I believe my troubles and your troubles shook hands

Ok, best few weeks in studio - endless endless aesthetic party time - been getting super messy and in the zone and going into the studio with my headphones on and forgetting where I am for hours on end and forgetting to eat even, and getting all wired on coffee cos I can't bear to tear myself away from the paints, inks, glitter, paper and fabric for more then a second. So much fun!

I've been trying really hard to summarise my social and environmental agenda recently, without going into excessive detail - because i'd never sleep if i tried to embark on that path! I find twitter is good for this because of the word limit, and if I had a smart phone i'd use instagram for the same reason.
But anyway here is my twitter: https://twitter.com/PhillyHunt1 and some recent tweets that may provoke research or thought:

I'm soon releasing a new imaginary album called 'From my denim coffin': a white girl attempt to understand the #Blues & its cultural history
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Songs also explore cultural / environmental / human rights impacts of denim culture & rock'n'roll too, & associated #culturalappropriation

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new msg from Bruce: i know he's got sway by being The Boss but shows pop culture (& withdrawal of) spreads messages http://brucespringsteen.net/ 

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character in my #eco doom/#cultural awareness/#punkrock exhib: Molly from Linfen. go 2 @VICE for more info on Linfen

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my film about the risk of idealism & cultural blindness in relation to environment & society... #ArtsEducation #art



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I've also been getting really into my creative self without trying to simmer down my instincts for worry of political correctness or ability to communicate very important social and environmental issues in great detail. I realised that was making me feel constantly a bit crap and like I was underperforming and not making any headway because I was getting so bogged down in how to perfectly express and communicate my position on certain issues such as complexities between racism and climate poverty.
So now i'm looking at different ways, or perhaps additional ways, to unpack social and environmental truths which can run alongside my visual art practice. So i'm all for making my art super aesthetic, but full of references which can be explored in little or great detail, and which can still provoke ideas and thoughts on issues, but which can be taken lightly so as not to scare too many people off. Slowly slowly catchy monkey is my new motto - don't push my own opinions too hard to patronize people through my artwork, but get them enjoying it on surface level, and provide an option to explore further if they want to. My visual practice will be an entry point to other things - writing, podcasts, zine/s, clothing and maybe some music playlists, which will frame certain issues and explore them more fully for any viewer who wishes to do that.
I also like the idea of maybe one day someone buying a piece of my art cos they like it visually, and maybe not knowing as they hang it on their wall that it is full of references and pointers to a certain issues or moment in cultural history. Then maybe one day they will get one of those references and look into the subject!

photo i took from a few years ago - but i love it! lush colours and composition and blocking i think,

This whole plan for myself to enjoy the aesthetic and emotional side of my art more sort of came from all the music i've been listening to recently while I work which I will cover now, because it's so important to my vibe:
These are just a few videos to intro y'all to some of my favourite albums by the artists:

















I just love Matthew Ryan, I think he's the only musician i've been a tireless fan of, considering I first heard him in 2005 or 2006, and have always been amazed by him. Here he is guesting on Drunken Lullabies podcast in which he is just so eternally inspiring, this episode is a very recent one from March this year. He comes in mainly at around 46 mins. There's a lot of beer chat in this episode, so skip to Matthew's bit, and listen to the rest, there's some good chat as well about Paul Westerberg (from The Replacements) and more of my fave musicians.
Matthew Ryan has done tours where he's played at people's houses - I also think that is so cool and has powerful potential for curating and putting on socially engaged gig series with no compromises on sponsorship, mixed messages or transport of equipment.

p.s It is not lost on me that these are all white men from the land of punk and rock, but I can't help my taste - I'm not into politically excavating my taste, I just like what I like and that's that. It helps that they wear some brilliant denim.
Also I realise I say y'all too much.

And last weekend I saw Jared Hart, and Brian Fallon and the Crowes live in Camden and I just nearly passed out it was so brilliant. I seriously wonder why people even need or want to take drugs when they go out, when they could just go see some amazing live music, i've been on a high ever since.
Also I met a Canadian guy in the crowd and we became gig buddies for the night and it's just so cool that music, and especially live music, can make people drop their guard and be so friendly and open and instantly you can get into really intense and fanatical conversation because you're both into the same music. So cool! Pop music = social glue. I'm the new Emile Durkheim, but instead of being a theologian i'm a pop-culture-oligian!?
And one artist whose show I saw recently in Bath at the Museum of East Asian Art who really has an incredible atmospheric vibe and technical excellence in her work is Wu-Lan Chiann. She is a Taiwanese printmaker and ink painter who is just amazing, please look her up. Her use of shadow, light and time of day is so amazing.
Oh, and the 6th episode of Season 5 of 'Girls' which came on TV recently was just so filmic and brilliant and that had strong vibes for me.
I've been doing heaps of reading about Cult TV again and now realising i'm not going to fight my TV admiration - I barely watch much TV but when I do I love it. I think TV, when used properly, is super powerful for engagement and activism.

Anyway, I wanna show y'all everything i've been making in the studio but saving it for surprises at my show in June at The Peckham Pelican.
Also a super cool magazine that looks at art, culture and climate change asked to print one of my projects in their new issue and interviewed me about it, and about what I think culture and art can do for climate change. Watch this space...

And here is a little round up of other things that have been interesting me the last two weeks:

Theaster Gates: An artist form Chicago. His approach to art and not waiting around for people to pay you attention and listen, but to just create your own opportunities and platform for saying and doing what you want to. When I worked for Mexican artist Pedro Reyes on his project 'Sanatorium' at the Whitechapel Gallery, Theaster Gates was exhibiting next to us in the same room but I never got to meet him :(





Absolutely brilliant article which talks about the portrayal of indigenous poverty and living situations by the media, and mistrust of journalists. Links to an amazing journalism story the Washington Post that tries to address these issues.

A bittersweet story of the piano angel man of Edmonton.

And this is an article, which I fear may be directed at people like me, as i'm not of ethnic minority, living in poverty, or a member any other marginalised demographic. Unless you count being a girl or having red hair. Which I don't personally find to be affecting my enjoyment of life, apart from the odd ridiculous comment on the street. The only slight marginal demographic I have ever sat in that has had a big and lasting effect on my enjoyment of life is that i've suffered/suffer with a mental health issue, which I have experienced to a very disruptive but not necessarily very dangerous point.
But as i've said before, please don't eliminate me from spreading some good word just because I'm white/living in a house I pay for myself/employed/British/went to a good school/from a good home etc. I can at least provide an access point for people as fortunate as myself onto issues affecting less fortunate people and communities, because I have direct social contacts with people like me.
But yes - I know I don't know the half of how crap life is for so many people, and yes I know I can't speak for people and situations I have no experience of.

I am actually planning a little interactive piece for my show in June which will lightly touch on the idea that too many of us shy away from upsetting or demanding or tricky situations that might threaten to topple our own smooth (or not!) lives and minds. It will also frame me as someone who cares about stuff but maybe doesn't have the scope of experience to be capable of naturally feeling enough urgency to actively and tirelessly push for a realistic solution. Warning: It will be a bit self-deprecating and I realise that may come across as trying to warrant pity or encouragement from others in a crumby/trendy art show that I paid for with money from my easy jobs (I'm a cleaner, nanny and art technician). But so be it - haters gonna hate.
The piece will be sort of inspired by selfies ;)
So cliche huh. Love a good pop culture cliche for getting the crowds assembled!

Bits and pieces: sketches and catching up on indigenous cultural and environmental news.

I've been making so many sketches, ink paintings, mono-prints, and writing pieces of flash fiction which seem to be serving as character treatments/back stories for the characters in film (of which there are so far 7 and two are non-human: A wolf that can't swim, and the haunted ocean).

Here are a small selection of some of those bits and pieces - but i've taken photos of some of it through some plants to hide bits cos I'm so excited I don't want to give things away until June when I put my show up (although I'm vert aware that this project is a massive one and that I won't have things up to a satisfactory standard (aesthetically and in terms of communicating my message fully) by June so I think i'll need to focus on one or two characters, one or two film locations and one or two dialectics/strands of story to try and represent for then. I'll try to make it into a wholesome show, that people can enjoy and learn from independently from the overall film project.

Dom loves Scarlett

This is a screen print I made in my last year at uni. Cool huh? It's a still from a film I made which shows a man (Dom) drumming in response to a projected video on the wall which I made of (that white shadow you can just make out) of a woman bellydancing. Read about that project here. And watch the video too!

and I loves Grimes and the Singapore Botanic Gardens

This a sketch/idea for a monument in The Swaglands, for my film

Script and screenplay grabs from social media, books, songs - all pieced together to implicate us all into the narrative of post-Colonial climate activism and issues. I think it's important to use pop culture references and genres (such as punk, street, gothic, contemporary fiction and soap operas as these are all products of culture and referencing both implicates that scene and the producers of that culture, as well as engaging niche and youth audiences, and also heightening the relevance and urgency and 'everyday' of the problem of environmental poverty and Colonial legacy.

Outfit/costume studies for my film's new character (currently called Molly) who is a Chinese lady whose family died from respiratory diseases and cancer due to living in a literal toxic wasteland in an isolated Chinese industrial town. She then left home, started walking, and found herself in The Swaglands.

I've also been catching up with indigenous environmental and social politics and indigenous culture news (I got distracted by watching some Simon Reeve BBC documentaries - especially the Greece ones - and also submerging myself in a pool of Americana music) and as well as my trusty old sources i've found some really engaged/engaging new magazine and media channels. I'll put links to all of them here because (as I said in my last post - if you are an artist, or general practitioner in the culture realm then you should know how the institutions that support your career and future are funded, and what that funding means for the environment and indigenous lifestyles, as well as how that funding shapes the meaning of 'creative freedom').

• Briarpatch - A truly grassroots Canadian magazine on culture and politics.
• Mispon Festival website - You can finds heaps of podcasts and film recommendations on here. They are an organisation based in Saskatchewan, Canada and run workshops for indigenous culture engagement, a yearly film festival, and generally publicise and promote indigenous filmmaking.
• Broken Boxes podcasts looks at artists processes, and Art Beat Conversations (another think to look at!!) Episode 20 is about "This Is A Stereotype" which is an artist film about indigenous identity. 
• RezX is a magazine and TV programme is basically (another Canada based) lifestyle critique and news platform. There's a good podcast on the Mispon website which interviews ResX's founder Chris Ross about how it started - he's a chiller and it sounded like a really fun creative party time! It's Episode #11. Listen!!
• This is a great article about indigenous misrepresentation on Canadaland's website.
• Access TV is a grassroots social media TV network based in Connecticut. So local news, cultural, social and political commentary, without corporate sponsorship. I think you cn weatch Episode 1 of ResX TV's show on here.
• This is an online paper, and I can never quite tell who curates it exactly, but my recommendations and blog have been featured on it a few times. It free and monthly, and collects news and culture about indigenous and environmental issues. It's called Indigenous News.
• And my fave new TV show (i've only seen two episodes) is Redfern Now, from 2012-2013, which is an indigenous Australian soap opera/family drama series which is based in the rough suburb of Redfern in Sydney . Here is episode 1. 

I've been considering how to write my screenplay/script and I know I don't want it to come from me entirely. I want to pull information, opinions and situations straight from the mouths of people who ARE implicated into situations that I am not in terms of social exclusion and environmental poverty. Because I can't assume to speak on behalf of anything or anyone that lives outside of my scope of experience and knowledge. The way to do this I think (this is how I am accessing those other opinions and stories...) through continuing to go to all the talks, seminars etc on environment/Colonialism/art and culture/indigenous rights that I go to and pulling from those. To also keep engaging on twitter, facebook etc with people and groups of people who CAN speak about the things I can't.

Something that Chris Ross says that helps to sum up my approach to writing my screenplay is that there are various types of knowledge; Street knowledge, Academic knowledge, Spiritual knowledge...

He thinks of spiritual knowledge as being the hidden section in the library that nobody goes to, but which contains all the teaching of history and creation. Ross explains that what he likes about social media is it can point those of us who don't know where to look or how to access that hidden section, in the right direction - social media tells you where to look: to the sources i've listed above. Very cool!

And I think that altough articles on those media platforms may be as close as many of us get to meeting with spiritual elder knowledge, but having the empathy is important.

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I also try to keep up with contemporary art in London of course because I like to, and sometimes I find something really important and beautiful.
I bought a ticket to see Ben Rivers in conversation last Wednesday but I had to go to bed cos I had a migraine (I keep missing amazing things due to migraines!!). I also went to the RA Masters Interim show which was ok - but very segregated from real life. But then it's the RA Masters so of course the was probably likely!
I listened to this conversation with Maureen Paley which is fun and interesting and quite helpful for young London artists learning how to position themselves. Shame I don't have instagram Maureen! If ever I find I can spare the money to buy myself a Fairphone (literally does what it say on the tin - a smartphone made of environmentally and socially responsible components) I will get instagram. But I will NOT buy some blood-drenched i-phone thank you very much.

And as I don't have instagram I will share with you the things that inspire me that I would share on instagram if I had it:

• the book Southern Cross The Dog by Bill Cheng, which I just finished. (blues, devils, Mississippi, witchcraft, loss and weather)
• The last 3 songs on the album Elsie by The Horrible Crowes (Black betty and the moon, Blood loss and I believe Jesus brought us together.
• The Grimes covershoot for Nylon Singapore.
• Ian Perkins' guitaring
• Evie Wyld books and interviews
• Redfern Now (as I said above)
• Anything Gothic!!!!
• Oranges
• James Lee Byars - his obituary on The Indpendent is a great intro.
• The show Stowaway about dangerous journeys of immigration.