100 Days of Active Resistance

Today Vivienne Westwood & Lee Jeans have officially launched their online installation entitled '100 Days of Active Resistance'. From the 8th of Septmember for 100 days you are invited to submit an idea, an image, an installation or a slogan that embodies Westwood's ethos of Active Resistance. All your submissions will be showcased online. 

"The priniciple idea of Active Resistance is that you get out of life what you put in and that real experience of the world involves thinking" Vivienne Westwood

We strongly encourage all Fox & Squirrels to submit work click here

Art For Eating- The capital's best gastronomical event

Ok so the Brits don't have the best gastronomical reputation but Art For Eating duo Charlotte Jarvis and James Read are here to fix it.
Their culinary extravaganzas have become a date to reserve in the capital's busy social agenda for locals and for visitors. Their upcoming Art For Eating sees the two explore the relationship between food and science. If your last brush with the lab was domestic science, don't worry - their experiments are mostly harmless. But in the interest of not spoiling the sample group (that's you guys) Art For Eating can't reveal the full menu as yet. They do, however, promise you five delicious courses including an incredible deconstructed bloody mary 'caviar', fillet of cod with coconut foam and test tube sauces, a series of amuse bouche/canapes detailing the glorious story of evolution, and rosewater and orange flower ice creams to be made at your table without refrigeration.
Molecular gastronomy has never come so cheap, with five courses for just £30. Suck on that Heston. But wait, there's more: To counterbalance facts with some fiction, Art For Eating are joining forces with Sheer Drop Theatre Company, who have a series of specially commissioned stories to bring to the table. Your table. While you eat. The tales will be from Home (England), Up The Way (Scotland), Next Door (Wales) and Over The Road (Ireland). Inspired by legend, myth and fairytale, with a scientific twist, Sheer Drop presents an evening of intimate theatrical storytelling to melt your bones and rattle your heart.
Art For Eating runs for three nights on 11th, 12th and 13th of June just by Blackhorse Road underground (Victoria Line) at 7.30pm. Maximum booking is six heads per party. Don't worry if you are vegetarian, vegan or allergic to anything Art For Eating happily caters for most dietary requirements, just let them know in advance! Previous events usually sell out quickly, so reserve now!

Please book your table by emailing penelope@foxandsquirrel.com 

Sovio Wine Label Competition

The saying goes "never judge a book by its cover"? Well its utter nonsense. A successful book cover captures the creativity of the author and the intensity of his writing. The same goes for wine bottle labels. A successful label will capture the wine's age, fruity or dry flavour, and spices accurately.
Sovio Wines in collaboration with FADwebsite are looking for the next label design that best represents the tastes of Sovio Wines.
The competition is now open to all designers and creatives from all levels of their careers. They are looking for something truly original that will capture the fresh and exciting brand persona. The lucky winner will not only proudly see their design lining shelves of the UK's largest supermarket chain, but also win a round trip for two to San Fransisco and five nights hotel accommodation.
As well as selecting one overall winner the top ten entries will be exhibited at a live London art show in August 2010.
All designs will be judged by a panel of industry experts in art, design and branding.  
The deadline for the competition is 30th of July 5pm. To apply please click here.
The panel of judges includes: Chris Pensa, owner of Love Art London; Sarah Ryan, owner of New Blood Art; Mark Westall, Creative Director of FADWebsite; and Ethan Allen, Creative Director of Raspberry Media 
Fox& Squirrel would like to thank our favourite cultural enthusiast Pippa Irvine for informing us about the competition.

Francesca Gavin, Visual Arts Editor at Dazed& Confused, speaks to Fox&Squirrel

Converse and Dazed&Confused recognise the difficulties that face all young emerging artists from financial, to becoming recognised and to be represented by a gallery. The two have teamed up and are calling out all young to enter the Converse/Dazed Emerging Artists Award (you can read more about the competition here).A panel of highly acclaimed judges that includes Sadie , Mark, Tom Morton, Isobel, Tim Marlow and Francesca Gavin will select three submissions. These three artists will exhibit their work at the Stephen Friedman Gallery besides winning a generous cash prize. We caught up with Francesca Gavin to find out more about the competition and her individual projects.

First of all please tell us a bit about yourself and your involvement in Converse/ Dazed Emerging Artists Award.

Among other things, I'm the Visual Arts Editor at Dazed & Confused. I work as a freelance art writer, curator and have written 3 books on art and design (the fourth, a survey of emerging artists, is out Jan 2011!). I put together the panel for the prize and am one of the judges. Its something I'm really passionate about - getting recognition when you haven't got a gallery is hard.

Your are interested in street art, which is recognised more and more as a form of art. What first fascinated you in street art?

Well it was a long time ago! My sister used to wander around London taking photographs of crumbling walls and disintegrating spaces - i used to come with, hold her camera bag and we'd began to see the first wave of street art emerge out of graffiti. At that time it felt really fresh - areas that are now gentrified were once covered in paste ups, images, stickers, graff. It made the spaces feel alive.[Francesca Gavin is author of Street Renegades: New Underground Art. Please click here for a review]

Favourite Street Artists? Favourite example of Street Art? and why?

I like work that veers closer to 'fine art' - more sculptural strange objects in the street rather than 2D images. Like Truth in Poland, Brad Downey. I'll always have a soft spot for Space Invader I think.

Although Converse/ Dazed Emerging Artist Award is open to all medium it does not include street art. Why so and is this fair on street artists?

The prize focuses on bringing attention to people that are not represented currently by galleries. But what art you make however is very open, so that's not true. Saying that we did have in mind to fill the gap in the art world left by Becks Futures etc. There's no award out there for younger fine artists and it can be very hard to get a gallery.

The call for artists claims that the competition's criteria is innovative work. As one of the judges how do you define innovative work?

Well not an obvious homage to another artist! I spend a lot of time looking at artwork - everyday in fact. As do all the other judges So its an instinctive process. You know if you've seen it all before. We're looking for innovation in approach, material, concept, style...

The involvement of mega brands in the arts has drastically risen in the past decade. At times this has received negative criticism what are your thoughts on this?

I agree in many cases it can feel contrived and abuses the artist's work. However I think Converse's involvement in this prize has been amazing as they are in no way impacting on the content of the work. It isn't about making art for a shoe or with a brand-friendly brief. They believe in supporting and nurturing new talent for its own sake and I think that has to applauded.

Each week a favourite submission is published on Dazed Digital. Have you had a look at some and have you already decided which ones are your favourite?

I'm really excited by all of then! The quality of work being submitted is brilliant. It would be rude to choose.

Image 1: Converse/Dazed& Confused Emerging Artists Award, Courtesy of Dazed Group

Image 2: Brad, Traffic for Berlin 2008, Museum, Germany,Urban detritus, gravity,Photo by Just,Courtesy of the Rik Reinking Collection. Image taken for Fox&Squirrel from Brad official website.

Converse and Dazed& Confused launch emerging artist award

Most artists dream about being represented by some renown gallery in London's West End or in an up and coming one in the trendy East. Upon graduating from art college we soon realise that for this to actually materialize is not always easy. Competition is tough, the selection process even tougher and the current recession has maxed out these pre-existing limitations.

It really is not the end of the world though as opportunities do come along and Fox&Squirrel have recently spotted a really great one. Converse and Dazed & Confused have recently announced the launch of Converse/ Dazed 2010 Emerging Artists Award, a major new art competition to kick off a global creative movement in 2010. The competition will offer an exciting platform to emerging artists, as well as a first prize of 6 000 pounds and an exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, one of London's leading contemporary art galleries, in July and August 2010. The award will be paneled by highly esteemed artists, presenters, and fashion insiders including Tim Marlow, Sadie Coles, Isobel Harbison, Francesca Gavin, Mark Titchner, and Tom Morton.

The competition is open to all UK- based artists under the age of 35 that are not represented by a gallery in the UK and are not at university or art college. Artists are invited to submit their most innovative and interesting work for the judges' consideration.

What is even greater about this competition is that there are no limitations on discipline. Video, sculpture, performance and sound entries are all welcome. There will be five shortlisted artists and one overall winner. The winner will receive a cash prize of 6 000 pounds. The good news does not end there. The shortlisted artists will also receive a cash prize of 1 000 pounds whilst both winner and shortlisted artists will have both their entry and their portfolio of work exhibited at the renown Stephen Friedman gallery in London during July and August 2010.

For more information please click here.

Deadline for applications is the 1st of May.

To view some of Converse's favourite artists please click here.

Sunci's Diary Post No1

For all you Fox&Squirrel readers I hope you have taken notice of my residency exchange programme in Croatia. If not please have a look here and apply apply apply!

Ever since I first posted the residency I decided to keep a diary to update readers and let them into my world, my mind and my lovely studio. So here is the first diary entry. I hope you find it inspiring and that you look forward to reading more of it.

As the keen travellers that we all are the first steps we take to move back to our native country and resettle are always difficult; We find it hard to depart from the enchanting lands we saw and explored. I lived and worked in London where I bounced off the city's vibrant art scene; upon graduation I moved to Rome for a few years, a period in my life that had a massive impact on my work. Moving back to Croatia was a decision I took whole heartedly, and despite being apart from like minded colleagues: artists, curators, writters and architects that are all willing to help realise one another's work TODAY I intend not to pine over my days abroad. It is my mission to utilise all the life lessons, influences and inspiration I had and inject them into my home country's surroundings in such a way that will keep me sane, benefit Croatia, and artists who are wishing to explore this region and be enchanted by the new.

Since moving back to Croatia I have noticed that the art scene somewhat lacks the knowledge and liberty in its way of thought, art works produced, and concepts, it even lacks the playfulness of the materials used that I became so accustomed to abroad. There are reasons for this.

MIRFESTIVAL Athens 2010

Ida Hajdari of Fox&Squirrel received an email a few days ago about this upcoming festival in Athens. She has decided to share it with all of you out there. The festival is a great opportunity you for those interested in performance, sound and light installations, live media and image. Unfortunately the deadline for applications is approaching soon but come on be inspired and submit your proposals!

Please let Ida know your progress.

Here goes:

"The mission crew will be artists who wish to explore new horizons proposing unique and adventurous projects on performance/ live media/ image.

MIRfestival welcomes experimental and adventurous creation at the meeting point of arts: performing arts / live media / image. It enables meeting between artists of different provenance and between artists and the audience. It is a place where artists share their vision of the world and of the reality with audiences ready to make a shift, to question their views, to be propelled to new horizons and to see new realities emerge.

MIRfestival presents innovative, experimental artistic projects.

You are welcome to submit:

* performance and small scale dance or theatre performances, researching on the co-existence of the performer’s presence, image and media

* live media projects, electronica and image projects

* urban projects and interventions in the city

* installations, video-installations, or other visual arts projects, including interactive ones

* experimental film and video in which the emphasis is not on verbal narration, but on image, movement and the language of the camera.

MIRfestival is not thematic. However, for its 2010 edition, apart from the other projects to be presented in the frame of the festival, it is searching for projects and actions intervening to Athens squares, under the title HERE/ NOW.

Your proposals on this subject can be actions of different types (performance, actions, happenings, lighting or sound interventions, or other). We are looking forward to receiving your proposals!"

After the selection procedure, some of your projects will be part of the programme of MIRfestival 2010.

Deadline for submissions: Friday, March 26, 2010

For more information regarding MIRFESTIVAL 2010 check out their website here

We leave you with some images from the previous festival. For more images please click through here

Image 1: copyright: arsondpi.gr

Image 2: copyright: arsondpi.gr

All images used were kindly provided by MIRFESTIVAL website

Call for Artist Residency in Kastel Croatia

Fox&Squirrel are delighted to announce the call for an artist to take residency in Kastel, Croatia. Our dearest Croatian friend who also happens to be one of our favourite artists Suncica has informed us of it.

• ·      Artist to reside in the former gatehouse of the Lipeo Castel. This is a beautiful three floor cottage with a 7x5 studio to work in. Balcony overlooks the picturesque bay (see photos below)
• ·      Artists can apply for a 2 week residency up to 2 months;
• ·      The intention of the project is to inspire fresh ideas and regenarate Croatia’s art scene that for the past ten years has emphasized on the recent Balkan war, a theme that many young artists feel has saturated all arts made in this country in the last decade;
• ·      A longer residency is followed by a solo show in Kastel Kambelovac; A short residency is followed by an open studio night; Artists are invited to participate in a group show at a later date; Artist has the option of his stay and work being included in a documentary for the Croatian television;
• ·      Applicants should email a project proposal and intentions of what they will work on during their stay at Kaštel Residence, some images-clips, of their works, bibliography, to suncica@kastela.org.

Fox&Squirrel have attached some pictures of Kastel for you. To find out more about Kastel and its history please click here. We will be adding pictures of the residency shortly but in the meantime if this interestes you please email suncica at suncica@kastela.org. In your email please attach a portfolio, CV and a letter expressing your intentions for applying and outlying your proposal.

Call for Artist Residency in Kastel Croatia - Images

Residency in Kastel, Croatia 

These Images were provided to Fox&Squirrel by Suncica. All copyrights are reserved. Copying any of these images is strictly prohibited. If you wish to do please contact suncica at suncica@kastela.org or Fox&Squirrel at info@foxandsquirrel.com.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Call for Artist Residency in Kastel Croatia - Artist's Images

     Suncica                                                                               Suncica                                       

These Images were provided to Fox&Squirrel by Suncica. All copyrights are reserved. Copying any of these images is strictly prohibited. To do so please contact Suncica at suncica@kastela.org or Fox&Squirrel at info@foxandsquirrel.com