Pageantry With Purpose

In the wake of a potentially new age of Press regulation and media practice the changing times of the everyday are fast and furious. So it is comforting to be able to look to The Crown and its ever so reliable hands of time that tick tock in military precision to the same beat today as they have in centuries past. I’ve been looking forward to today for some time since I have always tried to witness one of the country’s oldest events and responsibilities; when historical necessity meets contemporary curiosity and the British Monarchy celebrates natural conservation. I am of course talking about Swan Upping, the annual census of the swan population on the River Thames that dates from the twelfth-century when The Crown claimed ownership of all mute swans in the land to provide a food source for court banquets and feasts.

The Queen's Swan Marker, David Barber

While the Royal chefs no longer require swan on a golden plate, the duty of the Sovereign to ensure the swan population is maintained continues through the division of The Queen’s Swan Marker and Swan Uppers. Every year during the third week of July a fleet of six traditional Thames rowing skiffs embark on a five-day journey on the Thames River and row upstream from Sunbury to Abingdon in order to count young cygnets and monitor injury or disease.

Early this morning in the Royal County of Berkshire at the foothills of Windsor Castle, Eton marked the second leg of the ceremony where The Queen’s Swan Marker and Swan Uppers – in their traditional scarlet and blue uniforms respectively - begin their journey to Marlow in the flotilla adorned with Royal flags and pennants.

Swan Uppers of the Vintners' and Dyers' Livery Companies

While the sun was lacking at Eton Bridge, the splendour of the ceremony led by The Queen’s Swan Marker, David Barber, was a glorious and intimate affair witnessed by locals and a press party to a cygnet and its Mother being measured and weighed. Beautiful and necessary for swan welfare across the River Thames, Swan Upping is as intricate in skill as its style and is a wonderful example in contemporary culture of pageantry with purpose.

For further information about the role of The Queen’s Swan Marker and next year’s annual census visit The British Monarchy or download an official Swan Upping brochure here.

Point Of Purchase

More than just a clever acronym, Richard Phillip's latest exhibition opening in The Hamptons over the weekend spans more than ten years of artmaking-meets-artist brand success. Point of Purchase celebrates the artist's collaborative career with popular culture and his intentions of reintroducing his saturated and sensual imagery back into the commercial space that they were once inspired by. Phillips has brilliantly balanced gallery and non-gallery production, adding clients such as Jimmy Choo, MAC Cosmetics, Visionaire and even popular American teen drama series Gossip Girl (Scout - below) to his creative repertoire. 2011 has seen the artist exhibit in London (Most Wanted, White Cube Hoxton Square March 2011 ) Hong Kong and the Venice Biennale with a press pleasing motion portrait, Lindsay Lohan (Commercial Break, May 2011).

Scout (Prop Art), 2010 - Art Production Fund

John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller presents Phillip's commercial interventions from 1999 to 2011 at this bookstore gallery outpost in East Hampton through to 8th August 2011. For those of you heading to The Hamptons this summer be sure to check it out - click here fore more details about the exhibition.

Visionaire #31 Blue Poster, 2000 - Visionaire

Point of Purchase

John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller

87 Newtown Lane

East Hampton

NY 11937

Pop Charts

Continuing his recent penchant for the Californian lifestyle of sun, style and skate with the rerelease of customised designs for Supreme skateboards (Summer Supreme, June 2011) Damien Hirst has also designed the artwork for this year's much anticipated album, I’m With You, from Los Angeles rock legends Red Hot Chili Peppers due for release on 30th August.

The artist’s signature pharmaceutical aesthetic of a fly atop a pill joins the innovative, provocative and controversial imagery of the music industry’s collaborative history with global artists from Andy Warhol to Takashi Murakami, to create iconic album art that attributes to popular culture as well as the origins of aspirational lifestyle on an international scale. In the age of the download there is no doubt Hirst’s involvement with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers will reignite the physicality between music and consumer, as well the air-guitar-playing art collector. Here’s a look at the powerful collaborations between music and art from the charts past and present…

Andy Warhol - The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground

Andy Warhol - Emotions in Motions, Billy Squier

Andy Warhol - Love You Love, The Rolling Stones

Andy Warhol - Aretha, Aretha Franklin

Robert Rauschenberg - Speaking in Tongues, Talking Heads

Hiroshi Sugimoto - No Line On The Horizon, U2

Peter Blake - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles

Jenny Saville - The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers

Richard Prince - Sonic Nurse, Sonic Youth

Julian Opie - Blur: The Best Of, Blur

Banksy - Think Tank, Blur

Takashi Murakami - Graduation, Kanye West

KAWS - 808s & Heartbreak, Kanye West

George Condo - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West

Shepard Fairey - Mothership, Led Zeppelin

Jungle City Update

After last year's hugely successful Elephant Parade in London, Elephant Family are now fervently counting down to this summer's exciting programme in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Jungle City event will celebrate creative talent in Scotland, England and the rest of the world, bringing artists, designers and celebrities - Emma Bridgewater, Professor Gordon Murray, Marc Quinn and Harvey Nichols to name a few - together to produce one hundred and thirty life size sculptures of some of the planet's most endangered species.

Below are a few photos from the Jungle City London artist studio where elephants, tigers, orangutans, crocodiles and hornbills are being transformed into wild designs of the imagination with the hope of raising £1 million for their survival around the world. For those of you planning to be in Edinburgh this summer, Jungle City will launch on 16th August at the Royal Botanic Gardens to coincide with the city's world famous Fringe Festival, followed by a series of interventions across Edinburgh's streets, institutions and public spaces from 6th September that will include my very own design Tribal Tigris (Urban Jungle, May 2011).

Visit the official website for Elephant Family here to learn more about their international effort of protecting endangered elephants and conserving their natural habitats across Asia. View one of the organisation's awareness videos below that describes the threats on forests that are being drastically minimised by human activity through force and conflict. If this barbaric behaviour continues the world's Asian Elephant population will frighteningly disappear altogether within thirty years.

Follow this project and many more @JMVELARDI throughout the summer!

Summer Supreme

Whether you're rolling along Venice Beach in Los Angeles, popping it in Brooklyn Banks or grinding on London's South Bank, the skateboarding community - and international art collectors alike - will no doubt want to get their feet on Damien Hirst's customised decks in collaboration with Supreme. A rerelease from the original launch of designs in 2009, a selection of forty decks with the artist's original signature and trademark art will be made available at Other Criteria in London this summer.

The decks will exclusively launch in store at 14 Hinde Street, London W1U 3BG on 13th July with a limited amount available online from 14th July through the Other Criteria website.

Living The High Line

Cloud, FriendsWithYou

For those of you in the Big Apple, head to the High Line this weekend and discover the kid in you at the colour and stripes extravangaza that is Rainbow City.

Created to celebrate the opening of phase two of Manhattan's elevated park (East Coast Recap: Garden EditionOctober 2009), AOL's AOL Artists programme invited Miami-based art collective FriendsWithYou to create an interactive sculpture park on the newly refurbished section of the elevated freight rail structure that extends from West 20th Street to West 30th Street on the Lower West Side.

A forty-piece installation of inflatables, design work and a pop-up shop designed by HWKN consume the sixteen-thousand square foot space that makes it the perfect go-to this summer in the heart of Chelsea - click here for more details, updates and visiting information.

Rainbow City runs from June 8th - July 5th 2011

10th Avenue & West 30th Street

New York 10001

View Larger Map

Buddy, FriendsWithYou

Images courtesy of FriendsWithYou & AOL Inc

Royal Roundup Weekend

Royal Box, Epsom Derby 1991

It can only mean one thing when the Saturday papers are replaced with the Racing Post - and wallets - at the breakfast table in early June - it's the Epsom Derby. This iconic sporting event held at Epsom Downs epitomises the beginning of the summer season in both sporting and social calendars for all classes and will be made more prestigious should, as the British Press fervently reports, Her Majesty The Queen win her first Derby winner in her reign with her runner, Carlton House. All eyes will be on the Queen's horse at today's big race at 16:00 - carrying the Royal silks of purple, gold and scarlet - a win for the Royal Stud will be the fairytale ending for Crown and Country in The Sport of Kings that is said to be the Queen's passion in life. Watch The Derby live on the BBC here.

Carlton House

This week also saw Camilla, Duchess of Rothesay (titled when in Scotland) paying a visit to the artist studios for the Elephant Family, also supported by the Prince of Wales, in Edinburgh. The Duchess viewed several animals by local artists who are participating in this year's Jungle City event which I have contributed to with my own design Tribal Tigris - Urban Jungle, May 2011 - while touring Dovecot Studios on Wednesday. Visit the official Jungle City website for updates on events and sponsors in Edinburgh this summer.

"This remarkable initiative aims to help alleviate the crisis facing so many species on our planet today... Your generous support of Elephant Family and Jungle City in Edinburgh will quite simply make all the difference so I can only urge you to support this innovative campaign in any way you can."

HRH The Prince of Wales