Carrie Reichardt

Just incase you missed the Art Car Boot Fair, you again have the chance to buy some wonderful art this week at the Affordable Art Fair...the private view is on Thursday June 10th with live music from The Lost Cavalry. Come down and share a glass of wine and check out some great new work.

So if you are free on June 6th come to Brick Lane and join me, Lady Muck and the very lovely Nick Reynolds at this years Art Car Boot Fair.
I will selling all things tiled...
For more details go to the Art Car Boot Fair

This is going to be something pretty special....not giving too much away..but keep July 21st free!

Having had a very stressful time trying to install Phoolan today outside the Natural History Museum, it was great to return home and discover that our baby is now featured in a one minuet film on the BBC Worldwide news...editors choice no less....

See for yourself at the bbc website

Second film showing the making of Phoolan - made by the wonderful video activists Reel News. Thanks to all the artists,activists and helpers who work so hard making Phoolan.
Big shout out to Eoghan Eebrill and our very own Kevin O'Donohoe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsEYxAgvPR4

see press blur below..
Elephant Parade 2010 is billed as the capitals biggest public art event and Reichardt and Reynolds will be teaming up with artists and conservationists to flood London with 275 life-size baby elephants during May, June and July.
Focusing on the plight of endangered Asian elephants, who might cease to exist in the wild by 2050, elephants will be installed at key sites from Buckingham Palace through to the Olympic Stadium grounds. The parade is expected to involve millions of Londoners and elephants will be auctioned at Sothebys to raise over £1 million for key elephant conservation projects across Asia.
All the elephants in the parade started life as blank sculptures and specially chosen artists then set to work decorating them. Phoolan will be the only one in the parade to have a hide and ceremonial coverings made entirely of mosaic tiles from Topps Tiles. Yet her looks are skin deep. The tiled side of Phoolan shows her beauty and the glamorous trappings that adorn elephants at public festivals but her dark side reveals a handcrafted skeleton with bones broken by landmines and human cruelty which, together, tell of the exploitation and neglect which many Asian elephants suffer every day of their lives.
Phoolan will be installed outside Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road on May 3rd.

Tomorrow is the Private View of the show I helped to curate at Ink-d gallery in Brighton.
It's on for a month and really will be a show worth visiting. Bringing you the very best in subversive craft.
Here’s a link to Ink_d Gallery

Wow , finally made it into the mainstream...Ok it is under a 'lifestyle' feature, but I am still very pleased with the article.

Read the full article at the Guardian

Eoghan has had a busy couple of days down in the studio. As you can see from the pictures he has cracked the best way to lay the tiles, going for a circular motif.
Here's Eoghan's more technical explanation for all you mosaic buffs out there;

"Now we’ve got Phoolan’s surface primed and sanded to give it a good ‘key’ for adhesion we had to decide which way we were going to lay the tile pieces or ‘tesserae’ on to the body. The styles of positioning the mosaics are standardised and dictate texture and movement in the piece, and this is referred to as ‘Andamento’. None of the recognised ‘Opera’ or styles would have worked satisfactorily on Phoolan as the surface wasn’t flat or even, and each area was either concave, convex or in some places both, so we settled on a celtique spiral motif which would hug and follow all contours and eliminate any straight or regular lines whilst appearing organic and natural. Once we had done the toenails in an iridescent white we had a reference point to begin with, and started out with manageable sized circles of black iridescent tesserae decreasing into a spiral from which other spirals could sprout. The adhesive we used was Ardex X77, a 'flexible', or polymer enhanced cement based product, which we know from experience is the only adhesive to use in an important piece of work such as this."
"
I think you will agree it’s a pretty groovy start.
Expect pictures to come thick and fast now as we move into 'Operation Phoolan’.

Finally we are sticking some tiles on...the wonderful Eoghan has been very busy with one of Phoolan’s legs. It’s been remarkably slow progress whilst he gets to grip with the tiles we are using, and works out the best lay of laying the tiles onto the curves of the elephant. Obviously, Topps Tiles have provided all the tiles for this project and as prove that the Goddesses are looking favourably down on us, the have just brought in a whole new range of dazzling glass mosaics tiles.
Mean while Nick has been busy making a raised area for the ribs to sit into.
Anyway, its all systems go and I have to say we are delighted with the results so far.