Exhibiting / Tate Modern / eMotion
Yesterday I installed a new artwork at the Tate Modern in London, UK. eMotion is an interactive artwork that I have created alongside longtime collaborators Harvey Wells and Kevin Acott. Throughout our lives we are making transitions: moving emotionally, spiritually, socially, physically. We adjust from being ‘healthy’ to being ‘ill’, from ‘independence’ to ‘dependence’ and back again. This project highlights the joys and fear of impermanence, of the changes that occur every second, minute and hour of our lives. It embraces movement as normal, as part of the flow of life – something that should neither be resisted nor forced.
You can see/experience it from 11-16 June 2019, 12-5pm daily as part of the Ideas in Motion exhibition. More information here – https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/tate-exchange/workshop/ideas-motion-borders-bodies-and-universe
From January to May my time is consumed by the Art of Caring exhibition at St George’s Hospital. I’ve been organising this exhibition for 5 years now and it still delights and surprises with its varied and insightful work. It ends on the 14th June and will now travel to St Pancras Hospital (Launch Party 18th July) under the care of curators Peter Herbert and Elaine Harper-Gay.
I was able to put some of my work into other group exhibitions this year. Size Matters was part of the Fringe Arts Bath festival and included some of my miniature cigarette worlds. It was also an opportunity to escape London for a few days, where I took some time out to do some drawing (see left) near Stroud. It has been a demanding 18 months with some sad and difficult periods in my personal life. I realise that I will need to take some more time out to draw in the future months. Love Tokens and Bad Pennies was a real success on the streets of London with the other CollectConnect artists. It really is my preferred way to exhibit, directly on the streets and engaging with a sometimes unsuspecting audience. It has been such an exciting format that we are teaming up with Barbara Dougan at Grove to run a new street art exhibition and trail that will run through Bury St Edmunds in August 2019. http://www.groveprojects.org/groving.html
Out and About
I had a fabulous day in May drawing at the Urban Tree Festival in London. As their festival artist I was given free rein to delve into a number of talks and activities. My favourite drawing was of the Thai Trees session in Lloyd Park just near Angel (right).
I am still devoted to sketching on the radio programme A World in London every Wednesday on Resonance FM. I have been drawing the bands/musicians who perform on the show for nearly 3 years now. I love the excitement of capturing the live performance and value the friendships I’ve nurtured with DJ Ritu, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling, Patrick Bernard, Lucas Keen (and Sophia Gaetani Morris)
One of the personal projects that has really taken off in the past 6 months is discovering and celebrating the lives of London’s Musicians from the 1930s. I’m interested in where they lived, their music, and what the stories of their lives reveals about the time. I’ve published two books 1930s Musicians of Richmond and Twickenham and 1930s Musicians of Twickenham and Whitton. I’m currently working on a third one around Tufnell Park that includes musicians Frank Deniz, Fela Sowande and Leslie ‘Jiver’ Hutchinson. Natalie very kindly accompanies on my walks as I track down some of the houses where the musicians lived.
Album and Book Art
Georgia Mancio and Kate Williams’ new album Finding Home has been launched and very well received by critics and audiences alike (below). My artwork has also been featured on Laura Zakian’s new album Minor Moments and Canadian trumpeter Gabriel Mark Hasselbach’s latest release Radio Gold. Three worlds collided for me recently when I illustrated A World in London colleague Sophie Darling’s new chapbook Darling’s Global Record Labels through our publishers Sampson Low.
alban low 