Miles Thurlow: 'Black Swan' - Edinburgh Art Festival 2010, Portobello Beach.

'Black Swan' Miles Thurlow Portobello Beach Edinburgh Art Festival 2010 Preview: 2pm Saturday 31st July Followed by the Artist in Conversation at 3pm in the Portobello Public Art House, Kings Road, Portobello. 31st July until Sunday 5th September 2010 Commissioned by Big Things on The Beach as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2010 Black Swan by Miles Thurlow is the third and final 2010 temporary public art work for Portobello Beach, Edinburgh. Commissioned by Big Things on the Beach, as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2010. Black Swan confronts the viewer with an installation of thirteen Fruit Machines silently and perpetually running through their demo track of flashing lights, cascading in random and geometrical sequences. Installed at the west end of Portobello beach, Black Swan challenges our conventional expectations of public artwork and monumental sculpture by selecting and presenting the objects of ordinary common culture as Art. Hinting towards both the subversive act of fly tipping and conventions and configurations of public sculpture in an area land-marked for regeneration and gentrification. Thurlow was influenced by both the local leisure history of Portobello Beach and the recent global economic crash. The title is taken from Black Swan Theory, put forward by writer and senior Wall Street trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain the existence of high - impact and rare events that lie outside the realm of expectations. Miles Thurlow makes sculpture, drawing, and installations. His work references the demise of modernism and the rise of quick fix, cheap alternatives; investigating the architecture of modern day living and our relationship with the products of consumer culture. Miles Thurlow was born in 1975 in Colchester, Essex and lives and works in Newcastle and Gateshead, UK. Also showing: City Beach Exhibition, presenting the outcomes of the year-long Imagine Porty Prom programme including commissions by Michael Pinsky and Grennan and Sperandio, runs Thurs - Sun 29th July - 29th August at: Portobello Public Art House, 56 Kings Road, Portobello, Edinburgh, UK, EH15 1DX. Only 20 mins from Edinburgh City Centre on buses 26 and 15. Big Things on the Beach is a public art trust in Portobello, a seaside suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was formed by a group of residents in 2003 to explore the potential of the seafront as a site for engagement with public artworks by both emerging and established artists. Since 2004 we have commissioned artists to create substantial temporary artworks, trained ourselves and others in the process of commissioning public artworks through international site visits and guest lectures and successfully raised funding to these ends. Big Things on the Beach is a Charity Registered in Scotland (Scottish Charity Number: SC 35107) Image: 'Black Swan', 2010, 13 Fruit Machines, fixings and waterproofing. Portobello Beach, Edinburgh. Commissioned by Big Things on The Beach, Courtesy the artist and Workplace Gallery.

Marcus Coates: "Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service" BBC Radio 6 Music 25th July 2010

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t6rgr/Jarvis_Cockers_Sunday_Service_Live_From_The_Port_Eliot_Festival/ Listen to Marcus Coates interviewed by Jarvis Cocker on his BBC 6 Music Programme 'Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service' Broadcast on:BBC 6 Music, 4:00pm Sunday 25th July 2010 Duration:120 minutes Available until: 6:02pm Sunday 1st August 2010 image: Marcus Coates Follow The Voice 2009 Video Still Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Jennifer Douglas & Paul Merrick: "Northern Futures" The Civic, Barnsley, UK

Workplace Gallery is pleased to announce that Jennifer Douglas and Paul Merrick have been shortlisted for the Northern Futures Award. Selected Artists: Kit Abramson (Lancaster) Samantha Donnelly (Greater Manchester) Jennifer Douglas (Gateshead) Paul Merrick (Gateshead) Daniel Staincliffe (Manchester) Liz West (Sheffield) The most talented emerging creatives from across the North of England have been named in the shortlist for the Northern Futures 2010 Award, selected by a panel of international experts from the fields of fashion, film, fine art and 3d design. An exhibition of the work of these future stars opens at The Civic, Barnsley on July 28, with final prize winners announced on August 17 at an exclusive awards evening where category winners will each be awarded £1500. Celebrating the best in northern creative talent. The north of England has produced some of the most innovative and respected creative individuals the world has seen. Artists and innovators such as Henry Moore, Vivienne Westwood, Damien Hirst, Mike Leigh, Danny Boyle, David Hockney and Peter Saville, to name just a few, illustrate the wealth of talent that the north produces. Art and culture is integral to the renaissance of the north. Northern Futures celebrates the future talent emerging from the north, seeking to identify and encourage future Westwoods, Hockneys, Boyles and Savilles into successful creative futures. The prize will cement the north as a hotbed of new creativity and showcase our talent to the world. Northern Futures Exhibition opens at The Civic on 28th July 2010. The public can take part in voting for an overall 'Peoples Choice' winner. Award Ceremony: Overall Winners announced:  August 17th 2010 (7-9pm) The overall category winners will be selected from the Northern Futures exhibition by the judges and announced at the Northern Futures Award Ceremony on the 17th August 2010. Access to judges and finalists will be available for photography and interview on the 17th August. Fine Art Judges Helen Pheby, Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield Karen Newman, Curator at FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool Claire Turner, Comme Ca Art, Manchester Gavin Delahunty, Curator - Fine Art at MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art Sheila McGregor, Chief Executive, Axis (Leeds) Ann Bukantas, Curator, Walker Art Gallery (National Museums Liverpool) Julia Bell, Visual Arts Co-ordinator, Baltic (Gateshead) images: Jennifer Douglas The Voice of Silence, 2010 Light bulbs, Rubber flex, Paint Pots, Morse Code Sequencer, Steel, Paint Dimensions Variable (JD0042) Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery Paul Merrick Untitled (Construction) Green, 2009 Aluminium, stainless steel, metal primer, spray paint, florescent strip lighting 190 x 160 cm (PME0081) Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Marcus Coates: "The Denominator" Port Eliot Festival 2010 , Cornwall, 23 - 25 July

Marcus Coates Port Eliot Festival 2010 http://www.porteliotfestival.com Marcus Coates featuring new performance "Denominator" a dj set, mixing between man made sounds and birdsong. Brought to us by Jeff Barrett, Robin Turner, and Andrew Walsh, Caught By The River is hosting the same special area by the estuary%u2026 But this year they're also creating their own unique bird hide chill out area with Matt Sewell, The Bird Effect programme curated by filmmaker Ceri Levy, evening bonfires, Rough Trade record area and more surprises to be announced shortly - as well as Chris Watson's incredible Nature Disco, a festival highlight for many last year. "Caught By The River was born on a bankside a little over two years back during an idle day's casting," explains Robin. "The idea - a website that would document lazy days out - became a reality a few months afterwards. Without a great deal of nurturing, it soon grew into a place that people could eulogize about the things that made the working week bearable - books, records, art, nature, angling, drinking, even cake baking. The approach was exactly like putting together a fanzine - an unshackled, uncynical torrent of enthusiasm. Here was our modern take on something hardwired in as part of punk rock culture, only this time the patron saints were Roger Deakin, Chris Yates and Chris Watson rather than Johnny & Joe; the sound of razored guitar strings replaced by bird song and the gentle plonk as the float hits the water." Their recent book, Caught By The River: a collection of words on water (hailed as "an exceptional new take on nature writing%u2026 a rock n' roll nature book even") is an evocative anthology of the best new nature writing, presented in a collection of essays on some of our favourite rivers, covering the entire length of the country. Contributors include Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Roger Deakin, Jon Savage, Irvine Welsh, Jarvis Cocker, Bill Drummond, Edywn Collins and Chris Yates to name a few.

Matt Stokes: "Among The Nightingales" Tatton Park Biennial, UK

Matt Stokes Among the Nightingales http://www.tattonparkbiennial.org Rosetherne Room, Stableyard Mereheath Lane Mere, Cheshire East WA16 6, United Kingdom Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 July Saturday 31 July & Sunday 1 August Saturday 28, Sunday 29 & Monday 30 August 12:00 noon and 2:00pm Curated by Clarissa Corfe on behalf of Castlefield Gallery, Among the Nightingales brings together nine single channel film and video works by international artists including: Mounira Al Solh, Jordan Baseman, Oliver Beer, Nina Beier & Marie Lund, Samson Kambalu, Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry, Jan Mancuska, Matt Stokes and Pablo Wendel. Image: Matt Stokes Long After Tonight (Terry), 2005 - 2006 Photographer: Pete Dibden C-type on diasec, 80 x 80 cms (MS0024)

Darren Banks: "The Dictionary of Received Ideas" 16 curators from Goldsmiths College at Q, London

Darren Banks The Dictionary of Received Ideas http://thedictionaryofreceivedideas.com Q 5-8 Lower John Street, W1F 15 - 18 July 2010 11:00am - 5:00pm Private View: Thursday 15 July 6:00 - 9:00pm Molly Bretton - Joey Holder | Zoe Charaktinou - Nicolas Vass | Caryn Coleman - Darren Banks | Matteo Consonni - Candida Powell-Williams. Kianoosh Motallebi, Elisabetta Alazraki | Bridget Donlon - Charlotte Warne Thomas | Patrick Gibson - Garrett Phelan | Hannah Gruy - Eloise Hawser | Oliver Martinez Kandt - Ben Cain,   Michael Dean,   Bradley Pitts | Thom O'nions | Matteo Pollini - Koki Tanaka | Pavel S. Py - Tymek Borowski | Bérénice Saliou - Guillaume Soulatges & Nadia Agnolet | Erica Shiozaki - James Wright | Ana Luiza Teixeira de Freitas - Elena Damiani | Ming-Jiun Tsai - Johann Arens | Dan Wang - Jasmine Cheng The Dictionary of Received Ideas celebrates the independent and diverse practices of the Goldsmiths College MFA Curating Programme. The exhibition has abandoned an overarching thematic agenda to encourage an array of curatorial approaches and ideas. For four days, Q will host a series of individual projects between curator and artist, performances, and talks. An appropriate venue for The Dictionary of Received Ideas, Q's interior as a former antiquarian bookshop has engaged participants to respond uniquely to the site. Taking its title from Gustave Flaubert's satirical text The Dictionary of Received Ideas, the exhibition highlights artistic oppositions and establishes a narrative between these explorations.  Working against uniformity, the project takes on the ironical clichés of what group exhibition making can be. The Dictionary of Received Ideas intermixes a variety of mediums - painting, drawing, installation, video, and sculpture. This collusion of objects and ideas is an intentionally messy manner in which to understand that each curator and artist produces work that is distinctly their own. UK artist Darren Banks incorporates found and made film footage into sculpture and installation to explore his ideas about horror, the domestic, science fiction, defunct technologies, creation, and the unknown. He conflates high and low culture exploring his own perception of sculpture and its relation to film and memory. By appropriating iconic images of sculpture through the history of film and re-presenting them as his own work, Banks restructures filmic images and adds to his existing sculptural language. He establishes a dialogical relationship with these previous films through appropriation and montage. His folding of the past into the present is a strong example of how some contemporary artists are building upon the legacy of horror and creating new artistic narratives with the genre. The Palace Collection consists of eleven VHS horror videos from the Palace Picture Distribution and Production Company, a company established in London, England (circa 1982) as a distributor for cult cinema and international art films. This installation negotiates collective horror history, effects of new technology, and ideas of the collection. It is also powerfully aesthetic. Also on view will be Palace Video, a 6-minute video where the opening credit sequence by Palace Pictures has been manipulated into a pulsing visual collage. Image: Darren Banks Palace Collection (Detail) 2010 Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Mike Pratt: "JAMBON" Moving Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 01-15 July 2010

JAMBON Moving Gallery Location: Former Coroners Court Building, Beneath the Swing Bridge, Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK 01 - 15 July 2010 Preview: 01 July 2000 - Late Andrew Maughan Andrew Sandercock Graeme Durant Mike Pratt Richard Moat Michael Haddock Jambon are a recently formed arts group of five members (Andrew Maughan, Andrew Sandercock, Graeme Durant, Mike Pratt and Richard Moat). Leading both an independent and collaborative practice, the members of JAMBON use the model of the group show (although they do not limit themselves to this outlet) when exhibiting together - in order to cross-examine their disparate commonalities. Recent activity by the independent members include Brut, Brut, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (Graeme Durant), Cumberland Sausage, Extraspazio Gallery, Rome, Italy (Mike Pratt) and Bilderberg 2010: Don't call it a pow-wow! Auth Charlie Skelton, The Guardian, June 2010 (Andrew Maughan). Image: Mike Pratt Bombay-Badboy pII, 2010 crystical, wood, enamel paint, foam, wire, wool fabric and parcel tape 159 x 65 x 106 cm (MP0120)