Work, 2010

Work, 2010
Jess Blandford (2010)
Mixed Media
Series of 8 framed prints/paintings, each 32.5cm x 42.5cm.




Installed at 'Q-Art Presents II (work in progress)'.
A group show at APT Gallery, Deptford
18-28 November 2010.


This is a series of prints from advertisements for office furniture from 1960s interior magazines that I have been collecting. On top of the prints I have made drawings of the screwed up remnants of failed work, and applied abstract paint marks. The work is then contained within white frames.

The series seeks to explore the notion of productive work.

In the context of the magazine ads which feature peculiarly empty, pre-digital office spaces and texts that promise idealistic notions of success, efficiency and progress, the work seeks to question whether our digital age is really any more productive than the past, how we define useful or meaningful labour, what the role of the physical now plays in the idea of "an honest day's work", and how one might judge the value of the artist's intervention.

Underlying the work is a set of questions about failure, disappointment and wasted time, set against ideas of success, growth and productivity - nostalgic notions that seem to be increasingly dominant in these times of regressive economic policies.

New Generation PizzaExpress

The new generation PizzaExpress in Richmond is a big project that I've been working on all year (I'm leading the creative team).

Our challenge? To come up with ideas for what PizzaExpress restaurants should be like in the future... oh, and then build it as a fully functioning restaurant!

Having had masses of ideas, we've now taken over the large PizzaExpress in Richmond (200 seats!), gutted the building and rebuilt it as an experimental space, to test ideas, try some brave new things and get lots of feedback from people. The plan is for other PizzaExpress restaurants to follow in its footsteps, if people like it.

The brief was to celebrate the skill of authentic handmade pizza and also expand the concept of feeding great conversation. We're trying to reconnect with the pioneering spirit of the founder Peter Boizot who opened the first PizzaExpress in Soho in 1965, and who worked with lots of the artists, musicians and designers of the sixties (like Peter Blake and Enzo Apicella). Throwing some pretty amazing parties by all accounts!

We're an eclectic team. The brilliant Ab Rogers is leading the design (of the Tate, Comme de Garcons and The Rainbow House fame), and in addition to the PizzaExpress team, we've formed a collective of contemporary creative talent.

It includes: italian chef Antonio Romani; singing baker Liliana (who runs the Food Lab); fashion Designer Matthew Miller (juggling us with London Fashion Week); professor of accoustics Sergio Luzzi from Florence; theatre director and conversation expert Karl James; graphic designers GTF (also working on all the graphics for Frieze at the moment); Mumsnet co-founder Carrie Longton; DJ Nick Luscombe (Radio 3 & Resonance FM); games designers Spiral; film and soundscape artist Dominic Robson; Writers Rob & Molly (who have just set up We All Need Words); and artist and designer Enzo Apicella. Enzo, now 88, designed the original PizzaExpress in 1965 and the famous logo. He's painting a huge mural for us (ably assisted by Tom Saunders). I feel very honoured to be working with such diverse and creative bunch of people.

It's definitely NOT the normal corporate way of doing things!

It's been a huge project, and has covered re-looking at everything from design and furniture, crockery and acoustics, opening hours and uniforms, to all the food, wine and service.

We've created a kitchen that's more like a stage. With all the ingredients on show, and pizzaiolos who do acrobatics with the dough (if you flirt with them enough). The restaurant's full of cutting edge accoustics, including conversation booths with domes designed for to create the perfect audio enviroment for talking to one another. Inside you can dim the lights, play your own music by plugging your ipod into the docking station, and if you need serving you just press a light and the dome glows - so no more trying to flag down the waitress to get your bill. Lots of new things on the menu too... personal favourites include breakfast pizza, dough balls with nutella, skinny grape bread, and a seriously hard-core Negroni cocktail (gin, campari & martini rosso on the rocks). [I blame these for the brilliantly insane press night party that didn't finish until well after 4am].

Projections play at either end of the restaurant (currently silently screening a series of 1960s italian films), and a soundscape plays in the loos. The new playlist features artists that explore the boundaries of jazz with other genres - check out Stac for example - and we're planning late night music nights there. We've got a whole new graphic style - including taking the idea of the stripes of the pizzaiolo's shirts and using it in suprising ways (like on our italian cycling caps), and we've created a new typography based on old newpapers which ironically feels much more contemporary. There's an creative area to keep kids happy and quiet (!) with a big shared drawing table, books and interactive games to help teach them about food and ingredients.

The list goes on...

If you want to know more you can see more photos, video clips etc on the project blog:

http://futureexpress.co.uk/

Please do come down to Richmond now it's open, to see what we've done. I'd love to know what you think.

PizzaExpress Richmond, Red Lion Street, TW9 1RE. Open from 8.45am. Free Wi-Fi.

Here are a couple of clips about the project for a film made about it:

Opening night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ks2Q_Nf6oA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Nick Luscombe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NaNsNKVplY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Karl James:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g6Jwi6Vt4o&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Jess Blandford:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3n-W_YOwCo

Liverpool Road Project

100 meters of bunting made from triangles of fabric donated by residents of the Liverpool Road Estate, displayed at the celebration street party to mark 100 years since it was built.

Bunting has long been used for celebrations. There are evocative pictures of the opening party at Liverpool Road, with bunting strung between the buildings and when invited to take part in this project, it seemed only right to create a contemporary version for 2010.

The bunting was made from pieces of fabric collected from current residents. Over 500 triangles were donated, as the community got behind the project.

The patterns, colours and textures of the textiles we are surrounded by, literally make up the fabric of our everyday lives. They are such a part of the way that we live that we stop noticing them, yet when we come across an old familiar fabric (like the pattern from a material you wore as a child) the jolt of recognition can be a very powerful emotion.

In this work, fabrics with different histories sit alongside one another. Because they are all cut into triangles, their original function is obscured. An old apron might sit next to a cushion cover, pyjamas next to a table cloth. All become equal. Fragments of people's lives are jumbled up, yet connected through the formal structure.

We're so used to throwing away stuff, that it's not often we find new purposes for old things these days. I hope people enjoyed spotting the triangles they donated and found it satisfying giving something they no longer use, a second celebratory life.

A project by Tall Tales

Other artists included:
- Christian Nynmpeta
- Davina Drummond
- Alan McGee
- Damian O'Connel

See link to Guardian Society for a picture gallery of the event:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2010/oct/13/liverpool-road-estate-centenary-pictures#/?picture=367191268&index=0

Liverpool Road Estate

I am currently working on a project creating bunting from fabric triangles collected from the residents of the Samuel Lewis Estate at Liverpool Road. The work seeks to turn textiles that form the fabric of our everyday lives into strings of bunting for the 100 year celebrations of the estate. The project is in association with Tall Tales (the team behind the Market Estate) but with a very different feel as the Samuel Lewis Estate is a shining example of successful social housing, with a community of people (many who have lived there for generations) who are keen to collaborate.

The celebration event will be held on Sunday 5th September for the residents of the estate.

If anyone would like to donate a triangle the template is here for you to do so!

Latitude 2010

Last weekend saw my 4th year at Latitude working with The Dialogue Project to present Intimate Conversations at the festival. Karl James pre-records a series of intimate conversations with ordinary people talking about extraordinary experiences. We offer festival goers the chance to listen to these beautifully edited works on ipods in the woods. Each year Karl has chosen a different theme for his sound pieces, and this year the subject was sex (previous years include friendship and pain). Although some of the subject matter is quite tough, and many are graphic (although not pornographic), the conversations revolve as much around themes of loneliness, hope, confidence, and intimacy as they do sexuality. Perhaps because the pieces were longer this year, and so we spent more time with people while they were waiting, it felt like an even more participative and collaborative event this year. People who came to listen generously shared their experiences (of similar stories, of the festival as they were discovering it, of their responses to the work) and as such it felt like we really were adding a small layer of personal intimacy to a festival of 35,000, a far cry from the arena crowds, in the Faraway Forest, somewhere near a lake in Suffolk.

Thank you to everyone who came to listen.

If you'd like to listen to the works go to:
http://www.thedialogueproject.com and click on Intimate Conversations.
I strongly recommend listening on headphones.

PRAXIS prints

paper, collage & gouache, framed
20cm x 19cm
Jess Blandford, June 2010

PRAXIS paintings

acrylic on canvas,
30x30 cm
Jess Blandford, June 2010

//PRAXIS////

"it's doing something, and then only afterwards finding out why you did it".
Tony Wilson, Factory Records

Market Gallery is an artist-run project space in a former shop in Bermondsey. Supported by ACAVA and Southwark Council, this summer it hosts a series of exhibitions by the artists who work in studios at the old Peek Frean Biscuit Factory in Bermondsey.

Windows removed

They've started the demolition of Market Estate. So far they've removed the windows of Tamworth Building, exposing the colours inside each room, so it looks like a patchwork or a dolls house.

Demolition begins

Photographs taken by Josh Surtees

Antony Gormley in Fluorescent Yellow Room

This blurred phone photo makes it onto the blog for the pure comedy of our starstruck gazes! At the end of the show we raced into our Fluorescent Yellow Room to save a few momentos from the bulldozers, to discover Antony Gormley inside taking photos on his mobile and saying how much he liked the work. A truly surreal highlight of the whole brilliant experience..!

Both the Islington Gazette and the Islington Tribute featured pictures of Antony Gormley in Fluorescent Yellow Room.

http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2010/mar/condemned-building-explodes-riot-colour-and-light

http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/content/islington/gazette/news/story.aspx?brand=ISLGOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsislg&itemid=WeED09%20Mar%202010%2014%3A18%3A28%3A140

Independent - make art before the bull dozers roll in

Click on title or link below to read full article

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/make-art-before-the-bulldozers-roll-in-1916209.html

Film: The Guardian - Dereliction of Beauty

Click on title or link below to see the film about the Market Estate Project by Shehani Fernando

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2010/mar/05/artists-london-market-estate


Also for an audio account of the project see:
http://lovesoflondon.blogspot.com/2010/03/london-lovesart.html

Fluorescent Yellow Room

Fluorescent Yellow Room
by Jess Blandford & Joe Morris

An Installation in Flat 18, Tamworth Building
Market Estate Project

It will be open to the public for 1 day only on 6 March 2010 (2-10pm) before the estate is demolished.

photographs courtesy of Tom Willcocks

Joe Morris

Fluorescent Yellow Room was made in collaboration with Joe Morris.

To find out more about Joe's work see http://www.joemorris.eu