24 April 2010

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26 March 2010

WHAAM! Comics, art and contemporary culture

• 
  With the publication of seminal works such as The Watchman, 2000AD and Persepolis, graphic novels and comics are no longer considered the poor relation to traditional literature and art. Their ability to address often disturbing political and social issues as well as appeal to a broad audience has lead them to inhabit a unique position in the world of publishing.
  
  firstsite is holding a programme of talks, workshops, screenings residencies which celebrates this unique contribution to international art and culture.
  
  Talks programme - devised by Jes
  
  Dan Dare and Misty: boys’ and girls’ comics of the 1950s to the 1970s
  Monday 12 April
  Pat Mills, comics writer and editor
  Eric Fernie, art historian and comics enthusiast
  
  When The Eagle comic was launched in the 1950s boys across the world became hooked on their weekly dose of Dan Dare and the Mekon. In the 1970s girls’ comics began to come into their own with tales of the supernatural from characters such as Moonchild and the kidnapped twins in The Human Zoo.
  Internationally renowned writer Pat Mills and comics enthusiast Eric Fernie take us through the heyday of British comics.
  
  Kartoon Kings: how contemporary artists got into comics
  Thursday 15 April
  Richard Reynolds, comics historian and artist
  Simon Grennan, artist and co-founder of Grennan + Sperandio
  Roy Lichtenstein’s famous painting WHAAM! (1963) was one of the first works of art to focus on the relationship between contemporary art and comics. Kartoon Kings will address this historically fraught relationship; Richard Reynolds will present an overview of the key moments of tension and development in the dialogue and Simon Grennan will talk about his extensive and often hilarious experience of working within the comic book format.
  
  As you like it: the power of subversion in Manga comics
  Wednesday 28 April
  ILYA, writer and artist and Manga specialist
  Chie Kutsuwada, Manga artist
  Manga is an international phenomenon, originating in Japan over a hundred years ago. With their distinctive black and white graphics and serialized stories on subjects as diverse as romance, science fiction and comedy, Manga appeals to children and adults alike. Manga writer and artist ILYA and one of the UK’s most pre-eminent Manga artists Chie Kutsuwada will discuss this explosion as well as the way that traditional female stereotypes are subverted in Manga comics and in the Manga industry as a whole.
  
  Screening programme
  Persepolis
  Directors: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, 2007
  
  Wednesday 7 April
  8 - 9.30pm
  Headgate Theatre, Colchester
  
  The poignant and often hilarious story of a young Iranian girl who lived through the Iranian revolution.
  
  We'll also be holding a special evening screening of the 2010 British Animation Awards at firstsite.
  
  Image: 'Modern Masters' comic book by Simon Grennan & Christopher Sperandio, PS1 / MOM / DG 2001.
  
  

23 February 2010

Marjolijn Dijkman / Clare Cottage

• 
  Marjolijn Dijkman has been selected to carry out the first international residency at Clare Cottage in Helpson, Cambridgeshire.
  
  Throughout the month of April Dijkman will be living in the cottage that was once home to the renowned English poet John Clare. The cottage was restored last year and is now a centre which celebrates Clare’s life as well as 21st century environmental concerns.
  
  Residency programme partners: the Royal Society of Arts (London), Visiting Arts (London), firstsite (Colchester) and Clare Cottage. Jes is curating the programme.
  
  Marjolijn Dijkman is a Dutch artist who is based in Rotterdam. She works in a wide range of media and has initiated many events, projects and exhibitions including a research expedition sailing from Bermuda to the Azores with Maarten Vanden Eynde, an installation at the 8th Sharjah Biennial in 2007, a project for Cao Yang Public Art 2009 in Shanghai and an exhibition at Bloomberg in London 2009.
  
  Images:
  1. No fishing aloud, Cao Yang Public Art 2009, Shanghai
  2. Ruin in unbuilt hotel, part of Dijkman's 'The Free World' project in Vrijbroekspark in Mechelen, Belbium, 2009
  
  
  

10 February 2010

P.A.A.L.M.A. Prize 2009

• 
  The 2009 PAALMA Prize (for projects involving close collaboration between artists and architects) was awarded to Philippe Parreno and François Roche for their project The Game (Hybrid Muscle + Boy from Mars).
  
  Jes was on the panel of advisors along with Stefano Casciani, Domus; Beppe Finessi, Milan School of Architecture; Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Gallery. The programme was curated by Gianni Bolongaro.
  
  The Game (Hybrid Muscle + Boy from Mars) was conceived with artist Rirkrit Tiravanija who, in 2001, invited colleagues, students and his friend Philippe Parreno to work with him to build a workshop in which they could all live and work.
  
  Parreno and Roche’s Hyrbrid Muscle (2003) is a self-supporting eco-system in the form of a tent-like structure located in Chang Mai, Thailand. It uses the resources of the surrounding landscape (buffalo grazing in the rice-fields) to power its activity.
  
  Image:
  The Game, (Hybrid Muscle + Boy from Mars)
  Philippe Parreno, François Roche, Thailand 2003
  

29 January 2010

Prunes, Potatoes, Pears and Prisms

• 
  Jes has written a text for an exhibition of Sarah Staton's work at Roche Court.
  To read this text, go to the writing section of this site.
  
  Exhibition dates: 28 November 2009 - 31 January 2010
  
  Image: Popsicle, 2009, Sarah Staton
  

28 December 2009

Clare Cottage International Residency Programme

• 
  RSA / Visiting Arts / firstsite
  
  Jes is working with Michaela Crimmin (RSA), Kathryn Standing (Visiting Arts), Lynn Jackson (Clare Cottage) and Laura Early (firstsite) to develop an international residency programme with Clare Cottage near Peterborough.
  
  Clare Cottage is the birthplace and home of John Clare (1793-1864). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest of the English poets and lived in the village for his first forty years.
  The residency programme is due to begin in the spring of 2010.
  
  Image: Clare Cottage, Helpston, Peterborough
  

Kentish Town Health Centre

• 
  Jes worked with Alice Sharp and Sarah Wang at Creative Intelligence Agency to develop a programme of commissions for the Kentish Town Health Centre in London, which received an RIBA award in 2009 and was shortlisted for the 2009 Stirling Prize.
  
  Image: Courtyard, Kentish Town Health Centre. Architects: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, designers: Studio Myserscough, 2009
  
  

Associate, Art in the Open

• 
  While the Director of Art in the Open is on leave in 2009 / 2010, Jes is working in an advisory capacity for the organisation, primarily on Design for London's Great Spaces initiative and art commissioning programmes for the Olympic Delivery Authority.
  
  Art in the Open advises developers, architects, councils and public realm stakeholders on the value of involving artists in the making of London's public spaces.
  
  

04 November 2009

Dial HISTORY

• 
  Johan Grimonprez
  Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997 - 2001)
  2 - 28 November 2009
  On show at Colchester Institute in firstsite’s Container Space in partnership with the School of Art, Design and Media.
  This programme was part of the national ARTIST ROOMS tour organised by The Art Fund, Tate and National Galleries of Scotland.
  
  Johan Grimonprez was in conversation with author Tom McCarthy on 16 November at the Odeon in Colchester.
  A series of responses to the film from staff at Colchester Institute, University of Essex and the Sixth Form College was presented on 26 November at Colchester Institute.
  Both events were chaired by Jes.
  
  Image: Three hijacked jets on desert Amman Jordan, 12 September 1970
  Still from Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997 - 2001)
  
  www.firstsite.uk.net
  

09 September 2009

Queen & County talks programme

• 
  As Associate Curator at firstsite, Jes worked with the University Gallery in Essex to devise a programme of talks to discuss issues relating to conflict and art. The programme coincided with the showing of Steve McQueen's Queen & Country project at the University of Essex Gallery.
  
  Events included:
  
  Bearing witness: the role of war artists in the 21st century
  Speakers: Paul Seawright and David Cotterrell
  
  Internationally acclaimed artists Paul Seawright and David Cotterrell talked about their experiences of working in Afghanistan under the auspices of the Imperial War Museum and the Wellcome Trust.
  
  Seawright visited Afghanistan in 2002 where he created Hidden, a powerful series of photographs which depict minefields and battle sites devoid of people, highlighting the fact that much of the conflict in Afghanistan is invisible. Cotterrell spent time in Helmand Province with the Joint Forces Medical Group in 2007 witnessing operations on combat trauma victims in the field hospital at Camp Bastion.
  
  Conflict and pipe bands: the Troubles in Northern Ireland
  Speakers: Ulrike Smalley, Curator, Imperial War Museum
  Roddy Buchanan, artist
  
  Scottish artist Roddy Buchanan discussed his current work on a film which explores the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Commissioned by the Imperial War Museum in 2008, Buchanan is focusing on Loyalist and Republican pipe bands, considering how war and conflict shapes the lives of band members.
  
  www.firstsite.uk.net
  
  Image: Valley, 2002 by Paul Seawright
  Imperial War Museum Collection