Hackney Wicked at Red!

Had a great weekend performing the Diamond Angel for Hackney Wicked at the exciting arts event Red Market (part of the Red Gallery). Was fun to perform in the middle of the day and late at night. Its the first time I've done a performance with the Angels and think am hooked! Am in the process of making more Diamond Angels, I want an army of them for the next one! Massive thanks to my glamorous assistants (I'd never be able to get in and more importantly out of the costume with out them) and to Dee for documenting it!

                                         I love this detail!!!

                                         A quick test before going out

                                         Last performance on Sunday night (this pic by Jim Lister)

 Have been busy this morning washing sand out of the latex (it gets everywhere!!!) and preparing for a shoot. Here's a bunch of links for Hackney Wicked / Red Market!
www.instagram.com/p/OwhvS1B1pl/?fb_source=og_snowlift_photo_user_message
www.redmarketlondon.com
www.twitter.com/RedMarketLondon
www.facebook.com/hackneywicked

Follow Me

Hooray! The very talented photographer Travis Hodges has got his 'Follow Me' project in the great online magazine aCurator! One of his amazing photos is a multi exposure image of me transforming into my first Angel!
Take a look!!!
www.acurator.com/#/2/149/3
 www.travishodges.co.uk/followme/

Diamond Angel Shoot

Had a great shoot yesterday with Dee!!
We shot just down the road from my house on the edge of the A12 (east london). After various experiments I followed some advice from a fellow inventor that it's possible to create a vacuum just by using your breath. I didn't think it would work but goddamn it did!! So much better than having to take a portable vacuum cleaner around and I love the fact it makes the wearer/performer who makes it all work, makes it a more holistic being (if that doesn't sound to hippy).

Got lots of friendly and at times Gung-Ho responses from passers by. It always amazes me how often people ask Dee "whats that thing there" and have no idea there's a person wearing these things.
It's a vacuum in there so I have to wear ear plugs because of the pressure, this adds to the feeling of separation from reality and I just kind of forget where I am. Being one of the hottest day's of the year yesterday I was a bit worried I'd overheat but as we shot just as the sun was going down the temperature in there was ok (just about). Apparently zipping me into the Diamond vac section is much harder than it was when we first started testing it, Dee blamed it on too many KitKat Chunkys! What a cheeky monkey!
Below is a couple of pics Dee took on her phone (taking the film to get developed today) and she also took a video of me doing the breathing to create the vacuum, I like how it makes the Angel look like some kind of alive machine!

here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQxyMXTn6vE

Vac Manta Test Pic's

here's few pics Dee took during todays test! The costume needs more work and but I think it's coming together!

Manta Angel Test

Just done a test for a new vacuum Angel in my back garden. Was quite successful, needs a bit more work...For the actual shoot we going down to the muddy river banks with smoke machine!!!!

Dimond Angel Test

We just did the first test for the new Angel. Am so happy with how it looks! The way the red latex sucks against the rigid frame and my body is ace! With most of these Angels I have no idea how its actually going to look until we do these tests so it's a bit nerve wreaking, have got as far as doing a shoot (in the middle of the night in a sand pit) in the past when we realized the costume just didn't work and needed to be drastically rethought.  Think we gonna get a great shoot out of this one. The suction of the hover was WAY to powerful, felt like it was going to push the frame right though my ribs so I need to work on that. I could only stand it for a second, hence Dee having to turn the hover on and straight off again. With a little tweaking I think we will be ready to shoot this mother real soon!!!!

Network Awesome

Network Awesome certainly live up to their name!
Their site is JAM PACKED with amazing films, TV shows, documentary's and great articles. I've discovered so many amazing things on there and rediscovered so many films that were but vague and bizarre memories! I made a few ID/sting type things for them last year and have just finished this one using Dee's pictures from the White Angel shoot! I just went past the estate where these pictures where shot and now there's a massive sculpture in the middle of the court yard, it's like a giant Triffid!