First day of the Prada Fondazione, June 2012. The Damien Hirst is newly-installed, beautiful, underrated as a work of colour. POP's cover collaborator is elsewhere. Not even a Grand Canal mosquito in the bedroom. "We have no flies! Perfect! It won't last…"

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Butterflies dont feel the COLD.

Check out Sir Peter Blake's current exhibition Homage 10 X 5 – Blake's Artists, at Waddington Galleries until the 11th December. Sir Peter Blake pays homage to 10 artists who have interested him during his career, and includes works inspired by the likes of Sonia Delaunay, Henri Matisse and Kurt Schwitters. Our favourite happens to be Blake's take on Damien Hirst's butterflies, a theme familiar to us here at POP…

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Last night saw the grand opening of Damien Hirst's show The Souls at Paul Stolper Gallery. 120 foil blocked butterflies in all colours filled the entire gallery, a sight to behold. Butterflies, a symbol of life and mortality has become a HIrst trademark which he also used for POP's Tavi cover.

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The fashion world is evidently turning blonde now, although Abbey Lee's platinum rinse here in New York is surely less noteworthy than Karen Anne, singer of the band Ramona, who charmed the throng at the Burberry event this weekend.

POP is no stranger to the beautiful/stylish/irrepressible Karen who played our "CRASH" party at Damien Hirst's Camberwell space last year. So it would have been rude to not then go party together and look to paint the town a bit peroxide…

You don't find the serious freaks and dancing queens at parties by Purple magazine or Alexander Wang, though. In a loft space in Little Italy someone strange recreated the original David Mancuso spirit with one thousand silver balloons and a blonde female DJ who really knew how to rock everybody's world. (Answer: "Blue Monday" cut-ups, of course.) When some cool little Vince Clark-obsessive then set-up his vintage keyboards and played a very Yazzoo/Depeche set, POP got a nosebleed.

Meanwhile, Karen Anne had all the downtown passionista's nodding in approval. It's a Blondie vibe of course… this Brighton-based 'Pretty Baby' was moving just fine in a cute Stella McCartney dress. Her new best friends on the dancefloor wore rather less.

Ramona's first single, "How Long", is out tmrw on their own label. Karen's spirit is more "X Offender" than "Heart Of Glass" and we love it, especially when it comes as a ridiculously-scarce cool picture disc 7" you'll only find in Rough Trade for a couple of weeks. But the band have been signed by Columbia, with proper CDs and downloads inevitable for 2011.

New York and Karen Anne Ramona – a blonde moment just beginning.

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Udderly amazing news just in! Damien Hirst is coming to the seaside town of Torquay, Devon in July and we are so excited for this! Some of you may know that Devon is known for farming and this exhibition is extremely fitting with the basis of the exhibition being a cow and calf cut in half and preserved.

Hirst’s Mother and Child, Divided has caused much controversy in cities such as Venice, Oslo, London and Tokyo but now the people of Torquay will be milking it for all its arty goodness. Aren't we lucky? This surely is a ‘moo-mentous’ occasion for the Spanish Barn in Torquay!

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The whole office decided to take the weekend off and fly to Berlin to celebrate the end of the ash (or is it?) and go see some great art at the

There was a beautiful and international crowd, a rocking DJ, champagne on tap and a few of us managed to end up at the bottom of the pool. This is where I stayed  for the rest of the weekend. Can someone please come and help me out?
 
Before the fall I managed to catch up with Michael and Damien to ask them some pure POP questions.

 
POP: Can you tell me why you decided to collaborate together?

DH: I’ve known Mike for 20 years and we have always talked about doing a show together, usually in the wee hours, drunk out of our minds. It was a long time coming but had to be done.
 

MJ: I think we were both thinking about it last year when Harry (Blaine) saw my show in New York at Anton Kern. In the end, Damien suggested it to both of us and we curated it together. 

POP: What is your affinity with Berlin?

DH: I had a great time there and my eldest son Connor was made in Berlin. Before Berlin, I lived in a council flat in London, and when I went to live in Berlin it was for a fellowship where they put me up in a big beautiful house and two studios, one for me and one for my girlfriend. They gave me money to make art but I spent most of it partying.

MJ: I decided to become an artist after living and working as a science intern in Austria and Germany in the mid 80's. I visited Berlin often in the 90's and watched it transform.

POP: The weekend was an art lovers wet dream. Did you see anything that blew your mind?

DH: I saw a piece by Julian Opie, a twin video piece in a group show that my old tutor Michael Craig Martin curated. I also went to the Pergamon Museum which is totally mind blowing. Those dead guys so knew how to make art.

MJ: The show at Neuger Riemschneider, Beuys at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Olafur Eliasson's installation, Christoph Waltz outside of the cool show at Michael Fuchs'. The Holocaust Memorial.

POP: Can you explain the thinking behind the room with the balls, the tree, and so on?

DH: From my perspective and from Mike's perspective it's very different, the fly painting and the whole room works like a celebration of man trying to get to grips with his environment. Let's Eat Outdoors Today is like a very very bad picnic, and Mike’s tree fallen down is like the end of civilisation. The ball piece “The Battle Between Good and Evil" as the title says explains itself, there’s a lot going on in that room.

MJ: Transformation and Life. Circles transforming into squares (the tree), black into white, eggs becoming flies, image becoming sculpture, breath becoming ice, memory transforming into reality, death into life. The basics. 

POP: Have you ever really looked at the sun?

MJ: All the time.

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The shoes needed an outing. Damiens opening at the

The party was held at the church at one Marlyebone Road, the most architecturally distinguished church designed by Sir John Soanes,. The drinks were mojitos and the shoes became dangerous….. we kissed sexy boys who played golf and hot Ukranian principle ballerinas and danced in the echoing crypt. Oh and we marvelled at how tall Stephen Fry is!

Bacon influenced, Hitchcok insipred… the darkness and morbidity remain, but some shards of optimism shine through with some crazy bold colours (in the triptychs at Masons Yard) and humour (the birds at Hoxton Square). If you only see one show this year…..

White Cube
Nothing Matters
25 Nov – 30 Jan 2010
Hoxton Square and Mason’s Yard

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POP’s hardcore gets itself about. A little like those incessantly mewing cats that distract/shag the whole neighbourhood and make sure you’re up most of the night.

LA has been no different. We’re now dealing with a minor noise complaint down at the City as a result of The Party (TM). So ban us…

POP had table #1 at the MOCA gala, so it was only proper to throw an after-party to remember. Francesco Vezzoli had showed us what you can do with a Damien Hirst piano, Lady Gaga and 12 Russian Bolshoi dancers. It certainly got the LA old-timers talking. Oh and did I mention Prada designed the memorable costumes?

After that we skipped down to Prism gallery and to our shack next door where The Party was held between the venues. What did POP do? Between us we drank enough Grey Goose to sink a ship, danced like no-one was watching, kissed a Bond villain, stepped repeatedly on Chloe Sevigny’s toes (it was very crowded), vogued with Tom Ford (he’s the greatest dancer), felt faint at the sight of James Franco and generally partied hard under the stars looking at the whole of LA beneath us. Oh and saw some real pretty dresses (Rodarte rocks).

Check out some of our snaps – but note they are highly censored – some of our dance moves could have landed us in jail. Yes, you know who you are…

Gallery after jump!

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Monday night was CrASH night. Why are we still going on about it? Because it was a very POP jump-start to Frieze! It was a great chance to meet up with friends, contributors, artsy people and fashion people and generally reap the benefits of a lot of hard work put up by our lovelies Malena and Becky. The event was sponsored by *John Jones, Martinspeed, Bentleys Entertainment and Other Criteria*, and Damien Hirst generously lent us the warehouse/gallery space.

Karen Says sang an amazing cover of Bowie’s “Always Crashing in the Same Car.” Karen is another name to remember, as the girl’s got talent. They just recently signed with Mercury, and we can’t wait to play their album in the office!

The show featured artists Nick Devereux, Dick Evans, Ben Jeans Houghton, Phillipa Horan, Aki Ilomaki, Simon Mathers, Neil McNally, Rob McNally, Cai Nyahoe and Seth Pick.

While it was a party, there was a deeper meaning beneath the surface, as the artists’ works displayed the modern yet time old notions of the ever expanding communications landscape, to the questionable differences between fiction and reality and the dreams that can be made or shattered by money, assets, or fame.

The *Shunt* team’s performance was another show stopper, taking heavy inspiration from J.G. Ballard’s /Crash/. A naked woman riding the car as her chariot and screaming on her megaphone, whilst dancers fought and grinded on the cars, highlighted the violence and exhilaration. The crowd was left stunned.

But the event was a smash, with the buzz of youth and the promise that only young artists bring to the autumn air. Where else can you go on a Monday night to hear the best cover of a Bowie ever as well as an art-sex-tape call on the top floor, pristinely manicured LIVE pigeons in an installation on the 1^st floor, and then performers charging into the party riding automobiles and then smashing them? Yes, the event was a smash.

The CrASH will go on until December.

Special thanks to:

and

More pics after jump!

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