Author: Mathias

The Pigeon Plan

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We’ve seen wonderful charitable projects that had quite an impact on the lives of kids in areas shattered by war, natural catastrophes and social marginalisation by threading new, alternative paths. While ambitious ventures such as ‘Skateistan‘ are mostly supported by newly created organisations, generous sponsors, widespread media coverage (inside and outside of the mainstream) and hundreds of helping hands, a small project initiated by the collective around professional skateboarders Louis Taubert, Kerem Elvers and Lucas Fiederling takes a similar line, though with entirely different DIY resources and aspirations. The idea behind ‘The Pigeon Plan’ originates from a number of trips down to South Africa in the last few years, which left them saddened by the massive gap between the rich and poor in the country. While most newly erected skateparks in South Africa have a pretty good standard, many kids from underprivileged backgrounds can’t afford to use them without the necessary equipment at hand. That’s how the initiative comes into play: Over the last few months, 100 once-loved boards have been donated, collected and equipped …

On The Bookshelf: ‘Photographer Writer Illustrator’ by Miniclick

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I love magazines. And photography. And especially if both are refreshing and doing things slightly different than the average publication. So when I first read about ‘Photographer Writer Illustrator’, with a broad smirk on my face, I had to think back to my early childhood and a playful writing, saying or drawing game we called ‘Stille Post’ or ‘Chinese whispers’. Like in the early surrealist tradition of ‘cadavre exquis’, each kid added something to the composition by scribbling or painting something on paper, allowed to see only what the previous person has come up with.   Back in the here and now, yet with the same childish delight and curiosity I eagerly awaited, unwrapped and came to love that small delivery Miniclick recently sent up North. Formed in Brighton around 2010, the lovely photography collective has made its mark with free talks, discussions, workshops and exhibitions in a growing but still tangible local scene of like-minded people in recent years. And of course the creative team around founder Jim Stephenson yet got another ace up their sleeves: …

INSA: ‘GIF-ITI’ from Space

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Everybody seems to love them or hate them in equal measure. But what would the internet world be without its quickly tinkered, highly catchy and sometimes slightly silly GIF creations? Right, a tad bit poorer in hilarious stuff. For a good few years now, Shoreditch-based designer INSA takes this internet spirit to a whole new artistic level and became an illustrious name in street art circles, turning his graffiti pieces into hypnotising digital animations: Painting, photographing, painting over, photographing, and all over again. With these ‘GIF-ITI’s, how he calls them, the artist deliberately vaults the streets and façades of London, Miami or Shanghai onto our screens, conveniently playing into the hands of those who more and more turn to the countless tumblr sites and art blogs for inspiration. After generating a buzz in the media with his large-scale murals, such as Stanley Donwood’s animated ‘Atoms for Peace’ album artwork in L.A. or the ‘Make Your Own Way’ collaborative GIF-ITI during last year’s Art Basel in Miami, INSA dared to have a crack at his yet most ambitious project. Well, I wouldn’t …

© Julien Coquentin

‘Black Seasons’ by Julien Coquentin

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Sometimes it just happens without knowing and I find myself dwelling around a website longer than I would care for. Facebook, twitter, pinterest or vimeo. Oh, and let’s not forget adobe’s artistic brainchild behance. The nosy creative connoisseur inside me simply loves to browse the hell out of it. Just hit ‘Most Appreciated’, pick a creative category of your choice and you’ll probably get your mind blown pretty quickly. Sometimes I happen to find a heap of really outstanding projects in a matter of minutes that way, another day it’s only one or two decent ones in half an hour of skimming through a seemingly never ending list of visual overload. Anyhow, last night I made a strike. After just about 4 swift minutes and sifting through maybe 15 other (similarly promising) projects, my cursor bumped into Julien Coquentin’s intriguing work. To be honest, the fifth and most recent chapter of his ‘Black Seasons’ series tops off probably one of the most atmospheric photographic showcases I’ve seen for quite a while. Moving along snowy roads, …

© Tim Lane

Drawing a Narrative: In Conversation with Tim Lane

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A web of eclectic visual storytelling, knitting threads of mythology and classic literary tales, delving into the abyss of the human psyche with a surrealist verve that raises far more questions than it answers. Simply put, Tim Lane’s impressive portfolio effortlessly ticks all the boxes for me. He first caught my attention when nomadic Antlers Gallery – the lovely Bristolians who represent Tim – set out for collaborative exhibition ‘Kindred’ with London’s emerging Curious Duke Gallery in 2013. Since then, the Cheltenham-born illustrator and painter released his highly ambitious, crowd-funded mammoth project ‘Anima Mundi – Soul of the World’, a 5-metre concertina book of graphite drawings that took two whole years to complete. Similar to his earlier works, his large-scale visceral illustration plays with recurring themes such as love and death, renewal and sexuality as well as the animalization of the human being, which yet unfolds an enigmatic open-ended narrative. And when I got the chance for a short Q&A with Tim, I eagerly jumped at it and asked him about his all-time favorite authors, the …

‘Russian Roulette’ by Ben Aston

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For some of you short film folk out there it’s probably not a well-kept secret anymore, given all the praise it received recently. And when a friend dashed it into my social media orbit – thanks Martin for the fit occasion – I just thought it’s time I’d share it with everyone: ‘Russian Roulette’ by director Ben Ashton is a brilliant short that narrates a moment in the life of Lucy, a lonely Londoner who ventures on Chatroulette in search for a bit of decent human interaction. And what she least expects in the virtual universe of oddity and the bizarre is a worthwhile encounter. Until libidinous Russian Cosmonaut Yergey turns up on her screen, floating in space. Intrigued? The low-budget production is a cheeky, cute and concise piece of film that voices thoughts about today’s social media generation, internet phenomena, loneliness, distance and closeness, packed in 5 minutes of storytelling. No wonder why Russian Roulette won this year’s Sundance London Jury Prize and since has been nominated for 2015’s Official Sundance Selection. Major Tom, now …

Road Dawgs: Future Islands Short Documentary

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It’s certainly not wide off the mark to claim that there’s no other band quite like Future Islands at present. Besides releasing fabulous records year after year, including probably one of 2014’s foremost albums, the likeable synth-pop three-piece from Baltimore is particularly famed for Samuel T. Herring’s incredible stage presence. Every time I see him perform, I am genuinely wondering if that term has been created just for his own sake. Who’s been to one of their live shows before, probably knows what I’m talking about. If not, you’ll know soon enough. My first Future Islands taster must have been around 2010 in a tiny venue called ‘Sonic Ballroom’ crammed with maybe 149 other people. That place didn’t even have a proper stage. So we’d ended up face to face with an ecstatic frontman about to tick off any second. What is now a kind of known fact about Future Islands shows – at least since this epic performance – was not something I was particularly aware of back then: Screaming, roaring, awkwardly dancing like nobody’s watching, head banging, fists punching …

Converge: Mark Salmon x Column Arts Agency

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Normally I’d refrain from praising myself, and this is definitely not the time to challenge old habits. Though in this case, it was probably my humble self that played a tiny part in bringing both sides to the table for photography-design-fusion project ‘Converge’. A few months ago, a tweet from Will Astbury’s Column Arts Agency – who already mounted the incredible ‘Triple Hop’ exhibition together with Test Space & Honest Brew – turned up in my twitter feed, hunting for a Birmingham-based photographer. My first idea was Mark Salmon, who recently collaborated with me for a story in The Quarterly, so I gladly put down his name for the raffle. Apparently, it did work out quite well. For ‘Converge’, which has been commissioned for annual visual arts festival Eye Candy, Mark teamed up with Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers Celine Gittens, Kit Holder and Anna Monleon to produce some really sweet live-action shots. Column Arts in turn send off an ace selection of their represented artists, including Trou, Joshua Billingham, Sweaty Eskimo, Laura Tinald, Joel Millerchip or Guy McKinley, to run riot on Mark’s images and add their very …

Traces of the Past: ‘Shot at Dawn’ by Chloe Dewe Mathews

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The dawning of a new day. A forsaken, leafless tree stands guard before a field covered in thick fog. Silence. Not a soul to be seen. If you had no clue of the delicate topic that Chloe Dewe Mathews addresses with her most recent photographic series ‘Shot at Dawn’, you could easily mistake it for just a great selection of beautiful, gloomy landscape photography. In fact, there’s more to it behind the peaceful façade, best visualised by an ambiguous title choice that metaphorically addresses a covert truth: The unadorned presence of warfare. While the London-based photographer aims into the forlorn distance through her lense, waiting for the right moment and eventually releasing her trigger to take the shot, the perspective has probably been exactly the same a hundred years ago, yet facing a group of soldiers pointing their deadly rifles at a convicted brother-in-arms. ‘Shot at Dawn’ narrates the forgotten, repressed or long-lost stories of the hundreds of French, British and Belgian soldiers, who were shot for cowardice or desertion in the dark days of World …

Shilpa Gupta: ‘There is no Border here’

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Last time I hopped on a train to Glasgow, the extensive GENERATION project, celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland, was still in full swing at almost every art space downtown. To be honest, when I came over last weekend, I didn’t mean to pay the Gallery of Modern Art another visit yet again or even had the foggiest idea what was on. At the end of the day, when push comes to shove, there’s less pleasant places to seek shelter from the pouring rain than the halls of GoMA. So why not have a look around?, I wondered. Maybe I should do that more often, cause ‘Art from Elsewhere’ certainly was pretty much amazing. Curated by David Elliot, the show assembles a set of works recently purchased by six major UK museums, covering themes like life in conflict zones, oppressive government regimes, the advent of capitalism and post-colonial experiences. After I eagerly wandered through the exhibition space, passing by prominent pieces like Meschac Gaba’s socio-critical installation ‘Brazilian Bank’ or Józef Robakowski’s film chronicle ‘View from my window’, I particularly dwelled on …