Romantico Elegante

My work spaces have changed a lot over the last four years or so. Actually, it is difficult for me to afford a permanent studio so I try to rent one for a while every time I have to make work for an exhibition. I also have another job that does not allow me to spend that much time in the studio, although it does allow me to pay my bills and to finance the production of my pieces.

The first studio I rented was a super small place in the house of a very conservative and Christian lady who failed to greet me when one day she came in to clean the space and found a pop-up edition of the Kamasutra I bought in an antique shop (I’m a big collector of useless things). After a while, along with my cousin, who is a photographer, I rented the bottom of a house in Chorrillos. We were evicted quickly because the owner decided to sell it. We felt sad because it was a very nice and quiet place to work and especially to get together, drink beer, and talk about our work (and problems). I still have not paid the phone bill for that place. The best studio I’ve ever had was one that I subleted from a friend to make work for a solo show last year. A nice, big house, located in one of the most beautiful areas of Lima, a place that sometime ago hosted La Culpable, an artists collective that is very important for the local art scene of Lima. After that I traveled to New York for three months to do a residency at Flux Factory, where I had a studio which was also my room. I had a tiny space between the bed and the wall to walk and a desk in which I drew a lot. The prettiest light ever came through that window.

So I have not been in permanent studio for more than a year, but I have been constantly changing my work space according to my needs and possibilities and many times I had to limit myself to work in my room or in my office desk (making a mess in the process). Less than a month ago I moved my studio to the house of a great friend I’ve had since I was a teenager. She bought this house in Barranco and lives there with another great friend. I’ve been very lucky, not only because the space is quite big and comfortable and because I rent it at a much lower price than it is worth; I can also spend time with my friends and laugh a lot. The house is located near the sea.

Las Princesas Solas En Mesa

Now I’m working on a new project which will be presented during Glasgow International this April  in the Project Room of Many Studios. It’s been a big challenge because it is the first time I work on a video but very exciting at the same time. The video shows part of the Peruvian Amazon Uiniversity, a modernist structure built in the Amazon rainforest that embodies a number of contradictions. It was supposed to be created as a response to the demand for a higher education institution in the area, as voiced for decades by the local communities. But this building is just  evidence on how the government spends a huge amount of money building structures that show its power instead of investing on a decent educational system. Although I find the architecture fascinating, the building imposes itself over nature, interfering with its order, and doesn’t respond to the community’s necessities.

The video progressively shows all spaces of the university revealing what the important structure contains: a precarious space in which learning is not fostered and where the lack of it is concealed. I talk about a particular contrast between modernism and lack of progress one constantly finds in Latin American societies. To shoot the video, I spent several days in the jungle. It was a hard work, especially because of the weather in Iquitos, but luckily I had the best team working with me.

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.

OERSTED

RASMUS DANØ, SØREN HÜTTEL, DIRTY MAC, DAN MILLER, STEFF NORWOOD, KEV POLLOCK

Tree God, Mixed media on paper, 29cm x4 2cm, 2014. Image courtesy the artist (Photographer: Dan Miller).

Oersted will feature new work by six artists from Glasgow and Copenhagen. It will incorporate a wide range of media to create a dynamic and immersive audiovisual environment – a place of intermittent ocular and auricular experience.

The exhibition is named after the Danish chemist Hans Christian Oersted, who was the first person to produce aluminium in 1825. This discovery is directly linked to the industrial legacy of the site, which included the operation of an illegal smelt during the 1970’s. The title creates a dynamic link between the exhibition context and the manipulation of material, taking further inspiration from Oersted’s pioneering research into electromagnetism and acoustics.

Hopeful Landscape, Mixed media on paper, 11cm x 20cm, 2014. Image courtesy the artist (Photographer: Dan Miller).

Oersted is hosted and supported through WAVEparticle’s AiA (Artists in Arches) initiative, one of three dynamic spaces included in their Open Spaces programme. Over the past two years WAVEparticle have worked in partnership with the New Gorbals Housing Association and Urban Union to deliver the Art & Living: Laurieston strategic plan.

The inception of this project can be traced back to my first meeting with Rasmus Danø during the 2007 Supermarket art fair in Stockholm. We became firm friends and organised an exchange exhibition between Glasgow and Copenhagen in 2008. I first met Søren Hüttel during the installation of Through the Looking Glass at SWG3. It soon became clear that we all shared very similar artistic concerns and methodologies. Since 2008 we have exhibited together across Scandinavia, including Copenhagen, Malmø and Esbjerg.

I’ve worked collaboratively with Dirty Mac, Steff Norwood, Kev Pollock for the last ten years on a variety of collaborative projects and group exhibitions. The Cleland Lane arches provide the perfect context for the Glaswegian and Danish artists to work together on this ambitious large-scale project.

Spinalonga, Letterpress ink and lino cut on paper, 20cm x 25cm, 2014. Image courtesy the artist (Photographer: Dan Miller)

I’ll be working collaboratively with Dirty Mac to present a live audiovisual performance, concentrating on the themes of resolution, distortion and fidelity. I’m currently editing footage for a multi-channel synchronized video projection that will act as a catalyst for Mac’s sonic performance. For the exhibition I’ll be presenting a new series of digital banners and paintings. These allegorical works will investigate the legacy of capitalist realism and the territories of ratio and repetition.

OERSTED

RASMUS DANØ, SØREN HÜTTEL, DIRTY MAC, DAN MILLER, STEFF NORWOOD, KEV POLLOCK

Artists in Arches
Arches 1-3,
Cleland Lane,
Glasgow,
G5 9DS

Fri 8th April – Mon 25th April 2016
Mon – Sun, 1.30pm – 6pm

Preview Friday 8th April: 6pm
Live audiovisual performance Friday 8th April: 7pm

Scheduled performances will take place throughout the festival.
For more information and updates: www.oersted.industries

Supported by WAVEparticle and The Danish Arts Foundation.

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GI Overview by Gayle Meikle.

Censta commissioned me to create an overview of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2010.  This involved visiting all venues and events during the 3 weeks fest and then editing together a little bitesize chunk hopefully capturing the tremdous quality and variety of the festival.  The video is currently being screened at the GOMA as part of their education programme.  Thanks to all the artists, galleries and speakers who participated, my crew – Andy Sim, Ross Hamilton Frew and Ellen Mason, Censta, Gi and Alan Miller.

Music is by Gerrard from Findo Gask.

1.  Phil Kay on his love of white bikes. NVA’s White Bike Plan was a project that released 50 White Bikes across the city.

2. Phil Kay on the limitations of interviewing with Glasgow Podcart’s Halina Rifai.

3. Phil Kay gets a Twitter invitation to check out the David Shrigley installation with Central Station member Angharad McLaren.

4. Phil Kay visits HALLelujah2 a group exhibition curated by Janie Nicol and held in a Glasgow flat. The exhibition brought together fifteen UK based artists linked in drawing, printing and collage…and Sparky…..!

5. It’s never easy when you lose a pet. It doesn’t matter whether it’s through bereavement or carelessness, it’s just not very nice. Phil Kay recalls his own experiences when he ponders the nature of reality and illusion in this hairy little number filmed during his visit to Hallelujah 2.

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See more of our Top 5 selections here.

1. Jo Mango – collectors’ edition 10″ double single, The Moth & The Moon / The Black Sun

Album artwork and packaging for Scottish musician Jo Mango by Rydo! and Hanna Tuulikki. The three didn’t know each other before the project and Jo found and commissioned them through Central Station. See Rydo’s showcase for more images of the work.

2. Filmmakers Group Edinburgh

This informal group was set up via Central Station. Lina has recently blogged to say that they currently have 21 filmmakers and are hoping to announce joint projects and collaborations in the near future. Watch this space.

3. Strawberry Fields

In January this year Genevieve did a call out to curators, designers and sound artists for her project Strawberry Fields – an exhibition based on work inspired by the Beatles song of the same name. She was also on the look out for a venue. Within 24 hours she’d found a whole team to work with and a space and the exhibition took place the following month. Success.

4. Radius

Image: Entry/exit site view by grahamlister

In the lead up to Glasgow International Festival there were several Central Station members who had planned an exhibition but whose submissions hadn’t been accepted. After discussions on the site, spearheaded by Stephanie Spindler, Radius developed as a series of fringe events happening around the city during the festival.

5. Uzzz

uzzz.JPG
The ultimate collaboration and a project that introduced the world to Central Station. We asked for our members to submit an image that tells the audience something significant or revealing about them. Alec Farmer then created a video entitled Uzzz from the submissions and Jack McConchie from the band Isosceles did the soundtrack.

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See more of our Top 5 selections here.

If you’ve been reading our other “Phil Kay Does GI” blogs…which you really should have been, they are very interesting and insightful…you’ll already know that on Saturday, we were shadowed by a reporter from the BBC Radio Scotland Comedy Café, hosted by Janice Forsyth. The programme we’re going to be on airs on Friday 23^rd April from 1315 to 1400. If you didn’t know that, well…now you do. You’ll also know that Phil Kay doesn’t like interviews, particularly if you’ve seen the first of our video instalments at the Sketchbook exhibition, where a rather frightened lady with long hair discovers exactly how little he thinks of them. I think the word “rubbish” may have been used.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that it was supposed to be just him being interviewed…not me.  I’m not Phil Kay. I don’t even have a beard, and I certainly don’t wear tartan on a daily basis. I’m not that fashionably adventurous. The most I will do is wear a denim shirt over jeans. Although I have been known to dabble in harem trousers, and I own a fedora. I also once wore a jade green jump suit and polka dot callots, (not at the same time….that’s a bit Sue Pollard)…anyway, that was in the eighties and doesn’t really count.

If you fancy hearing more about what the K-Unit got up to with on Saturday morning (apart from eating carrot cake for breakfast and stroking other people’s dogs) @ Glasgow International, you can do two things…watch our video blogs, and tune in to BBC Radio Scotland Comedy Café, Friday 23^rd April 2010, 1315-1400.

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See Phil’s insights from GI 2010 here.

We started our evening of art exploration for the opening GI festival in the West end of Glasgow at Welcome HomeGallery for the Glasgow PODCART exhibitionSKETCHBOOK.

What a great little venue.  I’d never seen Welcome Home this busy. Our very own Kirstie Swain had some work on display there amongst work by Bronto Skylift , Lauren Gentry , Sephanie Spindler and many more. The idea behind SKETCHBOOK was to show how artists generate and develop their ideas and the process’s which they go thought to create artworks.
I recommend getting on a White bike and pay Welcome Home a visit.
These included drawings, scripts, scribbles ,notes and lyrics and  drawn/wirtten on sketchbooks torn bits of paper, A4 sheets….

Our schedule was so busy that we didn’t have time to stay any longer and had to move on to our next opening at the GI HUB on Miller street.
There Phil decided to take a closer look at the Whites bikes and went for a ride on miller street. We then headed inside to check out the provo’s white bike plan exhibition which included the bike that got painted on George square during the manifesto.

From there we went to Glasgow Arches for Forest Fringe. Phil and I indulged in a game of pong on a giant screen to much of phil’s and my amusement.

Phil got the opportunity to be involved with artists and their work.

That’s Phil on the right hand side!

Phil got talking to a couple of musicians who wanted to write a song form him based around 5 questions they had previously asked him. Unfortunately the event closed early and we never got a chance to hear the song …

We will attempt to re-visit the Arches in the hope of get this song written and recorded for you all to hear.

To finish off our night we made our way towards Glasgow Art School for the second last Optimo, where Finnish trio Opel Bastard played an incredible dj set till the late hours of the morning..

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See Phil’s insights from GI 2010 here.

If you’re having Kay-Unit withdrawal symptoms like we are…(oh how we miss those snazzy tartan breeks and that lovely beard)…don’t fret. It’s okay. Everything is going to be alright, becuase you can see exactly what he got up to right here. Bye bye Phil, it’s been a blast. We’re knackered, we’re beat, we’re in need of a good night sleep….but at least we got our bike back :)

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See Phil’s insights from GI 2010 here.

After a quick bite to eat we headed to 212 West Princes Street to see Jane Nicoll’s curated exhibition HALLelujah 2 which brings together the work of fifteen artists from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent and North Wales. This exhibition came with a welcome twist as the artwork is set in the hall way of Jane Nicoll’s beautiful flat. It was lovely to see artwork in a domestic setting and let’s be honest (and maybe a bit cheeky), have a wee wander in someone else’s flat. After viewing the artwork Phil ended up singing a song with Sparky the dog and we planned the rest of our day over cups of coffee.

On our drive to City Centre to check out what Le Drapeau Noir at Renfield Lane opposite from Stereo was all about I found out that Phil Kay used to live on the same street that I live on at the moment. The phrase ‘It’s a small world’ comes to mind. At least it wasn’t the same number. When we got to Renfield Lane there wasn’t much happening yet other than Phil unravelling their black flag so we had a nice dinner break munching Stereo’s food and planned to visit the cafe again later on in the evening.

From Stereo we headed to Jim Lambie’s exhibition ‘Neon’ at The Modern Institute. It was bright, colourful and full of all creative, arty types enjoying chat, drink and the artwork. Neon is an exhibition I’d like to visit again when not so busy and take my time walking around in the space. The Modern Institute also had a book shop which seemed to have plenty of inspiring looking books not available in mainstream shops. Their big windows created a sort of fishbowl effect on the opening night as a group of people looked in from the dark Glasgow evening into what seemed like a burst of colour and enjoyment. It all made the world seem a bit drab and boring on our drive to pick up Phil from Stereo where he had cycled using a White Bike to see The Trembling Bells.

Our next stop was Guantanamera Record launch event at The Grand Hall at Trades Hall. Unfortunately due to visa and volcano issues, artist José Andres Ramirez hadn’t been able to come along as planned. I spent most of my time in there trying to get a signature from someone who had been filmed. While I finally succeeded in my task, but only after being asked to draw a shoe (who said that being a runner/assistant isn’t glamorous), Phil had a wee dance in the light of two big screens showing the two artists singing Guantanamera.

We finished the night at Le Drapeau Noir, a venue rumoured to be THE place to be during the festival. We entered the absolutely packed place about midway through Gummy Stump’s energetic set. The night continued with ‘Love Alien’, an artist Michelle Hannah dressed in silver skintight spandex taking the stage, or top of the table to be correct. After her spoken word performance she walked around in the crowd sharing her alien love by giving hugs and bringing a smile on people’s face. Phil Kay then improvised song about volcanic ashes before people dressed as bushes took over the dancefloor. This was our cue for the exit and some well deserved sleep before another GI day on Sunday.

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See Phil’s insights from GI 2010 here.

When we got there, we watched a man playing a big organ…he was good…obviously practices. I did my very own song too from one of the balconies overlooking the foyer. Surprised people having their lunch. Then we visited the David Shrigley exhibit where I had a chat with a lady called Ang. She said it was surreal, I thought it was fun.

Next stop is a fringe festival event called Hallelujah 2in West Princes Street. At some point in their life, everybody in Glasgow lives on West Princes Street. It’s the Andy Warhol of Glasgow. We’re going to someone’s flat….a lady called Janie Nicoll. She invited us by Tweeting at us. I hope she has tea. You’d think she would, since she’s invited 15 artists into her living room, plus all the GI visitors too. Might put a wash on while I’m there.

If you want us to visit your event next, then leave me a comment or tweet us an invite @Censta tagging it #GIPhil

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See Phil’s insights from GI 2010 here.