hidden gems

Today I also finally had time to stop and look properly at an exhibition at Picadilly square station which i've been walking past to get to work everyday. Its called 'Pop will eat itself' part of a series 'art on the underground' by the government.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/projectsandschemes/artmusicdesign/pfa/artists/pop-will-eat-itself.asp

The work was scattered round the station and no map, so i had to hunt for it. On my travels I found the back of this closed down Zavvi store (the front of which leads right out onto piccadily square) and someone had left two lifesze models in position behind the shutters. Looked like some kind of dramatic movie scene being played out inside!

Roland Ross- Propulsive 2008. In an abandoned shop window which was all blacked out there was a tiny little peep hole behind which was playing this bizare film of a starfish type thing morphing across the scene. Felt like an idiot peeping through the wall- no one else had even noticed it was there. Think i looked a bit crazy with my face against the glass but it was worth it. Very surreal experience!

Sam Plagerson- Elle 2008 (J.Lo head). There was no exlanation about this unfortunately i don't really know what it was meant to be. Why J.Lo one wonders? Kind of strange and distorted.

Rachel Bradley- Cous Cous. A photograph of a mans chest made out of cous cous (I think)

Jack Newling- An eventful Compression (prints)

Oh what lovely, beautiful type. Might be able to use this for something!

More Jack Newling...

Liu Bolin

I'm starting to find the good things about my 3 hour commute each day. Not only do i get a bit of exercise biking 15 mins each way to the station, when i'm on the train it's like an hour where there isn't really much to do other than read. So each day I get time to read the metro, London lite and the London paper- ok not the greatest papers, but I always find something worth reading in their, reviews and articles for my dissertation and event listings/gallery ads, and occasionally culture things, as well as time to read my campaign subscription and my latest book.

Today there was an article about this artist called Lui Bolin who paints himself into backgrounds to disapear. I've seen this kind of thing before- Emma hack makes beautiful images of herself camaflauged into detailed wallpaper which look really modern. But the piece, called 'The invisable Man' explained how he was forced from his studio by the chinese government and it deeply effected him. His newest set of photos 'Hiding in the city' explore his emotions and experiences of being on the run, trying to keep out of the way and blend in to the background.

This was my paticular favourite- standing amongst the earthquake rubble, this is quite a haunting image that adds a human story to a photograph of surroundings.

''Its what is not seen in a picture that tells the story''.

Corot to Monet

Yesterday lunchtime I went to the national gallery. Been there a million times before and only had half an hour so i went straight to the temporary exhibition of landscape artists including Corot and Monet.

I absolutely love cities. I love being in them, I love living in one, I feel like i thrive of the busyness, the energy. When I walk around and its packed and everyone is trying to get somwhere it gives me a buzz. I like the diversity, I like listening to peoples conversations, getting snippets and words which don't make any sense. I like how you can tell someone who is from the city straight away. The people who belong here. People who have worked here for years, who live their life in the hustle and bustle everyday. They know where to stand on the tube platform, they know exactly where there going, they aren't phased by the massive crowds.

I also love seeing tourists too. I may be the only person in the world who doesn't get annoyed by tourists. When I see people with maps, people lost, taking pictures outside red telephone boxes, speaking different languages, buying souvenirs, i'm really excited for them. I just think to myself that this is such a big deal for them. For some, this is like a once in a life time trip, they've never seen anything like london before. Its completely new to them, its exotic, its totally different from their own countries. I love it how tourists look at cities totally differently, with fresh eyes, new perspectives. They see things that people who live there never notice maybe their whole lives. They appreciate every little thing.

I often feel that people give cities a hard time, especially in their own country. People think they are dirty, littered, man-made. They complain about them, they only want to be inspired by nature and things that are natural. I think this is because people never look around them, their eyes are closed. They only see the litter and they don't see the architecture. They see dirt and they don't see people or history or life. No-one seems to appreciate cities for what they are.

I love cities. especially cities in my own country. I'm proud of living in a place where there is so much culture and history. When someones travelled to come and look at somewhere that I live and see everyday, it makes me feel lucky to live there. I can't even imagine living in a country that doesnt have old cities.

But I do happen to feel the same way about nature. My parents live in the middle of nowhere and as soon as i get outside the city i get the same buzz from the green and the trees. My journey home is the most beautiful ride through the peak district and it always makes me happy. I am in complete awe of everything natural too.

So yesterday, as I walked down regent street and through trafalgar square I got my city fix and then I went inside and found my nature fix in the absoulutely beautiful landscape paintings. I was transported somewhere else for half an hour. And I am rather fond of paintings of not a lot, because they just capture the kind of things we see everyday, but never take the time to appreciate.

Joseph Mallord William Turner- The evening star Charles Francois Daubigny- River scene with ducks

Monet- The Thames below Westminster

Monet- The beach at Trouville

Sunset in Roman Campagna- Simon Denis

Corot- The wood gatherer

Writing for Television

Have now met the infamous Dave Trott. Was quite a scary guy!

The session was at his Agency Chick smith Trott, on a very posh floor all glass and sofas. We weren't allowed any tea (didn't finish till half 9) and a team who were 3 minutes late got a bollocking for being unprofessional. Argh!

When we got started though, Trott gave us a lot of good advice. First we went through the structure of advertising, how to decode it, how to tell if it was working. Impact, Communication, Persuasion. He told us never to be subjective ever again, no 'i like this' 'I like that'. Instead, this is working because... this is not working because. If you know why something is not working you can change it.

Then he talked about the structure of agencies- If you don't like the brief then change it. Get the client people to rewrite it. Convince your client they are wrong.

He told us he thought Northeners worked harder because they were scared, not as complacent. (Peter Saville told me this too)

The most influencing thing i took from Trott though, was how to behave. He told us you have to outsmart, Out think everyone, beat them. You need to do whatever you can to make sure you constantly have the advantage. The beauty of advertising is you can beat people who are better than you. That is the aim of the game. It is no fun beating people who aren't better than you.

From this moment on I am not a student. I am an unemployed creative.

And Dave Trott thinks the whole point of going to Art school is to rebel. To do everything you are not supposed to do. To actively seek out the rules and break them.

This was the brief he set us:

G- Whizz car.

Thats it.

And then he told us we had already done it wrong.

We present to him next Monday.

http://www.james-frey.com/

I have just finished reading James Frey's new book Bright Shiny Morning. Of course it was amazing as i expected! Just as good as his first two books I couldn't put it down. No author has ever inspired me as much as Frey has, he is a very unique talented writer- his style could be compared to irvine welsch, it's completely real and raw and full of energy. All three of his books are full of truth and grit and reality. They are compelling and life changing and I could go on about Frey all day long i love him so much i just can't get enough!! hope he writes another book soon. All i can say is you need to read these books!!

Hellooo...

Another week another brief! beginning of Week 3 and Presenting to the client today so fingers crossed for everything. Bit of a manic day yesterday getting everything ready for today- some people here till half one in the morning and back in at 9, eek! It has been great to watch the work go from sitting in the creative briefing to finished thing presented to the client in two weeks!

Starting on a new brief today- building a bit of 'consistent corporate identity' ooh er.
Havn't had chance to go to a single gallery yet so trying to make time for it in my lunch hour, starting from today! Then I can add some images to the blog =)

Came up with a great (i think so) idea for my CPT file next year... if my work isn't conceptual enough this year i am going to conceptual the hell out of it next year.

Getting set the next IPA brief by none other than Dave Trott tonight at agency Chick Smith Trott- all change we are swapping partners and mixing things up a bit so should be exciting!

Found out that Pravda used a line our team (helen, anna, arron and me) came up with for a curry sauce when we were there a few weeks ago- very pleasing, we've had our first bit of student work ripped off =) !!

Surprised my best friend for her 21st at a little festival called bugjam... got very wet in the rain, stuck in the mud, drunk, and saw Sonic Boom Six who sang happy birthday to her, almost no sleep, but saw some amazing vw racing and some kind of crazy rocket car that did 200m in 6 seconds or somthing like that.

So thats my news from this week so far!

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