Hanky-Panky

Anna and I are having our first exhibition, in Brighton. We are also bringing it to London at the end of October but we felt it was fitting to have the first one in the birthplace of Jiggery Pokery. It opens on 10th October which is very very soon and is at the Artist Residence Hotel Gallery. It is called Hanky-Panky and we are très excited about it. It will be a somewhat mischievous visual feast for the eyes. Watch this space for more. You can see some of the recent exhibitions at the Artist Residence Gallery here on Luke Tudor Griffiths' blog Wish we had made it down to Pinky's show. His stuff is Maravilloso:



Now I must get on with the Stencil for our 'Rest is Noise' Brixton pub window display extravaganza. I am quite scared about this possible post strike today as I am waiting in for important stuff that might not arrive on time. Bah humbug.

My Dissertation

Ok so I have been in hibernation for two weeks doing my "bloody dissertation" while trying to find articles on the poundshop and it's relevance within popular culture I came across myself and Lauren pg two on google answering questions for a WAH interview. Great helpful stuff, can I interview myself or is that cheating?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=poundshop+popular+culture&start=10&sa=N

Haha.

My weekend has been...

...productive on a hangover. I was feeling reaaal ropey on Saturday but I still made it to Kilburn car boot and picked up some serious starting points for our upcoming exhibition in Brighton. Even made it to Little Venice for a walk along the canal. I also checked out an exhibition at Milagros on Columbia Road by an amazing artist called Stephen Wright. He's my new fave. Anna and I are literally soooo obsessed with outsider artists and people who make folkey type art out of throwaway items and junk. It was one of those experiences where I didn't really want to leave because I didn't want it to be over. Last time that happened was the Peter Doig at the Tate Britain.

Today. Back to Columbia Road for Oliver's prawns and onto Brick Lane for more exhibition stuff hunting. Instead I bought clothes and a present for Anna to say well done for finishing her dissertation. It's top secret. Photos to be uploaded after I give it to her- She's going to wee herself. Escaping to the back streets near Brick Lane, Annie and I discovered Spitalfields City Farm; a colourful, wild, hippy-type farm with the coolest plate wall, a goat in a phone box and a hut with a very strange-shaped roof. How have I always missed this?!
















Oh yeah and someone knocked on my door the other day and asked if they could take the rainbow sparkly pyramid I had left in my front garden. Gutted I couldn't find a use for it but space is getting tight these days! Spotted it on my way home from Columbia Road though- love it!

Anna Piaggi

what a lady:

Design Week Today

Round two. This time with Anna, as a momentary inspiration break from her dreaded dissertation. First stop Brixton for a meeting about our opening window and interior installation at the new Brixton hotspot 'Rest is Noise' (formerly Ivan's Retreat). Forgetting the steel-capped toe boots meant we weren't allowed on site for any length of time... Doh! Onto the V&A for Telling Tales. I twittered the fact that I would be paying the exhibition a visit and had a reply twitter from the V&A asking what I thought of it! Service with a smile... I twittered back: '@V_and_A Telling Tales- brilliantly creepy show! 'Linen-Cupboard-House' by Jurgen Bey was my favourite. Oh to be a child again'. So that is Telling Tales summarised up in less than 140 words (Twitter does wonders for my incessant rambling...)

We then hopped on the tube, via the best window display in a while and a cupcake pit stop:





to visit Tom Dixon's 'The Dock' an exhibition showcasing himself and other contemporary designers. It gave us the chance to check out the amazing 'Hatch' by Studio Toogood:



These very, very sexual gloss-dipped logs by someone in the Vorboten : 7 Studios from Berlin exhibition organised by Studio Hausen (but either it is very poorly documented online as to exactly who did what, or I am just being rubbish at researching... And writing down a name when I see something I like. If you know - answers on a postcard please!):



and fiiiinally catch up with Will from www.itsnicethat.com. Their second book is unbelievably inspiring; full to the brim with colourful, witty, dreamy work. It also gives further insight into the brains of some of the most exciting designers out there doing their thing. I recommend. We were talking about how some people were really disappointed that The London Design Festival had been spread out across London this year rather than being contained in the exhibtion space at Earls Court. If you only have a couple of days in London I can see how this might be frustrating but personally I haven't ever visited the festival before for the precise reason that it was all in one place. To me, big exhibition space= intimidating and stale. This way you make the effort to check out exactly what you wish to see and stumble across other things on the way whether they are part of design week or just little parts of London you wouldn't usually explore. It also allows others to get involved and open up spaces (almost like open-house) for us all to learn more than normal from this crazy and wonderful city we call London. Itsawinner. We also talked about the future of publications; online versus print etc and Anna decided that the future is most likely to be bicycle-powered Batman style visions that appear up in the sky. Thatasawinnertoo.

Oh and aren't these the most amazing roses ever?!! Fade from pink to coral to peach. Yes please.



I also want this for my dining room:



and am keeping fingers crossed that two of these will be mine for my living room:

Design Week Yesterday

So it being The London Design Festival and all, yesterday, I decided that it was imperative to escape the studio/office/house to see what is happening in the real world. Soooo out of the loop that I went for showSTUDIO's 'Fashion Revolution' at Somerset House thinking it would be a bit quieter than the V&A considering it was Fashion Week etc. Low and Behold the trendy pvc jegging clad crew were swarming the place. Oh right, London Fashion Week moved to Somerset house and it appears I was the last to realise. So after tripping over glittery loafers galore I made it in alive. A few of the best: HUGE, towering statues of Naomi Campbell that you could decorate via an interactive stylus type thingy, a BRILLIANT video piece by Gareth Pugh, a lovely collaboration between Nick Knight and Jane How called 'Sweet' with a twinkly soundtrack by Kieran Hebden (aka Fourtet). My favourite though was a video called 'Vox Humana (Part of Future Tense 2008) by Rodarte:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6vXbFNWJt0

Pop-up shops have been popping up all over London for Design/Fashion Week. I opted for a trip East to the Dr. Martens Shop in Spitalfields Market rather than the Emporio Armani Caffè (bit more fashion week location warning and I might have thought otherwise). The interior of the DMs pop-up shop was based on a shoe shop stockroom and had a nice feel, if a little similar to the late Footpatrol (R.I.P) store on St Anne's Court in Soho. I can see why people are going a bit barmy for those super shiny, candy coloured boots... Although they'll most probably be highly un-trendy again before I decide to don a pair.





I then wandered up to Redchurch Street to check out Caravan's miniature wallpaper window display by Deborah Bowness but hadn't read the smallprint. So it starts tomorrow (or today by the time this blog is finished... Thursday 24th) I shall return. On the way home I chanced upon another Pop-Up Shop with Eclectcollect at Studio1.1 (57a Redchurch Street, London E2 7JD) and bought the first book I have bought in ages, 'Society' by Bridget Smith:

I also acquired Corrine Day's 'Diary' via a package in the post from my flatmate's Dad the other day which was a lovely surprise. Two Books in one week... Wow.

The evening was filled by a visit to the launch party of new conceptual workspace and network, THECUBE on Commercial Street. We are working on an exciting new promotional project for them which will launch later this year. We also bumped into Iain Whiteley from the Guardian and finally got to meet his partner in crime Anna Tozer. LOVE their work.

WOWZA!!! What a three months!

So we have been working our little cotton socks off, so much so that I'm ill and after Sunday I am retreating to a darkened room to assess the damage and sleep!

We have been juggling a few jobs at once so it's pretty hard to know where to start really. I guess a list is appropriate;

First things first the art direction for Vauxhall Skate. We totally transformed the Village Underground with a gold lamé inflatable entrance, giant tents, rotating all-seeing eyes, prisms, rainbows, UV Tron style cars, a madness reflective car by Jamie Brown and a whole lot more. Here is the logo Kate Moross designed and a little selection of photos that Jamie took on the night:

We then did Lauren's Dad's opticians windows (got to keep the fam sweet) with the perfectly coincidental left over eyes. It certainly stands out down in Crouch End!

So we have already posted about Tip-Top but we went on to make our giant car souvenir which we can't show off just yet but it here are some of the delights that we collected. My faves were these bad boy Cliff salt and pepper numbers, they didn't get used so I get to keep them (yay) Lauren's most prized were the toadstools and swan egg-cups so buff.

Oh and here is a little photo that got away from the trip.

Right, next we collaborated with Jamie Brown on a commission by Becks to give the Old Blue Last in Shoreditch a makeover related to a song for 'Becks Futures'. We chose Love Cats by The Cure. It will be up for a month so go and have a look if you're in East.

Wednesday saw the annual YCN LIVE event in which we collaborated with our good friend Bryony Birkbeck to make a massive snow dome with a summer theme. We got the guests dressed up in inside to be shot by Jess Bonham for the YCN site.

We have been making a series of work for 125 Magazine that will be shot on Sunday. We are very excited about this so keep an eye out for the up coming issue.

Not forgetting to party, we also went to Carnival and Green Man festival!! No wonder I'm coughing an sneezing like mad!!