PHOTO DIARY: MANCHESTER, SEPT 24TH 2015

Went to visit the Affordable Art Fair yesterday. Wasn't allowed in, due to a misprint on the advertising ( - great, thanks for that! ). Decided to visit several galleries instead. Never got round to those either, because the city is so beautiful, I was mesmerised by the architecture and street scenes. I can only assume that Manchester was less bombed by the Luftwaffe than Birmingham ( which, let's face it, in comparison, is an unsightly mess ). 

Below: Ironically, the grimy window in the art gallery contributed to the 'painterly' look of this photo.

One minute, the light made Manchester look like a movie set, then next, a painting. I can't get over what an incredibly photogenic city it is.

I forgot my camera's chip, so borrowed a colleague's iPhone 6. After fumbling with it for most of the day ( you can see the shadows caused by my finger in front of the lens ), I began to get the hang of it. I've come to the conclusion it's better than my actual camera.

With the wide streets and the trams, Manchester resembles an archetypal European city...

...and also New York City.

I really do have to come back, ASAP.

All pics are shot on an iPhone 6.

2011's 'JAPANESE LANDSCAPE'

As seen in its home on the island of Paros, Greece.

Acrylic on canvas, 1m x 1m

THE HUMAN GLITCH

Sometime you work on something for hours and it still doesn't come out right...but  the mistakes can be as interesting, if not more, than the successful ones. I've put the trademark across this because I'm not sure whether I want this to be an official 'Alexi' or not. But it's growing on me.

Pen and ink on A3 watercolour paper

OUT NOW, COURTESY OF BUCKETFEET: ALEXI K's 'ELECTRONIQUE' SHOE!

Inspired by my love of urban futurism and electronic music, the ELECTRONIQUE is my homage to those things that provide the foundation of my creativity. 

NOTE: This has now sold out. If there are plans to reissue this design, I'll let you know!

( Post updated from 01 / 09 / 2015 )

LONDON UNDERGROUND N-DIMENSIONAL HYPERBALL

Concept: In the future, we'll be able to put the whole of London's Underground into a ball, and travel along the inside surface of it. In fact, they've probably done it already - only they haven't announced it, in case the transport union gets 'ideas' and announces another strike.

A GLITCH IN TIME

New 'faux-antique' fabric design taken from the code of a glitched photograph.

THE SPARK OF INSPIRATION BEHIND ALEXI K's 'ELECTRONIQUE'

In 2013, I did a great bunch of articles for my black & white art mag MONOBLOG, featuring current sci-fi film-making gurus Anthony Scott Burns, Ash Thorp and Bradley ( GMunk ) Munkowitz.

Looking for a cool custom background for one of these editions - and inspired by the utterly beautiful 'graphic user interfaces' that some these guys specialize in - I found a very ordinary electronic diagram, and abstractified it until it started to look interesting. 

It's like any other collage. You chop / rotate / mirror / cut / paste / edit , according to the configurations that suit your personal sense of balance.

Like a Rorschach test, you start to think you can see things amongst all the lines and shapes.

Below: Alternative Iteration, 2013

For example, to me, the picture above evokes an eerie A.I. version of the Turin Shroud. 

( Detail below ).

Shortly afterwards, I was still in this mode when I submitted one of the many iterations to Bucketfeet...lo and behold, it's now a shoe!

Below: Alternative Iteration, 2014