My rediscovery of the technique of spirit photography, but freed from the trickery of the Victorian parlour would seem to have given entities a new way to manifest.  As we journey back into darkness and the nights draw ever in we mark the end of harvest and the time of Samhain, the Festival of the Dead. The border between this world and the other becomes thinner until they can reach back through the veil that separated them from the living.

“As I once was so you are now. As I am now, so you must be.”

 To follow you I’m not content, how do I know which way you went?

To See Exclusive Shots of Arcadia Glastonbury 2010 Build and Official Arcadia Videos Click Here To See My Post-Festival Blog Entry!

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, is the largest open-air music and performing arts festival in the world.

The main attraction for many revellers for the last few years has been one of the smaller, more underground arenas known as Arcadia.

Arcadia is a synchronised pyrotechnic stage and lightshow sculpture arena featuring world class bands and deejays and illuminated by lasers, intelligent lighting, water jets and flamethrowers and is built from military and NASA scrap, primarily jet engine components.

Deejays and bands play live surrounded by what must be the most incredible spectacle of light, smoke and flame on the planet, as tens of thousands of people dance in an ecstasy of ritual theatrics and shamanic pyrotechnics.

Think Heironymous Bosch meets Mad Max versus ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and you’re getting somewhere.

I was delighted to find out that my painting is thought of so highly by the visionary behind Arcadia, Pip Rush, that I have been asked to design and paint all artwork for the entire Arcadia arena at this years Glastonbury, 2010; the festival’s 40th Birthday.

Pip’s the younger brother of Joe Rush,  founder of the Mutoid Waste Company and has spent much of his life since a baby in the delirium of Joe’s events;  we share many similar inspirations and themes in our work.

  The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter- A Painting by Me…..

…and some Graffiti by me…..

We put our heads together and have been bouncing ideas backwards and forwards so expect  something a bit special.

Year by year Arcadia Spectacular have expanded at Glastonbury, starting off in ‘Trash City’ in 2008 with the Mutoid Waste Company. It was so successful that they were given their own field in 2009, this was in turn so successful that  this year, 2010; to quote organiser Micheal Eavis…

"We’re giving over an extra 15 acres to Arcadia …..because the feedback we got on that area was fantastic.”

As a result the Arcadia crew are ramping up the spectacular even further, featuring a new top secret ‘Afterburner’, the main stage structure, which  takes the whole show to the next level.

Mutating daredevils on highwires and trapezes will do battle with actual lightning bolts, pyrotechnics and flamethrowers high above the arena in a mid air extravaganza of cosmic significance and electric delight that will bring the ‘invisible world’ into living focus before your very eyes and ears.

I will be doing my best to provide this sensory feast with an incredible surround of amazing art that will help Arcadia to transport minds to places and times far from this dimension.

Thanks to the guys at Chrome and Black paint shop in Shoreditch, East London, yet again, for looking after us so well….

                      Arcadia Stage Line Up Glastonbury 2010

                     Weds 23rd-Sun 27th June 2010

Arcadia photos Creative Commons many thanks to Luke Robinson  theadz01 and Russ Garrett

Now he’s back 20 years later, along with oldskool steel writers Fuel, Skore, Mear, Crok, Don myself and a few of London’s more new skool to take the vibe back to the raw, enabling a potent and complementary mix of the hardcore underground vibes and tribes….

and back inside for another shot of me and Vibes….

……and onto the wild, diverse art within, here’s Jimmy South of War Boutique

Lyle Doghead, LRRY and friend

Elate, Obey

Anarchist Crockery by Carrie Reichart

In Dog We Trust by Jolly Good, made with real dollar bills…

  Vera Bong

Dotmaster

The toilets…

New Arrivals…

What I have posted is a fraction of what is there, you really have to get down to this 12,000 foot space and experience the most revolutionary art happening London, probably even the world has ever seen.

The future is unwritten!!!

The Mutate Britain shop is now online check it here!!!!

Families are welcome to this multisensory extravaganza!.

Full dates and opening times below. We look forwarding to seeing you!

Opening times:

Opens December 4th to December 20th – FRI / SAT / SUN

Fri – 2pm -10pm
Sat-1pm – 10pm
Sun – 12pm-9pm

We are also open 2 Wednesdays for the Portobello Winter Festival on the 9th & 16th December – 6pm -10pm

FRI & SAT (NO ENTRY AFTER 9PM)

SUN (NO ENTRY AFTER 8PM)

£2 before 6pm / £3 there after’

www.mutatebritain.co.uk

www.mutatebritain.wordpress.com

facebook mutatebritain

www.myspace.com/mutatebritain

Here’s some more pictures from the MuTate Britain Winter Show. I’m going to be adding a whole load more as a separate post at the weekend at some point as I need to rephotograph stuff to a half decent standard.

This has to be one of the best art exhibitions anywhere ever in my humble opinion and I’m very glad to have had a hand in it….If you like your surrealism apocalyptic your graffiti groundbreaking your grime genuine and your people straight up this is the place for you…..We kick of with Rubbish Fairy and House of Doll

Mear

Skore TRC

Crok

Achy

Towns

Fuel

Joe Rush

   Elate Vibes Lyle Doghead and LRRY and Pakka

Lyle Doghead and LRRY and Pakka with plane by Sam Haggerty and Dotmasters

Teddy Baden

Joe Rush

Wreckage International

Joe Rush and others

Sam Haggerty

War Boutique

Joe Rush

Sam Haggerty and Joe Rush

Obey Giant

Wolf and PXL

Andy Seize

Elate Vibes

Dotmasters aka Bagsy

Sam Hagarty and Dotmasters

Liam Cordy

Joe Rush

Mutoid Dave and others…

Elate Cazbee

Pure Indulgence

Families are welcome to this multisensory extravaganza!.

Full dates and opening times below. We look forwarding to seeing you!

Opening times:

Opens December 4th to December 20th – FRI / SAT / SUN

Fri – 2pm -10pm
Sat-1pm – 10pm
Sun – 12pm-9pm

We are also open 2 Wednesdays for the Portobello Winter Festival on the 9th & 16th December – 6pm -10pm

FRI & SAT (NO ENTRY AFTER 9PM)

SUN (NO ENTRY AFTER 8PM)

£2 before 6pm / £3 there after’

www.mutatebritain.co.uk

www.mutatebritain.wordpress.com

facebook mutatebritain

www.myspace.com/mutatebritain

‘One Foot in the Grove’ is back from the 4th of December.

‘Our festival of underground art provides a welcoming, inclusive and visually astounding experience for all ages in an atmospheric 12,000 square foot setting just off Portobello Road. Walk amongst giant sculptures, installations and unique artwork and hang out for good times at our licensed bar with proper music and delicious grub.

We are featuring loads of new work including an epic wall by Elate, Vibes and Obey Giant that cracks and crumbles the Westway to rubble before your eyes!

There’s new work by Joe Rush, a giant collaboration by Sam Haggerty and Dotmasters, new pieces by Teddy Baden, Wreckage, Seize, Code FC, Bleach, Best Ever, Zadok, Fuel, Skore, Crok, Mear, Towns, K-Guy, to name but a few, also light installations, lasers, stalls, bric a brac, curios, and anarchist crockery.

We have rehung our gallery room that offers exclusive posters, prints, originals, sculptures, photography, clothing and object d’art that make perfect prezzies for you and your discerning friends and family.

We provide that much needed alternative to the Xmas chaos of Oxford Street – so don’t miss out on the best show in town.

See giant fire-breathing robots walking, drink at our licensed bar, see and hear film shows, trains thundering past and experience an authentic friendly festival vibe in the heart of London.

This promises to be London’s biggest, most inclusive, interactive and underground street art event this Christmas.

Families are welcome to this multisensory extravaganza!.

Full dates and opening times below. We look forwarding to seeing you!

Opening times:

Opens December 4th to December 20th – FRI / SAT / SUN

Fri – 2pm -10pm
Sat-1pm – 10pm
Sun – 12pm-9pm

We are also open 2 Wednesdays for the Portobello Winter Festival on the 9th & 16th December – 6pm -10pm

FRI & SAT (NO ENTRY AFTER 9PM)

SUN (NO ENTRY AFTER 8PM)

£2 before 6pm / £3 there after’

www.mutatebritain.co.uk

www.mutatebritain.wordpress.com

facebook mutatebritain

www.myspace.com/mutatebritain

For those that haven’t heard, the exhibition One Foot in the Grove by Mutate Britain is currently on under the Westway, Ladbroke Grove, West London; each weekend until November the 1st 2009, 12-10pm.

The Westway is where the UK graffiti scene started in earnest when the Clash bought Futura 2000 there to paint in 1982.

The Mutoid Waste Company are a travelling band of punk-squatter mechanic artists led by Joe Rush that infected the acid house party movement with their dark and surreal bio-mechanoid humour, building scrap metal  wastelands and delirious mindscapes in a shock juxtaposition of realities guaranteed to give any trip a hair raising edge.

Think Heironymous Bosch versus Tron and you’re getting somewhere…

Inspired by the desolation of the 80s to escape into a parallel post apocalyptic universe they inspired a generation to create, myself included.

Some of the best acid parties I attended in the late Eighties and early Nineties had input from the Mutoid Waste Crew or their many splinter groups Circus Irritant, Circus Warp, Splattered Fantasy etc,  these plunged my young, impressionable and highly expanded consciousness into a Bermuda Triangle of anamorphic archetypes, cyborg spectres and grotesque apparitions in parody of human and machine form, fractured and echoed by laser and strobe, syncopated and shaken with deafening electronic bass.

The vibe was always intensely surreal, the most outrageously attired and hideously painted forms appeared from the flickering fog in theatrical convulsions, the music was the most twisted repetitive acid, deep and tribal, which stripped the senses gradually to total derangement, beat after pounding beat, until finally at one with the music the chaotic environment and your inner world became one.

Now twenty years later the Mutoids are under the Westway, and it’s not a squat, the police are not outside, the pounding house and techno has been replaced by an eclectic mix including ragga, reggae, punk, soca and rockabilly and the sweating, swaying trance-dancers have grown into bespectacled media professionals pushing buggys.

They still roll out the 303 acid sound when the fire-breathing machines get loose though…

Their amazing signature art, friendly warm family atmosphere and tongue-in-cheek vibe is however present in abundance, accessible and inspirational to the whole family, exhibited together with an array of street and graffiti art, so when I was asked to come and paint a wall I was honoured to oblige, being able to give something back to the community that gave so much inspiration to me in the mad days of the late eighties and early nineties!

It was very short notice so I improvised with some graffiti letters with a twist ….

There is no doubt in my mind from the captivated expressions on the faces of their visitors that their inspiration will grow into new and exciting ideas in years to come.

 Lyle Doghead and Lrry

Oh and by the way everything is for sale!

All photos by Jenny

So in their own words….

Below you will find details of how to get there and when it’s open. It’s one of London’s biggest underground art events ever. So don’t just hear about it, watch the video, read the info, explore the blog and get down to the show! We promise to look after you with our fully licensed bar, delicious food and inclusive festival atmosphere. There honestly, really and truly is no better way to enjoy art.

Open on : FRI 12-10pm / SAT 12-10pm / SUN 12-9pm

Ends: 01.11.2009

Location: 3-6 Acklam Rd, London, W10 5YU MAP

Entrance: £1 before 6pm – £3 thereafter

Website here Mutate Britain

Filmed and produced by Writer’s Block for Dont Watch That! TV

writers block – elate on MUZU.

See more videos at the Writers Block Youtube Channel

Many thanks to Hip Hop and Graffiti documenter and archiver Skire for allowing me to use shots from his amazing archive.

It’s thanks to people like him we can look back on a golden era.

This shot features vintage London handstyles including an old Elate tag at the legendary and much missed Groove Records in Greek Street, Soho, the Mecca for Hip Hop’s early days, and pretty much the main dispenser of all the Hip Hop Electro imports from the US in the mid eighties, and where I spent most of my money back then, starting in around 86.

The Groove Electro charts were our ever changing bible, and mainstay of the Mike Allen show on Capital Radio, the pioneering spirit behind UK Hip Hop.

This place was pretty well hit in those mad old days, as anyone who knows London’s graffiti history will see from the tags…

It’s nice to see my handstyle in its’ transformative phases, (starting with a small e and ending with a capital E at this point!) It’s on the top of the door frame below Rogue and above Noize for those having trouble….

 Also I can make out Drax WD, Jinx WD, Rogue, Crime, Up2, Dare2, Noize 207, Fuel, Daube, Cane 1, State of Art and Rome ACR amongst others I’m not 100% on. The piece was by the legendary Fade 2

If anyone else has any old Elate flicks I’d be very glad to hear.

I thought I’d drag it out and post it as it seems to have gained new significance…