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new art gallery wallsall's 10th birthday I

swimming without water I

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Editors: Ben Rackstraw, Charlie levine

Editorial Interns Contributors: Ben Rackstraw ,Nabil Azadi, Gemma Jamieson, Frankie Nazardo

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Fashion Assistants

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! DAZED Ii CONfUSED

INTO THE­

'HEART OF

Left: If Love Is A Balloon Then All You Need To Do Is Let

Go Of The String .. " 2009, Elizabeth Graham and Lewis

McGuffie, courtesy of LuckyPDF

DlIZED8CUNfUSEU 49

THE JUNDAY PAINTER

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By AppoinllT'1I411 To Her Mi:ljesty The QUOEH

Mi:loofi:lcturersof Knilted OarmenlS

Pringle of Scotland ltd

THR.EADS

By any standards,

and despite the prot­

estations of western

politicians, the clim

change summit in

Copenhagen failed

solemn commitments

to reduce emissions­

developing nations.

The Danish text, a

pre-organised accord

between the wealthi­

est participants, left

developing nations

seemingly voiceless

before proceedings

even began. The Bo­

livian delegation de­

scribed negotiations

as '~nti-democratic,

anti-transparent and

unacceptable.'

These allegations are,

at least in part, rati­

fied by the outcome.

At the close, the

deal was brokered

between the wealthy '

and powerful- In­

dia, South Africa , the U.S., Brazil and

China. The 2009

Copenhagen Accord

is non-binding and

not only fails to hold

the world tempera­

ture rise at 1.5C but

also omits the origi­

nal aim to cut world

emissions by 80% by

2050. These original

aims are not arbitrary

numbers-they are

widely agreed to be

the minimum required

to avoid climate

disaster for develop­

ing nations and the

world. Funding for

developing nations

to adapt to climate

change was set at

$100 billion per year

by 2020. However,

as both the source

and legal status of this

funding are vague, a

little scepticism about

it actually materialis­

ing is justified.

Lumumba Di-Aping

chair of the G77

group of 130 poor

countries described

the accord thus:

"[This] is asking Africa

to sign a suicide pact,

an incineration pact

in order to maintain

the · economic depend­

ence of a few coun­

tries. It's a solution

based on values that

funneled six million

people in Europe into

aces."

To describe the G77

group as dissatisfied

would not, it seems,

cut the mustard.

The blame game

which has been so

prevalent in the west­

ern media is a futile

one. However, a

comment from Barak

Obama is particu­

larly striking. On

the failure to reach

a wider agreement

he said that to wait

for a binding accord

would have resulted

in no progress being

made at all. Such a

stdtement of resigna­

tion from the "Yes

I" President ofwe can.

the United States is

deeply troubling and

is evidence of a lack

of resolve and com­

mitment f~om the most

powerful nation in the

world. If the U.S. is

unable, or unwilling,

to act how are third

world nations to make

Dan Smith, sec­

retary general of

International Alert,

has formulated a

strategy to push the

multi-lateral climate

change agreement

forward. He asserts

that a major problem

with the current style

of climate discussions

is that those states

who choose to hold

out in order to obtain

more nationally fa­

vorable agreements_

are allowed to win

by defauIt . To com bat

this attitude among

the most developed

nations, there must be

a change in the tone

of discussions from

factional adversary to.

problem solving and

from self-sacrifice to

the idea that climate

change accords can

be mutually benefi­

cial. He suggests that

those nations who

have shown prom­

ise at past climate

change talks such as

South Korea, Japan,

Mexico and Australia,

should agree to a

solution based around

creating a strong

green economy and

then sell it to the hold­

outs- China, India and

the U.S. Progress by

bypassing those who

block it.

There is a lot to be

said to grass roots

projects and indi­

vidual action in the

wake of international

failure. 1m proved

cook stove projects,

now widespread in

India and Africa,

seek to protect both

the environment from

deforestation and in

turn the livelihoods of

people who use them.

Grassroots groups

working in the Ama­

zon aim to protect

the forest by demon­

strating the economic

benefits of leaving the

environment intact.

In the UK too, the

benefits of having an

energy efficient home

and creating less food

waste have been

widely publicized.

However, in these

straitened times ideas

such as these appear

to me as drops in the

ocean, like trying to

put out a fire one ice

cube at a time. I must

admit to a personal

sense of cynicism

and demoralization.

Without international

accord, we can only

delay the inevitable.

Suggestions on a post­

card please.

emmacvickers. blogs­

pot.com

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air Nobu k · 1 M, 'YU I Sawada

odel Felix at M&p

Reports last week that

the BBC is considering

closing 6 Music and

the Asian Network

next month have

exploded over the

internet like only mid­

dle class outrage can.

Mark Tran reports for

the Guardian that:

the BBC intends to

shrink overall services

and focus more on

quality over quantity.

Quality over quantity?

A selection of the

most played artists on

the 6 Music website

includes The Who,

The Cure, Blondie,

New Order, Mad­

ness, The Rolling

Stones, Blur, Beck,

The Jam and The

Bea~es. Even though

the list also includes

U2, it's difficult to sug- ~

gest, by any objective ,

measure - and many ~

that are subjective ­

that this doesn't repre­

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DAZEO&CDNfUSED 9

At the time of writing, three

tenths of the Hype Machine

top lOis being taken up by

songs involving the Xx: three

remixes, then another mp3,

'Intro', at #18. This is as im­

portant, in this age of genre

schizophrenia, as any other

measure of cultural value,

surely marking this album out

as the biggest since Justice ap­

peared on every single blog

Of course, sparse beats with

plaintive vocals are eminently

remixable, especially with a

fashionable dubstep aesthetic.

The album is also incredibly

intimate, sometimes feel­

ing like eavesdropping on a

private conversation, and this

intimacy translates nicely into

certain schools of downtempo

electronic music.

This success, then, is unsurpris­

ing: hype is hype, the album

is great and the sublime

soporific wash of downtempo

dubstep continues unabated.

What is strange, though, is

how long it took me to realise

it was good. I loved Justice

as soon as I heard them, the

same with other blog-hyped

acts like Boys Noize, Burial,

Miike Snow and Animal Col­

lective. But I hated the Xx:

boring, depressing and inex­

plicably loved by everyone.

Maybe it's a lack of imme­

diacy. I always hated The

Smiths, grating at Morrissey's

intonation and bored by the

:pace. And I'm from Manches­

ter. It was only when, from the

molasses of popular culture,

a few songs had sli pped in to

y consciousness, and I was

to sit down with The

Queen is Dead that I realised

ow great they were. The Xx

like like the Smiths in a

mber of ways: subtle, nu­

ced and deeply personal.

I have spent an adolescence

bouncing off walls and grin­

ning to big silly drops, of­

fensively crunchy synths and

unashamedly yobbish tunes,

but had always felt that some­

thing was missing. A 'Sunday

Playlist' at Uni attempted

to address this void, filling

up with acoustic tunes and

minimal house, but that lost

its purpose when I graduated

and no longer had whole

days to sacrifice to lying in

bed and listening to soporific

indie music.

The Xx do fill this gap though,

and do it beautifully. They

deserve the plaudits on blogs

and in the press, and may

even teach me patience and

an appreciation of subtlety

lifeinflashback.blogspot .com ..

'

New Art Gallery Walsall went POP last night with their 10th Birthday celebrations. Bob and Roberta Smith kicked off the evening with a per­formance and ended it too, speeches were made, cake was eaten and mingling was made.

It was however the third floor exhibition that was the high­light for me. A retrospective of the gallery's past 10 years, it was so nice to see all this work together, a literal A- Z of past artists, from Jonatham Allen to Zhang Pengo

Highlights for me - Martin Creed's 'Half on the air in a given space' - it was more en­tertaining watching the poor invigilator trying to keep the massive purple baloons con­tained for the duration of the show, due to queues I did not go in .. .this time!

Bob and Roberta Smith's first works from his time in the Jacob Epstein archives - this room was crowded through­out the entire evening, my favourite 'Please send me £ l' one of a selection of quotes taken letters sent to Jacob Epstein from his son.

And David Bachelor's 'Disco Mecanique' - a room of disco balls made from pastic sun­glasses.

For me this show highlighted not only the great work New Art Gallery Walsal! has been doing in bringing interesting and provocative contempo­rary and historical art works into the region but also how bright and kitsch most of the work was, a theme I had not noticed previous to this show in their programming - a characteristic however prob­ably seen in Director Steven Snoddy, who gave a speech that was comica" passionate and appreciative.

~,--

.r---"-------~-.~

'Party' continues until 18th April 201 0 at New Art Gallery Walsall

ADIDRS

'Swimming Without Water' can be seen through till 15th March 201 0

Swimming Without Water is a new show that has opened at Moseley Swimming Baths c""rated by Maria Regia de Garcia-Bernal and Jimmy Lindqvist. It runs until March 15th. The artists are Debby Akam, Flora Gare and Tim Skinner.

The location of this show was amazing and, despite the snow, there was a great crowd at the preview, tenta­tively walking round the swim­ming pool with real life - not an art piece - swimmers as we nibbled on cake and sipped tea. The location was great and it was brilliant to see local curators seeking alternative spaces to work with. Some of the work wasn't to my taste, however, Flora's glass chan­delier of the Union Jack fitted the site perfectly, it was a subtle piece that felt at home there and fingers crossed Mo­seley Baths buy it and keep it on site.

\ ' ­\

curatorcharlie .blogspot .com

Proiect DaHodil / Viburnum.

I am extremely excited.

Project SOlARDOME is but a

few days away. I'm not say­

ing any more until after Satur­

day, but good times for good

people - they are coming.

The daffodils are emerging.

If you cast your eye back

to my Blog in September, I

was paranoid I wasn't doing

it properly; those juicy lean

green stems speak volumes to

the opposite, however.

There are some other tenta­

tive growths too, throughout

the garden. At first I thought

they were weeds ... but some­

thing tells me otherwise. Gar­

dening intuition! Now there's

a thought. I was talking to my

Charlie and Ben on Saturday

about how my instincts

were kicking in and the

schematics for the

garden were

sprouting

from

sub conscious! Thank G Unit

it's Spring, I feel so much

more in touch with things.

Mum and Dad brought me a

cutting from their Viburnum

tree in January. It's famous

for a Dad classic: 'Have you

sniffed the tree?' Draw your

own conclusions. Anyway,

this was planted at the bottom

of the garden where I hope it

will take nicely. I think there's

the option to move it if there's

not enough sunlight. So far,

more or less everything has

taken well, but having come

out properly for the first time

in many months, I see

that everything has

died back: it's all

sludge brown

foliage or

leaves as dryas a skeleton.

Cycles, yo.

Oregano out. There will be

much more hitting this space

soon! PROJECT SOlAR­

DOME especially ... wow.

Payee. (Peace).

parsleyandorega­

no.?-,ogspot.

com/