Karla Q. Leon
Creative Direction by Karla Q. Leon
25–10–24
Leon chose to embody this depiction of folklore to subvert the meaning of its negative omen through her own existence, being proof of a fruitful career, as a rebellious and triumphant act to take claim in her identity as an artist whilst in homage to her Ecuadorian roots. The direct aim of inspiration were her nieces who became firsthand exponents of being gifted the opporutnity to explore their own interests for their paths in life.
The images were shown from the 25th of Ocotber until the 27th, in the London Bridge area, alongside her sculptural works and archive of family imagery.
Photography, La Llorona, Exhibition, Karla Q Leon, Hair, Ecuador, Para Ecuador Con Amor, 2024,
Maverick Sabre
Creative Direction by Working Studio
18–10–24
Music available via mavericksabre.com
Released on the 18th of October 2024, following a launch exhbition on the evening of the 17th, after a series of singles - ‘Roses Ether’, ‘If I Could Only Love You Again’, ‘Lay Down On Me’, & ‘You Don’t Even Need It’, complete with music videos/visualisers.
“The title was birthed from a conversation about inner conflict on wanting to burn everything to the ground to rebuild again for change, but battling with something more peaceful and patient inside. Ivor asked is it not more about ‘Burn The Right Things Down’ instead of everything.” - Maverick Sabre.
Creative Direction, Graphic Design, Direction, Music Video, Visualiser, Burn The Right Things Down, Maverick Sabre, FAMM, Working Studio, Exhibition, 2024,
Demae
Creative Direction by Working Studio
04–09–24
Music available via demae.co
Released on the 4th of September 2024, after a trio of singles - ‘Speechless’, ‘Go Your Own Way’, & ‘Bloody Bouquets’. And subsequently followed by two visualisers - ‘Deliver Me’, & ‘Regret’.
Creative Direction, Photography, Direction, Music Video, Visualiser, Demae, Deliver Me, FAMM, Working Studio, 2024,
Directed by Sean Dendere
13–05–24
First premiered at EartH Hackney followed by a panel conversation alongside the filmmakers Bafic & Penny Woolcock, moderated by Blu Smith for the Central Saint Martins Creative Unions Symposium in 2024 - see here.
Now available for viewing via Dendere’s website - here.
“You come home and dust off your shoes, right? Or at least that’s what the world thinks you may or should do. Well, that’s not quite the premise of Sean Dendere’s No Shoes Inside. Rather, it’s a semi-autobiographical exploration of how he, and how he has observed others, interact with ideas of home, including through ancestral memory and routine becoming interchangeable with rituals. The short film explores the colourful yet complex nuances of the different places - and potentially, things and people - we have learned to attach the home label. As a second-generation British-Zimbabwean raised in Peterborough, journeying through life with a wisdom derived from foreignness and pieces and artefacts of home laid bare beside settees and in entryways, these are the gems that signal home - but as the lines and lives blur, which one becomes more representative of home? It’s this questioning that provoked the multihyphenate to unravel what home has come to mean to him; the shared love for flavoursome aromas, ritualistic movements and whispers from the mother tongue, Dendere’s story is, and can only be, multifarious. In doing so, he offers comfort to those who have experienced displacement, domestic struggles or the loss of loved ones, leading to a compromised sense of home which echoes through generations.” – Aswan Magumbe
Production Design, Sean Dendere, No Shoes Inside, Independent Film, Short Film, 2024,
Benjamin Clementine
Directed by Curtis Essel
16–02–23
Music available via benjaminclementine.com.
Available for viewing via Nowness - see here.
“Director Curtis Essel weaves the British artist’s third album through a short film reflecting on survival, relationships and self-control [...] An enigmatic statement in film that further highlights the critically acclaimed musician’s singularity, the combined creative showcased in ‘Portraits of Lovelustreman (Part 1)’ defies categorization, much as Clementine’s literary themes, and at times avant-garde approach to chamber pop mark him as one of the UK music scene’s most undefinable modern geniuses.” – Nowness.
Costume Design, Production Design, Benjamin Clementine, Portraits of Lovelustre Man, Curtis Essel, Short Film, Music Video, Dance, 2023,
Shivani Day
Creative Direction by Working Studio
& Aanaya Dayaram
26–06–24
Music available via shivaniday.com
This project was released on the 26th of June 2024 after a series of three singles accompanied by music videos - ‘Rhetoric’ directed by Erea Ferreiro, ‘Blue Car’ & ‘Sucks To Be There’ directed by Jay Green.
“A panoply of differing influences amalgamated into a unique and striking sonic entity, Shivani Day is bringing an avant-garde flavour to her commercially viable sound. The Leicesterite is a newcomer in the UK space, vying to find her space in the wider scene; she’s certainly started off on the right foot.” - Wonderland Magazine.
Creative Direction, Commissioner, That Which Is Not, Shivani Day, Erea Ferreiro, FAMM, Working Studio, 2024,
Residencies
q2-2019 : q2-2023
May, 2019
August, 2019
September, 2019
February, 2020
May, 2021
June, 2021
January, 2022
HQI
Selected Works
Artist Residency
(various collaborations in the mediums of video/film and photograhy)
Photographer
Photographer & Assistant Camera
Videographer
Production Assistant
Creative Director & Photographer
Creative Director & Photographer
Creative Direction & Photographer
In Photos: Drawing A Blank
Haich Ber Na - ‘Nowhere Like It’
Haich Ber Na - ‘Forgetful’
Goya Gumbani - ‘A Thousand Months’ Live
Loraine James for Crack Magazine Issue 119 : Aesthetic Feature & The Collections, Vol.2
George Riley for Crack Magazine Issue 120 : Aesthetic Feature
Pink Siifu for Crack Magazine Issue 127 : Aesthetic Feature
Workpost Glossary
q3-2019 : q2-2023
June, 2019
November, 2019
January - March, 2020
July, 2020
September, 2020
September, 2020
October, 2020
November, 2020
December, 2020
December, 2020
January, 2021
May, 2021
June, 2021
July, 2021
September, 2021
October, 2021
November, 2021
December, 2021
March, 2022
March, 2022
August, 2022
September, 2022
December, 2022
January, 2023
February, 2023
September, 2023
Udoma Janssen
Selected Works
Assistant-en-chef
(various roles from; assistant directing, lighting, art direction, editing, etc. & regular work via Crack Magazine due to Michelle Helena Janssen’s position as art director of the magazine)
Photography & Lighting Assistant
Photography & Lighting Assistant
Fashion, Photography, & Lighting Assistant
Assistant Director, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Editor, Colourist
Videographer, Editor, Photography Assistant
Videographer, Photography & Lighting Assistant
Videographer, Editor, Photography & Lighting Assistant
Design Assistant
Assistant Director, Production Assistant, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Editor, Colourist
Styling Assistant
Videography, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Editor, Colourist
Videography, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Editor, Colourist
Videography, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Editor
Assistant Director, Production Assistant, Videography, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Editor
Assistant Director, Production Assistant, Editor, Colourist
Assistant Director, Production Assistant, Videography, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Editor
Assistant Director, Production Assistant, Videography, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Editor
Photography & Lighting Assistant
Production Assistant, Photography Assistant, Gaffer
Assistant Director, Production Assistant, Editor, Colourist
Set Design, Photography & Lighting Assistant
Styling Assistant
Production, Art Direction & Set Design Assistant
Photography & Lighting Assistant
Set Design, Photography & Lighting Assistant
Set Design, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Videographer, Editor, Colourist
Santi for Crack Magazine Issue 101 : Aesthetic Feature
KEYAH/BLU for Crack Magazine Issue 106 in collaboration with Gucci
Monad A/W 2020 Collection Lookbook
Clarks, ‘Then, Now, Always’ Campaign
John Glacier Freestyle for Crack Magazine Issue 114
Unknown T for Crack Magazine Issue 114 : Cover Story
Unknown T ‘Goodums’ Freestyle for Crack Magazine
Ashley Walters for Time Out Magazine & additional words
Branding Identity for Fred Again
Kwaye - ‘Run’
Music Video & Press Imagery
Samm Henshaw - ‘All Good’, in Partnership with Samsung
Enny, M1llionz, Central Cee, & Ivorian Doll for Crack Magazine Issue 118 : UK Rap Cover Stories (linked to Enny’s feature, search for the rest).
Sons of Kemet, ‘Black To The Future’ LP Press Imagery & Content
Tirzah for The Fader Issue June 2021
Unknown T, ‘Adolescence’ (Live Performance EP Launch)
Chrissi - ‘Back In The Day’ music video & A Capella
Nike x Air Jordan ‘DNA.’ Campaign with Pa Salieu
Michael Browne : Couture For Me Collection II
John Glacier for Crack Magazine Issue 126 : Cover Story
Top Boy cast (Ashley Walters, Kano, Little Simz, Micheal Ward) for Crack Magazine Issue 129 : Cover Story
Arctic Lake - ‘Hesitate’
Lous & The Yakuza for Crack Magazine Issue 134 : Aesthetic Feature
Benjamin Clementine - ‘Delighted’
Benjamin Clementine x ZARA
Duval Timothy for Crack Magazine Issue 139 : Cover Story
M1llionz press Imagery & content
Patoranking, ‘World’s Best’ LP Cover Shoot
May, 2020
September, 2020
November, 2020
February, 2021
March, 2021
April, 2021
April, 2021
June, 2022
May, 2024
Selected Works
q1-2020 : q4-2023(reprise from the role at Udoma Janssen as a retainer client)
Art Director
q1-2024 : q2-2024
Art Direction, Videography, Editor
Art Direction, Videography, Editor
Videography, Editor
Art Direction Assistant, Production Assistant, Photography & Lighting Assistant, Cinematography, Editor
Videography, Editor
Videography, Editor
Videography, Editor
Editor, Colourist
Art Direction, Production, Videography, Editor, Colourist
ABAGA VELLI : INTERNATIONAL 001
Drawing A Blank : Paris, 2020
IN US WE TRUST ; Allan Arma
ABAGA VELLI Presents ‘BORN FOREIGNER’
IN US WE TRUST ; Jon B
‘COUP ABYSS’
IN US WE TRUST ; Amalfi
ABAGA VELLI Presents ‘COUP 001 : All Roads Leads To The Horn’
Linen Seersucker by ABAGA VELLI
At present, the practice is in an early stage of development, founded upon the core beliefs of the naming tradition found within Ghanaian communities, but by no means solely limited to, of such focus in the significance of a name. The desire is not to centre on reencountering identity instead, the objective is to decipher the volume of issues that are caused by the deceptive sense of a lost* identity at the mercy of untraceable pasts.
Due to the inextricably bound legacies of the; British Empire, Second Republic of Ghana, Commonwealth of Nations, etc. the traditional two generational cycle of the Lante D(j/z)an We has been broken and therefore predicates the existence of the ‘third’ generation.
Currently, the questions being asked are: How does an underprepared ‘third’ generation choose to honour tradition whilst simultaneously creating a ‘fourth’ and reprising to the ‘first’? Who and why do we choose a select some to bear the weight of decision making despite their capacity for lucidity? What is our right to admonish public err for those leading us on the uncharted path? And so on...
Transparency is present although no explanation is owed.
Succintly, the practice is to uncover some of what has been omitted* and pivoted from, in the wake of pyrrhic victories, through a focus in research, experiential & experimental curation, and chiefly by artistic creation in order to move forward.
Eli-Caleb Ivor Lawson-Adamah - born to Ivy Koshie Lawson & Sampson Kofi Adamah, in Oct. 1999.
Grandson of George Ivor Nii’Djan Lawson & Kwaley Quartey,
GREAT Grandson of Henry Joseph Odartey-Kwashie Lawson & Beatrice Armarchoe Armarfio,
and GREAT^2 Grandson of Lantei Lawson (Nii Lantei Comporsu) & Teterley Nukpa.
Ivor does not come from an artistic background, mostly being self-taught, he made the decision to seek refuge in the arts after a change in direction from a corporal, verging on capital, path. He spent his early years in Croydon, London but often visting family in Bow & Leyton, and grew up mostly in Peterborough, after a brief period in Accra, Ghana. He moved back to South London, at 19, following a year of studying a foundation art diploma at Stamford College in Lincolnshire to pursue ambitions for working in the creative industry.
In his early teenage years he discovered a love for image making and visual arts, through photography, by way of a close friend - Sean Dendere & family. Now with over ten years of experience with his first craft, Ivor is continuing to develop his journey through the exploration of other mediums, art forms, and instruments all guided by the central focus of his practice.
He works as a creative director alongside Erin Corrian-Alexis through Working Studio, and also as creative consultant & commissioner for FAMM (an indpendent music label home to artists such as; Jorja Smith, Maverick Sabre, Demae, etc.)
...