Non Permanent and Secret Wars All Stars @ The Custard Factory, Birmingham 17/02/07

National Express is always a pain and it didn’t disappoint with a two-hour delay on our way to the nonpermanent Secret Wars All-Stars event in Birmingham. We finally arrived at midnight, just in time to hop in the back of a transit van to take us to our accommodation (who said the Secret Wars crew don’t travel in style?).

Our humble abode for the weekend was the new minimally designed NiteNite hotel just off Broad Street in the centre of the city. The rooms themselves take inspiration from the Japanese capsule, with a pod-like space consisting of a double bed, padded walls, 42in widescreen television and a walk-in shower. With no windows in any of the rooms, it was easy to lose track of time. The experience was a bit like being in a cave.

Although we travelled down on the Friday, the actual event was scheduled for Saturday night. The idea was to have a whole day of preparation alongside the nonpermanent team, Lunartik and Mr Whiteman.




The next morning we made our way to the Custard Factory, the creative hub of Birmingham. With its labyrinth of shops, galleries and tasty cafes, the Custard Factory was the perfect place to hold what was set to be the event of the month. The whole aim was to document the artwork through film and photography and then remove it, leaving only memories of the artists’ creations. The mantra of nonpermanent is to celebrate the moment art is formed. Even the crowd would get their chance to create some live art, when over 200 pens would be handed out at the end of the night, culminating in a big drawing frenzy.

As well as the chance to catch a glimpse of this newly invented, fast art, we were to witness history in the making. The Custard Factory was playing host to the first ever all-star edition of Secret Wars. Just like its big brother in London, this event would be set up in the traditional format with two artists drawing head to head within a 90-minute time frame, with both competitors using only the uniform black and white marker pens. What was special about this particular battle was that it would feature two of Britain’s creative greats, Pete Fowler and Jon Burgerman.


With over 300 guests arriving in the evening, there was a lot to do beforehand. The space itself was amazing and the effort the nonpermanent team had already contributed was admirable. Nearly every wall was plastered with at least a dozen empty golden picture frames, like walking into an unfinished exhibition space.





The first job was to set up the Posca pens for all the artists. Now we are not talking about just a few handfuls, but £3,000 worth. German sticker company, Cromatics, also came down to give a helping hand. It probably took the group about 45 minutes to blot all of the pens and then we had to move on to the biggest task of the day… the goody bags. Anyone who has been to one of Monorex’s Christmas dinner parties will know that the goody bags are pretty good, but nothing can compare to the goody bags for this event.






We all had the task of laying 300 plastic bags on the floor and then going round dropping one of each item on top. It took ages to walk round the maze of magazines, stickers, flyers, badges, fridge magnets and soft toys for the lucky guests who were invited from across the country.
About an hour or two later we made our way back to the hotel for a pre-arranged lunch to meet the artists taking part and have a nibble of some tasty Chinese takeaway before dashing back to the event in time for the opening.












The night kicked off with a handful of the current Secret Wars artists showing off their skills alongside the locally based Agent and Chu. The press loved the artwork, but this was only a warm-up for the Burgerman/Fowler friendly battle later in the evening. The venue was heaving with the crème de la crème of the creative world, including the British Arts Council, Leicestershire’s Ian Stevenson, London’s Clutter Magazine and Sheffield’s infamous Kid Acne.







Talking to Pete Fowler about the concept of events like nonpermanent Secret Wars, he had a very positive reaction: “I used to work for a company in Japan that did events similar to this. I really appreciate the whole concept of the crowd being given pens for their own chance to draw. There is a freedom to create, which is just like being at junior school. I like the fact that there are no rules to it.” Even Jon Burgerman, who described his style as “wibbly and wobbly”, felt honoured to be involved. “I am very humble and very honoured to be part of this. When I was younger, doodling was a much more nerdy thing, but now it is in the public domain it’s a cool thing,” he said. Hopefully we can look forward to many more Secret Wars events with the likes of these two talented guys.







Their styles, though both very quirky, looked rather sinister when viewed in Secret Wars black and white. Fowler, who described his most random location for a job as “Uri Geller’s house”, drew a gothic fairytale scene with long-haired fawn characters with horns playing a guitar. Burgerman explained that the highlight of his career so far would have to be “doing a computer game for Sony called Wipeout. I had all these 3D designers following my every instruction. I enjoy any project where people have faith in your own ideas. Any project like that is great.” His canvas stuck to his traditional character montage but in a much bolder style.












Next up was the public painting session with everyone given a chance to show off their own talents. Posca pens were handed out to the hungry crowds, giving them the opportunity to transform the gallery into one big sketchbook. With the battle over, an auction of the artists’ canvas soon followed, with two lucky bidders taking home Fowler and Burgerman’s art for a really good price (all proceeds of which went to the NSPCC). Once the canvases were sold, it was time for the crowd raffle where nearly everyone won something. Toys, T-shirts, magazines and artwork were all up for grabs and people weren’t shy about the fact that they wanted everything.









The highlight of the evening was the finale (just after Reeps One amazing performance), when Pete Fowler, Jon Burgerman and Monorex’s mastermind Terry Guy all received gifts of appreciation. The nonpermanent guys had made two amazing wrestling belts just for the two artists. Painted in gold, with pens attached, they were amazing to look at and the press lapped it up. Terry was next and to his surprise he received a giant golden picture frame medallion with Secret Wars emblazoned on the front. It looked totally cool and Terry was more than pleased to show it off.







With all the frolics coming to an end all that was left was to move on with the crowds to the after party at the Rainbow just up the road for a big booze-up. The night was a complete success, with both nonpermanent and Secret Wars ending on a real high. Let’s hope all the other tour dates pan out as smoothly. For further info please check www.nonpermanent.com and www.secretwars.co.uk

A Snow Covered City, 08/02/2007

Wow, I woke up Thursday morning to a sight I haven't seen for a good five years. London had gone all white. No the BNP hadn't won any seats in some random election. Instead the weather decided to take a leaf out of Russia's book and let the heaven's open, blanketing the land in snow!



The school's were closed, the roads were blocked, people couldn't get to work, but I was content to sit at home on my day off and watch the world literally slip by, whilst watching television whilst wrapped in a duvet drinking a hot chocolate. The news stations were packed with stories of the disruption caused by the weather as well as some of the fun moments.




I received various texts, wishing me a Merry Xmas which seemed quite appropriate for such a random day. Shame the turkey's all have Bird Flu as an Xmas dinner would have suited me right down to the core.

Hope there is more snow to come as it always seems pointless to have such cold weather without a bit of the white stuff.

Secret Wars Quarter Final, 27/01/07

Woohoo, the second night in the quarterfinal stage of the Secret Wars tournament is finally here. The night saw the biggest artists in the whole first series fight with all guns blazing. Without a doubt the night superseded any of the previous battles in terms of crowd turn out. Juno bar was officially packed to the rafters with eager fans desperate to get a glimpse of their favourite artist’s piece. Due to the overcrowding even the artists had minimal foot space behind their walls, which meant they really had to concentrate on what they were drawing, as it would be impossible to stand back and observe the piece as a whole.

First battle of the night was between Bristol’s Sickboy and Kingston’s Alfamale. Both artists have two totally different battle styles, with Sickboy’s quirky and random approach contrasting to Alfamale’s more dark and sinister line of attack.





With less of a status in the Graff world, Alfamale had more of a challenge on his hands, but he certainly had loads of support in the crowds and once the battle got off to a start it was pleasure to watch both of the guys at work.





Sickboy on the far left of the wall, decided to follow suit with a similar style to that of his winning piece from his first battle back in October. Drawn was a factory-like building with a tree growing from the roof, symbolising the difference between the two mediums of nature and man-made, fake produce. This was shown through the image of an apple which both appeared on the tree, but also on and around the factory. At the top left of the piece there was written the slogan, “Why eat an apple…when you can bite my style.” Because of the quote the idea sprang to mind that Sickboy was making a direct attack at the artists that sell-out and seek commercialism as a way of making money. Just as the tree grows apples, the factory also produces apples, which get boxed up and sent away. Sickboy even drew an apple in a television set showing how marketable it can be. The apple, it appears, represents the artists drawing or style, whilst the small crying character in the centre of the tree appears to be a symbolic representation of an artist who is so far removed and isolated from the actual art.




It was ironic therefore that Alfamale chose to draw a city scene where the only buildings on show were imitations of Sickboy’s famous temple design. Alfamale, whose love of the whole battle theme certainly helped out in earlier stages of the tournament, certainly didn’t let the crowd down. In the foreground was a temple with Alfa’s skull character emblazoned on the roof. The background consisted of a giant baby character in a romper suit, with what looked like chicken pock’s, (an obvious direct attack at Sickboy’s name), stomping on all the temple’s whilst ripping several of them from the ground with it’s arm. Very bold in design, there were also little details to be found, such as the dummy hanging from the baby’s wrist, as well as the “?” on the dancing character’s hat in the foreground of the piece.





Once time was over it was left for judges Lunartik and Whiteman of Non-Permanent to cast their votes alongside the clap meter, which rendered (much to his surprise) Alfamale the winner. Who would be next to join him in the semi-finals, only the next battle would decide.




After a short interval featuring entertainment from the likes of beat boxing sensation Dirty Harry, the second battle could begin. The two artists fighting it out for the chance to meet Alfamale in the semi-finals were 5683 and Inkie.


In his piece artist 5683 attacked Inkie’s status more than his name; it was a clever and slightly different approach than winner Alfamale. Composed was a piece consisting of a gigantic eyeball headed angel, seated in a wheel chair. This angel character had an arrow shot right through the centre of it’s eyeball head with the words, “All Hail St. Inky” written above. The line was meant as a diss towards Inky who is obviously a noted graff artist. The statement attached to the picture gave mixed messages. Whilst the illustration clearly showed a frail, crippled character that would not really be idolised by anyone, The statement in comparison was in favour of Inkie as if the name was falsely put next to the character by mistake. Even a little fly character was drawn with the slogan, “Ain’t nowt but a dying eyeball” next to it. This gave the impression that the attack could also be focused on the fact that Inkie is probably one of the oldest artists in the competition. This idea was also confirmed with yet another statement from another one of 5683’s talking fly characters saying, “where’s Inkie? Gone to bed”. Even the t-shirt that the St.Inkie character was wearing read “I love 5683”.





Inkie always similar in his style stuck to what he knows best, with his traditional girl character although with a different twist. As well as his usual fine detail drawings, Inkie also managed to incorporate the theme of the battle into his piece by drawing a skeleton character with the numbers 5683 etched in the skull. If that wasn’t bad enough Inkie also attacked 5683 with several slogans of his own. One read, “Ain’t nothing but a number” and the other, “Art classes you can’t afford” as if to say that 5683 had no credible art talent. Even Inkie’s usually pristine girl character made a swipe at 5683 with two statements, one discreetly written on a lock of the characters hair, reading, “your mumma ain’t hot like this” whilst the characters medallion read, “coz you ain't down” as if to say that 5683 didn’t have a clue what was cool. The rest of the piece consisted of Inkie’s traditional style with giant plants and flowers filling the space behind.






Even though both pieces were very clever in design, there could only be one winner. Who would the judges and the crowd go for? Would the newcomer or the veteran win? It was down to the clap meter and the crowd cheered to determine Inkie as the fourth and final quarterfinal champion of the tournament. He now awaits Alfamale at the semi finals in February alongside Teck 1 who is battling Gustav Balderdash for a place at the Grand Final on March 31st. Ooh the excitement is just getting too much. Secret Wars is even going on a little UK tour to let off some steam. They are hitting Birmingham on the 17th of February, Brighton on the 3rd of March and Southampton on the 15th March with even more in the pipeline. Don’t forget to check www.secretwars.co.uk for more details on the tournament and any information about the forthcoming tours.

Gabriella Weekes