graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour & paper collage/30x20cm
Re-presenting today the expanded version/composition of a drawing processed recently with the intention of providing such a foundation, for, whilst it seemed appropriate for the yellow submarine to exist in a void, the ‘Sergeant Pepper(mill)’ figure, when considering the original inspiration for its existence, suggested it should more properly be situated within the presence of an accompanying cast of the type proposed by the members of The Beatles upon designer Peter Blake’s prompting, of his vision – their ideal audience assembled for a performance of the fictional Lonely Hearts Club Band, comprising, for the most part, a selection of various cultural heroes.
Accordingly, after a little light pictorial research & cutting out of the results (appropriately, given that the models for the Sgt Pepper LP sleeve design were life-size cardboard cut-outs of the band’s ‘heroes’, &, perhaps, a form of linear ‘drawing’ itself?), TOoT has assembled a small selection of admired personages & characters from the world of culture – oft-mentioned influences from the visual arts (i.e, more specifically, painters), favoured musical accompaniment as featuring on the habitual ‘soundtracks’, authors & more, including Peter Blake & his collaborative partner Jann Haworth - to contextualize our ‘Sgt Pepper’ in the manner of the original(s) & collaged these into place upon the page, composed within the picture plane, whose essential flatness they share & intensify even as they contribute to the creation of a subtle three-dimensional relief as is inherent to the medium.
The accompanying cast thus constitutes but a small number of those who might have been considered for inclusion in such a gallery, edited down to fit within the constraints of the picture plane, but with possibilities, perhaps, for further expansion…
Soundtrack:
Simple Minds 'Sons and Fascination' & 'Sister Feelings Call'
In keeping with the music accompanying the original drawing & watercolouring sessions of the Sgt Peppermill, the soundtrack to the collaging process featured not the album itself or even The Beatles at all but, rather, another delve into the post-punk past & a blast of some real nostalgia, of a surprising nature.
Somehow, I’d never imagined finding myself actively listening to the music of Simple Minds again, or desiring to, but for whatever reason the memory does such things, the song ‘In Trance as Mission’ came to mind recently & lodged itself there until it simply had to be heard: cue a quest to acquire the album the track opens, ‘Sons and Fascination’, & its companion ‘Sister Feelings Call’, duly achieved, & con- & subsequently a most pleasurable reacquaintance with what sound a fine pair of recordings, fresh & compelling in form & content, their manifest influences (shared by a number of peers) assimilated into the creation of something distinct(ly ‘modern’ in its aesthetic) &, seemingly, of an enduring quality, a melding of many layers of the electric & electronic built upon insistent rhythms, sometimes of a certain (comparative) ‘danceability’ that would then, at the time of the albums’ release, back in 1981, have placed the Minds somewhere at the forefront of the tendency towards - before the still-embryonic New Order, for instance, had embraced such a development - expanding beyond the angular nature of the sound of much post-punk.
‘In Trance as Mission’ itself, the welcome catalyst, is a lovely softly buzzing, shimmering, gliding dreamscape of a track, & many a sonic treat is supplied over the course of the diversity of the twin albums: it’s good stuff, frozen in a time if not place between Joy Division & the advent of The Smiths, a subtle broadening of the musical palette then & deserving of preservation within now, having unexpectedly gained re-admittance.
No comments:
Post a Comment