How Would You Like To Hire A Travelling Scifi Exhibition?

Well here’s a site, Invasion, which contains everything you need, regardless of available space, to host a successful and engaging temporary exhibition.

It can be set up in one day and the ‘loan package’ as they call it, includes spectacular exhibits, display cases, plinths, large format photography and detailed show cards.

There’s also a promotional package which includes customisable poster art, press release flyers / press ads., high quality promotional material and ‘tested bolt-on event ideas’.

You also get an Invasion magazine, Invasion photography and Invasion merchandise.

You can see some of the exhibits here and more here.

Invasion’s range includes Stormtroopers, Jawas and Darth Vader from Star Wars; Robocop; The Terminator’s Chassis and Predator prosthetics.

From reading the press’ thoughts (pdf), the children have loved it (and I bet a fair few adults too), their smiling faces a testment to how they enjoy coming face to face with real-life movie-star-props. It would make a neat surprise birthday or christmas present or a kinky honeymoon addition for any budding scifi enthusiast.

Interzone Cover Artwork All In One Place

On and impluse, I did a search for old Interzone covers on google images, and came back with this site which holds most (if not all) the covers of Interzone from Issue 1 to Issue 199, which strangely enough is exactly where I started subscribing to it.

I particularly liked the way the cover changed slightly from Issue 1 to Issue 2, the total eclipse of the sun moving off centre and the colour changing. Very effective, if simplistic.

You can see how the artwork progressed, and the way in which ’sf’ is being portrayed through art is changing.

It’s also amusing to see how the Interzone logos change over the years, of which I prefer the newest. Although that’s not to say the older ones weren’t ‘cool’ in their day - they just look kind of dated now, which isn’t really true of the artwork itself, it’s stood the test of time.

My favourite is Issue 16 as it reflects the kind of stories I rate high on my list - a world which is similar to our own on the surface, but strange when examined closely.

Looking at the covers, quite a few names jump out. Most notably, J.G Ballard, Christopher Priest, Jonathan Carroll (which I never realised had written for Interzone), Ian Watson, Kim Newman, Greg Bear, Bruce Sterling,, Greg Egan, Eric Brown and William Gibson, to name but a few. Which goes to make an impressive lineup.

A great archive, which covers the covers of the world’s best, British and longest running, sf magazine, although, sadly, the names of the artists are missing.

Cybernetic Humanoid Cyborg Artwork: Luminaries: Et Cetra Gallery, Hackney, London

Click here for Jane’s 2008 Illumination Illuminati Cyborg Show

Jane Webb is an artist that is influenced by science fiction and fantasy. She has a series of cybernectic humanoids (cyborgs) and some alien casted glass work in an art exhibition from 26th July - 2nd August, entitled Luminaries.

Luminaries Venue:
Et Cetra Gallery
1a Darnley Road
Hackney
London E9 6QH

Price:
Free!

Nearest Rail Station:
Hackney Central

Timings:
Monday - Friday 12am - 7pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm.

Jane has been shortlisted a couple of times this year, of which, a list is below. She currently has some work entirled Cyborg DJ on display at the V&A Museum.

Even though Jane prefers to sculpture, she has taken time out to write about her work, explaining her love for creation, science fiction and the ‘not watching properly’ of fantasy and scifi movies.

She is influenced by a lot of science fiction and futuristic imagery from movies and other artists. The strangest thing is she doesn’t watch the movie and keep with the story line, she only watches for visual simulation. She gets too easily distracted by the props, costumes and effects, having a strong interest in mechanical and robotic imagery
going back to early days of the Metropolis movie.

More recently Jane has been working on cyborgs, which have been a strong influence on her work with a combination of lighting effects. United Artists collabarated with Massive Attack to produce an art installation called Volume, If you love the green coded lights on the Matrix, you’ll love this she says. Jane is also inspired by the works of the great H. R . Giger, as seen in the Alien films.

She works in many medias but prodemantly using glass, lighting, circuit boards and recycled computer components, most of which is found on the street. She strips down the components inside anything electrical, looking for interesting parts. Little know fact: the inside of a hair dryer makes a good cyborg eye. Then depending what she is working on, these get constructed with other media and extra wiring and some type of what she calls a wow factor, like lighting with a UV or a set of LEDs spinning on a fan in sequences.

Her glass work can range from her mirror light boxes with imagery, to fused glass. She did a series of an Alien embossed tile in glass and ceramics. This was a long process of mould making and experimenting in a kiln until the desired finished result was achieved. The black tile has been acid etched to give it more depth. If you love H. R. Giger’s work you will definitely love this. She often makes them for collectors on a commission basis.

The Luminaries show coming up is a joint show with artist and photographer John Williams.

Jane Webb is a glass and illumination artist using numerous Medias. This year Jane has been short listed for Pride in the House and Inspire by awards and currently has Cyborg DJ on display in the V&A Museum. Her more recent futuristic works of cybernetic humanoids sculptures and installations combine lighting, recycled computer and electronic components which are found littering our London streets.

These items are salvaged and transformed into cyborgs.

John Williams’ Info:
John Williams creates black and white photographic works in “free-form”. He does this by folding weaving, plaiting and even crushing light-sensitive papers into life size free standing and relief sculptures. Working in three dimensions allows him to exploit the normally forbidden spaces above and below the conventional darkroom focal plane.

Re-objectifying the subject into a physical structure that can be walked around and seen through, change expression as well as casting actual shadows.
Read the full story

Aliens in Manchester and East Anglia. Roy Gray Investigates.

Alien Nation Exhibition
Saturday 17 March 2007 - Monday 7 May 2007
Closed Mondays except Bank Holidays
Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3JL
Then later at the Sainsbury Art Gallery, Norwich, October 2nd to December 9th 2007.

The official website states that the Alien Nation Exhibition:
“…explores the relationship between science fiction, race and contemporary art. Twelve contemporary international artists use science fiction and extra-terrestrial forms to explore racial difference as a metaphor for the threat of the outsider.”
“… presents the work of twelve contemporary international artists all of whom explore themes of ‘otherness’ and ‘difference’ through the language and iconography of sci-fi.”
… and “will also show a collection of original sci-fi film posters from the 1950’s to present day, … as well as extracts from contemporary and archive science fiction films…”
“… is an inIVA and ICA touring exhibition supported by the Arts Council England and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.”

Manchester Art Gallery’s classical front end connects to a contemporary rear filled with more modern exhibits. ‘Alien Nation’ caps this latter building away from the Holman Hunt, Lowry, Rossetti, Canaletto etc paintings in the classical galleries.

The exhibition is dedicated to Nigel Kneale and his Quatermass and the Pit was running silently on a TV in the media gallery of the exhibition. Black and white 50’s SF movies (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, The Thing) were running on other screens in that space but the soundtrack overhead was Orson Wells’ 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Colourful pulpish posters from Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still and similar 50’s movies filled one wall but where was the credit for the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s pulp magazine covers that predated, and surely influenced, the movie posters?

A second gallery contained a separate darkened room that echoed with the clacking of the five projectors of a, can I say, ‘avante garde’ 16 mm ‘film installation’, plus a video installation, objects, images, and murals.

Mario Ybarra Jnr’s giant mural Brown and Proud impressed me with its busy scenes benevolently presided over by Zapata on one side and Chewbacca in opposition. The exhibition programme suggests they are seen as partners, both rebels facing powerful empires, “whether galactic or earthly”. However for me the cigar smoking ‘Chewy’ prompted thoughts of Castro. I was puzzled by the letters ‘SMS’ in the lower right corner of this mural. Maybe it was a reference to texting but I immediately thought of the Interzone cover and SF artist SMS. The mural’s main female image toted a life and (male) pride threatening AK 47. As a Jim Burns Interzone cover she would bring a host of threats to cancel subscriptions.

Kori Newkirk’s Merck, a curtain maybe 3 metres high and at least a metre wide, made from coloured ponybeads threaded on braided hair was a very effective SF image of an American small town split by a strange vertical yellow beam.

My favourite was Hew Locke’s installation Golden Horde, a bejewelled and beweaponed space fleet, its large spacecraft reminiscent of both Star Wars and the ornate howdahs of a Raja’s wedding.

As an art critic I have serious failings so here are links to reviews by those with a better pedigree:
http://marcusdruen.blogspot.com/search/label/Hackney Sorry, no useful images.

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/london/news/ART42204.html : Good images of the exhibition but not the space fleet.

In summary the gallery is well worth a visit and, while there or in central Manchester, you might as well look in on the Alien Nation exhibition but if you know the gallery and/or live a distance from Manchester then you won’t miss a lot if you can’t get there before May 7th.

See more information on the Alien Nation Exhibition.

The Adventures Of Prince Ziph

Ever imagined how Mars was millions of years ago when it had oceans flowing on its surface? And what about Martians? They were not green, they were … ehmm…different… And had such busy lives that life on Earth was later mostly their fault.

But that’s another story.

What about the meaning of life? Does God have a beard? Does it matter? And what does all this have to do with Area 51?

Who built the Face on Mars? Is Heaven a private club? Is life after death real? How boring is it?

Who runs the universe anyway and does this entity have weekends?

This and plenty of other stupid questions will be answered in this fantasy/scifi saga spread over a few volumes so the author can get some extra bucks, after two years making up all this stuff with watercolors, inks, acrylics and buckets of sweat.

Ziph Comics is certainly a bright, colourful and dazzling place. The comic (and site) is available in Portugese and English, with a French version coming soon. You can see the digital version of Prince Ziph, Part One online, and the printed version is available too, along with concept art and the backstory.

So, it’s a good a reason as any to spend surfing during your lunchbreak.

I’ll do a full review once I’ve bought a pair of shades…