Murderous Art...

And lastly but not in the slightest way least I went to the see David Choe's 'Murderous Hearts' exhibition at the Lazarides gallery at 8 Greek St, Soho upon the recommendation of my Art Director.

David Choe is an American street artist who who uses various mediums, such as pencil, oils, watercolours, spray paint and even tip-ex to create his pieces. He first made a name for himself with his two award-winning graphic novels, 'Slow Jams'(1996) and 'Bruised Fruit'(2002).

With his work there are a lot of images within the image giving a chaotic feel. This adds to his work as you can see something new each time you look at it. His style is simultaneously beautiful, anarchistic, weird and brutal without taking itself too seriously. The exhibition is on until 28th March, and you can find more info about this exhibition and the artist at lazinc.com.

Anti-brand

The second exhibition I saw was a Riflemaker exhibition, PSJM "Made By Slaves For Free People" which you can find at 79 Beak Street in Soho. You can check out their website at www.riflemaker.org. PSJM are Madrid based artists Pablo San Jose and Cynthia Viera whose work, 'Proyecto Asia', (Asia Project) has caused some controversy along the way.

"PSJM challenges the idea of brands as creators of symbolic values via abstract identities and logos which shape the identity of the individual. Many of the great multi-national trademarks which symbolise capitalist democracy born in free countries achieve maximum profits due to the exploitation of Asian workers."

The major brands which are targeted include Puma, Nike, Adidas and Disney with slogans such as 'Made By Kids For Kids' and 'Made By Slaves For Free People'.

Gracefully Ethereal

The past week I've been to a few interesting art exhibitions. The first was Peter Doig who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004 at the Tate Britain. He is also known for being Europe's most expensive living painter after a painting of his was sold at auction for £5.7 million. His work is highly sought after by the top private collectors around the world.

He paints landscapes mostly based on found photographs, although he doesn't paint in a photorealist style, and of his early childhood memories of snowscapes in Canada. There are also reoccurring motifs from the film Friday the 13th and of his experiences working in the theatre where he dressed up in the costumes with a friend. He is now based in Trinidad, a place where he spent some of his childhood, and is now an inspiration for his paintings.

His style has been described as magic realist and dreamlike due to his unusual colour combinations of glowing greens, blues, reds contrasting with pinks, yellows and white. So it's definitely worth going to the exhibition just to see the paintings in real life as the prints simply don't do them justice.

Politically incorrect but funny....

Hugleiker Dagsson draws comics and is something of a celebrity in his homeland in Iceland. I discovered his first English translation book 'Should You Be Laughing At This?'last year and he has since released a 2nd collection titled 'Is This Supposed To Be Funny?'.

His cartoons comprise of stick figures doing terrible and questionable activities, dealing with subjects such as murder, arson and incest and making them funny. Yes perhaps I'm a bad person but believe me he makes it funny! Does it make him a bad person and more importantly does it make you a bad person if you find his drawings funny?

Well considering he has been embraced in his homeland, his two books could reveal something about the Icelandic sense of humour. Remember it is dark for virtually nine months of the year with three months of complete sunlight over there. Check out his books 'Should You Be Laughing At This?' and 'Is This Supposed To Be Funny?'

Run your own corporation

Here's a fun game and an idea of how to run your own Mcdonald's from cow to burger. Make sure you go through the tutorial first before you start the game as it is quite a lot to learn.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/molleindustria/mcdonalds-videogame

Our London Town

You've probably seen the billboards and tube posters of the new Nokia Meet London campaign by Wieden and Kennedy. The posters are comprised of photos of real Londoners taken with camera phones with the line 'I chose this person because...'.

The aim is to map London through people rather than the landmarks. On the website www.meet-your-city.com, visitors are encouraged to introduce a friend to the city by uploading a picture and saying why they were chosen. The pics are then put into locations on a map of London and in an exhibition section that is divided by subject such as 'In Love', 'East End Girls' and many more.

It's a great campaign which encourages viewers to participate and interact with it. So if you get a chance check out the website and introduce a friend to the rest of London.

Chilly out!

Over the weekend a record number of people went to the beaches to make sandcastles and eat ice-cream. The temperature was 9 degrees, not exactly a scorcher but I guess there's no stopping us Brits once a bit of sunshine emerges from the dead of winter.
Anyway, I'm hoping spring comes soon as I'm getting a bit bored with the long winter.

Collectables

James Jarvis is an illustrator from London who has made comics and a collection of figures that are inspired by rock stars, wrestlers and teenage youths. I discovered him by accident when I had a go on the toy dispenser machine in Tower records in Tokyo. He had created a series of mini figures called 'teenage deliquents' which were available for 300 yen each, the figure I got was a curly-haired nerd in a skull t-shirt and I've been a fan ever since.

His quirky observations make the figures very likeable and fun. His most popular figure has been the cute gorilla Milo. If you're into collectables look at the available figures on the Amos Toys website: http://www.amostoys.com/

History all around

My friend from Melbourne is in town visiting London for the first time. It was great to catch up and getting to see London/England through fresh eyes as I've been a bit immune to my surroundings of late. I haven't ever been to Oz but found it very cute when she remarked about how 'old' everything looked, even the Greggs pie shop looked 'old'. I guess they don't have many old buildings down under.

Solar technology and other greeness

Currently we are working on a brief for a solar panel technology company and the topic of sustainability for Unilever. It's all very green and topical as it has become increasingly important for us to reduce our carbon footprint. It's interesting to think that all our energy needs can be resolved with solar panels, great.

Did you know that 40% of the carbon emissions are caused by the actions of the individual? So if you're not doing it already, recycle and reuse your carrier bags. Another interesting fact, from June China will be banning the handing out of plastic bags in shops.

The particular target is those extra flimsy bags which are a major source of pollution. A nice paradox considering that China manufactures most of the world's plastic bags. But seriously I hope that this new scheme works out as the pollution in China is getting drastic.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

There's always a lot going on at the Barbican but I think that this should appeal to any movie buff and that's the Stanley Kubrick festival. It starts end of Feb to commemorate the 80th year of the director's birth and the 40th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The festival includes all 12 of his feature films and a collection of his short films. There will also be an exhibition of the Stanley Kubrick Archive and work inspired by him courtesy of the London College of Art. It's a great chance to watch the classics such as Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining on the big screen. What's a evening without Jack Nicholson scaring the bejesus out you? Enjoy!

Let's all go to the movies

I haven't been to the cinema for a while as it is a bit pricey in the capital but as I found out yesterday at Cineworld Cinemas it's cheap day Tuesday, so it was a bargain at £5.45 rather than the usual £8. I couldn't resist as it was a reasonable treat for the week. I always find it nice to get totally immersed in a film and forget about the stresses of London living.

Plus it's always a great time to see some new ads that are the extended version. One of the ads that did make me chuckle was the new Lynx ad. I wasn't much of a fan of the 'Billions' ad, probably because as a woman I don't really want to watch hundreds of scantily clad women running towards a man, ha ha. Anyway in the new ad a guy sprays himself with Lynx Deep Temptation which turns him into chocolate. The ad follows the new chocolate man as he goes through his day with women literally finding himself irresistible.



Anyway back to the subject of film I went to see, 'No Country for Old Men' the new Coen brothers movie which is amazing, you have to go and see it. I would be a bit bias as I consider myself a Coen brothers fan, counting Fargo as one of my favourites but really you should go and see it.

The basic plotline centres on Llwellyn Moss played by Josh Brolin, who stumbles across the aftermath of a drugs deal gone wrong. There are some dead Mexicans, a stash of heroin and $2 million in cash. He takes the cash, but without spoiling it for you, manages to leave a trace and a game of cat and mouse ensues. Unfortunately for this guy the cat is a sociopath hit man Anton Chigurgh played brilliantly by Javier Bardem and the other Mexicans. The story is held together by Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff trying to save Moss from Chigurgh and the Mexicans. The film's themes are not so much who gets away with the cash but the ideas of fate and chance and the motivations of the main characters. It is a film worth going for the acting alone, so go and see it.

Colds, colds and more colds!

Here at Other we've been a bit unlucky in the health department with various peeps suffering from the dreaded lurgy. I myself have been suffering since Thursday when I felt all bunged up and muzzy headed.

I tried to relieve these symptoms on Friday by going to have a really hot, authentic Tooting curry. Although it was one of the best curries that I've had, unfortunately it didn't do anything for my cold.


So I have a few tips to keep the dreaded cold at bay. Although it is mostly common sense, you'd be surprised by how little we follow them.

• Try not to touch your nose, mouth or eyes, cold viruses love warm, moist places.

• Wash your hands often as viruses are spread through contact ie person to person, on door handles and other surfaces where people with colds have touched.

• Stay happy, people who are often stressed have a weaker immune system therefore more succeptable to colds.

• Keep out of contact from coldy people. And coldy people stay at home if you can. Or if you want you can take a leaf out of the Japanese method of cold prevention and wear a mask. However I think they wear masks to contain their cold, that's because they are so polite. I think they're quite fetching, don't you?
  

A Piece of Art

Yesterday workmen came and took out two pieces of graffiti that were on a wall opposite Charterhouse Sq.

Why, you may ask, would anyone want to do that? Well they were by Banksy. The pieces were Banksy rats, one had 'go back to Bristol boy' scrawled on it, probably done by the few people who object his work. All that remains now are two badly cemented squares on the white wall. I'm quite sad as I was getting quite attached to them as I passed them on my daily stroll to get my lunch.

Just recently a Banksy piece done on Portobello Rd was sold on ebay for £208,100. The price included the removal and rebuilding of the wall that it was painted on, I don't know whether Banksy would approve of that. I wonder how much those two rats will fetch in auction....

Bring on the 80's

Today we're having a photoshoot and the theme is the 80's and how technology has moved on. I thought that would be nice to include a few things that were 'hot' back then. That fine piece of technology being used by the lady in the pussy bow top is the Epsom handheld computer, circa 1982. The bloke sitting next to her appears to be using a car phone, not quite mobile technology yet.
However this brick phone was the original hand candy and the thing to be seen with. It was available in black or grey and probably made a pretty good paper weight when it wasn't being used. Although I don't remember when they first came out, I like the retro black/grey colour plastic finish schemes the electronic goods had before they became all metallic and available in a myriad of colours. I say bring back the retro look!

A New Blog for Us!

Well I've just managed to set up our blog page and it actually looks alrite :) So hello out there, we are Other and we're a bit creative, yeah! Actually just thought that we would join the blogging community as there appears to be so many creatives who are blogging these days.