Imaging the surprise in discovering what appeared to be a veritable treasure-trove museum of perfectly preserved products &, particularly, packaging design, albeit on a small scale. Absolutely fascinating stuff, the results here presented as simple photographic record, firstly offering a comparison between examples of contemporary & 'historic' product packaging (note, for instance, that 'Immac' is now 'Veet', & the likelihood is that other items & names might no longer exist at all)...
and then the old items existing independently, as stored, in the manner of nothing less than a time capsule: appearing, perhaps, as though the cabinet had been stocked by the Blank Workshop. Without as yet engaging in further research, the packages appear to date from, probably, the 1970s, possibly a little later, maybe even earlier (the 'Algipan', for example, looks positively vintage in the bold simplicity of its matter-of-fact design), but, whatever, reference the past, & the time of one's childhood, in a profoundly palpable manner: what an aesthetic treat.
Coincidental to this delightful aesthetic discovery, I've just finished reading Howard Sounes's cultural survey of 'The Seventies', which, based upon the premise that the decade as generally perceived in retrospect was something of an artistic wasteland & the stereotypical 'time that taste forgot', endeavours to subvert this theory & accordingly features an interesting selection of art & its makers across a broad spectrum of disciplines during the decade in question, including popular music, the visual arts, architecture & literature. Although mostly covering already familiar examples - Davids Bowie & Hockney, Andy Warhol, Monty Python, the Sex Pistols & 'Jaws' (as novel & film) for instance - the chapters on cinema I found particularly enjoyable & informative, from the naturalistic tradition of directors such as Martin Scorcese & Bob Rafelson & movies such as 'Five Easy Pieces', which brought such an iconic screen presence as Jack Nicholson to prominence, through the protracted, harrowing gestation of Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' to Woody Allen's classics 'Annie Hall' & 'Manhattan'. Similarly with some of the architectural highlights built to a finish during the period such as the (former) World Trade Center, Sydney Opera House & the Pompidou Centre, there's many a fascinating & enlightening back-story to be relayed in the details of their conception & creation.
Overall, there's an entertaining blend of well-researched first-hand anecdotal evidence & contextual explication - often cross-referencing - that continues throughout the book & its coverage of the times' more colourful cultural characters such as Norman Mailer, Bob Marley & Hunter S. Thompson, whose tale makes particularly amusing reading, as indeed does that of the Sex Pistols. Jolly good stuff, & recommended reading.
By way of another coincidence, & referencing another indispensible publication, the legend on the side of the box of 'Algipan', as featured amongst the photographed contents of the bathroom cabinet, reveals the product's manufacturer to be a 'Wyeth' corporation, a name which, in an art context, has recently returned to my attention, courtesy of the almost-topically recently-deceased Andrew Wyeth's 'Helga Pictures' being amongst the books retrieved from storage. Although ignored by the surveys & histories of modern art, & dismissed by progressive, modern criticism as, mostly, a mere illustrator working within the confines of a tradition of realist American art, Wyeth's intense study of the single subject Helga Testorf, over a 15 year period, through a variety of painting techniques & drawing, comprises a profound & compelling record of the artist-model relationship & the possibilities of communication of mood & atmosphere & the passage of time (albeit at an apparently glacial pace but for the obvious occasional changing of seasons) inherent in such a sustained body of work: as the still, mute, self-contained centre of the universe of interiors & landscapes, light & shade, created & recorded by Wyeth, Helga makes an endlessly fascinating & wonderfully contemplative subject.
The most recent drawing, of a nude though not consciously inspired by the example of Andrew Wyeth & Helga, returns to the theme of being processed from a source displaying something of a degraded appearance: in this instance, however, rather than being subsequently photomechanically 'distanced', the original is used as the immediate model, itself having been subjected prior to reproduction to some obvious form of 'vintage filter' treatment that softens the finer details in the manner of Gerhard Richter's blurring, 'unpainting' technique.
graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm
original source: 'The Times' 2 26/01/09
Soundtrack:
PiL 'Metal Box'
Portishead 'Third'
Black Box Recorder 'England Made Me'
Pet Shop Boys 'Art'
Jesus & Mary Chain 'Darklands'
If it is possible for something to sparkle blackly, then that's what 'Darklands' does, another bleak beauty from the archives that fits the prevailing, enveloping, comforting sonic aesthetic.
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