no barking aRt#1

make us humanno barking aRt . issue oNe

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

SHIZICO YI

EDITOR

IMOGEN EVESON

ART DIRECTOR

IMOGEN EVESON

DESIGNER

SHIZICO YI

IMOGEN EVESON

PHOTOGRAPHERS

SHIZICO YI

SHARON SONDH

no barking aRt . issue oNe

Editor’s notEWElcomE to thE first issuE of thE no barking art magazinE, “makE us human” and congratulations to all Who havE hElpEd bring to lifE thE tWo parts of matErial World in such a vibrant Way.

What makEs us human? amongst many othEr things, thE nEEd to connEct makEs us human; finding common ground to sharE With Each othEr, WhEthEr friEnds, lovEd onEs or rElativE strangErs. anything in lifE that brings pEoplE togEthEr – WhEthEr it may bE rEligion, music, a star trEk convEntion or football – is surEly a forcE for grEat good in thE World and WE havE found that goodnEss in thE inaugural no barking art biEnnalE. art, in this instancE, has brought togEthEr a disparatE group of pEoplE from a WidE rangE of nationalitiEs, agEs and artistic backgrounds. photographErs, sculptors, poEts, paintErs and musicians havE convEnEd and formEd a collEctivE spirit of gEnEr-osity and passion.

this magazinE is intEndEd to cElEbratE this oncE morE and act as a mEmEnto and souvEnir for all artists involvEd, to thank thEm for thE timE and EnErgy thEy havE dEdicatEd to this projEct. WE havE takEn inspiration from Each artist and formEd idEas and obsErva-tions around thEm. in somE casEs WE havE givEn voicE to thE artists thEmsElvEs, alloWing us to viEW thE artWork through thEir EyEs and discovEr thE diffErEnt pErspEctivEs thEy find on thEir fElloW artists. it is playful and ExpErimEntal and – WE hopE – has as much charactEr infusEd in its pagEs as is containEd in our WondErfully EclEctic collEctivE of artists.

imogEn EvEson

PERCEPTIONThree of John Humphrey’s sculptures occupied the window space at the No Barking Art Biennale part one. A series of busts, they are at once incredibly lifelike but completely surreal; every day faces stretched and warped as though caught out-of-sync on a computer – an image resized wrongly on Adobe Photoshop. Yes, despite their three whole dimensions, there is something incredibly digital about them. Indeed, many visitors asked if they had been made with the use of a 3D printer. Not many suspected they had been rendered by hand.

Humphreys is no stranger to the art of deception. He is a sculptor with a colourful past in film and TV prosthetics, having worked on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alien Autopsy, Alexander and Doctor Who. But he also played a key role in a story that captured the world’s imagination when, in 1995, footage was released purporting to show a post mortem being carried out on an extra-terrestrial following an alleged UFO crash in the New Mexico desert in 1947. It was a secret he kept – even from his wife – for ten years; he made the Roswell Alien.

The dichotomy between real and surreal in Humphrey’s sculptures is what stopped hundreds of passersby in their tracks everyday during the exhibition – beguiled and trying to make sense of what they’re seeing. And once inside the gallery, they were seen to interact with the artworks; moving around them and taking photographs of each other in between the sculptures, creating an even more uncanny line-up. Humans like to play with art, as an

accessible way to experience and understand it, and the more that art plays with us, the more we respond.

Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich creates this same interaction and challenges audience perception in a playful, fantastical. In 2013, in a Barbican exhibition, he installed Dalston House in a disused lot in east London. Trading on the fairground ‘House of Mirrors’ illusion, visitors could scale the façade of a Victorian terraced house from the comfort of their own backs; watching their reflection in a mirror mounted at a 45-degree angle above them. “We usually take familiar spaces for granted; I find them important because this is where life actually happens,” Elrich told Time Out London last year. “The ambition is to create a fiction from the ordinary.”

Roan Allen explores the nature and power of the object and the individual’s relationship to it. In a works-in-progress video clip, The Door, Allen incites viewers to attempt to get to the door, to open it, to walk through it. But as we circle the door and attempt to move closer, it remains inaccessible, always at an angle – surrealistic, like a recurring anxiety dream.

Allen, like Elrich, is certainly creating fiction from the ordinary, just like Humphrey’s sculptures spark a hundred narratives on both first glance and further study. It is fantastic and fun to have our perspectives played with and warped, to be elevated for a moment from the mundane or prosaic. And art is the perfect vehicle to do this.

by Imogen Eveson

Previous pageJohn Humphreys in his studio

Clockwise from top leftJohn Humphreys; Roan Allen; John Humphreys; Roan Allen

DIGITAL ART AND ILLUSTRATION

Amidst four walls of eye-catching, hand-rendered artwork, a small computer screen at the No Barking Art Biennale kept visitors transfixed. There is something in the subversion of the familiar that is captivating and Silvio Severino achieves just this effect with his series of iconic album covers rendered as animated GIFs. The most contemporary; the most digital of art. Nirvana’s dollar-chasing baby is snapped up by a shark, The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers zip is undone and from within Andy Warhol’s screen-printed banana is pulled, a cameo, borrowed from another familiar oh-so-familiar record sleeve. The mountainous peaks in Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures are smoothed out by a pair of hands and David Bowie looks up from his Aladdin Sane sleeve, fixing his gaze straight on you. This is postmodernism on fine form; in the haemorrhage of images typical of contemporary culture, the past has been transformed into a mammoth lucky dip and Severino has created work that appeals to both our sense of nostalgia and our newly tuned Tumblr and Facebook sensibilities.

Bricolage has always been subversive and thought-provoking – indeed, digital artist and photographer Jelena Perisic describes herself as sometimes practicing ‘recreative blasphemy’. Her collages recall the politically charged and challenging photomontages created by Dadaist Hannah Höch, described recently by Guardian journalist Brian Dillon as ‘art’s original punk’. Höch’s work is striking in its vision and appears almost contemporary.

Certainly, her pioneering style continues to influence those working in illustration, graphic and digital art today.

Where Höch was dextrous with a knife, digital tools enable graphic artists to bring a tension to their work, transposing age-old techniques with a digital fluidity and giving wings to flights of fantasy. Chema Martínez’s digital illustrations evoke a Studio Ghibli-like dream world; at once familiar and altogether surreal and Holly Maslin’s illustrations conjure a singular vision of a re-imagined world. Victoria Rowley’s beautifully crafted botanical illustrations might at first appear innocent as Cicely Mary Barker ‘Flower Fairy’ drawings, upon closer inspection they are in fact composed using ‘exotic imagery’, as delicately put by Rowley herself. Hers works – with titles such as Cockasaurus Lilium, Flaccid Flora and Droopy Boob – make for rewarding viewing.

While it is debatable if art can ever shock anymore or rock the status quo (so immune are we to even the most extreme news and imagery), these artists continue to explore, recycle and innovate; exploiting the myriad possibilities this digital era affords those with creative vision.

by Imogen Eveson

DIGITAL ART AND ILLUSTRATION

Opposite page

Top left:Happy to See Me, Victoria Rowley

Bottom right: Droopy Boob, Victoria Rowley

This page

Holly Maslen

This page

LeftA Glass of Milk by Jelena Perisic

RightElephant’s Kingdom by Chema Martínez

Opposite page

Crab and the Lighthouse by Chema Martínez

Overleaf

Bats in the Belfry by Jelena Perisic

Duck Lamp images, Sebastian Errazuriz’ team Duck Lamp images, Sebastian Errazuriz’ team Sonja Pena

SONJA’S ADVENTURES IN TAXIDERMY

Duck Lamp images, Sebastian Errazuriz’ team Duck Lamp images, Sebastian Errazuriz’ team Sonja Pena

A bit tired, a bit lazy... waking up on a Sunday morning is always about to try sleeping in, but this Sunday I was woken up by my Mac’s noise indicating incoming mails into my blog’s inbox! It was a mail about an offer of featuring an article about taxidermy written in my very own style. How fantastic is that?

I had 9 days to search for artists and various uses of taxidermy and its strong existence in the art scene in present time.

Taxidermy and stuffed animals with their own odd and bizarre phenomenon were somehow always in my mind. Thus this week of investigation was really interesting because I already had a wide knowledge about it, still exploring its new approaches.

Nowadays at work I seem to be a bit of a weirdo in my colleagues’ eyes; , anytime someone hears that I am fond of taxidermy animals. However, taxidermy is back! Stuffed animals are popping up everywhere. Throughout this research -week of delving into taxidermy and its evolution to where it currently stands,: I found that it’s the new obsession to have!

For me personally, the interest in taxidermy started early in my childhood. At my grandparents’ farm I was surrounded by animals that I always wanted to keep alive forever.! I still have very vivid

memories of that. Later in my life, biology and natural history played an equally important role as art history. Throughout my week of research I talked to many people. Amongst those who adore taxidermy, the love of nature and natural history were unanimously agreed, thus where else would I wanted to go first than to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington?

I was interested in the mammal section, where I headed to immediately. The museum exhibits various taxidermy animals. Some are faded and discoloured, showing the signs of history because the museum is strongly against the killing of animals for the purpose of being exhibited.

How old are these exhibited animals ? When did taxidermy appear and have its heyday? It all started in the Victorian era with hunting being a popular and stylish sport. Hunters wanted to display their trophies. This was also the time when science was flourishing. Returning from the exotic world, scientists brought back varied games that could not be found anywhere in England.

SONJA’S ADVENTURES IN TAXIDERMY

Duck Lamp , copyright : Sebastian Errazuriz, New York.

Jaime Freestone Caught in a trapTaxidermy Jackdaw inside deer pelvisin Material World, Part I no barking aRt biennale 2014

by Sonja Pena

Taxidermy was always an indicator of class and wealth as mostly the rich could afford to have them exotic pieces in their salons. Nowadays it still appears to be expensive, yet it creates a sort of bridge between the East End and West End, between rich and hipster. Amongst many couples, there appear to be a tendency to give taxidermy animals to the partner as presents because it is deemed cool.

I found stuffed animals in pubs, where stag heads or animals like an armadillo or birds are displayed because of their aesthetically pleasing character, to fancy restaurants like Tramshed close to Old Street, which features a massive Damien Hirst installation of a cow and chicken preserved in formaldehyde. At first many of us could wonder: would not it be bizarre to eat beef or poultry in the company of their real yet lifeless counterparts watching us? Well, Tramshed’s popularity has certainly proved that the answer is no.

In a short radius Les Trois Garçons is another chic restaurant showcasing a great deal of opulence achieved by its unique and lavish interior including many taxidermy masterpieces such as Dalmatians, a giraffe head and monkeys, amongst others. Furthermore its popularity can also be described by the rising number of artists. Besides the well-known Damien Hirst, there are many other very talented artists who use taxidermy to express their admiration towards natural history.

In the past 10 years numerous contemporary artists integrated taxidermy into their art. One of the pioneering artists was Polly Morgan who has been having many exhibitions since. No barking aRt family member Jaime Freestone also combined it in his installations. At modern exhibitions , that include s taxidermy, I always have a strange sort of sensation that it stretches a fine balance between living and dead, capturing a very lively natural moment of the animal’s life but nevertheless being lifeless. It embraces eternity, preserving that eternal snapshot for the future.

What’s more, in Hackney people can attend DIY taxidermy short courses, where they can learn the basics of taxidermy. Following Walter Potter’s anthropomorphic (animals dressed as humans) art, these dead mice can be dressed up, putting various objects in their little mouse hands, adding a hat on top of their head and they can be decorated with anything one can imagine. After the last finishing touches, the little mouse creatures can even be taken home to show or give to other interested friends.

On the contrary of it all being bizarre, triggering a shivery macabre feeling when entering a hall of dead animals, taxidermy also embodies fairy tale like;, kitschy and romantic features warming up people’s hearts. For example the 2012 Harrods Christmas shop window included many beautiful ‘stuffed’ birds: swans and rare white peacocks making the scenery appear softer, warmer and more delicate in its own terms although its colour scheme only included wintery cold colours.

Tim Walker, master of fairy-tale-like photographs, and David LaChapelle, fashion photographer, both like to use taxidermy in some of their iconic images creating bold, rich and colourful atmospheres.

Additionally, its ubiquitous presence in our time is not only manifested all over the hip restaurants. Interior designers are also keen to use them as decoration in luxurious apartments from Paris to New York through our very own capital; London. People would pay considerable sums for a unique piece of art involving dead animals.

In addition to the aforementioned approaches and artists, designers started to use taxidermy to create inanimate functional items yet eternal living through these one of a kind pieces. For instance, Sebastian Errazuriz’ Duck Lamp. Errazuriz’ constructed something that conserves the organic shape of a duck, yet artificial in at the same time, forming a timeless piece that will live through.

Lastly but most importantly, when considering taxidermy we might think that the animals were killed to be preserved and used for art. This was unfortunately true in the Victorian era, but this is not the case anymore as artists and museums want to keep wildlife and not to destroy any of its living beings. Then, where does all the supply come from to fulfil the increasing demand for taxidermy – in this niche market that encompasses art installations to romantic gifts? . We can all be relaxed; the answer is simple and ethical. Roadkills and animals deceased by natural causes.

I hope you enjoyed reading my entry about the curiosities of taxidermy and if you are more interested go on a hunt for yourself! There are plenty of things to see and check out: forthcoming art exhibitions, museums, books, eateries, showrooms, movies and even classes to master this skill and make your own piece. !

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top, 1 Damien Hirst installation in Tramshed . East London, courtesy to Tramshed.

center 2. and 4. pictures courticy to Natural History Museum, London.

3. Jaime Freestone , The Rabbit King Replica skull with feathers,bone and assorted embellishments inside a dome jar

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by Imogen Eveson

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WDoes portraiture reveal more about the sitter or the artist? Consider Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud’s respective portraits of each other and you see both personalities and lives entombed in each.

Liz and Kevin Derbyshire are both artists with wholly idiosyncratic styles. The No Barking Art Biennale ‘Material World’ showcased their divergent but complementary approaches through tender observational studies of their children and relatives.

Two examples both capture loved ones by the light of the TV, and while Kevin’s work is deft in its photorealism, Liz’s work is deft in its impressionistic broad brushstrokes. Both give the sense of fleeting and precious moments of family life. One stylistic point they do come together is their subtle experimenting with saturated colours that – as with Picasso – add a hyper reality to the subjects.

Maureen Nathan’s style sits in between these two examples; her line and mark making unfettered but confident; expressionistic. Her textures, angles, compositions and use of colour recall Egon Schiele but the style that emanates from all the media she employs – pencil, charcoal, ink, oil – is entirely her own. In one moment, she creates a narrative; her sitters animated and their stories made intriguing.

Chris May operates on an altogether more introspective level. Are his paintings self portraits? Or a visceral exercise in paint layering and playing with light and shade? His subjects are inscrutable, highlights of facial features protruding out of the shadowy canvas, redolent more of Bacon than Picasso.

How refreshing in all these disparate works to see the mark of the maker, of the hand? In a world awash – and sanitised – with the flat planes of vector drawings and airbrushed skin (made void of any tone, animation or even character), these are works that are truly engaging. They invite you to keep looking, imagining and making.

Previous page and abovePoint Up and Heady Study by Chris May

Opposite page Catherine by Maureen Nathan, charcoal on paper

This pageBelinda by Liz Derbyshire, acrylic on canvas

Opposite pageSam by Kevin Derbyshire, coloured pencil and ink on board

Bryan Green and Pascale Pollier-Green

DOUBLE ACTSDOUBLE ACTSDouble acts and collaboration in art: in the history of everything, these ideas have been interpreted and formulated in many different ways.

From apprentices working under the Old Masters, to brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman and lovers Gilbert and George working collaboratively today. Indeed, a single soul is often enough to work collaboratively and you need look no further than Bob and Roberta Smith or Grayson Perry, Claire and Alan Measles for evidence.

We have, amongst our own No Barking Artists, a series of double acts. Two couples who, for a long time, have love, lived and work alongside each other, hopefully with much of the passion of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but less of the destructiveness.

Liz and Kevin Derbyshire met as art students and – three grown up children later – have been together ever since.

Portraits of their children, rendered in their own idiosyncratic styles, hung opposite each other during the exhibitions, locked in an unspoken dialogue. Here, Liz paints an evocative picture of their lives together.

Bryan Green is a sculptor and poet, while his wife Pascale Pollier-Green works as an artist – artem-medicalis – who explores the point at which art and science meld. Bryan shares with us ‘Two Artists Together’, a poem that betrays the symbiotic tenderness and frustrations involved in living as a creative couple.

And then there is a pair of artists – both luminaries in their field – whose collaboration was to win them a gold prize at the 2010 RHS Tatton Park Flower Show. Sculptor and model-maker John Humphreys and artist and garden designer Tony Smith describe their joint

“Imagine... two art students from the south of Britain meet at art college in the far, far north live together, get married have three children who all grow up painting and drawing liberally and still

continue in their twenties. Then imagine a house with all that artwork in! Crazy but we still just carry on. Strange perhaps and

self indulgent, but I cannot imagine not having ‘it’ and I think we as a couple share ‘it’: that is the excitement of creating; the passion, love and sadness of life that can be caught in a moment forever and then

when looked at by others hold different meanings and feelings. The top of our house was converted to a studio and off that is a very small room which

has a bed to sleep in… ha!

We both retain that sense of wonder at the world like small children and perhaps have never grown up despite having a family etc. Like small children, we reach for something

to make our mark on life. Perhaps all creative individuals retain this. We both love going to art exhibitions and get enthralled and greatly inspired by the

vast amount of talent. Incredible.”

Liz Derbyshire

“We are probably slightly different artists than we would have been if we weren’t together, as we may have been influenced by each other’s styles and experiments

(successful and unsuccessful).

But I would think that we are not that much different as artists than we would have been -

ultimately art is an individual thing and each person has to follow their own course.”

Kevin Derbyshire

two artists together isn’t easyhow would I know?

two artists together isn’t easyhow would you know?

some have done itI love you

stop looking in the mirror when you say thatbut I love you

stop looking in the mirror when you say thatyou are my self portrait

stop looking at your self portrait when you say thatwithout you I would be nothing

nothingwhat are you looking at now?

do you love me?of course I doI was talking

to the catmany artist couples have lived happily together

what do you think has kept you together all these years?I’m sorry we don’t understand the question

one likes Andreas Vesalius and one likes Alfred Jarry how did we bridge this gap?respect

do you admire my work?what work?

when you paint do you think of me?always!

but you paint nothing but bottleswhy can’t you love me in my way?

I love you in my way

TWO ARTISTS TOGETHER

yes but why can’t you love me in my way?why can’t you love me in my way?

and now restI think you stop me thinking

well I dream of the day when I can dream againTea

and not too strongthe one you made this morning would‘ve melted a bus

take this away whatever it is and bring me tea I knead you

I am dough in your handsbut I knead you

I am dough in your handswithout you I’d be lost in a world of derelict words

without you I’d be dissecting cadavers in a mortuary you are my A to Z of loveand all roads lead to me

I wanted to be your motorwayI wanted to be your spaghetti junctionyou are my jolly renaissance graveyard

and you are my endless cul-de-sacherd it all before and we have left the gate open and the cows have come home

and now we’ve cracked it, the mirror of the milky wayanother seventy thousand years

you are my cosmic snug and you my cosy void

if I wasn’t some sort of artist I’d become one for youand if I wasn’t some sort of artist I’d become one for you

By Bryan Green

DOUBLE ACTS

A Matter of Time by Tony Smith and John Humphreys

previous page:John Humphreys and his sculptureTony Smith in Chelsea Flower Show 2010

“We created a show garden at the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show in 2010 and it was awarded a gold medal. About three years before this we had been talking about the Alien sculpture that John made for the Alien Autopsy films and he said as a throw away remark that if I ever needed an alien, let him know!!

Well I thought he was off his head and didn’t think about it again until I was at Tatton Park in 2009 creating a show garden for Quilted Velvet, the loo paper people. I was on my knees planting lettuce plants and glanced over to the gardens that were being built on the sloping ground opposite and the idea hit me instantly. We would make an 11m diameter, 3m deep impact crater in the grass, line it with 12000 lettuce plants and place the alien in the bottom. I phoned John there and then and said ‘can I still use the alien?’ He replied with a yes and a year later it happened.’ A strange collaboration but that’s what happened. John planted a seed and it eventually germinated. He is a very patient man and a natural gardener! It was called A Matter Of Time. As in, it’s only a matter of time until we meet aliens. But in reality, time is the reason we can’t ever meet aliens. They are too far away and it would take too long to get there or here!”

Tony Smith

DOUBLE ACTS

BODY EXPLORATION By Noémi Szabó

BODY EXPLORATION

BODY EXPLORATION By Noémi Szabó

The four sections of the No Barking Art Biennale ’Material World’ were composed of photography, painting, video and installation, providing the opportunity for visitors and art lovers to explore the body from the individual perspectives of an international group of contemporary artists.

A clear theme running through the exhibition is the human body, something which has engaged artists throughout the history of art. Throughout the different ages the exchange of visual dialogue about the changes of body image transforms our earlier views of the relationship between body and soul, their place and role of the aims of the investigation . But we might never be so close to the understanding of the deeper layers of the body as the clay of the soul than we are today.

Today, the human body is one of the main sources of inspiration for artists, acting as the expression of identity, so much so that the artworks are regarded as the mental and physical drawing of age by many artists. The artists of previous eras depicted the

Previous pageSinclair Watkins

This pageWell-ness 1 by Naomi Szabo

Clockwise from top leftSteffen Kindt; Ana Cvejić;jSteffen Kindtc

human body in its perfection, according to the holy canons as an ancient harmony, whereas our present age more typically presents an unvarnished honesty, without any idealisations. The body appears with its weaknesses, defects and deformations together, unlike the ideal and perfect young body suggested by the media. This is an honest resolution, where the faithful presentation of the artists’ own reality is the only yardstick. The works of the invited artists from several countries are displayed in the exhibition, thus emphasising the art of limitless. Moreover, another important directive was that the almost inexhaustible topic could be shown/approached from several different perspectives, regardless of age, gender, cultural and religious affiliation.

I wanted to emphasize that the dividing line or the main difference in contemporary art is not between man or woman, but people started to concentrate on themselves, began to deal with the smaller world, their closer surrounding, other people and society. This specific point of view in art is equally

important for a woman and a man as well.The dividing line between contemporary art is not between art made by man or woman, but rather comes down to an individualist perspective, as artists concentrate on their own inner world, or at least their close surroundings. This specific point of view is equally important for both men and women..The best example is that to interpret the art of Steffen Kindt and Ana Cvejić. Both of them selected the opposite gender as their focus point from quite different point of view.

The Danish-born artist, Steffen Kindt emphasises the modern woman in his art, and works in the genre of classic pop art. Without conscious thought, great predecessors such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol come to our mind when watching looking at his large images. The representation of the female body and face in art and society is a strong focus for Kindt. He explores it through his simplification of his figures; using thick contours and powerful, clean colours of the comic and graphic novel genres. The cynical behaviour of his art is the protest against the alienation

of modern society, separating the woman’s body. In the international sphere, gender issues have been occupied by artists since the 1970s, and this has become an integral part of the representation of the body as well. At that time, the intentions for the establishment of gender identity began to appear. One specific example of the artistic display of vulnerability labeled by the female body is the ’Crucifixion’ plastic statue from 1965, painted by Niki de Saint Phalle, which puts the large female body showing genitals and decorated with flowers to the vulnerable position of the full crucifixion.

We adopt a very different mood in the picures of Serbia-born Ana Cvejić. The central problem of her art is the sexual aspects of man’s figure. The gain experience of emotions, sadness, fear, pain in everyday situations and leave a trail in the wounds of man’s face made by Ana. One of the most eminent proponents of research into the human body is Egon Schiele, the outstanding creative genius of Austrian art. He reached the ultimate liberation of state through distorted and wounded

representations of self-nudes and the largest number of self-portraits which was found in art history.

The Italian-born artist, Gianluca Pisano’s body fragments, by displaying disadvantageous and twisted poses, emphasise the wrong, corruptible body which has been deprived of the classical ideal of beauty with some grotesque undertones. Here I should mention the undisputed giants of English realist art, Lucian Freud. His nudes present an unvarnished honesty, without any idealised bytes, and he has become one of the most essential figures of the world’s art through his realist techniques. Pisano is a virtuos painter, and paints with much confidence; his work bringing to mind Rubens’ obese female models and Goya’s spooky visions bursting from dark. Pisano’s nudes pay tribute to the classic traditions of art and reflect the consciously-built individual vision. The human body almost explodes from the black darkness of his paintings made with classic oil technique, like the explored shadows of mystery which is perceived irresistible by the human mind.

Opposite page:wise from top lFlora by Gianluca Pisano

BODY

The young Hungarian-born painter Naomi Szabo started her research of the Woman in her undergraduate years, She found her muse, the Woman, and by extension, the body became her favourite means of expression. She is preparing her individual unanimous faceless body images by this investigation. She often sacrifices the form, by cutting the figures and divides her paintings: one picture is a compound of two or more pieces, the body is usually incomplete and it remains scarred. The experimental artist found unity in combining the different materials with each other. The ’Well-ness 1-2.’ (2012) consists of two pieces condensing the human and natural values into one composition. Seemingly these are two incongruous worlds. The choosen body is a symbol for time travel as the viewer looks at the image by the position shows a typical beauty ideal. The distance is defined consciously between the two parts of the images part of the whole composition. A kind of absence and the promise of the longed state created by the symbiosis of the two worlds, stretches the image. Her other painting, prepared on wood and canvas, named ‘Mimicry 1’ (2013) is an eccentric piece according to

the previous images in the subject of female body. The picture is a testimony of the capacity of change embodied in the form of the boy clinging to the skirt.

The Greek-born artist, Daphne Bampanioti is currently living in London and despite her young age, a unique tone characterises her creative style. During her process she uses her own drawings as the basis of her sculpture, linking the bridge between the plane and spatial representation. The individual lines which are found in her graphic studies eventually won a realisation in the 3D space as the form of the female figure shapes her wire sculptures. In our modern world her strange smiling female objects are the reinterpretations of the Venus of Willendorf, the most ancient symbol of fertility. While observing them, thoughts of beauty, the female engagement and motherhood be considered.

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Previous pagewDetail from Well-ness II byNaomi Szabo ise from top lClockwise from top leftProzac Happy People Series Untitled #6by Daphne Bampanioti

Wired Happy Women Series Untitled #3by Daphne Bampanioti

Detail from Close to You by Naomi Szabo is

FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS

NOW

FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS

NOW

In the eyes of photographer Ebru Varol ‘memory fades and the camera captures but a moment’. Looking at photography in all its forms such as mixed media, abstraction and art, the ability to express these methods through various mediums all stem from an inner passion and desire to capture and create. At the root of it all, lies emotion. As artists we react to experiences, which provoke thought, love, passion and conflict, to name but a few.

Photographic artists in today’s world are pushing boundaries with their images, incorporating mixed media to communicate new meaning and creating a narrative rather than simply recording. Photography is no longer considered an art but a craft. Photographer Hannah Dakin is no stranger to using mixed media; her work exudes complex practice and experimentation. In her project, Wax Blocks, she documents the re-imagined memories of her childhood, and presents with a combination of mediums such as collage, Giclee prints, wax, tracing paper and box, ‘combining photography and sculpture, allegorically attempting further preservation’, says

Hannah about this particular body of work.Photographer Ebru Varol states: ‘Art and photography are an essential way in and provide us access to the central, contrasting, conflicting nature of the human experience’. Similarly photographer Imogen Eveson speaks of her images: ‘in my work I am looking at the environment around me. I do not take literal self-portraits but my

Previous pageImogen Eveson

LeftAlice Marcelino

RightAster Reem David

photos depict my environment and so by extension myself ’. Travel, environment and nature play a key role for illustration. Photographer Aava Anttinen’s images are a careful study of human behaviour and the mind and relationship that the two form naturally. ‘For me Texas was all about roads and places they lead to’, Aava describing her project ‘Picture Texas’.

Documenting surroundings, social interaction and human response, remains a common theme and practice amongst these thriving photographers. Photographer Alice Marcelino, photographs people in their element and places in their natural surroundings.

Her style is a blend of classic candid shots with a contemporary elegance to it.

I believe photographer Georgina Howard’s statement nicely sums up the motive for any artist: ‘…and because I am interested in human interaction and reaction, my art is all around me’. These photographers have a personal touch and reason behind their methods but they all share emotion for the everyday and mundane. Photographer Carla Mylius Fleck explains, ‘Abstract gives a vast potential for our imagination. It is interesting to acknowledge the different interpretations’.

There are many variants that are practiced and used between these photographers; however there is also a tie that bonds them. The strongest one being that of expressing personal emotions and instincts and tunnelling them through the various mediums used. Female photographers have instincts that are separate from any other; the heart and soul that is expressed can be seen in any format. Perhaps I may be a little bias in observation but a strong connection is felt when observing female photographers and their methods of preservation of experience and environment.

Written by Aster Reem David and Jassie Alamwala

Clockwise from top leftEbru VarolHannah DakinAava AnttinenEbru Varol

11:59MATERIAL WORLD SPECIAL FEATURE

by curator shizico yi

11:59Artist Tony Smith arrives with his fellow friend, the sculptor John Humphreys to the studio for the preparation of no barking’s biennale exhibition; here we are, three of us, finally getting to sit down to chat. Then one cuppa tea turns into an extraordinary afternoon of peeking into the keyhole of one’s truthful state, one’s intimate state of being.

Over the years, I had learned often there is more to artists than meets the eye. One might look normal on the outside, but once you start to talk to the person, they take you to another island in the same way that their art does.

Great artists often bear a universe within each of them that makes their material world of clothes, cars, food, taste or even the location they live in seem out of sync with the depth of the person you are standing in front of.

During many late nights, what Tony Smith constantly sees between silent bedtime moments is this digital alarm clock:

“ there is this tension, right before the clock turns into 12:00, it is in these seconds that make you “wanting”, …

Tony continues “ Christmas Eve is by far the best day of the year, not Christmas day; …my children love Kipper, once he says to his other doggy friends at Christmas: “” what do you think is the best? Getting presents or thinking about getting presents?…. humans at the happiest state is not [once we found it], …the moment just before the 11:59 is the best bit,…nothing you’ve ever done in life is as good as what you build up in your mind, …like the anticipation of the Christmas,…”

I often thought these articles which are written in an interview format is a result of the writers’ laziness; but with these conversations in full flow, …I realise, this is one of those pieces that I should give up the pen for and give the pages back to the featured artists; let them do the talking.

Because what they are sharing in this teatime break is way ahead and beyond what my hand can translate. And here you are:

Tony Smith: ( T: )“Time is a funny peculiar thing. We frame it because we see meaning in things; we divide it into centuries and decades, which is meaningless. But we need to do that or we can’t cope with it. Because everything is too big, we can’t cope everything at once,…The moment you break everything into bits, you are not seeing what’s really there. Because of “what’s really there” is big and complex. We can either look at the whole world to see as it is and it blows your mind then you go insane, …or we break it up into small bits and look one bit at a time….which means you have no understanding of what’s really going on.You can’t win it, it’s a paradox.”

Shizico: (S:)“ does this mean, human is incapable of being happy? It’s like whatever you do, it is never enough. You just want to get to the next thing you are wanting …..”

T: “ this one is, yes, never could be absolutely happy…” Tony continues“ I like things I don’t understand, I like “not to understand”…The fact that the world is so unknown makes me want to look into the stars ( then he poses) ….wonder.I don’t actually want to know what’s up there, it’s much more fun to wonder”

John: ( J: )“Everything we evolve to do is to discover, to explore. I am like a hamster, I have to get in that wheel every day and do it. Once you had achieved it, it satisfies some inner drive, then I can relax…. I always think I can do something better and I am confident I can do better every time. I want to see it, I want to visualise it.”

T: “That is why when John and I got to the Chelsea flower show and got a gold medal, it starts to make sense of this life. The winning of that gold makes the life in between this and that,… more tolerable. Making something, whether is an art work or a bridge; for the

time you are making it, it makes life more tolerable, it stops you considering the realities. You build around that project a whole web of meaning. And life becomes easier.When there isn’t a project on, when there isn’t an immediate goal, then I feel a bit lost.”

J: “ …the first time in my life I had real connections is the day I walked into the art collage and for the first time, I was in step….because everyone else was as mad as I was.” ....

previous page 11:59 art work by

by Tony Smith

back ground:Tony Smith at work, hanging

the Sand Series

next pageJohn Humphreys at work in his studio.

picture credit : Peter Searle

It is now very understandable why John Humphreys is responsible for starting the riot of Alien Autopsy’ Hoax back in 1995. ( more details see page …)Three of us laugh, three aliens in the room; my dog sleeps on the floor and I am sure he has his own version of truth in his head too.Tony and John relax next to the tea table with their giant mugs which given to them accidentally by an American cultured dish collector as I ; it’s the worst kind of china one can serve in such an elegant conversation with English gentlemen.

It is easy to see why Tony builds sands into surfaces to make sculptures on the wall as paintings. It must have been his way of putting bits together to see the whole pictures in order to cope with this life we are all living in.The process of making becomes the only reality to artists and to embrace the fact that “we don’t know” “ can also become the fundamental thing for any creative process. If these are true then that explains why artists need exhibitions and need to be able to create. It makes this life more tolerable for all of us.

Like great artists ahead of our time, artists like Rothko who searched for the meanings and answers through brushes, through the hands of an artist; Tony, John and all other great contemporary artists are sculpting the truth into materials, wishing to fill this material world with more good art.

Galleries and museums are the visualisation of human mind; they represent the heaven of this material world. Next time when you walk into one, you will see art differently. You will see the visualisation of the truth, the good bits and not so good bits of the human condition. We wish you to, for the first time, to start to..” wonder”.

Back to John’s Hamster Wheel Theory, Tony adds,“ that wheel could be the church, could be the singing group or it could be piano lessons… it could also be visiting elderly people and helping them…”

I couldn’t help to laugh out loud and thought he was joking….

“--He in fact does that all the time,” John tenderly addresses me and consequently puts my laughter to shame…Tony comforts me by saying “ funnily enough I do, that just shows there is more depth to ourselves than you thought, there is quite a lot going on that you don’t see, some is good and some of it is not so good, so it’s probably best to leave it there…”

FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS

NOW

Art, music and language often seem to be separated out into different strands of artis-tic effort, but they are nearly always com-bined at some point of delivery or other. Many artists are exploring several types of art form, including poetry, theatre and, principally, visual art.

The old saying, “Jack of all trades, master of none”, was always a nagging doubt at the back of mind during these forays, and I always remembered the advice a fine old baritone singer once gave me about the arts some years ago - stick to your disci-pline, and spend a lifetime getting better at it.

All the same, the temptation to wander has always been great and difficult to resist. many have always felt that the arts are com-pletely interrelated, so that creativity in one so called field of practice can easily cross over into another - writing a poem seems to me very similar to the process of creating a painting, or creating a new piece of music.

The wonderful thing about art today is the ease which we can cross over these media and fuse them all together, with the aid of relatively simple video editing equipment, available on all home computers.

The life long love of the guitar eventually brought Lawrence Mathias to the point where he was creating his own music, a kind of hybrid of country blues and what-ever else seemed to work itself through, and having for some time been a dabbler in poetry, the words would come quite eas-ily to these simple little tunes. It was at this point that the music for him would begin to gain more resonance, as a story or situa-tion or feeling would begin to wind its way through the simple melody lines.

Hidekazu Sogabe had found his medium of making art in sound. Many find it hard to grasp such an abstract form; other than melody, Hide’s music is a series of “ children play” of joy and an adventure on constantly experiment with various material.Through exploring the materials such as bass and containers, Hide has been able to make “ noise” into poetry that goes directly to listeners’ inner heart.

by Lawrence Mathias

SOUND ART

FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS

NOW

1. topHide’s sculpture has been inspired by how he listened to the sound.

2-3A still from “Spell Over the Land” By Lawrence Mathiasand Lawrence performed with his video installation

SOUND ART

part II artists

Curator: shizico yi

Painters

Kevin DerbyshireLiz Derbyshire Lulu HancockToko Yamamoto HarrisLucy SM JohnstonChris MayBen MellorBoo PalaGianluca PisanoHidekazu A-wa SogabeIra UpinSinclair WatkinsTess Rachel Williams

Sculptors/ mixed mediums

Daphne BampaniotiJohn HumphreysJohn HumphreysSteffen KindtPascale PollierTony Smith

Installation artists

Ana CockerillJaime Freestone Bryan GreenEloise GreenVeronica A. Shimanovskaya [shi-man-of-sky]

Digital/Video artists:Lawrence MathiasJelena PerisicSilvio Severino

PhotographersAava AnttinenHannah DakinImogen EvesonGeorgina HowardEbru Varol

no barking aRt biennale 2014

Exhibitors Directorypart I

no barking aRt

biennale 2014

Exhibitors Directory

part II

Curator shizico yi

Painters

Ivy AubynnColin BinnsSwaroop BiswasLaura ColantonioAna CvejićNaomi DavisKevin DerbyshireLiz DerbyshireEloise GreenLulu HancockToko Yamamoto HarrisLucy SM JohnstonAndrew McNeile JonesSteffen KindtYuni KoOlga MikhasevaChris MayZahid MayoMaureen NathanGianluca PisanoBetty RitschelTony SmithHidekazu SogabeSharon SondhNoémi SzabóAlexandra SinopoulouIra UpinSinclair Watkins

Sculptors

Daphne BampaniotiSandra DakinJaime FreestoneBryan GreenJohn HumphreysClemence HemardAnnyRose NahapetianPascale Pollier

Installation Artists

Roan AllenAna CockerillLawrence MathiasSilvio SeverinoVeronica A. ShimanovskayaDavid WhitingJane Woollatt

Illustrators

Chema MartínezHolly MaslenVictoria Starlight Rowley

Photographers

Hannah DakinAster Reem DavidImogen EvesonGeorgina HowardAlan RuddleEbru Varol

Film, Digital artists

Mk CeesayCarla Mylius FleckJonathan GrauelPelagie-May GreenGerald OdowdJelena PerisicRichard Weston

no barking aRt

biennale 2014

Exhibitors Directory

part II