people came to have their four tiered metal tiffin filled with all sorts of treats for about £8, which I am told is enough for two people.

OK, so you won’t be able to buy trainers or iPods here, but that’s what makes the place so great. Picton Street is not the be all and end all of my experience as a consumer, but I love being able to pop down the road, buy fresh and cheap food, and know that I have supported local businesses. I have eternal love for my little Picton Street and am so glad I ended up living here. If anyone wants to tell me that there’s a better street than Picton, bring it

Photography - Olivia Bew Miller

Harry Sankey In his own words...

'Inside the life of a graduate and now young professional Harry Sankey'

Harry Sankey graduated from UWE last year, and now works as the junior fellow of illustration at UWE. "At UWE I have the opportunity to help the illustration students with the technical aspects of their work, and bridge the gaps between student and professional life".

Since graduating from university he has worked on a series of illustrations for 'The Big Issue' and is currently creating a Christmas card for the paper merchant John Purcell. www.harrysankey.co.uk/

Oceansize

By Suki Bentham

The 14th night of November saw Manchunian band Oceansize grace the dingy depths of the Thekla, at the end of the tour to promote their fourth studio album. Suki Bentham went along for the ride…

Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up has been proclaimed, accurately, a 'heavier' album, with fewer of the band's 7-11 minute epics. Being a Thekla gig virgin (former club night connoisseur I hasten to add, but gig virgin) and not being overly familiar with the band, it would have surely made sense to turn up early, catch the support act and remain sober. The reality unfortunately turned out to be a gin-tinged affair, which was fantastic, if slightly hazy.

We arrived to catch the end of Tubelord’s set, the band had stepped in to replace This Town Needs Guns. The boys were in great form as ever; fun pop-rock played by lovely indie boys.

I'm not quite sure this is exactly what the Oceansize crowd would have expected from one of their support acts, but they seemed well received.

The dark and dirty Self Preserved opened Oceansize's set, which took a new girl straight to the heart of their latest release. An interesting time to be introduced to the band, perhaps. The new album is certainly heavier, yet apparently sticks to the diversity they are known for amongst fans.

Despite the gin haze (or perhaps because of?) I was blown away by older songs such as New Pin and Ornament/The Last Wrongs, which the band always closes with. I defy anyone not to be blow away by Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs, which brought a tear to more than one eye.

The Thekla is a fantastic venue, but not the best acoustically for live music. I flitted a little during the set, due to a rather tipsy smoker friend, and the sound was far better from the balcony, where I also got a real feel for (and look at) the response of the super-fans. One such fan, on his seventh Oceansize gig in as many years, said of the set 'Oceansize were great as ever but, because of the venue, the drummer was lost in the mix - which is a shame, because he's astonishingly good'.

Perhaps the venue also added to the general haze of the night, but I'm happy to have been a part of a crowd the band claimed was the biggest they've played to in Bristol. And the fact that they've been dominating my Spotify and iTunes this week confirms that they've definitely won themselves a new fan.

– "It just may be wise to avoid the gin next time…"

–

The Banksy Q Exhibition

By Joe Buzzard

Photography - Alex Green

To many, Stokes Croft is the cultural heart of Bristol. The urban landscape is marked by a constantly shifting canvas of eye-catching graffiti that is frequently covered, and re-covered, by graffiti artists with ever-newer street-art. Some argue that graffiti is a mark of an area’s degeneration, and potentially lowers property valuation in the locale, but in Stokes Croft it provides a riot of colour that highlights the intensity of creative culture that characterises this area of Bristol.

a voice.’ Taking this unique opportunity, PRSC went down there and handed out cards and pens to the queue members, and asked them to ‘express themselves’ if they so desired. A welcome distraction from the monotony of what for some must have seemed like one endless line, many members of the queue happily obliged, and this collection of about 3,500 of these artworks is the focus of THE BANKSY Q exhibition.

Starting out as just another graffiti artist, Bristol-born Banksy is now renowned for his often provocative and politicallyconcerned street-art, which many now consider as an acceptable form of modern art. Stokes Croft itself possesses a Banksy piece featuring a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail towards a group of shield-wielding riot police, entitled ‘Mild Mild West’, which is often seen as the unofficial secondary ‘Welcome’ sign to the city of Bristol. It seems entirely appropriate that the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, concerned with all things creative in their community, should hold an exhibition related to him and his work. This exhibition, however, has proposed to do something a little different.

The result is impressive. In artistic flourishes, shapes and curved lines have been constructed from applying this myriad of artistry to the walls of the exhibition room, and a stairwell as you enter. With freedom to draw whatever they wanted within the 7x7cm square of card they had been handed, some people drew pictures of queues, whilst others wrote clever little limericks about queues or Banksy himself. One individual simply wrote ‘Free Tibet’, and another left it blank. The diversity is extraordinary, and even though some contributors confess that they are not very ‘good’ in contrast to the pictures of a number of clearly talented queue members, it is clear that aesthetics are not especially important to this exhibit. Here, everyone is an artist. Here, everyone has a voice.

‘In the summer of 2009, more than 300,000 people queued to see the Banksy v Bristol Museum exhibition. They waited in all weathers for up to four hours to get in’ states the exhibition’s Press Release, ‘[t]he People’s Republic of Stokes Croft saw the queue as possibly Banksy’s greatest work of art and concrete evidence of a tamped down public – their civil liberties having been systematically eroded for over a decade – desperate for

As you walk around admiring this plethora of images, a film is also playing on a projector screen. Filmed by Katy Bauer, who conceived and ran the project, it documents the queue upon which the exhibition is based, along with sound bites and brief interviews with members of the queue. Asked why she had come, one interviewee simply explains that Banksy is ‘a local lad’. Such a statement summarises the reason for this

exhibition and public fascination with Banksy: an event such as Banksy v. Bristol Museum evidences the sense of camaraderie which people find with a local ‘hero’.

Although a number of viewers drove hours to see the exhibition, in truth the real success displayed in THE BANKSY Q exhibition is that the queue itself brought a sense of community to the queue members in their shared experience.

Truly, Banksy and his art bring people together and enhance a quality of community in Bristol which is arguably missing from the populaces of so many towns and cities of the U.K. today.

If you get a chance, go see for yourself and witness the visual stories of thousands of people united in a love of one Bristolian artist, Banksy.

This exhibition runs from: November 12th to December 24th, every day 11-6pm (11-4pm Sundays).

Address as follows: New PRSC Gallery, Ground Floor, Jamaica Street Studios, Jamaica Street, Stokes Croft.