Friday, October 30, 2015

RE-TALE: October Rain



Around the outside of Leicester City's King Power Stadium are a number of fast food wagons.

They almost all serve exactly the same range of products, essentially burgers and hot dogs.

Many believe that the food on sale outside the ground from these wagons is superior to that inside and so they do a brisk trade.

Today I'm a little later to the ground than normal and all the 'Handmade Beefburgers' van can lure me in to do is take a photograph.

For the record, Leicester City beat Crystal Palace one nil and I had a Pukka Pie inside the ground.

October rain
a pied wagtail dips
along the touchline

Paul Conneally
October 24 2015


from Paul Conneally's ongoing series of works RE-TALE 

Cheeky Letters and Dream Lists - Pete Mosley at Cake Loughborough



How to make extraordinary things happen

Pete Mosley's working life has brought him into contact with hundreds of entrepreneurs. He has noticed recognisable patterns in the behaviour of those who have become successful on their own terms.

Most are not held back by the quality of their ideas - but by the way their courage and ambition is impeded by their thinking.

In his talk 'Cheeky Letters and Dream Lists' at Cake Meetup, Loughborough, Pete explored and shared the things that motivate us and the things that hold us back, offering both insights and explanations.

A really engaging talk that left members of the large and enthusiastic audience of creatives with a few simple strategies that they can use to successfully overcome or work around these blocks and make significant things happen in their lives and businesses.

Check out Pete Mosley's Website here: http://crumbhuddle.com/wp/

Cake is a bimonthly meet up for creatives, entrepreneurs and others held at Loc8Me, Ashby Square, Loughborough, with free beer, pizza & cake plus great talks & great networking opportunities, what more could you want?: http://cakemeetup.co.uk

Cake is made possible by support from:

Paul Conneally
October 29 2015

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Artist Millree Hughes talks on the move from New York to New Parks Involuntary Painting Group


Millree Hughes talks on the move from New York to New Parks Involuntary Painting Group as they prepare in March 2015 to explore their area via involuntary painting. This was part of a six week intervention and workshop piece 'Involuntary Painting 1 New Parks : New York' with and for Soft Touch Arts and Leicester City Council New Parks Library and members of the New Parks community.

Involuntary Painting is a term first coined in this context by New York artist Millree Hughes and further developed by Hughes with UK based cultural forager Paul Conneally.

Involuntary painting asks if an alien landed on Earth with all the knowledge painting but never having seen one what might it mistake for a painting that wasn't intended as one?

Hughes and Conneally set up their ongoing artwork, the 'Involuntary Painting Facebook Group' in October 2014. The first Involuntary Painting Show was Involuntary Painting 1 New Parks : New York at Soft Touch Arts, New Walk, Leicester and was opened by HRH Prince Edward.

#involuntarypainting 

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

RE-TALE: Into The Light



a young woman walks
out from the shade of
the city centre
down past the cobblers
and into the light

Paul Conneally
October 2015
Leicester

from Paul Conneally's ongoing series of works RE-TALE

Monday, October 26, 2015

Friday, October 23, 2015

LOOGABAROOGA FESTIVAL BANNER



A banner flying high above Loughborough's famous twice weekly street market heralds the first ever festival of children's book illustration in the UK, the LOOGABAROOGA FESTIVAL.

The festival runs from the 22nd October until the 25th October 2015.

Paul Conneally
October 22 2015
Loughborough

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Anne-Marie Culhane and Rama Gupta at Loughborough University Fruit Routes



Artist and environmental activist, Anne-Marie Culhane, pictured with environmentalist and Green Party pioneer, Rama Gupta, during the artist led walk around Loughborough University 'Fruit Route'

Fruit Routes is an ongoing artwork conceived by Culhane that involves planting fruit trees and bushes around the university campus along with other artistic and environmental interventions.

The project urges users of the University to 'EAT YOUR CAMPUS'

Photograph: Paul Conneally

October 2015

Paul Conneally

Friday, October 16, 2015

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Still Hungry



still hungry
after the full English
a hole in the road
the knowing that October
is followed by November

Paul Conneally
October 2015
Leicester

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Dylan Thomas: portrait of the artist as a young dog



Dylan Thomas: portrait of the artist as a young dog
New Directions Paperbook Cover

Click here to read the tanka series After Fern Hill:
https://burnthewater.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/after-fern-hill/

Paul Conneally
October 2015

Saturday, October 10, 2015

The Globe - Leicester


The Globe, Silver Street, Leicester, UK

"The Globe has been synonymous with serving fine ales and food since 1720, where quality ales were brewed using spring water drawn from its own well beneath the pub, which still exists today.

Prior to becoming a public house, the Globe had several interesting uses, including a cattle merchants and accommodation for women awaiting impending execution at the hands of the noose man in nearby Gallowtree Gate.

This may go some way to explaining the reported hauntings within the premises, which includes the ghost of a woman on the stairs, two disagreeing brothers that argue over the bar and a young boy in the cellar who turns off the beer!"

Text: Everards Brewery

Photo: Paul Conneally
October 2015

"Don’t commit suicide just because you are afraid of death" Danai Anesiadou

Danai Anesiadou: "Don’t commit suicide just because you are afraid of death"

Working across performance, installation and video, Anesiadou plays with rumour, fantasy, the mystical, and the intimacy of sharing secrets. For her first UK solo exhibition, Anesiadou layers allusions to classical myths from her native Greece, pop culture and contemporary politics together with references to her personal biography and every day experiences. Her exhibition includes sculptures from compressed personal objects, and a monumental wall installation which she imagines as a “horror-vacui” of theatrical and movie props. Anesidaou has also created a new performance that will be presented on 11 December.

At Nottingham Contemporary 10 Oct 2015 - 31 Dec 2015
http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/art/alien-encounters

Don't Commit Suicide Just Because You Are Afraid Of Dying

Don't Commit Suicide Just Because You Are Afraid Of Dying

Don't Commit Suicide Just Because You Are Afraid Of Dying
Photographs by Paul Conneally

Thursday, October 08, 2015

The Agony And Ecstasy Of Collegiate Sumo Training In Japan - Charnwood Museum


Scene from the opening of "Asa Geiko" an exhibition by Francis Harrison

The Agony And Ecstasy Of Collegiate Sumo Training In Japan

Charnwood Arts presents a unique documentary photo series on the brutal, rarely glimpsed training of amateur sumo training at a major Tokyo university.

The exhibition, called "Asa Geiko" (Morning Practice), is the work of Francis Harrison, a photographer and long-time resident of Japan.

Shot in moody monochrome, the photographs recall photo essays by Eugene Smith and others during the heyday of Life Magazine.

Francis Harrison describes the project thus:

"I was attracted to traditional themes as a counterpoint to the soullessness and wholesale Westernisation so prevalent in modern Japan.

My early background in the martial arts naturally led me to an orthodox sumo club at an agricultural college near my home, where I was eventually allowed to shoot freely by the coach, a fiercely traditional man.

What struck me from the start was the aura of discipline and sacrifice that suffused the place. Long periods of stretching and limbering up would be interrupted by instants of total violence, none of it personal but totally committed nonetheless.

Over time, I was deeply moved by the dedication of these young men, most of whom would never make it to the Pros while punishing their bodies sometimes with lasting effect.

My promise to the coach was to give an accurate representation of genuine sumo to the outside world, where so often the sport is seen as "fat babies in diapers", and I only hope that I have kept my promise and done justice to these powerful athletes."

The exhibition is divided into three phases: "Preparation", "Combat" and "Contemplation" reflecting the various parts and moods of any given practice session. Through these stages one can catch glimpses of an older Japan where ancestral voices predominate...

Text: Charnwood Arts
Photo: Paul Conneally

Monday, October 05, 2015

Announcement of a Provisional Congress for the Psychogeographic Fragmentation of the London Agglomeration - Guy Debord 1956

Source: Oeuvres. Gallimard, Paris, 2006;
Translated: from the original for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeftCreative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2008.


'Diversion End' Paul Conneally 2015

In the month of August we propose to bring together for a week a certain number of individuals called on to discuss the first concrete results of psychogeography; of that discipline’s place in the group of problems posed by the creation of a new culture, and the possibilities of its concrete application to the city of London. At the end of this week of discussions the group will enter into action in order to verify by experience some of the theoretical conclusions of the Congress. 


This action will inevitably take on multiple – and occasionally violent – aspects. Its usefulness will principally reside in the study of the effects, on a great modern urban center, of a series of rapid and sustained shocks calculated to introduce -during a period limited to one month – an element of uncertainty in the normal social and affective organization of the city. 


We recognize that an urban agglomeration the size of London represents nothing psychogeographically. It is important in the very beginning to divide it into several clearly defined zones. And then, within these juxtaposed zones, we must study the placement and limits of the different ambience units in order to utilize them in function of our plans, and to anticipate their emotional perfecting by means of an appropriate architecture and urbanism. 


We know that the inhabitants of London, like those of all the other cities of current society, suffer from nervous problems, which are the inevitable consequence of today’s urbanism and, more generally, of a profound mental misery, which is a product of our primitive society. 


We feel ourselves capable of participating, in the important sector of the modern sensibility, in the labor of change our times demand. It is with this goal in mind that we are undertaking the London experiment. It is a matter of offering everyone the chance of adopting a global solution to the problems of 1957. The solution offered will exercise a radical influence on activities of all kinds: plastic, psychological, musical, political, literary, social, journalistic, erotic, popular, military, philosophical, cinematographic, aristocratic, pedagogical, commercial, religious, culinary, architectural, etc. 


In fact, we hope to assemble in London experts in the revolution in every aspect of life in order to work together at the creation of transitory affective situations consciously constructed. 


It isn’t currently possible to foresee the results of such activity. We invite all those who want to participate in its invention to contact the organizing committee. 


Organizing Committee of the Provisional Congress for the Psychogeographic Fragmentation of the London Agglomeration. 


Guy Debord 1956


c/o I.C.A. 17-18 Dover St, Piccadilly, London, W1
Potlatch, 32, rue de la Montagne-Geneviève, Paris 5



Thursday, October 01, 2015

Connecting Cultures



A Year 5 pupil from Abbey Community Primary School hard at work during a Connecting Cultures session at Brahma Kumaris Spiritual University in Leicester. He is illustrating his tanka poem about his grandad, his hero:

my grandad lives in
Uganda but he has to
go to India
then travels to the UK
goes to London buys a house

Connecting Cultures is a project conceived and organised by photographer Kajal Nisha Patel bringing together two culturally different British community schools from urban Leicester and rural Harby to work on stories, poetry, illustration and bookmaking.

In this session over a hundred pupils worked with artist Paul Gent on illustration and poet Paul Conneally of Leicester City Council PCAS on tanka poems.

September 2015