Open Submission Season

Lots of exhibitions and shows appear to have closing dates around the same time, the time being now. So we’ve been looking at what @spottedhyenas has been up to, and I’ve been photographing our favourite pieces and works in progress so we’ve a good set of images for promotion. Some of the ideas @spottedhyenas is exploring…

The Trip (A Collaboration and a Dream)

I’m not sure how this started, and yet here we are, already there. The beautiful scenery and the idyllic peacefulness. And yet… That state of relaxed contemplation remains just out of reach; something is out of kilter. I can feel it, unsettling the mood and putting us all on edge. None of us can put…

Looking Forward – Design at the Helm

Blogging on the net can all seem a bit abstract and virtual, but sometimes you actually get the chance to meet the people behind the posts. Tomorrow is one of those occasions. From 12pm, those of you who happen to live in London or are passing through have the chance to come down and meet…

A Playdate with Mona Hatoum

I’m going to be honest with you, I nearly missed this wonderful exhibition and part of the reason was reading a couple of average reviews, in a newspaper I trust. There is always so much to see in London and so little time to fit it all in and this retrospective always seemed to be…

The Protea – beauty in death

We tend to keep flowers long after they’ve been at their best. I much prefer blooms when they are fading and loosing their petals, they’re far more interesting to photograph. The last time we bought Proteas, we kept them long after their prime and I’m so glad we did. The shell and seeds of this plant…

The Ballad of British Folklore

Candy floss, toffee apples, dodgems and waltzers; when I was a wee boy, this is what the Lammas Market meant to me. My gran loved the merry-go-round horses, and I looked at the rides for the big boys, like the rockets, with fear and excitement. Soon, I thought, I will get to climb aboard and…

Word on the Water – the Bookshop Barge

Living by Regents Canal, I have learned a lot about London’s waterways. We have a small residential community of eight boats outside our flat, and as a cyclist, I’ve used the towpaths for almost as long as I’ve lived in the city. I know a lot more about swans, having watched our local couple from…

The Towpath

Living in a creative house, sometimes it’s difficult to keep on top of things. The textile artist half of moderneccentics, @spottedhyenas, often works with found and salvaged objects. Our lovely flat sometimes starts to resemble an indoor treasure trove of interesting things on a good day, or a hoarders paradise on a bad day. But…

Cabinets of Curiosities

The Greeks did it, and so did the Romans – the need to collect is almost as old as human culture itself. The reasons behind this urge can be attributed to many things, but what unites them is a desire to catalogue and examine, to collect and explain. It could be religious relics or magical…

‘Cosmic Surgery’ Alma Haser at the Photographers’ Gallery

I love the Photographers’ Gallery. My membership has been a barometer to how flush I was feeling but it was the first gallery or museum I joined when I moved to London in my twenties. In fact, one of my few true regrets involves their print room, when the gallery was in it’s old home…