SUGÁR JÁNOS: THE SITUATION

Those rather scuffed looking shoes are mine as I stood on the central podium placed between the two screens displaying the latest experimented film directed by Sugár János currently on display in the Videospace Galéria.

LOMO/ FILM/ MOZI EXHIBITION, SZATYOR GALLERY

I dashed into the Szatyor Gallery last week to have a quick look around the brand new Lomo/Film/Mozi photography exhibition. The show features the work of the finalists from the gallery's recent lomo photography competition based around the the topic of lomography and cinema.

THE WALL OF HAPPINESS

Wallpeople brought the Wall of Happiness to Budapest as part of their global, interactive photography project.

WATCH ME MOVE

I have a confession to make. It's something which I've tried to keep to myself for some time now but I feel like I really need to just come clean: I love cartoons.

LIKE ANYONE ELSE

like anyone else from women with a movie camera on Vimeo.

Women With A Movie Camera aka Iris Wakulenko and  Chryssa Panoussiadou recently sent me a link to their latest documentary Like Anyone Else and I felt compelled to share it with you all. The short film is essentially a human rights story, exploring the themes of marriage and equality for same-sex couples. Filmed at various Royal Wedding street parties in the heart of London's gay district, the two creatives have created a piece which truly celebrates love in all its forms.  In 2009 I had the pleasure of interviewing Iris for jotta.com (the piece has sadly been taken down after Jotta deleted almost all of its back-catalogue of articles) during the promotion of Two Way Love, a wonderful short film created in collaboration with the Kyoto University of Art & Design which explores the relationships of Japanese and Western cross-cultural couples.

To learn more about Women With A Movie Camera and watch more of their short films then check out their brand new website!

POP CITY TRASH

Pop City Trash, an exhibition showcasing the photographic work of Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe has just opened in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest. Featuring selected pieces from his Urban Jungles, Elegantly Wasted and Scenes In The Key Of Life collections, the show is a must see for lovers of 21st century Pop Art...

COLØURLESS

 Just got back from the opening of COLØURLESS at Ötkert, Budapest. The exhibition showcases a selection of Hungary's most talented up-and-coming creatives from the fields of graphics, photography and video art. Curator Noémi Beszédes has selected 11 artists in total including Áron Filkey,  Donát Áron Ertsey and Benedek Kristóf Kiss all of whom share one common thread throughout their work - a lack of colour!

The minimal colour palette gives the exhibition both a classic yet thoroughly contemporary aesthetic. Highlights included some deconstructed photographs of Hungarian architectural buildings and an illustrated portrait of a family of mexican luchadores.

For full details head over to the facebook event page

Ötkert

1054 Budapest Zrínyi utca 4.

Budapest, Hungary

Exhibition runs until 7th June

Q&A with Lady Gaga Director Kathryn Ferguson by Calum Ross

Self taught film-maker Kathryn Ferguson has created short films for fashion designers Richard Nicoll, David David and has even collaborated with pop phenomenon Lady Gaga. Her films have been showcased on Dazed Digital, SHOWstudio and Vogue.com. Kathryn is currently showing four new videos at the Work in Progress Show at the Royal College of Art. The show opens on the 26th and runs through to the 3rd of December.


How did you make the transition from stylist to film-maker?

I began experimenting with film in the final year of my BA degree at St Martins. I had spent months slaving over a magazine that I'd written, styled etc while at the same time I made my first video as an accompaniment to the magazine. At the final show I got a bit of a shock as while the magazine seemed to interest people up to a point, it was the film which really seemed to grab people's attention. I think I realised then I had to seriously consider which way to progress from there.  After leaving St. Martins I tried a lot of different things, styling, art direction etc and began making more videos initially as a hobby. However, the major breakthrough I had with my video work was when my college film 'Tingel Tangel' was chosen for the Birds Eye View Film festival at the Institute of Contemporary Art in 2007.  Following that screening, BEV asked me to come on board and curate a fashion film strand of the festival the following year. It was this vote of confidence that pushed me into making more films and I owe them a lot for having given me this opportunity!

What's the driving influence behind your work?

Right now I'm being driven by a need to express myself visually. I felt quite stiffled for a few years after graduating and I'm just over the moon to be able to work in a medium that allows me to express myself fully so I am churning out a lot of ideas whilst they are still coming!

What was it like working with Lady Gaga and how did that collaboration come about?

The Gaga video was a great experience. I was commissioned the day before the shoot by Dazed Digital to make a video with her whilst she was rehearsing for Glastonbury wearing outfits by some of London's most progressive young designers.  She was super friendly and  my only gripe was that we had forty minutes or so to shoot her so we kind of had to grab what we could and hope for the best.

Do you plan on diversifying beyond fashion films?

Yes definitely. I am currently studying experimental film on the Communication Art & Design MA course at the Royal College of Art. My work is already moving in a different direction. I do love working with fashion designers but I'm also very keen to branch out into other genres of film.

Who would you love to make a film with/for?

I'd love to make videos for Psych bands Bo Ningen or White Magic.

How did you get your films noticed and what advice would you give to budding film-makers?

The Birds Eye View and other festivals have helped me get my films noticed but I think the best thing is believe in your work, create as much as possible with confidence and put it out there. I began with posting on Youtube a few years ago and  I have constantly used the internet since to get my work noticed. 

Kathryn Ferguson's Official Website:  http://www.kathrynferguson.co.uk/
Article first published by jotta.com

Rachel Maclean Interview

Creating an alternative reality, part fantasy, part commercial playground, Glasgow based artist Rachel Maclean produces work dealing with the notions of culture, gender and celebrity. Working largely in digital composite video, the Edinburgh College of Art graduate's short films feature an array of grotesque, highly made-up and ridiculously camp characters which truly have to be seen to be believed. Currently exhibiting in The Market Gallery, Glasgow, Rachel gives us an insight into her weird and wonderful world..

My first piece for art/music/fashion/earth online zine Amelia's Magazine was published yesterday evening.

For those of you who are not too familiar with Amelia’s Magazine, it was printed biannually for 5 years from 2004-2009 across 10 issues, many of which are now collectors’ items sought after by creatives across the world but is now purely web based.

Read the full interview with Rachel Maclean here

An interview with Christopher King

Camberwell College of Art Drawing graduate Christopher King’s background in drawing and electronics has informed his stunning, psychedelic video pieces, which use techniques from both 1960s experimental video art and the 1990s club scene. Christopher talks to jotta about his experimentation with sound and immersive art – more than just the push of a button.

Tell us about your Wire Recorders project:
The Wire Recorders were the last piece of work I made on the drawing course and one of two I displayed at my degree show.  The pieces consists of a very thin taught loop of wire stretched over a set of pulley wheels allowing you to pass the wire past a hand-wound magnetic play head to hear sound. Wire recorders were used for dictation and even music after WW2, and were one of the first commercially available ways to record sound. My interest in them began when I was researching the history of audio electronics. The recording on my piece was a found reel of a 1940s American kitchen appliance salesman. I cut random loops of his voice up and placed them on the wooden frames, which people heard for probably the first time in 70 years.
What kinds of themes or messages are you trying to communicate through your work?
I try to create work that can sit between disciplines in an attempt to show that categorising objects limits or disregards some of their attributes. I  take things which I think have been mystified and over-complicated, like communication technology, and go back to their roots to show how and why these complex structures and systems have developed.


Is interactivity a major part of your creative process?
I love the idea of immersive art that engages a viewer, however, I think that pushing a button (or something along those lines) can feel superficial. I have learnt a lot through mistakes made along these lines. I think even drawings can be interactive in a way as they allow the artist to understand their environment visually, and a viewer can often trace this cognitive process. I also actively try and collaborate and interact with other artists and I think working in this way can be very productive - forcing me to produce more efficient work by gaining the insight of others.

Your 'Video Feedback' project seems very technical, how does it work?
The video feedback experiments are actually very simple. Normally, they involve pointing a camera at a video screen displaying its own output and then recording the result. The technique was often used in early video art experiments from the 1960s onwards. My video feedback is slightly different as it involves no cameras -  just a video mixer. I first discovered the technique through experimentation but I have since watched hours of 1990s club VJ demos using similar effects.  The process interests me because it is cumulative: any small change is amplified and distorted within the mixer, resulting in strange surprises.

What are you currently working on?
I just finished sound-tracking a performance piece and am now currently working on many small projects, some of which I hope to show at some point. I have begun building some sequencers that will control light and sound with a slow rhythmic movement, which I hope will have some of the same effects as music while not being overtly musical. I am also working on a project using television transmitters in a similar way, and another project involving hand-built radios.

To see more work by Christopher King go to jotta.com  and view his online portfolio