REVIEW | ‘THE ART OF VISUALISATION — HIP HOP EDITION LAUNCH EVENT’

Thus far, ‘sum­mer’ sea­son in the U.K. can only be described as change­able at best. So, as it approached, the cli­mactic con­di­tions in the lead up to August 6^th didn’t augur well at all.

In fact, the atro­cious weath­er the day before threatened to wash out a num­ber of out­door events across the city; not least of which was the Black Unity Bike Ride. The organ­isa­tion being respons­ible for host­ing a series of inclus­ive fam­ily friendly ride out activ­a­tions encour­aging hol­ist­ic well­ness with­in the Black com­munity across London.

So, fast for­ward a mere 24 hours, it felt like we’d shif­ted real­ity with­in a multi-verse; and we were treated to an after­noon of simply glor­i­ous weather.

Sally Mur­row (whom I’ve known since sec­ond­ary school); pub­licly known as Sal Freckles, along with Jay Mor­ally (two of) the co-founders of Seduced by Art (more on them later); were on hand Upstairs at the Ritzy in the heart of Brixton.

Why? Well, to wel­come guests into an arena where their indi­vidu­al and col­lect­ive pas­sion for art and love of hip hop crossed over to deliv­er an art work­shop at the launch event for the exhib­i­tion cur­ated by Sal entitled — ‘The Art of Visu­al­isa­tion — Hip Hop edition’.

I atten­ded between 2 and 6 PM with my wife and young teen­aged daugh­ters. From the moment we arrived, we were treated to hugs and wel­comed by Sal. Play­ing the good host appeared to come nat­ur­ally and saw her mak­ing a con­cer­ted effort to cir­cu­late around the room to con­verse with guests.

An import­ant part of the cur­a­tion pro­cess came in the form of artist choices with whom to col­lab­or­ate and invite to exhibit.

Sal explains; “I chose 16 world­wide artists whom I both rate and revere, but of equal import­ance; those that have played a role in sup­port­ing my growth and artist­ic development”.

Photo by Kate Scan­lan (R‑L Jay Da Cre­at­or, Art­ful Fro, Car­ole Lead­beat­er, Salfreckles,Nick Xzib­it, Lou B)

Artists from as far afield as the USA, Canada and Japan were rep­res­en­ted as well oth­ers based here in the U.K. Here’s a run down of those in attend­ance in addi­tion to Sal Freckles and Jay­mor­ally da Cre­at­or along with their con­tri­bu­tions and media of choice:

Rachael Hos­ten — The Art­ful Fro (U.K.) — ATCQ — Acryl­ic hand painted on vinyl.
Nick Xzib­it (U.K.) — Chuck D, Amy True, Curoc, Sarah Love, 279 — Photography.
Car­ole Lead­beat­er (U.K.) — Cook­ie Crew Graf and Break­dan­cer pieces — Photography.
Lou B (U.K.) — DJ Lord and Queen Lati­fah — Hand painted images prin­ted to canvas.
Coko (D.I.C.Y.L.I) (U.K.) — TY — Photography.
Jay Mor­ally da Cre­at­or (U.K.) — Tupac — Pro­cre­ate iPad.

Those exhib­it­ing in absen­tia were:
Andy Katz (USA) — Red­man and Black Thought — Digit­al artwork.
Hieram (Canada) — Kool Herc painted on leath­er jack­et presen­ted as a photograph.
Miho Michelet (Japan) — print of ori­gin­al pas­tel draw­ings — Japan­ese based Rap­per Oni and Bumpy Knuckles.
MAD­INA (U.K.) — Vari­ous illus­tra­tion prints — Procreate.
GEM­INI (U.K.) — Rox­anne Shante — Photograph.
Amy Cin­na­mon (USA) — De La Soul and transat­lantic Nas col­lab­or­a­tion with Sal Freckles — Digit­al artworks.
Tony Cop­pin (USA) — Digit­al illustration.
Dar­ren Hol­tem (U.K.) — PE Cov­er art — Digit­al illustration.
Lance­ford Brown AKA MR Brown Esq (U.K.) — Hip Hop 50+ piece — Mixed media, Water­col­our and Photoshop.

Sal’s astute cur­a­tion of artists made for the pro­vi­sion of a rich cor­nu­copia of works to suit most tastes; ran­ging from dif­fer­ing cre­at­ive and artist­ic dis­cip­lines to a vari­ety of out­put media for dis­played pieces which were all very well received by those present.

Attendees were treated to a spec­tacle that was not only visu­al, but aur­ally pleas­ing too. All were able to take in and dis­cuss many of the artist­ic pieces on dis­play, with Hip Hop DJ, 279 (The Num­ber­man) spin­ning none but the finest joints that marked the quint­essence of the hip hops’ golden era. The size and lay­out of the ven­ue made for a cozy yet com­fort­able exper­i­ence. The time of day leant itself well to art­works being fully vis­ible in all their resplen­dence. The ven­ues bar and rooftop ter­race were also wel­comed, afford­ing guests the oppor­tun­ity to enjoy time with refresh­ments whilst mov­ing around.

For a free, fam­ily friendly event, it was abso­lutely superb. The exhib­i­tion was well organ­ised, pub­li­cised and executed. I’d have quite hap­pily paid to attend; even in such straitened times to help cov­er the cost of the craft mater­i­als provided for the creative/art activ­it­ies laid on.

Seduced by Art, the organ­isa­tion through which the art work­shop was put on by Sal and Jay; has been work­ing hard towards gain­ing ‘char­ity’ status to enable them to bid for fund­ing to put on fur­ther such events. They are very inclus­ive and far from being age-lim­ited, encour­age com­munity cohe­sion, at the point where art and hip hop cross over.

This exhib­i­tion is most cer­tainly #Approved­By­Pops

*the exhib­i­tion con­tin­ues Upstairs until August Bank Hol­i­day week­end — please check ven­ue for events and open­ing times*

@seduced_by_art @sal_freckles @jaymorally_da_creator @thehumblehost

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The Humble Host

@TheHumbleHost — Or simply, ‘Pops’… Friend to the Great, Cham­pi­on of the Good Hearted. Com­mit­ted to Can­did Cap­ture and Archivism ✌🏾

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• REVIEW | ‘THE ART OF VISU­AL­ISA­TION — HIP HOP EDI­TION LAUNCH EVENT’ — August 12, 2023