Here we go again

And their OFF! in a fleet of dodgy vans,  and sketchy trailers the Unfairground takes its summer pitch down on Worthy Farm. It’s ok we’re expected. A few of us are going. You’ve seen the film! We don’t read books! NOW see the Tee shirt. Thanks to Jakey for being a model .

Before

The Unfairground “Before”  Worthy Farm, Pilton.

 

A large pile

Well it’s been a great few days, the weather has been great, St Ottilien is an amzingly peaceful and beautiful spot and the people have been amazingly helpful, chill and entertaining. Arrived after a hectic couple of weeks in Stavanger for Nuart and a really break neck stop in London on route to Munich.to say this monastery is a change of pace is to understate it. Curated by Vis a Vis with the hleping hand of Loomit the mission for 12 artists was to paint large scale works around the Monastery outside of Munich. Yes thats what i thought, crazy. as it turns out not so crazy the works work well around the place and the artists have really taken the theme of heaven meets earth into their murals….I know what your thinking…what on earth was i going to paint….me too. So i squared it with them first that it would be ok to paint a massive pile of trash. So far so good. So half way through a massive pile of trash, its 12 feet high, (see pics below) i had just finished for the night when the producer of the festival a nice guy called Al;exander came up to me and said “where’s the rabbits?”
“That’s funny” i said “the guy who’s wall it was was asking where the rabbits were too”. (hes a butcher and the building is a slaughterhouse, makes good sausage apparently) The producer says “you said you were going to paint a pile of rabbits”I nearly shit myself laughing, No mate a pile of Rubbish!
To bring it on message with the projects title i added the boy writing “we were given paradise” as much to make a comment on them letting me paint as to make trash on their walls as the general decline of the world into detritus entropy.  (just a construction shot below to give you some scale)

Thanks to all those who made this possible especially Father Cyrill, Christian, and Alexander who has more rabbit than sainsburys.

Blek says come to my show, or else….

Always a pleasure to paint with Blek, painting down at the portobelloi film festival pop up cinema, just off Portobello road, under the Westway.

Nuart 2012

It must be that time of year again, great line up for this my 7th year producing Nuart, particularly excited to have Saber, Eine and Sickboy over…sounds like trouble already!

Naeba

So first couple of days on site at Fuji Rock Festival and the site is taking shape. up in the mountains, its hot as hell, but we ain’t complaining. The hospitality is amazing, incredible sushi at squishy’s (i presume its a nick name), and hot geo thermal baths after every  days work and i though i was at a festival, feels like a holiday camp! The sideshows are slowly taking shape and the collection of sideshows and attractions are going to work really well together. We even have a group of indian fakirs coming from india to eat light bulbs and generally amaze us with their feats of strength.

Tea time for the crew….none of that green stuff for our crew, someone brought a industrial box of yorkshire tea with them.

Last minute dash for the plane

So been beavering away, making stuff for Fuji Rock festival and getting the show together for Tokyo on the 2nd of August. The shippers have just taken the canvases, the spray paints ordered and last minute prizes for the high strikers are being made. I wouldn’t of guessed that i would have traveled to japan for the first time with a fire bell and a large rubber mallet in my bags but that’s the life of a traveling showman for you. The above shot is the last frame in of a time lapse that Calum and Saft films helped make to promote the Show, should be posted online soon (hi res version here). Well thats almost it, got the last mad run around picking up the odds and sods for both the High Strikers and the show and then its on the plane, the next post will be from Japan, but here’s a sneak peek at some of the new work for the show in japan.

Tools of the trade with the carrier of choice….lol

LPG

Family and friends are putting together a new festival venue down in the docklands that you will hear more and more about during the coming months. They start with a free party that is set to rock!  See you there!

On a slow boat to Japan

Finally all the pieces slotted into place this Thursday as the crew gathered down in Findon to load the mother of all shipping containers with the set for Fuji Rock Festival in late July. In a secret location deep in the woods the finishing touches were put of the Unfairgrounds sideshows which will accompany the Palace of Wonder outside the Festivals walls.
The weeks painting finished with the tightest load ever seen, it was touch and go whether it would all fit, but with some pushing and shoving the last bits slotted into place.

Knuckles

So the deadline looms for all the sideshows to be loaded into the shipping container for its two month trip by sea to Japan. Standing at 4.9m ‘Knuckle Sandwich’ is the sister High Striker for last years  7.5m ‘Old Boney’. The steel framework is still to be attached to the painted facade as is the bell and mechanism. Its going to be a long hard week with the kids striker still to be finished.  Fuji Rock her we come!