Great Street Games illuminates the North East

Over the past few years, there’s been a particular emphasis on digital light installations. I come to expect now, every year when the clocks go back, to see a city, bridge or cathedral illuminated. It’s by no way shape or form old hat; in fact, these light installations give us new perspectives on our cities and play with the old and the new.



The latest addition to this new tradition is Great Street Games created by digital artists KMA, which is simultaneously appearing in Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. Actually, we featured NVA a few years ago in "Outside the Cube", CLICK HERE to read the article.

Projected light and thermal-imaging technology are used to create jaw-dropping interactive playing arenas in which human movement triggers spectacular light effects. The physical movements of players determine the outcome of the games, which will run on ten-minute cycles. Participants develop their game-playing skills as they progress through a number of levels to help their area to victory or to simply have fun.



Audiences in each of the three locations can take part in the games, which are played on ‘courts’ created by projected light; each court comprising a central playing area and two zones representing the other two locations. Balls of light appear from the centre of each court – these projected images can be moved by players physically ‘touching’ them. The aim of the first game is for each location to gain points by moving as many balls as possible to the other locations.

Games last 90 seconds and 5 games make a series – through which the games increase in complexity as players become more familiar with the rules. The town or city with the most points at the end wins. KMA’s mission is to apply leading digital innovation to large-scale live environments in order to expand the audiences’ experience of the work beyond the physical environment in which it is presented.



Great Street Games will take place in Baltic Square, Gateshead, Centre Square, Middlesbrough and The Old Fire Station, Sunderland from 29th October – 1st November 2009, 17.30 until late. (Part of the Bupa Great North Run Cultural Programme)

Visit www.greatstreetgames.org.uk for updates and more information

Image Credits:
Revellers Take Part in Great Street Games, © Craig Connor / North News
Great Street Games in front of BALTIC, © Craig Connor / North News
Great Street Games, © Craig Connor / North News

Home Grown: The Story of UK Hip-Hop

Hip Hop is now 30 years old. I know it's hard to pinpoint an exact date when hip hop emerged, sometime in 1979 in the Bronx, as a reaction against gangs, drugs and violence. But what's the story of Hip Hop in the UK? Urbis in Manchester is exploring this question with their new show, which opened on 15 October, ‘Home Grown: The Story of UK Hip-Hop’.

‘Home Grown’ focuses on the wonderful, unpredictable story of UK hip-hop: a music and culture that dragged itself up from the streets - with a little help from some surprisingly eminent friends - to change the face of British music and style. From producing some of Britain’s most esteemed artists, to helping spawn almost every major British dance music genre of the last twenty years, it makes for a cracking story. But surprisingly it is one that has never before been told.



Co-curated by Urbis’s Andy Brydon in collaboration with hip-hop writer James McNally and artist / musician Kid Acne, ‘Home Grown’ will showcase never before seen photography from the personal collections of DJ Milo (The Wild Bunch) and DJ 279; rare film footage sourced directly from Malcolm McLaren and cult documentary director Dick Fontaine; and exclusive documentation from seminal early hip-hop clubs like Spats and the Language Lab, right through to influential latter day spots such as Deal Real record store. It also will include rare – and sometimes unique - audio, flyers, posters, clothing and unseen photographs from the private collections of artists, promoters, producers, dancers and photographers - including the legendary Beezer, photographer of the Wild Bunch before they became Massive Attack; the inimitable Normski and former Hip-Hop Connection lensman Richard Reyes.

“British hip hop has never had the recognition and kudos it deserves. We have a wealth of talent in this country that has developed and grown in the last 30 years to become a respected musical force to be reckoned with and the artists that are consistently breaking through continue to push boundaries and take hip hop further. Many people are unaware of how British hip hop has evolved and of how influential it has been. Through this exhibition visitors will be able to trace the history of the UK scene before discovering what and who will be the next to make their mark,” comments Andy Brydon.

‘Home Grown’ is divided into 7 sections, covering rapping, deejaying, graffiti and breakdancing. They are:

•Origins of UK hip-hop, looking at the existing British black music culture of soul boys and reggae sound systems in the late 1970s

•The Early Years, focusing on the emergence of UK b-boy culture, the continuation of the sound system legacy, and the UK’s first hip-hop and electro records

•The Boom Years, zooming in on the media’s adoption of hip-hop as a new cultural phenomenon, setting the stage for a first generation of major label home grown talent such as Cookie Crew, London Posse and Hijack

•Broken Beats will focus on UK hip-hop’s underground years as it became overshadowed by the emergence of club culture. This tension ultimately helped breed some of the most diverse and challenging mutations of UK breakbeat culture (from hardcore and trip-hop to jungle and drum ‘n’ bass) while hardening the UK hip-hop scene’s DIY values from within - most famously in the so-called Britcore movement

•The Renaissance, showing how the British hip-hop scene rallied around a new generation of acts – such as Roots Manuva, Blak Twang and Lewis Parker – championing their new British sounds, and bringing a fresh sense of optimism to the scene

•The Home Grown, looking at the consolidation of this success in an underground network of self-sufficient labels, shops and promotions, while new stars blew up on the mainstream

•Emergent UK Hip-Hop, showcasing new hip-hop from all of the traditional elements, as well as the best of the new artists about to break through – whether they’re incorporating elements of grime, dubstep and wonky, or just doing it straight, no chaser.

Pollyanna Clayton-Stamm, Head of Creative Programmes at Urbis says: “This exhibition continues the ethos that underpins all programming at Urbis, to explore a broad spectrum of popular and often timely topics, reclaiming popular culture by covering sometimes uncharted themes that are not traditionally covered by other galleries or museums. It’s exciting to be highlighting a genre that has had such a huge impact on our culture, not just through music but also fashion, art and film; with this exhibition visitors will for the first time be able fully to understand and appreciate how and why British hip hop developed and where it goes from here.”

Contributors to date include Malcolm McLaren, Normski, DJ Semtex, DMC, DJ 279, Fallacy, Morgan Khan, Part 2, Greg Wilson, Jehst, THTC, DJ MK, Dreph, Andy Cowan, Vie Marshall, Beezer, DJ Milo, Tuf Tim Twist (Rock Steady Crew), Rising Styles (Hip Hop Festival), Contact Theatre. More artists will be revealed in the coming months.

Home Grown: The Story of UK Hip Hop
15 October 2009 – March 2010
Urbis, Manchester
Free admission

For further information visit www.urbis.org.uk

Image Credits

Graf. Covent 1985 (c)Richard Reyes, Home Grown, Urbis 2009.
Broken English, Hip Hop Exhibition, Urbis 2009, Photo by Al Baker

American artist - Whitney McVeigh in conversation at A Foundation

This autumn, A Foundation, presents a solo exhibition of new work by the American-born artist Whitney McVeigh. Set in the cavernous first floor space of A Foundation’s Rochelle School in Shoreditch, East London, the exhibition will showcase a selection of monoprints, collages and works on found paper.



Operating through a combination of intention and accident, McVeigh’s new work has a vivid immediacy that celebrates the potential of the medium to suggest, rather than define, possible readings. In a series of large-scale monoprints, the black acrylic, rich and tactile in its material presence, is coaxed into yielding interpretations that refuse to settle. Through a combination of drawing, gesture and chance, the works pulse with a vital, contagious energy, oscillating between abstraction and figuration.



In the collages, this fertile indeterminacy keeps the viewer busy through a free association of word and image, untethered from their source and made to speak in tongues. Also showing are works on found paper. McVeigh isolates pages from sources such as sailing manuals, old encyclopedias and book keeping ledgers and assaults them with drawing or mark-making, prompting dialogues through obliteration and accretion.



At first glance, the pieces may appear simple in their resonant immediacy but are, in fact, remarkably complex. McVeigh’s practice involves instinctively creating ‘in the moment’, responding to and activating the materials at hand through cutting, pasting, drawing, tearing and painting. The apparently austere colour scheme further reinforces the impact and physicality of the work.



This Thursday join the artist, Sotiris Kyriacou (curator) and JJ Charlesworth (writer and Reviews Editor, Art Review) for an informal tour of the artist’s show at A Foundation. This event is free, to reserve your place call (0)20 8969 3959.

McVeigh’s work is currently on show at the NY Arts Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale until November 22nd and Whitney McVeigh will also feature in a BBC Four documentary presented by Gus Casley-Hayford on the current art scene.

www.afoundation.org.uk

Image (c)Whitney McVeigh courtesy the artist and the gallery

Whitney McVeigh, Untitled IV, 2009, Acrylic monoprint on paper 153cm x 152cm

Whitney McVeigh, Untitled 3, 2009, Acrylic monoprint on paper 153cm x 152cm

Whitney McVeigh, Knots and Splices (triptych) Etching Ink Monoprint on found paper 2009,