'Here Are the Young Men'...

Further to the series of drawings based upon reference to portrait photographs of then-contemporary footballers as found within the pages of a 1970-vintage ‘Charles Buchan’s Soccer Gift Book’, as currently being processed, at this point of the ‘project’ as it’s developing it’s interesting to collect together the portraits drawn thus far & arrange them in a grid format in order to consider the intended cumulative effect of the series. Composed thus, the images appear in similar fashion & proximity to each other as they do upon the page(s) of the Annual from which the original photographic portraits are sourced, whilst also recalling, in nostalgic manner, the pages of, for instance, a Panini or other publisher sticker album or, indeed, an album of similarly (& addictively, pocket money-draining) collectable ‘cigarette’-type cards of the type illustrated in the recent Bob(by) Gough entry.

In the habitual contextual manner, such a cumulative series, produced with reference to photographic source material, also relates to another such as Gerhard Richter’s ’48 Portraits’ of historically eminent German men & particularly, as mentioned previously upon discovering them, Alan Brooks’ two series of pencil drawings of ‘influential authors’ & ‘artists in their studios’, or indeed any similar endeavour: one might also consider Warhol’s ‘Thirteen Most Wanted Men’, for example, sourced from a particular publication as are the footballer drawings.

For whatever reason, & without necessarily considering a title for the collected series of portraits, the opening refrain ‘Here are the young men...’ from Joy Division’s ‘Decades’ frequently recurs; there’s a certain poignancy, perhaps, in contemplating that the source photographs are now more than 40 years old & those subjects that are still with us (at least a couple of departures having been acknowledged, of course) that much older, even those who might only have been late teens or early twenties then into their sixties now, for all that the photographs (& the drawings from the printed reproductions of) freeze them at a certain moment in & (stylistic) period of time: the images serve as hauntological manifestations, traces, memorials, of other times & places - those, personally, just beyond the boundaries of memory & yet redolent & with a powerful ‘idealistic’ attraction.

Distanced Past...

graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
source: 6th generation p/copy of original B&W image from University of Gloucestershire 'Pittville Studios 07' brochure

Another example of a drawing processed from an immediate source ‘degraded’ through numerous stages of photocopying from its original state, in this instance not a newspaper reproduction but rather an image chosen from an academic prospectus.
Again, each subsequent generation of the process of mechanical reproduction loses something in the way of detail & tonal subtlety, establishing increasing aesthetic distance from the source, as then, further, does the act of drawing.

The appeal of the image resided in both its delightful & always compelling ‘retro’ style, its obvious ‘archival’ nature, & also its relation to examples (such as 'Folding Dryer' of 1962) of Gerhard Richter’s painting from the early to mid 1960s, based, in best ‘Pop’ art tradition similar to those contemporaneous works of Andy Warhol, upon product advertisements from newspapers. In this instance, both the product & stylings might be of a more glamorous nature than those typical of either Richter or Warhol, but the vintage places it firmly within such a context. Although the details may change over time – obviously, with new product, the ‘latest thing’, always to market in the interests of the economy – still the essential language of selling (lifestyles & aspirations attached to the goods themselves) remains constant, & there’s something irresistible about the visual aspect of advertising campaigns, however awful the fascination might be. Interesting to note the scale of the television in relation to today’s drive into the gigantism of widescreen & wall-sized ‘home cinema’ systems...

Soundtrack:

The Beatles homemade compilation of tracks dating 1964-66
Portishead 'Third'

Further into the Process of Degradation...

Today the opposite of tomato is No Country for Old Men


graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm
source: 6th generation B&W p/copy from original newspaper photograph 'The Guardian' G2 16/01/09

Being the second in the nascent series of drawings processed from ‘degraded’ photocopies (in this instance the 6th copy-of-the-copy) taken from newspaper photographs. Taken out of its original context of advertising expensive underwear (at the same time, of course, shamelessly, relentlessly self-promoting the garments’ model), the accompanying Guardian article amusingly reads the image in terms of a still from an example of nouvelle vague cinema, at which its chic manufactured glamour & atmosphere of a certain edgy, politely-transgressive cool surely aims. Degraded through the various stages of photocopy (‘de-photographized’, at least from its original state, albeit through another photographic process), the image emerges from this & subsequently the drawing process in a suitably distressed state that subverts its original intention into something altogether more distressed & perhaps abject, anonymous, that suggests a certain seediness more representative of cheap pornography, & relates to something like the work of Gerhard Richter derived & 'unpainted' from such sources, examples of which might be found on the artist’s website here.

Soundtrack:


PJ Harvey ‘Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea’
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds ‘The Boatman’s Call’
Laura Veirs ‘Year of Meteors’
Portishead ‘Dummy’, ‘Portishead’ & ‘Third’
The Associates ‘Fourth Drawer Down’

As ever slightly out of step with & just behind the times (the preferred location), the most recent musical investment has been, at last, in the mighty Portishead’s third album, ‘difficult’ not only perhaps in its 10-year gestation (again, an admirable pace at which to work) but also in its sonic aesthetic; harsher than previously, electro-industrial & somewhat ‘post-apocalyptic’ in a manner that recalls nothing so much as the sound of the immediately post-punk late 1970s-early 80s (when, coincidentally or not, we ‘enjoyed’ similar socio-economic conditions, the spectre of mass-unemployment, the fearful uncertainty of the future, etc), particularly with the use of vintage-sounding, Kraftwerky synthesizers – ‘Third’ indeed might reasonably be regarded as a sister to & peer of, for instance, Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’, with which it shares a palpable sense of claustrophobia (one might suggest it best be listened to, at least for a fuller effect, through headphones or otherwise in a small, enclosed & darkened room). The monochrome photograph of Portishead radio station that illustrates the CD’s booklet provides a fitting visual analogue, having about it a certain quality of dystopian bleakness, but the sound nonetheless is exhilarating, humanized by Beth Gibbon’s expressive, often haunted, vulnerable, fragile voice, the softness & femininity of which complements the generally stark brutalism of the instrumentation, clashing guitar & alternately pounding, snapping, rattling, echoing robotic percussive rhythms (a title such as ‘Machine Gun’ offers a fair representation of the sound of the song to which it puts its name). There’s a satisfying air of experimentation abroad, too, in addition to the overall development of the band’s sound: songs change direction discordantly &/or end unexpectedly, the unrelenting urban machinery of electronica is suddenly leavened by an acoustic lull or brief, folky, pastoral interlude such as 'Deep Water' that recalls Beth Gibbon’s other work ‘Out of Season’ (& PJ Harvey, too) only to be followed immediately, ironically, by the aforementioned blazing ‘Machine Gun’, or a free-form saxophone, otherworldly, adds another layer of texture. As a musical departure (although certain aspects were signposted during the course of its predecessor, on a song such as 'Over', for example), it’s undoubtedly a brave one, an intriguing & rewarding artistic development, & a compelling experience, one that rather seems to fit, essentially, the recent aesthetic direction the drawing has taken.


In similar vein, this week saw the initial viewing - again at last, after much procrastination - of the Coen Brothers' modern-day existentialist Western 'No Country for Old Men', another unrelenting experience, minimalist, harsh & brutal in any number of ways, but compelling in its lean-scripted narrative &, as ever courtesy of Roger Deakins' cinematography, visually ravishing even in its dry desert landscapes. Another landmark in the Coens' canon, although undoubtedly their bleakest view yet, with fine performances from Javier Bardem (in the menacing, pneumatic gun-wielding presence of whose character, the malevolent Anton Chigurh, one becomes transfixed, horribly), Josh Brolin & Tommy Lee Jones, the film also ends unexpectedly & thought-provokingly, with a non-traditional resolution (of sorts) that provides no moral answers or sense of justice or feel-good factor (as, for instance, 'Fargo' & 'Blood Simple' do, eventually, to varying degrees) yet seems to embody, to personify its title.

Effacing

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm
original source: 'The Guardian' 10/12/08

Without wishing it be misunderstood or misrepresented that The Project might be becoming something of a haven for terrorists, as they may say (following the recent drawn flirtation also with the Baader-Meinhof gang), the particular appeal of the original composite image from which this drawing was processed (eventually) - aside from its cellular format, obviously (referencing our old faithful Modernist grid & the multiples of Andy Warhol amongst others) - lies in the degraded nature of the newspaper reproductions of apparently themselves poor-quality originals, resulting in a very grainy image that suggests strongly the 'unpainted' appearance of Gerhard Richter's photographically-derived portraits & figures - where detail & clarity is effaced - & thus brings the finished drawing itself palpably into such a sphere of visual reference. Technically, as is habitual, the drawing process involves a significant degree of erasure (as a positive, creative act in constant dialogue with the graphite marks made) in the resolution of the image-content.

Soundtrack:


Charlotte Gainsbourg '5:55'
Moon Wiring Club 'Shoes Off and Chairs Away'
Lambchop 'Nixon'
Nick Drake 'Five Leaves Left'
Pulp 'Hits'
Sundays 'Reading, Writing & Arithmetic'
Beck 'Odelay!'
Murray Lachlan Young 'Vice & Verse'
Cat Power 'The Greatest'
Elliott Smith 'Either/Or'
Tori Amos 'Boys for Pele'
Lambchop 'Aw, C'mon'/'No You C'mon'
Belle & Sebastian 'Push Barman to Open Old Wounds'

Digging out a few 'haven't listened to that this year (& possibly a lot longer)' examples, there, in amongst the enduring drawing-companion listening...

Reflective Process #2 (Heels Over Head)

graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Guardian' 05/12/08

The particular newspaper original from which this drawing was processed reappraises a number of the recurring themes of The Project, the ‘upsidedownedness’ of the image – drawn as such - for instance, & not least the levels of representation & reproduction mined, with the photograph itself including an ‘image within’ in the form of a reflection upon the surface of an area of water.

On a purely incidental level, but noteworthy still in relation to the nature of photography & photojournalism, this image was but one of a number of compelling examples published of the particular human subject, proof perhaps that some subjects are simply more photogenic than others, although this issue has no conscious bearing upon the transcription-into-drawing-as-process purpose of The Project or the more general nascent concept of ‘de-photography’.

Concerning the (almost exclusively) monochrome nature of The Project (which, often transcribing from the coloured originals which have become the norm in newspaper reproduction, ‘de-photographizes’ into graphite drawings), there’s an interesting essay in December’s Art Review, on the subject of Jasper Johns’ related paintings ‘False Start’ & ‘Jubilee’ – the latter being, in essence, a monochrome version of the primary-coloured former, both ‘expressionistically’ painted in terms of brushmarking with additional stencilled lettering - & the artist’s hinted preference for often working in monochrome (there being a recent exhibition devoted to Johns’ extensive ‘Gray’ work, comprising some 118 works), for its ‘sculptural’ qualities, with colour believed to interfere with the communication of form & volume: this indeed, is the reason for my own preference for monochrome, & for the pencil in conjunction with the eraser, the effort to realise some form of ‘sculptural’ quality in the drawings.
Johns, of course, also created sculptural objects, with the surface tactility that was a feature of his encaustic-surfaced paintings which themselves often incorporated three-dimensional objects into their compositions &/or otherwise achieved a degree of ‘object-quality’.
The essay also mentions, in passing, the extensive body of monochrome work produced by Gerhard Richter, the Robert Storr-authored & lavishly illustrated catalogue of whose exhibition ‘40 Years of Painting’ is providing the current primary research material.
Interesting to consider that, obviously, working from photographic sources is doing so in the Duchampian tradition of the readymade, amongst many fascinating ideas.

Soundtrack:


PJ Harvey 'To Bring You My Love'
Bjork homemade compilation
Leonard Cohen 'The Essential'

In the melancholic depths of the dark, cold days of winter, when the depression can take the form of an actual physical ache in the head, even whilst engaged in the sanity- & life-saving process of drawing, it's strangely comforting & even uplifting to take refuge in a return to 'The Essential Leonard Cohen', to which one seems inexorably drawn at such times: just magnificent songwriting, perfectly performed.

Moving in Mysterious Ways...

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm
original source: 'The Guardian' 18/11/08

This drawing being processed from an original newspaper source again exhibiting such quintessentially ‘photographic’ qualities as the capture of a split-second of swift movement & displaying a consequent formal contrast between sharp-focussed near-to-middle-distance stillness & nearer & far blur, this being represented by a swiping motion of the eraser in a manner that once more references the ‘unpainting’ technique applied by Gerhard Richter to his photographically derived oil paintings, thus ‘unfocussing’ their highly-realised imagery into another aesthetic & distinctly painterly dimension.

One particular aspect of the drawings that is impossible to communicate virtually is the physical nature of the surface: the heavily-worked dark tonal areas of this example, for instance, have a glossy, light-reflective sheen that is completely lost in the process of reproduction.

Soundtrack:


Moon Wiring Club ‘Shoes Off and Chairs Away’
‘Rufus Wainwright’
Public Image Ltd ‘Metal Box’
Rachel Unthank & the Winterset ‘The Bairns’
Throwing Muses ‘In a Doghouse’ (CD1 + ‘Fish’)

And, commemorating the anniversary today of the death of Nick Drake, the 3 wonderful albums released during his brief lifetime, their fragile beauty & magic enduring still, a fitting epitaph:


‘Five Leaves Left’, Bryter Layter’ & ‘Pink Moon’

Today’s date is also significant for the opening, at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, of ‘Traces’, an exhibition of paintings & drawings by Paul Rosenbloom. Having their inspirational origins in the study of graptolite fossils & also the overlaid images of Aboriginal rock art, the drawings & paintings display the evidence of the process of their making, allowing the viewer an archaeological reading & appreciation of the formal vocabulary of various layers of marks, textures & pigment, the alternately partially-revealed & -hidden traces of which are suspended in exquisite tension. There is too a wonderful all-over surface activity & beautiful, subtly glowing light emanating from the images: work to be seen & experienced, just like the landscape from which it derives.

Card Sharp...

Today the opposite of tomato is 'an English lady of a certain age'


graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Guardian' 14/11/08

Another newspaper reproduction chosen for the specific ‘photographic’ quality of its tension between focussed & blurred elements, the capturing of a split-second of the movement of a body across the picture plane. Note too the grid-like arrangement of the background (that again), a display of postcard-sized artworks that, through the drawing process (& the subsequent scanning & blogging-of), become representations of representations, reproductions of reproductions, taken to another level (& beyond).
At a superficial level, the blurring references, again, the photographically-derived ‘un-paintings’ of Gerhard Richter, currently haunting this resource on a regular basis.

Returning to the recently-posited notion of ‘de-photography’, ‘dis-photography’, & the various processes of ‘de-photographication’ or ‘de-photographization’, Richter suggests himself as an exemplar of such not only through his painting from photographic sources, & the painterly results of such, but also with his series of overpainted photographs, itself a significant, discrete body of work, where oil paint is applied to the physical photographs themselves, transforming them into another more formally & aesthetically complex, multi-media, ‘painterly’, material object altogether, coloured & textured - & altered in terms of ostensible subject matter & image content - by the application of the paint upon their surface, thus ‘de-photographized’.

Another example that might illustrate the nascent concept is that work of Matt Bryans, as previously mentioned, whereby the artist alters the appearance of selected newspaper reproductions of photographic images by the physical process of erasure of particular areas, creating another, different image in so doing.


Matt Bryans
installation view of erased newspaper photographs

As might be observed, the resulting image retains pale traces of that content which has been erased - the process of which can only be of a partial nature & never physically complete given the fragile nature of the newsprint itself, its surface & substance rendered more so by the action of erasure, making the ephemeral source object more ephemeral still, as the image itself appears – giving a ghostly, haunting quality to the new artwork, the ‘de-photographized’ image-object, that, given an eraser’s role as a drawing tool, could be said, perhaps, to exist as a form of drawing, ‘re-worked’ from printed source (on paper, traditionally the base material of drawing).

Soundtrack:


Lambchop 'OH(Ohio)'
Cabaret Voltaire 'Living Legends'
Divine Comedy 'Victory for the Comic Muse'
Galaxie 500 'Today', 'On Fire' & 'This is Our Music'

Group Portraiture

Today the opposite of tomato is an innocent taxidermist


graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Times' 2 12/11/08

The newspaper source of the image from which this drawing was processed referred to a number of similar elements in the recent developments of The Project: the ‘Polaroid’, snapshot nature of the component photographs; their degraded, high-contrast appearance; their existence as historical documents of a particular age; their multiplicity, & the photographs themselves photographed to form a composite arrangement (grid-like, of course), with the further level of representation-reproduction consequently mined, all of which factors have occurred in the choice of image & subsequent drawings of late.
Added to this is the knowledge that, in terms of human subjects, these particular photographs feature certain criminal persons – as was the recently-drawn ‘man of 1,000 faces', master of disguise Jacques Mesrine - & that, most specifically, said individuals, members of the popularly-known Baader-Meinhof group, the self-styled Red Army Faction, who waged a terrorist campaign against the West German state from within in the 1970s, featured in the work of Gerhard Richter (himself oft-referenced within the course of this photographically-derived project) in his sequence of paintings entitled ‘18th October, 1977’, the significance of this date being that of the death in captivity of three of their number, although the paintings as a series (of 15) actually cover a wider period of time of the group's existence.

The particular reason for the Baader-Meinhofs’ current ubiquitous presence in the media is the release of a film detailing their exploits, which reason also applied to Mesrine: both films necessarily court controversy & accusations of glamourizing violent crime, as such ‘aestheticizations’ are wont to do, however unintentionally in a stated context of dispassionate, factual balance.
The poster advertising the film is notable for the grid format arrangement of its individual photo-portraits & overall particularly ‘Warholesque’ appearance, down to its saturated monochrome ground (cf. again Warhol's series of images of 'America's Most Wanted'), being closely modelled on published posters of the group in their day, a formal device also habitually used by Richter for his ‘Atlas’ collections of visual source material.



Richter's paintings of the '18th October, 1977' cycle are subject to his technique of 'unpainting' the resolved underlying image, either wholly or in part, dragging his brush across the still-wet oil paint, blurring the ostensible 'subject matter', thus creating through this surface quality an aesthetic distance, where painting might exist in & for itself, independently of the source material & its photographic origins, more immediate & sensational as they are: although a purely formal device, this might be regarded by critics as conferring a type of (literally) misty romanticism to the subject matter, similar to the charges levelled against the cinematic equivalent. In addition to portraits such as those illustrated, the series also includes scenes of the arrest & deaths of members of the Baader-Meinhof group, the latter officially by suicide in their prison cells although all the available photographic evidence could not prove this particular circumstance or 'reality' conclusively, illustrating the inherent ambiguity present in the story any photograph might tell.


Gerhard Richter 'Youth Portrait'
oil on canvas/1988


Gerhard Richter 'Confrontation 1'
oil on canvas/1988


Gerhard Richter 'Confrontation 2'
oil on canvas/1988

The concept of Richter's 'unpainting', the musing upon, then inspired in me the related one that both the painting & drawing from photographs, transforming them from the latter realm into another, different aesthetic space (& slower, more contemplative pace, of both making & viewing), could be said, perhaps, to be a process of 'de-photography', 'de-photographization' or 'dis-photography', of gradually dismantling the reality of the photographic image to that point where it becomes & exists as a completely different entity: a subject to be pursued theoretically..(there being a wealth of visual evidence to study, of course, including now this current body of personal creative practice & related contextualizing)?

Interesting to note by way of another coincidence that an early-ish example of the music of Cabaret Voltaire - who seem to be haunting this blog on a regular basis recently - is entitled 'Baader-Meinhof'.

Soundtrack:


Lambchop 'OH(Ohio)'
Moon Wiring Club 'Shoes Off and Chairs Away'
Boards of Canada 'Hi Scores', 'In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country' & 'Geogaddi'
Belle & Sebastian 'Push Barman to Open Old Wounds'

Ah, a new Lambchop album, its sound familiar & comforting, perfect for the onset of the dark, damp autumn-winter months, an extra cultural layer to wrap oneself in to combat the melancholy chill, its subtleties destined to reveal themselves gradually over time, at their own relaxed pace. For the moment, one can take additional delight in the paintings of Michael Peed gracing the CD’s packaging, wittily depicting a loving couple seemingly blissfully oblivious of the scenes of escalating urban unrest taking place almost immediately beyond their windows. Also to be enjoyed is the prevailing cool, white, minimalist aesthetic of the packaging in general, including the discs themselves, presented here in the unfolding formal narrative of the design:


A similar appreciation also seems worthy of being accorded the visual aesthetic accompanying Boards of Canada’s ‘In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country’, the sequence of image-shapes of the design being repeated, continued across the disc, in perfect harmony, with the child-like nature of a selection of the images complementing the sound clips of children’s voices often embedded within the music as an element of its form & texture.

Reflective Process (ongoing)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm
original source: 'The Times' 20/06/08

The source photograph from which this drawing was transcribed was chosen for its essential visual attractiveness (the colours, chiefly reflected blue sky & golden-green foliage, are quite beautiful), although it is also possible in this instance, through the technique applied to its process, to once again make specific reference to the photo-based painting of Gerhard Richter.


Richard Estes 'Double Self'
acrylic/canvas 1976


Gerhard Richter 'Nurses'
oil/canvas 1965

Although such an image might superficially suggest a close affinity with such a photorealist work as Richard Estes's 'Double Self', the original, with reflected imagery overlaying that of the figure, or ‘portrait’, enabled the transcription of the drawing to involve a process of two distinct elements: the underdrawing of a ground subsequently worked back into with an eraser to create a degree of form through tonal subtleties, & then further scored into, swiping across the picture plane with the eraser – negative creating positive – being analogous to Richter’s technique of horizontally brushing across the still-wet surface of his photographically-based paintings to blur the image &, so doing, bring together figurative & abstract painting in one combined image, creating an analogy between them to dissolve the usual binary opposition of these artforms. This method then serves to foreground the act of painting itself, creating visual texture &, as the image thus loses a degree of detail & definition through the blurring process, drawing attention away from the ostensible subject matter in order to allow the act of painting to communicate itself.

This, essentially, is the intention informing the transcribed drawing too, to, reflexively, communicate most directly & primarily the process of its creation & realisation, & the 'abstract' nature of the work over & above any ostensible subject matter, image content, that might result.


Interesting to note that, sharing the cover of 'The Painting of Modern Life' exhibition catalogue (with reference being made to Kaja Silverman's essay 'Photography By Other Means' which features Richter in particular, the painter Johannes Kahrs states that 'the photographic image (which remains a document to some kind of reality other than painting) becomes more physical, more personal, when translated into painting', something I feel also applies to drawing, the act of, the process of the making of marks, & the series of drawings constituting this current Project.

Soundtrack:


The Smiths
homemade compilation including 'The Smiths', 'Meat is Murder' &, in essence, 'Hatful of Hollow'; 'The Queen is Dead', 'Strangeways, Here We Come' & 'Louder Than Bombs'
'Test Match Special' denouement of Eng/NZ ODI, 25/06/08

As it so happened that Morrissey featured amongst the series of Guardian booklets featuring 'Great Lyricists' & Tim Lott's introductory essay suggested that the words should be heard, in conjunction with the music, rather than merely appreciated as poetry, so a listen to The Smiths became necessary. For all their humour, their bathos, their oft sublime depictions of the passions & quiet desperations of the mundanities of provincial lives less-than-perfect, still Mozzer's lyrics are made better still accomapnied by Johnny Marr's musical genius: the music The Smiths left behind in the wake of their short, brilliant, comet-like burst through the mid-1980s remains uniquely wonderful, 'Meat is Murder' as an album particularly so but so very many of the songs, emotionally involving, sonically arresting in their sheer strangeness, otherness, a quality of their time & still now. Fabulous.

A Not-So-Still Life...

Today the opposite of tomato is fruit & nut Toblerone (mmm)


graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm
original source: 'The Times' 10/03/08

Another image used as source material because of its obviously ‘photographic’ appearance, the capturing of a frozen micro-moment yet suggestive of action & movement courtesy of the blurred elements of the composition. Again, the drawn transcription relates, in formal terms at least, to the blurring technique utilised by Gerhard Richter, &, of course, the process of drawing & the temporal investment involved contrasts with the split-second creation of the original photographic image, although both drawing & running share a physically active dimension & sense of being-in-the-world.

By way of a sort-of coincidence relating to this image, the current reading & research matter includes the most handsome volume, ‘The Not-So-Still Life’, a survey of a century (i.e. the 20th) of Californian painting & sculpture based on the genre of the still life & its development over the course of that time. Fascinating stuff, both in the featured artists’ engagement with contemporaneous developments elsewhere in the (art) world & their deviations from such, lavishly & beautifully illustrated with many a fine example of work. I came across the book during a visit to the workplace by a bookseller, we chose it for our own resources from amongst the selection on offer, & then, suitably impressed & enthused to do so, I managed to track down a copy for my personal library via Amazon for a mere £3, absolute irresistible bargain! A while back I discovered a wonderful resource for cataloguing one’s books online, Librarything, which also has an active community aspect: well worth investigating for any bibliophile.



Soundtrack:


Sparklehorse ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’
Belle & Sebastian ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’
Sigur Ros ‘Takk’
Throwing Muses ‘In a Doghouse’
Lambchop ‘What Another man Spills’

Dug out the Sparklehorse for a listen after surprisingly encountering a snippet of one of its tracks during the course of a TV programme, this particular album being the first in a wonderful trinity of such also including ‘Good Morning Spider’ & ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’: I’m a great admirer of Mark Linkous’s aesthetic & the unique sound he creates, the inclusion of all manner of instruments he uses to layer his songs with such engaging textures, & of course the range of the songs themselves, from full-on, wig-flipping rockouts to irresistible melodic pop tunes (my first encounter with his ouevre was in fact ‘Sick of Goodbyes’, one such example) to the most gentle, fragile & vulnerable melancholic (almost more so than anyone) ballads, all suffused with a unique poetry & vision: a true artist, a painter of wonderful sound pictures.

For whatever whim - perhaps the idiosyncrasies of Sparklehorse - something drew my thoughts back to the first Throwing Muses releases, the eponymous debut album & the subsequent ‘Chains Changed’ EP, eventually discovered as existing as the ‘In a Doghouse’ collection: still sounding as astonishing & electrifying now as upon first hearing 20 years ago (more than!), music & an energy coming as close to escaping description as it’s possible to imagine, a truly incredible sound & experience, the sheer visceral quality, the thrill of which I always felt they somehow never managed to recapture…thoroughly recommended.

Must write upon the magnificence of Lambchop, another one-off in terms of their aesthetic, sometime too…