This news just in from the artists at the Treatment Rooms…

Last month, MTV’s ‘Pimp My Ride’ star Karen Lauenborg – aka ‘Pinky’ – launched the UK’s first ever Art Car Parade. This parade, taking place in Manchester on 8th September 2007, will be the first parade of its kind in the UK.

Artists from all over the country have been specially commissioned to transform vehicles into mobile artworks, and create an exciting new kind of festival.

The original concept to bring an Art Car Parade to the UK was conceived by Liz Pugh and John Wassell from Walk the Plank, one of the UK’s leading Arts organisations specialising in outdoor performance. Art Car parades are a huge phenomenon is the USA, with the first, and by far the largest, in Houston with 250 Art Cars on show, attracting over 200,000 spectators annually.

Over 75 submissions were received from artists from across the UK and abroad. The Treatment Rooms proposal ‘The Tiki Love Mobile’ won one of the highest valued commissions.

The ‘Tiki Love Mobile’ will be a magical mosaic/ceramic adorned automobile which will be driven by two lovely hula girls that give out messages of love and peace as they drive by. A tiki is a large carved talisman of humanoid form, common to the Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean.

Artists Reichardt and Mr Spunky are clearly delighted to have been given this opportunity to be part of such an interesting and exciting new art adventure. Already well known for their mosaic house ‘The Treatment Rooms’, they felt it was only a matter of time before they started to mosaic their own vehicle. Now with funding from the Art Car Parade they will be able to create a truly unique piece of art.

Baroness von Reichardt commented: ‘It is our aim to create a spectacle, which will amaze, entertain and fascinate both from distance and especially on closer inspection. We have always found that the labour intensive craft of mosaic is universally loved and appreciated as a highly accessible art form.’

They are now appealing for a car manufacturer to match-fund their commission and provide them with a suitable vehicle. They are looking for any kind of camper vehicle which must be mechanically sound as this piece of moveable art is intended to travel all over the country.

Walk the Plank are also pleased to announce that they have received funding from Blackpool Borough Council to create an illuminated Art Car Parade for the Festival of Light, part of Blackpool Illuminations, which the Tiki Love Mobile will be attending.

Some tiles from another visit to Cromer. First an almost square psuedo-mosaic tile in a doorway: look for the join…

Some garish steps:

Some roof tiles from Norwich Station:

Cisco have chosen to feature Gaudi and Jujol’s mosaic bench in Barcelona in their Human Network Campaign. It appears as the main image representing the “Unified Communications” strand, and is on whole-page adverts in the UK press at the moment. Always great to see, of course. It’s not the first time Gaudi and Jujol’s work has been used in eye-catching advertising, by any means. There was an ad for spirits on UK TV some years back, for example. I remember the mosaics (the chimney structures on the Palau Guell)  , but sadly not whether it was vodka or rum being plugged…

Hurrah! The latest edition of “Grout”, the newsletter of the British Association for Modern Mosaic is here. As ever, it’s superbly produced and full of quality photos of mosaics. There are illustrated reviews of exhibitions; an article about Oliver Budd’s work to preserve some of his father’s public mosaics; a feature on Newfoundland-based artist Terry Nicholls; and articles on Tunisian mosaics and a possible patron saint of mosaics. Need more? There’s part two of Gary Drostles’s guide to andamento, personal accounts of how people got started in mosaic and book reviews, and more… It’s sent free to members - find out how to join on the BAMM website.