Journal

Bruised, battered and scarred: Riot Queer - Italian artist and founder of the ''Punk Surrealism'' movement - has given birth to an army of zombies, adorable and melancholic wounded bodies sketched out on paper, board and canvas all sharing a romantic, tragic and sarcastic character. Covered in as many tattoos as injuries, these imagined people with cute cartoon-ish features do not shy out in front of the truth, which they speak aloud and boldly. A hole in the middle of the chest, a gash on the breast, a tear to the neck...Riot Queer's work sees everybody as wounded: he makes no exceptions and takes no prisoners.

Six works by Tisbor (aka Nicola Vinciguerra) - Italian illustrator you may already know from the cover of several recent records from the power electronic and noise scenes - have been added to the gallery. Politically uncorrect, sarcastic, devious and - at times - simply unnerving and incomprehensible, Tisbor's world is made of cannibal zombies, friendly torturers and wounded TV presenters. You can try making sense of it and look for a logic of sort or just go with the flow, follow him into his surreal, messy and absurd dimension...the fun is guaranteed, and so is the filth!

Marco Rea's work strives to depict altered psychological states - radical deformations of one's perceptions - new sensorial realities resembling dreams, memories, visions taking shape during a state of trance.

Acting upon the surface of pre-existing images - generally pertaining to a serial production (billboards, ads, etc) - Marco reinvents both bodies and faces bringing them out of context, in his world of comatose allegories. With the technique normally pertaining to writers, street artists and other creative entities active in the cityscape, Rea tries to transform the faces invading his daily life into the protagonists of an imagined world.

If - just like me - you like your photos a little crude and you sense of humor does not fit in the politically correct category, then you are probably going to be a fan of Marc Blackie. Nine gorgeous black and white photos of his have just been added to the gallery...enjoy the feast!

The newest artist to join Channel 83's gallery is Olivier Lelong. Coming from a post-punk background and being exposed to the tradition of 80's French graphic art - Lelong has worked with a wide variety of different media, ranging from video, to illustration and performance. He moves from art to science with incredible ease - shifting the boundaries of the both, and of medicine in particular, in order to create the space for a novel take on the body mixing nature and culture, in an irreverent pastiche of scientific illustration and fetishistic graphics.

A major update to Channel 83: a rather large selection of images from Suka Off - possibly my favorite up and coming performers in the European scene - have been added to the website's gallery.

I have been awaiting with increasing impatience to be able to announce this update, as Suka Off's work has been a constant inspiration for mine in recent times. I have been fascinated with some of the elements of their work to the point of finding in it some precious insights that have helped opening up a new direction for both Channel 83 and my writing.

The photos that you can find in the gallery are a selection of promotional shots accompanying Suka Off's performances and are shot by Piotr Wegrzynski - one half of the performers' core elements.

And just when you started missing Gilbert & George, here comes another couple who make art good enough to spend your spare time staring at...

Nomadic and irreverent, Luigi y Luca is a newly born joint project of two artists and lovers living in between Italy and Spain. Their work is both humorous and political with little space for subtlety.

While waiting for the completion of their new series of photographs (which promises to be quite attuned to Channel 83's favorite themes) I have selected one of their latest works to be included in the website's gallery, as an introduction to Luigi y Luca's art. You may like their work - as I do - or detest it, but I am sure this first photograph will get you hooked...

Updates are flowing in at a regular pace despite my lack of a permanent base: while traveling in between London, Berlin and Madrid I have been looking back towards my homeland: here comes Nicoz Balboa - although she is currently living in La Rochelle (France) I assume she will not mind if I label her as one of the sauciest up and coming Italian artists.

Nicoz and Channel 83 were already featured together in the first issue of ''Nixon'' magazine...now it's time for her to make her debut on the website's gallery.

I have no real idols but there are a few people whose work I love and respect to the point of bordering obsession: Saturno Buttò is one of them. Without wanting to disrespect any of the other artists that I have featured on Channel 83 before him, I am not ashamed to confess that - upon uploading Buttò's works to the gallery approximately three years ago - I felt that my project had finally reached its complete maturity - that it had 'made it'.

Saturno is one of the few artist that is directly responsible for inspiring me to start Channel 83 and my research project, and its connection to what I do is so strong I have a pretty straight-forward reference to his aesthetic tattooed on my chest. So, he may not be an idol, but he is much more than simply a good artist for me. I always felt that his gallery on the site was one of the strongest ones...and yet - seeing as he is a very prolific artist - I also wanted to change its contents, updating it regularly with new works. The time has finally come, as seven new paintings have been added to Saturno's little shrine on Channel 83's gallery. Worshippers should not hesitate in paying their respects...

A new update to Channel 83: some works by the Italian photographer Alice Angeletti have been added to her gallery. Her imaginary is grim and crude, while her photos reflect upon the theme of identity and its lacerations.

The first two updates to Channel 83's gallery are now available: the first one is a brand new series by the artist Kris Wlodarski, while the second one completes the existing gallery of one of the website's oldest collaborators, Mirko Smerdel, with two new works from his up and coming series ''Human Monsters''.

Doralba Picerno - one of Channel 83's most valuable contributors - has just released her second book, ''Girls''. If you are a fan of her work, you shouldn't miss it.

I'm particularly happy to announce this release as Doralba was so kind as to ask me to write the introduction to the book: it is a first time for me and truly a great honour to be able to comment upon her work, which I have been following for over ten years. I remember buying her first book in 1997 and being hypnotized and inspired by her portraits of bodies like I had never seen before. Now, ten years later, I found myself being her collaborator under a few different guises...

A link to Pictropia, publisher of ''Girls'': http://www.pictropia.com/Pictropia/home.html

A bunch of new features have been added prior to the beta-testing launch.

The PROJECTS section is now working properly, with a feature dedicated to Channel 83's video ''Channel 83 Presents: An Archive of Wounds''.

Private messaging works well, and so does the whole registration process for the users (including the upgrade to associate artist).

Finally, we have added the page comments to each user's page. You can now communicate in different ways with the other community members, both in private and in public.

Some critical new features have been implemented, your experience of this website should improve dramatically in the next week, or so we hope. If it doesn't, make sure to come and complain directly to us...perfection is not something that we have yet achieved, but we are surely aiming for it!

Private messaging among users is now fully supported: start gossipping! You can now leave public comments on each user's page, so go chit chat to your favourite artists. Artists can now upload up to 30 images to their pages...time for you to check out what they are all up to, don't you think?

I'm quite happy with how things have developed, thanks to Niccolo Brogi and Alessandro Barbini for the very good job.

Thursday, August 09, 2007
WE ARE GOING BETA

We are about to go into the beta stage of testing on Monday: that means opening up Channel 83 to the public after a full year of downtime. There is still a lot of work left, but we are confident to go through the most of it in the space of 48 hours, in order to open Channel 83 in its beta version by the end of the weekend.

Please play around with the website and test its functions; let me know if you find any bug or issue, use the bug report form at the bottom of the main page to do that.

Be patient, Channel 83's new version will be worth the wait, I guarantee that to you. Thanks!

Albert

Galleries are being added every day, remember to check them out. The content of each gallaery has sensibly changed since the old website, in order to be more attuned with C83's proposal and goal.

At the end of the next week we shall switch from alpha to beta testing: that entails opening up the website to a larger amount of users, likely 20 people approximately.

Please keep on using the features available to you at the moment and report any bugs using the form at the bottom of the page. In the next week we shall add private messaging for the community users and fix the PROJECTS section a little, plus we shall tweak the whole enrollement process removing the issue that has prevented some of you from becoming associate artists.