Three artists from east London, Alan Bond, May Cornet, and Dawn Shorten have been chosen as lead artists in the Artvaults project which takes place from July 9th to Oct 9th.

These artists have just returned from a showing in Rome and Artvaults is a development of that show. Dawn Shorten and Alan Bond will be sharing the Castle Vault with pieces about Space. Dawn Shorten, whose work is invariably wry, humorous and deadly serious will show ‘Fly Me To The Moon’, a spectacular reconstruction of a rocket launch. Alan Bond has constructed planetarium consisting of a geodesic dome which sits on a circle of doors scavenged from skips. Light penetrates through hundreds of holes drilled in the dome.

The PlanetariumThe Planetarium is a response to the form, dimensions and dark of Castle Vault. It develops ideas about space that have informed Alan Bond’s recent paintings in which eroded, scuffed and perforated painted surfaces parallel the cosmic history of collision, creation, destruction and remaking.

In The Planetarium he uses the cast-offs of the material world and makes reference to the world of advertising and consumerism. Exploiting the aesthetic attributes of these re-cycled materials he transcends their source, to create a mysterious allusion to the ethereal beauty of the night sky

Somewhere in this piece are cryptic references to medieval ideas about the underworld, heaven and earth.

May Cornet will show at 94 High Street. Her installation is reminiscent of a laboratory. The illuminated seed boxes suggest a process of cloning but May sees each of the seedlings having the potential to grow into something unique. Delicate, clinical and beguiling, the work suggests a scientific intervention into the natural processes of creation and germination.

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News From Nowhere: Visions Of Utopia promises to be one of the largest art events in London this year. A number of public sites in North East London, including The William Morris Gallery, the Changing Room Gallery, The Waltham Forest Theatre situated on an island and surrounded by a moat, Lloyd Park, and a massive building site in the centre of Walthamstow, The Vestry House Museum and Walthamstow Town Hall will be used as stages for exhibitions, interventions, installations, audio visual works, music performances and public art activities during September/ October 2005.

CarnegieBased on the title of the William Morris novel News From Nowhere, and set in and around his birth-place, the project aims to re-examine the legacy of utopianism: upheld by the idealists of the 19th and early 20th century, who believed passionately in the possibilities of radical social change, with visions of a future egalitarian world, it is a distant cry from our post-modern, post-ideological times.

An international line-up of artists, designers, musicians, writers, thinkers and performers will be presenting their work in the context of the various spaces. The events, works in progress and completed pieces will be documented and published on-line in the Visions of Utopia web site. The site will also provide a global forum for open contributions, reports and sightings of utopia.

A special limited edition newspaper, News from Nowhere will be published and distributed, including essays, documentation and interviews with local and global residents, as well as those of the participating artists and organisers. The 18th-century Water House, Morris’s family home from 1848-1856 is now the William Morris Gallery. It is the only public museum in the world devoted to this country’s best known and most versatile designer with internationally important collections illustrating Morris’s life, achievements and influence.

Art Utopia For the first time, a selected group of artists, designers and writers will be given a unique opportunity to place work within the House and permanent displays, resulting in a series of juxtapositions and interventions alongside the work of Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites; featuring the legendary Tony Benn, designers Ralph Ball and Maxine Naylor, architect Meredith Bowles, artists Stephen Williams, Liane Lang, Anderson Inge, Malcolm Barrett, Luis Gonzago Barriera Bras Keith Ball and Steve Wheeler. With sonic work by Isobel Jones and video performance from Claire Robins.

Other Venues
The Changing Room Gallery
Vestry House Museum
Arcadia (a massive building site)
Waltham Forest Theatre, The Moat, Lloyd Park

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Work from Peter Ainsworth, Henrietta Armstrong, Emilie Bell, Claire Brewster, Angela Corcoran, Nicola Cunningham, Charlie Danby, Joel Ely, Kirsty Harris, Richard Hubner, Cheryl Lane, Harry Logan, James Manning, Tracy Neal, Johanna Nilsson, James Ormiston, Cara O’Keefe, Scott O’Rourke, Emily Power, Fiona Przybylski, Sophie Ruderman, Lucie Russell, Ben Twiston-Davies, Liam Williams and Mike Young will be for sale, with a percentage of the proceeds donated to Hackney Empire.

Theme Park Charlie Danby’s woodland constructions tell the story of that which is lost, and that which is to be discovered. Remnants of roller-coasters, references to theme parks, ruins, castles, bridges and fortified walls that separate nothing and safeguard even less. Myth and fairytale bring them into a landscape of synthetic idyll, where objects are both visible and invisible. The works are built on platforms that float like islands, scale and reference shift constantly and mirrors present optical recess and provide strange vistas.

Joel Ely’s paintings have been selected for the BP Portrait Award for the second consecutive year. His practice involves researching and combining disparate elements of the histories, theories and fictions surrounding food, nature and figurative art. This is realised through a bastardised approach to painting, performance and installation.

Kirsty Harris’ breakfast scene installation becomes quite unsettling when a closer look at the egg’s shell reveals it was broken by a bullet. Waking up, every day, to the carefully edited images and news reports is the way we gauge how the rest of the world exists. Reliance on corporations to transmit the truth suddenly seems naïve.

Empirical Emily Power manipulates the surface of wallpaper to include words beneath its pattern. Intermarried with the codes and regulations of the pre-made paper, the text looks towards linguistics and habit forming systems of communication, adopting a freeze-frame of gridded language to suggest an arresting of circumstances.

PRIVATE VIEW: SUNDAY 10th JULY 2005 6-9pm
Performance – 8pm Nicola Cunningham
Photography and Disc Jockeys in the Marie Lloyd bar, 8pm till late

OPEN DAILY 11th–14TH JULY 2005 5-9pm
Hackney Empire’s Exhibition Space
291 Mare Street
Hackney, London E8 1EJ

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Darren Almond’s work addresses the themes of time, geography and memory. He uses a wide range of media including film, photography and sculpture to explore the passing of time and the marks that it leaves on both social and private histories. He is shortlisted for his exhibition at K21, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf.

Gillian Carnegie explores the properties of painting. She works within the traditional genres of landscape, still life, the nude and portraiture, incorporating a wide variety of subjects and techniques to both celebrate and question the medium. She has been shortlisted for her solo exhibition at Cabinet, London.

Jim Lambie makes exuberant installations and sculptures which make reference to pop music and youth culture. He uses everyday materials including coloured tape and glitter to transform spaces and familiar objects. He is shortlisted for his exhibitions at Sadie Coles HQ, London and Anton Kern, New York.

StarlingSimon Starling transforms and reframes existing objects through a rigorous process of research. In his complex sculptural installations he creates poetic narratives by drawing together disparate cultural and historical references. He is shortlisted for his solo presentations at the Modern Institute, Glasgow and the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona.

Last year, Gordon’s increased the value of the Turner Prize to £40,000, with £25,000 being awarded to the winner and £5,000 each to the other shortlisted artists. The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 11 May 2005. It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe.Turner Prize Shortlist

Work by the shortlisted artists will be shown in an exhibition at Tate Britain beginning on 18 October 2005. The winner will be announced at Tate Britain on 5 December during a live broadcast by Channel 4.

The members of the Turner Prize 2005 jury are:
Louisa Buck, London Contemporary Art correspondent, The Art Newspaper; Kate Bush, Head of Art Galleries, Barbican Art Gallery; Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith, art critic and Lecturer, Modern Irish Department, University College Dublin; Eckhard Schneider, Director, Kunsthaus Bregenz; Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate and Chairman of the Jury.

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The Wired Women of Spitalfields festival will start with a day of free entertainment and activities in Old Spitalfields Market. Featuring live music on a free stage, an art installation in a disused shop unit, a jumble sale, knitting circles, puppets, a tombola, a treasure trove, a 50s gramophone DJ,’shop window’ art installation and a theremin workshop, it will be a great day out and an important event for the market. A Bagpuss-inspired window shop installation will be on display at the currently deserted shop. That’s all topped off in the Spitz Venue with an extraordinary night of live music, DJs, VJs and film screenings.

Free in daytime
Tickets for night-time event in the Spitz. £8 adv.

With performances from:
Angie Reed, Cranes, Piney Gir, Anat Ben-David, Motormark, Funsize Lions, Ten Minutes With My Dad, Radical Cheerleaders, Ninki V, Japanese Intelligence
Mind Control and Venus Fly Trap

Plus DJ sets from:
Val, Craft, Two Birds, The Schla La Las, Ninja Jen, Gemma, Anna Schulte

Not to mention:
VJs, an art installation, film screenings, a jumble sale, a knitting circle,a tombola, crafts with Ninja Jen (including “how to needlepoint”), a theremin workshop and general zapping till late at night…

12pm – 6pm
Free events in Old Spitalfields Market with live music from: Cranes + Funsize Lions + Ninki V + Japanese Intelligence Mind Control

5pm – 2am
Music, DJs, VJs and films in the Spitz venue with live music from: Angie Reed + Anat Ben-David (Chicks on Speed) + Piney Gir (Truck) +
Motormark + Ten Minutes With My Dad + Radical Cheerleaders + Venus Fly Trap

A comprehensive list of activities can be collected on the day from the Spitz terrace from 11am.

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