I had the pleasure to perform my art work ‘Crystalize’ at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, London. For you as a reader to explain the interaction of my work and the intimacy I have with each person when we meet, Amanda Palmer’s TedTalk about the ‘Art of Asking‘ might explain some form of what it is like for me when these connections happen and where my art and other artistic mediums are going. My view is ’selfish art is dead’ and art now is moving into being collaborative and ‘giving back to others’ and society. I am still thinking a lot about this and in some ways still at the beginning of these thoughts. In the meantime find some images from my performance. Photos by the superb Shadow. 

I am very much looking forward to performing at The Roundhouse in Camden Town. Having performed both at Somerset House and the Victoria & Albert Museum in recent years it is pleasing to keep developing my art form in such prestigious venues. I will be showing ‘Crystalized’ from 1-4pm on May 11th as part of The Accidental Festival. Here is a recent image of one of the banners displaying down the main high street promoting the event with the Roundhouse underneath. Can you spot a familiar face on the banner?

I was privileged enough to be part of The Coffee Art Project in aid of Project Waterfall during The London Coffee Festival. I donated my ‘Coffee Bean’ head picture below which was seen by over 15,000 people during the festival and will be auctioned off for charity to raise funds for clean water to communities in Tanzania. Coffee power!

Following my previous post find the ‘Sequin Souls’ poster displayed in Old Street Tube Station, London Underground. The collaboration was with Sequin Kay and Ani Lang and the poster supported by Art Below. I have also included some outtakes from our shoot to see what the design looked like from different angles that I hope highlight the concept of nature and spirituality that Sequin Kay wanted to produce. A very successful collaboration and I hope to work with both creatives more again in the future.

I have recently been collaborating with some very talented artists. One being Sequin Kay who works primarily with sequins and has strong belief in spirituality and nature. With this we experimented a few times together before we came up with a leaf pattern design that came from the base of the neck and moved to the front of the head. From that having previously met the wonderful Ani Lang who took photographs at my CSM talk, we asked if she would be kind enough to take photos of the artwork. Here is the final chosen image that will be displayed on the London Underground, Old Street Tube Station, by Art Below. More outtake shots to come soon.

So after many years of enjoying this confectionery I decide to pay a tribute to the Cadbury Creme Egg by producing the ‘Cadbury Creme EggHead’! The Ultimate head design for Easter I think, don’t you? Kat Sinclair and I got together one cold London afternoon while chomping on the smaller version and the wonderful Daniel Regan took the photos (if you haven’t seen our past exhibition check out www.headism.co.uk). How do you eat yours? Or maybe mine will tempt you! Happy Easter.

At my talk for Central Saint Martins I brought up a question ‘Do we now, as humans, experience a lack of stimulation and engagement with ‘Still Art’ in museums or gallery spaces?’. I think this is very relevant question to consider. With such establishments as PunchDrunk Theatre partnering with The National Theatre and The Tate Modern permanently dedicating a space by 2016 to exhibiting live art, performance, installation and film work, it only seems a more relevant discussion to us all within the cultural world of how art is developing for the viewers of the future. Thanks to Ani Lang for taking the photos.

I have been asked to put on a similar talk I did at The Courtauld Institute of Art for Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. See flyer below. Central Saint Martins is part of the University of the Arts London and are now based at Kings Cross in the lovely 19th century Grade II listed Granary building.

I did a talk as part of the East Wing X ‘Material Matters’ exhibition in Somerset House. It was about Performance/Live/Interactive Art Vs Still Art and how that relates to my work Headism. The audience were very receptive and it was enjoyable to do a talk in that context. Thanks to Al Overdrive for the taking photos.

I have been asked to put on a talk by the Courtauld Institute about my work on 30th January 2013. This is in line with my work they are displaying with their East Wing X show going on until July 2013 (see previous posts). See flyer below where there will be drinks sponsored by Stoli Vodka and you can RSVP to askphil@philsays.com to come to the talk. Have a lovely New Year.