Michael Borkowsky | Perfumery and I | September 2018

Perfumery has a rich and varied history, and has been utilised in all manner of endeavour – including ritual and ceremony, medicine, burial preparation, political statement, a declaration of religious or monarchical status and, of course, for daily wear. Over time, the process of creating perfume has become more refined and more commercially viable, paving the way for the fragrance industry as we know it, and for the plethora of fragrances available to consumers today.

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A City of Two Tales: A Record Store Day Intervention

Breaking the Sound Barrier 8 is the eighth iteration of a long running audio / remix project by artists Alan Dunn and Martyn Rainford. What began as a collaborative track on one of Dunn’s numerous compilation CD’s, A History of Background, evolved into a 5:1 surround sound installation presented at BasementArtsProject in August 2012. Beyond this the track has been remixed  and re-presented in various formats in different cities around the UK as well as elsewhere in the world. 

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Cruel and Unusual: Prelude to Forgotten Spaces

The smallest dungeon cell featured in this series of work is from Chester city walls, and, as with all of the dungeons featured, is hidden deep underground. There is an interesting contemporary account of the size of this cell by someone who visited it as a gruesome tourist attraction, long after it was last used. They described it as a small space, carved out of the rock to fit the dimensions of a man. It had room for the head, and became wider to fit the shoulders and chest. When the door was closed on the person inside they had no room to sit or lie down.

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Living With It

 I love having the mind of the artist around, and the work ethic; contrary to what lie you may have been fed, there is a lot of hard slog behind what may be described as ‘ I could do that’.  I especially love that a space in my house can be transformed and I can venture down with glass of wine in hand and feel that transformation for the first time, along with both friends and strangers.

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The Way You Are is The Way You Are (The Soft Rains of England)

" I come out of a different frame, that frame relates to stories that don’t exist in the neat tropes, themes and intellectual and historical properties of what we may like to call the dominant culture."  Sohail Khan. Cape Point. Gambia. Inscribe Literary  Festival 2008 prior to performing his seminal  Live Art work " Who is the Ninka Nanka?"

" Artists as special kinds of people?... we have to rid of all that crap."

 

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In Conversation: Phill Hopkins

I have learned to value and cherish my playfulness and to recognise where it comes from. I have to guard and protect my boy inside me as he is the driver of my creativity. I am naturally very playful… when I was a small boy I made things all the time and really nothing has changed.

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Beyond Photography

RightNow Studio launched this project to provide a space for young artists to showcase their work in the emerging field of post photography. “ Beyond Photography features 15 artists who really challenge the limits of photography today”, explains co-director Ryan Blackwell.

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Nostalgia Is Not What It Used To Be

Alistair Woods has something of a Steptoe and Son approach to the production of artworks. For Woods the hedgerows, back alleys and gutters are a veritable treasure trove of nostalgia, a world in which objects relinquish their histories and meaning in favour of a new lease of life.

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COLONIZE: Jamestown, New York USA

SCIBase was established in 2012 as a collaborative vehicle for artists associated with SCI (Soup Collective International), based primarily in the Northwest of England and run by Wendy Williams in collaboration with BasementArtsProject Leeds.

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