Our new theme: DISGUISE

Attention all: as broadcast by the shiny poster above (created with the help of our surprisingly willing art editor Isaac) the theme for this term's issue is DISGUISE. Our hungry new editorial team is desperate to devour your art, photography, poetry, prose and features submissions, which can fulfill the theme as loosely or literally as you like. Light-hearted, serious or just plain ridiculous, please email them to helicon.magazine@gmail.com before the deadline of October 24th where they'll all be happily recieved and provided with full feedback.

Welcome to a new year of...

Helicon has been around for over ten years, yet not everyone knows exactly who we are or what we're about. So, for all the Fresher's joining us at Bristol Uni as well other newcomers who, by one means or another, have stumbled across us: here's a quick low-down of what goes down at Helicon Headquarters.

MEET: Marcel Veldman

Marcel Veldman is a skateboarder and photographer based in Rotterdam; he's been skating for 22 years but insists he only got into photography through a "detour": "basically, there were no good skate photographers in Holland taking photos of me and my friends". So he took matters into his own hands and started shooting his own photos. Travelling the world, capturing life on and off the board, Marcel has developed a vast portfolio, a living documentary of his and his friends' lives. Ten years on, he's earned his name as one of the most renowned photographers in the skate industry, and is the man behind Fluff, the Netherlands' leading skate magazine. I sat down with Marcel and, like the welcome guest entrusted with the family photo album, was given a guided tour of his life through the lens...

So you think your camera's a pimp?

Think again.

And another one:

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

CA

Just a couple of good videos:

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

&

Linotype: The Film Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

CA

Mash Up Sundays....

The Mash Up of September 26th, 2010

click click click

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Branded content: http://www.thisisrealart.com/ & http://vimeo.com/14454938
Sibling’s new comic knitwear collection pretty neatly promoted

Southern Exhibition: http://www.londonmiles.com/index.php
the London Miles gallery has got two exhibitions opening this September: Visual Splendor and Made in Britain - it’s a gallery well worth taking note of

Hay-on-Wye in the Autumn

Hay-on-Wye is a small Welsh market town that straddles the Welsh- Anglo border and sits huddled within the Brecon Beacons National Park (about an hour and a half’s drive from Bristol incidentally)- nothing out of the ordinary, except that it’s positively groaning with the weight of its many thousands of second- hand, specialist and collectors’ books. This is a town literally packed with words, and come June every year the bibliophiles arrive in their droves for the annual Literary Festival, booking up the quaint B&Bs and draining the tearooms of Earl Grey as they pore over the multitude of bookshops and gather to hear the greatest literary minds of the year speak.

Watch this space

Kind of irrelevant, but how sick is this? Kudos here for exposing me to this "visual crack" like a dealer in a playground.

TB

Just another church in Clifton?

Sometimes, when you wander into an abandoned church set for conversion into student apartments, you find an eccentric group of squatters building a bicycle carousel. The history of this building - of art and squatting... and bicycles - will unfortunately be swept to the side long before any new arrivals. Here is a collection documenting the final throws of a vastly under used and quite incredible building.

Mash Up Mondays...

The Mash Up of September 13th, 2010

click click click

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Branded content: http://bit.ly/aNdgp7
Converse’s coolest thing since plugging Avril Lavine

Northern Exhibition: http://bit.ly/a2kzu6
the man who brought you sprinter at the Tate

WANTED: Legitimate Graffiti Artist

Whilst flicking through the freebies section of Bristol Gumtree (anyone want a 6ft Albino python by the way?) I noticed this advert and couldn't help but think of you creative lot!

Basically the shop owner is sick of the usual rubbish that repeatedly appears overnight on his shop sign and has decided if you can't beat them, join them; but he's not just gonna give in, oh no, he's gonna beat them at their own game and get a real artist in on the action.

Gotta love that attitude, eh?

I would dearly love to see one of our Helicon readers getting some artistic exposure on this free canvas, so follow the link to the advert and apply if you have any ideas! Who knows, we could be fostering a new Banksy in our midst...


LE.

Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception at Tate Modern

Francis Alys in Collaboration with Ortega
Rehearsal I (El Ensayo) Tijuana, 1999-2001

I'm honestly not sure what to say about this exhibition. Whilst my friends were grunging out in Camden, I decided to dash across the city to Tate Modern; more for the sake of catching 'Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception' a few days before it ended than for want of actually seeing it. Overwhelmingly positive reviews from across the board had stirred some interest (it was "thought-provoking, funny and full of pathos" according to Adrian Searle at The Guardian and "Tate Modern's finest show to date by a living artist" according to Richard Dorment of The Telegraph), but, as Reception Theory dictates, the art experience is as reliant on the mental state of the viewer as on the physical state of the work. With other things on my mind, such as the fact that my fringe was plastered sweatily to my face, I forked out £8.50 to wander disorientatedly around the exhibition, pausing to watch the videos as gallery etiquette demands.

Hooting & Howling

To much furore and backlash, and then backlash as a result of the backlash, it was recently announced that American restaurant chain 'Hooters' would be coming to the UK, nationwide. Fifty-four restaurants have been planned across the country, spanning as far as Bournemouth to Aberdeen, Oxford to Cambridge, even including our very own Bristol.

It raises questions as to the morality and relevance of the Licensing Act; councils can legally offer restaurant and bar permits but The Act limits who can provide legitimate complaints (i.e. local business owners - local meaning very local) etc.

The Art of Business is the Business of Art

So we all know not to mix business with pleasure.  But what about mixing business with art?  Art should provide critique and perspective on the direction the world is heading.  On its morals and meanings, its grave mistakes and its greatest triumphs.  So quite rightly the involvement of money and the flow of capital into an artist’s current account is looked on, not quite with scorn, but with raised eyebrows.  The reason being that perhaps the lump sum should be the subject of their next provocation rather than the basis for it.

At the same time, a hard up artist will not create many works from a casket.  There’s some sort of middle ground here.  This middle ground though is a bit like a Tibetan border; it’s a fluid concept about as stable as a well developed game of Jenga.

The Mash Up of August 13th, 2010

The Mash Up of August 13th, 2010

don't be scared of the short links... adds to the intrigue.

Branded content: http://bit.ly/bumj4n
Perfect from Puma

Northern Exhibition: http://bit.ly/cYLhJB
Suki Chan, who previously wowed with swarming starlings, now hits all the right notes with her study of London which focuses on the boundary between the beauty and the alienation of the capital

The play's the thing...

A new group of theatre critics has emerged in recent months, student-based, but outside of Union control and eschewing official affiliation. Their aim is to provide at least two individual reviews of each and every drama production put on by any society within the University of Bristol- and any others they may have seen in local theatres besides. They are anonymous, they are original, and they are here in Bristol.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet The Play Group. 

Want to see plays for just £5...?

If you're aged 15-25 years old, that dream could be a reality! The National Theatre is offering young people the opportunity to claim a free membership card by filling in just one easy form, which entitles you to theatre tickets for just £5, expect for the first one which is free!

For more details on how to claim your card, what's on in theatres and the scheme that makes this all possible, A Night Less Ordinary, simply visit this website.

Happy theatre- goings!

LE

Bristol Pride Week- acclaimed authors at the Arnolfini

Pride Bristol is a large festival that'll be taking place in Bristol this month. One of the main events of Pride Week will be a literary event featuring Stella Duffy, Rhona Cameron, Paul Burston and Jack Wolf. You can look at the website or facebook for more information.

They aim to encourage a diverse audience, including people who'd enjoy the event but wouldn't necessarily think to come to an LGBT festival.

Tickets are only £10 and include free acess to an afterparty on Under the Stars, a boat-turned-cafe-bar along the quay, and a complementary glass of wine!


Pride Bristol 2010

Celebrating Diversity, Championing Equality

Pride Week: 14 - 22 Aug

Pride Day: Sat 21 Aug



LE

MEET: Goldfrapp

Like an illicit marriage between Madonna and a disco ball, Goldfrapp’s fifth and latest record, Head First, descends upon us – its edges trimmed with glitter, its feathers all ruffled, and its core pulsating with a heart of gold. That’s Goldfrapp for you: the London duo of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory may occasionally oscillate between downtempo trip hop (Felt Mountain) and shiny synth-pop (Supernature), but its innate theatricality and flamboyance remains in constant attendance. So as Alison and Will shape-shift into their fifth LP, you can expect another evolved sense of being – both in sound and in wardrobe, but of course, with those orchidaceous colours intact.