Cirque Monti.....

It was Elle's last weekend and the circus just happened to be in town. Unfortuately, we'd had a random night of wine and food at the museum the night before as a leaving party and I was definietely feeling the after effect! However I managed to drag myself out of bed and make it to Bern- and I'm very glad I did!

 Circus Monti was founded in 1984 and still tours each year around Switzerland. Although the show was in Swiss German we had no problem following what was happening and the clowns stories still came across.

 There was ALOT of aerial in this circus- wwhich of course made me happy. (And also made me miss- not long til I'm back though!)

I don't think I've ever seen a doubles act on rope before so this was great. I loved that both women were as strong as each other so there wasn't that clear line of base and flyer it felt like the worked really well togther.

I think it was also my first time in a traditional circus tent too, not as bizarre as I always though it would be. The atmosphere was really nice and it was great to have the live band there too!

Loved it!

Zurich.........

Another day off so we decided to travel to Zurich. Our origianl plan was to go to Zermatt and see some mountains up close at the weekend but we have to work the weekend so it was easier to travel to Zurich on a week day.

 A very cloudy day in the city although we managed to avoid the rain- luckily!

And of course we ended the day with a wee cup of tea (well coffee in my case). Mmm........

A day in Bern...

We took a little trip out to Bern on Saturday. I'd been before with some friends but it was on a Sunday- and apparently thats when the Swiss like to sleep as nothing was open. Better luck this time though!

We managed to catch the market- amazing bread, cheese and unidentifiable fruits and veg- what a good way to start the day! We got some breakfast and decided to have a wander round.

Bern is well known for the "Bears of Bern", so of course we stopped to pay them a little visit. I don't know how I feel about these little bears cooped up in the middle of the city. They are really cute though.

La vernissage (the opening night)

After two months of solid work, here it is...
I had an amazing time and am really glad I stayed for the two months instead of just one. I managed to see how the whole exhibiton came together and how each membewr of the team brought their own bit to it. The strangest thing was then seeing the public come in and wander round being able to touch your work rather than just view it as they would in a theatre.

the visitors were first brought inot this room with the reef , there were lots of shells on the floor to walk on as this would be the first sounds they hear...


each of the boxes with text was on springs, so anytime some stood on them, theywould make noise. this would stop again when the person came off the box, when you have a room full of people walking around, its soon got pretty loud...

the noises from the boxes were recorded by certain people, in the next room each of these tubes had informationon the people that collected these sounds. the infomation would only show up when someone walked in front of the tube as each one was rigged with a motion detector...

the vending machine room, where people could listen to different sounds, this is where most of the objects were also displayed, including the guitar fish...

These are some photos from my friend Seb (http://www.lrdprod.com/) aswell as the official MEN photographer (http://www.men.ch/)

More rust...

This time on my big submarine. This one had crashed into the sand and more of it is exposed so it has to look worn by all the water.

I primed the whole thing white, then put the blue on top, however when I got to the bottom part i added more water into the blue so it became more of a wash. I had to keep my painting quite up and down so it looked as if the submarine had scraped its way up the shore.

I found the rusty part shoed up better if I painted a little white patch on top of the blue where I knew I wanted to rust. I then took my raw sienna that I used for the other rust projects and painted it on quite washy, letting it drip down every so often.

Then same again as last time- iron powder, vinegar= rust.

to add a little more texture i took a chisel every so often and scraped into the blue paint to keep with the scratchy washed up texture...

Guitar fish and all that jazz..

One of the other spaces was to be like a storage container where all the object could be protected. There were various items loaded behind windows to resemble that of a vending machine.
This room was to look very different compared to the rest of the rusty submarine- a little classier.

I got to use Bristol bronze paint! I'd only ever used powders when painting metalics, so having it already made up was a bonus, especially when we didn't have a lot of time on our hands.
We had a reddish base coat and painted the bronze on top, then used water to sponge it off, giving a nice patchy texture.

super shiny floor, merci freaky swiss glaze...

In the middle of the room was a big sofa, that had been designed and made specially for the exhibition, this was sat in front of an aquarium type which was filled with various different shaped guitars that looked like fish.

my beautiful upholstering skills...

little fishies....

Journey of a fresco (or fresque- since we're in Switzerland)

The main reason I was invited over to Switz was because they need someone to paint a fresque as part of the exhibiton.

The wall is 15m x 6m so we had to use 2 scaff towers to grid it up and mark it up.

Dont drop the string!!!!

The reference was of a desert but the scenographers wanted it to look like it was downloading so I there were lots of pixels to give this effect.

i first started out with the original photograph of the desert, this way I could cover the canvas and have a really good base...

next I began to add in the pixels.
i made up a square template from cardboard which measured 25x25cm. my boxes on my grid we 1x1m so the all I had to do was line up a corner of the templte to the corner of my.
for bigger gropus of pixels, I used masking tape...

the final stages were adding the black at the top. it made a HUGE difference once tis was added in and seemed to bring the whole thing together...

as a last minute idea, we thought it would be good if some of the pixels extended onto the other wall to give a feeling as if the image was coming together and the pixels were flying into place...

the final piece...

The entire thing took three weeks, with two people working on it for the first two weeks, then my self for the last week doing some final touches and finer details.

I think its the biggest thing I've worked on, on my own so it was challanging but I'm pleased with how it looks.

Switzerland

So, I've been in Switzerland for 2 months...

I was invited over by the lovely Anna Jones, who designed Kapsar Hauser at the academy last year. My stay was only suppose to be for 1 month but I in the end I stayed for 2, as there was shitloads of work to do, plus I was having an awesome time!
I was based in the French part Neuchatel, mais ma francaise n'est pas si bon! Its a really lovely part of the country that has its own lake, and amazing view of the alps!

the view from my terrace...

paper spider making masterclass...

We went to an amazing chalet for Anna's birthday too. Mountians, wine and fondue- what more do you need?


During the summer in Switzerland they run lots of different festivals. The first week I was I saw a street theatre festival called La plage de six pompes in La Chaux-de Fonds, quite near Neuchatel. We saw a crazy couple that did a performance in a caravan and who swallowed several object only to bring them back up again- delightful....

There was also a few acrobatic type performances, one that was a little like a trapeze with a couple fliping around in the air wearing 70s style disco costumes. Then there was a performance on a circular stage, where they used sound, dance and acrobatics that all seemed to based on this ciculat theme. They also had a guy perfoming with a cyr wheel- always a winner!

There was also the Buskers festival which was actully in Neuchatel itself, I saw this awesome band, Gadjo, from Barcelona play. Much dancing to be done when they are around! http://www.gadjomusica.com/