The winning design, chosen by an international jury was that of Kengo Kuma & Associates.

The V&A at Dundee website describes the design as, “a striking building that will come to represent Dundee and has the potential to be one of Europe’s most iconic buildings. Once built, the building itself will appear to ‘float’ on the water.”

The building includes a gallery and exhibition spaces, working and design spaces, offices, and social areas. An important part of the design brief issued to all designers was that the building should be both environmentally friendly and fully sustainable, something that the jury felt Kengo Kuma and Associates’ design fulfills entirely.

Below are some further images of the design:

For further information about the V&A at Dundee building competition, where you can see all the shortlisted designs and find more detail about the winning design, visit: http://vandaatdundee.com

For more information about Kengo Kuma Associates visit their website: http://kkaa.co.jp

Iddu (meaning ‘Him’ in Sicilian dialect), is a 360 degree artwork realised on the landscape of the active volcano Stromboli. Made over a period of four years, this 15 minute film combines 360° and 180° panoramic multi-camera views. It is coupled with a soundtrack generated from the collaboration between James P Graham and celebrated sound artist Akio Suzuki who performed in situ on the volcano. The end result is a 12 screen “surround” installation within an enclosed circular space which immerses the viewer into the centre of a unique, and petrifyingly beautiful landscape.

Here is a virtual representation of Iddu, created for digital mediums:

IDDU – a 360 degree film installation from James P Graham on Vimeo.

Exhibitons of the installation have been held in a number of places since it’s completion:

2010: Busan Biennial – Busan, South Korea
2010: Volcano: from Turner to Warhol – Compton Verney, UK
2009: Searching for Empedocles – Islington Metalworks, London
2007: MUDAM Guest House – Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxembourg.

The project was funded by Arts Council of England, MUDAM, and NESTA Foundation.

If you would like to find out more about James P Graham and his work, please visit his website: www.jamespgraham.com

Here’s the full length film, Sexy Pig:

Sexy Pig from robert ford on Vimeo.

Sexy Pig was written and directed by Robert Ford (MoNoPo Films). To see more of his work, please visit his vimeo profile at: http://vimeo.com/6518306

For more information about the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, please visit the ICA website here: http://www.ica.org.uk/29443/Seasons/Rushes-Soho-Shorts-Festival-2011.html

To see excerpts from the other films mentioned here, please follow these links:

Worship Dir. Calum MacDiarmid: http://vimeo.com/17436942

Starcrossed Dir. Tactful-Cactus: http://vimeo.com/25718883

Three Theories is an intense dance piece that is full of energy. It was influenced by physicist, Brian Greene’s book, The Elegant Universe and three theories – General Theory of Relativity, Quantum Mechanics and String Theory – that are discussed in the book. Karen Armitage choreographs rapidly changing movements that are forceful, sensuous and physical to represent the concepts of the theories. Armitage describes the work as, “a balletic work” and goes on to say:

“There are forces that move us which we understand; others which we don’t. My dances are the combination of both. The ultimate purpose in bringing together such forces is to create beautiful and symbolically meaningful movement that quickens our sense of the world.”

Below are three video excerpts from performances of Three Theories:

Armitage Gone! Dance are based in the US, predominantly performing in New York, but have toured across Europe including venues in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the UK.

If you would like to find out more about Armitage Gone! Dance, you can visit their website at: www.armitagegonedance.org

To see more videos of Armitage Gone! Dance in action, visit their YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/ArmitageGoneDance

“Each installation zooms in on sounds unique to three locations under Norwegian ground, creating surreal semi-narrative journeys through the development of the sound in itself. The installation sites lead the visitor through underground or enclosed sound-worlds, where atmosphere and acoustics allow the sound to live, gradually closer to the concert space. The concert work crystallises into a musical form that which is most abstract from the installations and involves a dynamic performance through frequency, space and time over 14 loudspeakers.” (see below for more details)

Here is an excerpt from the work:

The installations:

‘Sub Terra’ was commissioned by NyMusikk Rogaland with support from the Norwegian Cultural Council and the Norwegian composer’s union.

If you would like to hear more of Natasha’s work, please visit her myspace page: www.myspace.com/twinofeyg

To find out more about Natasha and her work, you can visit her website: www.natashabarrett.org

Additionally, there is a Wikipedia entry for her and an article on www.otherminds.org

NUD (3)2009 by Sarah Lucas

39 artists have been chosen by curators Lisa Le Feuvre and Tom Morton on the basis of these artists’ contribution to contemporary art over the past five years. The theme of the exhibition is the comet and the ways in which the comet has been interpreted and given meaning by human cultures.

'Our House' (The Object) by Nathaniel Mellors

Of the exhibition theme, the curators write:

“While current scientific theory posits that comets are nothing more than elliptically orbiting clumps of dust, ice and gas, utterly indifferent to our affairs, they remain powerful reminders of the way in which our species has attempted to understand experience through the measuring of time, the writing of history, the belief in cosmological influence, and the notion of a deterministic universe.”

Untitled (2005-2010) by Roger Hiorns

Here is a short video from the British Art Show website, presented by the curators, which gives a feel for the exhibition:

If you would like to find out more about the exhibition, please visit: www.britishartshow.co.uk

To see more work by the artists from the exhibition featured here, please visit:

Sarah Lucas:
www.gladstonegallery.com/lucas.asp
Sarah Lucas on www.tate.org.uk
www.sadiecoles.com/sarah_lucas/index.html

Nathaniel Mellors:
Mellors on www.ica.org.uk
www.mattsgallery.org/artists/mellors/exhibition-1.php

Roger Hiorns:
Hiorns on www.tate.org.uk – exhibitions
Hiorns on www.tate.org.uk – artists
Hiorns on www.artangel.org.uk

You can find out more about the organisation and previous winners on the Artes Mundi website.

To nominate an artist, go to http://www.artesmundi.org/nomination-form/

Nominations close on 26th June 2011.

“Most of the characters’ physical attributes normally associated with gender are obscured or removed and the figures are presented as monstrous hybrid humanoid creatures. The deformation of these figures in a way negates social issues that we would commonly associate with images of the body, allowing for example a pansexual representation of love or attraction, whilst reminding us of our core bestial nature”

Bestial Drawing

Spike Dennis works in a variety of mediums, including clay, fabric, pen, paint and even sequins, resulting in a range of 2D and 3D pieces that can be seen on his website, which also features a blog.

Eurwen (Grotesques)

The artist attended Wimbledon School of Fine Art, before going on to complete a Fine Art Masters degree in Wales. He says of his own work:

“My work is primitive.  It is turbulence, chaos, conflict and violent elegance whilst at once it is peace and oneness.  It is the strange, the cruel and unusual, the grotesque, the mysterious, the supernatural, moonlight, falling water, mountains and the darkness.  It is the land beyond the wall, the Theatre of Dreams, Neverland, Scarlett Thomas’ Mindspace and the space between us.  It is also the pursuit of originality, concern with the fleeting present, desire to live in the moment, the past and the future, a sense of timelessness, the thoughtful contemplation of the unknown.  It is nostalgia, it is reverie, it is intoxicating dreams, it is sweet melancholy, solitude, the sufferings of exile, the sense of alienation and normlessness, roaming in remote places, especially in the North.  It is also self torture, self annihilation and suicide.  It is the sadness of unfulfilled expectations.  It is the primeval, the unsophisticated, the bosom of nature, green fields, wind chimes, bubbling brooks, the infinite midnight blue sky.  No less, however, is it the desire to dress up, blue hair, urban outfits, throbbing sub bass, neon plastic, faery lights, a dedication to the following of fashion.   It is wild exhibitionism, eccentricity and the hedonistic pursuit of life.  It is both in the world and of the world”

(from http://www.spikeworld.co.uk/statement/) 

Blacklight Drawing

If you would like to find out more about Spike on this website, please visit: Dennis, Spike – Info

If you would like to see more of Spike’s work, please visit his website: http://spikeworld.co.uk/

Born in the late great summer of nineteen eighty something Spike displayed an aptitude for making and creating at a young age primarily through his love of playing with Duplo™ and Stickle Bricks. Having spent several years floating around inside his own dreams imagining that he was roaming the mountain tops in the far north, Spike eventually gave up his preschool toys in exchange for some paints and brushes and headed to the prestigious Wimbledon School of Art in London to learn the deepest darkest secrets of the age old tradition of Fine Art Painting. Spike later completed his Masters Degree in Fine Art in Wales where he developed his practice as it evolved into three dimensions and beyond.
With a penchant for big hair, acrylic paint and peroxide Spike has been honing his fine art practice over recent years bringing his distorted visions of the world around us to life as he sets out to conquer the whole wide universe…

From http://spikeworld.co.uk/

To see more of Spike’s work, visit his website: http://spikeworld.co.uk/

On 25th September 2010 Gasser, Kochan and Øgrim met in Amann studios in Vienna for a concert recording that is now in the process of being mastered and released on Nottwo Records this summer under the title, What’s wrong with Now?

Here are a couple of tracks from the forthcoming album:

Gasser-Kochan-Ogrim @ Amannstudios by tellefogrim

If you would like to find out more about the Trio on this website, please visit:
Gasser-Kochan-Øgrim Trio – Info

For further information about the forthcoming album and to see/hear more of the Trio’s work, visit:
Gasser-Kochan-Øgrim Trio on Soundcloud
Gasser-Kochan-Øgrim Trio on YouTube