Den skotske kunstner David Shrigley, der er kendt for sine humoristiske og naivistiske tegninger samt absurde fortællinger, kan nu opleves på galleri Nicolai Wallner i København. Den nye udstilling, der kan ses frem til jul, har den direkte titel: New Works.

Shrigley på Galleri Nicolai Wallner til d.19.12., Ny Carlsberg Vej 68, Kbh. V

Så åbner vi låge nummer 2 af “de vilde jule ønsker“. Dog falder disse 3 værker ind under den lidt mere realistiske afdeling. David Shrigley som kan ses hos Wallner.

Jeg er ganske vild med David´s værker og ønsker mig således de her 3 stk.

You need to have the volume on for this, and it’s best in full screen.

Glaswegian oddball artist. Here are a few of his ‘things’:

Orgy Is Interrupted By Earthquake.

One Day A Big Wind Will Come…

Notice.

The Lightswitch.

Like these? Want more? Go here.

David Shrigley animation

Laurina Paperina seems a little nervous. She keeps apologizing for her English (which in actuality is pretty good, and far better than my non-existent Italian), and asking me where I got my t-shirt. While I try to give her directions through Dublin’s medieval street plan, the death cries of several famous artists echo all around us in the otherwise quiet space of the Rubicon. Her debut Dublin show, BAD! is opening in a few short hours, and a selection of her 2008 series (How to Kill) the Artists is in full riot on the wall behind me. In rudimentary but bombastic animation, Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollack and several other well-known artists are being crushed, mauled, stabbed and generally slaughtered by their own creations, all in glorious technicolor. Which begs the obvious question…

So if you could kill anybody at all, whom would you kill?

I would kill all the other artists. My philosophy is, if I kill all the artists in the world, I remain the one artist in the world, so I’d be the most famous. Slight Freudian concept, bit strange perhaps, I don’t know.

So is that where the ideas for this come from?

No, it’s from my past year of work, about the art world. I think the work exposes this type of artwork, which utilizes the artist, and is better, more powerful for it. It’s a piece of art that exposes art.

Your work sometimes deals with celebrity and ideas of fame, do you think a lot of these artists have become victims of their own fame.

Of the business? No, absolutely not.

So you’re just having the craic?

[laughs] Yes.

Fair enough. I’ve noticed some art critics struggle with your work because it’s never really about any single theme, but is more playful. Do you consider yourself anti-academic?

Yes, I think yes, I grew up with television characters, and I think it’s normal that my work, in this case anyway, comes from that but still deals with themes of artists. Usually, I work on comics, celebrating cartoons, and stuff like this. I want people to enjoy my work. For me, art is fun. I don’t love conceptual art because it’s not easy or accessible for people.

You do a lot of work with cartoons and animation, what attracts you to these mediums?

For me animation is just drawing. It’s thousands and thousands of drawings; it’s drawings in motion. Drawing remains my favourite style, just because it’s faster.I think one thing, and I can sketch it.

Do you think the art world is accepting of animation as a medium?

Yes, definitely, it’s a new form I think, coming from young artists. Like me, I grew up with the Simpsons, with Disney, so I think it’s just normal, it’s all art.

Do you see many other artists doing what you do?

I look to the East coast of America, San Francisco, but more Los Angeles. The street artists of Los Angeles especially, there are some artists who are like me more or less, it’s more free, the art is faster. You wanna draw, you do it in the street. I’m not a street artist, but the concept is more or less the same.

You’ve said that celebrities strike you as the new superheroes, was this the inspiration for the ‘Amazing Pape’?

Yes! I am the Amazing Pape, I am a Superhero!

And if you could be a superhero what powers would you want?

[Gives me a gentle look that suggests I simply not getting it] No, No, I am a superhero, I have the power of the sausage lance! It is my power, very strong!

[Attempts to discern what a sausage lance actually is only result in an arm waving that I feel compelled to join in with. None the wiser, we eventually move on…]

And if you were to be killed by any of your own creations, or any other artists?

I don’t know, maybe David Shrigley, he’s one of my favourites, or Barry McGee. It’d be pretty cool if they could kill me.

Laurina Paperina – BAD! runs at the Rubicon Gallery, 10 Stephen’s Green until 7th November. 

For an idea of her truly wonderful work, check out

(This interview originally appeared on Totally Dublin’s website, October ‘09. Words: Padraig Moran)

I have a big list compiled of all the different tattoos that I plan on getting. The leg tattoo I got on my leg was just one of two David Shrigley tattoos I’m going to get, but the second one I still need to decide on.

I have narrowed the choices down and below are the various options that remain. To be honest I’m pretty much decided on one already, but it’s a good excuse to share some of David’s genius. These are from various books of his, all of which are just amazing. Check out his website and here’s an animation of his.

Have a look and let me know you’re thoughts.

The first choice

I really love this drawing

I think this is the one I'd like permanently on my body...(and that's my thumb!)

I love this. Makes me want 3 (but that's just crazy)

This is hilarious but has a bit of a negative vibe so I don't think it'd fit with my overall positive asthetic.

So there you have them. I spent a few hours going through the 5 books of his that I own, putting little tabs of paper nest to drawings that I love and would be good for tattoos. Then I had to narrow them down in a big way as there’s so many I love.

As I said in the writing under the picture, the one I’m leaning towards right now is the rare star. Maybe in a few years I’ll get another Shrigley tattoo, but for now two should definitely be the limit. After that I’m getting one of my drawings tattooed onto me and I have many other ideas. I’ll post about them in the next few weeks.

Let me know what you think of these drawings and which one you think I should get tattooed onto me. It’s ok, I won’t listen to any of you. =D

Speak to you soon,

Nice seeing you,

Joe

Ooooooooh! The Guardian just launched a series of photos and first-person essays on drawing! It looks fantastic! Highlights include William Kentridge on the mystique of charcoal, David Shrigley on his idiosyncratic ink doodles, graphite master Paul Noble on his rather technical fictive drawings, and Ingrid Calame on her vector-y vellum tracings.

The timing’s great because I just taught the first session of my Sketchbook Drawing class at the Associate Student Union at U.C. Berkeley. It had been a while since I’d been in a figure drawing set-up, and I had a blast and I think my students enjoyed it too. I’m inspired to spend more time with my sketchbook soon.

Sometimes I find the idea of picture-making to be quite conventional, so it’s nice to be reminded of the immediacy and rewards of a fundamental mark-making practice.

Lists are funny things.

Lists, to men, are like catnip to cats. We can’t resist them. It doesn’t matter what it is, we’ll create a list for it. It’s our anally retentive side coming into play; we like to know everything has its place. Most men I think can name their favourite albums, movies (and perhaps girlfriends) in a specific order since we’ve had every waking day to think about it.

When we forget to take the rubbish out, or wash up, it’s probably because we’re making a mental list of something (boring household chores perhaps…)

Lists are also endlessly used in television.

No doubt you will have sat through the Top 100 Singles of All Time, Your Favourite Films Ever or Top 100 Celebrity Sex Scandals – all the cheapest of TV formats and laziest of concepts, which is why they usually end up on satellite channels you’d rarely watch otherwise. They bring out the same D- and C-list celebrities (who’d turn up to the opening of a Coke can) to sit in front of a brightly-coloured animated backdrop – similar in style to a Lava Lamp – and then talk about an event/film/album/song/person the producer had reminded them about a few minutes earlier was such an important part in their life. The better celebrities may retell an amusing anecdote; most will resort to just laughing about nothing (the more they laugh, the more we’ll notice their smug faces while we’re drifting off to sleep) and talking bullshit.

“Oh yeah – haha – this one time my brother and me were – haha – were listening to this Queen song and doing that thing they do in Wayne’s World – haha – and – haha – my brother hit his head on the window of the car! Haha (remember me from that obscure show five years ago?… No?…I was great, honest…)“

However – and the producers of these shows know it – there’s something strangely addictive about them. Even if you get the most irritating celebrity most of all; stitching all the segments together with a witty thing to say before and after each advert break.

One of the worst example of this was probably David Gest (winner of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!) presenting the 100 Best Michael Jackson Songs (or something). It was an old show, repeated especially for the death of MJ. The embarrassing links provided by Mr. Gest reached their apex when he announced something along the lines of “You’ll live forever, Michael – you’re the best!”. David? I’m Embarrassed, Get Me Out Of Here!

Blogs also use this format. It’s a sure-fire way of getting people looking at your blog – people love lists remember!

So, all this being said, for the sake of both selfish amusement and the irony of my last paragraph, I’m going to resort to a list myself.

This list is (as you will have noticed from the title) regarding The Ten Best Music Videos in the World… Ever! (The title inspired by all those compilation albums from the late ’90s – in fact, they’re probably still churning them out).

The reason I’m picking music videos is that, by chance, I was watching MTV and between the irritatingly inane shows they put on, and the endless Rihanna videos, something interesting (and refreshingly pleasant on the ears) came on. Something with a wonderful hand drawn style featuring a superhero fighting squirrels and things to reach the princess in distress. The video is number one on my list (which is actually not in any particular order) and it inspired this little blog entry, so blame it for any boredom caused for this post.

It’s worth saying that I’ve been a fan of music videos ever since I got MTV2 a long time ago (in the good old days before it turned into the channel for Shit American Rock), so I know my Michel Gondry from my Chris Cunningham. There are many, many wonderful music videos around (and really, the top ten directors would have been more appropriate since so many are consistently fantastic) but leave any comments if you think I’ve missed out something really amazing.

1. Coldplay “Strawberry Swing” directed by Shynola. View on YouTube
This the first Coldplay video I’ve loved. The others have been okay, but either linked to a damn durge of a song (The Scientist) or just a bit too odd for their own good (Don’t Panic). The basic concept is that Chris Martin is a superhero on a background drawn, with chalk, on a pavement. Obviously this kind of effect could have been achieved in a computer but it seems Shynola actually hand-drew the damn thing with Chris Martin balancing/laying/hand-standing for each frame – I imagine having to wait for the artists to finish each drawing. To someone lacking patience like myself (I love animation but really, it’s boring as hell doing it frame by frame – see this fantastic Fast Show sketch) this makes Chris Martin an absolute star in my books (as if the rest of the world didn’t already consider himself one).

As for the song itself, I didn’t actually think much of it when I first listened to the album (to the point where, on seeing the video, I wondered whether it was even on an album) but now, I listen to it on an almost daily basis.

Users on YouTube obviously love it as well… “this is the most coolest video i have ever seen” is one of the more insightful comments.

It’s a rare but wonderful thing when a music video makes you like a song even more – or even to notice it at all. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it makes for a great experience. You’re able to listen to the song at any time and, even if the lyrics don’t connect specifically with you or if they are too abstract in the song to relate to anything, being reminded of the video makes it much more visual. It’s like a soundtrack album to a movie but in reverse, I’ve listened to The Shawshank Redemption soundtrack countless times, and it always evokes memories of the film (which is my favourite by the way – I’m sure I’ll do a ten ten movies as well some time…)

The talented artists behind this video are called Shynola who created the wonderful animations for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (one of the better things about the film) along with countless other videos – their best listed below, check ‘em out as they say in the States.

• Blur “Good Song” – Drawings by my favourite cartoonist, David Shrigley, animated – again, making an otherwise fairly pedestrian song come to life in what I think is the funniest music video I’ve ever seen, although I appreciate it’s not to everyone’s taste. View on YouTube

• UNKLE “Eye for an Eye” – An amazing video about cute little things running around their happy place being duped into drinking from giant nipples by an evil race of wasp things that then assimilate them all and take over their land. A thinly veiled political comment about the way the West come in, guns blazing, promising a better life and leave having destroyed everything. Well, I think that’s what it’s about anyway. It’s an amazing song and I bought the album because of this, which is lucky because it was, in my view, the best album of that year. View on YouTube

• Junior Senior “Move Your Feet” – I’m of the Commodore 64 generation, so anything with pixel graphics gets my vote, and it doesn’t get any better than this. It’s a crazy song (let’s face it – gay as cheese) and sounds like Terence and Philip from South Park singing, but it fits the video perfectly. As before, I bought the album after this, which is why I refuse to put this video in the overall Top Ten; the album is beyond terrible. View on YouTube

2. Radiohead “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” directed by Jonathan Glazer. View on YouTube
In those good old days on MTV2 that I spoke about with tear-filled nostalgic eyes earlier, this video was one of the most shown – with good reason. It’s a great song for a start. I’m not a massive Radiohead fan (I think they’re vastly overrated) but this one is tortured, weird and has a great tune.

The video ticks several boxes for me:

It’s in black and white (almost everything looks better in black and white); it has bits that are slowed down; bits that speed up; jumping nuns; locusts flying in slow motion; evil dogs; Thom Yorke looking weird; band member, Jonny Greenwood looking like a woman (many women would kill for his figure); glass smashing and someone falling over on their chair.

It’s put together with so much style that you can forgive them for what I imagine amounts to just a ‘brainstorming’ session where they thought “would would look cool slowed down in black and white”.

I’m sure there are many more videos considered better than this but this just sticks with me far more than most, I think due to its haunting nature and probably just that it’s, in my opinion, Radiohead’s best song.

The director is top of his class with a string of fantastic videos to his name. He also directed the wonderful film, Sexy Beast, which, if you haven’t seen, needs to be watched as soon as you can; Ben Kingsley should have gotten an Oscar for it. If that wasn’t enough, he’s the man behind the Guinness ad with the horses in the sea, the Sony Bravia ad with the exploding towerblocks of paint and the Levi’s ad with the emaciated boy and girl jumping through walls in order to reach space (apparently the most expensive advert ever at the time).

Other great videos by Jonathan Glazer:

• Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity” – The irritatingly popular Jay Kay prances about with his stupid hat while the furniture moves around. Very cleverly done (albeit quite simple when you know how) and an example of a really good pop video, which is quite a rarity. View on YouTube

• UNKLE “Rabbit in Your Headlights” – A scruffy man walking down a tunnel, mumbling to himself, getting hit by cars. I’ve no idea what he’s thinking about (I read that he’s trying to work out the meaning of life) but the ending is spectacular. View on YouTube

3. Bjork “All is Full of Love” directed by Chris Cunningham. View on YouTube
This is one of the first videos (I think) released as a DVD single and it was the perfect video for the format. It’s stark and fascinating (like Bjork herself I suppose) and manages to be beautifully classy, despite the ridiculous premise (two robots, both with Bjork’s face, ‘get jiggy with it’ whilst robot arms prod them and cover them with something suspiciously milky and white).

The director, Chris Cunningham, has a something of a midas touch giving all his work a strange, sometimes scary, stylish as hell look that must be damn difficult to do.

In an ideal world, he’d direct an Alien film. Maybe one day…

Two of his other videos for you to look at (do a Google search for his others – they’re all great):

• Madonna “Frozen” – I think it’s Madonna’s best video. Not much happens, she’s a bit goth, she’s in the desert, there’s a black dog… but it’s a great song and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling seeing Madonna grown-up, sensible, and not jumping around in a leotard telling people they’re ‘motherfuckers’ and pretending to be twenty again. View on YouTube

• Aphex Twin “Windowlicker” – One of life’s great annoyances for me (proving I don’t have too many) is that music as God-awful as Aphex Twin gets to have a decent video to go with it. This video is wonderfully stylish, funny, strange, freaky and deserves mention because it highlights the ridiculous conventions set in rap videos where some idiots ogle girls in bikinis. This video is the antithesis of The Thong Song. View on YouTube

4. A-Ha “Take on Me” directed by Steve Barron View on YouTube
Given my love of animation and ’80s music, it’s no big surprise that this is in my list and I think most people of my age remember this video very vividly (even down to the “Nice Cold Ice Cold Milk” poster in the cafe that haunted my youth in the school canteen).

Looking back, the video is extremely cheesy but the animation is so well done it’s easy to forgive it. I also wish they’d resisted the temptation to shoehorn the rest of the band into the video using crappy footage of them playing their instruments against a suitably ‘comic book’ style background. (The same problems haunt videos these days as well – it’s so much better when a band’s ego-driven demand to feature in the video doesn’t get in the way).

The director was very successful during this period, working on loads of other memorable videos but none were really as innovative as Take on Me.

5. The BPA “Toe Jam” directed by Keith Schofield View on YouTube
The BPA (or Brighton Port Authority) is a Fat Boy Slim (aka Norman Cook) project and this, the first release, comes with a fantastically inventive video.

To explain it would ruin the joke of it, so just watch and smile…

6. The White Stripes “Fell in Love with a Girl” directed by Michel Gondry View on YouTube
When I was young (here he goes again with nostalgia) I loved Lego and animated little things with it as well. I imagine the director, Michel Gondry, did the same when he was growing up since this video (like most of his actually) has a whimsical quality.

It’s a video comprised solely of animated Lego blocks. People swimming, the band singing and playing their instruments, running – everything damn difficult to animate anyway, especially in Lego.

Michel Gondry has a knack for doing really complex things (‘high concept’ should be his middle name), as his other videos prove even further. He’s now mainly doing feature films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind being one) which is a shame as I think his ideas suit a short running time much better.

More of his videos:

• Kylie Minogue “Come Into My World” – Kylie must have gotten dizzy making this video; several versions of her walk around several times in a circle. I have no idea how he co-ordinated a shoot like this but it’s wonderfully done. View on YouTube

• Massive Attack “Protection” – A great video with the camera moving into different windows of a big house. It doesn’t sound exciting and, well, it isn’t really, but it’s a great video. View on YouTube

• Bjork “Bachelorette” – Difficult to describe, this video starts with a story being told and then a theatre production based on that story played out within it. Just watch it, it’s fantastic. View on YouTube

7. Blur “Coffee & TV” directed by Hammer & Tongs View on YouTube
Like Shynola, Hammer & Tongs are another group of talented chaps that have worked on many videos and they all (well, the ones I’ve seen) tend to have a humourous slant which defines their style.

Coffee & TV is the tale of a little milk carton that goes off on a little quest to find a missing person. It’s the kind of video that appeals to everyone; it’s funny, cute and there’s even a bit of emotion in there as well for the kind of people that cry over spilt milk.

They’re now doing feature films as well. Their first, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was good, but flawed. Their latest – Son of Rambow – is supposed to be very good but I’ve not seen it yet unfortunately.

Hammer & Tongs have worked on many great videos, but two of my other favourites are below:

• REM “Imitation of Life” – Worth watching for Michael Stipe’s interesting dance moves as well as the technical cleverness involved. It’s a piece of camcorder footage that keeps running forward, then backwards for twenty seconds at a time – we zoom into parts of the video to see details. A tough one to explain, but worth watching, and it’s a nice little tune! View on Spike (I couldn’t find a version on YouTube with audio)

• Fatboy Slim “Right Here, Right Now” – Evolution squeezed into 3:30 minutes with a great social comment at the end. Well, I think it’s meant like that anyway, or it’s just that they wanted to end with the guy from the album cover. View on YouTube

8. David Bowie “Ashes to Ashes” directed by David Mallet View on YouTube
It makes no bloody sense at all, but it’s an example of a really inventive video when music videos were still very ‘new’ (it was back in 1983 – MTV had only been around a couple of years at that point. It was also was less shit than now). I think it was the most expensive video ever at the time due to its use of the fancy video effects (things we can all do on an iPhone these days with the correct app).

Director, David Mallet, directed loads of rock videos (specialising on Queen and AC/DC, strangely) but this is, I think, his most famous.

Of all these videos, it’s probably the one you’ll disagree with the most. “It looks crap”, mate, “You’re getting nostalgic and losing your sense of style.” But, there’s just something about it that I love. I’m not a big David Bowie fan particularly, but there’s something wonderful about him walking down the beach dressed like an idiot with an old woman wagging her finger at him (and telling him not to trust Major Tom).

9. Michael Jackson “Thriller” directed by John Landis View on YouTube
I include this video a little reluctantly as every damn list of “best music videos ever” has this in it, but it really has to be. I’m not a fan of musicals (I turned Chicago off after the DVD menu) but there’s something mesmerising about a really great piece of choreography.

There’s also the fact that this music video was an ‘event’. I was too young to remember it at the time but enough people have told me how they stayed up late to watch it to make me think that perhaps it was more of a big deal than we can appreciate these days. The Internet has ruined things a bit really… we don’t have ‘events’ any more, do we?

Anyway, the director’s other films include American Werewolf in London (that qualified him to make Thriller really), Trading Places and Coming to America so that makes him damn good in my book.

10. Massive Attack “Teardrop” directed by Walter Stern View on YouTube
God knows how a video comprised entirely of a foetus singing can be so good, but it really is.

The director is another fairly prolific one, working on videos for Prodigy, David Bowie, Madonna and INXS as well as another two for Massive Attack.

Another of his videos:

• Verve “Bitter Sweet Symphony” A riff on Massive Attack’s video for Unfinished Sympathy, this was the video that, thanks to Richard Ashcroft walking down the road like an arrogant bastard, helped launch Verve into the public eye when we already had arrogant bastards, Oasis. View on YouTube

So, that’s it.

You’ll have noticed that I’ve cheated a little bit by including other videos from some of the directors (making the list far more than just ten) but I don’t care, it’s my list, I can do what I want with it.

There are, however, some other videos I’ve not mentioned that I feel I should for various reasons – those are listed below. Have a look at all of them if you find the time!

Leftfield “Swords” View on YouTube
Summary: A bunch of people in cars, singing along to a chilled out track. I find it mesmerising.

Fatboy Slim “Weapon of Choice” View on YouTube
It’s Christopher Walken. Dancing. Nothing more needs to be said.

Supermen Lovers “Starlight” View on YouTube
Traditionally, 3D animation tends to be quite slick but here the animator has gone at great lengths to make the characters as ugly as possible. It’s a great little story and strangely emotional at the end!

Elbow “One Day Like This” View on YouTube
I’m including this partly because the song is wonderful but also because I think the video is so strange. It doesn’t match the lyrics at all but just focuses on one guy finding joy doing a mundane job. Beautiful.

Nizlopi “JCB” View on YouTube
A wonderfully nostalgic little song with a video to match.

Super Furry Animals “It’s Not the End of the World?” View on YouTube
Another great piece of 3D animation.

Pet Shop Boys “I’m With Stupid” View on YouTube
I’ve never been a fan of the Pet Shop Boys’ videos, but this one is great since it’s the guys from Little Britain doing a terrible (yet accurate) impression of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.

Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer” View on YouTube
Most ‘top video’ lists include this at a high position because it was groundbreaking (and it marked the arrival of Aardman Animation – the makers of Wallace and Gromit). It is a very clever video, and perhaps the Coldplay video I mentioned at the beginning of the list wouldn’t have existed were it not for this. Oh, and it’s about shagging, but you knew that…

Definitely not on any of my lists:

Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” Don’t View on YouTube
Just plain awful.

I hope you liked this list and feel free to write a comment challenging me on any of my picks. I’m sure I’ve left out some great videos, so tell me and I’ll be happy to rethink any of the ones above if you prove that I’m wrong in some way.

david shrigley makes me laugh.

Hello again all you lovely people who read my blog. It’s very nice to see you. I do hope you’re feeling well.

This weekend I went to Sussex where my wife and I are originally from. It was generally a pretty relaxed weekend, but we did get up to some quite interesting stuff. Which brings me to the topic of this post!

I have 2 new tattoos! And so does Jenny! You see, Jenny’s sister is friends with a awesome girl called Tori and she is an amazing artist who has recently realised that she is destined to be a tattooist. Currently she is offering anyone willing to be tattooed upon free tattoos (although you pay for the ink and such). This offer is hard to refuse and it got us thinking of all the different ideas for tattoos that we’d love but didn’t think we could ever afford.

I had a lot of ideas and Jenny, being more focussed and just smarter had two great ideas and left it at that. Check out her blog to see what she had done (they are amazing so I would if I were you).  One of the tattoos I got was Jenny’s idea, and it was one we both got:

Simple but awesome

It’s based on the fact that the resonant frequency of love is 528hz, an idea explorered by a very interesting researcher called Dr. Len Horowitz. Find out more here if you like. Anyway, basically Jenny’s tattoo is in my handwriting and my tattoo is in her’s. We both loved that idea (for which credit goes to Tori) and it’s made the tattoos even cooler than they would’ve been.

I also got a tattoo of a drawing by David Shrigley. David is the artist that first inspired me to draw and lord knows what I’d be doing with myself had I never come across his book at the Tate Modern totally at random. He has many books filled with hilarious drawings and I recommend any one of them without hesitation. A good introduction to him is his wonderful animation ‘Who I Am and What I Want‘. Here is the tattoo I chose (it’s just above my right knee):

Ouch...

It was an extremely painful area to be tattooed and you can see how sore it looks in the photos. But it’s looking much better now and I love it. =D

And so that was the most eventful part of my weekend and quite eventful it was I think you’ll agree…

Stay tuned for other interestingness in the coming days (perhaps)!

Good Day,

Joe

As a part of the celebration for 25 years of London Fashion Week, The Pringle of Scotland brand has made a coorporation with Glasgow based artist David Shigley. The result is this great and humoristic  ’Naked People Tee’. Avaiable in Colette in september. The tee is also supporting up and coming young artists as 20% of the price will be donated to Transmission Gallery in Glasgow www.transmissiongallery.org

http://www.davidshrigley.com/photo_htmpgs/beach.html

http://www.davidshrigley.com/photo_htmpgs/stump.html

http://www.davidshrigley.com/photo_htmpgs/balloon.html

This guy is a loa. Go to his house and worship his ankles. David Shrigley.

David Shrigley’s salt and pepper shakers

interview with shrigley here

I’ve just interviewed Bux Bailey, founder of the lovely Treacle bakery on Columbia Road, in East London. I was getting baking tips from her for a ‘Domestic Goddess’ feature I’m writing for the October issue of Ideal Home. While we were chatting, I got a chance to check out the lovely collection of products she stocks – as well as her fabulous cupcakes of course! Check out the cute badge she gave me:

Bux sells vintage cookware and nostalgic kitchen bits and bobs, which are displayed in a charmingly quirky, laid-back manner – there’s an apron draped across a window like a curtain, and a broken 1970s TV used as a display case – everything is reused and recycled and nothing is pretentious. Among the vintage treasures for sale, I spotted glass cake stands for £12 each and a stunning Midwinter tea set. The kitsch 1950s kitchen cupboards Bux sells double up as great display cases for the shop, and she also stocks contemporary items from talented British designers which sit happily alongside the older pieces on offer. I noticed a great range of funky tea towels from Kent designer Lindsay Marsden AKA The Black Rabbit – she makes beautiful tea cosies, seed packets, prints, toys, egg cosies and cushions. 

I love her work, but The Black Rabbit logo freaks me out a bit, as it reminds me of the disturbing Watership Down cartoon I was shown as a young child – I haven’t been the same since! Bux also stocks another of my favourites – The Hungry Girls’ Cookbooks – beautiful mini recipe books from a trio of Melbourne friends – Rachel Pitts, Leah Holscher and Katherine Bird.

Elsewhere, I noticed a collection of hilariously rude greeting cards from designer David Shrigley, and some stunning ceramics by Rachel Barker:

I was relieved to hear that despite the failing economy, and the challenges small independent shops are facing, Treacle is thriving. Bux told me that cake is a ‘recession-proof product’. ‘People will always eat cake,’ she explained. ‘In fact, during hard times, people usually comfort-eat and end up eating more cake than usual!’ I suggested to Bux that perhaps some of her success is down to the current shift towards a back-to-basics, less materialistic way of life – perhaps the nostalgic charm of Treacle appeals in an era of homogenised high streets and greed gone wrong? Bux agreed: ‘Cake is one of life’s simple pleasures, and I think comfort and nostalgia is more relevant today than ever before. We keep things simple here – our milk is still delivered by the milk man, and my daughter Maya and I are going to pick elderflowers this weekend on my mum’s farm down in Kent to make some elderflower cordial for the shop.’ Bux told me she was brought up in a household where ‘Mrs Beeton’s book was like the Bible’ and she feels a lot of the information in such books is still helpful today. Stepping into Treacle is like going back in time – only ‘builder’s tea’ is served, the counter is a huge old-fashioned glass cabinet and the cupcakes wouldn’t look out of place at a 1940s tea party. I’m in love with this place! Just before I left the shop, I ordered an EAT CAKE AND CARRY ON print, which I’ve had my eye on for a while. It’ll look great in my kitchen! – Ellie

Treacle is at 110-112 Columbia Road, Shoreditch E27RG (020 7729 0538).  It’s only open on market days (weekends).