image Jamie Alun Price / sutures - me!

Still life doesn't have to be boring. With less than two hours to go before an opportunity at studio close-up photography with Jamie Alun Price, I hit on the idea of grabbing some fruit (so far so yawn), but then made a speedy dash to Abakhan to purchase some needles and embroidery thread. Cue the most unusual late Saturday morning ever, with Jamie and I painstakingly stitching plumbs, an aubergine, lime, banana and a quite wonderful star fruit for their starring roles.

copyright Jamie Alun Price

Here we have the second set of shots from last Saturday's shoot with photographer Jamie Alun Price in the Fred Aldous photo studio in the newly expanded sub-basement of Manchester's spectacular craft palace. Model Pascal Little is a friend and artist himself, specialising in experimental animation and puppetry. I'm in awe of his terrifying spider babies and look forward to their debut outing. Pascal was kind enough to let mould his own limbs into not-so-comfortable positions in my role as art director for the day, while Jamie took the shots and added strings in post production.

copyright Jamie Alun Price

You can check out more pictures with Pascal here and here, proving that it's no surprise that he clinched the top prize during Peaches Christ's gore-couture costume competition when in town. So if you should see Pascal in the street, say hi and congratulate him on his fierce and confident personal style. Then assess how much brown you're wearing, and whether you might 'go crazy' and wear some brightly coloured undercrackers when assembling your next outfit.

copyright Jamie Alun Price

copyright www.ALandAL.co.uk / still from The Creator (detail)

Trailer for Al & Al's The Creator is now online over at the artists and filmmakers website. Exciting times! World Premiere confirmed for late May during the World Science Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, followed by the UK Premiere during the taster weekend for Abandon Normal Devices Festival on 22 June at Cornerhouse, Manchester. This is sure to sell-out, so I'd advise not waiting too long to get tickets! I've been treated to a private viewing of the first 26 minutes or so and although biased, it's a stunning and touching achievement.

This is not your standard biopic  but a fantasy retelling of Turing's final moments via his Jungian dream diaries, held as 'gospels' or holy creeds by the artificial intelligence machines of the future. Proud to be credited with a production nod, although the talent is all Al & Al's. Doesn't hurt to have astonishing subject matter too. Alans of the world, past and present, we thank you.

copyright Jamie Alun Price

Photographer Jamie Alun Price has posted x3 sets of images featuring friend and creative lady Kim May, the blonde-tufted brains behind Asta Films. I was on hand to help out with art direction, which was a whole heap of fun, and didn't feel like work at all. We also took shots of another model and friend, Pascal (further pictures coming up in the next day or two). Kim is always game for a vogue-pose or two, hence the summoning of spirit circa 1980s Vogue. Work it Kim!

The wide-brimmed hat wearing vixens of vintage Porsche posters stood in the shadows, applauding silently. I'm especially fond of the hori-verti shot in Session 1 (below, and via link), but love Session 2 and Session 3 just as much. Thanks to Kim, Jamie and the super-helpful Elle Brotherhood, in-house advisor at the Fred Aldous photo studio, photographer and artist. Can't recommend all of them enough!

copyright Jamie Alun Price

mando manderin from birds animations on Vimeo.

Friend and artist Mandy Tolley, aka mando manderin, has a fun, new video available from Birds Animations of a typical day in her attic studio. Mandy and I worked together on Re-Covering, when we created a collaborative book cover for Leonora Carrington's magical novella The Hearing Trumpet. If her kitchen in the animation seems rather large, it's because her studio is in the roof of a former old person's social centre, now closed and rather spooky, complete with stairlift and more chintz than you can shake a tub of talcum powder at. Mandy's a regular tutor too at Hot Bed Press, which is where we first met when I signed up to her screen printing course. She's pretty cool and proper lovely, like. You should adopt one of her unique Amigos if you're feeling friendless - those sneaky scamps make an appearance toward the end of the video!

copyright www.ALandAL.co.uk / still from The Creator (detail)

On the occasion of Alan Turing's Centenary celebrations, internationally-renowned artists Al & Al have been commissioned by Cornerhouse, AND Festival and Creative England to create this long-form experimental film.  A UK Premiere, it will be followed by a Q&A with the artists hosted by myself as producer. A far cry from the dry, sanitised interpretations of a man once shunned but now revered as a master of modern mathematics, Al & Al have chosen to blend fact with fantastical speculation in this, the re-telling of that fateful day when Turing chose to end his own life.

Touching upon the myth of Snow White, Turing's doomed encounter with his lover Arnold Murray (only yards from the current Cornerhouse site), his subsequent experimentation with Jungian psychoanalysis and the nature of human physicality versus artificial conciousness, this is both a dream of loss and sweat-beaded nightmare. A week prior to his death, Turing visited a fortune teller in Blackpool – this much we know for certain. He never spoke of what was foretold. In the far distant future, the Robo-Tarot re-tells the story of The Creator and his legacy...

Contains scenes of a sexual nature and optical effects/ certificate 15 (TBC), estimated running time 45 minutes. Tickets now on sale. Presented in collaboration with Abandon Normal Devices.

Method Act / City Limits 2011 (detail)

Contour States is the first major UK public solo show by British artist Samantha Donnelly. With a strong interest in the images presented in today’s media that continue to idealise and objectify the human form, the exhibition features new work that explores representations of female identity in photography, TV, film and advertisements. Underpinned by references to art history and popular culture, Donnelly’s distinctive work is concerned with the powerful effects of media imagery on the individual, and in particular with how the portrayal of women in the media shapes and defines them.

The following interview between Samantha Donnelly and myself first appeared in the gallery guide for Contour States at Cornerhouse, 28 January – 25 March 2012.

All images courtesy of the artist and Ceri Hand Gallery / photo credits WeAreTape.com

Sharp Orbits Fall Flat #1 / 2012 (detail)

BOC: What would you say are the core themes or values that you explore within your work?

SD: I’m interested in the spaces and places we live in today and how these are re-presented, packaged and sold back to us as aspirations, as dreams or as terrors.

BOC: How has your background as an artist shaped your current practice and techniques?

SD: I studied Time Based Arts, which was a course interested in film, performance, installation and photography, underpinned by conceptual theories. I loved the physical relationship with making as analogue processes were widely used. I took up digital practices slowly and though supremely efficient the process for me lacks the element of surprise, or discovery, which is implicit in analogue. Of course similar effects are possible through digital, but the reverse button enables the producer to manipulate the ideal shot, when most of the time it is the unexpected or the mistake which actually offers more in my opinion… think of Brassai, Eve Arnold and Inge Morath.

Sharp Orbits Fall Flat #2 / 2012 (detail)

BOC: At what point did you begin to focus upon more overtly sculptural assemblage?

SD: It was really after my Master of Fine Arts when I taught myself how to make moulds, cast and model. I was fortunate enough to be awarded the Brian Mercer Bronze Casting Scholarship in 2009, where I learnt the lost-wax casting process over in a foundry in Italy. Over the last 18 months I’ve been working in ceramics too. I’m still very influence by my training when making objects, particularly in photography, as it helps me to see and edit sculptural work using similar methods. I’m also interested in the tension between representation and objects and the interplay of these experiences: the optic / conceptual against the encounter / physical.

Illusions of Supersaturation / 2012 (left)

BOC: If we were to walk into your studio, what would we see?

SD: It would be hard to walk into it at the moment, as there is an awful lot of work, materials and collections inside. I have multiple boxes of things: conch shells from the seaside; another with ‘exciting and sculptural’ Christmas decorations in, bough on sale in a closing-down bonanza; silk sarongs worn and brought back from travels in India. At last count I had 14 tables in the tiny space stacked up on each other in a rather slapdash and extremely precarious fashion amongst fashion mannequins, wrought iron candelabras, art deco lamps, a selection of hula hoops and fashion belts.

All of these things have built up over a number of years and are all boxed and catalogued in quite a rigorous way. My favourite is the ‘Metal Magic’ box, named as it holds some kind of mystery and surprise. Inside is a selection of small metal objects, fastenings, eyelets, hooks and machine parts that I have absolutely no idea of their intended function other than their interesting patina, shape or potential re-use. It’s strange the way a personal topography looms – do you catalogue by use or by form? Is it an aesthetic or functional decision to how the cataloguing happens?

Illusions of Supersaturation / 2012 (detail)

BOC: Did the work arrive in the galleries complete, or was there any element of creation and continued production on site?

SD: The exhibition has been produced in 3 different countries and so much of the work will only come into being when installing over two weeks at Cornerhouse. Each country has had different time, material and size constraints which means that hopefully once the work sees its other parts there will be an instant resonance, a kind of love story unfolding in fast-forward between the parts to form a critically charged, ruptured whole; one that reveals its seams, histories and structure – rather like Brecht writes about upon Theatre. This makes working on site challenging but it’s also a bit like tuning an orchestra or doing a dress rehearsal: some sections fall straight into place and are just right, others seem somewhat disharmonious. This final part can make some pieces really transform. Placing the work on-site is itself like a durational performance for me, one that I’m not 100% sure of the ending.

This way of working is an extensions of my studio practice, one concerned with layering meaning and cutting and pasting process (like collage). For me this takes away the bombastic nature of the monolith, imbuing the work with a time contingent.

Detail / 2012 (detail)

BOC: What do you mean by the title of the show – Contour States?

SD: For me the title suggests something which has a rub of separate entities that are placed or pushed into relationship with each other: ‘Contour’ has an idea of curvature; ‘States’ suggests something either organised in some kind of bureaucracy or actual being-ness: it has a ‘presentness’. There is a connection between the lyrical and the structure that reflects the content of the work and suggests a tension between parts.

-       January 2012

Photo by Jamie Alun Price

Schweet... photos back from Jamie Alun Price of Prairieland at Manchester Town Hall on Saturday. Click the link to see more and find out why I was encouraging children to dabble in the black arts and commune with spirits!

Hand drawn leaflet by Lispencie (Lyndsey Winnington) for Sketch-O-Matic

I've now written up my account of November's mammoth Sketch-O-Matic marathon and am pleased (I think!) to announce that the project will return in October 2012. More on dates in the coming months.

Illustration by John Powell-Jones / Savage Wolf

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night." - Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior. Less than a week to go until the debut of Praireland along with a brace of other pervasive games at the Manchester Histories Festival.