Edgar Allan Poe

Image_Polyptych  (Boldon Colliery 1982/2010)  © Garry Hunter

Heritage Open Days 2010
event with contemporary
art installation at the former
St Hilda’s pithead, South
Shields NE33, featuring the
work of eight international
artists responding to the
passage of time within the
themes of subterrania and
the heritage of industrial art.

Exhibition opening times_
Thursday 9 September 2010
11am – 3pm
Friday 10 September 2010
11am – 2pm & 4pm – 7pm
Saturday 11 September 2010
11am – 4pm
www.fitzrovianoir.wordpress.com

View Map

Featured artists include_
Graham Carrick_Tunnel Visions
Garry Hunter_Sheaver
Peter Mackertich_Shaft triptych
Michael Mayhew_Vent series
John Perivolaris_Toledo
Manuel Sanmartin_The Underground Creature
Lucietta Williams_Sleepwalkers
David Snoo Wilson_Sub series

Fitzrovia Noir have assembled a carefully chosen selection of contemporary art that looks at local heritage and global themes of subterranean industry, exhibited at the St Hildas pithead, a stones throw from the River Tyne, a conduit to the cosmopolitan outlook of South Shields.

Two locally-born artists, painter Graham Carrick and photographer Garry Hunter have specially produced work for this exhibition, exploring both of their own father’s work at coalmines that references the famous tradition of ‘banner art’ created for Miner’s Lodges, still prevalent at galas. Carrick’s painting took on a whole new meaning when he recently discovered an archive of his family’s involvement with the coal industry, which has fed into his piece Tunnel Visions. Hunter has looked at strands of his ancestry from the Durham area, his father’s role as a crane driver at Boldon Colliery and his two grandfathers who were face workers at coalmines in the North East. By taking NUM driving manual illustrations, photographs he took when Boldon was closing in 1982 and other archive images, he has blended industrial heritage and his father’s army conscription in Germany, taking a colour infra-red image of open cast coalmining in that country with a set of ‘emergency stop’ keys . The multi-armed god Shiva is brought to mind is when looking at the emphasised commands for crane movements, that include the cross-section of a wire rope that would travel through a ‘sheave’ .

Lucietta Williams and Manuel Sanmartin look at actual and mythical inhabitants of underground worlds in their paintings, where Williams’ represents the pit ponies that lived permanently below

and Sanmartin creates an idea of an ancient animal whose bones may still exist, but the outward appearance of which is unproven. His Latin American heritage has particular poignancy at this time, with the trapped Chilean miners reminding us that working conditions for many are still hazardous.

David Snoo Wilson has utilised the art of welding to make a homage to The Kursk, that links the shipbuilding tradition of Tyneside to a famous disaster of the Russian Navy. While constructing these sub pieces, Wilson was involved in an explosion caused by residue left on the inside of

an empty gas bottle, resulting in hospitalisation – but he is now thankfully recovered and back working on this series, which now has a chilling link to the accident at St Hildas in 1839, where 51 miners were killed in a gas explosion.

Photographers Peter Mackertich and John Perivolaris have roots in Armenia and Greece respectively, but here they look at subterrania in Western Europe. Mackertich’s trio of pithead architectural studies spans from South Central France to the Black Country of England and

takes in a tower facing the North Sea, while Perivolaris’ image of a wall in the Spanish city of Toledo, reminds us of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Pit and The Pendulum, a timeless piece set in

times of the Inquisition, but has resonance with any desperate situation of being trapped in the dark underground.

Michael Mayhew’s Vent series has decorated mannequins that look at the fragile human condition, susceptible to the many dangers that lurk in confined spaces. Kill to Breathe communicates the tightness of breath felt when oxygen intake is low;  Bioman the delicate structure of the human body, so susceptible when exposed to hazards within industry and the earth itself, whether dangers of electrification or radioactive poisoning.

Sheaver_© Garry Hunter

This event is supported by The Fitzrovia Partnership, with special thanks to Eve Chung at the HOK architectural practice

As part of the launch day Open Studios of the London Festival of Architecture biennale, Fitzrovia Noir present an installation of selected artworks at Furnival Mansions, the home of artist_curator Garry Hunter for the last decade. This block was built by the Quakers in 1905 as low cost social housing for workers in West End theatres and contains some original internal features. Number 24 was site of a former public house, visible on the 1870 map section of the attached image Skirting which shows a snapshot of former residents and evidence of the 1980s wall coverings, discovered when the flat was being refurbished in 1999.

This site was formerly Wells Buildings, a cut-through to the then Union Mews     ( now Bourlet Close ) evidence of which can be seen on the white wall under the atrium of the studio adjacent building with two classical figures perched above. To the north is the site of the Independent Television News building in the 1980s, now the residential West One House. An 18^th Century colour-coded map of danger areas showed this location, then known as the Rebecca Buildings as a dark purple, only one level below the most crime-ridden spot of Seven Dials; further down Wells Street is Rob’s Twisted Leather Gear which two hundred years ago was The Tiger public house, a renowned place to find an assassin.

Our installation event is designed to raise awareness of art practices in Fitzrovia, linking in with a route including some of Fitzrovia’s commercial art galleries and promoting our aims to establish the Intervention art trail, which we hope will take place every second year, starting in Spring 2011. The idea is to exhibit art works in non-gallery locations throughout Fitzrovia, leading a trail that starts in Charlotte Street and circumnavigates the former Middlesex Hospital site, focus of Fitzrovia Noir’s inaugural site-response project Memory and Demolition.

Work by Garry Hunter and Michael Mayhew at Garden Art photography by Lee Jones

Click on map to enlarge

Work by Michael Mayhew at Garden Art photography by Lee Jones

WASH

Fitzrovia Noir’s residency at Reynolds, 53 Charlotte Street, has an architectural show Wash running throughout the London Festival of Architecture, a selection of vintage hand-coloured prints by Helena Zakrzewska-Rucinska that is open for viewing from 8am to 6pm on weekdays. Hand-colouring involves a slow, labour-intensive process of masking areas of a black and white ‘bromide’ photographic print to ‘wash’ over individual coloured inks, achieving the overall effect through a build-up of pastel shades. Helena produces her work for exhibition and has undertaken many commissions from major record companies, book publishers and advertising agencies.

http://www.helenazr.com/buildings/master.htm

VULNERABLE

The paintings of Paul Robinson @  Qube, 90 Whitfield Street, London W1T 4EZ  19th June 11am to 4pm

Paul Robinson’s paintings feature three key elements, trees, repetitive patterns and representations of decaying painted surfaces. The paintings are precariously near to disassembling, as the amalgamations of his ambivalent recollections are disparate and fragmented. Yet an instinctive process of non-sequential layering combines these disjointed and seemingly disconnected elements seamlessly together.

http://www.nosnibor.co.uk/

Fitzrovia Noir will have work on display during FOXFEST 2010 this may.

Featured artists will be Lucy Williams, Garry Hunter, Manuel Sanmartin and Graham Carrick

Come along and see the art and enjoy this blistering music Festival

For more information visit FOXFEST

present

Show runs from 16th APRIL – 30TH APRIL

Orbital Comics

8 Great Newport Street
London WC2H 7JA
020 7240 0591

www.orbitalcomics.com

Opening Hours

Monday-Saturday : 10:30 – 7:00

Sunday : 11:30 – 5:00

T.L.L by Graham Carrick

Myself and Lucy Williams have been huge comic and movie fans for longer than we care to remember and this exhibition addresses these passions. The first shot of this double-barrelled exhibition concentrates on our love of comics. We have brought together artists working within London’s contemporary art scene to offer up their interpretations of beloved Superheroes and Villains. Beware these will be little like anything you have seen before.

The second discharge from our smoking gun portrays artists’ interpretations of movie posters from throughout cinema history. Again these will be original takes on iconic images and of interest to movie buffs.

Fitzrovia Noir’s intentions with this art outing is to give thanks to all the influences that have shaped our own understanding of the art world and acted in part as inspiration for the direction our own careers have taken. I was inspired and educated in art skills by the likes of 2000AD and Warrior, and studied Bill Sienkiewicz and Kevin O’Neil as the great masters that they are. Without these influences from an early age I doubt I would have find myself in the position I am today.

With this show, we salute the importance of these artists and their work -  the comic creators, graphic artists and movie makers that have and continue to inspire and entertain us.

Thank you all

We love ya

Graham & Lucy

Black Panther by Marcus Cope

The Thing by Manuel Sanmartin and Graham Carrick

SHOWING NOW

Tangled up in blue by Russell Clark

The work of Russell Clark served up for his outing at Reynolds  is from a series of music inspired pieces that saw him win THETOP100 art prize in 2009. Beating off over 200 entries after being selected by five judges ranging from Gallery owners to Christie’s experts his entry titled DECLINE based on Guns and Roses Spaghetti Incident took the Number 1 spot. DECLINE is available as a limited addition print via www.jealousgallery.com

The work on show creates a creative and humorous reinterpretation of classic Album covers and songs. Food becomes the muse in these vivid and beautiful acts of witty pastiche. The prism of the iconic Dark side of the moon is replaced with a samosa and Metallica’s “Kill em all” sees tomato ketchup where there was once blood.

The show also premieres specially produced additions to the ongoing series enjoy and tuck in.

Since Fitzrovia Noir were introduced to his art we have been lucky enough to have work produced by him for the exhibitions Exquisite Decay 2 and the forthcoming FOR THE LOVE OF. His work has also been on display at Christies, exhibited and auctioned in Montreal and was hung alongside Ed Ruscha at last years Mas Civiles Galleries CLUSTER exhibition.
Having worked for over half a decade in Fitzrovia Russell was keen to show his work at Reynolds.
Over the past few years the art world  has again embraced Fitzrovia and we at Fitzrovia Noir are Honoured to introduce its latest artist Russell Clark.
Purchase and see more of his work at www.shootthepast.com

PAST SHOWS

Middlesex Hospital Portraits

An exhibition of photographs by Peter Mackertich

Image From Fitzrovia Noir, Middlesex Hospital Portraits Annie Antoine © Peter Mackertich

Taken within the Middlesex Hospital as it was being demolished. Using a 1940s Speed Graphic large format camera, Peter took photographs of 40 ex – hospital staff in situ. Each subject was asked to bring an object which stood for their role at the Hospital. The pictures hint at the stories and emotions attached to this historic building and site.

Feb–Mon 15 Mar
Mon –Fri 10.00am – 6.00pm
Admission Free

Reynolds Cafe, 53 Charlotte Street, W1T 4 PA
Telephone 020 7580 2290
Telephone 07866 105 776

an arts group formed in early 2008, by five London based artists, Fitzrovia Noir has to date curated and produced twelve group shows in eighteen months, showcasing 120 artists to a combined audience of over 30,000 people in England, France & Scotland.

This show is one part of a new series of regularly changing exhibitions at Reynolds Charlotte Street that will feature artists working in the local area.

Using media ranging from painting, collage, photography and film, the group recently documented the demolition of the local Middlesex Hospital over a period of 10 months. This involved asking former patients and hospital staff to be photographed and interviewed. Established photographer and lecturer, Peter Mackertich produced photo portraits within the building as it was being demolished. Using a 1940s Speed Graphic large format black and white camera, Peter took photographs of 40 participants, a selection of these are displayed here.

It soon became clear that all those approached had very strong feelings about their former place of work and the portraits aimed to capture the meaning of the Hospital for each of them. To signal this further we asked each portraitee to bring an object or  item which stood for their role at the Hospital. The process elicited these remarkable pictures and hint at the individual stories and emotions attached to this historic building and site.

The portraitees range from former nurses, doctors and consultants from many different medical areas, telephonists, porters, former patients and those born there. They include couples who met there and subsequently married in the Hospital’s Victorian Chapel.

Featured artists_

Miriam Burke has made a new piece for this show, using paper cuts that resemble the structure of glacier, to construct a hanging ‘net’, part of a series that she is developing for an exhibition in March 2010. Working alongside the Geography Department at Keele University, she is collaborating with glaciologist Dr. Peter Knight, exploring and investigating the methodologies of art and science and the different means of comprehending environments.

In a project from 2008, Mim recorded a history of walks she had taken on the Isle of Mull, making cuts on paper to map trails she followed across the island. This topographic sculpture formed the lid of a model of the suitcase that she took on these travels, the artist stating that ‘By altering and toying with our sense of scale, I question our relationship to our environment.’
http://www.miriamburke.co.uk/

Michael Mayhew was Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the University of Manchester in 2007-8 within the School of Environment and Development. He embarked on an intellectual journey from one discipline to another, across the various sites across the university, looking at how the principles of mapping are used in different contexts. Michael is a ‘live artist’ who immerses himself totally within the geography of the human body, often using his own blood in the process. In 333 a durational performance lasting for 3 hours and 33 minutes, Mayhew hangs suspended from the ceiling, cocooned in cotton-wool, as the audience looks on. A bag of his own blood drips slowly onto his body as he repeats texts about neutrality, responsibility and witnessing.  333 developed from a residency at Theatre Arsenique in Lausanne, Switzerland, in which Mayhew lived in a bunker for 333 hours (14 days) in an attempt to answer the question, ‘Who are we as Swiss?” put to him by the promoter.

Presented here are mannequins exploring the geography of the body, remnants of a performance commissioned by the Contemporary Art Society.
http://www.michaelmayhew.com/home.php

Garry Hunter has traditionally worked with photography, but in 2005 moved into producing light-based pieces so presented here is work from both of these disciplines. The Pack of Nine is from a documented journey shot on a single roll of monochrome film, while The Dark Pool is an image from the award-winning book Trip_Transporting Grain. This was an internal journey by the artist, looking into locations visited by both himself and his father fifty years before, during the latter’s slow process of decline due to terminal illness in 2002. The Dark Pool can be found in collections from Canada to New Zealand and the UK. The neon piece Flag of an Imaginary Nation was born out of a response to the declaration of independence by the Mosquito Coast region of Nicaragua – as yet Moskitia is unrecognised as a separate country. This artistic enquiry has now led onto a planned trip to the newly-forming Indian state of Telangana, currently in the northern part of Andra Pradesh that includes the state capital of Hyderabad.

His psychogeographic conceptualisation of journeys can be triggered by ‘found’ or ‘given’ objects, as in the installation Name, Rank and Serial Number where a watch became the motif for retracing a route by it’s former owner, a 19 year old infantryman who was killed in action two weeks after the D-Day landings.

Garry is a Member of the International Curators Forum, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire.
http://www.garryhunter.com

Graham Carrick explores in his painting the nature of seeing through memory, interpreting a faded print of a vague location, found in an abandoned hospital reception, into a lingering memento that fades from blooming summer flowers into an intense  and perplexing bloody battlefield ( Nil by Mouth 2008 ) Locations that remain inaccessible to most of us occur frequently in his work, such as in Down by the River an imagined landscape.

For this show, Graham has also specially produced two paintings that look at the geography of mind and body. In Pick an emotion a journey is depicted as a face reduced to an unrecognisable structure that jolts against a dark shadow ; all that remains of a familiar visage. For  From the Heart to the Head and Back Again  a trip is depicted through a body illustrated with the distinguishing colours of a London Underground map, with recognisable stations replaced with human emotions, a journey we have all embarked on.

Graham is a member of VAGA ( The Visual Artists and Galleries Association ) and a curator with London-based artists group Fitzrovia Noir.
http://www.grayhousegallery.com/

Produced by Fitzrovia Noir. Part of The Curator’s Egg Project. Is it all good ?
Let us know your own thoughts at http://fitzrovianoir.wordpress.com/

Current Affairs

Flag of an Imaginary Nation. Neon. Edition of two. Artists_Garry Hunter and Ellis Leeper. Engineered by Neon Circus

Saturday 19th – Sunday 20th
September 2009_11am – 5pm

Studio 21 and 22 ( First floor )

Trinity Buoy Wharf
64 Orchard Place_E14 0JW

Elements collated at Windy Corner, location of Michael Faraday’s Experimental Lighthouse where the River Lea merges with the Thames.

Electric storm. Artist Linda Duong

Featured visual artists include_

Graham Carrick
Linda Duong
Garry Hunter
Matthew Kolakowski
Ellis Leeper
Peter Mackertich
Matthew Rich
Paul Snowdon
Lucietta Williams

with a special appearance by_
Time Attendant_www.myspace.com/timeattendant

For further information see_
http://www.openhouse.org.uk/public/london/event.html
http://www.trinitybuoywharf.com/

FITZROVIA NOIR

cordially invites you to the Opening Night of

THE WAITING ROOM

Responses to Locations in Transition

Hortensia Gallery
Kensington & Chelsea College
Hortensia Road
SW10 OQS

6pm to 9pm

Thursday 17th September 2009.

Tube_Fulham Broadway

Exhibition open Friday 18th September to Thursday 1st October, Mon-Fri_10am to 5pm. The new commission Time Continuum Map by Linda Duffy, a looks at the history and people of Hortensia Road from 1905 to 2009. Residents are invited to contributeto this piece during the installation. Please call 07905 408121 for more information.

Produced and curated by Fitzrovia Noir with the kind assistance of the Royal Borough Arts Service and the Fine Art departmentof Kensington and Chelsea College. A percentage of any sales will go towards The Peter Stanley Memorial Prize awarded annually to outstanding KCC Fine Art students.

Image_Time Continuum Map detail http://fitzrovianoir.wordpress.com Fitzrovia Noir is a not-for-profit arts facilitator

International artists_
Alex Buhl_Copenhagen
Linda Duffy_Brisbane
Julia Solis_New York City

British artists_
Moira Blackwell_Brighton
Michael Lindley_Sheffield
Victor Lopes_Reading
Michael Mayhew_Manchester
Clifton Stewart_Peterborough
Tom Watson_Durham

London artists_
Graham Carrick_Bounds Green
Pamela Furness_Forest Gate
Garry Hunter_Fitzrovia
Peter Mackertich_Camberwell
Lucy Williams_Brockley

]]> http://fitzrovianoir.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/fitzrovia-noir-present-the-waiting-room-pv-17th-sept/feed/ 0 fitzrovianoir waiting room KCC_13 KCC_05.mos Waiting Room Waiting room KCC WHERE IS MR SELLERS by Graham Carrick http://fitzrovianoir.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/sa-lon-08/ http://fitzrovianoir.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/sa-lon-08/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:34:50 +0000 fitzrovianoir http://fitzrovianoir.wordpress.com/?p=148 ]]>

SA•Lon

Artists include_
Alexandra Buhl
Graham Carrick
Pamela Furness
Garry Hunter
Michael Mayhew
Peter Mackertich
Lucieta Williams
painting, photography and
assemblage works for sale
including unique pieces, artists
proofs and vintage prints
Fitzrovia Noir_
70 to 71 Wells Street_
London_W1T 3QG
(in the old choir school on the
corner of Margaret Street)
2008_
Friday 12th December
noon ‘til 7pm
Saturday 13th December
noon ‘til 4pm