by Andrew Crayford
"Waking up Sunday morning, the day of our event at The Resistance Gallery was so exciting, like the elevated feeling you get when you are heading off travelling, an adventure into the unknown. This was our first event organising everything ourselves, so we felt this was the first true test of our Collective idea. I was never in any doubt people would come to support us as the feedback had been so overwhelmingly positive from the previous event..
The week of planning, preparing and promoting it, with all the drama of the print shop refusing to print our flyers and business cards on religious/cultural grounds, going to pick up the 24 A2 size drawing boards on my bike in the pouring rain, and realising I was never going to make it to Vauxhall with them, where I was heading to model that evening. I had to convince myself 'where there's a will there's a way', and the Collective project needed my strength at that moment. Thinking quickly I decided to take them to my parents in Kings Cross, where I ditched them and sped off to Vauxhall drenched in the rain.
Heading off to Bethnal Green on my bike, I was a little anxious as to how I was going to carry all the drawing boards, 2 fan heaters, cushions and extension cables, but hey, I've done some pretty crazy things in my life, including a 45 minute upside down pose which would have left most models in agonising pain, but off I went still questioning my sanity. Amazingly I made it with my neck still attached to my shoulders...
Arriving at The Resistance Gallery I was greeted by Manko, looking resplendent as always, who showed me in and around the venue. It reminded me of clubs and bars I'd visited in New York on The Lower East Side, very urban and edgy, but with lots of character, and an amazing stage with red velvet drapery as a backdrop.
The experience was much like arriving at music venues for sound-checks, which I'd done thousands of times before with my band, but yet on this occasion there was none of the pre-gig nervousness, just a calm confidence that we had done the preparation, and we could now just enjoy our own performance.
As our friends and artists started to arrive, Roger Westoby and Mick McNicholas among the first few, followed by our good friends and regulars Aaron Jacob Jones and Talia Al Ghul, I felt the energy levels in the room rising.
I think we all felt we were about to experience something special... I jokingly quipped it was like the reformation of The Beatles, and we were all excited as we knew the quality of the artwork all our artist friends are capable of producing.
As more of our friends arrived, Jason Askew, who came all the way from Berkshire, and Marian Rowling, travelling for 3 hours from Hampshire, Simon Tolhurst, Yoni Che, Robert Packham, Neonia Sosnator... we welcomed them all as you would welcome a guest coming to your home.
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| by Aaron Jacob Jones |
With Jason Atomic at the decks playing a selection of classical music, we began the first pose. Clinging onto Carla's outstretched hand, and my arm around Manko's waist, I felt this was a symbolic show of the bond of unity we have together, supporting and helping each other both mentally and physically. For those who have never done any life modelling, the physical impact of standing still in a dynamic pose with 2 other models is physically so demanding, I doubt even if high level athletes could manage it. As we changed over into the next pose, another extremely dynamic pose, I found the classical music soothing, and at times very emotional, nearly bringing me to tears.
The realisation that what we were doing meant so much to the artists, and that I had been lucky enough to meet both Manko and Carla, my kindred spirits and beloved colleagues.
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| by Jason Askew |
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| by Neonia Sosnator |
As we paused for the interval, we all went and chatted with everyone, and the atmosphere was much like a house party, just mingling around sharing jokes and looking at the artwork.
Two people we had only met just the week before at another event, and who had never done any life drawing before had come along enthused with excitement. It was lovely to see them enjoying it so much, as at most life events the energy can be quite intense, so their joyful energy was very much appreciated. It was also amusing to see them gasping with frantic shock in the second part of the session, when Jason Atomic was announcing the time left of the pose... Even from the stage I could see them frenetically drawing as fast as possible, trying to capture us all, it was such a charming thing to witness.
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| by Simon Tolhurst |
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| by Talia Al Ghul |
With the last pose of the session, our interpretation of 'La Pieta', the lighting theatrically highlighting every muscle and sinew of my torso draped across Carla's lap, a fitting climactic end to what some described as 'epic'...
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| by Jason Atomic |
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| by Berez Przemyslaw |
An afternoon spent with great friends and artists, sharing our talents to create beautiful works of art.
We had given our all, and the artists had given theirs, rising to the challenge and surpassing all expectations!"
Tony Canavan, one of the artists in attendance, said:
"I think this is a fantastic idea and it looks like you have found two kindred spirits in Carla and Manko. This is a rare opportunity for artists to work with a trio of models at this level who understand that what you do is an interaction with the artist in a creative process therefor an art form in itself, I hope that people out there are enlightened enough to realise this and wish you all good fortune with this."
Cheers, Tony!
And please join us again this Sunday afternoon for Resistance Gallery Sunday Session no.2.
We are also hoping to see you all again on Saturday November the 21st at Eastbourne House... Plus, we just booked a new super exciting event on Thursday December 10th at a fantastic venue - details soon!
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