Drawing & Photography...

digital juxtaposition of newspaper images

In the wake of last year's Project, a pair of recent newspaper reproductions of archive fashion images, made topical by certain circumstances (the demise of a long-established business - Viyella - in the former instance, & the passing of the designer Ted Lapidus in the latter), inspired this playful juxtaposition of drawing & photography. Both images are so redolent of their times, visual signifiers of particular periods that one recognises instantly as being not one's own, with such clarity & directness, & perhaps all the more intriguing & entertaining for that: aren't the 'His 'n' Hers' tweed complete outfits in particular quite simply fabulous (& surely due for a revival, as are such wonderful poses in fashion shoots), just the sort of attire, indeed, that might be sported by the idiosyncratic dandies who populate the fictitious village of Clinksell & the creative hub of the Blank Workshop therein. The economy of line in the drawing of the ladies' tennnis outfits is also most admirable for the manner in which it communicates.

Without wishing to intrude upon territory most interestingly mined by miss milki, this post as illustrated at least allows the coincidental opportunity to offer congratulations upon the first anniversary of her delightful blog 'A Spoonful of Sugar' (one of my favourites to visit) & wish a Happy Birthday & sincere hopes for another year's eruditely informative cultural commentating, on all manner of interests, notably also architecture & photography, a visual medium in which she produces & exhibits.

Soundtrack:


The Triffids 'In the Pines', 'Born Sandy Devotional' & 'Calenture'
Neil Young 'After the Gold Rush'

Being the fruits of the immediate post-Xmas music purchasing, not exactly new but essential additions to the collection all the same.
It felt time to invest in proper CD versions of the 3 albums that comprise the pinnacle of The Triffids' achievements (these having been devotedly owned on vinyl, back in the day), compiled in expanded form & beautifully presented by Domino.
Although the sonic aesthetic of the production of each of these albums is radically different, bestowing upon them a singular quality, from the informal, intimate stripped-down basics of the remote sheep-shearing shed recorded 'In the Pines', a sketchbook in nature (with the lovely personal essay & lyric booklets accompanying each disc, & particularly the facsimile handwritten notebook, a veritable treasure-trove of references, ideas & works-in-progress, included in the 'Born Sandy Devotional' package providing a visual analogue to such), to the glossy sheen of 'Calenture', with the dusty, gothic-romantic grandeur of 'Born Sandy Devotional' - at once full of images & evocations of both vast, parched, scorched empty landscapes & storm-tossed skies, & yet claustrophobic in its brooding, humid intensity - occupying some form of middle ground between, still they are unified through the quality of (the sadly late) David McComb's songwriting - of love, loss, longing, alienation & salvation, deeply personal yet universal - & the band's performances, epic in scope & realisation or restrained & tender as required, which resonate with no loss of breathtaking wonder or emotional charge across the 20+ years since their original releases (coinciding with the period of the greatest triumphs of Australian fellows The Go-Betweens & also the astonishing early series of releases by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: squaring the circle encompassing, of course, is The Triffids' bassist Martyn P Casey, subsequently to become an enduring Bad Seed, powering their mighty rhythmic engine).

Similarly with Neil Young: 'After the Gold Rush' retains the complexity of its alternately rustic charm & emotional power, & the integrity of its vision, still, timeless.

Works of art all.