Pic of the week

Two newly hatched baby ducklings - Engel Pond- Snaresbrook London E11

Pic: Alam Zaman

Paul Scholes - Quality personified

Paul Scholes the shy hero
Zidane's "toughest opponent"
"Undoubtedly the greatest of his generation"
That vital midfield component

Unassumingly loyal one club man
Ten league titles on the run
Vision, touch, wild lunges, red cards
Scoreing mind boggling goals for fun

Said Rio, "a dictator of the game"
"Best in the Prem," exclaimed Henry
"Quality in abundance" described Lippi
"He has it all," waxed Xavi

Like Hoddle and the gifted club
Fulcrum for the English?
Little faith to build round the dynamo
So different had Paul been Spanish

Number 7
(c) Emdad Rahman
www.football-poems.com

The night Villa ruled Europe

1982 European Cup Final 

De Kuip in swanky Rotterdam
In town Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

Villa’s claret face Bavarian might
Mortimer locks horns with Breitner

Old hand Withe pairs young marvel Shaw
Opposite Hoeness and Augenthaler

Morley rampant on the wing
Cowans stars as chief playmaker

“Shaw, Williams prepared to venture down the left,”

Brian Moore through gritted teeth

“There’s a good ball played in for Tony Morley!

Oh it must be! And it is! Peter Withe!”

Brums on seats as the Villains hang on

Hand shook with Artemio Franchi
Mortimer lifts such glistening silver

Barton’s men make Villa history

Rimmer now a champion twice

It’s now six years in a row
Europe bows to English rule

Whilst the claret and blue rivers flow

Spink, Swain, McNaught,

Evans, Williams, Mortimer,

Cowans, Bremner, Withe,

Shaw, Morley, Rimmer

Number 7

© Emdad Rahman

www.football-poems.com

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE

CARL PLACKMAN

20 MAY - 25 JUN 2011

Private view: Thursday 19 May, 6-9 pm

Hales Gallery is pleased to present a selection of works from the estate of the influential British sculptor Carl Plackman who died in 2004. The gallery began working with the Plackman Estate in 2010 and this is the first solo exhibition of his assemblage sculptures at Hales Gallery.

                                 

Alternative Universe refers to Plackman's rearranged, complex and enigmatic value system which, through his use of carefully crafted objects applied to all of the works he made. Plackman was a sculptor exploring the invisible threads of imaginative human connections that can ignite the space around things. The works explore the realm of the symbolic. The viewers are encouraged to place significance on objects that singularly hold little importance. It is in this sense that Plackman's work acts as a puzzle where narratives and form are discovered. It is impossible to pin down a singular reading on any work as ambiguity is precisely what was intended. Clarity is blurred as the pieces operate simultaneously on a subconscious, metaphysical and material level.

The show features a number of works from the 80's, 90's and 00's. Several, such asDecoy (2000) and All the Great Minds (1999) are floor based works made with multiple elements, whilst others, such as Obliterated Confessions (1986) and Rise and Fall (2003), combine large framed drawings with carefully selected sculptural elements. These ready-mades and found objects play crucial roles in exploring what we expect from sculpture.

From the outset it was clear that Plackman's ideas and work stood apart from other sculptors in the field. An influential figure to numerous generations of artists who having passed through London's Goldsmiths College of Art (1970-99) and the Royal College of Art (1974-80), where he taught, benefited from his singular and thoughtful view, some of whom were influenced by his liberating approach and went on to have important and successful careers themselves. The language that Plackman developed (that of object, symbol, materiality and metaphor) looks completely at home with a new generation of artists showing and working in Britain today.

Throughout the 1970's and into the early 1980's, sculpture in Britain was viewed as a very separate entity to that of previous sculptors and had a plethora of exhibitions dedicated to it. Plackman was at the forefront of many of these shows including New Sculpture (1970) an Arts Council touring exhibition, Three Sculptors (1972) and Scale for Sculpture (1978) at London's Serpentine Gallery, British Sculpture (1972) at The Royal Academy of Arts and British Sculpture 1950-1980 Part 2: Symbol and Imagination, shown at the Whitechapel Gallery. However, one senses that Carl was never completely happy having his work placed alongside the hermetically sealed world of 'The Sculptor' as his work, at the time, consistently pushed at the boundaries of an acceptable language.

Carl Plackman left an impressive body of work spanning five decades including diverse drawings, expansive sculpture and many preparatory sketches. His legacy refuses to diminish and his work has now become particularly relevant to the development of British sculpture and successive generations of British artists.

In 2007, the book accompanying his retrospective show Beyond Appearances was published by Huddersfield City Art Gallery featuring commentary from numerous important contributors. Plackman's work is included in the collections of Tate, Henry Moore Institute, Arts Council Collection, British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, The Courtauld Institute and the National Museum of Wales.

Camera Obscura & Other Stories

Solo Exhibition of new work by Ellen Bell

Have you ever picked up a photograph from a flea market or looked through a family album of relatives you have never known and wondered what they were thinking or feeling? Have you ever imagined what dialogue may have taken place before and after the click of the shutter?

Ellen Bells new collection of work seeks to explore these questions. She is concerned with familial memory - conversations had, clothes worn, books read, intimacy lost and found. Pre-digital images from bygone eras that reveal children and adults caught in stiff awkwardness before the camera are the starting point for these pieces. Bell extracts outlines of figures and extraneous details from these photographs and deftly inserts undulating threads of words and sentences cut from works of contemporary fiction into these forms.

Universal stories flood these vessels filling in for the silent, the mis-remembered, the forgotten and the unknown conversations of the past.

Bell is represented by Four Square Fine Arts. She has exhibited in London, New York, Chicago and Miami and her works are held in private collections in Europe, Australia and the USA.

'Everybody Looks for a Place to Dance'

"Cities have their function, their typical characteristics - their social, political and economic (and last but not least ) their aesthetic qualities. I perceive and take hold of the reality, examining space and architectonic facts. A certain confrontation of space with art. I take space as the starting point and return to it. Space limits me but also offers me much else. 

The title of the project 'Everybody Looks for a Place to Dance' is a metaphor relating to the way to (and the way I) perceive space - especially the urban environment. The city, architecture, space, everyday life – these are the most important points of interest with numerous overlappings and intersections. 

Anything may replace the word 'dance', because all of us move 'somewhere', look for 'something', are "addressed" by a number of things, and 'perceive' any number of things. Not only positives but also negatives. Not only experiencing, but also criticising. We perceive architecture – space - with all our senses. I find a great cohesion between architecture and music / sound. 

Architecture should create an environment that reminds us of our function in the world. Perceiving the environment by all senses is useful for remembering a place or space. The present-day confused, consumer-oriented and accelerated way of life leads us to understand conscience, intellect and emotions as something strictly separated from our senses and sensuality ...

If we are to perceive the world by means of our senses, we must no longer see them as passive receptors of external stimuli. We cannot get into the situation in which we are manipulated by commerce and brainless entertainment, and where it is not easy to protect the autonomy of individual experience. 

"I confront the city with my body; my legs measure the length of the arcade and the width of the square, my gaze unconsciously projects my body onto the facade, where it roams over the mouldings and contours, sensing the size of recesses and projections; my body weight meets the mass of the door, and my hand grasps the door pull as I enter the dark void behind. I experience myself in the city, and the city exists through my embodied experience. The city and my body supplement and define each other. I dwell in the city and the city dwells in me" 

(Juhani Pallasmaa) 

I am searching ..."

'Where I Interject'

By Ulrika Andersson

As this coveted artist experiments with the fusion of three installations to create her latest exhibition "Where I Interject”, Ulrika toys with multiple media and optical illusion to examine the process of painting and create an intimate viewing experience for the spectator.

Ulrika Andersson creates photo-referential paintings that are visual collages featuring a female protagonist in different highly constructed situations.

The symbolic and psychologically charged storyline ultimately represents the artist’s desire for the viewer to connect and experience the way she sees things. The paintings are cinematic, in the style of moody film stills that suggest ambiguous narratives and Lynchian-like atmosphere.

“Perhaps there is no consensus to how we experience reality, but my paintings represent my memory of reality. They become my projected construction of nostalgia. I find things become too literal and defined if you think about them directly, but a story through painting can be revelatory.” – Ulrika Andersson

Aware of all the obstacles that contemporary painting must overcome, Ulrika finds herself fascinated with the preservation of a displacing experience. Through painting she constructs an image over time as opposed to our digital world where images are created in an instant. Ulrika also manages to find a viewpoint from which a spectator can connect with her psyche. Her works are evidence of the time spent with her subject and subsequent images, the importance of it to her, and the duration of the time taken to produce each piece which ultimately challenges the viewer to explore its own fantasies.

ANTTI LAITINEN

Bark Boat

6 May - 19 June 2011 

NETTIE HORN is pleased to present the second UK solo show by the Finnish artist Antti Laitinen featuring his latest performance entitled “Bark Boat”, documented through a series of photographs, a video and a boat.

On the 7th of August 2010 at 4am, a rudimentary and yet authentic sailboat was launched for the first time in the Finnish peninsula of Porkkala to embark on its inaugural journey across the Gulf of Finland. At its command was a young and resilient journeyman who has made a name for himself through his adventurous-spirit and his ritualistic quests for achievement, and known by the name of Antti Laitinen.

The young sailor along with his boat, made of ancient pine bark collected from the floor of the Finnish forest, confidently undertook the conquest of the Baltic Sea with the firm intention to reach the welcoming island of Naissaar situated northwards of Tallinn in Estonia. During a nineteen hour long journey the small vessel braved the elements of this unpredictable Sea; meeting on his way a seal and narrowly crossing paths with ocean liners sailing at high-speed.

“Bark Boat” is the latest in a series of performances where Antti Laitinen embarks on a personal journey, pushing the boundaries of his physical endurance and braving the natural elements, to engage with the world in a collective mission to stage mythologies and erase the boundary between success and failure. As in most of his previous projects, “Bark Boat” originates from classical Finnish tales and cultural imagery - in this instance, the title is taken from a Finnish childhood game whereby pieces of tree bark are used as rafts and are set sailing onto the vast sea until they disappear out of sight. The children would imagine their miniature boats sailing all the way to faraway lands.

The concept of this lone adventurer transiting physically from one land to another on a handmade raft in an epic journey across the sea is an extension to previous projects by Laitinen reunited under the title “The Island Trilogy”. In “It’s My Island”, the first performance in the series, Laitinen constructed an island made of two hundred bags filled with sand which the artist dragged into the Baltic Sea over a period of three months. The second chapter presents a second handmade island which the artist rowed throughout various seascapes. In the final chapter, the third island is embodied by a small iceberg which Laitinen preserved throughout the winter to then resurrect during the summer months. For two days, the artist went on a slow rowing journey, iceberg in tow, during which the ice progressively disappeared and melted back into the water it once came from. The melting of this island and its symbolic disappearance ended this trilogy.


Through these islands or paradise-like places which are the emblems of independent lands and micro-nations, Laitinen points to the incongruity between an individual’s performance and circumstances and how it grows into a cultural metaphor. The particularity of Laitinen’s work lies in the multiple readings it offers, ranging from an intrinsic ecology-oriented aspect to the Monty Python-esque nature of his performances from which he shares some of its absurd seriousness and idiosyncratic imagination.

Antti Laitinen was born in Finland in 1975. He lives and works in Somerniemi, Finland.

Exhibitions include “Journeymen (Antti Laitinen & David Blandy)”, Air Space Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK (2011); Touched - Liverpool Biennial, (2010); Collection exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland (2010) ; Rauma Biennial Balticum, Rauma, Finland (2010); Earth: Art of a Changing World / GSK Contemporary, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2009-10); I-Lands, Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense and Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Toreby, Denmark (2009 - 2010); Athens Biennale, Greece (2009) ; It’s My Island, NETTIE HORN, London (2008) (SOLO SHOW).

Today's Origami

Brutal Barca conquer Europe

Barcelona 3-1 Manchester United

Champions League Final 2011

Wembley home of football
Welcomes Sir Alex the great 
Brilliance from Guardiola
Amidst the spirit of sixty eight

Barca repeat the Roman siege
Stadio Olympico to Wembley
Pedro, Messi, and Villa
Cancelling out Rooney

Outdone by Josep's "carousel"
Brutal Messi right in the centre 
Phelan with too much flesh on show
End to Edwin's glittering career 

On show Barca's brotherhood
Such camaraderie and team morale
Touching from Xavi to Puyol,
Cup honours by Eric Abidal

Blaugrana committed Mess murder 
Seen from London to Beijing
Xavi's masterful creativity
And Catalunia's Lionel King

Cutting for Scholes and Giggs
Goal net cut for Mr Shakira
History given Wembley courtesy 
Barca tastelessly given the sprinkler

Saturday, 28 May 2011

Number 7
(c) Emdad Rahman
www.football-poems.com

Parking problem? Solved!

Saw this in Shoreditch today...

JAMES HOWARD - AUTHORISED

JAMES HOWARD

AUTHORISED

27 April – 06 MAY 2011

Within the last one hundred years, the notion of the innovative has

mutated from the industrial and mechanical advances that preoccupied

Walter Benjamin, to the unprecedented impact of today’s communication

technologies. 

Eight decades have passed since Valéry published his

philosophical prophecy, and indeed, the advent of the Internet has transformed the contemporary definition of what might constitute a work of art.

The ‘digital aesthetic’, which James Howard employs, is, at once, all his own, yet strangely familiar – reminiscent of the international call shops on many suburban high streets, their shabby wooden booths cluttered with homespun poster graphics offering cheap rates on communication with family and friends in faraway locations, as well as other services, such as,

to ‘unlock’ a problematic mobile. Other influences might also include the illuminated signage in a fastfood kebab house, visual clashes of design between genre shifts in DVD packaging, provinciallooking websites for craft fairs and garden centers, the subprime iconography of cheap puzzle monthlies, and not forgetting celebrity endorsements of anything from life

insurance to the ultimate in home Pilates sessions.

Howard’s most recent works, digital prints executed on industrially produced vinyl tarpaulins, indicate a shift in the artist’s practice towards a darker, more incisive flipside to the empty promises of validation and acceptance that the Internet proffers to the most vulnerable and gullible.

James Howard was born in 1981 in Canterbury. He studied at the University of Reading and The Royal Academy Schools, London. Howard is included in the Saatchi Gallery show Newspeak: British Art Now and has been recently exhibited at the UK museum touring exhibition Plastic Culture: The Legacy of Pop with Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Takeshi

Murakami.

“We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our

very notion of art.” Paul Valéry, Pièces sur L’Art, 1931

www.aubingallery.com

Champions League Festival

Yes, I have a date with the famous trophy this eve. will keep you all posted!



Obituary - Haji Abdul Ahad

Haji Abdul Ahad passed away on Monday 23rd May 2011.

The community activist was the owner of Quality Foods Stores in Cannon Street Road, E1. His Janazah prayer was performed at the East London Mosque yesterday and he was laid to rest at the Gardens of peace, Hainault.

The community prays for Mr Ahad's departed sould and wishes his family peace.

Tinseltown Gutbuster

Tinseltown Gants Hill - The only problem is American food - not so American portions. But the staff are really nice though...

Wedding festivities

Spotted this off New Road, London E1

Blooming Tower Hamlets

Lansbury

Regenerating the Ocean...

Pretty fast moving now.

Today's Origami

Rose...

Ten of the best from the rejuvenated Reds

Liverpool - GMF's favourite goals of the season

By Emdad Rahman

Full article

Whether it was with Roy Hodgson or under the stewardship of King Kenny, there have been some cracking goals scored by the Red men. I’ve decided to take a close look at the footage available and list my contenders. 

Do choose and discuss your favourites and feel free to mention any you feel should have been included. 

1. Ngog v Arsenal - August 15. 

Javier Mascherano played in the young Frenchman who beat first Vermaelen and then Almunia for pace by lashing the ball high into the net. 

2. Lucas v Steau Bucharest - 16 Sep 2010. 

Substitute Lucas’ struck an absolute howitzer as he strode onto the ball 22 yards out against the Romanians at Anfield. Watching from the stands it bought a smile from the delighted Steven Gerrard. The Brazilian duly dedicated the stunner to his wife Ariana. "I wanted to score to honour my wife who is four months pregnant with my future child," Lucas said. 

3. Gerrard v Napoli - November 4th 2010. 

I was there with Bootle Jan to watch it. The Skipper came off the bench to score a hat-trick against Walter Mazzarri's Napoli in the UEFA Cup home leg. For the pick of the three, the locomotive from Huyton's Bluebell Estate steamed past Dossena and beat De Sanctis with an exuberant chip. 

4. Torres v Chelsea – 7 November 2010. 

This was a rare highlight for the World and European champion during a dismal domestic season. The unhappy Spaniard struck a stunner against Liverpool’s West London rivals. Meireles sweeped left, Torres cut in past Ivanovic and curled a beauty past Petr Cech. It was a moment of pure art. "Petr Cech didn't even smell it," Andy Gray drooled. 

5. Torres v Bolton – 1st January 2011. 

Patient and assured build up to a great finish. Johnson chipped to Ngog, who chested down for Gerrard float one over the top for Torres to hammer past Jaaskelainen on the volley.

6. Raul Meireles v Wolves - January 22, 2011. 

Roy Hodgson’s star signing used the same technique applied by Cheik Tiote when Newcastle heroically clawed back 4 goals against Arsene Wenger’s hapless Gunners at St James Park. 

Slotting comfortably into the hole behind Torres, Meireles struck against Wolves at Molineux, volleying a half clearance from 25 yards for a goal of the season contender. The screamer was his second goal for the club. “After the game, I went home, straight on to the internet and watched it 20 times…” said Meireles. 

The top draw 25-yard volley into Wayne Hennessey's top-left corner was described by Mick McCarthy as a "wonder goal," adding that even two keepers would have failed to keep out the Raul thunderbolt. 

7. Dirk Kuyt v Manchester United – 6 March 2011. 

Yes, a tap in makes the shortlist courtesy of the incredible skill displayed in the assist. Luis Suarez, with his back to goal, received the ball from Kyrgiakos, before beating four defenders in a six yard area before tapping through to Kuyt to apply the coup de grace. The bewitching run past the Red Devils rearguard claimed the scalps of Smalling, Rafael, Carrick, and Brown. 

8. Suarez v Sunderland – 20 March 2011. 

At £23 million, the Uruguayan is a footballing snip. Sprinting down the Black Cats right, the world waited for a searching cross. Suarez received the ball from a kuyt throw in. El Pistolero’s embarked on a fearless byline run, before beating Mignolet from the tightest of angles. 

9. Andy Carroll v Manchester City –  11 April 2011. 

Sweet Carroll Nine fired in a left foot shot from 25 yards for his first strike in Liverpool’s royal red colours. Jay Spearing’s goal bound effort deflected to Carroll who struck with sledgehammer force from outside the area. Joe Hart did not have a prayer. 

10. Maxi Rodriguez v Fulham - 9th May 2011. 

Maxi completed a five-goal rout over Fulham with a sensational drive from outside the box to beat Mark Schwarzer. It was the Argentines second hat trick in 3 games.

Liverpool were crying out for another goal to kill the Fulham momentum and the man of the hour, Maxi, was there again as his unmarked run was not dealt with by the Fulham defence which allowed him time and space to slam home a long range effort which left Schwarzer with little hope of saving it. 

Final day Villains - Villa 1-0 Liverpool

No Monsieur Houllier
To greet Dalglish the magician
Gary Mac sensed easy prey
With Carroll, Maxi, Johnson’s omission

Albrighton’s sumptuous assist
Downing with the crisp finish
Scenes of joy quite hard to resist
Reds clumsy and boorish

Suarez skins Kyle Walker
Brad Friedal agile and lithe
Amazing from Raul's haymaker
But Spurs still confirm fifth

22.05.11

Number 7
(c) Emdad Rahman
www.football-poems.com

The world is going to end!

I heard the world is to end tonight at 6pm - 6.05 for Sir alex Ferguson...

Today's Origami

Hen...

Well unlocked by Celtic Ki

Scottish Cup Final
Motherwell 0-3 Celtic

In the world's oldest national cup

A colossal goal from Sung Ki
Own goal Craigan slip up

Centre spot points the referee

Mulgrew lines up to propel

Hampden goal number three
Whiz blast past McCall’s Well

Begins the Hoops party

Neil Lennon has a word to say
As Scott Brown lifts it up tall

"I'm so prood of them today"

“Up the Bhoys” is the stadium call

21.05.11

Number 7
(c) Emdad Rahman
www.football-poems.com

Tribute to Liverpool's 'ultimate showman'

Liverpool - John Barnes was in a class of his own

By Emdad Rahman

Full article

John Barnes is without doubt one of the greatest wingers to have played for Liverpool. During his peak, there was no greater sight than watching Barnes bamboozle full backs, delivering precision crosses whilst also scoring dazzling goals. The number 10 shirt was created for Barnes – Anfield’s ultimate showman. 

Born in Jamaica, the young Barnes became a household name in 1984 whilst playing for England in a Maracana friendly against Brazil. With his dodgy perm, Barnes caressed the ball on his chest and darted forward from the left flank, beating six Brazilians, wrong footing Junior before slotting the ball past the hapless Roberto Costa.

The goal was ‘made in Brazil’ and Barnes described subsequent viewing of footage of the goal as ‘having an out of body experience’. 

It was in 1987 that Kenny Dalglish bought Barnes from Watford as part of a radical overhaul at Anfield. He joined Peter Beardsley, John Aldridge, and assisted by Ray Houghton, became the most lethal strike force in the country. Barnes endeared himself to his new family after scoring on his debut – a glittering free kick against Oxford United. This was preceded a few weeks later by a stunning solo goal against QPR. 

Barnes was a revelation at Anfield where he tore up coaching manuals. As a flying winger he possessed everything; great feet, close control, searing pace, the brute strength of a raging bull, and the elegant agile movement of a ballerina. Barnes was also a highly competent dead ball expert. Weighing up his position it was usual to see a flawless curler rise over and soar into the corner of the net.

A traditional winger, Barnes liked to hug the touchline, beating his man before launching accurate crosses for the strikers. In his latter years he also displayed the acumen to drift infield and spray the ball like an accomplished midfielder. 

Barnes running at terrified defences has become one of the most iconic memories in football. His presence on Liverpool’s left made Paddock and Kemlyn road seats some of the most valuable in the country. 

Barnes most fruitful season was in 1990, where he scored an astonishing 22 goals as Liverpool powered to the title. With the emergence of Steve McManaman, Barnes remodelled himself as a highly reputable holding midfielder. In 2007 he was voted in a poll as one of 100 great black Britons.

Barnes, who starred in both the 'Anfield Rap' and New Order's 'World in Motion,' is English football's most capped black international. He was voted footballer of the year in 1988 and 1990. 

een by some as an enigma on the international front, it was successive England managers who failed to bring the best out of arguably their most gifted player. Barnes represented the Three Lions 79 times, scoring 12 goals, playing at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, as well as Euro 88. 

After ten years at Liverpool, Barnes joined Kenny Dalglish at Newcastle, picking up a losers medal in the 1998 F.A Cup final against Arsenal. After retiring at Charlton Athletic aged 35, Barnes again linked up with King Kenny to become head coach at Glasgow Celtic. The reign was short lived, and he was sacked after a disastrous defeat to Inverness Caledonian thistle. 

For many years still, he will remain the inspiration of many future wingers. But it was at Liverpool where ‘Digger’ carved a niche into the hearts of the faithful.

It is unfortunate that he was not able to pit himself on the European stage against the continents greatest talents. Barnes’ impact on the beautiful game stretched to a lot more than goals, cups and caps.

Together with Cunningham, Anderson and Regis, he will always be recognised and remembered as a pioneer as well as being one of the greatest players to have played for Liverpool and England. 

Disclaimer: The views in this article are that of the writer and may not replicate those of the Professional Footballers' Association.