Art / Spike Island Open Studios
Spike Island Open Studios: Meet the Artists: SHOP
Ahead of Spike Island’s perennially popular Open Studios (May 4-7), we’ve grabbed chats with some of the residents who’ll be throwing open their studio doors and inviting the public in for a look at their workspace and creative processes (here are our chats with artists Hannah Murgatroyd and Young In Hong). Today it’s the turn of design agency SHOP, who have something special planned for the Open Studios weekend.
Tell us about your art – what you create, your interests and themes…
We are SHOP, a design agency based in Spike Island. We primarily work for broadcast and live music events.
You’ve got something special planned for the Open Studios this year. Tell us more.
We wanted to do something different, and we’ve created an experimental piece with Arturas Bondarciukas, one of our designers. Reactive Borders is an interactive mapped projection playing with the notion of borders using sound and video.
How do you like life at Spike Island?
We love it. It’s great to be surrounded by so many other creative people!
What are you most looking forward to over the weekend?
Open Studios is a brilliant opportunity to see work from very diverse artists and witness what’s going on behind the scenes. The opening party is always great fun too.
SHOP’s visuals for the Rolling Stones’ forthcoming shows
What do you think a) artists and b) visitors get from these events?
a) A great number of visitors, and the opportunity to be part of a high-profile group exhibition.
b) See brilliant, inspiring work and meet the artists behind it. A highlight of the early May bank holiday for many Bristolians.
What are your hopes for the weekend?
We just wanted to experiment a bit and create something that doesn’t have to fit within our usual TV or live-events world. Just follow our inspiration and have fun. We hope visitors will have fun too.
Superbowl, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran… you’ve had some high-profile clients! Can you briefly give us one or two highlights to date?
We created visuals for Ed Sheeran’s tour last year and have developed a great working relationship with him and his team. We also did quite a bit of work for Stormzy recently, which requires a fast turn-around and keeps our work fresh, plus we made some content for this summer’s Rolling Stones shows [see picture above].
Right now, we’re working on a project with an iconic visual band. Strictly confidential at this stage, though…
Spike Island Open Studios 2018 May 4-7. For more info, visit spikeisland.org.uk/events/events/spike-island-open-studios-2018
For more info on SHOP, visit www.weareshop.co.uk
Read more: Spike Island Open Studios: Meet the Artists: Young In Hong
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