Mick Rock / Rock: Music exhibition
It’s easy to forget that music and photography can make history when they work together. Legendary photographer Mick Rock is living proof of that. While some of the musicians and performers he helped achieve stardom have left their eccentric past behind them, his photos remain to tell the tale.
Shoreditch’s Idea Generation Gallery organizes a retrospective exhibition with the title “Mick Rock/Rock: Music”, inviting photography on stage and offering us the opportunity to observe the genius behind the lens as well as the artists in front of the camera.
Rock is the photographer who captured iconic music figures like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Sex Pistols, Queen, or Lou Reed in their most outrageous and unique moments. His impressive production didn’t stop in the 70s but went on to document contemporary enfants terribles like Snoop Dogg and Kate Moss.
Mick Rock’s photos are a statement to those who entertain the thought of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll’s death. Alas! In them, the spirit of extraordinary artists ready to defy boundaries and clichés is alive as ever.
The photographer has also recently published his latest book, “Exposed: The Faces of Rock’n’roll”, published by Chronicle Books and including 200 of his best photos. Even Mick Rock enthusiasts will discover something new since the book yields unpublished and rare images.
The exhibition runs until 16th January.
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10-6 pm / Sat-Sun: 12 -5 pm
Admission Free
Idea Generation Gallery: 11 Chance Gallery, London E2 7JB
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MazaJ: Recalibrating Middle Eastern Sonic Cultures – A Festival of Experimental Middle-Eastern Music
Café Oto, one of Dalston’s renowned music hubs and Wire (www.thewire.co.uk) magazine present “MazaJ” on November 20 and 21. The music festival, in its first edition, presents an exciting mixture of contemporary sonic practices from the Middle East.
The programme includes performances by artists from Lebanon, Egypt and beyond, and is a rare occasions to see them live. Performances will be accompanied by a panel discussion featuring Tony Herrington (Editor-in-chief of “The Wire”), Ziad Nawfal (co-editor of “Untitled Tracks: On Alternative Music in Beirut”), Seth Ayyaz (MaraJ curator and participating artist) and a selection of the other artists.
One of the most interesting aspects of the festival is the opportunity to listen to a unique variety of instruments like the nay (an end-blown flute), ghaita (reed pipe) and darbuka and daf (hand percussion).
The line-up of the festival is eclectic and innovative. It includes Seth Ayyaz, a practicioner of Arabic music who has collaborated with artists like Dj Rupture, Filastine and Dadawi, Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui from Beirut, Hassan Khan, Mutamassik and Mahmoude Refat from Egypt as well as Michael Zerang from Chicago.
These artists’ interdisciplinary backgrounds include music composition, comics, painting, sound, animation, video or radio and bear testimony to their investigative approach to music and art in general.
In the end, MazaJ is a festival for those who need to explore and accept the challenge of being caught off guard.
Concert Daily Tickets: £ 10 advance / £12 on the door
Festival pass: £22 (advance only)
Café Oto: 18-22 Ashwin Str., Dalston, E8 3DL
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Drift biennale projections
A really innovative project is running until the beginning of next year just beneath the DLR bridge in Chancellor Passage, Canary Wharf.
Drift is the biennale art exhibition that returns for its second edition and has included up until now performances and projections on the River Thames and its surrounding waterways.
Wharf’s bridge hosts “bit.fall”, an installation by German artist Julius Popp that runs in parallel in South Bank.
“bit.fall” uses modern technology to project words supplied by live news feed on the mid-air droplets of a waterfall. Each message exists only for a brief second in a liquid, bright form before it disappears into thin air. It really is mesmerizing to see light, water and air work provide the basis of technology’s wondrous manifestations.
Installations running 7 – 9am and 4 -10pm until 8 January 2011
Under the DLR bridge, Chancellor Passage, London E14 5A
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Bass! How Low Can You Go? live and Q&A event with Mad Professor
One of dub’s most prolific producers will join the new generation of musicians, as part of the “Are We Here?” festival that takes place in various locations all around Croydon.
Mad Professor will be the main figure in “Bass! How Low Can You Go?”, a music Q&A event chaired by Joe Muggs in Black Sheep Bar in Croydon on November 19th. Other members of the conversation include Tony Thorpe (Moody Boyz), Artwork, Dj Chef, Goldielocks and Loefah.
The “godfather of UK Dub scene”, whose real name is Neil Fraser, has collaborated with artists like Lee “Scratch” Perry, Sly and Robbie, Horace Andy and more mainstream acts like Sade, Massive Attack and Orb. His work as a remixer is equally extensive, having transformed the works of Beastie Boys, Jamiroquai, Depeche Mode and others. Massive Attack fans will be delighted to know that he has even composed a dub, remixed version of their masterpiece album “Protection”.
The team will later on head to the Clocktower Arts Centre where the Professor will recreate his studio set up to present his trademark sound. Loefah and the rest of the dynamite-team will embellish his live performance with their beats and explosive basslines.
Black Sheep Bar: 68 High Street, Croydon, CR0 1NA.
Q&A time: 6 pm / tickets: £2.5 (on the door)
Clocktower Arts Centre: Katharine Street, Croydon, CR9 1ET
19th November 2010 –
Live event time 8pm / tickets: £12 – £10 Concession (includes free entry to the Q&A event in Black Sheep Bar)
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NEWinc. entrepreneurship showcase
Some people find it difficult to get to grips with what arts entrepreneurship is really all about but NEWinc. is the perfect chance to find out. The showcase-event that takes place in the Rag Factory on November 19 and 20, is part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week and is organized by the alumni and student association of the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths.
The exhibition includes creative projects, interactive presentations, critical debates and of course networking opportunities for anyone involved or interested in the creative industry. Professionals can attend the first day of Newinc, while the general public is invited for the Sunday events.
Friday-19th of November: Industry night: 6-10 pm.
Saturday- 20th of November:
General public: 10 am – 10 pm.
Rag Factory:
Hume & Garret Studio: 16-18 Heneage Street, Off Brick Lane, Hackney, E1 5LJ
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Last of the Real High Streets exhibition
There is a great transformation underway in the areas surrounding the Olympic Park in East London. However, Chatsworth Road, just a stone’s throw away, still boasts a high street brimming with independent shops; a rare delight for contemporary London where Tescos and corporate megastores have become ubiquitous.
Colin O Brien, a street photographer and Jane Egginton, an award-winning travel writer, documented people who work or own these shops, some of which have been run by the same family for decades.
Each of these establishments has its own story to tell and the creative pair possess the necessary talent to dig it out and encapsulate it. Their exhibition runs in Chats Palace, a community arts centre in Homerton that re-opened a little over a month ago, so it’s a good opportunity to check the space itself as well.
The exhibition runs until November 27. Open Wed-Sat, 12 – 5pm (until 9pm on Thu).
Admission free.
Chats Palace: 42-44 Brooksby’s Walk, Homerton, E9 6DF
Photos: 1. Bowie Praying by Mick Rock 2. Photo: Aleksander Motturi 3. ‘Bit.fall’ by Julius Popp 4. Photo: Evaggelina Guerra 5. Photo: Colin O’Brien
