Today's idea - The Basement presents Quantick, AND Lighthouse's First Monthly Media Talk

Today TWO fantastic sounding events are taking place. We recommend both wholeheartedly.

The Basement opens their doors to the author behind Brass Eye, the Day Today, and Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe as he delves into his musical side, showing his face as the songwriter behind the legendary Ian Dury & the Blockheads. Tonight he performs in the Basement's artily titled 'The Space' alongside the Blockhead's Chaz Jankel, and will also provide a brilliant short set. If you don't know who he is, we recommend finding out more about the pop culture critic and finding him on Twitter @quaintick.


Cost: £7.50, £5 concessions
Time: Doors 7:30
Event information: here



SECONDLY, The Lighthouse is launching a Monthly Talks Programme to focus on moving image and digital art, with talks from some brilliant bigwigs from the BFI and art directors. Today's sounds well worth a visit as they invite filmmakers Semiconductor along who have just ended a NASA residency. If you're interested in video, sound and digital animation with a bit of a science spin, this is your thing.

More info: here
Time: Doors 6:30pm, 7pm start
Cost: £3
Tickets: here
Facebook event: here
Twitter: @lighthousearts

Today's idea - Quarter to Five Exhibition

Today we're excited about Quarter to Five Artists, an exhibition in Brighton which sees five artists create a two-week exhibition this summer at the seafront. They'll be presenting photography, paintings, ceramics and jewellery in a mix of surreal, natural, persian-inspired and antique art under one roof. There's also a side of occasional side of dead sea animal, but before we scare you off, it's only a small part. They've been showing off at the Artist's Open Houses and festivals, and now come to spend their two weeks at the Brighton Fishing Quarter Gallery (a place nicer than it sounds).




A description:

Miss Aniela's (Natalie Dybisz) high-impact, often surreal photographs are all self-portraits. Self-taught in photography, Miss Aniela's work has been exhibited in one-woman shows, and alongside other key emerging artists, in fairs in London, Madrid and Buenos Aires, and the cover of American Photo last year.

Nikki Black is a painter whose work is inspired by Persian rugs, Mayan ruins and Indian American patterns, painted using acrylics on texturised canvas. Nikki has regularly exhibited her work in Open Houses and festivals in Brighton.

Ceramicist Jessica Jordan's work is inspired by natural forms, found objects, and the natural erosion of surfaces. She produces vessels, wall pieces, jewellery and garden sculptures using the traditional form of hand-building, believing her work to blur the boundary between 'art' and 'craft'.

Peter Gosbe's jewellery is most definitely unique. Composed from antiques and sometimes found dead sea animals, his art becomes objects of curiosity, weaving the macabre and the scientific; the mechanical and the talismanic.

Ruth Schmidt uses photography to explore natural structures and textures, often abstracting the subject matter from a recognisable context. Her objective being to promote the 'art of looking closer' to enable us to question exactly what it is we are seeing. Ruth works with slide film, producing photos with no digital manipulation, presenting her scenes 'as nature intended'."

It sounds worth a good look, and Bored of Brighton will be taking along their adventurous and keen faces at the weekend.

Running until 29th June
Cost: Free
Times: Running during the day (assuming 10am-5.30pm)
Map: here
Location: Fishing Quarter Gallery, Fishing Museum, 201 Kings Road

Today - Byrne, Koons, Coppola and others do illy expresso art

Today Strada, in a great sounding event - surprisingly stemming from a PR stunt. A brilliant collection of artists including Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg and Marina Abramovic have been rounded up to design their own expresso coffee cups, in "Strada presents the illy Art Collection”. 286 designs have been created not only by artists but by film makers, creative types, and a couple of famous faces with contributions from Francis Ford Coppola, David Byrne, Federico Fellini and Pedro Almódovar sounding worth a look.

"The Collection though is not just about ‘famous names’. Over the past 20 years illy has also collaborated with lesser known artists and students from all over the world to give them an opportunity to express themselves through its porcelain cups."

Essentially it revolves around illy's redesign of its expresso cup in 1990 and now, 20 years later, they're a bit pleased and are pulling in famous names to bring their interpretation to this event.

"The illy Art Collection began when the company changed the design of its espresso cup in 1990. Ernesto Illy wanted to create a new, exclusively shaped, cup that could also stand on its own as a work of art. He contacted the designer and architect Matteo Thun to design it and the "illy" espresso cup, as a signature piece, was born. Twenty years on and the exclusively shaped cup is now used in more than 50,000 of the best restaurants and coffee bars in the world, including Strada in Brighton."

This bring us to present, and Strada have got involved and will be host of the exhibition. Some rare designs from Thun in 1990 reach up to £2,500 in auction, so it's a pretty cool thing to be lurking about in the local coffee house.

“Strada presents the illy Art Collection” runs from 16th - 29th June 2010

Times: Open 7 days a week from 11.30 am-10.30 pm and is free of charge.
Location: Strada, 3 The Waterfront, Brighton Marina, Brighton, BN2 5WA.
Map: here
Website: strada.co.uk

Today's idea - Unite Brighton Exhibition

Today we recommend a fundraising exhibition from Brighton and Hove artists in aid of a better future for Haiti. Today and until June the 30th artists Mandeep Birdy, Angela Huang, Felix Kunza, Steve Yeats and others will exhibit work in support of a volunteer-supported orphanage called 'The Future of Haiti'.

Taking in as many of the 70,000 children with no home or parents as they can, they provide shelter, clothing, education and comprehensive medical care. The orphanage was built following the disaster to reshape and help young lives.

So, in the tradition of good old British support, 'Unite Brighton' brings together local schools, artists, businesses, and more. With the Umi Hotel opening its doors as a supporting exhibition space, work comes not only from fully fledged artists but also from the local community. A large 50-canvas mosaic painted by local school children will be on display during June from a mass of schools around Brighton and others, to raise money toward The Future of Haiti cause.

Pop down, add a couple of coins to the Giant 'Unite Brighton' piggy bank in reception, and have a good old mosey around the art.

Running until June 30th.
Location: Umi Hotel
Time: Daytime (10am-6pm at a guess - for clarification call: 07929 979 073)
Map: here

Today's idea - Touch Art Touching You: BlindArt for the senses

Touching Art Touching You isn't just an Abba-pun, it's a good exhibition currently going on at Hove Museum & Art Gallery. It sees a break-down of traditional barriers by actively encouraging visitors to experience and explore art through touch and other senses.

"The experience challenges the notion that sight is essential for creating and enjoying exceptional art.  The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures and installations, including sound, drawn from the permanent collection of BlindArt. This comes from not only visually impaired artists but also sighted artists, and challenges the public to tell the difference."

All works in this exhibition are made accessible to a diverse audience through touch, audio description, large print and Braille labels. It sounds lovely: the curiosity of what differs between partially sighted and sighted artists, and what it's actually like: I've never seen anything quite like it and will be going to see it at the weekend.

It's running until 5th September 2010.
Cost: Free
Time: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10am-5pm; Sunday 2-5pm
Website: here
Location: Hove museum & Art Gallery
Map: here

Today's idea - Museumaker's Black Butterflies at the Royal Pavilion

Museumaker opens today. Artist Claire Twomey has ben commissioned to install 3,000 black ceramic butterflies in the Royal Pavilion for museumaker, spreading across the Banqueting Room, Great Kitchen and Entrance Hall, escaping throughout out other ground floor rooms.

The butterflies will cluster on the banqueting table, across window panes, in roof lights, on mantelpieces and other surfaces. Their sombre beauty will be a reflection on the excesses and frivolity of the past life of the Royal Pavilion.

Twomey is a ceramicist/artist who works with clay in large-scale installations, sculpture and site-specific works. Over the past 10 years she has exhibited at Tate, Victoria & Albert Museum, Crafts Council, and the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan.

If you've never been the the Pavilion before this might be a great time to go, and I'm especially tempted towards it because it's been the fancy museums that I normally pop into and love.

Running until January 2011

Cost: £9.50 adults, £5.40 children, £7.50 students
Location: Royal Pavilion
Map: here

Today's idea - Hook, Line and Sinker

Today Brighton University's art faculty displays an annual mass of over 500 graduating students' work, becoming the largest art gallery in the South East for a short time only! This year's show is titled Hook, Line and Sinker and will see over 15,000 visitors walk through the doors.

"Brighton is well known for its forward thinking and eclectic artistic talent; previous arts graduates include Turner prize-winning artists Rachel Whiteread and Keith Tyson. Fashion graduate and founder of the Biba label Barbara Hulanicki returned to Brighton last November to give a rare talk on her life as a legendary fashion designer. More recent fashion graduates have also embarked on successful careers since leaving Brighton. Julien MacDonald was voted British designer of the year in 2001, alongside Gresham Blake who has now become a tailor to the stars." - Rosie Rogers, Editor of the Verse

The Brighton University website does a nice summary of the 'best bits' of the show. Which is useful, but of course arguably unhelpful to other students:

"There are many student names worth remembering:
Steven Woodward, fashion with business student who was runner up at this year's Fashion Awareness Direct (FAD) competition had his work showcased as part of London Fashion Week. His designs were selected from more than 100 entrants in a competition described by Vogue.com as an 'undeniable springboard' for the next generation of talent.

Knitted textiles student Debbie Holman, who received a £2000 bursary from The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters, will be displaying her clothing range, which is designed to help improve the quality of life for eczema sufferers. Debbie has worked with designers at Accessorize and her work has been sold in New York.
Also the recipient of a bursary from The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters is knitted textiles student Sophie Penn. She will be exhibiting a range of work created as a result of her extensive research into the ways in which communication can be used in knitted textile design.

Textiles print student Laura Andrews, who has benefited from working in Ecuador, India and also at the design department of Accessorize, will be displaying her own range of fashion and textiles. With a great interest in fair trade, Laura is currently working as a designer for EcoChic, a company based in Hove, and she also contributes to the online magazine

Fine art print making student, Ania Zydron, jumped at the opportunity to take up a placement at the Nagoya University in Japan as part of her course. She had the opportunity to learn traditional Japanese woodcutting techniques and her exchange culminated in an international student exhibition." - Find more on the Brighton Uni Website

Rosie's written a brilliant write-up of the show, which we recommend checking out before you head out. It sounds brilliant - especially with the novelty as being the largest gallery in the south. There's also the History students whose show takes place at the Pavilion Parade, who always get a bit forgotten.

It's made up of a couple of 'exhibition within exhibitions' and you can find specific details of the Fine Art Printmaking and Lucid: the Photography Degree Show on Facebook. Lucid, very excitingly is off to FreeRange London this year which, having caught last year's, is brilliant.

Running until 10 June.
Time: 12 noon-6pm (find times for the entire week here)
Map: here
Cost: Free
Event Page: here

Today's idea - A-B Exhibition at Boxbird

Today Boxbird presents A-B Exhibition of contemporary printmaking and illustration "inspired by travel and foreign adventures. Last year's exhibition won the Argus Angel Award for Best Show in Festival.

This year's brings together 30 of "the most most exciting international designers to create a fresh and exciting exhibition jammed full of affordable prints and original art works by the likes of Graham Carter, Jon Burgerman, Lidia De Pedro and The Peepshow Illustration Collective. The exhibition will also showcase 10 new and emerging artists selected from over 120 applications to be part of A to B. This continues Boxbird’s commitment to support new and emerging artists, graduates and students by providing a first step into the commercial art industry with the support of the gallery owners Alice Teague & Illustrator Graham Carter."

It's running until Thursday 27th May as part of the the Brighton Fringe.

Time: 11am-5pmt
Location: Boxbird Gallery, 14 St John;s Road
Map: here

Today's idea - Mnich's Mix Festival Showcase

Today's idea if posted late, but runs until May 25th. Mnich's Mix showcases work of twelve professional artists, and this year is its 10th. Made up of 6 Surrey and Sussex Guild artists, Jan Mnich's festival is filled with watercolours of colourful journeys of landscape, plants and architecture through the Mediterranean and Sussex coastlines.

This exhibition is a brilliant mix of disciplines and products with the best of creativity, style and art, so we are told. It all takes place in Rottingdean, just outside of Brighton. It's made up of:

JAN MNICH MA: Watercolours, Prints & Cards
GLENIS BOOTE: Jewellery

PAULINE CROOK: Screen Printed Textiles

PIERRE DIAMANTOPOULO ARBS: Sculpture 

JOHN EVANS: Raku Ceramics

MICHELE FINDLAY: Ceramic Sculpture 

STUART JENKINS: Silversmith

JESSICA JORDAN: Ceramics

SARAH JOYCE: Glassmaker

JOHN PLATER FSDC: Woodturner

ANDREW PODER: Boxmaker

LOUISE TURNER-CREASEY: Textile Accessories

Cost: free
Location: The Grange Museum & Art Gallery
Map: here

Today's idea - Cinderella Project: Lucien

Today we recommend the Cinderella Project: Lucien which sees brilliant Brighton artist Jake Spicer work with Sabotage theatre in "a combination of gripping audio drama, an interactive, site specific experience and the opportunity to witness live painting in an intimate and engaging setting."

"Imprisoned deep inside the industrial corridors of New England House is the Alchemist Painter, Lucien Yemie. A restricted number of spectators will be allowed to enter his chamber, listen to the stories ingrained in the art, and watch the painter at work.

This is the first in a series of Art/Theatre collaborative events entitled 'The Cinderella Project' discussing the nature of art, love and mortality. The Project seeks to bring together unique and challenging combinations of artistes to create original and unconventional work. Zöe Hinks, Artistic Director and Playwright for Sabotage Theatre Company, has followed the work of established painter and printmaker Jake Spicer since last June. They have been working together symbiotically to evolve a new way of exploring art and narrative.

The Project has spawned a love child; the mysterious and revolutionary Lucien Yemie. Lucien will be embodied by Jake Spicer, who will be painting live throughout the performance."

We're been interested in Jake Spicer's life drawing classes in Brighton for a while (more to come on these in future!) and he's been shortlisted for the AOH Best Artist Award in 2008 and won Fringe Report Artist of the Year in 2009. This year, working with Zöe Hinks, Artistic Director and Playwright for Sabotage Theatre Company, the exploration of art and narrative should be great. There's lots of good reviews:

“Sabotage Theatre are a young company worth your attention and Zoe Hinks is clearly a writer worth watching.”
 ****Fringe Review on last year’s production of Ravens. 

"This captivating play manages to make us question the meaning of longing and the abilities of love to overcome obstacles"
 ****British Theatre Guide on ‘What all the Rabbits are Doing’

“From the haunting, relective. and mesmeric Portrait With Sewing machine to the silent mysterious In a Room With no door to his eloquent sketches: Jake Spicer creates worlds of mystery and delight.”
 John Park Editor of Fringe Report on Jake Spicer’s Exhibition ‘Living in The House With No Door’


Cost: free (but tickets are limited so book early to avoid disappointment)
Time: There are 3 admittances a day between 15th to the 22nd May at 12.30pm, 7.30pm and 8.30pm. Audience meet 5 minutes before outside the main front door at
Location: New England House
Map: here

Today's idea - You Made me Gay

Today we like the sound (and have been severely recommended) ‘You Make Me Gay’ - an exhibition of new works by Patrick O’Donnell. Bit of a press release today as have to dash to catch a couple of Brighton Festival bits!

'You Make Me Gay’ is an exhibition of personal icons painted by local artist Patrick O’Donnell. These are figures from his life who have influenced his gay identity. His subjects range from school friends who danced to Madonna with him in the playground, characters from 80s television programmes, figures from the music industry and performers from the Working Men’s Club circuit in Yorkshire where he grew up.

Showing at The Oriental in Brighton (formerly the Oriental Hotel) from 1 to 31 May, the show questions the notion of who a gay icon is. Do they have to be gay? Do they have to be real people or fictional characters?

O’Donnell says “Gay icons are usually famous people, whose iconic status is perpetuated by repeated exposure to carefully selected familiar images. My icons all have equal billing, regardless of media coverage and column inches. The act of painting each portrait has confirmed equal iconic status to each of my subjects and their actual level of fame becomes irrelevant. They are all famous to me. And they make me gay”

Running until 31 May
Cost: Free
Location: The Oriental Hotel
Map: here

Today's idea - Glimpse into the Dream Home labyrinth

Today the Phoenix Gallery is doing something a bit cool. Whilst the description initially makes it sound like either an open homes show, or a Through the Keyhole, it sounds far more interesting.

A "voyeuristic tour of a home which has been inserted into a public gallery space. Moving through a labyrinth of hallways, rooms, wardrobes and hidden spaces, visitors can catch glimpses of the private lives of its inhabitants," they say. Now, here's the bit we like:

"Sculptor Ben Thomson has designed a floor plan into which he and other artists have poured their dreams and fantasies in the form of installations, photographs, paintings, drawings, film, sculpture and animation. Rather than replicating a literal domestic interior, the spaces evoke a range of memories and qualities associated with notions of ‘home’ -- comfort, vulnerability, ambition, nostalgia, secrets and discovery." Secrets! we heard. The way that stories develop through the revealing of facts can be fascinating, intriguing. I'll cite An Inspector Calls and Jonathan Creek as two disputably good examples.

"Glimpsed through windows and heard through the walls, a cast of characters begins to reveal itself. From adolescent dreamers and nuclear families to time travellers and transients, the protagonists appear through the objects they gather and the environments they create. Visitors will encounter the house’s diverse occupants through the work of Gary Barber, Alvaro Collar, Fox & Gammidge, Jonathan Gilhooly, Caitlin Heffernan, Rona Innes, Kim L Pace, Natalie Papamichael, Jim Sanders, and Ben Thomson."

You can find a list of events here, and below is a video of the making which gives a good idea of how big the porject is but with admittedly has some painful narrating.



Times: Tue - Sun, 11am - 5pm.
Map: here.
Continues until June 6.


Today we also adore Steampunk's Gentlemen's Relish which we accidentally wrote on Wednesday. It's taking place today.

ALSO! We love the free sampling of sausages and 'sausage games' which makes me giggle, including a sausage and cider treasure hunt, sausage bobbing, sausage snap, and pin the tail on the piggy. This is happening at Sussex Yeoman Pub. I'm going to spend today recreating my own sausage games in the back garden.

Today's idea - We love Linocuts at Castor and Pollux

Today nice Linocut prints from 'Chroniques de New York' are on show at Castor and Pollux in their first exhibition of 2010. Made as illustrations by Julie Doucet for 'Chroniques de New York' by Jean-Fracois Jouanne, the "small but perfectly forms group of prints" went on show three days ago, and continue until May 24th. Doucet's comics and graphic novels will be lurking about in the bookshop.

It looks like nice, well made art, without too much art guff (I laugh childishly because I wrote 'ass guff'.) But anyway, it looks really lovely.

"At the Université du Québec à Montréal she completed a degree in printing arts. During her studies Julie Doucet took interest into drawing comics, and eventually devoted herself completely to that funny art form. Her comic book, Dirty Plotte began life as a photocopied fanzine. In it Doucet would document in french and in english her day to day life, her dreams, angsts, fantasies. The series was first published in 1991 by Drawn & Quarterly, in the comic book form. Shortly afterwards she won the prestigious Harvey Award for Best New Talent. She left for New York city, where she spent a year related in  ’My New York Diary’  In the 1990s, she abandoned the medium of comic books and went back to printing. Woodcuts, linocuts, silkscreen printing, followed by an abundant production of artist’s books. She took part in many group exhibitions and, finally, in 2006 she had her own solo exhibition of her print work at the galerie B-312. Julie Doucet now writes and makes collages. Mostly."

You can find some more of her work here.




The celebration of linocut prints continues with Paul Catherall, exhibiting as gallery artists during April and May.

"Catherall’s architectural prints draw from 20th Century poster design and focus on structures that are part of the urban environment with a clean and sharp palette inspired by commercial art of the 1950’s and 1960’s Catherall depicts various well-known landmarks from London, New York and Brighton.

Catherall identifies the established and continually developing skylines of his locations, treated equally in measure.  Catherall displays an expert eye for composition and colour; and great draughtsmanship, achieving ultimately a delicate balance between classic commercial design and contemporary urban landscape. His linocuts have become synonymous with Transport for London and Tate Modern."

It's free, and can be found at:
Location: 165 King's Road Arches, Lower Promenade
Map: here.

Today's idea - Spring Exhibition

Following on from last year's first Spring Exhibition which was a big success, Brighton and Hove Arts Council presents this year's Exhibition takes place today with contributions from five art groups around town. Opening today, the exhibition will feature oil paintings, watercolours, sculpture and mixed media, showcasing from art societies: Dupont Art Club at Hove, In it for Life, Society of Catholic Artists (Sussex), Society of Sussex Painters and South Downs Art Society. "Work will also be for sale at reasonable prices."

It's taking place in the Brighton Friends' Meeting house, a nice building from 1805 with some lovely gardens that's about two minutes from the seaside - usefully accessible and not too far too walk out of your way. Running until the 24th April (Saturday). It's running 10am-5pm weekdays, and 10am-4pm on Saturday.

Today's idea - My Arm at The Basement

Today The Basement, of which we are rather fond, have a curious performance titled 'My Arm'. Having toured internationally since it premiered at the Traverse Theatre in 2003, this is the first time it comes to the public eye in Brighton.

"“At the age of 10, for want of anything more meaningful to do, I put my arm above my head and kept it there. Now, thirty years on, I’m so full of meaning it’s killing me.”

Told through performance, film and the animation of everyday objects, my arm is the story of an empty gesture. It’s the confession of a man who has lived for thirty years by the courage of his lack of conviction. In that process he’s become a celebrated medical specimen and an icon of the New York art scene.  It’s about modern art, bloody-mindedness and how the things we do when we’re ten stick with us for life."

"Colossally powerful” says The Scotsman, singing its praise.

The Basement is often home to experimental performers, describing itself fairly accurately as "a vibrant hub for all things subversive and idiosyncratic". We're not sure if it'll be taking place in The Space, a large room with "unbound experimentation" or in the more intimate amphitheater known as 'The Pit' with a sunken stage but we expect a visit to the arty venue to be very much worth it.

Written and performed by Tim Crouch; film by Chris Dorley-Brown
Date: Fri 16th & Sat 17th April
Doors: 7.30pm
Tickets: £8 / £6 (Concessions)
Find it on the map here.

Today's idea - Precious

Today, we recommend Precious - an exhibition at Hove Museum in which it is promised that "nothing is what you expect." The Museum commissioned eight artists and makers to create new pieces, and nine to exhibit existing works. Precious, therefore, is the result.

The pieces speak of art, and it is not always obvious how the materials started life. Waste paper and fabric are transformed, landscapes made from computer parts. Books, parts of furniture, drink cans are all reclaimed and re-made.
Coming from all over the country and selected from 300 applicants, the makers reflect all aspects of contemporary craft in Britain today. For anyone who has ever glanced at a second hand item and wondered where it came from, these artists explore where these objects can take you. Their work will inspire and amaze.

The exhibition runs until April 23, entry is free and Tue-Sun the Hove Museum is open 10am-5pm, and Sun 2-5pm.

Today's idea - Martha Rosler Reads Vogue Exhibiton

Today and until April 4th, the Grey Area plays host to 'Martha Rosler reads Vogue' from Alison Jones, Martha Rosler, and Milly Thompson. A thoroughly nice little arty spot in brighton, the installation:

"will consider the luxury magazine and the complex veils through which the amorous glances of commodities charm and fascinate with their illusions:

Identification, aspiration, wealth, social superiority, luxury, distinction, class appreciation of the finer things in life, are imbricated in an orgy of bourgeois values; the enduring symptom of women’s asymmetric relation to power insistently realised through the private world as to-be-looked-at-ness and being-for-others; the elliptic worlds of fashion, art, media, entertainment and the nexus of money; and the co-dependency of the artist producing recondite commodities which furnish glamorous lifestyles within this realm.

Martha Rosler Reads Vogue (Martha Rosler 1982) deconstructs the messages in Vogue and its advertising. It was created at the time of the first backlash of post-feminism and the values she interrogated then are now ubiquitous, making the questions Rosler raises prescient.

Alison Jones foregrounds the contradictions of post-feminism and power in ink drawings that feature magazine photographs of women collectors at home with their private art collections of Helmut Newton and Thomas Ruff.

Milly Thompson’s graphic digital prints are aestheticised utterances that play on the subliminal messages of contemporary aspiration and desire through the language of advertising."

There. Arty blurb better than I could ever put it. Finding the Grey Area is a tad like Harry Potter's Diagon Alley (look around the corner) but it's a good little spot.

Open Thursday-Sundays, 1-5pm.

Today's idea - The National Testing Grounds of Live Art

Perplexing and intriguing live art comes today from the National Testing Grounds of Live Art taking place at The Permanent Gallery in response to The National Review of Live Art taking place in Glasgow next weekend. Pushing the boundaries of practice, the focus is on Boundaries, Fluidity and Dislocations, with the comissioned artists explicitly exploring ideas through artists: Mikhail Karikis, Mitch & Parry, Kristin Sherman, Dori Deng and Meta Drcar.

It's all about:

"The boundaries of the body – and the distance between bodies, the exploration of sound and the confinements of our physicality, the limitations of the gallery space, of the self, of the other, of the individual and of group migrations in our geography, identities and disruption across the artistic and the non artistic."

Supported by Lighthouse and curated with Permanent Gallery, two places known for filling up the South Eats arts scene with rich new ideas and provoking thoughts, the event starts at 7pm and costs £4. I've included 'the blurb' below with more details on what each artist does. It's a fine line I suspect between revealing nothing, and describing every details. It seems quite worth an investigation, and lasts for today only.

"For this Testing Grounds event Mikhail Karikis will draw parallels between the nature of the medium of sound and politics of migration; thinking of sound as a perpetual immigrant, always travelling away from its place and material of origin, penetrating invisibly into spaces where it may not be welcome.

Kristin Sherman explores structures of power made manifest through intricate performance machines. Her work for Testing Grounds paints a dark and humorous portrayal of power and control, a system made of bodies, where each actor monitors the other. Taken to extremes, the work questions and challenges our notions of freedom.
Mitch & Parry’s new working project examines the landscape of the body as a space for collecting and exhibiting the stains and marks of loss, love and labour, by developing their work of creating external discourse with internal bodily fluid – creating a tension between provoking and inviting the spectator.

Dori Deng and Meta Drcar’s Measuring series questions the relationship between space and different medias including the body, visuals and sound. The action of measuring is presented physically, but also through mathematical connections, for instance the connection between musical rhythm and time in order to change the dimension and the proportion of the gallery space, twisting our assumption or expectation of a given context."

Today's idea - The Steampunk Hidden Planetarium

The honour of your presence is requested at the occasion of the Steampunk Hidden Planetarium, a show of heroes of music, mechanical hats, operatic ghetto classics and performance art. It should be bizarre and fantastic.

Steampunk "is a genre of fiction set somewhere in the 1800’s during the Victorian Era," and tonight The Marlborough Theatre plays host to the Steampunk Hidden Planetarium with the theme revolving around the "Victorian interest in the cosmos, the inventions that helped further our understanding of what lies beyond our fair planet, and the art and literature that was inspired by the field of Astronomy."

The theatre puts on A Hidden Market - an Emporium even - today from 3pm and later hosts a busy show tonight at 7pm in the name of all things Steampunk:

"We have some SP heros performing for you this month, including Ghostfire, who will be making their long awaited debut on our stage. We also have music from Ru (an excellent astrologer and musician), from Jane Bom Bane (who will be performing complete with mechanical hats), plus Marianna Harlotta and Ruby Corset will be playing their operatic renditions of ghetto classics. And last but by no means least there is performance art from the Lady Absinthia, whom I have been desperate to bring to the Marlborough since I first saw her bizarre and beautiful performance at Decompression."

You can find the event on Facebook here and more information on Steampunk over on Brass Goggles and Wikiedpia.

They've also got Hendrick's gin to sponsor them and so the first 25 Steampunks to arrive get free Gin. Win win.

Today's idea - Expo2010 at the Permanent Gallery

Today, for the first project of 2010, the Permanent Gallery opens expo2010 with art works in painty forms, laser-cut perspex, plaster cast, digital collage and photography. In collaboration with artist-run Norwich-based OUTPOST present eight artists; Richard Cook, James Epps, Susan Forsyth, Gemma Gore, Nikki de Gruchy, Andrew Hladky, Simon Newby, and David Sullivan. We don't know too much info about this exhibition but like all Brighton exhibitions, it's probably worth a look into. The exhibition is free, and runs until March 7th 2010.


Open: Thurs/Fri/Sun 1pm-6pm and Sat 11am-6pm.

Location: 20 Bedford Place (Google Map Link)