Jan Hendrickse - Pyrophone

This soundscape has been created by combining noises found around John Jones. Jan our artist in residence has been experimenting with a Pyrophone which is the sound created using aluminum piping and fire.

Gallery Primo Alonso

Backwash New works by Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom

The exhibition was the result of the first residency programme at Gallery Primo Alonso. We allowed the artist almost two months in the space, beginning in December and finishing mid January. The artist was allowed to use the gallery space in any way he saw fit, enabling him to feel fully comfortable to work in any way he wanted.
























Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom finished studying at the Royal Academy Schools in the summer 2008, where he received a lot of interest in his sculpture and video. In May 2007 Boakye-Yiadom was included in a group show at Gallery Primo Alonso - 'Les Fleurs du Mal' (curated by John Stark), and we have been big fans of his work since. This is why we are very proud to have Boakye-Yiadom's first solo show in our space. The Exhibition has been extended by one week, because of the great response we have had to his work. We are planning to make the residency at the gallery an annual part of the programme. With the intention of creating another fantastic exhibition produced specifically for the space.

Richard Gallagher
http://www.primoalonso.com/

Artist in Residence- Jan Hendrickse

Second Post

I have spent my last couple of visits getting to know how the company works, and I am beginning to know my way around now. I have started testing the pyrophone (Aluminium tube) with the blowtorch, and it works fine. There are a lot of interesting sounds to be found, and I’m sure that it will sound great in the project space. We tried a five metre pipe which had lots of overtones. The remaining questions are how to develop an object that works for the space but also works as an instrument. I’m still trying to figure out how long the tubes ought to be. I’d really like to get some John Jones employees to play the pyrophone in the performance – any takers??

I have had some new ideas about making an object that is just a frame, but which houses speakers in a particular way, more on this later. I’ve got to find the speakers in large numbers…

I’ve just received some vibration motors that I ordered and have started messing around with them. I hope to find ways of using them to create some constant sound textures using the materials here. I have already started disturbing people with my whining feedback tones – the joys of having a sound artist in residence! So, gradually materials and my tools are finding their way to the project space, and I’m able to actually try things out. I need to find more amplifiers and speakers, I think. Lizzie has suggested making some audio for the upstairs areas, (where the exhibition and consultation spaces are) I think this will have to be quite minimal, in order not to completely disrupt everything, but it’s a great idea. I would like to use some of the sounds that I have recorded in the production areas, I’m interested to see how these sounds will seem in a new context. I’ll try to post some audio very soon, so you can hear some of the sounds that I’ve recorded.

The Drawing Room

The Drawing Room is delighted to announce Monika Grzymala’s first solo exhibition in the UK. Monika Grzymala’s installations function somewhere between an architectural intervention and immense line drawings. Grzymala’s installation for The Drawing Room is a personal response to the chaotic London sky-line, to the architectural space of the gallery and to the ideas explored in the Hayward Touring exhibition, ‘The end of the line: attitudes in drawing’, of which this commission is part.

www.drawingroom.org.uk

Artist in Residence - Jan Hendrickse

A sound artist and composer, Jan will be exploring the materials and surfaces that we use at John Jones in order to discover their sonic properties. He is currently investigating ways of using paper and aluminium in conjunction with loudspeakers to create resonating surfaces. Other experimental approaches include projecting video onto vibrating surfaces and building a pyrophone, which is an instrument played using fire. The outcome of Jan’s work will be presented in the Project Space in March. Our thanks to ACME studios for working with us on our first residency! The idea behind this approach would be to somehow use sound to expose the ‘invisible’ art that goes into presenting art works. The production facility itself is full of interesting sound and vibration. It will be interesting to use contact microphones on machinery and extraction units to create a soundscape that is the product of listening creatively to the sounds of the production process. These sounds might then be used to activate the prepared surfaces.’

Entry 1:

I am really excited to be working at John jones, having completed my first few visits. Everyone has been really helpful, and I'm starting to get some quite ambitious ideas for the project space. My next challenge is to assemble all the materials in the space and start testing them, which will happen at the beginning of next week. I'm hoping that the outcome will be part installation and part performance. My aim is to reveal the incredible soundscapes created by the materials and the production processes. I have a had a couple of really interesting visits to the metalwork department where Paul has shown me some of the construction methods they use, and we have discussed building an aluminium pyrophone. This is an instrument played using fire, and which might be performed live in the project space. There are still lots of questions about how it will work and what the final design will be (not to mention the health and safety implications of using blowtorches in a performance). I have attracted some attention wandering around the site attaching contact microphones to bits of machinery, but the sounds are extraordinary. I hope to be uploading some of these to the website at some point, and will be keeping a blog of the project as it progresses.

http://www.janhendrickse.com/index.html
http://www.acme.org.uk/

The Photographers Gallery

The Photographers Gallery Print Sales Introduces Guy Tillim

Print Sales at The Photographers’ Gallery is pleased to introduce and offer for sale, Guy Tillim’s most recent body of work, Avenue Patrice Lumumba

Traveling through several countries in Africa including Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Avenue Patrice Lumumba reflects on the civic architecture conceived in the last years of colonialism and the immediate post-colonial period in Africa. In the French and Portuguese colonies in particular, modernist architecture was used expressly to convey the ideology of the era. The colonial vision was flawed, and the structures were a strange and fragile hybrid of aspirations and ideas that were not necessarily applicable to Africa. However, through subsequent shifts in power this architecture has been absorbed into the African landscape, and today these buildings and civic spaces are an integral component of contemporary African culture.

Tillim in his photography, resists focusing on the formalism of the architecture and instead considers its changing use over the past half-century. He also resists viewing the buildings reductively as symbols of domination or as representative of the general decay of African institutions, but rather seeks to acknowledge the complexity of their histories.

Guy Tillim is a widely respected and established photographers based in South Africa. He has received numerous awards and grants recognising his accomplishments.

Framing is Key

More videos like this on www.t5m.com

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