COMING UP
ALREADY GONE
TAG!
You're It.
with
GARY MEANS
Founder
Alternative London Street Art Tours
&
DEBORAH DOANE
Writer
Social Change Agent
25 March 2025
The Wheatsheaf
25 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JB
Overwhelmed by worldwide chaos? US TOO! Tickbird&Rhino made some light in the dark with the street-art expert Gary Means and social change agent Deborah Doane. They told us all about the work they do and explored the different ways we all engage with the world outside our front door.
Gary talked about London street art and the vital role it, and its artists, play in our environment. He showed us why it happens, why it's important and how it impacts on our urban
experience. From council-approved murals to political graffiti andindividual tagging, Gary showed how these images give shape to our places.
Deborah, on the other hand, talked about a lifetime spent organising for a fairer world - something we could certainly use more of right now! She looked at how we cope when things go wrong and how we can come together to bridge the differences that divide us; from
craftivism to activism she showed us really hopeful ways we each can, and have, made genuine, long term, positive change.
Together Deborah and Gary got the conversation rolling and since Tickbird&Rhino evenings are all about the magic that happens when interesting people meet, there was a lot of room for questions and comments. We didn't know where the night was going to take us but in the end we had a lively, rollicking discussion that brought showed where these two worlds meet and generated inspiring ideas along the way.
Gary Means is the founder of Alternative London, the U.K’s first street art tour and workshop provider, and is considered one of the country’s foremost experts on Urban Art. Alternative London has won over 20 travel awards and has been included in Guardian Travel’s Top Ten Guided Tours in the World.
Gary also founded Unit 5 Gallery which exhibited and represented some of the world’s top street artists and produced a series of large-scale murals and installations. His Apple Top Ten Podcast has featured well-known names from the street art world alongside leaders of cultural institutions in East London. In 2016 he was voted one of the Evening Standard’s Inspirational Londoners.
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For more information: alternativeldn.co.uk​
Deborah Doane is a partner at Rights CoLab and the author of ‘The INGO Problem: Power Privilege & Renewal’ an exploration into international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and the disprorportionate amount of power they wield in the civil society sector.
Deborah writes and speaks regularly on social change. She has worked for over twenty-five years as a leader and activist across human rights, international development, environmental change and economic justice. She has led campaigns that successfully changed the law and continues to support the ‘change’ space, at both the local and international levels.
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Previous roles have included: Director of the Funders’ Initiative for Civil Society, a philanthropic collaborative; Director of the World Development Movement (now Global Justice Now); Head of Sustainable Consumption for WWF; founder/Director of CORE (the Corporate Responsibility Coalition) and Director of Corporate Accountability at the New Economics Foundation. She has sat on numerous not-for-profit Boards including the Fairtrade Foundation, the Sheila McKechnie Foundation and is currently the Chair of Finance Uncovered.
Deborah also hosted the 'Anti-Apathy Aunt' podcast - an agony aunt for people who want to change the world, but don't know where to start.
For more information: linkedin.com/in/deborah-doane/
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Tickbird&Rhino events are designed to be relaxing, thought-provoking and fun.
Come along and join the conversation - you'll meet some great people
and (we hope) you'll be inspired.
Letter to My Mum
Memory and Aphantasia
with
MINA BOROMAND
&
GUILLAUME TRAN
Monday, 18th November
@
The Devereux Pub
A Letter To My Mum is a multifaceted collaboration between the British-Iranian photographer Mina Boromand, and the French filmmaker Guillaume Tran. It focuses on the relationship between memories and photographs while exploring the past and how it's remembered through the lens of Mina’s aphantasia (the inability to bring visual images, such as people, places or things, to mind).
Having escaped from Iran following the revolution of 1979, Mina has lived a life of displacement. Guillaume’s film of Mina at work uncovers how a single picture of the mother she left behind is much more than a simple portrait. This silhouette comes to life as Mina faces the complicated challenge of exploring her complex history as a daughter and activist without the aid of visual memory.
We began the evening with Guillaume’s film (approx. 22min) and then followed that with the artist and filmmaker in conversation. Looking at the different ways we have of communicating our memories, the pair reflected upon their collaboration and the difficulties that arise when tackling memories that exist without a visual component.
Mixed throughout was a wide ranging conversation about memory and the different ways the audience thinks about thinking, imagination, creativity and the role memory places for all of us. It was a fascinating discussion that left everyone with much to think about.
To find out more about aphantasia:
www.aphantasia.com
Mina Boromand is a British Iranian artist and narrator working on an open project about aphantasia. She explores the complex relationship between memory and past events, attempting to reconstruct a visual memory using archival materials while exploring her revolutionary years in Iran through the gaze of a female activist.
Mina has won a number of photography awards (including a Carte Blanche award & a Royal Photographic Society Women in Photography award). She has exhibited in the UK, US, Iran, Switzerland and France and her work is published in "Breathing Space: Iranian Women Photographers" Thames & Hudson, 2023. Mina is an associate lecturer at the London Metropolitan University.
Guillaume Tran is a French documentary filmmaker exploring the personal stories that allow the viewer to connect and reflect on their own selves. Guillaume seeks to bring people together through intimate and gripping narratives that allow us to see ourselves through the eyes of others. He believes the power of documentary lies in the universal stories that we share, beyond geographies and cultures, deep into the human experience.
Tickbird&Rhino events are designed to be relaxing, thought-provoking and fun.
Come along and join the conversation - you'll meet some great people
and (we hope) you'll be inspired.
eat me don't eat me
sounds from the nightshade family
with
Helen Anahita Wilson
Tuesday 22 October 2024
The Devereux Pub
London
Helen Anahita Wilson returned to Tickbird&Rhino @ the Devereux Pub for an intimate evening of interspecies music mixed with great conversation.
This time around Helen showed us where her research has taken her since last we met, sharing snippets/tracks from her latest project — eat me don’t eat me — an album made in collaboration with the Solanaceae nightshade family of plants.
Using plant activity, biodata, bioelectricity and genetic code from the common or garden potato to the deadly hallucinogenic devil’s trumpet, Helen works with these edible, medicinal and downright deadly plants to explore how their properties may be imbued in music.
Eschewing the usual sonification of plants, Helen’s work expresses the potent powers from our natural world using contemporary compositional techniques. She showed us how she gathers the information she works with and even brought along a few plants to "play", illustrate each plant's unique electro-chemical signature. And then she passed her kit around the room and we each got the chance to hear our own.
It was a lively and fantastic evening!
Dr Helen Anahita Wilson is an Oram Award-winning composer, sound artist, pianist, improviser, and postdoctoral researcher at SOAS University of London. Her compositional practice brings together her research in South Asian musics, sonic life writing, sound studies, and biophilic music and sound design.
Helen is currently composer-in-residence at the Chelsea Physic Garden and is a PRS Foundation Women Make Music artist 2024.
"Breathtaking" - The Wire
“Stunning...absolutely stunning" - BBC Radio 3
“Wilson will have you seeing (and hearing!) the world in a whole new light” - PopMatters
Helen has toured extensively throughout Europe and India and works across a broad spectrum of disciplines from solo piano projects to live extended radio arts and plant-derived installations.
Helen's Latest commissions include Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival hcmf//, Brighton Dome and Festival, Bloomsbury Festival, and her work has recently been featured on BBC Radio 4's Today, BBC 6Music, and New Scientist.
Tickbird&Rhino events are designed to be relaxing, thought-provoking and fun.
Come along and join the conversation - you'll meet some great people
and (we hope) you'll be inspired.
No Book Book Club #5
ONLY BREATH
geometry in motion
with
TORUS TORUS STUDIOS
Alexandra Carr
and
Colin Rennie
18 June 2024
The Devereux Pub
On June 18th we explored ONLY BREATH, the kinetic sculpture recently unveiled as the centrepiece of the new Energy Revolution Gallery at the Science Museum London!
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Created by artists Alexandra Carr & Colin Rennie of Torus Torus Studios, this monumental installation has been described as the beating heart of the gallery, taking its inspiration from the simple rules of nature that create phenomenal complexity with seemingly graceful ease.
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At the centre of Only Breath lies a fusion of art and science. Blending the poetry of circadian rhythms with the principles of renewable technology and some very complex engineering, this tessellating structure mirrors the efficiency of organic forms and highlights the importance of nature-inspired sustainable energy production.
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With the aid of digital and physical models as well as traditional drawings, Colin and Alexandra took us behind the scenes of their collaborative process and led us in a fascinating conversation that From inspiration to installation they showed us how Only Breath “came-into-being” from inspiration to installation. and led us in a fascinating discussion that covered
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While we highly recommend that you stop into the Science Museum to experience the piece live but you can also take a quick look at it in action by clicking HERE.
Torus Torus Studios was established In 2023 by Alexandra Carr and Colin Rennie. Their practice specialises in public art and draws from the synergies and resonances that emerge when fields as diverse as sacred geometry, light and optics, ecology and consciousness meet.
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Colin Rennie is an internationally exhibited glass and mixed media artist. He was shortlisted for the Toyama glass prize Japan 2018 and the Jerwood prize 2003. Residencies include Sars Potteries glass museum, France. His works are held in the collections of V&A, Ebletoft glass museum, NMS, Ernsting Stiftung and Hsin-Chu museum, Taiwan. He has worked on several collaborative public art projects including, Cramlington emergency care trust, Silverlink point, North Tyneside, Technological University Dublin and The Science Museum London.
Insta: @colin_rennie
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Alexandra Carr makes work that responds to natural processes and phenomena, such as magnetism, light, growth and ice structures. She has exhibited work at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, in collaboration with Jean-Paul Gaultier and has been commissioned by seminal musicians Radiohead. Alexandra was shortlisted for the Arts@CERN COLLIDE International Award 2016 and longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2017, 2019 and 2020. She is a member of The Royal Society of Sculptors and was awarded a Leverhulme funded residency in Durham 2017. A fellow of The Institute of Advanced Studies, Alexandra has presented papers at Oxford and Durham Universities and MIT, and has taken part in panel discussions at Sotheby’s and the Science Gallery Dublin. She is currently working on new projects with a particular focus on phase changes, organic processes, optics and origami.
Insta: @studioalexandracarr
Tickbird&Rhino's No Book Book Club is what you get when you hold a book club but skip the book. Each time out we'll discover something new - it might be a talk, a performance, some art, a film or something found on-line. But whatever it is, it'll be interesting and accessible on the night. Then, like a book club, we'll lightly curate the conversation around it and get everyone talking.
Interested in finding out more about us?
If you'd like to know what we're up to in London or Amsterdam, make sure you join our mailing list so we can keep you up to date.
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We'll be regularly scheduling different kinds of events from socials to salons on all different sorts of subjects, giving everyone the opportunity to meet and have great conversation.
Give us your name and email address and we'll make sure you know all about them.
And we look forward to seeing you in the near future.