artists – The Cultural Exposé

Quirky pop-up We Built This City returns to Carnaby Street

Matilda — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 08:30:48 +0000

I stumbled across We Built This City a few months ago. It was a Friday evening and I found myself in that awkward position of needing to kill a bit of time, but couldn’t be bothered to drag myself to the nearest Starbucks for an extra hot chai latte and the wi-fi. So I strolled along Carnaby Street, popping briefly into Monki for a pair of new earrings, and eventually found myself gravitating toward’s WBTC’s chaotic graphic display, all the more intriguing because of the bold, creative references to London:

Just discovered this wonderful, alternative souvenir store on Carnaby Street. Seriously funky fresh.

A photo posted by Matilda (@megerecooper) on Aug 28, 2015 at 10:35am PDT

It didn’t even dawn on me that the pop-up, which sells city-inspired gifts and souvenirs from over 300 home-grown designers and artists, wasn’t a permanent shop – so I was pleased to hear that it’s recently returned for the festive season.

Along with their usual fun stuff, they’ve now set up a Christmas shop offering cards, decorations and a Christmas jumper printing service in collaboration with London design duo RUDE (they’re ace) – and if you’re feeling creative, you can sign up to one of their creative workshops that include jewellery-making, the art of wrapping and even how to make a Christmas piñata.

How cute are these? We Built This City staff rock the Christmas jumpers you can design yourself

The shop is currently open and can be found at 56 Carnaby Street, but for more details, visit www.webuilt-thiscity.com

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Somewhere you should go… Digital Revolution at Barbican

Matilda — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 10:00:17 +0000

It’s fair to say that the world’s digital explosion in the last 40 years has been something like a phenomenon. Rapid, progressive and artistic all at the same time, we’ve seen it stretch across many facets of life and industries – and this generous show at the Barbican does its best to present as much of this under one roof. Visitors are first met by retro games and inventions in the Digital Archaeology section. As the unmistakable ching-ching-ching of Sonic the Hedgehog collecting coins in the legendary platform game resonates around the room, there’s a chance to play Pong and Super Mario Bros and see the first website by Tim Berners-Lee. Walk further into the exhibition and you notice greater nods to technology in music (musos can feast their eyes on a Linn LM-1 drum machine), education (remember Speak & Spell?) film (Inception and Gravity get a look-in) and home computing, with screens showcasing old-school browsers like Netscape while you can see the development of Apple computers back when the corporation had a rainbow logo, and later spread some colour to the bulbous iMac G3.

Chris Milk’s The Treachery of Sanctuary at Digital Revolution

And that’s just the beginning. You’ll spend hours admiring and playing with creative art as you experience commissioned works from a range of digital filmmakers, technicians, artists, fashion designers and musicians including willi.am. A graphic of the pop star towers over visitors like a modern day Pharoah in the State of Play section, watching you as you move and belting out a new track – autotuned, naturally – that he penned exclusively for the show. It’s kind of freaky but still impressive, like the rest of this mighty project that presents digital technology to creative extremes you simply couldn’t make up. And yet incredibly, some very clever people did. On until 14^th September. For tickets, visit the website. Digital Revolution Trailer from Barbican Centre on Vimeo.

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Somewhere you should go… Jazz Re:freshed

Matilda — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:00:36 +0000

It’s a damn near crime we’ve taken our sweet time to spread the word about weekly music night Jazz Re:freshed, but that’s only because we’ve selfishly enjoyed being amongst the first few privy to their long-standing, progressive movement in our neck of the woods. Since 2003, they’ve inspired West London locals and musos all over town to pack out the tiny Mau Mau bar on Portobello Road where some of the best homegrown and international alternative musicians are given a platform to showcase their stuff. Artists such as Jose James, Kaidi Tatham, Mark de Clive Lowe and N’Dambi have crossed their threshold (and if those names mean anything to you, you’ll understand JR offer nothing less than superior talent), and with a mission to redefine the concept of jazz music, they’re doing a grand job of honouring the artists doing just that. If you’re not already in the know, it’s about time you check out how it goes down every Thursday at one of the coolest, mid-week nights in town (so you can’t say we didn’t tell you ;-)

For more info visit: www.jazzrefreshed.com

N’Dambi at Jazz:Refreshed

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Somewhere you should go…The Summer Show 2011: 20th Century Icons

Monique Todd — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:00:11 +0000

Sure, we have our Beyonce’s and Gaga’s, but there’s a certain comfort found in appreciating the idols of yesteryear. So if you find yourself often harking back to the ‘good ol’ days’, check out The Summer Show 2011: 20th Century Icons for a photographic retrospective of pop culture history.

Brought together by Proud Galleries to mark their 15th birthday, they’ve dug deep into their archives to exhibit exclusive prints by some of the world’s legendary photographers. Think psychedelic portraits by internationally acclaimed David Montgomery, whose pics of Hendrix (which will be on show) and other sixties icons have set him as a photographic legend. There will even be prints from Murray Close’s bestselling exhibition Withnail & I and work from Oscar-winning film director Ken Russell. Of course, The Beatles cover art will be making an appearance, alongside striking shots of Blondie for punk rock lovers.

The exhibition wraps up in September, so you’ve got plenty of time to see this selection of classic snaps, which will probably inspire you to dust off the vinyls too! (Words: Monique Todd)

The exhibition takes place at Proud Chelsea, for more info, click here.

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