REVIEW OF 2010 : DAVID CURTIS-RING

David Curtis-Ring, Peacock portrait photography by Christa Holka

I worked with ADAD on the music video Love Part II where we had some great fun with smoke, confetti and sugarglass! In the video there is a moment when a sheet of glass appears to break over Bright Light Bright Light and so while filming this part Alun and I were hovering above Rod with a sheet of sugarglass, poised, waiting for the go-ahead to let it fall! Eek! This felt quite dramatic at the time, to be dropping what seemed to like a piece of glass! We only had two chances to get it right but it worked out really well in the end. The sumptuous collage of textures, lights and varying colours that you can see in the finished piece are among my favourite things about the video!

I'm a London based artist working in set design, costume and props. My practice references mythology, elements of fantasy and mysticism and often features the animal as symbol. I'm interested in creating a striking visual language through an exploration of archetypes and a tactile, colourful and handmade aesthetic. I've just recently finished work on a music video for pop duo Muchuu where I art directed and designed the set and am now beginning a project with fantastic DOP Michel Dierickx.

www.davidcurtis-ring.blogspot.com















Video still from Love Part II by Bright Light Bright Light























Muchuu Set design photography by Fanny Jansen

CASSIDY NOBLETT

Cassidy Noblett wears Mirrorball armour by Alun Davies. Hot!

Deeper Shade of Blue - STEPS

Ohh some early inspiration! I think I would quite like to see Shona Heath make a few more costumes in the style of these again.
View the whole video here.

SAMUEL CHASE AT THE SECRET GARDEN PARTY

Here are a few pics of Samuel Chase's customized costume I made for his Secret Garden Party last week, I wasn't able to make it but however here are a few images done by Samuel a few day's before. There are big plans for Samuel future gigs so keep an eye out for future dates and tours.

Pop Ideologies Make The World Go 'Round

The lovely Christopher Cole Emailed me a few weeks back with some questions regarding the Monsterball dancers costumes I had designed. He wrote quite an interesting piece on them and his insight into my design approach was quite intriguing, especially to see how much people can read into simply the costume design, however these were never any old costumes they were of course Lady Gaga's dancers and with Gaga comes a whole narrative and character synopsis, even if you don't have time to process this consiously when you simply need to design and make everything under tight deadlines, the subconscious runs through.

You can read Christophers piece at:
http://pop-ideologies-make.blogspot.com/

ARCHIVE - Cardboard costume

Here's some oldies from a project I did as a student I just came across these pics again. Always good to keep a check on yourself. This was pre-photographic collaboration day's. I think my concept was Dino-Geometry or something of the sort. As this was also pre-mass blogging I'm planning on doing an ARCHIVE section to the Blog for old item's I could have should have and would have blogged about.

Samuel Chase at the Camden Crawl

Here is a better picture of Samuel Chase wearing the encrusted star neck piece costume I made for his tour and festival dates, we are currently working on some new additions. This picture was taken at the Camden Crawl, photography by Chris Gent. and you can listen to some of Samuel's music at www.myspace.com/samuelchasemusic

Rosie Knowles

Hi I'm Rosie Knowles currently interning for Alun Davies Studio, I am a 2nd year Theatre and Performance design student, studying at LIPA in Liverpool.

At the start of this week after getting a little lost I arrived at Alun Davies Studio. I was given my first task to buy fabric for Alun's costume project for Samuel Chase (singer). With my A-Z in one hand and my tube map in the other off I went on the first of many mini adventures around London. I returned successful and was presented with my next task of finishing off disco mirror covered cuffs for Lady Ga Ga's dancers. I thought this was most exciting because I find her so fascinating so to be actually working on something she will see was fun. I even got the chance to drop off her clothes. My friends were impressed when I told them that evening as it wasn't the average Monday.

The rest of this week I have been helping Alun finish off Samuel Chase's costume for his first performance at the ICA which took place yesterday night. Samuel's performances are based around audio visual effects interacting with his music, which are then projected onto him as he stands alone with his microphone. Alun's design was to create a collar which would have a major impact under the lights, so I have been gluing all sorts of sparkly crystals, broken glass, bondage straps, whistles, nails, door hinges, feathers to name just a few which appear on the piece.

Finally having covered the whole piece we proceeded to pack everything up and head over to the ICA. This is where Samuel was able to see the finishing touches we had done and also the addition of a smaller collar to go over the larger piece. I helped Alun attach the collar and then it was out front to see the performance. The piece really worked great under the lights considering how dark it is when all the other lights were out. I really enjoyed the different colours and Samuel's shadow which gave a very mysterious silhouette. After a lot of well deserved congratulations it was time to have a glass of wine and head home for bed.

Coming up next week I will be assisting Alun on MACHINE A fashion art installation which sounds very exciting so I look forward to telling you all about it!


http://machine-a.com/

Here is a little look at what work I have done recently while at university....

GaGa Garden!

Performance Artist Owen G Parry did a test run of a new set of Gaga armor I have been making today for me in our garden. It had such a beautiful sparkle in the sunlight and Owen was impressed with how HOT it made him look I just had to share it with you!

Japanese Lady Gaga fan jumps on stage!

As I complete a new set of Gaga armor in London it looks like Gaga needed her armor dance troup armored up in Japan. Look she said "I don't wanna be friends!" Go mirror ball team!!

Gone a bit GaGa

GaGa dancers wearing mirrorball helmets and armor by ALÙN