Something & Son's pop-up spa Barking Bathhouse

Bet you didn't expect to find an experimental bespoke designed temporary spa and bar in Barking. And it's a bargain.

The sauna

According to the website: 
'Barking Bathhouse is a new experimental social space where we want to encourage people to drop in and enjoy our spa space for just £8 and only £2 for local Barking residents. This gives you access to our traditional wood sauna, ice room, and relaxation rooms.'

The bar

Barking Bathhouse has been produced by Something & Son, a young London-based design practice. The Bathhouse also has a programme of events featuring music, comedy, yoga, artists tours and cabaret.

The project is supported by CREATE, which 'supports, produces and presents creative projects that foster social engagement and new artistic experiences in east London. CREATE delivers an annual summer programme of activity whilst working year-round to ensure that arts and culture are embedded into the long-term legacy and regeneration plans for east London. We bring art out of traditional spaces and into east London's parks, playgrounds, rooftops and tucked-away places. CREATE invites people to explore the city every summer and to jump feet-first into the extraordinary projects and performances they encounter. We commission and produce work by emerging local artists and established international figures, and bring our young residents behind the scenes with a programme of workshops, skills development and job placements.'

Barking Bathhouse is open Thurs - Sun until 16th September. It is funded by the Mayor's Outer London Fund and is being delivered for Barking and Dagenham Council. You can find Barking Bathhouse at: Axe Street, Barking, Essex IG11 7LX 

To find out more visit: www.barkingbathhouse.com 

United Creatives' typographic mural installed in Walsall

Following hot on the heels of several other typographic artworks I've featured recently on this blog, United Creatives, who are based in Manchester, have created a retro-styled temporary typographic mural for Walsall town centre in a space that was previously a 'dull stretch of concrete' on a shopping centre. The artwork, which is 22 metres long, could be succeeded by a permanent ceramic mural.

The artwork includes a series of local facts, and is also functional, providing directions and walking times to local attractions nearby. It was handpainted and made using laser-cut pencils and micro-porous paint.

Source article: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2012/august/walsall-by-numbers

Meadow project in flower at Everton Park, Liverpool

Rebecca Chesney's beautiful artwork, I'm Blue, You're Yellow, is now in flower on site at Everton Park in Liverpool. It is the outcome of the artist's work with the National Wildflower Centre, which aims to highlight the importance of bees by providing a habitat for them. The planting of the meadows in May was timed for the meadows to be in flower for the opening of Liverpool Biennial 2012 on 14th September when Fritz Haeg's Base Camp will be installed in the park. 

Rebecca's work consists of two acres of meadow, one acre comprised entirely of blue flowers, and one acre entirely of yellow flowers. Both acres are square in shape. The artwork was commissioned by Landlife and will remain for a minimum of three years. The plant species have been chosen to support and attract local populations of bees. This project came as a direct result of Rebecca's research on bees and habitat at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2010.

Specimen sheets of a few of the plant species collected from the meadows will be on show in a cabinet in the Museum of Liverpool (next door to the Walker Art Gallery) for Liverpool Biennial from 14th September.

To find out more about Everton People's Park, of which this project has been a part, visit: http://liverpoolbiennial.co.uk/programmes/festivals/whatson/42/4/2012/388/everton-peoples-park-expeditions-and-experiments/

Shezad Dawood film made in Preston premieres there on 4th September

Piercing Brightness production still showing the roof of Preston Bus Station. 

Courtesy of UBIK Productions Ltd

Piercing Brightness is a feature-length science fiction film by artist Shezad Dawood shot on location in, and inspired by, Preston in Lancashire. It will be screened for the first time in the UK at the Odeon in Preston on 4th September at a special red carpet event.

The film features over a hundred local people as extras and shows iconic Preston landmarks such as the Brutalist bus station, Avenham Park and Victorian covered market. Lancashire is an appropriate location as it is apparently the UK hotspot for UFO sightings.

The artist describes the film as a creative hybrid of My Beautiful Laundrette and Roswell. 

Is this a public artwork? Guess it's up for discussion but I like it a lot and hope to see it soon.

To find out more about the project, visit: 
http://incertainplaces.org/artworks/new-film-by-shezad-dawood-being-filmed-in-preston

Seeds of Change: Floating Ballast Seed Garden project in Bristol

The Floating Ballast Seed Garden by Maria Thereza Alves. 

Image copyright Jon Rowley/SWNS.com

I've been meaning to write about this project for a while but only just got round to it. I thought August was supposed to be quiet?? 

The Floating Ballast Seed Garden is a project by Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves and was designed by London-based German designer Gitta Gschwendtner. 

Between 1680 and the early 1900s ships' ballast (earth, stones and gravel from trade boats from all over the world used to weigh down the vessel as it docked) was offloaded into the river at Bristol. This ballast contained the seeds of plants from wherever the ship had sailed. Maria Thereza Alves discovered that these ballast seeds can lie dormant for hundreds of years, but that by excavating the river bed, it is possible to germinate and grow these seeds into flourishing plants.

The seed garden is populated with a variety of non-native plants, creating a living history of the city’s trade and maritime past.

The project is located on a disused grain barge in Bristol's Floating Harbour (north side) between Bristol Bridge and the Castle Park Water Taxi stops.

It was commissioned by Bristol City Council and the design was developed in close collaboration with the artist, Nick Wray of University of Bristol Botanic Garden, Lucy Empson, landscape architect at Bristol City Council and Arnolfini.

To find out more about the project and associated events happening throughout September and October, visit: http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/ballastseedgarden/

You can download the information leaflet from: http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/downloads/misc/5034f8e8cc9e7/BSG_email.pdf

Intriguingly, the Daily Mail picked up the story, and didn't run it as 'Artists waste money on project in Bristol'. See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184912/World-garden-grown-onboard-barge-seeds-discarded-Bristol-docks-300-YEARS-ago.html

New season artworks on the High Line, NY

American Dream by Thomas Bayrle

Two new public artworks by Virginia Overton and Jennifer West are being installed on the High Line in New York as part of their new season which begins on 13th September 2012.

There will also be film and video works by Cinthia Marcelle and Oscar Munoz, an installation by El Anatsui on a building wall, and American Dream, a billboard installation by German artist Thomas Bayrle (image shown above).

Find out more about the artworks here: http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art/upcoming-projects?enews082912 

You can download a free copy of the High Line's seasonal art map here: http://www.thehighline.org/pdf/ArtMap_Summer2012.pdf

6-storey high artwork installed around Columbus sculpture in New York

Artist Tatzu Nishi (b.1960), who previously built a temporary hotel room around the Queen Victoria monument in Liverpool for the Biennial in 2002 (Villa Victoria), has most recently been working on Discovering Columbus, a major new public work in New York which will open in September and involves a 6-storey high living room being built above Columbus Circle, allowing New Yorkers to get closer to Columbus.

The artwork under construction in August 2012 

(image courtesy www.inhabitat.com) 

The artwork has been commissioned by the Public Art Fund and will run 20 September - 18 November 2012. Access to the artwork will be free although visitors will be required to reserve a pass through the Public Art Fund website in advance.

The Public Art Fund say:
'This work will temporarily transform the traditional monument into a contemporary artwork, reshaping visitors’ perceptions of both. And through large, loft-style windows, the work will grant visitors dramatic views of Central Park and Midtown Manhattan that can only be seen from Columbus’s perspective. In conjunction with this exhibition, Public Art Fund will also oversee the conservation of the Columbus Monument in cooperation with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Art & Antiquities.'

To read the source article on Inhabitat, visit: http://inhabitat.com/nyc/photos-construction-on-6-story-high-living-room-in-columbus-circle-is-almost-up-to-columbus-head/

To read more about the project, visit: http://www.publicartfund.org/DiscoveringColumbus