Dialogue Among Civilisations’ is an International exhibition of art and poetry.

Venue: Union 105
105 Chapeltown Road, Leeds LS7 3HY.
Opening Event:
12th May 2011
Thu, 6pm – 8pm
Opening times:
16th- 27th May 2011
Mon – Thu, 12 – 5pm

‘Dialogue Among Civilisations’ is an international collaboration between artists and poets from 35 countries, which was first exhibited in Leeds’ partner city Durban in South Africa during 2006 FIFA World Cup.

This project forms the basis for a new initiative by Art for Humanities in Durban, an organisation that aims to open a dialogue worldwide around issues of inequalities and prejudice. Through art they appeal for renewed commitment to tolerance, harmonious co-existence and human rights.

Blombos: We Are All South African – Bruce Rimell, 2009

The exhibition includes images and poems that focus on the themes of identity, land, object and belief. East Street Arts and Leeds City Council’s International Relations office have selected 15 works to be displayed at Union 105 this May including the contribution by Leeds and Durban participants.

The event will begin with a series of short presentations from a selection of local creative organisations including: The Hepworth Gallery, AC – PR & Creative Boutique, Animated Yorkshire,The Connoisseur’s Independent Trading Post, Dirt Cheap Magazine & The Lawrence Batley Theatre.

There will then be a chance for volunteers to find out more about the organisation that interests them, directly; much like in Speed Dating! We want the event to be as informal and relaxed as possible!The emphasis is on the idea of a mutually beneficial night; the organisations getting a link in to the next generation of creative professionals, and the volunteers being able to benefit from working within an established organisation and the invaluable ‘hands-on’ experience this brings. For the volunteers this experience is invaluable for future job prospects, with most job descriptions now requiring relevant work experience.

We hope to see you there…

Louise K. Wilson and salon winner Stephen Felmingham will take part in a conversation relating to Stephen Felmingham’s recent exhibition Tocsin Bang

Venue: Union 105
105 Chapeltown Road, Leeds LS7 3HY.
Opening Times:
27 April 2011
Wed, 6pm – 8pm

This will be a discussion event accompanying Tocsin Bang, a solo exhibition by Stephen Felmingham currently at East Street Arts: Union 105. While looking at the exhibition, the two artists and the audience will talk about themes such as the architecture/traces of the Cold War, the notion of the sublime, the importance of childhood memories and archives within artistic research, representation through specific media as well as the theoretical context of the works.

The artists’ were chosen as Salon Winners by a selection panel including Sonya Dyer (London based artist, curator, writer and cultural critic), Roddy Hunter (York-based artist, writer and Head of Fine Arts at York St John University), Karen Sherwood (Founder and Director of Cupola Contemporary Art, freelance consultant and curator) and Nigel Walsh (Curator of Contemporary Art at Leeds Art Gallery). The criteria for selection were qualities such as subject matter, mastery of medium and materials, technical competence, relevance within contemporary art market and unique approach.

To recognise their high achievements, East Street Arts offered the three winners support and representation in our 2011 public programme. Over the past year, Josie, Stephen and Tony have been supported by East Street Arts team to develop the most appropriate opportunities for presenting each of the artists’ practice are part of their continued professional development and relevant to their practice and career.

Under Review: A studio exhibition with Josie Flynn

Studio 12, Patrick Studios, St Mary’s Lane, Leeds, LS9 7EH

Visiting Dates & Times: 11^th- 28^th April 2011; 10- 11am and 1- 2pm (Mon & Tues)

Note: All visits must be booked in advance with Karl D’Silva, Gallery Assistant at karl@esamail.org.uk or 0113 2626633.

Josie Flynn has been reviewing her practice for the last couple of years in order to understand what aspects of art she enjoys and which aspects do not work for her. To aid the future development of this ongoing review, Josie would now like to open up her studio to the public, in order to help explore the works and get a better understanding of audience perception and how well she communicates her ideas.

“This process will help me continue my research into the outsider and private space … My underlying interests lie in the process of forming categories, how we define objects and subjects and how these items transgress their definition and create their own narrative. This happens regularly and privately in my own space, whether I exhibit these objects or not.”

For the duration of the ‘exhibition’ Joise’s studio will become a space between a gallery, a home, a shed, a studio and an office where the audience are invited to have informal conversations with her about the works and about contemporary art practice, process and product in general.

Questions might arise around the function of open studios and the fictions they create; the distance between artist and public; artistic processes in studios and what its perception by the public. Questions around exhibiting in non-traditional/everyday spaces and ‘performing’ in the studio are also central to this project.

Tocsin Bang: An exhibition by Stephen Felmingham

Union 105, 105 Chapeltown Road, Leeds, LS7 3HY

Private View: 7^th April 2011; 6- 8pm

Opening times: 11^th- 28^th April

12-6pm (except Fridays, weekends and Bank Holidays)

‘Tocsin Bang’ is the codeword used by the Royal Observer Corps after a nuclear strike on the United Kingdom during the Cold War

Union 105 will present objects, drawings and a video work made during the last twelve to fourteen months in response to the Cold War observation posts that have formed part of Stephen Felmingham’s field research and studio drawing practice. This exhibition aims to allow Stephen the opportunity to develop artwork relating to his practice-led Phd ‘Drawing, Place and the Contemporary Sublime’, University of Leeds.

“Recent work has centred on the bunkers and installations that were a part of my childhood in the militarized landscapes of East Anglia.  Part of the ‘everyday’ of this childhood landscape were the hilltop observation posts of the Observer Corps. These installations were the underground concrete rooms for the Corps, occupied in split shifts for twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year between the late 1950’s and 1992 and covering the UK in a consistent network. The bunkers provide me with objects and material for drawing and are ‘charged’ places in my practice. They act as conceptual and physical ‘laboratories’ from where the drawing experiments into the subtle field of perceptions that form the work can emerge. They represent the centre of a sphere of observation, a place in which the world is reduced to the narrowest of perceptual apertures with which to regard the blinding flash on the edge of the horizon: a moment of the apocalyptic sublime. Each post had a total view of a landscape overlapping with that of the next post in its sector – within sight like the ancient systems of beacons (often sited on the same hilltops) to warn of invasion or disaster.”

The posts now have the air of abandonment with a sense of kicked chairs and hurried departure. Often they have become utterly ruined or become a refuge for persons unknown, containing cooking stoves, enigmatic objects and empty cans. It is important to me that the posts contain a series of objects that are common to each one- objects such as warning siren crates, standard issue beds, intercom units, brushes/pans etc. The bathos of these objects is telling- they connect the occupants countrywide. Often what remains are the materials of cleaning, of washing of the body, reflecting the futility of these actions in the circumstances of mutually assured destruction. They represent a dissolution – or as Julia Kristevea puts it – “the abject, edged with the sublime” (Kristeva, Powers of Horror, 1982, p.20.)

Stephen Felmingham studied MA Drawing at Wimbledon School of Art where he won the Postgraduate Drawing Prize. He was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2009, was a finalist in the Celeste Art Prize 2010 in New York and has recently exhibited at the Kulturhuset, Stockholm.

For more information about Stephen’s work visit: www.axisweb.org/artist/stephenfelmingham

For further information relating to both exhibition, please contact Karl D’Silva karl@esamail.org.uk

Do Not Touch Tony Tomlin: A Publication documenting the life and art of Tony Tomlin

East Street Art invited Tony Tomlin to spend time creating new works based on his personal experiences with Chapeltown. During the Autumn of 2010, over a three-month period, Tony used Union 105’s project space as his studio, creating a huge amount of new drawing and paintings reflecting on his life growing up in Chapeltown. Working with East Street Art’s Development Manager, Tim Smith, it soon became clear Tony‘s work lent itself to the printed page. This publication aims to provide Tony with a new avenue of enquiry for his practice, and the means to further his creative future.

Often referencing his personal experiences, Tony’s artwork mixes real life situations with his vivid, and humorous, imagination. Working with ‘basic’ art materials, Tony produces his work at a phenomenal rate, and has been doing so for the past 30 years. Much of his earlier artwork has been either, sold, lost or thrown away. This publication forms a rare, and long overdue, documentation of Tony’s creative output.

The continued support and input from the staff at Leeds City Collage Thomas Damby Campus made it possible to bring together a very unique collection of images from a very unique Chapeltown artist.

You can pick up your very own copy of Tony’s publication for only £4, at the following places in Leeds:

-        Patrick Studios, St Mary’s Lane, LS9 7EH

-        Union 105, 105 Chapeltown Road, LS7 3HY

-        Leeds City Collage, Thomas Danby Campus, Roundhay Road, LS7 3BG

-        OK Comics, 19 Thornton’s Arcade, Briggate, LS1 6LQ

For further information please contact East Street Arts at info@esaweb.org.uk

More information relating to Salon Winners can be found at; www.eaststreetarts.org.uk, and www.union105.wordpress.com

I regret to inform you that I need to cancel this evening’s planned lecture in solidarity with trade union colleagues at the University of Leeds who are taking industrial action today.
As a trade union member, I have spoken with UCU head office who have advised me that today’s official strike action is in effect for 24 hours.

I, and the Chapeltown Union of Psychogeographers, are in residence today at Union 105, Chapeltown Road and we may be able to offer an alternative venue or plan alternative arrangements in future. I have not had a chance to talk with Tina yet so we will update as situation becomes clearer.

I hope you can understand my reasons from withdrawing from tonight’s event.

In solidarity

Roddy Hunter
For the Chapeltown Union of Psychogeographers

I’d like to draw your attention to an upcoming creative research session.
Artist Sarah Spanton will be holding a drop in event at The Reginald Centre on Tues 22nd March, 1pm- 5pm

It’d be great to see you there, as it’s for people who live and work in Chapeltown.
Spread the word
See you soon…

Been digging around the web and found some songs about Chapeltown , If you know any songs about Chapeltown please email them to Karl@esamail.org.uk ……

Chapeltown Road

Whole sky monitor – Harehills-chapeltown ….

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/DZKLaA_J_Vs/

Cult Of Luna (metal band not about Chapeltown but funny ) – Back to Chapeltown …

Hospitality? Host? Guest?
Artists and Curators Talking : Hospitality
Wed 16 Feb 2011 East Street Arts’ Union 105 : 5.30 – 7pm

Chair: Nuno Sacramento, Director, Scottish Sculpture Workshop
This discussion aims to explore the cultural value of hospitality, defined as ‘the relationship between guest and host’ or the ‘act of being hospitable’. What is the responsibility of the host in relation to arts practice? What happens when artists are also hosts? Do communities host art spaces, or are they always interlopers? Is there room within the current economic climate for artists to take a more ‘rock and roll’ attitude to being guests, or indeed hosts? Do hosts have an obligation to tolerate guests, however disagreeable? Are artist-led initiatives the best way for artists to take control of the guest-host axis? What is the relationship between hospitality and intimacy?
‘Hospitality’ is part of ‘Artists and Curators Talking’ a new programme of dynamic, practice-led discussions on hospitality, space and contemporary art making, researched and directed by artist, curator and writer Sonya Dyer and produced as a partnership between Axis and a-n.

* £500 prize money

*Screenings at film festivals across the UK, including Rushes Soho Shorts (London), Glasgow Film Festival (Glasgow) and Branchage (Jersey)

*A weekend filmmaking course, courtesy of Raindance

*12 months membership to Shooting People, the international film network

*Inclusion on a DVD that will be distributed to all Aesthetica readers (60,000 viewers)

The runner-up will also receive £250, as well as DVD publication. Films should be no longer than 25 minutes but can be any genre including artists’ film, music videos, dance films, horror and comedy or anything you can think of! Entry is £15 per film. No limit to the number of entries permitted. Please visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/shortfilm for more information and to submit. Deadline 30 April 2011.