unpopular

In the event of just looking

My friend James Brooks has a new solo exhibition on at the moment, so if you happen to be in or near Galway in Ireland I recommend you drop in for a look. Although James is now well established as a visual artist of high regard, I first knew him through his involvement as singer and guitarist of Exeter's finest Appliance. There always seemed to be a strong connection between the sonic aesthetic of the group and James' work. A certain precision and sparcity, a skill at balancing degrees of emptiness. Anyway, details below, plus an old Appliance track taken from last year's extensive 'Re-Conditioned ' collection.

J a m e s   B r o o k s
Staged & Screened

4 Feb - 26 Feb 2011

126 Gallery
Galway, Ireland

Appliance - 'In The Event Of Just Looking'

Here’s a quick heads up for all you arty types: my friend and ex-student Julia has new work being broadcast on London’s art radio station, Resonance FM. Julia is a part of the antepress group; an imprint and project platform set up by a group of art writing practitioners who began collaborating as a result of the MFA Art Writing at Goldsmiths. Not so much writing about art (although there’s that too) but writing as art.

Now I’ve always loved Julia’s work so I’m sure that whatever she broadcasts on Monday will be intriguing, esoteric, charmingly quirky and gently beautiful. Details of the work with broadcast times below. If you’re not in London you can tune in via the Interweb.

Civil Twilight: acoustically spied on -

Monday 13th July 4.30pm repeated Friday 17th July 7.30pm

On A Claire Day

On A Claire Day, originally uploaded by unpop.

Made whilst listening to Broker / Dealer. 40cm x 50cm, Pentel brush pen and Rotring drawing ink on Canford card.

Etsy UnpopShop is Go!

I understand there is a bit of a hiccup with anyone outside of the UK buying from the Folksy UnpopShop. I dare say that all such difficulties will be fixed very soon, as the Folksy folks strive to develop the site out of Beta stage. Still, it’s been a spur to get me acting, and I’ve now put an Etsy store up also. So, you know, if you wanted that original drawing to go with your Beachwood Sparks collection, now’s your chance…

Also, if there was a drawing you really liked that isn’t in the store yet, let me know and it can easily be added. You can see all the drawings on the 'Made Whilst Listening To' Flickr page.

leave the scene behind

leave the scene behind, originally uploaded by unpop.

Made whilst listening to The Wave Pictures. 40cm x 50cm, Pentel brush pen and Rotring drawing ink on Canford card.

UnpopShop

I finally got my act together and created a shop on folksy.com (the UK Etsy) for my drawings, badges and what nots. There's only one of the small 'made whilst listening to' drawings listed at the moment, but there will be more to follow, for sure. I might even put some of the larger ones up there too, though I have no idea what to charge on those at the moment. Not sure if the folksy store allows for shipping outside of the UK, but whatever, I'm sure something can be arranged. Now, if I can get one of those nifty gocco printing sets, maybe I can start making some prints from the drawings... Ah, the joys of summer holidays.

Lies Of The Suburbs

Lies Of The Suburbs, originally uploaded by unpop.

Made whilst listening to The Playwrights. 40cm x 50cm, Pentel brush pen and Rotring drawing ink on Canford card.

How Spook Got Her Man

How Spook Got Her Man, originally uploaded by unpop.

Drawing again... I've started doing these a bit bigger now - this one is 40cm x 50cm, Pentel brush pen and Rotring drawing ink on Canford card.

The Diskant tenth birthday party looks like it will be a lot of fun. I'd recommend that anyone in striking distance of Glasgow should put the date in their diaries now. There will also be a chance to pick up some Unpopular goodies in the Indie tombola, including a bunch of 7" singles, the 'I Wish I Was Unpopular' collection of CDRs, badges and a special edition package of drawings.

Chris is posting drawings from his sketchbooks on a pretty much daily basis. I can’t decide if they are pen drawings in his Moleskine books that are then coloured digitally, or whether the Moleskine book is just a ‘frame’ for the work, which might be scanned from drawings (that are coloured digitally -I'm pretty sure I'm right about at least that part of the process). I’m not even sure it matters. What does matter is that they look really neat.