Workshop - British Higher School of Art and Design, Russia

I am excited to be teaching at a workshop at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow at the end of the month! The school is one of the most important centres in Russia and works in close partnership with the school of Creative Arts of the University of Hertforshire in the UK and specializes in professional education in various creatives fields.

I will be presenting a lecture about Wearable Art Technologies: Between Art, Fashion and Architecture, and a lecture called New Vision of Fashion Exposure: Off the Catwalk to Exhibition and Interdisciplinary Collaborations, as well as leading a practical workshop. 

Pecha Kucha Amsterdam #25

I recently made a short trip to Amsterdam and had the opportunity to speak at Pecha Kucha. I really like the PK format and have spoken at a few of them, and I think in way they take the temperature of the creative scene of the cities in which they are run. PK Amsterdam is run by duo Jeroen Beekmans and Joop de Boer behind the creative agency Goldstromen. Appearing to be some kind of design master minds, they also run this fantastic blog called Pop-Up City which documents ideas that “shape the future city”, manifested as a diverse profiling of international trends in technology, street culture, architecture, design, sustainability and all sorts of high-brow lo-fi DIY interventionism. It’s really great and worth subscribing to!

PK Amsterdam is held in the location Trouw which was previously a newspaper factory, now containing a restaurant and multi-purpose venue club space. The reconverted building retains its original industrial aesthetic (read vast slabs of concrete) and the club features a multi-coloured neon light configuration which anchors the echoing of the various different indirect and ambient lighting scattered throughout the complex. All in all it made a very comfortable venue to watch the speakers and hang out before and after for the large crowd of almost 400 who turned up to see the presentations.

The presenters mostly came from Amsterdam except myself and one other artist from Rotterdam and below are some of the speakers whose work and projects I found particularly interesting, but you can find the full list of speakers from the night at the PK Amsterdam website. I really enjoyed the diversity of the presenters, which included artists, graphic designers, a bike called Arnold, a high school teacher who writes a blog of the things his students say to him, and a guy who played the Jewish Harp, which sounds like the love child of the didgeridoo and harmonica. It was pretty cool. 

Artist from Rotterdam Daan Den Houter

Hik Onwerpers 

Arnold the bike who told us about his international travel.

Rick Companje from Doodle3D who had created a tablet to produce 3D printing which kind of looks like an Etcher Sketch but then converts the 2D drawing into 3D and then can immediately be printed as a 3D object, really great!

During my stay I also checked out the Droog Hotel and independent project space called Amstel 41 to see exhibition EVERYTHING SEEMS TO HAPPEN TO ME, ONE CATASTROPHE AFTER THE OTHER by Swedish collaborators Emilia Bergmark and Loui Kuhlau, as well as so many flowers! 

Next stop - Moscow, Russia to teach a workshop at the British Higher College of Art and Design at the end of the month.

Talk: Pecha Kucha Amsterdam

I am pleased to be giving an artist talk at Pecha Kucha Amsterdam on Wednesday the 24th of April at the Trouw venue from starting at 20:20. 

Come along if you are interested in hearing a curated selection of creatives speak about their practices, talks will be held in English. Find more details on Facebook!

Installation: TAPE THESE BROKEN WINGS, Kreuzberg Pavillion

Some install shots from the group show I recently participated in at the Kreuzberg Pavillion with  Berlin based performance artist Patrycja German and Lisa Schorm.

Photography by Glenn Goodison

Photography by Glenn Goodison

Photography by Glenn Goodison

Photography by Heiko Pfreundt

Photography by Heiko Pfreundt

Exhibition: TAPE THESE BROKEN WINGS, Berlin

Nice interview I did with The Views blog for this exhibition - HERE!

Ikono Video Spotlight with Artconnect Berlin

I am pleased to be selected by Ikono TV and Artconnect Berlin as their first spotlight artist for a collaborative series they are working on together. Ikono and ACB are inviting Berlin based artists to take part in a year long series of open calls to promote the visibility of the arts on a local an international scale. Once selected, Ikono TV create a video of one work by the artist. 

Read the interview I did with ACB here and see the video Ikono produced here. Read about the founder of Ikono TV here in an article for Slow Travel Berlin.

you are the robber, come and shake hands - PICA

Michele Theunissen

you are the robber, come and shake hands

16 February - 7 April 2013 

Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts

Perth International Arts Festival 

Curated by Leigh Robb

you are the robber, come and shake hands is an evocative three screen projection by established WA artist Michele Theunissen. A band of brightly-clad travellers journey along the edge of rugged and brittle mountains in South Africa, impelled forward by music that carries their stories. The film's title is taken from one of the songs, a throat song that growls from deep within the body of the female singer: a force almost primeval. There is a disquiet between the raw power of the song and the generosity implicit in the words of the title.

Referencing the dispossession of land caused by struggles between indigenous people and colonisers past and present, the work is both stark and joyous, highlighting the paradox of maintaining generosity in the face of displacement. Theunissen worked with WA artist Elizabeth Delfs to design a set of costumes for the band of travellers which absorbed the influence of the military, Victorian propriety with its long dresses and ruffled collars, as well as symbols of commerce such as ties. The costumes were intended to unsettle power relations. They reflect the adaptive ingenuity of indigenous people involved in the barter and exchange of colonisation and the energy generated in cultural exchange.

Michele Theunissen: you are the robber, come and shake hands is a Perth International Arts Festival event, supported by Perth International Arts Festival Visual Arts program partner Wesfarmers Arts. This project has been also been assisted by the Australia Council through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments and a DCA Visual Arts and Crafts Mid-Career Fellowship.

Image: Michele Theunissen, you are the robber, come and shake hands, 2007-2012 (film still). Image courtesy the artist.