The End

This blog has had several revamps over its two year history, but sadly I am to officially announce the end for The City Space as a blog format, although the graphics site http://www.thecityspace.co.uk/ will continue on for the foreseeable future.

Onto new things. I have started up a website dedicated to my illustration work which also has a blog I have started writing. Some of the posts will retain a flavour of the content this blog has shown over the years - referencing local events designers etc. and also promoting my own activity as an illustrator. I hope you'll take a look if you're interested, and feel free to e-mail over any thoughts or suggestions for the content of the new site and Blog.

http://www.robsimpson.co.uk/

Enjoy!

New World

I like to produce promo pieces when I find the time, and since my last offering for the Create In Brighton competition was received with enthusiasm I've produced another drawing based on the theme of discovery.

The title is New World. The space shuttle Discovery made its final landing in 2011, and is now retired from service. In the image I've taken inspiration from the pioneering spirit of space travel and pictured the Discovery descending above a new planet as a mysterious skyscraper peaks just above the red clouds. Without further ado, I present it to you...

This image, along with the rest of my portfolio can be seen on the Brighton Illustrators website (link below).

http://brightonillustrators.co.uk/portfolios/Rob_Simpson

Your comments, as always, are welcome below.

Alt-Brighton

We may all know of - and perhaps even read - literature about the history, art, culture and people of our city; books can help bring alive events from distant or recent past, educating us about how our society has developed over time.

Brighton-based community publishers QueenSpark Books have been involved in their fair share of books about the history and culture of Brighton. But now they're about to embark on a slightly different sort of publication to the norm, a collaborative graphic novel project featuring imaginative fiction based around the history of Brighton. The project was inspired by Bryan Talbot's Alice In Sunderland, a graphic novel reciting the fascinating history of Sunderland using the format of a comic book.

QueenSpark started the project by calling for creative writing submissions from the community and were met with a very enthusiastic response, with a large number of short stories uploaded onto their website. Not being one to shy away from creative projects based in Brighton, I sent my own submission in entitled A Most Marvellous Machine - based on the story of Magnus Volk's intriguing 'Daddy Long Legs' railway. I am very fortunate to be one of the fourteen writers selected to work on the book, led by Tim Pilcher, co-founder of the Comic Book Alliance. Therefore expect a few more updates coming from time to time on The City Space with regard to the project.

If you're interested in finding out more about Alt-Brighton, or want to read some of the great creative writing submissions, visit the QueenSpark Books site http://www.queensparkbooks.org.uk/theme/46.html.

STORIES: Whose Shoes (part 2)

The comic is complete. Sorry for the delay between parts 1 and 2, but life gets hectic sometimes and drawing can take a while. The winner is a careful combination of the suggestions from messrs Matt and 'collective terms'. I thank you for your suggestions. (For part 1 see previous post)

STORIES: Whose Shoes (part 1)

THINGS TO SEE: Create In Brighton

This image entitled In The Deep End, was my illustrative submission for the Create In Brighton competition currently being promoted around the city. Entrants were required to submit a piece of Illustrated, Graphic Design or Photographic work based on the theme of Discovery.

My piece is set in a post apocalyptic era; we often marvel at the architecture and artefacts of ages past and this work represents the excitement and endeavour of a future generation who might discover relics from this age. In this case Big Ben  is employed as the classic representative of the city of London, lost underneath the sea.

CREATE IN BRIGHTON has announced the thirty finalists for the competition, these will be displayed in pubs and bars across the city for people to vote for, ten entrants will enter a final judged by key industry professionals with the chance to win £1000 pounds. For more details on the competition, visit the Create In Brighton site or Facebook page (listed below).

http://www.drinkinbrighton.co.uk/create/

http://www.facebook.com/createinbrighton

PROFILE: Collate Presents

Thursday evening, 6.20pm, I enter the Mull It Over event. I'm welcomed in by the sight of people circulating with drinks and peering with focused curiosity at the image-laden walls. The atmosphere is bustling with busy energy - it's actually a little difficult to move at all, but as I set my mind on viewing the pieces on display my perseverance is rewarded by a remarkably diverse and eclectic mix of work.

Collate Presents, the curatorial team behind the exhibition, set a brief to artists to provide their unfinished, half-baked or unseen work. Images range from depictions of Brighton & Hove to New York, and everything else you  could expect from a brief as open as this one. The walls are given little room to breathe amongst the multitude of work, but there has a strangely joyful claustrophobia to it which certainly complements the brief.

I was delighted to be able to catch Gem and Carly, the dynamic duo behind this event and Collate Presents, for an interview after the event.

TCS: Tell me about Collate Presents, how did it get started?

CP: Being artists ourselves we were always on the hunt for new and exciting places to exhibit our own work. We were becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of this locally. Brighton is full to bursting point of amazingly talented creative people, theres something about this city that attracts people to create here yet there is little opportunity for these people to show. 

Another thing we found frustrating was the whopping submission fees involved when submitting work to galleries. 

Collate Presents began over a cup of tea and a wild idea to change the set-in-stone model that galleries tend to follow....and so we began.

TCS:  Would you say you have something unique to offer in the area of the arts?

CP:   Definitely, we come from very different backgrounds but both with creative roots, as a team we work our fingers to the bone and our cups of tea dry. But at the end of the day - we are first to admit that we are just people, there is no airs and graces about us, that could be because we're Northern but generally our ethos is just our personalities. I think its really important when curating to know what the grass on the other side of the fence is like...we thought it was a bit muddy. 

We share a collective passion to push buttons and challenge the way work is seen, everything else moves with the times - including the work - so why not the way in which we view it?

We attempt to address the pretension and boundaries people hit upon when establishing a route to an audience. When selecting for a show we give equal importance to internationally recognised artists as we do the work of an 'unknown' artist, we believe very strongly that the 'art' itself should be more important than status. 

In order to make art we have to challenge ourselves daily and establish a reason for addressing thought patterns and developing ideas - all artists no matter how much recognition you have had should have the opportunity to not just learn from each-other but share the experience of showing.

TCS:  How do you come up with ideas for new exhibitions? 

CP:  We have some voodoo like quality about us in which we somehow share a small section of our brains, we have a lot of the same ideas and we finish each others sentences. We tend to shout to each other from other rooms in our flat when we have a brainwave. Its a bit like cooking....one of us bakes the cake and the other one finishes it off with icing. Its a very natural process but we are continuously sprouting new and sometimes far too wacky ideas. 

TCS:  How much of the work on display at Mull It Over is from local artists/designers
/do you feel there's a sense of the locality (Brighton & Hove)in the work as a whole? 

CP:  There was a real selection at Mull It Over, we had work submitted from Australia and all over Europe as well as our fabulous local artists. I think in this case the really wide scope worked really well. It isn't every day that artists get to exhibit on the other side of the world, we grabbed at the opportunity to take works from other countries - it sat really well with the ethos of the show. 

There was definitely a sense of locality in the majority of the work shown, the references to location were prominent but also the way they were implemented was varied - I think in a way with a few exceptions it was like flashing a light into a few darkened Brighton studios and having a wee nosey.

TCS: On your site it says you want to challenge the 'standard' model of an art gallery; how have you felt this has been achieved so far?

CP: I think we've opened up a new route for artists to channel into, I guess we're providing an alternative to the mainstream really and giving the creative talent in Brighton a window. We began this journey as CP just a few months ago, having had only two shows we've given over 100 incredible artists a platform in which to exhibit their wonderful work.

Our ethos is not for everyone but I think in Brighton it goes down like a sherry at Christmas. Collate Presents has hit a nerve here and we don't plan on stopping!

TCS: What does the future hold for your Collate Presents partnership?

CP:  Well....we did say that we were going to have a few months down time to rest after what was an incredible success but lots of hard work with Mull It Over. However the day after the private view we were already baking up another well iced cake. We have some venue meetings lined up and a few ideas up our sleeve...but that would be telling. 

TCS:If you could describe Brighton in one word, what would it be?

CP:Opportunistic.


http://www.collatepresents.com/mull-it-over-jan-12.html

AS AN END to this post I'm delighted to be able to present my pick from the exhibition, a video entitled This Is Brighton from the talented young film-maker Caleb Yule.

This is Brighton from Caleb Yule on Vimeo.

THINGS TO SEE: Mull It Over Exhibition

After a long Christmas break The City Space is back in action and I'm very pleased to be able to promote an upcoming exhibition run by Brighton's very own Collate Presents.

"Collate Presents have taken submissions from artists from all disciplines and have called out for them to empty their collections of half baked ideas, inspiring sketches, unseen works and exploratory photographs."

Featuring over 200 works from local and international artists the exhibition will run from 13th - 17th Januray (12 - 5pm) at the Artists Residence in Regency Square, Brighton. For more information on Collate Presents and the Mull It Over exhibition, visit the website: 

http://www.collatepresents.com/index.html

I'll be attending the event and am hoping to catch the curators for a short interview, so expect a follow-up post in the coming week. It's good to be back!

STORIES: Burning Of The Clocks

The Burning Of The Clocks is a festival in Brighton on 21st December. People gather to make paper and willow lanterns to carry through their city and burn on the beach as a token for the end of the year.

http://www.burningtheclocks.co.uk

PROFILE: Edward Rhodes (Poet)

EDWARD RHODES IS A POET. A born and bred Brightonian with an insatiable appetite for history and an undeniably brilliant ability to play with words. Having established himself with regular performances of his writings at the once-monthly Horseplay event at the Black Horse pub in Kemptown, Edward has taken a leap into the world of the printed verse by publishing his first book of poems entitled All My Masks.

The book is a compendium of work ranging from the personal to the parodist; but the overarching theme of All My Masks is the inward struggle of a man with many different guises wrestling with his identity.

“I started writing poetry as a way to deal with times in life that were difficult emotionally; the book asks the question 'Who's the real me?'”

He Describes the experience of being “Shy and introverted - particularly around women.” and in poems such as the heartbreakingly emotive If We Meet (presented below), Edward is at his melancholic best.

In stark contrast, the book is also scattered with moments of humour and audaciousness, “Some of the poems are reactions to incidents at work or on the bus: a particular favourite recounts a journey to work where the traffic was held up by a Dachshund!” As Edward delivers his performances the audience is invited to share in his frustrations as past feelings are recounted with delicious wit and sarcasm.

Edward is a form poet at heart, often using the rigidity and structure to express himself “in a box”. However, when asked about trends in Brighton he muses:“The city is more avant-garde, more free; poets often express themselves in less formal ways.” This approach has found it's way into Edward's work more recently; with some poems in the book expressing less structured verses. In spite of this he describes his role (with an element of self-parody) as “bringing form poetry back to Brighton.” Watch this space!

When asked about his key influences, Edward ascribes his confidence in performing to Ashley Ffrench, a Brighton based 'slam poet' who co-organises the Horseplay event: “It was Ash who encouraged me to perform my poetry in-front of an audience, instead of leaving them on the shelves at home.” As a Christian, Edward also uses the medium to express questions and feelings about his faith,“Of Course my faith is a key inspiration in my work, but I don't go to events as a 'Christian poet'; I am someone who writes poems and happens to be a Christian.”

As the final act of our meeting I ask Edward to describe what he loves about Brighton, the melancholic poet replies: “It's an accepting place, it's easy to be yourself here... in one word, Brighton is accepting.”

If we meet

So, if we meet again, what should I say?
If I should speak to you, subdue my fear
Should I apologise and walk away
Or linger with excuses, words unclear
And mumbles of regret? Should I decline
To speak to you at all? Wear the veneer
Of sullen, proud indifference, yet incline
My ear to hear your words, if words you speak
And do not with your silence oppose mine
Arouse in me this melancholy streak
Like that which haunts me, waking every day
Should I deny the tears upon my cheek?
Should I speak gracious words, resolve to pray?
Tell me, if now we meet, what I should say



All My Masks can be purchased from the following sites:

http://www2.xlibris.com/books/webimages/wd/uk/301759/index.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk