Designers have been rummaging in skips for materials and inspiration for as long as there have been skips to rummage in.
Today, driven by the dual need to save money as well as the planet, they are rummaging more than ever before, and on a worldwide scale to produce some truly inspiring work.
Henrietta Thompson, author of the bestselling book Remake It: Home, former design editor of Wallpaper (now editor-at-large ) will vist ABC Amsterdam to tell us more about upcycling.
She’ll give an introduction to how the professionals’ approach upcycling, including a history of the best, most relevant and most exciting and enduring upcycling ideas we’ve seen to date, what’s going on now, where and how, as well as an introduction to four major new trends for the future.
Following on the success of similar events in 2008 and 2009 The American Book center is thrilled to announce:
The ABC Urban Arts Festival 2010!
On Saturday June 26 2010, from 1pm to 6pm, the large square in front of The American Book Center Amsterdam will be transformed into an outdoor atelier, with artists showing and creating work on-site for the public to enjoy.
These ‘creatives’ have been chosen to participate because they represent a cross section of graphic designers, illustrators, graffiti artists, fiber artists, paper-toy designers – all with an urban edge.
Across the square, in the ABC Treehouse, workshops will offer free ‘hands on’ lessons to the public and discussions with artists, publishers and other industry professionals covering subjects such as design, crafts, illustration and practical crossovers between the areas.
The ABC Urban Arts Illustrated Book panel URBAN will be the first panel in the Netherlands to emphasize “street art / urban art “ as part of the world of visual / illustrated books, and trace the journey of a design book from idea to book shelves. The panel will be moderated by Buzz Poole, managing editor of Mark Batty Publisher (NY).
The ABCUAF2010 Line-Up
Pia Jane Bijkerk internationally acclaimed stylist, photographer and author specializing in interiors, still life & food. Pia is the author and photographer of Paris: Made by Hand, and will release Amsterdam: Made by Hand at the American Book Center on June 5th. Pia will be signing her books at the festival.
Autobahn: Jeroen Breen, Maarten Dullemeijer and Rob Stolte design special graphical projects, often with an illustrative and typographical angle. Autobahn is characterized by an analytical approach in the beginning and a strong sense of form at the end of the process, combined with passion and ambition. For the Urban Arts Festival, they will create Stone Carved Tweets. The pace of modern communications is very high. Autobahn reflects on this fact by combining Twitter with a highly contrasting and much older communication method: stone carved texts. Autobahn has expanded the font of Dom Hans van der Laan – a Dutch monk and architect – with the numerals 0 to 9, the @ – and #-sign. A mini-website shows a Twitter stream (e.g. # Stonecarvedtweets) in the font of Van der Laan. Using this stream, they print out the message and place it in the ‘inbox’ of the stonecarver(s). They’ve created a workplace for stonecarver(s) that produce live tweets.
Marshall Alexander is Dutch paper engineer, based in Arnhem, whose work mainly focuses on the creation of papertoys.
Maarten Janssens has rediscovered the world of paper kits. His lifelong fascination with pictures, characters and paper-material came together in what soon became his project-of-love 3EyedBear. He’ll be on hand to lead a workshop, and to sign the book We Are Paper Toys: Print-Cut-Fold-Glue-Fun.
Matthijs [MCK] Kamstrais a young Dutch designer, specializing in paper engineering, who has worked for huge Dutch names like Albert Heijn, Het Rijksmuseum, D-Reizen, and TPG Post.
MAOMA was born in Amsterdam in 2004 from a love between two partners, Giulia Laura and Rocco Pezzella. The collaboration consists of using the best of their individual skills and strengths in order to create artworks that reflect their own imaginary world. Melting together illustrations, toys and fabric, Maoma’ s Dolls reflect the interests in which help Rocco & Giulia to remain young in the spirit, helping people to smile and to inspire.
MACHINE is one of the leading design agencies in the Netherlands, Machine (Mark Klaverstijn & Paul du Bois-Reymond) excels in adapting to the design possibilities ushered in by “new media” – websites, video performances, record covers, T-Shirts, installations and music. Their book Designed by Machine was published in 2009. Machine is an Urban Arts Festival partner, designing our poster for us.
Maki is a small design and illustration studio, with a big client list all over the globe.Their work can be described as wacky, edgy, humorous, urban and intelligent. It looks good on almost everything, from clothing to posters, from walls to human bodies. MAKI is featured in the books Tees: The Art of The T-Shirt and Custom Kicks. For the festival, they’llbe customizing all kinds of different objects. Think lamps, teapots, cups and vases. All non-wearables.
Buzz Poole has been the managing editor of Mark Batty Publisherfor over five years. He has worked in various publishing capacities for more than 10 years, including retail, running a DIY literary journal, and the book arts. He has written about books, art, music, and culture for numerous outlets, including The Village Voice, The Believer, Print, Grafik and San Francisco Chronicle. The New Statesman named his illustrated book Madonna of the Toast one of 2007’s Best Underground Books. Mr. Poole will be moderating the Illustrated Book Panel at the ABC Treehouse.
Mark Batty Publisher is an independent publisher dedicated to making distinctive books on the visual art of communicating, showcasing the visual power and innovation of contemporary culture in all of its varied poses.
Daniel Jarosch and Henrik Klingel set up their design studio, PKNTS, in Berlin in 2006. Their clients include Onitsuka Tiger/Asics, Big Fish Games, the BenQ-Siemens Explore Room and Messe Frankfurt. Their work has been awarded the Commerzbank Design Prize and the Nike Play Award 2008. They will be supplying oversize pages from The Sneaker Colouring Book for you to get creative with. It’s a colouring book for grown-ups which collects 100 black-and-white line drawings of popular sneaker designs, shown in side view, to colour, alter or customize. The models featured are the most popular designs from 1916 to the present day.
ABC Treehouse Craft Community is a diverse group of “Fiber Artists” meets on Tuesday evenings at the ABC Treehouse to knit, crochet, and “stitch-n-bitch”. They will be anchoring the “Fiber Arts” circle, and invite you to bring your knitting or crochet problems to them for ‘clinic’ assistance – or to just join them to loop a few rows.
Dennis de Groot is a freelance graphic & interactive designer for his independent studio PunchDouble. Dennis also makes music under the alias Sterile Action Figures, and is a VJ/DJ at clubs throughout the country. He’ll be making custom poster designs and will have prints of his work available.
Eva has been an obsessive glitter knitter for many years! She’ll be joining the Fiber Arts circle and leading a knitting workshop at the ABC Treehouse.
Lil ‘Shy is an urban textile artist, who will demonstrate her process of creating a new piece of work: designing, cutting, assembling and hand sewing through the day. She’ll have a small showcase of her work as well, so that visitors can understand the final result of what she is creating.
Tania Grace Knuckey gives a modern twist to old fashioned tapestries, making some by hand, and translating hand made graphics, typography and illustrations onto fabrics. She’ll be sharing the process of creating and crafting the tapestries, and will be creating a large scale tapestry during the day. Material will be available for the public to get a feel for the overall process.
Heart On Stage (Leena Yliportimo & Luiz Risi) is where poems and illustrations unite. The upcoming book of the same name is still in the middle of its creative production.: as the book progresses, new spreads are presented on their site. They will be exhibiting their work at the ABC Treehouse in September 2010, and will be helping people play/create with images and words at the ABC Urban Arts Festival. For more information contact heartonstage@gmail.com.
Akut (a.k.a. Falk Lehmann) For four remarkably productive years, the graffiti loving and street art affiliated “storytellers,” Hera and Akut, have combined their artistic skills and individual specialties in order to create one odd but always exquisitely beautiful, instantly recognizable style: Herakut. It’s an extremely contradictory mix of ingredients — Akut’s autodidactic but top-level photorealism and Hera’s classically educated though Don’t-Give-A-Shit-roughness — that results in a surprisingly well-balanced fusion of respect for each other’s qualities and the shared urge to capture life’s anecdotes with brush and spray can. Their book, Herakut, is available at ABC. AKUT will be at the UvA-Aula / Luthersekerk, to talk about his work from 16:00 to 18:00, courtesy of the Premsela Foundation. He will also create a live performance art piece on the Spui.
Molly Crabapple is an American artist, author and entrepreneur.who began her art career doing covers for the pornographic newspaper SCREW Magazine. She has since illustrated for the The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Marvel Comics and Playgirl. She was at one time a regular contributor to Coagula Art Journal. The AP Wire once compared her work to “limerick shared amongst good company in a Victorian parlor.” She is also the author (with John Leavitt) of The Official Dr. Sketchy’s Rainy Day Colouring Book. Caberet will meet art school when Molly leads a Dr. Sketchy workshop at the ABC Treehouse.
Dolly Oblong is a crafty designer who creates cute quirky characters in all shapes and sizes, preferably while drinking tea and munching away cookies. The colourful world of Dolly Oblong is 100% handmade out of plush, paper and occasional bits of vinyl.
Loulou & Tummie is a Dutch illustration duo who spend their days building an ever expanding empire of colourful graphics and characters that that can be found in magazines, books, advertisements, plush, papertoys, on walls and interiors, t-shirts and shoes around the galaxy.
Donna Wilson has been quoted as being ‘wonderful with wool’, a ‘material marvel’, a ‘textile designer extraordinaire’ and even an ‘All round textile legend’. As these descriptions suggest, her distinctive designs have won her an army of dedicated fans around the world and given her a reputation as one of Scotland’s brightest design stars. Characterised by a playful nature, tactile aesthetic and multicoloured palette Donna Wilson’s work ranges from colourful knitted creatures to striking upholstered furnituredesigns. See more in her book,The Knitted Odd Bunch, or her website: www.donnawilson.com
XStreets Collective are diverse group of young international (street) artists based in Amsterdam and Basel. With their different styles, they channel the feel and thoughts of life on the streets in modern day suburbia. Xstreets Collective members are: IVES.one (NL), Bustart (CH), Zaira (CH), Skatin’ Chinchilla (UK), MLSS (NL), Karma83 (UK), Seifrei (CH) and Shez (CH). They cheer up the city with their colorful drawings on canvas, stickers and walls. The XStreets Collective is fresh from exhibits at the ABC Treehouse and around Amsterdam. They will be painting a mural on the Treehouse as part of the Festival activities.
Achilleas Giannissis is a designer working with low-impact fabrics and art supplies. His clothing is a favorite of the environmentally conscious urban crowd. He will be creating a mural using environmentally friendly water based inks, brush, and markers.
Belinda Parten is a ceramic artist and has been working with porcelain for over 15 years in an attempt to create objects that are not only functional, but also inspire one to remember their own stories, their own history. She will be at the festival making porcelain tablets on which you can inscribe your thoughts or feelings about whatever you think is important, whatever you want to say. The finished tablets will be used part of an upcoming exhibit.
Robert Pennekampstarted out as a painter but branched out into other disciplines like installations, sculpture, collage, interventions and video. Pennekamp is the organisor of various projects with other artists like Art Date, het Post Moderne Spookhuis, het eerste Kunst Museum, het project Bekende Nederlanders, de KunstBAR, community art projecten als het Levend Hekwerk, Maak wat moois van al die rotzooi en het Kindermonument Joubertstraat.
Fake is a well-known name in the Amsterdam street art scene, and will be painting a fresh stencil for the Urban Arts Festival.
Marie-Louise Plum is a British illustrator based in London. She will be designing and illustrating (pre-made) masks, and will happily pimp clothing or shoes. She loves to draw on found objects, emphasizing the ‘urban’ aspects. She’s also a deft hand at book illustration and making fanzines. Marie-Louise will be leading a mask making workshop at the ABC Treehouse.
Pieter Ceizer from Pimpalicious – Pimpalicious Living is a fashion label from the Amsterdam streets. All of the Pimpalicious products are child labor free, 100% fair-trade and fine combed cotton. The graphic- and typographic designs are all hand drawn by Ceizer, and worked out and digitalized by computer. All products are produced in limited quantities. Ceizer’s work is featured in Tees: The Art of The T-Shirt, published by Laurence King Publishing; he will be creating a live drawing at the Urban Arts Festival.
Gabrielle van den Bovenkamp is a painter and illustrator from Amsterdam. In her work she combines everyday life experiences with the never-ending stream of information people are subjected to nowadays.
Malia MatherPenelope Craft is an online craft shop run by Malia Mather offering a variety of supplies to keep you a happy crafter. Its virtual doors opened in 2008, and new and different products areconstantly being added to the selection. Ms. Mather will be joining the Fiber Arts circle, and teaching a beginners crochet workshop at the ABC Treehouse.
Pipapiep (Esty Gertzman) from Amsterdam makes all kind of plush monsters and creatures, all hand-made and crafted from fabric. Working in the tradtion of cute and familiar with a twist, she creates a fantastic world in which nothing is what it is seems at first sight.
Laura Amiss produces contemporary textile art in the form of wall-hung canvases. All Laura’s handmade canvases are unique and are created using a selection of new and reclaimed fabrics. Her work is composed of subtle lines and color combinations produced through layering, piecing and sewing fabrics together. Laura draws inspiration from her every day environment and hopes that the way in which she recaptures the landscape or moments of ordinary life allows people to look at them with a fresh perspective.
Audrey Weeren – Label 3 – recycles jackets, couches and anything which feels good, to design bags, belts, shoesocks, wallets and bracelets. Working in this way makes every piece unique in color and texture. For the lining of the bags she mostly uses new, but also beautiful vintage fabric. “Why not re-use what’s not in use?”
Ginni Fleck is an Amsterdam-based mixed-media and textile fanatic starting the new DIY Textile School. With a masters in creativity, she loves to inspire and teach others all that can be done with cloth, paper and glue. She’ll be joining the Fiber Arts circle and teaching a Mixed Media (Paper & Cloth) workshop at the ABC Treehouse.
For further information on the ABC URBAN ARTS FESTIVAL please contact :
Rick Lightstone (lightstone45@zonnet.nl) or Donna DuCarme (treehouse@abc.nl)
The ABC Urban Arts Festival 2010 is sponsored by these fantastic companies:
New media artist Randy Sarafan, author of 62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer will baffle you with his original views and above all, his curious and creative inventions.
Computer hacking takes on a whole new meaning when you’re going at it with a hacksaw and screwdriver. This is the most wildly inventive, eco-friendly craft book on repurposing everyday objects since Generation T. Except in this case the raw material isn’t a T-shirt, but the stuff we all have lying around and have no idea what to do with, or even how to get rid of properly — your old cell phone, a broken printer, irredeemable iPod, busted digital camera, mysterious thatches of cables and wires, orphaned keyboards, and of course, those dead PCs and laptops. Here are 62 ingenious projects that are irresistibly geek-chic, including An iMac Terrarium. A laptop Digital Photo Frame. The impressively green Scanner Compost Bin. Plus a power strip Bird Feeder, Walkman Soap Dish, My First Squiggle Bot, Qwerty Hair Tie and a Flat-screen Ant Farm.
Randy also writes entertainingly mischievous letters to celebrities, organizations and unknown people who have rubbed him up the wrong way. He has promised to read some of thes missives to us on Boekennacht.
On Boekkennacht, Randy will visit ABC Amsterdam to talk about his many inventions and creations, sign his book, and give a workshop with practical demonstrations on his fun approach to recycling.
Nancy Marchant has created an entire website about this stitch, right here, and, if you’re a knitter, I can highly recommend not going there, as you will find yourself seduced by all those fabulous color combinations. Knitters being what they are, you’ll want to start a pattern with that brioche stitch straight away!
Come here the expert speak about it in person. The event starts at 15.00 hrs.
Since The American Book Center’sCustom Kicks event in 2008Urban Culture has grown beyond sneakers and street art to catch the attention of art & design admirers, students, stylists, photographers, and the arts & crafts movement.
Breaking out of the passivity of chain-store shopping, the do-it-yourself movement has spread across America, invaded England, and is landing with both feet at the American Book Center in Amsterdam.
Urbanites from all walks of life are trolling the shelves for information on Sneaker Design, the Handmade Movement and Do-It-Yourself books of all kinds. Why wear a t-shirt sporting someone else’s logo, when you can design your own? Customized sneakers, t-shirts, and winter scarves: what do they all have in common? They are made or re-made by an independent artist – or by you!
Creativity is the order of the day – and on June 27th some of the artists and urbanites driving the movement will share their secrets and offer hands-on workshops. Come to The American Book Center’s Urban Culture Event …and get creative!
The Urban Culture Event at ABC Amsterdam, June 27th, 2009
Participating artists/authors:
Laser 3.14: With the publication of his first solo book, Are You Reading Me? Laser claims his place as one of the leading streat artists of our time. www.Laser3.14.com
Umbrellart: an Xstreets Collective initiative. Bringing art back to the streets and bringing artists from all over the world together.
Idle Hands: I’d rather be knitting! The new community for people that love fibre crafts: be it knitting, crochet or sewing!
Designers have been rummaging in skips for materials and inspiration for as long as there have been skips to rummage in.
Date: Saturday July 2nd
