Spincycle

I have been kindly invited by Grace, from > Patternity < to contribute to this exhibition opening the Land of Kings Festival in Dalston on april, 23.

The brief was to create a standalone patterned A1 image inspired by Dalston.

As I live and work at opposite ends of Hackney, I generally spend quite a lot of time crisscrossing Dalston’s vibrant neighbourhood using the bus network, either early in the day or very late at night.

Taking all the different buses going through Dalston (30, 38, 56, 67, 76, 149, 236, 242, 243, 277), I converted each of these numbers into an equivalent array of lines. (bus nº236, 236 lines, etc.)

When superimposing these groups on a grid representing a whole day and placing each “bus” at the time when I generally use it, rhythms started to emerge as I tried to represent visually these countless hours spent daydreaming in Dalston, stranded at a bus stop and waiting for an elusive bus to arrive.

PV on the 23rd, 7-10pm, the more, the merrier!

I have been lucky enough to be invited to print this poster during the “Pick Me Up” art fair at the Somerset House, and will do so at Print Club’s Live Studio on Sunday, May 2.

Should you be in the area, feel very welcome to pop in, here is the > link <

Regarding this group exhibition, we initially decided to exhibit a piece of work previously made, the idea being to have it reinterpreted/resampled/ furthered by another member of the group, who would then generate a new piece. The cohesion between all the artwork shown would hence be based on a process rather than on a theme.
The show is up for the next 6 weeks, and here are the two prints I made for the exhibition.

“4×4″

This image is part of a series taking the line as a building block and exploring various possibilities to use it to generate a visual context in which the usual points of reference such as distance and volume shift and dissolve to create an unique experience based on the active participation of the viewer.

“I sometimes lie”

In this piece, the aim was to create an image-symbol devoid of any anecdotal content in order to reproduce visually the ambiguity of the precise moment when one is confronted with the choice between lying or telling the truth.
This image also refers to a text by C.G. Jung depicting how the different strata composing the human psyche have a potential to influence the decision-making process, and whether a choice one considers his own actually is.

These past few weeks have been really busy, as most of you
know already there was a new arrival in our little family.

Also, with a few friends, we gathered energies to put a little show together and the opening is… tomorrow evening!

I am very aware it’s really short notice, but the gallery is quite central (Clerkenwell) so hopefully you’ll be able to make it.

Here the little flyer, designed by Brighten The Corners.

Razorfish recently asked me to produce a series of illustrations for McDonalds’ intranet where members of the staff (aged 16-25) can find useful information regarding health & nutrition, flexible work hours, support & advice, safety,  and charity work, to name a few.

More images can be found > here <

It is finally over! After a few long nghts spent at the studio, all the calendars are finally ready, and here are a few pictures of what they looked like before trimming.

I started selling them on the Backyard Market, Brick Lane, and so far, the response has been quite good, so should you want one, come to the Pop-Up Shop we’re opening at the East Gallery, 214 Brick Lane next Friday (18/12) from 6pm, pay us a visit at the market on Sunday or email me so I can put one aside for you and send it to you by post (£12+postage).

It’s been a long while since I published anything on this blog as I have been kept on my toes lately, for I am to become a father in March and there are lots of things which need being straightened out before Junior shows up!

Nevertheless, my excellent friends at Print Club generously welcomed my entry for the pop-up shop which is to be held at the East Gallery, 214 Brick Lane on the 18th of December, and it’s a topical winter gift as it is a little screen printed calendar.

Join the fun and pop in for a drink at the opening, the shop will be open all weekend.

On the other hand, I’m holding the Print Club stall at the Backyard Market, Brick Lane, every sunday until Christmas, so feel free to pay us a visit if you’re in the area!

This is an interactive poster made for EDF France to explain kids aged 6-8 the dangers inherent to the use of electrical apparatus. The “good” gestures are stickers kids are invited to place on the poster after identifying the dangerous situations within the context of the classroom.

Click > here < to see more about this project.

Here is one of the images of a new series made for the Générale de Santé, a french private health organisation initiating cross-discipline trainings and seminars. The full series can be seen > here <.

Just finished a new illustration for the French Blood service. The article is about the implementation of a new software to monitor efficiently defective and obsolete equipment, and the full image in context can be seen > here <.

Still documenting my ongoing research on the theme of choice, I  have started working on a new series of optical prints based on the idea of trying to create a visual representation of a double bind situation (there’s a good description of the phenomenon here).

This print and the former one - displayed until 27 May at the Bohdi gallery, Brick Lane - are using the line as a building block to generate an image in which contrast, repetition, ambiguous perspective and a restricted colour scheme contribute to the build-up of tensions within the image while offering the viewer the choice to see these lines either as volumes or surfaces, none of these options being a satisfactory answer as the more one looks at it, the more the image flickers.

These are a bit hard on the eyes (!), and just the preparation of the screens takes a whole day, as the visuals are so simple that the prints have to be perfect to work properly, so I’ll probably print a couple of more illustrative posters before finishing this series!

You are invited to the private view of edition / power in numbers. A screen-printing exhibition with 50 artists each with an edition of 50 (and a few surprises).

The opening
Thursday 7th of May from 7pm till late at Bodhi Art Gallery on Brick Lane (opposite the bagel shops).  The soundtrack will be provided by the sound doctor Rob-Tronica. All of the prints are being sold for £20 - we can only accept cash so bring a few notes with you! The show runs until the 27th of May 2009 - there are lots of events along the way - go to www.curestudio.com or www.twitter.com/curestudio to keep up to date with what is happening.

This show is organised by Fred of Print Club London (www.printclublondon.com) and James of Cure Studio (www.curestudio.com).

Artists in the show:
Alain Magallon / Alice Stallard / Camelia Dobrin / One Side Zero / Charlotte Smith / Chris Floyd / Claudia Boldt / Dan Speight / David Gibbons / Emma Vorster / Emmi / Haruka Shinji / Heejohng Chae / Ivan Mayorquin / Jake Blanchard / Jez Burrows / Jim Smith / Josephine Spencer / Luke James / Marc Stewart / Mark McClure / Maxwell Harrison / Naíma Almeida / Ornamental Conifer  / Partly Civil / Peter James Field / Peter Stitson / Raymond Wong / Rose Stallard / Royal Glamsters / Sara Nesteruk / Sichi / Splendidhand / Stephen Chan / Steve Price / Steven Emmanuel / Stuart Chatman / Tom Baxter / Trisha McNally / Wayne Chisnall / Yann Brien / Austin from New / Random Boy / Ministry of Love / Baldrick Buckle

Images of printing:
http://snipurl.com/curestudio
Video of printing:
http://vimeo.com/channels/edition
With the latest hiccups at:
http://twitter.com/curestudio
Map to get to the show:
http://snipurl.com/bodhigallery
Address:
212 Brick Lane, London, E1 6SA‎
Tel: 020 7749 0750‎
From 7pm till late Thursday 7th of May

I completely forgot I had some gouache hidden in a drawer… until last week! At present, I’m preparing a body of work on the theme “Surface/Volume”, and might make further tries with gouache, as these might compliment the more clinical and rigorous series of geometrical compositions I’m working on at present, and which I’m intending to print in April.

After quite a bit of running around, here is (a last!) the new version of my little website. It’s been quite a long time this major overhaul was due, but I have been so busy with dealing with day-to-day matters that I had to procrastinate, and that’s it’s only now that I finally managed to put it online.

It’s not perfect (far from it!), but at last I’ll now be in a position to post regularly and update the two main sections. On one side, there is a portfolio consisting of commercial illustrations, and on the other, personal projects dealing mainly with screen printing, painting and other experimental work. This blog will mainly be a way to show some new ideas and sketches, publish some information about upcoming exhibitions and hopefully generate some new interactions and collaborations.

Also, it gives me the opportunity to thank all of you who purchased some of my prints last year. This money has been well spent (!) and there are new series in the works, which should, if all goes well, be ready by the end of March. I’m planning to add a few nifty buttons to this site for people to be able to order them from their favourite armchair instead of the usual improbable meetings around the corner of random tube stations in the East End (you know who you are!).

So, I guess that’s it for now, thank you for taking the time to read this, and hopefully, enjoy your visit.

Yann