Electroma

Beardyman

Current UK beat-boxing champ, Beardyman, recently kept impatient crowds entertained between sets at London’s Lovebox Weekender. We spoke to the Brighton resident about his offbeat style: ‘I’ve been doing it since I was a baby, but I never knew it was called beat-boxing. I thought it was just a habit, like biting your nails, and people were always telling me to stop. Being a good beat-boxer is a mixture between being a good DJ, a cheesy street magician and a vocal athlete’.

James Jirat Patradoon

Sydney-based artist, James Jirat Patradoon on his career defining moment: ‘If I could trace my artistic inspiration back to one event, it would have to be the Neo Tokyo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001. I had never seen art like that before; I didn’t know you could be so playful with it. I vividly remember the Yoshitomo Nara sculptures made out of bandages, and Kenji Yanobe’s atom suit and Godzilla/Astro Boy sculptures that blew bubbles. It was just so fun. I think because a lot of Japanese art contains references to pop culture, it’s more accessible for audiences. They aren’t so intimidated by it because it can be quite light-hearted but still have a serious undertone to it’.

Operation Soapbox

A haven for all things creative, London’s Southbank Centre recently collaborated with AOC Architecture to produce Operation Soapbox. Residing at the Royal Festival Hall until the end of last month, the maze of wooden boxes opened up a platform for expression for the young (and not so young) to leave behind opinions, questions and concerns on just about any subject, as Lucy and Anne from the Learning and Participation team behind the project explain: ‘Operation Soapbox affirms Southbank Centre’s commitment to the landscape of the imagination and to the making of participatory art. The maze itself is a space that asks to be interpreted. It invites every reader to make an imaginative and personal response’. Read more