All Things Considered

Rob Ryan

Rob popped along to the opening of our latest exhibition on Saturday to have a chat about his show with us in November.

We're real fans of Rob Ryan's work - and it's great to have a chance to work with him. We'll have a range of Rob's prints on show - along with some of his tiles and examples of his design work. And - fingers crossed - we'll have a 2008 St. Jude's charity Christmas card designed by Rob.

If you'd like to receive an invitation to the opening of the exhibition, please sign up for our gallery newsletter.

There was a great article about Rob's work in a recent copy of the Independent by Clare Dwyer Hogg:

"The narrow back streets of east London make an ideal wind tunnel on a cold spring morning. There is little to this landscape other than old buildings, a deserted park, and a corner shop or two. But this façade belies the mills of creativity that are churning away behind closed doors. This is studio land, where artists have set up residence, toiling away behind crumbling walls and rickety doors."

Read the full article online

The Fragmented Orchestra

As usual, I was laying in bed this morning, slowly coming round to the day listening to Radio 4's 'Today' programme.

What a pleasant surprise to hear the voice of an old friend and fellow ex-band member, Nick Ryan, being interviewed.

Along with Jane Carter and John Mathias, Nick is part of The Fragmented Orchestra, a music project that has just been named as the winner of the New Music Award.

The Fragmented Orchestra's idea uses recording units set up at 24 sites across the UK to capture their sounds - these sounds will then be transmitted back to the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool for visitors to hear.

The New Music Award judging panel said: "This extraordinary work mirrors the fundamental human activity of the brain."

FFFFound

The trouble with the Internet's buzzing social scene, is that one can easily start to drift away from having a real-life social scene, you know, one which involves leaving the house and using your hands to gesticulate not just to move a mouse. Or if like me, you just manage to juggle the two social activities, you then find yourself chatting and marvelling about all the online engagements you are logging on to, such as flickr, del.icio.us, Wists, BlinkList including numerous suggestions of blogs you enjoy.

But if it's images you like, then I highly recommend looking at FFFFound.com. It's a gallery where FFFFound members (it's now invite only) post their favourite images found on the web. FFFFound then suggests other images that are similar that you may also like. It's a great source of inspiration and of course, leads you on to finding even more interesting and inspiring people.

The t-shirt pictured, is by Howies - February's t-shirt of the week.

Aylsham, Banksy and Tesco

Not  necessarily three words you'd expect to see together in the title of a blog. But bear with me.

Secretive grafitti artist Banksy has just struck again - with this work on the side of a pharmacy in London's Essex Road (which, coincidentally, I used to walk past every day).

We assume that the image of two small children pledging allegiance to Tesco is tongue in cheek!

Tesco have recently started building their new store on the edge of Aylsham and only time will tell how much of an impact this has on the town.

But there are some positive campaigns going on in the town - the ongoing promotion of Aylsham's Cittaslow status and the recently launched project to make Aylsham Norfolk's first plastic bag free town as of 3rd May 2008.

We've always used paper bags at the gallery, but we're still pleased to be supporting the scheme - which for us is as much about the general principle of recycling.

Find out more about the project.

Secret Cinema

The other day, I came across a reference to 'Secret Cinema'. I did a quick Google search and discovered that the alluring and ghostly website offers minimal information (obviously). What it does tell you, is that every month a new and secret location is chosen for the screening of a secretly chosen film.

London Fashion Week became a recent venue for February's Secret Cinema. YouTube has a video clip taken from the evenings performance, when the cinematic organisation showed the film 'Funny Face'.
 

I've signed up in the hope that one day they might come to Norwich. If you too want a last minute email invite, sign up here. For further information, you can visit their Myspace page.

Dave Gorman

I did a quick Google the other day to find out a bit more about writer/comedian Dave Gorman's recent "America Unchained" film on Channel 4. We'd missed it and I was keen to find out if it was going to repeated.

I've been a fan of Gorman's work since enjoying his 'Googlewhack Adventure' and 'Are You Dave Gorman?' projects.

But I hadn't realised he was a keen photographer. He really is very good.

You can enjoy his photographic output on Flickr.

Bristol fashion

Kate's reference to James Bond and Aston Martins below reminded me of a recent drive past the London showroom of Bristol Cars.

These beautiful cars are hand-built at Filton, near Bristol - and they claim to be the last wholly British-owned luxury car maker.

With no dealers or distributors, the cars are sold direct from their Kensington showroom.

I've never been in one, but would love to have the opportunity at some point.

You'll find plenty of useful information at the Bristol Owners' Club website.

Newspaper House

Later this month, a hundred  volunteers will be off gathering newspapers from public places across London so that artist, Sumer Erek can build a 'house' from the collected broadsheets and tabloids.

The reason for this is project, organised by Creative City is to raise awareness to the amount of paper that is strewn and disgarded around our cities on a daily basis. I read that approximately nine and half tonnes of freebie papers were collected off the tubes every day.

Once all the papers have been gathered they will be rolled into tubes, and fixed together to form the newspaper house. The installation will be held at Gillet Square, Hackney from the 3rd - 9th March.

If you'd like to apply for a volunteering paper collection role taking place on February 27th, click here. To follow the projects progress visit www.newspaperhouse.blogspot.com

Flippin' Tasty

Sugar and lemon or Nutella and bananas? I have to admit to having both, twice, and with ice cream.

February can be a little dull after the joys’ of Christmas and January’s smattering of snow which we couldn’t  even fight with, but Shrove Tuesday is a day of glistening sweetness to cheer us up.

Pancake day (Shrove Tuesday) gained its name, as it was the last opportunity for Christians to use up their eggs and fats before embarking on the forty day fast leading up to Ash Wednesday. I’ve no idea where the pancake flipping frolics came from, but if you are one of those people who relish sports days and Village Fete’s physical challenges, then you would probably enjoy the race at Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane. Click here for an application form to take part although I fear it may be a little too late for this year. Sorry.

Something for Valentine's

We've just added details to our gallery site of this latest print by Rob Ryan.

All of Rob's work is the result of painstaking hand-cutting of delicate papers. These intricate works are either sold in the papercut form or developed as limited edition screenprints.

"Can We? Shall We?" has been created and printed by Rob in an edition of 95 copies, screen-printed in red and cream on a heavy weight paper. We have a limited number of the edition here at St. Jude's and you can order a copy online.

We're looking forward to Rob's exhibition with us in November. If you'd like to receive details nearer the time - along with an invitation to our private views - you can join subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter.