Some of you may have noticed i have recently been painting giant static cubes. Theres something quite exciting about a well placed cube structure being transformed in front of the public. The first cube was painted in Bradford, then came Amsterdam. Then it was Walsall and finally in Muscat. Now i am excited to share this video Cubizm – the Spinning Cube, taking the static cube and bringing it to life, while spinning it 360 degrees, alongside a percussionist and a poet. Live on stage – this performance is captured for the first time in this video…. Watch out for a cube that could land in a city near you…..!

Soul In The Machine is an exhibition that just launched at The Hubb gallery, which i launched over a year ago.  It featured some of my favourite artists which i have been collaborating with over the past year, .

There are two blog accounts that are well worth reading of two Christian Reverends that attended the event and what they took from it…

One from Rev. Ray Gaston>>

http://faithinanurbanworld.blogspot.com/2011/12/multifaith-soul-in-machine.html?spref=fb

And the other from Rev. Chris Shannahan

http://faithinanurbanworld.blogspot.com/2011/12/multifaith-soul-in-machine.html?spref=fb

I have just returned from the great city of Muscat in Oman, invited by Brand Oman Management Unit – a government-run organization responsible for helping raise the Sultanate’s profile on the international stage. I have spraypainted in many great cities such as New York, Melbourne, London, Dubai and Toronto, but my  experience in Muscat was very unique.  Invited to the Muscat Youth Summit, i was told that i would be staying in a sea-resort for 4 days work along with nearly 300 young people from 15-24.  I was asked to deliver an ‘Urban Art’ program, which, upon arrival, i noticed as being very prominent in a lot of the branding.  Urban Art? Graffiti?  At a summit, supported and run by the government?  I checked out the marketing for this summit online and saw video messages from H.H Saeed Al Faisal… wow this is real endorsement of street-art on a level i’ve never witnessed before! Street-art globally is not often endorsed on an official level, and is often associated with vandalism and urban-decay. This is what makes this project unique for me.  A government that really cares for its youth.  I mean it has to – the future is the youth, with 40% of its population being 15 and under!  They understand the appeal of the spraycan and recognised the need to develop its youth and speak their language.  I have seen how truly the spraycan is the icon for these generations.  I have seen the dazzle in the eyes of youth around the globe upon sight of a spraycan. Its universal i tell ya!

I discover there really isnt much of a urban-art scene in Muscat. Most cities I have been to, all do have some kind of scene, or network of artists, whether established or up-and-comping, there is always something going on.  I find here there is almost nothing, i was provided with two of the few local artists Taher Al Batashi and Salim Al Busaidi. They were to be my support artists for the program. Excellent!  I love connecting with local artists, it doesnt make sense otherwise, i never like to be parachuted in and out of places, if there isn’t a local connection where i can connect and leave something tangible behind, then i’m happy (even if its my left-over spraycans for them to paint more murals with!)  They tell me about their struggles in obtaining quality aerosol paint in the country, and almost dribble at the sight of hundreds of cans of Spanish-made Montana 94 which i had flown in!

So what do i offer to Muscat?  I have recently been experimenting by building cubes that i paint onto, instead of a flat canvas.  In the past i’ve asked for flat surfaces, almost fake-walls to be constructed – that are usually made from wooden boards.  This is done to simulate a real-wall or a canvas, which is quite 2D in nature, so i’ve been developing this concept where the art travels across a 3D structure instead,  where the wall or canvas actually comes out at you.

Art on a cube behaves quite differently to art on a flat surface, in how it can travel around the cube, and engages the viewer in a very different way to how one would engage with a flat surface.  The viewer has to move around the cube.  On previous cubes i’ve painted, i’ve noticed people – for some reason – naturally gravitate to walking anti-clockwise around the cube, in a zombie-like fashion they kind of drift in that direction, and walk around it once, twice… without me guiding them to do so. Its quite exciting to watch how one engages with these 3D structures!  So we build two cubes, and paint them black in preparation for the big day!  Thanks to the local team on the ground working tirelessly to prepare the cubes, i am sent pictures of the gorgeous black cubes.  I’m always tempted to leave them plain as they are at times, very minimal and mystical. Upon arrival i jokingly mentioned that we should not do anymore to them and keep them black and minimal as an artistic statement.  Don’t think they found it very amusing!

Okay, i’m kidding of course, of course i’m going to paint them! We have shipped in spraycans from the other side of the globe, with plenty of headache along the way, with couriers refusing to take them onto flights due to their flammable and explosive nature. This has to be worth it! 

We had one-day only to paint these cubes.  At least 25% of that day was spent indoors planning, discussing and sketching, so we had little time to paint such a huge space. It was going to be a challenge!  With the added pressure that The Wave – Muscats premier leisure and residential complex had expressed a keen interest in offering a permanent home for these cubes, it was a massive challenge.  This was a workshop where mistakes can and should be made by first-timer spraypainters, i mean that’s how you learn.  But the art also had to be of a quality that could be displayed as refined pieces of art in a public space….No pressure then!  

So i had to get my military boots on, and educate the young people about process, and in particular – teamwork.  We had a mission, to express ideas that are coherent, and powerful enough that should resonate with the public. This is public art so it needs to communicate effectively, to the very public.  This for me is the purpose of Urban-Art.  This isn’t art for art’s sake, but art with a purpose. Art to change the world!!  Okay, lets start with Muscat first….

Before any spraying took place,I told the story through visuals of how mankind has expressed himself through carving or scratching his story into public spaces, going back to ancient rock carvings, and Egyptian hieroglyphics.  No-one should ever suggest to them again that urban-art was just mindless youth letting off some steam with some paint!  This ‘public-art’ dated tens of thousands of years, and we are merely updating the tools in which to continue with that legacy… the spraycan.  I shared with them some of my own thoughts and my ethos, of how art can be used for social change.  How art can be an alternative means for dealing with difficult problems.    And then the issues came forward…   What do they want to paint on this cube i asked… What are those messages? What do you feel passionate about, and what do Omani people feel right now….. The ideas came pouring out and sketches filled their paper.  I always say everyone can draw, everyone is a graffiti artist. i mean EVERYONE.   When you are on the phone, and you have a pen in your hand, what are you doing? Doodling (i.e Graffiti!)  To prove the point i asked everyone to turn to their back-pages of their notebooks….. and lo and behold, what do we see??  Amazing designs of cubes and spirals and shapes……that had been crafted without them even realising it. They had been empowered! They truly are graffiti artists, but just didn’t realise it! So lets begin!

Outside we gained momentum quite quickly.. before you knew it, the black surface was disappearing, being engulfed with vibrant colours.  I wanted them to release themselves and create a crazy collage of their concepts  With the help of my support artists Taher and Salim, the cube was radically transformed.  While they used the smaller of the two cubes to be more experimental upon, the larger cube became something more refined.  With the help of a smaller group of students we got to work on intiricately developing a geometric pattern across the big cube. 

The over-riding message of the larger cube became:  The Future Belongs To Those Who Prepare for it Today – a quote from Malcolm X.  A quote that was rather befitting for the Summit, especially as surrounding us were banners with the MYS logo, alongside the slogan ‘Investing In the Future’…

This is exactly what this session was about. investing in the future of these young people, developing them in extraordinary ways.  Through the wide-range of workshops they had been involved with topics such as photography, digital activism, sustainable cities, and now graffiti-art, it was extremely refreshing to see how the youth had opened themselves up during these few days.  They had extracted vital skills from the presenters flown in especially, and it was very exciting to be a part of it, knowing that the seeds we plant today, would make a difference in their lives – and ultimately the lives of others, injecting something back into the society they live in.

A short video made by SBTV on some of the workshops..

On my travels being hosted as an artist to events and festivals in various parts of the world, be it Muslimfest in Canada, Taking it to the Street in Chicago or the Eid Festival in Sweden, I have been inspired to address important issues that I feel we need to explore, in order to develop the arts and the impact of faith-related perspectives on mainstream festivals, especially with the explosion of festival culture here in the UK.

I have witnessed at some of these events, how people of different faith have been engaged, how some of these festivals, although have been an expression of one faith community, have actually appealed to all. However i have also seen how many events/festivals have been the opposite, a narrower audience where one faith community has developed programs which actually appeals only to their own community. Sometimes this has been deliberate, with organisers targeting that very community and appealing to a broader audience has not been one of the targets. But i also noticed that some organisers would have welcomed a broader audience, but just hadn’t succeeded.

From this a number of questions arose for me. Should it appeal to a broader audience? Or should it be a more focused audience? How do you bring in wider audiences? What is the benefit of a broader audience, specifically different faith communities, in the times we live in? What is the benefit to a venue/organisation to program for faith communities?

I have seen at some of these events, sponsorship ranging from local businesses to the worlds biggest brands. How does it attract such sponsors and what is the appeal?

We decided at Soul City Arts together with the mac, that we need to put on a symposium that explores these questions, bring together people from various sectors to talk about their approaches and the events they have been involved with, providing us with an opportunity to network, discuss and engage with one another in order to inform our own practices and develop our respective organisations.

This symposium we feel is crucial to those involved with the arts and hope you all see the benefit of attending. We have had to charge £30 in order to cover the costs for such an event, which i am sure you all appreciate. £30 is easily spent on a night at the cinema with popcorn, for those i hear complaining already!

We have brought together speakers from across the UK and around the globe.

Asad Jafri Artistic Director, Inner City Muslim Action Network and Producer of ‘Takin’ it to the Streets’ Festival (Chicago)

Carl Christopher-Ansari Sponsorship and Events Manager Sony Computer Entertainment UK Ltd

Paul Northup Festival Director, Greenbelt Festivals

Isata Kanneh Events Producer, Celebrating Sanctuary Festival

Wed 9 Nov, 12:30pm – 5pm

Full Delegate Registration Fee including lunch £30 plus VAT

The future Belongs to Those who prepare for it today!

For more on it all see here

Children at Whitgreave Primary School will work under the watchful eye of Mohammed Ali to create murals on two 6m-long playground walls which will promote universal positivity and cultural understanding.

Mr Ali – who has scooped a clutch of accolades for his work in New York, Dubai and Melbourne, including one from ITV’s South Bank Show – is working with the children as part of the school’s involvement in the Creative Partnerships programme organised by North Staffordshire based charity Partners in Creative Learning (PiCL).

The school in the former mining village has been encouraging the children to become cultural detectives and they have been involved in a series of initiatives to explore a raft of different cultures and religions through filmmaking, dance and now graffiti.

The murals that Mohammed and the children will create will become a lasting testimonial of the school’s cultural understanding which has involved lots of hard work by the teaching staff, pupils and the wider community.

Head teacher of The Avenue school, Caroline Jobling, said: “The work with Mohammed will enhance the ongoing work that the school is involved in, developing a lively and relevant curriculum which prepares all of our pupils for life in the 21st century.”

The school has scored a coup in having Birmingham-based Mohammed involved with their project as he is a much in demand artist whose work takes him all over the world. His clash of civilisations style – which has a fusion of street art and Islamic script, along with his conscious messages – has been praised for its messages of harmonious multiculturalism.

Mohammed said: “I love visiting different communities around the globe and painting murals that reflect their issues, but nothing beats working close to home, contributing towards raising aspirations of the very young people in the society in which I live, they are our future.”

This project will also be documented by filmmaker Harmeet Chagger Khan who has worked with pupils at the school for two years.

PiCL director Rachel Billington believes that the children will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to work with such an accomplished world-famous artist.

“Everyone at the school must be incredibly excited that Mohammed Ali is coming to work with the children to create murals which will become iconic overnight,” she said.

“The Creative Partnerships programme has underpinned so much of the creative work which has gone on at the school in the last couple of years and there’s no better symbolism of that than having a Mohammed Ali on the walls of the playground.”

PiCL is currently delivering the Creative Partnerships programme in more than 50 schools across the region. This funding stream is being withdrawn at the end of the current academic year but the charity is committed to maintaining the delivery of arts and creativity within the educational curriculum. It is actively seeking local support and sponsors.

ENDS

For more information please contact Paul Kirby at Octopus Public Relations on:
(M) 07970 961701
(E) paul@octopuspr.co.uk

Defending Multiculturalism is a vibrant, hard-hitting and informative collection of essays that sets out to defend Britain’s multicultural way of life. The contributors challenge David Cameron and others assertions that multiculturalism is to blame for dividing society, encouraging segregation and even encouraging terrorism.

The best thinkers and writers in politics, academia and activism take on issues such as “Has multiculturalism failed?”; “The threat of the English Defence League”; “Muslim working class history”; “Are the white working class excluded from multiculturalism?”; “The TwoTone phenomenon – Music and the struggle against racism”; “How our schools help build our multicultural society”; “Anti-racism and the trade unions”; Muslims and dissent”; “Scapegoating – The Jewish experience”. The book will also include a photo essay and new poetry.

This accessible book is a must have for all those who want to celebrate, defend and extend Britain’s rich and diverse society.

Contributors include Peter Hain MP, Professor Tariq Modood, Liz Fekete, Professor Danny Dorling, Salma Yacoob, Rob Berkeley, Ken Livingstone, Kevin Courtney, Sabby Dhalu, Martin Smith, Weyman Bennett and Dilowar Khan. Poetry by Mike Rosen, Zita Holborne and Avaes Mohammed, photo essay by Rehan Jamil. Cover design by Mohammed Ali Aerosolarabic.

The editor Hassan Mahamdallie works at Arts Council England. He has written extensively on the history of black people in the West, anti racism and islamaphobia. His latest book Crossing the ‘river of fire’: the socialism of William Morris is published by Redwords (2008).

Building bridges with graffiti art article on the Common Ground website dedicated to fostering dialogue.

The sustainable student village known as The Green, based at the University’s City Campus, aims to be the most environmentally-friendly student accommodation in the UK when it is completed in September 2011, setting a blueprint for truly sustainable living.

Mohammed’s work at the University will explore the power of education to transform the world. He will look at how the pen truly is mightier than the sword and the importance of enlightenment through education, a theme which is universally appreciated in cultures around the world.

Visit the building site hoardings any time from 10 am on Tuesday 28 September until Friday 1st October, to see this amazing work.

A Grand Finale event, with live painting, urban poetry from Jonzi-D and David J, and percussion will take place at 2-3.30pm on Friday 1 October. A talk from the artist, entitled ‘Can Graffiti Art Change the World’, will be held on Wednesday 29 September.

Get your ticket at the mac website>>

*Don’t forget the following day (Sept 4th) a special performance with Amir Sulaiman at the Hubb, Stratford Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, at 1pm.