collage mania @ zefa contemporary art......almancil......happy birthday general.....

photographed here is bota filipe busy on his series of collages on doors.....double sided collages....that make an instalation.........over the past few weeks i have been working in the zefa studio on a series of large scale collages made from posters that i have taken from walls in olhao..... lisbon....and quarteira......the challenge for me was the scale 3 metres plus.....the content of the works was controlled by the imagery on the posters.....there is a " meeting room" collage.....it is a club in tavira........there is a " pin-up collage based on foam parties @ kadoc....plus others........when i completed my work ....i tidied the studio.......a few days later i returned and to my great surprise......bota filipe and jeta were busy collaging...

and here is jeta........brush and glue at the ready......seen here thinking about the next move

there has been a great atmosphere in the studio......with paper all over the floor....a real hive of activity.....

here is my "pop art" collage...     with the legendary tigerman.......references to warhol.......and kandinski......with my floor peice....all black and white ....which lead me to make the next one..." the meeting room tavira"

on my next visit 2 days later bota filipe had this peice......we talked about the silver paper that he had used....he said it needed some more work.....i wonder what will happen...........

and this is what happened

candida has been busy too....with a series based on the republic and the birth of modern art......in fact a series of collages made from old books and magazines......containing some fascinating illustrations.........

update.....today december 15......bota filipe has made another collage on a door.......here it is ...a work in progress.....its the one on the right....

it has been great to see all this new work......the studio really looks lived in.......i am intrigued to know what will go on in the next few weeks......i am off to the uk......watch this space in january 2011

joy division remembered............madchester @ its best

 joy division......the sounds of madchester.......if you would like to contribute please contact me directly...

a trailer introduced by the late tony wilson mr madchester of factory records.......just watch ian curtis ....girating.....and with the manic stare....a great band.....

this is part of a series of "pavement poems" in tib street in the northern quarter of manchester....this area houses lots of interesting bars...restaurants.....clothing shops...is the home aflecks palace...an alladins cave in an old warehouse...filled with multifarious shops and stalls......vinyl exchange is a mecca for secondhand cds and vinyl....check the area out....

stevenson square the northern quarter....i used to arrive here on a number 90 bus from rochdale....there used to be a lyons cornerhouse....gone now

check this little video out....love will tear us apart....a great collage of images ....leading to fragmented black and white photos.....

 a classic shot on hulme bridge

 great shot with the phone box.....late for practice...a gig...who is he meeting....we will never know....

heres another video with john cooper clarke getting in on the act....seen and heard reading chickentown in some downtown shopping mall....with people malling around....a real performance artist...great stuff..

travels with doctor who......in the" camera obscura bag"

travels with doctor who....charts the good doctors sojourns with his mentor charlie......on their joint expeditions....or just plain visits to interesting places.......the doctor because of his size and demize is often seen or found hiding in odd surroundings.....having a closer look @ and even becoming part of the work he is looking at....he has exchanged his mode of time travel from the telephone box to "the camera obscura bag"

 

the doctor lands on a big collage where will the images take him...

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the doctor visits the faile temple in lisbon

 doctor who and the flying carpet

the doctor lands on an african sculpture......






















and yes hes appeared at the science museum in lisbon.....in a still life.....look carefully at the artefacts.....

cholamondal sketch book.....artist village south of chennai....india

at around this time last year hilary and i were in tamil nadu .....travelling by train...bus and taxi....visiting the most fantastic temples whilst staying at the artists village in cholamondal just south of chennai....i collected posters from walls along the dual carriageway.....this is a sample of some of the collages that i made....i also made some very big ones approximately 7metres long.....in these larger works i combined indian gods.....ganesh....shiva..

.with film stars...and other emphemera collected from the temples....for example maderai...what an amazing place....you can see more at holts in india blog

jakub nepras video artist....................AAAAAmazing!!!!!!!!!!

i first saw his work at the ccb....the barrado in lisbon......i came on it quite unexpectedly...in a small darkened room........wow....awesome....magical....unbeleivable....what is it........how was this done....just a minute there are people in there ....ballroom dancing...cars moving....all these reactions at the same time....it was the "babylon plant"....here in this short video.... you see some of this fantastic world that he creates.....it is one of the best works i have ever seen without a doubt.........

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgedAFGi2Yw

let me know what you think.......

policromia urban artists...quarteira...algarve....2010

this is a new designated area for " policromia" a quarteira based urban art team......for some time they have been painting walls in the area....but always undercover....quick here come the gnr.....in recent times there has been an outbreak of what i term "visual vandalism"...this has been happening worldwide......closer to home in lisbon....in lisbon there is a dedicated area that has been sponsored by j c decaux the adveretising company...elevador de glorias.....here is an everchanging wall space which is controlled by the artists themselves.......here in quarteira there was a recent clean up campaign.....anibal moreno of loule camera recognised the quality of much of the artists work.....so we have 2 areas for the group...the underpass and a length of wall by the stadium....this is a good positive action by the local politicians....rather than obliterate the work....it now has a stage to perform on....i am really excited by the project......i hope that you will look again at grafitti in a different light next time you see some.....there are some very talented artists out there in the urban metropolis...they are enhancing what could be a concrete jungle with vibrant images.....

texto con text out of con texto....late 2010

surreal text is alive and well just as the equisite corpse...............
texto con text is another madcap venture into the world of random text....culled from the press....and other sources....it has its beginnings in automatic poetry.....the surrealists played many such games of chance...it is difficult not to censor.....i like the collisions of images invoked....thrown up..some will be more poetic than others...but who is to say....at the moment they are four liners...if you would like to join in then feel free to do so......charlieholtart@rocketmail.com

                                                                   

 apollinaire....breton et al......intended to free words and images from the constraints of logic and order and known sense....substituting chance instead of a predetermined outcome....chance encounters transgress deuctive laws... they transcend logic....surrealist play is more like provokative magic.......tristan tzara advocated....to make a dada poem.....take a newspaper...a pair of scissors......choose an article....cut out the article.........then cut out each word....put them in a bag......shake gently.......take out the paper individually....stick onto another peice of paper....the poem will be like you....this is a variant....using headlines...

croston studio...clearing out junk and finding things...and people

for the past few days i have been busy sorting out my studio in croston....in preparation for a refettled roof....i have unearthed some junk and also some interesting forgotten memorabilia...well thats what i call it.......30 plus years of detritis.....my life like flotsam and jetsam....floating buy....questions like why did i keep this....their must have been a reason.....the reasons are now covered in dust and cobwebs.....some long lost but some still vibrant....hear are few examples of this lost world.......

date around 1974..note the kipper tie...ive still got the pink cord wrangler jacket.....no glasses......

do you rember slide film........found this stuck to a window...the do it yourself slide viewer....what do we do with them now....they are prehistoric monsters...from not that long ago....these are images of digital prints...quirky or what...i took pictures using slide film of digital images...the mind boggles.......

oh mani padme hom...a tablet made for a show in rochdale after my trip to the himalays in 97....i made a mani wall with the help of derek boak a frfiend who was also involved with anthony gormley on the field project for tate liverpool...the kids in his school made the figures.....the prayer is sitting on an old litho stone...that i use for mixing inks on...it still ahs old images impregnated on the surface....it is a glimpse of the history of images that once covered the stone....

flyer of sam holts.....now of copyright fame...international djs....sam and gavin...one his very early gigs in manchester with ian richardson.......these 2 started in ians garage in croston....sam is the middle one doing some kind of curious dance routine......they where probably paid  a fiver each or a few pints of beer....i think it was @ joshua brooks or the boardwalk....this where he is now
http://www.defected.com/events/artist-detail/Copyright/11/1

plus a new tune....buy it now.......http://soundcloud.com/defectedrecords/copyright-nobody-forthcoming-defected?utm_source=soundc

    an early ticket for 2 aspiring djs sam holt and ian richardson.....they started their dj ing in ians soundproofed garage in croston..lancashire

this fell out of a book when i was sorting....its about 3 x 2 inches........it relates to some ideas i was playing with around 1965......moses and his tablets....standing on top of a hill.........there are some etchings lurking somewhere........

a fragment of a street poster from venice circa 1975 ish.....now why did i pick it up......more interesting why have i kept it all this time?...........my current work....collages from street posters......see below..

the moral here ......is dont throw it away....you never know......there is always a reason..........

                                             

charlie holt @ manchester free for arts festival 2010

some time ago i heard about the festival.......thinks!!!!!........for the past 15 years i have been interested in grafitti....flyposted walls....a visual poetry...not a new idea by any means....however relevant today....information that has a short life....and usually of interest to a small minority.....whats on @ the current club....what music....etc....i like the idea of thse layers quietly mounting...a visual urban history......i have recently completed 5....3 metre canvases based on such imagery....which will be exhibited @zefa contemporary art in almancil in portugal in october........@ the same time i have met anumber of street artists in portugal.....@ the same time i have been revisiting punk music....joy division....clash and more....urban music....madchester....tony wilson....vinyl exchange is the perfect venue

the manchester intervention is @ vinyl exchange in oldham street...opening on october 1 and running for a month..........it will be a linear poem winding around the shop....the music played in the shop providing an ever changing sound collage....hidden amongst the vinyl and cds will be images....the finder keeps it....new images will be hidden each day...if they are not found then they remain hidden.....

here is the site........................www.freeforartsfestival.co.uk

blue a new work for evora....some associated thoughts

  blu utopia an exhibition in evora......on the theme....yep.....blue.......some time ago i made a peice of work based on the colour yellow for a show in almancil....this is a continuation of the idea using text in the form of quotes about blue......... a kind of poem........

corinne bailey rae @ the manchester academy...........

now this was a concert that i have been really looking forward too.....i booked the ticket months ago....yes just the one........the big day...im of to manchester late afternoon.....park by the whitworth gallery and had a wander around the uni end of town.....calling at a few old haunts....the cornerhouse....the sandbar.....royal northern college of music....had a show there many years ago.........then back to rusholme and food......as usual spoilt for choice....i looked in lots of windows and for some reason chose... "al safa".......

usually i am put off photos of plates of food...the placewas buzzin....so in i went...i ordered a kebab  with salad a nd chilli sauce served on an enormous nan.......the meal for one could have fed 3....and it was just over a fiver.....one of the best meals ive had for ages....talk about tasty....yum yum pigs bum.......feeling good it was off to the gig at the uni....joined the q......there were a few ticket touts about....at last the doors opened...as i entered i was ushered to the left....most people went to the right...?????.....then ...into the hall...only 10 people....wow...choose a space...bang in the middle at the front....this is going to be ace......there was a great atmosphere.....people chatting...

night time....capturing an image.....the empire of light....no 7.....magritte

 i have a poster of a magritte painting that a dutch friend gave me over 35 years ago....found it in the studio....and here it is....

the title of the painting escapes me....its nocturnal....a house  in a tree.....in this shot over a fireplace......it is an image that has been hidden from my consious view...  title "time transfixed".............this idea has appeared in some form in the stone raft mural.....i have just thought of where i placed the print ....over the fireplace.....just like the rene magritte painting of ...the train....it was pure chance.....surrealism

some years ago i did some small watercolour studies at no 7 in the yard at night....problem......how do you see the colours you are using...you need light...but that distorts what you are looking at......choose paint blind...no light....choose colours as you think fit...from memory of the layout of the colours in the trays.......its a fascinating problem to solve....one of my favourite paintings is the empire of light by magritte...which i have usewd in the saramago novel mural ....the stone raft.......here are a series of photos of no 7... my house...at night...im am intrigued by being outside and looking in....what is the story.....what is going on.........it is a theatre....a theatre of dreams....nocturnal visions........at night everyone is esconced in their home....curtains close off the outside world....some people however leave their curtains open.....giving us a glimpse of their private space....this is not voyeuristic in any way......the darkness is a quiet...almost private environment...most people will walk along the street...not really looking....the light from the windows illuminates the pathway...even if you look in...its brief....fractions of a second....

no 7..the residence....nightime theatre... the story......the house stands in an area of darkness...punctuated by light eminating from the windows...the darkness envelopes the light...heightening the drama..the windows are focal points....there are glimpses of the interior....these glimpses are the identity of the occupants....a private world....we can imagine....ws can summiise....we can wonder....

what is the function of this room..........its the dining room....there are no clues...theres a fireplace...if yoiu look carefully therea clothes horse hanging from the ceilling...you cant help thinking...who lives there...what is going on......will someone come into the room...........it is a drama ...sometimes devoid of people....but people live in the house....the light is on....someone appears and disappears in an instant....perhaps with a cup of coffee....or in a dressing gown....click.....lights out....bed.......end of act 1....

do the contents of the room...the house....give a clue as to the occupants.........as we have sbeen sitting in this room we have watched people over the past 30 years look in at us the goldfish...this room has brightr green walls...a bright blue ceiling...with 3 chinese paper kites on the wall...........we know from comments that peolple are intrigued by the objects on view...we didnt put them there for others to see...nevertheless they have been seen....people build an image stroke picture of the occupants...we are all guilty of this fantasy...we make presumptions.....

zefa

  Zefa Centro Arte Contemporanea

 Exposição

                                          

Zefa-Centro de Arte Contemporânea   Saturday, 25 September 2010 17:00

   foam party....page 3.......calendar girls....take your pick.......
and at 05.30 minutes in RTP1 broadcast...

http://ww1.rtp.pt/multimedia/progVideo.php?tvprog=19455&idpod=45198&partes=1

lisbon...the temple....the twins and grafitti boys

 hil and i spent a few days in lisbon....to see the work of blu and osgemeos,, the twins at ccb belem......to wander the streets and soak up the atmosphere and generally keep our eyes open ...for more street art......and quirky things.......we arrived in lisbon around lunchtime and headed for downtown sul where we always stay its right next to the theatre in rossio......then straight into the brazilian buffet around the corner for picanha and black beans.....first stop the faille temple.......absolutely gobsmacked....what appears to be an ancient temple standing in the avenida.....it is amazing...a mixture of ancient greek...roman....pop art....elgin marbles and more have a look @ the photos and our little video..

 

  .then we went upto marquis de pombal to find the blu paintings.....here are a couple of stills.

BLU and OSGEMEOS in LISBOA