Photo exhibition ‘Guardians: the school we lived in’

is proud to present

GUARDIANS: the school we lived in

An exhibition of portrait and still photography, with an accompanying soundscape, documenting nine property guardians living in an abandoned school in Hackney Downs.

‘Guardians: the school we lived in’ is an exhibition that documents the last hurrah of a disused school in Hackney Downs, in which its final earthly purpose was to be a home to nine property guardians.

The school, built in 1969, was in use until 2014 for children with learning difficulties. Despite the school’s uncertain future the property guardians remained creative and resilient; repurposing the space and breathing new life into the old classrooms. They lived there for 14 months before the school was demolished in 2016.

The single-storey breeze-block building had a distinctive architecture featuring semi-circle windows in ultramarine blue and all the regular school facilities: a jungle gym, basketball courts, assembly hall. Unique to the school was what the guardians dubbed ‘the emotion room’ a small box room with long-forgotten pictograms of faces on the walls representing different emotions, which will be reproduced in the exhibition.

Essentially an installation of portraits, stills, found objects, and a soundscape, the work aims to immerse you in the property guardian experience and explore themes of uncertainty, change, our inextricable link to the temporary nature of things, and the question of our legacy: what do we want left standing and what do we leave to be destroyed?

Above: ‘School photo’ will be shown at the exhibition.

At the BSMT Space, Stoke Newington Road, N16 8BH
Gallery opening hours:
Fri 19 May: 7pm – 11pm (opening night)
Sat 20 – Mon 22 May: 10am – 7pm
Tues 23 May: 10am-6.45pm

For more information please email: hello@enterhuman.com

Flatmates V Zombies II

After 3 years of development, writer Christopher Hogg and director Hyun Ju Baek, launched Flatmates V Zombies II in 2016. Producers Richard Shannon (London) and Eui Won Jung (Seoul) were also on board and successfully secured Arts Council funding for the musical’s development.

A re-imainging of the original 2013 musical, with new numbers composed by two new composers, Dan Donovan (Ex Big Audio Dynamite) (London) and Hwal-Ran Min (Seoul), the music now truly reflects its international roots.

I composed two new numbers and musically directed the unstaged productions in London (Tristan Bates Theatre) and Seoul in July 2016. Please listen to one of the newest instrumental tracks from the musical here.

More information here. Watch this space for more Zombies in 2017!

flatmatesvzombies_info_v4

When You’re Ready film

My short film When You’re Ready is now available to watch online.

The website was designed by the very talented Yani Joseph who helped me get this up and running in just a couple of weeks!

I’m so happy that I’m able to finally share this with everyone! Enjoy.

This Comedian – Draw HQ 2015

This year was A HUGE year for my sister, Idil Sukan, and her production company Draw HQ.

I’ve worked with my sister for the last 5 years, meeting a lot of people and producing photography and artwork for their productions. We produced her first exhibition This Comedian. It was great to see my sister’s work all in one place – which helped to appreciate the huge amount of work she’s done, how talented she is and the incredible portfolio she has.

This was her debut exhibition of the last ten years of her work in photography and art direction. It was on at the Embassy Tea Gallery in Southwark and from 19 February – 8 March. You can see her work and buy a print here.

We also produced a live comedy show in the lead up to the exhibition at the Duchess Theatre in Covent Garden. The line up included Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan, James Acaster, Robin Ince, Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who) and MC Michael Legge.

Other events included talks about the representation of women in comedy and photography in association with Big Blonde Salon and Soho House.

Overall the exhibition was a huge success and it has now been taken up to the Edinburgh Festival this year, exhibiting at the Abatoir.

– Above: the core Draw HQ production team were women and we wrapped the exhibition on International Women’s day.

20th London Turkish Film Festival trailer

I had the opportunity again this year to compose and edit the London Turkish Film Festival trailer.

It was particularly exciting as it was the 20th year the festival has been running! It played before each screening at the festival at the O2 Cineworld, Odeon Panton Street and my beloved Rio Cinema.

Enjoy:

The Undiscovered Theatre Company

During panto season 2014 I worked with actor/director/writer Jennifer Sarah Dean to musically direct and create sound effects for the original panto play Pantopantoland.

It was quite a tight rehearsal schedule and the cast only had one day to learn 12 songs! But they were brilliant and rose up to the challenge, performing the entire panto just four days later.

– Above Pantopantoland being performed. They took an audience member up on stage to be the King which happened to be my partner Mark!

After the panto season, Jen had been asked to direct a short play as part of the 5 minute festival at the Lost Theatre in Stockwell. The play South Australia by Kenneth Emson incorporated the sea shanty song of the same name. Jen asked me to musically arrange the sea shanty for three voices and also perform in the play.

The cast included Brian Mackay, Eleonora Gorini and Victoria Gilbert, and we got through to the final of the festival and got to perform it a second time the following day which was really enjoyable. Although we didn’t win the festival, we all loved being able to perform it a second time.

– Above performing South Australia at the Lost Theatre 5 minute festival.

I first worked with Jen in the musical Flatmates V. Zombies (2013).

When You’re Ready premiere at the 12th London Short FIlm Festival

It’s a very exciting day today as it is the premiere of my first short film When You’re Ready as part of the 12th London Short Film Festival at Hackney Picturehouse.

The screening has sold out, so hopefully there will be other screenings soon with other festivals.

Travels of 2014

2014 was a record breaking year for me in terms of travel. It was the year that I took most airplane flights in my life (13 in total…sorry environment… I did up my recycling a lot more last year to make up for it…), and I visited Thailand for the first time which was the furtherest distance I’ve been from home. In August and September I travelled to Menorca for the first time, and then re-visited Madrid, Bodrum and Istanbul to be with family.

Also due to the nature of my job, I travelled around London a lot. I was constantly discovering new areas and was reminded how enormous the city actually is.

I hope I continue to discover my city and new cities this year too!

Click on the links to see my flickr sets of my travels or scroll below for a selection of my favourite moments in 2014:

Photography for London Turkish Film Festival pre-festival party and screenings

Working for the London Turkish Film Festival I photographed the pre-festival party at Dalston Roof Park with klezmer band She’Koyokh and screening of Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, and the open-air screening of The Butterfly’s Dream (d.Yılmaz Erdoğan) in Gillett Square.

Check out my Flickr sets for more photos of the pre-festival party and of the open air screening.

19th London Turkish Film Festival

This year I worked for the London Turkish Film Festival. When working for a small organisation you have the opportunity to see how everything works and help out on most tasks. It was an invaluable experience, I learned so much and met some incredible people! The task I enjoyed doing most was editing and co-composing music for the festival trailer: