MetroLand Media

©Xiao Ying.Usurp

© Wang Zhang

As some of you may know I’ve been working on this project for about 3 months now with unaccompanied minor refugees in London. Well the time has finally come to exhibit the hard work of these young people. originally we set out to enhance the youth interaction with art and communication, but through the process it turned out that I had a lot to learn from the participants. Since starting the project I have applied and been accepted on an MA program in Community arts and Goldsmiths College. So this exhibition is held very close to my heart and would love for you all to show your support to the young participants, Usurp artists and, well, me!! The above are just a few examples of some of the work produced.

****Subtle, beautiful, reflective insights about growing up in a hostel and creating an idea of a family and a future based on common experiences with other young people from all over the world.****

****Launch Night : Monday 26th July 2010 : 4pm-8.30pm****
Stop motion animations, mobile phone pictures, photomontage posters, voice play and music.

****Exhibition continues until Sun 1st August. Gallery open everyday 2pm to 8pm****

Launch event with performances and live music from DJ Nikki of Future Fusion!

You can view more on our progress in previous posts on my blog. for more info on the event click here and here

Under ONE Sky

I am soooo excited about this!! it looks awesome AND “it’s happening in Harrow?” AND I’m going to be there with fellow Usurp Artists doing my favourite of favourite things – Making giant dream catchers with the community. First of all heres the details:

Sunday 27 June 2010

12pm – 8pm

Kodak Sports Ground, Zoom Leisure, Harrow View, HA2 6QQ

“Under One Sky – Harrow’s largest festival of celebration and your chance to see the combined communities of Harrow at their best. With an overflowing programme of dance, world music, a wide variety of sports activity, youth music, spoken word, free children’s participatory activity, a huge parade, information and stalls, health promotion, a world food zone, outside radio broadcast and much more. We have something for everyone!”

If I wasnt working the festival you’d definatly see me getting my face painted, dancing to African Drumming and eating ice cream, as it stands ill be doing all of the above while running arts workshops in the Community & Healthy Living Zone, right next to the children’s Zone!! Come along and support the ever-growing sence of community and harrow, celebrate the diversity and enjoy a local day in the sun… pop in and see Usurp too!!

contact me for more details

Harrow Open Studios

Just a very quick note to mention a Harrow Open Studios, when artists all over harrow open their doors to the public to have a little snoop amongst their work in its natural habitat. I cant wait to take the way marked trail around the borough this weekend. for information on contributing artists and times etc, visit: http://www.harrowopenstudios.com/

Dream Brighter

Usurp spent it’s Sunday at the hugely sucessfull UnderOneSky Festival in Harrow last weekend. Despite the sweltering heat and England Finale at the World Cup, Families from all over the borough swarmed to the event. The Community Living tent was ripe with young artistic talent as we painted a comminty portrait like none seen before. My hand crafted Dream Catchers captured the imagination of adults and children alike, who all delighted in taking part to make harorws dreams that little bit brighter and sunnier this year.  It was messy and busy, just the way community art should be. My Dream Catcher took on a new life as the wind caught its hundreds of customised paper feathers and spread a little colour over everyones day.

The Dream Catcher signifies a strong cultural identity of native America, but has also connotations of its own in Europe. It has come to represent peace, nature and care. Using bright recycled fabrics to make the Dream Catcher gives an earthy feel without being subdued, and gives the piece a sence of history. I have been experimenting with size and dimensions and find them to be eye catching and intriguing. The extra long strings of torn fabric create a space of their own to be enjoyed by the public passing through, getting up close and personal to recycled fabrics.

MetroLand via MediaBox (II)

Week two of the MetroLand project which, incase you’re not following, is a project run by Usurp Artists and funded by MediaBox. The project is working with refugees in Harrow to enhance their Art skills and in the meantime, interact with them, improve their english, eat together and have fun. This week was a lot easier and I absolutely love working in this way with young adults. We worked with photography, using a digital SLR to take portraits of each participant, we asked the group to think about something, either a good memory, or bad, a feeling or of something significant in their lives. The portrait would depict this thought and the group could look at the photographs and use words to describe how the person felt and what they were thinking. Most of the time they were right, and for the times they weren’t they learned how people can cover up their emotions , this will become really important in the following weeks. we did another small excercise where the group wrote “me” in the middle of a page and used words to describe themselves, they did this in english and in their own languages.

I really enjoyed this weeks session, I felt integrated with the group and much more confident, I hope I have started to buildup the trust we all need to have in people so we dont feel so alone.

Breaks, Beer & Shakespeare

Just a sneaky peek at some pieces im exhibiting at the “PreView Three Views” promo night.  I have made a selection from a collection of textile pieces I made for the Science Gallery in Dublin. Each piece uses high-tech fabrics, for example, high insulating fabric used by the army to counteract infrared detection, boiler coverings and fabrics that carry electric current. The pieces react to UV light, so look out for them at the Trinity Bar Harrow on the 26th May

Usurp Presents _ Breaks, Beer and Shakespeare

Bitcrusher DJ’s, Bek, usedtobecool, Jadman and WhiteRatBeat

Wordsmith Natalie ‘N-Core’ Leer

26th May 2010 9pm-1am

Trinity Bar, Harrow

£3 on Door, £2 with flyer/NUS

Join us on FaceBook search USURP

MetroLand via MediaBox (I)

This week marks the beginning of a project being run in Harrow by USURP artists Poulomi Desai and myself in collaboration with Toby Benedetto, a London-based journalist, and Harrow Youth Services. The project, funded by MediaBox, works with refugees in the Harrow area who have either been rescued from trafficking, been sent unaccompanied as minors to the UK or fled war-torn countries. The aim is to communicate their stories through animation and film, in order for them to achieve a Bronze Arts Award, which compliments their studies and could lead to future opportunities within the arts. Through this process the group will get to know each other and us, and hopefully support each other on their journey’s. This week we opened up communication by discussing story timelines. Each participant wrote about their lives before coming to the UK, special moments, what has happened since they got here and their hopes for the future. Then they worked together to find words to describe how they felt or would have felt at each moment. Another group learned techniques for stop motion animation. By writing their names letter at a time, they learned basic skills of using a digital SLR and a video camera. They are all looking forward to learning more camera skills.

I’ll admit to finding the first session hard. I have never working in this way before, or honestly, with young adults with this background. But they are just like any other group, some are quiet, some are more confident, some will take on different aspects of the project, there are leaders and team players. For me it’s now a matter of realising that similarity and learning from the differences. I am looking forward to the rest of the project and becoming part of the process by which these young people can express their stories through art.

Keep an eye on my blog for weekly updates on the project.

Also check out www.media-box.co.uk for more information on other projects being run in the UK.

visit www.usurp.org.uk for more information on events and projects.