ART MOSH PARIS

PRESS RELEASE

ART MOSH PARIS

By Invitation Only: 26 November 2009

DOOR STUDIOS, Paris 75004








































THE ART MOSH unites young and emerging contemporary artists, from all corners of the globe, and exhibits their work in one-off ‘Pop-Up’ events in major cities. ART MOSH discovers and nurtures new talent in the art world, breaking down barriers between different media, by fusing art with contemporary music and DJ’s in unconventional venues, providing a breath of fresh air from the constraints of a traditional art gallery.

THE ART MOSH is an innovative concept supported by internationally renowned brand Nixon, in partnership with Wallpaper* and Nissan, and curated by Paddy Barstow of Six 18. Nixon have a history of collaborations with acclaimed Artists, Musicians and Athletes including; former Beatle Ringo Starr, legendary Rocker Ozzy Osbourne, Snowboarder Gigi Ruff and Skateboarder Tony Hawk.

ART MOSH PARIS will feature music by Nightmares on Wax founder and chill-out pioneer DJ EASE, plus Ricky Rankin of Roots Manuva. Local Parisian DJ’s, plus some internationals will DJ at the after-party at Chacha Club. Music will be available on the ART MOSH website after the live event.

ART MOSH is a series of exclusive, by invitation, one night only, multi-media exhibitions in unexpected locations. Featuring photography, painting, sculpture, graffiti, design, DJ sets and live music. ART MOSH has already traveled to Ireland, UK, France and the USA, and is scheduled to land at Door Studios in Paris on 26 November, for an evening of visual and oral delights. Babicka Vodka from Czech Republic will add their own special and exclusive flavour to the proceedings. Movers and Shakers from art, fashion, media, music and other creative industries will be invited to discover some of the most innovative and original young artists working today.

ART MOSH PARIS will feature key players from an eclectic roster of international artists; Axel Pauporte (Belgium); Alexander James (UK); Alexandros Vasmoulakis (ATHENS); Benedict Redgrove (UK); Bose Collins (UK); Case (Germany); Chris Malbon (UK); DMV CREW collective: Bom K, Dran, Jaw (France); Herakut (Germany); Emanuele Sferruzza Moszkowicz (ITALY); Faith 47 (South Africa); Moto 777/ toft – robiov (Paris); Pam Glew (UK); Pomme Chan (UK); SAL (Japan); Tessar Lo (LA) and Yoskay Yamamoto (LA).

The collective of Artists and design agency Bose Collins, will work together to install a ‘Pop Up’ show for one night only, in the DIY spirit of the exhibitions created by the original Generation X Artists - the ‘Beautiful Losers’ of 90’s New York. Graffiti duo Herakut will create an artwork on the night. All artwork will be for sale, and anything unsold on the night will be available on the ART MOSH website after the event which launches in December. The ART MOSH events and website will give the artists a digital platform and global exposure.

Nixon’s LTD collection will also be available at ART MOSH, with a percentage of sales going to charities including the MusiCares MAP Fund and the Tony Hawk Foundation.

Significantly there are two strong contemporary female Artists in the ART MOSH collective; South African graffiti artist Faith 47, and British painter Pam Glew. Faith 47 tags in the spirit of the late Margaret Kilgallen (a member of the afore-mentioned ‘Beautiful Losers’, a key group of skater/ street artists). Glew’s striking cinematic imagery has a pop aesthetic, often reminiscent of Warhol screenprints.

Leading Parisian street Artist BOM. K has been painting graffiti since the age of 15. His surreal street art has a hint of Marquis de Sade, and has taken him from the streets of les banlieues where he began tagging, to galleries in London, France and Belgium. BOM. K published a book, ‘HB Black Trace’ (2007), which secured his position at the top of the French Graffiti scene.
Artistic duo Herakut (a symbiosis of Hera and Akut), are the Gilbert & George of graffiti art. Working in tandem to create layers of imagery in two individual styles, the fusion of Akut’s photorealism and Hera’s painterly backgrounds, creates an eye-catching and unique artistic hybrid.

Case, founding member of East German spray can crew Ma’Claim, and pioneer of a new style in the international Graffiti scene, will produce a live art piece during ART MOSH PARIS. Alongside fellow Ma’Claim members, Tasso, Rusk and Akut (of Herakut), Case developed a photorealist-style spray can technique.

Photographer Alexander James captures Parkour practitioners in mid-flight, their urban playgrounds lit dramatically like a Gregory Crewdson print; Artist Emmanuele Sferruzza Moszkowicz has collaborated with fashion houses including Michiko Koshino and Cycle, whilst his modern twist on Aubrey Beardsley sees him up there with the top graphic artists.
Each ART MOSH will be a rare gathering of Artists from all corners of the globe, along with some of the best musical talent currently on the scene, and will feature live art. Future ART MOSH events are planned in London and Milan in 2010.



NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Nixon
Founded in 1997 in Encinitas, CA, Nixon is the premium watch and accessories brand for the youth lifestyle market. Focused on making the little stuff better, Nixon began with a small line of team-designed, custom-built watches sold exclusively in specialty boardsport and fashion retailers. Currently distributed in over 40 countries, Nixon’s product range has grown to include select men’s and women’s softgoods, leather goods and custom headphones.

About the MusiCares MAP Fund
The MusiCares MAP Fund was established to create a pool of resources to specifically address addiction and recovery needs within the music community. Named for the Musicians’ Assistance Program, the fund represents the joint goal of MAP and MusiCares to provide members of the music community access to addiction recovery treatment regardless of their financial condition.

About the Tony Hawk Foundation
The Tony Hawk Foundation seeks to foster lasting improvements in society, with an emphasis on helping children. Through grants and other charitable donations, the foundation supports programs focusing on the creation of public skateboard parks, and other causes that clearly demonstrate tangible, ongoing, positive results by empowering our youth.

ART MOSH PARIS EVENT BY INVITATION ONLY 26TH ON NOVEMBER: Door Studios, 9-9 Bis Rue de Lesdiguières, 75004 Paris

AFTER-SHOW PARTY: Chacha Club, 47, Rue Berger, 75001 Paris

FOR GUEST LIST CONTACT EMILY YEOH: NIXON PR & Advertising on +33 679 33 48 01 or emily@nixoneurope.com

PRESS ON ART MOSH PARIS;

Wallpaper*
http://www.wallpaper.com/art/art-mosh-paris/4111

Dazed Digital
http://www.dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/gallery/22/6088/0/Nixon_Art_Mosh

Hotshoe International
http://www.hotshoeinternational.com/news_details.do?b=326

ArtSlant Paris
http://www.artslant.com/par/events/show/81648-art-mosh-paris

10 Magazine Blog
http://www.10magazine.com/blog/2009/11/24/art-mosh-pop-up-in-paris-street-artmusicgraffiti-exhibition-trendy-people-doing-trendy-things/

Studio Online
http://studio-online.com/so/?p=3760

Fashion United
http://www.fashionunited.co.uk/News/Leads/The_Nixon_Art_Mosh_200911167871/

'R. Crumb Uncovered' at Scream Gallery

PRESS RELEASE

R. CRUMB UNCOVERED

12 November – 12 December 2009

Private View Thursday 12 November 6-9pm

34 Bruton Street, London W1J 6QX
























Robert Crumb, otherwise known as R. Crumb, is one of the leading figures of the 1966/ 67 underground comic movement. Philadelphia-born Crumb exploded onto the scene in the late 60’s, heralding a renaissance of underground sex and drug comics. His LSD-inspired characters Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural quickly established him as a counter-culture icon.

Encouraged to create comic books as a child by his artistic brother Charles, Robert soon surpassed his sibling, and what was a form of escapism from a childhood spent in a dysfunctional family ruled by an abusive Father and neurotic Mother, translated into a lifelong career that has culminated, at the age of 66, in critical recognition for his work not just as a comic book creator, but an acutely observational fine artist in the vein of Guston or Goya. Crumb’s material is often inspired by the absurdity of humanity. His drawings are exhibited in blue-chip galleries and museums all over the world. He has published in countless comics, books, and magazines, and has in recent years been recognized by the broader art world with numerous exhibitions, including; R. Crumb’s Underground at the ICA in Philadelphia in 2008; a retrospective at the Ludwig Museum, Cologne in 2004; and a focus in the 2004 Carnegie International, Pittsburgh.

"I think Crumb is the Bruegel of the last half of the 20th Century…he gives you that tremendous lusting, suffering, crazed humanity".
Robert Hughes


The exhibition at Scream Gallery will be part of Comica, the London International Comics Festival, which takes place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) from 5-26 November.

Curator Brandon Coburn has selected the finest drawings from a rare collection of more than 300 pages of Robert Crumb drawings dating from the 1960’s to 2001. The Symbolic Collection has been amassing the collection of drawings and original comic books since 2003. The exhibition will mainly feature Pen and ink drawings, but will also include sketchbook pages, greeting cards, ink on acetate, and one very rare oil painting, in the vein of a cubist Picasso portrait. Some of the artworks have been exhibited at PULSE Miami and PULSE NY, and this is the first time they’ve been shown in the UK.

"The tradition I see him belonging to is the one of graphic art as social protest and social criticism. There are elements of Goya in Crumb".
Robert Hughes










The exhibition will feature all the iconic characters including; Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural. Frisky Fritz the Cat is up to his old tricks in ‘Fritz the No-Good’. An original drawing for the cover of Motorcity Comics features a typically Amazonian Crumb woman, putting the boot into a bulky New York cop. His rendering of a ‘girl commando’ has a visceral impact as she shouts Join the world – family revolution or die!!! A drawing of legendary singer and comic book fan Janis Joplin, singing into a phallic microphone, is printed on a sheet of acid tabs and signed by Timothy Leary.

"I had this big change in 1965 and 66 and it was visionary you know. I took this weird drug. Supposedly it was LSD but it had a really weird effect where it made my brain all fuzzy…I started getting these images of cartoon characters I’d never seen before, and drawing these stream of consciousness comic strips".
Robert Crumb

Crumb’s iconic character ‘Mr. Natural’ is featured in ‘”on the bum again”, a strip where a cowgirl lasso’s him, sits on top of him and demands ‘Just tell me real quick what the secret of the Universe is”. This interest in the universe illustrates his spiritual leanings, which have come to the foreground with the recent international publication of his latest and most epic project – an illustration of The book of Genesis. Hardcore fans may be surprised by his new topic, although this time it’s not a satire, it’s a beautiful depiction of the Bible in the mould of William Blake that he created over a period of 5 years, in isolation in a shepherd’s hut in rural France. The original Genesis pages will be on display in The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s book of Genesis at the Hammer Museum in LA from 24 October 2009 to 7 February 2010. Crumb was raised as a Catholic and admits that he believes in God, and spiritual forces in the Universe. Maybe the psychedelic sex-obsessed Crumb of the 60’s and 70’s has mellowed in his old age.

"When I first met him he never talked, he just drew the whole time. The only voice he had was his pen". Aline Crumb


NOTES TO EDITORS:

Address: Scream Gallery, 34 Bruton Street, London W1J 6QX
Telephone: + 44 (0) 20 7493 7388
Opening times: Mon-Sat 10am-6pm


www.screamlondon.com

www.symboliccollection.com

www.comicafestival.com


PRESS:

Kultureflash
http://www.kultureflash.net/current/#event6581

Dazed Digital
http://www.dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/5924/1/Paul_Gravett_Talks_Comics

Time Out
http://www.timeout.com/london/art/event/166110/ctrlaltshift-unmasks-corruption

Frieze Art Fair 2009/ Kilimanjaro/ Art India/ Whitehot Magazine

Lee's interview with Ryan Gander at Frieze Art Fair for Whitehot Magazine is online now:

http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/


Lee reviewed the Lisson Gallery's summer 2009 show for the latest issue of 'Art India' Magazine. Read it here:











Lee has written the introduction for the special Frieze edition of Kultureflash:

http://www.kultureflash.net/archive/298/frieze_2009.html

Lee's interview with Al Braithwaite is in the new issue of Kilimanjaro Magazine:

http://www.kilimag.com/

Poland Street Underground 2009: KONTROL

Image by Artur Zmijewski
Repetition (2005)
Courtesy of Zacheta National Gallery of Art





Poland Street Underground 2009: KONTROL

November 13 – 14, 2009

VINYL FACTORY GALLERY, 51 Poland St, London W1F 7RJ

http://www.designweek.co.uk/soft-surveillance/3006277.article

http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/london/event/poland-street-underground-2009-underground/at/the-vinyl-factory/


Poland Street Underground is an annual two-day event organized by the Polish Cultural Institute, in partnership with Wodka Wyborowa, that attracts thousands of visitors. This year’s edition of Poland Street Underground is part of Polska! Year – a celebration of Polish Culture, marked by a series of events and exhibitions bringing the best of Polish art, film, design, architecture and music to the United Kingdom; Surrealist filmmaker Wojciech Has is the subject of a Barbican retrospective; Tomasz Stanko performs at the London Jazz Festival, and Robert Kusmirowski has transformed The Curve gallery at the Barbican with his Bunker installation.

Significantly, 2009 is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain, and this historic event alongside Orwell’s prophetic book 1984, provide the backdrop for the 3rd Poland Street Underground: a multimedia art exhibition in the heart of Soho, featuring archival film footage, multi-sensory installations, documentaries, music and even poker lessons: The School of Poker will be provided by PartyPoker.com at the Friday night private view, and on Saturday night, plus banned or clandestine literature from Black Market Books and associates will be exhibited within the space (blackmarketbooks.net). Leading Polish artists and architects dispel Cold War myths, delve deep into Polish counter-culture, and explore the meaning of freedom in a 21st Century post-Iron Curtain society.

An innovative sanatorium-style interior will be created in the subterranean space by award-winning architects Moomoo. The interior design will feature the latest in surveillance and crime control technologies, as well as moveable inflatable walls designed to create a safe, easily controlled, white space. Visitors will find a clandestine bar located somewhere within the labyrinthine installation. The event is supported by Wodka Wyborowa, who will provide refreshments with a Polish vibe at the private view. On the second day of the event (Saturday 14 November), which is open to the public, Adam Ficek of Babyshambles will spin the tunes in the evening, and visitors will be invited to win beetroot martinis in a competition, and take part in poker lessons.

The film programme includes the inaugural screening of an English translation of the History of Polish Rock, which penetrated the Iron Curtain to unveil a rare glimpse of the Eastern Bloc music scene, through insightful interviews with Polish musicians and rarely seen archive footage. The documentary features footage of the inaugural Jarocin Festival, the only Eastern block rock festival, and of the 1967 Rolling Stones concert in Warsaw, when they found themselves in Poland after their eviction from Moscow. Hippies, Punks, Heavy Metal and Reggae fans light up the screen with an array of crazy outfits and dance styles.
Films by one of Poland’s greatest filmmaker’s, Oscar-nominated Lodz Film School graduate Marcel Lozinski, will be featured in the Poland Street Underground programme. Lozinski experienced censorship at first hand, and the banned shorts he made in pre-Solidarity Poland - Matriculation or Egzamin Dojrzalosci (1987) and The Microphone Test (Próba Mikrofonu 1981) -will be screened along with Happy End (1973) and Practice Exercises. Lozinski’s celluloid explorations of social reality provide invaluable insights into the experience of Poland before the fall of the Iron curtain.

Artists in the Poland Street Underground include Artur Zmijewski, Rafal Bujnowski, Jaroslaw Kozakiewcz, Joanna Rajkowska and Rafal Jakubowicz.

Radical video artist Zmijewski will show his film Repetition (2005), which was shown at the 2005 Venice Biennale where he represented Poland. Repetition is a re-enactment of Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’, where the reactions of ordinary people given the roles of prisoner and warden in an artificial prison, were documented on film.
Another radical, yet humorous artist is featured: Rafal Bujnowski’s Visa is a witty comment on identity and perception. Bujnowski managed to cross the US border with an official passport containing a photorealist self-portrait, by duping the consulate workers into believing it was a genuine photograph. Bujnowski captures the zeitgeist of the surveillance society, whilst highlighting the power of contemporary artists to unveil flaws in bureaucracy.

Zmijewski has been quoted as saying “The world is a dangerous place”, and performance artist Joanna Rajkowska’s Let me wash your hands, will emphasise the prison-like ambience of the Poland Street Underground, as she proceeds to sterilize the hands of visitors. Although the iodine solution Rajkowska uses prevents infection, as the Artist herself admits “it will never make your hands or my mind clean”.

Rafal Jakubowicz’s Arbeittsdiszplin (2002) continues with the theme of imprisonment. His installation consists of a postcard featuring a Poznan car factory viewed from the wrong side of an iron fence, juxtaposed with an Orwellian video of a security guard surveying the factory. Jakubowicz’s installation evokes unsettling memories of concentration camps and fear of corporate discipline.

Sanopticon (2005) by Jaroslaw Kozakiewcz, takes the theme of prison to inner space. Art and architecture meet in Kozakiewcz’s futuristic circumterresstrial-orbit prison. Sanopticon exists in an imaginary late-21st century Utopia, a world where technological advances and genetics have eliminated disease and virtually eradicated death, and anyone resisting these imposed ideals would be banished to Sanopticon. The Artists, filmmakers and designers involved in Poland Street Underground attempt to open your eyes and fight against the surveillance society that threatens to remove our liberty.


NOTES TO EDITORS:

The third edition of Poland Street Underground is supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of POLSKA! YEAR 2009-2010, which aims to bring Polish culture to a wider UK audience. POLSKA! YEAR runs from May 2009 to May 2010. To find out more visit www.polskayear.pl

UK COLLABORATORS INCLUDE;
Graphics and branding by Richard & Keith of Power Animal; Editorial and curatorial assistance by Amber Marks, author of Headspace: One Woman’s Adventures in the Surveillance Society; design assistance by Nick Reynolds (Artist and member of Albama 3) and Interactive technology design by La Maquina de Curiosidad.

Event: Poland Street Underground 2009: KONTROL.
Address: VINYL FACTORY GALLERY, 51 Poland St, London W1F 7RJ
Private view: Friday 13 November between 6pm - 11pm by invitation only
Public opening times: Saturday 14 November between 1pm - 10.30pm. FREE admission
Nearest underground: Oxford Circus

Websites:

http://www.polishculture.org.uk

http://www.polskayear.pl/en

http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_jakubowicz_rafal

http://www.iam.pl/en/site

http://www.raster.art.pl/gallery/artists/bujnowski/bujnowski.htm

http://www.moomoo.pl

http://www.kozakiewicz.art.pl

http://www.rajkowska.com

http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_zmijewski_artur

http://www.wodka.com

http://www.partypoker.com/


http://www.blackmarketbooks.net/


Marcel Lozinski

He is one of the internationally most acclaimed Polish film documentary filmmakers, boasting prizes from numerous film festivals, including Oberhausen, Krakow, San Francisco and Leipzig, and holding prestigious lifetime awards, most notably 1995 "Polityka's Passport" in the film category, 1995 Culture Foundation's Award, 2000 Minister of Culture and National Heritage award, the 2004 "Jancio Wodnik" Award at the 11th "PROVINCJONALIA" NATIONAL FILM ART FESTIVAL in Wrzesnia, and the Andrzej Wajda Freedom Award received at the INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL in Berlin in 2004. He was nominated for an Oscar Academy Award for his documentary 89 MM OD EUROPY [89 MM FROM EUROPE] in 1994.

Artur Zmijewski

Artur Zmijewski has exhibited throughout the world and is a highly acclaimed artist. He represented Poland at the 2005 Venice Biennale and was the highlight of Documenta12 in 2007. The artist decided to re-conduct the experiment of Philip Zimbardo from 1971, known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. The experiment was to prove that human behaviour is predictable and depends on the circumstances people find themselves in. Over thirty years later, Zmijewski recreated Zimbardo's experiment in Poland. The experiment had a different outcome this time, with the participants (both prisoners and wardens) deciding to leave the prison, revolting against the author of the project. Zmijewski's film aroused much controversy in his home country.

Rafal Bujnowski

Rafal Bujnowski (b.1974) is one of the most radical and intelligent contemporary painters. His works are a brilliant blend of two seemingly remote artistic disciplines - painting and conceptual art. The theme of the Bujnowski's successive projects - paintings, videos, objects or actions - are the conventions linked to the social functioning of the artist and the works of art, as well as the conventions present in the art itself. Rafal's paintings are an example of fully aware conceptual painting - his objects, disclosing and changing meaning depending on the surrounding in which they are placed, are peculiar models of an artwork. They reveal a tension between the process of artistic production and consumption.

Jaroslaw Kozakiewicz

Jaroslaw Kozakiewicz (b.1961). Lives and works in Warsaw. Sculptor and author of architectural projects, installations and set designs. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1981-1985) and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York (1985-1988). Obtained a PhD degree from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. The inspirations for Kozakiewicz´s artistic-architectural projects include; contemporary ecology, genetics, physics, astronomy, and ancient cosmological concepts searching for relations between microcosm and macrocosm. Noticing an analogy between the human body and the natural world, Kozakiewicz questions the anthropometrical character of Vitruvian man as the traditional paradigm of architecture and instead proposes an organic paradigm or `geometry of the inside'.

Joanna Rajkowska

Joanna Rajkowska is an emerging Polish artist-, who was recently announced by the British Council as Polish representative in a major public art project, My City, which brings culture to the forefront of relations between Europe and Turkey. Rajkowska’s most widely documented works include; Pozdrowienia z Alej jerozolimskich/ Greetings from the Jerusalem Avenue (2002-2009) and Dotleniacz/ Oxygenator (2006-2007).

Rafal Jakubowicz

Born in 1974 in Poznan. Painter, video and installation maker, art critic. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan - Department of Artistic Education (1999) and Department of Painting, Graphic Arts and Sculpture (2000). At present he is on doctoral studies at the Institute of Art History at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 2002 he co-founded the artistic group WUNDERTEAM. From 2005 he has been the member of the International Association of Art Critics - AICA. He lives and works in Poznan.


For further information, press enquiries, images or interview requests contact:
Lee Johnson PR on + 44 (0) 7814 862 834 or lee@lee-johnson.co.uk
Paddy Barstow on +44 (0)7866 566 040 or paddy@patrickbarstow.com

Peter Harris's 'Higher Powers' exhibition with live performance by Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Adrian Sherwood

Peter Harris’s ‘Higher Powers’ exhibition with

Live performance by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Adrian Sherwood

Tabernacle, Powis Square, Notting Hill, London W12 2AY

Thursday 10 September 2009











‘Higher Powers’ is an innovative collaboration between Musician Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Producer and Mixologist Adrian Sherwood, and Artist Peter Harris. This unique event will consist of a live performance with interactive VJ, film screening and art exhibition.

Legendary Jamaican musician and reggae Pioneer Lee Scratch Perry hardly needs an introduction. Grammy-award winning Perry reigned supreme over the Golden Age of 70’s reggae, writing and performing some of the most seminal albums of the seventies, such as 'Super Ape' and 'Roast Fish, Collie Weed and Corn Bread'. Peter Harris is an Artist and Filmmaker who has collaborated with iconic musicians such as Siouxsie Sioux, The Stranglers and David Bowie. Adrian Sherwood is co-founder of Carib Gems and Pressure Sounds, and his most well-known label is On-U Sound Records where he worked with Prince Far I. Sherwood began working with Perry in 1986, and together they produced the classic album "Time Boom X De Devil Dead".

The ‘Higher Powers’ interactive art and music event will take place at iconic West London venue the Tabernacle, which played a pivotal role in the 60’s underground, 70’s punk and reggae crossover, the growth of Notting Hill carnival and revival of ‘Cool Britannia’.

Perry will perform songs that relate to themes from Harris’s film ‘Higher Powers’. A 'VJ' will respond with live visual interpretations of Perry's songs, created by Harris and animator Llyr Williams using video collage and special effects. Perry will be supported on stage by Sherwood, who will provide a live mix as Perry completes a large painting with Peter Harris.

As well as the live event, this will also be the first opportunity to see new paintings by Harris and Perry, alongside a series of drawings produced by the Artist and Musician. The incredible collection of drawings were created in 2007, when Harris spent time in Perry’s artistic hideaway in the mountains outside Zurich, a kind of European version of his infamous ‘Black Ark’ studio in Jamaica. Together they made some truly visionary artworks, based on Harris’s drawings around themes central to the ‘Higher Powers’ film such as; destiny, fate, luck and doubt. In an explosive collaboration between Artist and Musician, Perry lent his own visionary input to Harris’s graphic, accomplished pen and pencil drawings. The result is a series of one-off artworks produced in a similar way to the automatic drawings of the Surrealists, with a hint of Primitivism, the magic of Voodoo, and the spirit of urban graffiti Artists. Limited edition prints will be available, signed by Perry himself.

This will also be the UK Premier of ‘Higher Powers’, the inspiration for this unique multimedia event. ‘Higher Powers’ was conceived in June 2003, when Harris began asking people a series of questions relating to the theme of higher powers. Three months into filming, his sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Three weeks after this, his father was also diagnosed with terminal cancer. What began as an experiment became an urgent personal quest for answers.

With no budget and a cheap camcorder, Harris approached a variety of people, each with their own view on higher powers. The eclectic list includes Uri Geller, David Icke, The Venerable Akong Tulku, "Dear Deidre" Sanders, gangster Dave Courtney, movie maverick Ken Russell, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, political activist Peter Tatchell, anti-abortionist Reverend Joanna Jepson and musician Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Add to this unlikely cast a veritable smorgasbord of characters including musicians, artists, poets, a transvestite, a police chief and a priest.

Whilst Harris remains largely off camera during interviews, his own interpretations of these themes, and of the answers given, are explored through short video pieces punctuating various sections of the film. Some of these pieces involve collaborations with the interviewees, for example a spoon-bending encounter with Uri Geller, or a poetic call to creative arms at Speaker's Corner with Lee 'Scratch' Perry. Elsewhere Harris combines his own material with film and music samples from his own personal history of popular culture, for example Van Gogh's suicide in 'Lust for Life' is spliced together with a mythical death crow of Harris's creation reciting Hamlet, all to the soundtrack of Public Image Limited's despairing 'Theme'. Or in 'Crutch', where Harris himself appears encumbered with symbols of his various dependencies, low-fi slapstick meets with horrifically convincing special effects in the final explosive outcome.

Higher Powers will be supporting and donating work to CLIC Sargent this year. CLIC Sargent is the UK's leading children's cancer charity. They provide the widest range of services and the highest number of care professionals to look after children and young people with cancer and their families


Press on 'Higher Powers':

Culture 24
http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art71903

Dazed Digital
http://www.dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/4507/1/Higher_Power

Spoonfed
http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/tom-699/peter-harris-interview-higher-powers-at-the-tabernacle-with-lee-scratch-perry-1402/





NOTES TO EDITORS:

Event: Peter Harris’s ‘Higher Powers’ exhibition with
Live performance by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Adrian Sherwood
Address: Tabernacle, Powis Square, Notting Hill, London W12 2AY
Date: Thursday 10 September 2009
Exhibition: 6pm
Live show: 8pm
Ticket price: £20

Tickets available from seetickets.com or ticketline.com

Websites:
http://www.leescratchperry-peterharris-art.com
http://www.peterharrisart.co.uk

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry
Revered music maverick Lee 'Scratch' Perry was responsible for nearly every hit song that came out of Jamaica in the golden period of seventies reggae. Working with primitive four-track recording equipment in his legendary Black Ark studio, his innovative production techniques led him to the creation of Dub music earning him a reputation as the Jamaican Phil Spector. Perry is one of Rolling Stone’s top 100 Artists of all time. Working with the cream of the Jamaican reggae scene, most notably Bob Marley and the Wailers creating what is widely considered to be their greatest music, he has also worked with The Clash, The Beastie Boys and Paul McCartney to mention a few. He continues to perform and write new music including the 2003 Grammy awarded 'Jamaican E.T.'

Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Sherwood is best known for his work with dub music as well as for his remixing on records by Coldcut, The Fall, The Slits, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Primal Scream, Pop Will Eat Itself, Sinead O'Connor, and Skinny Puppy. He is also the fourth member of industrial funk outfit, Tackhead, credited as "mixologist." His own albums include "Never Trust a Hippie?" which include collaborations with Sly & Robbie and "Becoming a Cliche" with Dennis Bovell, Little Roy and Mark Stewart. He has just finished his third album with Lee 'Scratch' Perry.



Peter Harris
Peter Harris was born in Portsmouth in 1967, and studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art & Design, and the University of East London. His work has been exhibited in Europe, America and Asia. In the mid-nineties Harris co-founded 'Uncle Grey Presents', a showcase for Artists, Performers and Filmmakers in London's East End.

His painting installation 'Hard Rain', inspired by Bob Dylan and The Clash, toured the country as part of the 'Air Guitar' art and music show, and was also shown - along with his London Mennonite Choir collaboration entitled 'Hymn' - at the National Film Theatre. Harris also wrote and directed the play ‘Sir Septimus Vein’s Carnival of Freak’, which was shown at the King's Head Theatre in London.

The Tabernacle:

With 2009 proving to be the year of nostalgia, the reopening of Tabernacle couldn’t be better timed. The Victorian auditorium upstairs has hosted many musical legends over the years, from acts as diverse as Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones of The Clash, Santana, REM, Aswad and Tim Westwood’s Hip Hop. In more recent times, Damon Albarn rehearsed The Good, The Bad and The Queen and his opera Monkey, and Lily Allen recently returned to the stage of her first performance as a seven-year-old Frog to play a secret Myspace gig and to release her latest single.

‘Higher Powers’ is presented by Paddy Barstow & Eazy Bailey.

Eazy Bailey is an event services agency, with more than 10 years experience in music related productions ranging from intimate parties for Jade Jagger and Mark Ronson, to high-profile concerts for clients such as MTV and Puma.

Paddy Barstow is a Creative Consultant working with artists, designers and photographers. Barstow’s latest creation is ‘Art Mosh’, a platform for emerging young talent in art and music in conjunction with Wallpaper* and Nixon. He was emerging talent scout for the international creative bible Le Book London launching the first Illustration section at Le book London.


For further information, press enquiries, images or interview requests contact:

Paddy Barstow (Art)
+44 (0)7866 566 040
paddy@patrickbarstow.com

Eazy Bailey (Music)
+44 (0)7973 413 948
eazy.bailey@me.com

Lee Johnson PR
+ 44 (0) 7814 862 834
lee@lee-johnson.co.uk
http://www.leejohnsonpr.blogspot.com

PB / Eazy Bailey
Unit 31, 249-251 Kensal Road
London W10 5DB
www.eazybailey.com