Alexandre BettlerREFLECT-PLEASE is part of an ongoing series of projects around the different meanings of the word 'to reflect'.
The series includes objects, short films, and is presented here as a light installation. Presented in a very calm and relaxing environment, the piece invites the visitor to 'reflect' in different ways.
Alexandre Bettler studied graphic design at ECAL, Switzerland and Communication Art and Design at the Royal College of Art in London. His work is influenced by details and habits found in daily life. Alexandre seeks to magnify their beauty as well as their function. When baking bread, making books or organizing his 'Bread Workshops', Alexandre runs a design studio in East London. For further information visit www.reflect-please.com
Chelsey Browne B.1978Chelsey Browne started photography at the age of 13 and has been working as a professional photographer for over 8 years.
Her practice is based around an interest in the relationship between nature and technology and in searching for a certain beauty in the possible connections between what should be two contrasting themes. The Internet, text messaging, and global telecommunications are all subjects of inspiration. Human connections made through technological devices can be intimate and poetic, or on a wider scale they can be controlling, invasive and destructive.
She is currently in her final year of BA Hons at Central Saint Martin's School of Art London. Contact: chelseybrowne@london.com
John Cake + Darren Neave aka The Little ArtistsCake and Neave's practice considers cultural identity, branding and what it means to be a contemporary artist, adopting the concept of the figure of the artist as a logo, a brand name, a lifestyle choice. They created and became 'The Little Artists' brand.
Their work is eclectic, encompassing many different mediums from photography and sculpture through to installations and curatorial projects. Their diverse range of materials (Lego, Scalextric track, Smurfs, Pictionary or even Tesco's toilet rolls) brings into play meanings that have been shaped by advertising agencies or PR departments.
Recent solo exhibitions include Hive Gallery, South Yorkshire, The Walker Gallery, Liverpool and Kulczyk Foundation, Poznan. They recently took part in the first Tatton Park Biennial in May - September 2008, curated by Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan from the commissioning
group Parabola. For further information visit www.littleartist.co.uk
Michael Czerwinski B.1969Michael Czerwinski has always worked across various disciplines, starting off in sculpture having studied ceramics at Camberwell College of Arts. His current work focuses on photography and drawing.
For 19 years Michael was on a one-man mission to explore, document and open up the lost world of St. Pancras Chambers. The former Victorian hotel (Londonʼs largest and most lavish when it was opened in 1876) become something of an obsession and he has made countless drawings and photos of its mysterious, semi-derelict interiors ever since he first explored it in 1987.
Michaelʼs drawings are a forensic examination of objects and furniture that have been deemed important in his life. Stripped down to a minimum, their diagrammatic aesthetic is balanced with reference to personal observation and memory.
His work at St Pancras also included the opportunity to curate and project manage a cross section of high profile public exhibitions and events. This has led to a parallel career of curating. He also currently runs the public programme at the Design Museum.
Simon Donald B.1981Simon Donald studied Fine Art at the Slade School of Art and Design Products at the Royal College of Art.
Simon Donalds interest lies in articles appropriating themselves post-manufacture and demanding design around them, much like a bespoke tailored suit. 'I find the brief itself can often come from an object, its history and future use within a constantly updating society.'
Joel Dunmore B.1978Joel Dunmore studied architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture and The Royal College of Art, where he pursued his fascination with the fine line between truth and fiction. Joel’s design projects have been inspired and driven equally by prophetic news articles, literary and cinematic narratives, and by an instinctive tendency towards sculptural forms.
His deeply ironic project Grief or Relief won the Keppie Design and National Grid Transco Awards 2005. Joel’s work has previously been exhibited at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, London Design Week, at the Venice Bienale of Architecture, and at Don’t Panic!, an Architecture Foundation show that he co-designed.
Joel is currently working at Ron Arad Architects, on designs for a 500m-long shopping mall with an undulating steel roof, in Liege, Belgium.
Rosanna GreavesRosanna Greaves’ work is site responsive, starting with the place of exhibition as the initial point of research. She looks into narrative histories, current uses and cultural context, building on conversations had with people that have a relationship with that place.
Rosanna’s site-specific installations often use sound to tie together objects in a space, as something, which can be experienced simultaneously with visual elements. Some works have become entirely aural, using the space itself as the only visual component reducing aesthetic comforts and allowing for a closer relationship to music and performance.
Rosanna studied Fine Art at Middlesex University. Since 2005 in addition to her own practice she has also tutored on the Fine Art BA course at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.
Kay Harwood B. 1978Kay Harwood's work consists of multi-scale paintings with haunting and unsettling undertones. The paintings come about through a process which draw’s together disparate fragments of imagery from numerous sources to create a subtly displaced space and time. Places, objects and bodies are spliced together and overlaid, disrupted further by intriguing tilted perspectives and passages of paint.
Kay studied Fine Art at the Slade School of London and the Royal Academy of Art. Recent exhibitions have included Stories at 11 Rivington, New York and Salon Nouveau at Engholm Engelhorn Galerie, Vienna. For further information visit www.museum52.com
Tomas KlassnikTomas Klassnik is the principal director of the The Klassnik Corporation, a London based interdisciplinary design practice focused on architectural research. Recent projects include proposals for a super heated London in 2035, augmenting historic landmarks to compete with new developments and the future evolution of UK universities.
He currently teaches architecture at Chelsea College of Art, has edited the London Architecture Diary and recently exhibited at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, The Architecture Foundation and the 10th Venice architecture Biennale.
Klassnik studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art where he was awarded the DIN associates design prize. He has also worked for Reiser and Umemoto, Ian Simpson Architects, the AOC and FAT. For further information visit www.klassnik.com
Paulo MunnGraduating with degrees in both architecture and sculpture, Paulo Munn traveled extensively around Europe and North America, where he worked at the Arcosanti project in Arizona.
Paulo is interested in exploring the boundaries of painting, sculpture and photography. His wire and fabric figure offer an opportunity to break down a form into space and volume, while retaining the personal meaning that colour can bring to a work. The work is an almost secretive, strangely theatrical contemplation of the relationship between humans and our man made environments.
Delphine Perrot B. 1981Born in Marseille, France, Delphine Perrot trained in Paris and now works as an independent graphic designer in East London.
Delphine tries to get close to common advertising, through contrast (historic and typographic), and by putting discrete messages in various situations. Her actions consist of taking these expressions out of context and putting them into other circumstances. It is not about selling anymore but about surprising, entertaining and opening new possibilities and performances. It is a question of explaining these slogans in other contexts in order to draw our attention to them, and to change the meanings. These messages manifest themselves in diverse places, in wild and unexpected displays, across various mediums - series of anonymous posters, stickers or balloons. Contact: delphine.perrot@yahoo.fr
Sinta Tantra B.1979Sinta Tantra’s acclaimed work in the public realm has included commissions for the Southbank Centre, Camden Council, Transport for London and Canterbury Christchurch University. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the prestigious Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award (2006) and Westminster’s City Council’s Civic Award (2007) for contribution to public arts.
She will be exhibiting in two group shows as part of Open House London this September: Nothing Works at Shoreditch Town Hall and Gatti curated by Brooke Lynn McGowan at The Canal Museum. She will be having her first major solo show with Gaya Fusion Gallery, Bali November 2009. For further information visit http://www.sintatantra.co.uk/
Chris TurrellClambering over a landscape of pottery knick knacks, discarded toys and tittle tattle Chris Turrell tinkers with objects, materials, sound and light to make things which are playful and strange. Currently living in Liverpool, he has exhibited across the UK in London, Southport, Brighton, Liverpool and Llandudno.
Melanie Watkins B.1981Melanie Watkins work consists of collections of colour photographic images and found objects. She explores personal memory and narrative. More recently she has been investigating the memory of spaces and constructing narratives with references to the histories of people and places.
Melanie graduated from the University of Sydney, Australia in 2002 with a first class honours in Photography. Her work has been featured in Fiona Tan’s work Vox Populi produced for the 15th Art Biennale of Sydney 2006. She has been living and working in London for the past year, this is Melanie’s first exhibition in London. Contact: mel_flutterby@hotmail.com
Ben Youngman B.1977Ben Youngman is a sculptor who is preoccupied with testing the limits of strength and form available in common materials such as plaster and newspaper, through construction methods including casting, to build shapes and objects which test the viewers knowledge of the relationship between the industrial and organic.
He sees his work as an investigation into the point of transition where an object becomes recognisable - how we question and process the inherent properties of materials in relation to the form in which they are used. And how these forms are then assimilated into our mechanical, political, and emotional understanding of the wider world.
After completing his BA at the Slade School of Fine Art, he spent four years exhibiting across the UK and working to commission. He is currently studying for a masters degree at the Slade.
