World Cup '74 #4 (Angel Bargas)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Continuing with the World Cup 1974 drawing project, originally sourced from the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ & Panini ‘Munchen 74’ collector albums of stamps/stickers, the image-objects from whichever specifically relevant publication then being subjected to a scanning/reducing treatment to produce the pixelated photomechanical image in the form of an A4 print that serves as the immediate physical-visual reference from which the drawing is processed.

The portrait subject that not necessarily emerges, with any particular distinction, but perhaps rather is embedded within the modular drawing process of the grid of toned squares that resolves itself into some form of image, is, on this occasion, one Angel Bargas, the fifth member of the Argentina squad as featured in the FKS album, the fourth in the project here (out of sync as the third is still in production, its coloured media dependent to a large extent on being seen/assessed/drawn in natural light, of which there is seasonally so precious little), an arbitrary executive decision having been taken to replace an image/player from the FKS album with one from the Panini because it produces a better pixelated image.

Bargas, it transpires, did actually feature in the actual Argentinian squad & represented his country during the tournament, although as with most of the 1974 World Cup footballers, he was previously a name unknown to me, the hauntological resonance being attached to the event itself – my real introduction to football - rather than the majority of its participants.

Having a Re-think/Re-draw Again #2: World Cup '74 #2 v3

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Here is the third version of the second drawing of the World Cup 1974 football stickers project, representing an enlarged print of a digital scan (subsequently reduced in its dimensions) of the original ‘stamp’ image-object as featured as a component part of the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ album collection.
In heavily-pixellated, de-photographized, re-mediated form, the portrait subject buried within the drawing process is again Argentina’s Roque Avallay, no longer necessarily recognizable as such as his features are broken down into toned cells within the overall grid structure but nonetheless distinct from number one in the series, his compatriot Norberto Alonso.

Again, the usual modernist-minimalist & ‘hauntological’ conditions apply.

At the current rate of drawing progress, the estimate is that the project as proposed will take a good 10 years to complete, which, whilst daunting, is also quite a comforting prospect, somehow…

A Grand Day Out

So to Birmingham for a day out & friends-meeting purposes, before which a while-u-wait potter around the Ikon gallery, featuring exhibitions of Carmen Herrera's somehow timeless modernist formal abstractions - geometric in nature, excepting a few early lyrical examples, mostly either colourful-&-black rhythmic patterns of interlocking (tri)angular shapes, some within circular canvases, or otherwise more severely minimalist monochrome designs that sometimes suggested (referring to something outside the purely formal harmony of the self-sufficent & -reflexive picture) architectural details (such as the descending steps of a staircase) or spaces (such as the corner of a large room) - & also 'Bad Faith', a selection of videos of David Sherry's absurdist performances. Was particularly taken & inspired by the image adorning the poster advertising the latter show...


...which seems to illustrate rather succinctly a mental state familiar to numerous parts of any given day.

Also the sculpture garden in Oozells Square, in front of the Ikon:





minimalist & coolly harmonious, in terms of objects, space & textures (including the trees also), in something of a Japanese style (although perhaps a bit too symmetrically ordered to be wholly in keeping with such a particular aesthetic), what with the channel of water too - a pleasing, quiet combination of the overtly designed, man-made & natural elements.

Seasonal Sounds

It being now but a few short hours to Hallowe'en, this seems an opportune occasion to tell of an intriguing discovery indeed, courtesy of the good offices of the sagacious Mr Simon Reynolds, whose divine Blissblog maintains its position at the coolest point of the cultural zeitgeist: come with me, if you please, on a journey through time & cyber space, to the remote northern English village of Clinksell, isolated upon the misty moors, & where one may find the Blank Workshop & the strange but wondrous goings-on therein.

Populated by an eccentric cast of stylish, sophisticated & somewhat arch personages, amongst the productions emanating from the workshop is the latest CD of the Moon Wiring Club’s music, ‘Shoes Off and Chairs Away’, very recently purchased & much recommended, not least as a pleasing object in itself, the disc being accompanied by a handsome booklet introducing one to various other aspects of the whole ‘Blank’ aesthetic, of which the front cover & reverse of the casing provide a tantalising glimpse:

One gets the picture: nostalgia is in the air, the retro stylings of the graphic design also serving as a visual analogue to the collaged method of the music where, to mostly languid, trip-hoppy beats overlaid with sometimes brooding basslines (& an occasional bossa nova) & recurring electronic melodic motifs (classic Minimalism as an element within the Cubist framework), fragments of disembodied voices (clipped, plummy, sometimes hammy, enunciated English ones of the type heard upon the BBC Home Service or 'Afternoon Plays' on the Light Programme of the past) manifest themselves, unsettling, eldritch, before echoing into the mysterious ether of the atmosphere generated.

The air is that of the soundtrack to psychological parlour games, played upon the unwitting victim by those of superior, sophisticated wit, characterised by sly humour & simmering menace, or of being lost in woods patrolled by eerie, wooden-masked figures, an overall spookiness, otherness, of the supernatural: one is reminded of Tales of the Unexpected (& the visual aesthetic recalls such a period, of the 60s - 70s as influenced by earlier styles, a very English mix of, e.g. Art Deco & the Victorian-Edwardian), of Hammer Horror in its milder manifestations, &, more recently, certain aspects of the Royston Vasey of The League of Gentlemen. All in all, visually & sonically, its such a beautifully realised conceptual whole, a fabulous conceit, complex & rewarding.

One's first thought upon listening may suggest early Boards of Canada as a general point of reference or departure, but (& an interesting coincidence occurs here, given my recent mention of them), Cabaret Voltaire lurk significantly in the background too, with their similar 'Radiophonic Workshop' aesthetic, their sampling of found voices - especially 'proper' English ones - & the uncanny sounds that create an atmosphere of unsettling mystery, of the inexplicable, of something or things 'out there': Moon Wiring Club seem almost to exist in a space - & a place all of their own (i.e. Clinksell, of course!) - between the Cabs & the Boards, but ultimately the effect is a singular one.
I was also put in mind of DJ Shadow's mighty 'Entroducing', its magic enduring, employing perhaps a similar sonic aesthetic of an electronic cut-&-paste technique & vocabulary of samples, loops & minimalist motifs, although the idiom is of course completely different: his sound is unmistakably American, urban, & the Moon Wiring Club/Blank Workshop's is quintessentially English & provincial-rural, if of a highly refined & sophisticated, 'knowing' nature.

But why not avail yourself of & be seduced by the 'little night music' so generously offered as a taster, of both 'Shoes Off and Chairs Away' & the equally intriguing preceding album 'Art Deco Eyes'.

Aside from the music, further examples of the Blank aesthetic include a periodical, book design & even a range of tempting Scrumptytons sweets, again perfectly, delightfully referencing the history of design & redolent of a lost, disappeared time in English socio-cultural life.

The Ideal Tiger contributes a wide-ranging post on the subject of Moon Wiring Club & the Blank Workshop, eloquently stated, introducing a number of fascinating theoretical cultural issues, not least the concept of 'hauntology' (via the always excellent k-punk), & goes on to term MWC most wittily & succinctly as 'haunted house music' (hence its particular topicality).

Something else I happened to notice, by way of strange, perhaps spooky coincidence, is the presence of a cat - that weird creature - lurking amongst the visuals accompanying both the Moon Wiring Club CD & 'Entroducing'...

Happy Hallowe'en!

Still Life...

graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Times' 2 17/09/08

The attraction of the particular newspaper photograph from which this drawing was processed resided mostly in its recalling the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershoi (as mentioned previously), those of quiet, still rooms with certain architectural features such as mouldings & windows that admit light but afford no view beyond, carrying an indefinable yet mysterious charge: the box, the only object in the space, plays such a role in this otherwise empty scenario, adding a narrative element to a still life, pregnant with possibility, affording opportunity to the imaginatively inclined, but to remain forever unresolved (this isn't cinema or theatre, after all). One might also be reminded of Magritte's ordinary domestic rooms made fantastic by oversized objects or the like.


Vilhelm Hammershoi 'Sunbeams'
oil on canvas/1900

Think of boxes in an art context & an obvious example occurs, courtesy of Mr Warhol, icons of banality, regularity & multiplicity yet possessing a distinct resonance that elevates them from their original context:


Andy Warhol 'Brillo Box'

To those of a Minimalist mind, boxes occur frequently, not least these mirrored ones of Robert Morris, making any space visually fascinating, constantly shifting & unfamiliar:


Robert Morris mirror boxes

and another example as might be experienced at Tate Modern such as Donald Judd's exquisite copper cube, its interior painted a bright red, a most seductive object.


Donald Judd untitled
copper, enamel and aluminium/1972

Also another, earlier box of Judd's, in situ, illustrating the ubiquity of such simple forms, 'specific objects', within the Minimalist aesthetic.


Donald Judd @ Leo Castelli Gallery, New York 1966

On the subject, & referencing such a body of work as Chuck Close's apparently photorealist 'heads' & its conceptual underpinning, this very project, this year's work, has generally followed pretty strict Minimalist guidelines: working exclusively from daily newspaper photographic origins, on an A4 scale (admittedly this mostly for ease of scanning), in monochrome graphite (save for a few deviations into additional splashes of watercolour), & a general concentration on the subject of process rather than any image content other than that related to & referencing art & its history.

Soundtrack:


Teardrop Explodes 'Wilder'
Tori Amos 'Under the Pink' & 'Boys For Pele'
Portishead 2
Mogwai 'Come On Die Young'

It's a Mad, Ad World...

Today the opposite of tomato is 'Lost in Translation'


graphite/30x20cm
original source: ‘The Times’ 10/03/08

The appeal of this source photographic image, culled from a newspaper advertisement for men’s shaving foam, resided initially & most obviously in its incorporation of the old faithful modernist grid into its composition (see a selection of recent previous entries & drawings): in this instance the checkered background recalling something like Carl Andre’s floor piece ‘Steel-Magnesium Plain’ (once immersed in visual art, it’s impossible not to see it everywhere & thus be able to refer to it, to be living ‘the life aesthetic’).


Carl Andre ‘Steel-Magnesium Plain’

However, another pleasurable aspect presents itself: that of being able to appropriate into an art context an image from the world of advertising & commerce, & thus reverse the more familiar flow of traffic of this relationship. In such an instance, one might refer to the work of Richard Prince, who visually sampled newspaper advertisements as an act of ‘appropriation art’ & went on to rephotograph other particularly American consumer icons such as the Marlboro man , thus giving to them an ambiguous depth & unsettling, thought-provoking quality previously lacking.


Richard Prince ‘Cowboy’

Despite the acts of desecration advertising habitually, ritually visits upon images & ideas culled from art, I can’t help sometimes loving the dumbness & cheesiness of advertising images, the utter fatuous crassness of so much visual advertising, the fakery of the ideal world-to-be-aspired-to it strives, so hard in such a facile manner, to create, & this image provides a fine instance of such, not least in the sense of smug self-regard of the figure admiring his handiwork in the alluded-to mirror, etc. In the transcribed drawing, removed from the context of the product it is promoting & the lifestyle claims of the accompanying text, it seems even more absurd: this might be an aspect to be pursued…

All this seems to tie in nicely with the current TV broadcasting on BBC4 of the ‘Mad Men’ series, a thus-far (2 episodes in) interesting dramatic recreation of & peek into the murky depths (or perhaps ‘shallows’ is more appropriate in such a context) of the world of the 1960s Madison Avenue world of advertising, adding another note of topicality to this particular drawing.

And yes, I am aware of the irony of the ‘appeal’ (undeniable, sometimes) of images taken from advertising, given an innately critical attitude to the world of…
On a related matter, there’s an interesting article on the work of Richard Prince, particularly the comment upon how, acquired & displayed by wealthy collectors, thus commodified itself, such work becomes an advertisement for the brand-name of the artist himself.

Soundtrack:

Lambchop ‘Aw, C’mon’, ‘No, You C’mon’, ‘Damaged’
Belle & Sebastian ‘The Life Pursuit’
Sigur Ros ‘Takk’
‘Test Match Special’