Tuesday 20 October 2009

The Changing Face Factory at Hoxton Hall





Nomadic Projects are continuing its ongoing collaboration with Hoxton Hall and are at the moment displaying some of James Fisher and Jon Glazier's masks that were made during the Museum of Hackney Wick. Head down to 130 Hoxton Street, N1, and have a look at the window display. Whilst you're there pop into the nineteen century theatre and admire the beautiful old music hall, one of the last ones still in use. 


Press -Museum of Hackney Wick on Dazed Digital


HACKNEY WICKED FESTIVAL 2009


Nomadic Projects will be taking over a disused shop to present the Museum of Hackney Wick.


Text by David Hellqvist   |   Published 30 July 2009


Hackney Wicked is an art festival dedicated to showcasing local art and celebrating the rise of a new generation artists. Everything from existing galleries, studios, pop-up art boutiques to barbeques, sound system parties, the burning of a wicker man and live gigs will come together for a weekend of fun and Cultural Learnings of Hackney Wicked for Make Benefit Glorious Visitors.

 
Nomadic Projects, one of the newcomers at the festival’s second outing, is setting up their Museum of Hackney Wick in homage to the area, but also to highlight the changes it’s facing with the Olympics and how people living there will be affected. Dazed Digital sat down with Emma Hammer, one third of Nomadic Projects, to get the lowdown...
 
DD: What is Nomadic Projects?
Emma Hammar: It’s a curatorial partnership formed by myself, Louise O'Kelly and Pau Cata. We aim to promote emerging artists whilst documenting communities and specific areas that are in flux. Our first exhibition, The Museum of Hackney Wick focuses on an area undergoing major changes as a result of London hosting the Olympic games in 2012. We encourage artists to create histories through documentation and collaboration in order to represent the different realities of an ever-changing urban landscape.
 
DD: Do you all live in Hackney Wick yourself? Or close by?
Emma Hammar: Louise used to live in Hackney Wick but left when rents started to rise. Currently none of us live there, although we all live in Hackney, as do most of the artists that we are working with. Nomadic Projects will work like a travelling museum; we are therefore never claiming an area as our own. By sourcing local artists we aim to have an insider perspective on events affecting the people based in the area.
 
DD: The Museum of Hackney Wick takes place in a disused shop space – these kind of ‘pop- up’ places seem to be all the rage at the moment?
Emma Hammar: Yes, I guess you could call us a pop-up museum! Every recession has seen artists and arts facilitators making use of the empty shop spaces that inevitably will crop up, like when Tracy Emin and Sarah Lucas set up a shop during the 1992 recession.
 
DD: The idea was to engage with the local community – how has their response been?
Emma Hammar: Good. Since we are dealing with issues that will literally change people’s lives, for good or bad, engaging members from the local community has been fairly easy. I think people recognise that we are genuinely trying to involve them and that we are interested in their role in the community and area.
 
DD: What's the general feeling towards the regeneration – good or bad?
Emma Hammar: It depends on who you talk to. I think that generally there is a worry because no one really knows what will happen and that makes people scared. Hopefully The Museum of Hackney Wick will highlight these issues and work as a productive response to what is happening in the Wick. Local artists don’t seem overly keen, but I don’t think that everyone sees the changes as something negative.
 
DD: A Hackney Wick Museum! Does that mean that the area's creative high is over and needs to be documented for the next generation? 
Emma Hammar: Quite the opposite, Hackney Wick seems to be on a creative high at the moment, with the Hackney Wicked festival, new galleries and bars and cafes popping up. The Museum of Hackney Wick will be situated in an imagined future where Hackney Wick as we know it has ceased to exist, and from this future we will speculatively analyse the area’s remains through a shop selling Hackney Wick memorabilia, a cafĂ©, performances and other activities remembering that past lost now forever.
 
DD: Can anything good come out of the re-gen and Olympics? Where will all poor artists move now?
Emma Hammar: Hopefully they won’t have to move, but looking at what has happened to areas like Spitalfields and Hoxton it might seem unavoidable. South London obviously looks like it’s gearing itself up as a new creative hotspot, but people may just have to move further and further out.
 
DD: How did you find the artists you exhibit? Did you have any special criteria when approaching them?
Emma Hammar: We work for various galleries, museums and arts organisations in London and have through that been able to build up a large network of artists. Some of the artists have a background of working with community groups, like Gabriella Talavera who has worked together with HW Senior Citizen Centre, and Sandra Schindler who has created sculptures out of materials that she found on the Olympic Site. Others, like Leigh Niland and Stephen Gill have strong associations with Hackney Wick from their previous portfolio, and we felt strongly about including them.
 
DD: Getting Hackney photographer Stephen Gill is a bit of a coup...
Emma Hammar: Stephen is a really lovely and approachable guy, who’s very passionate about the area. We approached him and explained a bit about the project, and he just thought it was a great idea and was keen to help us out.
 
DD: Do you have any personal favourites among the exhibitors?
Emma Hammar: Since we are working with ten artists of different disciplines it’s impossible to say. Saying that, I am very excited about Jim Fisher and Jon Glazier who will be on constant “display” as exhibits of artists at work.
 
DD: Tell us briefly about the Hackney Wicked Festival – it's their second year, did you go last time and what are their highlights this year?
Emma Hammar: The people who set up the festival are the owners of the few galleries in the area [Mother Studios, Elevator Gallery, Schwartz and The Residence]. Last year’s was very last-minute and not everyone in the area was sure whether to get involved or not, but the opening night was a huge success with hundreds of people attending, and parties going on all over the place. This year will have really amazing performances, events, and an art fete, live music the Burning of the Wicker Man and more.
 
DD: What’s next for Nomadic Projects?
Emma Hammar: We are looking for funding to keep the Museum as a long-term project. I think London is a really exciting place to be at the moment, there isn’t a lot of money around but there’s a real spirit of entrepreneurship. We share that feeling and want to make some sort of comment on what’s happening in society at the moment. So watch this space!
 
Hackney Wicked Festival 31 July - 2 August


Saturday 17 October 2009

PLUS ART EXHIBITION on Dazed Digital




PLUS curator Declan McMullan presents a south-London alternative to Frieze
Text by David Hellqvist | Published 16 October 2009


In our culture-inflated society, art entrepreneurs have to be cunning. Many of them are constantly asking themselves "How do we get noticed? When’s the best time to show our work? Where are we going to exhibit?" Those are just a few of the factors that need to click when the time has come to invite the public.

It seems like PLUS curator Declan McMullan will satisfy all of those requirements when he launches 70+Artists+100+Hours tonight. In the midst of Frieze Art Fair, the Volume-sponsored art event pulls together an impressive rooster of artists (Tracy Emin, Gavin Turk, Sarah Lucas...) and it is taking over an empty warehouse in Southwark for almost five full days, or 100 hours, as the title indicates.
Like Frieze, PLUS is about networking and collaborations, but not just in the art world. Sharing the space with the art are bands, DJs and filmmakers, making the event truly interdisciplinary. On the opening Friday evening, Glasgow four-piece Isosceles will perform, but true to the ideals of PLUS, the gig will be used in a documentary made by Central Station, which will “explore where art and music meet”.

The eclectic mixture of artists exhibiting at PLUS is exciting. Not often do such established names share a creative platform with the UK’s underground scene. Amongst the less famous exhibitors duo Jon Glazier and James Fisher, who have constructed a 2.5 square metre cube frame, in which they will be creating a live sculpture from string. “It’s about decision-making and, hopefully, about shapes," says Fisher. "The threads will be left as a residue of our decisions at the time.”

Why go to Regents Park when you can visit a cold warehouse in Southwark and experience the underground art scene cavorting with the creatives on the front line of Brit Art.

From October 16th (5pm) – 20th (9pm) at 120 - 122 Webber Street, between Blackfriars Rd and Southwark Bridge Rd.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Thursday 6 August 2009

THE MUSEUM OF HACKNEY WICK

So the doors finally opened to The Museum of Hackney Wick on Friday 31 July. Me, Louise and Pau would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that made it down to the Wick over the weekend, our talented artists, all the local businesses and organisations that supported us, Hackney Council's Cultural Development Team and all the people of Hackney Wick! We could not have done this without you. Also a big thank you to the Hackney Wicked organisers, you did an amazing job!



Friday 17 July 2009

Museum of Hackney Wick on The Hackneyist


The Museum of Hackney Wick
SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2009 AT 11:58AM

In reaction to the radical changes that will take place in Hackney Wick as a result of the Olympic Games 2012, Nomadic Projects are encouraging local artists, and the community, to document the area in its last moments prior to redevelopment.


Inhabiting a disused shop space at the hub of the festival, The Museum of Hackney Wick is situated in an imagined future where Hackney Wick as we know it has ceased to exist.

From this future local artists will speculatively analyse the area’s remains. Objects and documents will be exhibited using a traditional museum aesthetic and will be accompanied by a shop selling Hackney Wick memorabilia, performances and other activities remembering that past now lost forever.


The pieces exhibited will be the outcome of commissioned collaborations between artists (Stephen Gill, Leigh Niland, Sandra Schindler amongst others) and the various constituents of Hackney Wick. The aim of the exhibition is to create awareness of the current situation in Hackney Wick, an area due for regeneration as part of the Olympic Games 2012.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

Wednesday 10 June 2009

TMHW Space