Dope! I don’t think we’ve featured many sculptors on the site before. Nicola Yeoman is a installation artist (not your traditional sculptor!) who plays with the concepts of perspective and spaces. I definitely have to go see this with my own eye, the perspective is so well done – I’ll probably end up circling the sculpture in order to find an answer in there: “as the viewer finds him or herself able to walk within and about the work—the relationship of the viewer with the object renegotiated and the interplay of dependence altered.” I’ll be check it out soon at the Wyer Gallery in London, more details here. I’m sure these photographs are taken at The Old Truman Brewery?! First floor. Am I right? Hop on after the cut to see more work from the London based installation artist.

follow me on twitter

Introductions have never been as straight forward as people make out, the science behind human interactions *sigh*.  Over the years I have become an expert at predicting and sidestepping awkward encounters, the art lies in knowing when to offer a friendly yet possibly awkward embrace, a firm handshake & confident eye contact or simply a cheeky grin and a wink (The latter proving unsuccessful from personal experience).

follow Derek on twitter

With the ever evolving landscape of social interaction, how does one introduce themselves to an invisible audience *ponders…light bulb…problem solved* – I’ll introduce myself through my series of posts rather than bombard thee with facts.

Currently working as a Creative Technologist @ Burberry, I’m obsessed with technology (not obvious from my job title) and more importantly I’m an art, fashion and literature junkie (without sounding cliche). I been blogging from early ’11 on a personal and now deceased blog titled ‘Project Lost’ showcasing discovery of Art and Style through photography before contributing to Fashion New Outlet and PardonMyBlog

Where are my manners… Happy New Year Guys, I hope your having a more successful attempt at pursuing your resolutions than I have. Managing my workload & preparing for my trip to Japan next week has undoubtedly burned all the calories gained over the festive period

Why japan ? I hear you ask…well in addition to my interests I stated above I also have a condition so term ‘Otaku’

Otaku (おたく / オタク^?) is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video game

Stay tuned for discussion of Style, Art and the occasional rant about Japan :]

Before I get condemned for using the term in the title, it’s the title of the poem and even though I’ve starred out of some of the characters – it’s needed for you to understand the true meaning of this poem by renowned spoken word artist Dean Atta. He wrote this poem in 30 minutes, purely written out of passion after yesterday’s court hearing for the Stephen Lawrence. I’m not black and nor will I ever be able to fully understand the effect this word has but anyone with an ounce of intelligence would know how disgusting this term is. Murderers, plantation owners, racists, xenophobes and more used/still use this term, why use it? Why glorify it in your rap songs? Just no. I wish rappers would make clean versions of their albums without this term. More on the reverse.

follow me on twitter

Dean Atta – Facebook | Twitter | Website

Dean Atta touches this point perfectly in this poem, read and listen below. Thank you Dean for not being afraid to voice your opinion on such a delicate matter.

‘Rappers when you use the word “nigger” remember that’s one of the last words Stephen Lawrence heard, so don’t tell me it’s a reclaimed word.’

‘Call me “nigger” cos you’re scared of what “brother” means’

For many of you that don’t know anything about Stephen Lawrence; It’s the case the 18 year old murder victim of a racist attack back in 1993, after two of his killers were finally convicted of murder yesterday. You can read more about it on the BBC – click here.

I Am Nobody’s Nigger

Rappers when you use the word “nigger” remember that’s one of the last words Stephen Lawrence heard, so don’t tell me it’s a reclaimed word.

I am nobody’s nigger
So please, let my ancestors rest in peace
Not turn in their graves in Jamaica plantations
Or the watery graves of the slave trade
Thrown overboard into middle passage
Just for insurance claims
They were chained up on a boat
As many as they could manage and stay afloat
Stripped of dignity and all hope
Awaiting their masters and European names
But the sick and the injured were dead weight to toss
And Lloyds of London would cover that cost.

I am nobody’s nigger
So you can tell Weezy and Drake
That they made a mistake
I am nobody’s nigger now
So you can tell Kanye and Jigga
I am not a nigger… in Paris
I’m not a nigger in London
I’m not a nigger in New York
I’m not a nigger in Kingston
I’m not a nigger in Accra
Or a nigger with attitude in Compton
Cos “I don’t wanna be called yo nigga”

How were you raised on Public Enemy
And still became your own worst enemy?
You killed Hip Hop and resurrected headless zombies
That can’t think for themselves or see where they’re going
Or quench the blood lust because there’s no blood flowing
In their hearts, just in the streets
They don’t give a damn as long as they eating
Their hearts ain’t beating, they’re cold as ice (bling)
Because they would put money over everything
Money over self respect or self esteem
Or empowering the youth to follow their dreams
Stacking paper cos it’s great than love it’s seems
Call me “nigger” cos you’re scared of what “brother” means

To know that we share something unspeakable
To know that as high as we rise we are not seen as equal
To know that racism is institutional thinking
And that “nigger” is the last word you heard before a lynching.

]]> http://yinnyang.co.uk/2012/01/i-am-nobodys-ngger-by-dean-atta/feed/ 0 http://yinnyang.co.uk/2012/01/richmond-park-visit-photo-story/ http://yinnyang.co.uk/2012/01/richmond-park-visit-photo-story/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:45:35 +0000 Yin http://yinnyang.co.uk/?p=38963

I should really place these posts within the Yin’s life section but think they’re a little too long for that page, it’d probably take around 30 seconds to scroll down the page if I did. One of the best things about being on holiday is the free time; I certainly wanted to utilise the time to do something productive so I ventured down to Richmond Park on Thursday with my good friend Leona and photographer @GeekySneaks (check out his work – here) who I was meeting for the first time in person. The wonders of virtual friendships through Twitter, I’ve met a lot of good people via social networks. Judge me if you want but social networking is the new norm. Let’s face it. Our trip to Richmond Park didn’t out the way it should have, why? You’ll have to hop on after the cut.

follow me on twitter

We never anticipated the size of Richmond Park – it’s ginormous. We never knew where to head from Richmond station, failure to prepare on our part but God bless smartphones and the Google Maps app. It guided us to the forest, I mean park. It’s huge and by the time we got there it was 2pm. Which only really gave us 2 hours to browse around before the sunset. You know damn sure that we weren’t going to hang around for werewolves to show up, as @GeekySneaks says ‘Black guys always die in horror films’. I’m Indian but still; we don’t even make the hollywood films! *screws light bulb & pats dog*

Enjoy the images and read the captions!

The epic District line journey from East Ham to Richmond.

Thai Square, grub before epic work.

Lovely decor in this place. Scary.

Buddha?

Beautiful detailing.

Mushroom soup. I hate mushrooms.

Lunch box. Thai green curry.

Church.

Leona.

@GeekySneaks.

Gardens.

Naked trees.

Pathway too?

Squirrel #1

Squirrel #2

Close up.

Squirrel #3 – Attack of the squirrels. They wanted Leona’s squirrel hair weave.

The light.

Logs.

Runaway.

Lost?

Random bench in the middle of the woods.

‘I see dead people’

More creepy naked trees.

Olympic skier.

No snow.

‘Bicycles are prohibited in this part of the park’ Yeh kid is living life on the edge.

No deers? =(

Never-ending.

Heading home…

Dayum. Friend of the site, Olan Collardy really outdid himself with his latest visual masterpiece – a music video for up and coming London based rapper Brewer. Wait wait, hold your horses. When you hear the words; up and coming, London and rapper in the same sentence, y’all instantly think ‘oh no Channel AKA!’. This video is the complete opposite, it’s classy and the song? Just as good. Brewer has a steady flow, lyrically sound and this time he questions everything that’s wrong with him in relationships. I’ve been impressed with his music so far, look forward to what he’s got to offer in 2012. Hop on after the cut to see the video.

follow me on twitter

Brewer - Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

The styling is on point too, works really well with the location! Boom.

‘Why am I make the same mistakes as I made when I was 18′

Olan Collardy – Twitter | Vimeo

Gosh I love this city. Mario Muth spent 2 months travelling around the city, shooting photographs from several public vantage points, private offices that he was allowed access to and obviously places where he shouldn’t have been. You’ll probably recognise a lot of these spots and if you’re a photographer – you’ll be wondering how the eff he managed to get access to these places! half of these would have been ideal for my LDN.365 series. You know none of this video was actually shot as a video – they’re all RAW images, post processed in After Effects to achieve the tilt shift look. Who needs a fancy tilt shift lens? More on the reverse.

follow me on twitter

Mario actually shot 25,850 photographs in total then of that 28k – 4,980 photographs made it into the final cut.

Those of you wondering about the locations in the video:

The Tower of London, Liverpool Street Station, Big Ben, Heron Tower, Barbican, London Wall, Earl’s Court Station, Bishopsgate, Millennium Bridge, Embankment, Kings Cross, Paternoster Square, Changing the Guard, Royal Exchange, Piccadilly Circus and Tate Modern.

London-based rapper, Cynikal drops the visuals for his latest track ‘Losing My Balance‘. He takes on J. Cole’s instrumental off light skinned Jermaine’s classic mixtape ‘Warm Up’. It’s one of those tracks for me, no one can really do the beat justice the way he does. Cole’s switches it up with a smooth flow that just works with sample. Cynikal does a good job though! PHDLDN kill the visuals, love colour grading and the slowmo feel to it.

follow me on twitter

Have you heard the original track ‘Balance’ by Sara Taveras? Check it out here. One of the 3am work mode songs for you, so chilled.

Yup, you read that right alright. Arcadia Corp’s finest retailers Topshop and Topman will be hosting a sample sale in Dalston this weekend. The sample sale isn’t any ordinary one located in a Warehouse, it’s going to be held in 2 different locations, one of which is Chatsworth Road market and all the proceedings made will go to the market itself. Topman have a strong menswear collection and like always with them – they have about 50 odd trends a season so you’ll be in for a great selection to chose from. Hop on after the cut for more details on location and times.

follow me on twitter

As always with sample sales, shout out to Rachel over at Shoparrazi for the heads up on this one.

Saturday 10th December

Broadway Market School Yard
E8 3RL

Sunday 11th December

Chatsworth Road Market
E5 0LH

A few days ago, Lacoste invited us to the to enjoy the ATP finals with them as they are one of the tournament’s sponsors. Which I honestly didn’t know till I reached the event. We were escorted to the sponsor village, greeted by fabulous staff and waiter/waitresses serving canapes with a buffet on one side of the room. Best believe I fully made use of this indulging opportunity. It was also an opportunity for us to see some early previews of their Spring/Summer 2012 collection. Find out what the best of the night was after the cut.

follow me on twitter

Believe it or not, Lacoste have been around since 1927, the company started by legendary tennis player René Lacoste was one of the first tennis wear brands ever. To mark the brand’s 75th birthday, they’ve designed a tribute collection of footwear, headgear, bicycle and more. After eating half a dozen or so plates of food, we decided to check out the upcoming eyewear collection – styles ranging from the aviator to the wayfarer. Really nice build and finish.

The shoes aren’t my cup of tea if I’m honest. They’re nice and simple.

That mac pictured above is sexual. The fit, cut and length are just right. Perfect for early Spring, must purchase for next season!

Best part of the night was the match. I’ve never been to a tennis game before and nor have I ever watched an ATP world tour match so wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s very Americanized with sound effects and graphics on the screen. The crowd were civilised as you’d expect at a tennis game, it’s not like football where you’d expect hooligans and foul language. Wait, I never told you who was playing, I don’t mean to brag but…FEDERER vs NADAL. The greatest tennis player ever vs the world’s no.2. I was flabbergasted when I found out, I’m team Federer all the way. He plays tennis like an artist painting a picture, so elegant and precise. Nadal was at the bearing end of his exquiste shots, the rallies between the 2 were sublime and a great match for the spectators. The winner? Federer of course. As the ATP games are only 2 sets long, Nadal couldn’t tire out Federer like he’s done previously at Grand Slam Finals. Absolute masterclass from the Swiss man, winning 6-2, 6-1.

I had to take the photographs on the sly thanks to O2′s strict no photographer police

By far the best blogger outreach experience I’ve had since launching Y&Y. I’m definitely going to go Wimbledon next year now. Thank you Lacoste, shout out to Daniella!

One of the perks of working so close to Oxford Circus is the ability to attend daytime press events in the local vicinity during my lunch break. Chyea. Yesterday Nike invited me down to their UK flagship store to design a silhouette add to the NIKEiD on Oxford Circus, Nike Town. Anyone who’s been reading the site will know that I used to be quite the sneakerhead and buying iDs would frequently massacre my bank account. More on the reverse.

follow me on twitter

The new shoe that has been added to the customisable iD range is the Premium Edition Toki. It’s very refined Chukka-esque model, mid-high, with a gum sole. What makes this model that little bit more special? You can pretty much customise every aspect of it (excluding the lower sole). With the help of Matt, I naturally went for a brown upper, red inner, monsoon blue mid-sole plus a few other finer stitching details.

The colours? An on trend heritage based leather palette with a lot of browns and muted which gives it a classy feel. You can even customise eyelets and stitch details, I decided to keep it simple with mine and let the leather do the talking. I’ll photograph the results when my sneaker arrives in the mail. For now have a gander at the process images below. Check out the NIKEiD Facebook here.

P.S. The photographer at NIKEiD Suite yesterday was one of the twins off Skins Season 3. Weird.