New Favourite Book

Possibly ever.

Today, TOoT celebrates the recent arrival at headquarters of the most handsome volume (‘1’ indeed) of David Batchelor’s ‘Found Monochromes’, comprising a collection of 250 photographs of examples of such from the artist’s on-going (since 1997) documentary project of these finds, of blank white signs & faded notices, or the reverse planes of, encountered in, primarily, London but also other cities in Britain & around the globe, & one in Church Stretton, the streets of which A & I pottered during a recent restorative stay nearby, also taking in other delights of Shropshire.


As one might appreciate from the sample image pages below, the book constitutes a fascinating record of these occurrences of ephemeral presences/’voids’ in the visual field, ranging in scale from small sheets of paper to billboard-sized, in the fabric of the urban environment which surrounds them in many of its aspects – its architecture & the patina acquired (including graffiti); the details, the doors & windows of these buildings & establishments; its fences, barriers & divisions; its temporary construction sites; its forgotten, forlorn corners; its proliferation of signage & printed notices &, again, more impromptu instances of visual language such as graffiti.
One of course refers to the tradition of the white monochrome in modernist painting & particularly, those of Robert Ryman, & his attention also to fastenings, in the pursuit of the object & spatial environmental nature of his work, visible as a feature of a number of the monochromes photographed by Batchelor, fixed variously by selloptape, parcel tape, string, tacks, blu-tack & other means, all adding to the interest of any given image.
In each example, the white monochromes create a pause in the midst of the environment in which they are found, a still, mute point (or, otherwise, no more than a faint whisper where evidence of faded former content might be discerned through scrutiny) in the visual ‘noise’ around them, a blank canvas to be enjoyed for its purity or, perhaps if one might be so inclined, to be subjectively projected upon or a narrative ascribed to.





From such apparently simple means can a body of work of richly rewarding complexity be accumulated & constructed.

The subject of found monochromes is, of course, one that was until recently, in the form of the ‘double black lines’ markings upon the tarmac roads of a particular North Wales town, documented originally for themselves & latterly with the addition of ‘roadkill’ cans, an active aspect of the content here at TOoT & remains dear to the heart, being by no means abandoned or consigned to history – indeed, as a recent find of another occurrence of such a phenomenon amongst the streets of Chester illustrated.

Interesting to note that mention of Batchelor’s project originally came to my intrigued attention, almost a couple of years ago now, courtesy of the estimable Jazz Green & her excellent online artist’s journal: how good it is to finally have extensive tangible evidence of the ‘Found Mononchromes’, collected together in handy book form, to be studied at leisure.

Drawing a Blank #5

graphite & watercolour/30x20cm

Being the latest in the sequence of watercolour drawings processed from the subject-object matter of folded, creased & lightly crumpled blank sheets of standard A4 paper, represented on exact 1:1 scale (laboriously plotted), the image, with its all-over surface of non-hierarchical incidental visual detail, thus coinciding with the physical limits of the picture plane.
Once again, there’s that play, the employment of the device, of the flat representation of what was originally a flat plane subsequently transformed into something of a low-relief three-dimensional object, the drawing being a record of the fugitive action of natural light upon the undulations of its surface, of the subtle tonal gradations of the marks made upon the once uninflected sheet by the folding & crumpling process.

Becoming more deeply involved in this particular body of work, as it seems to be in the process of becoming, however slowly-evolving (taking into account specific seasonal factors, pertaining to the limited availability of natural daylight in which to work) & thus far production-light, certain art-historical correspondences emerge in which context(s) the drawings might be situated, even if only coincidentally &, not unusually, superficially.
In the interests of a certain integrity, at least of overriding personal aesthetics, all such artists & their work have featured previously, either specifically ‘in relation’ or otherwise as being of interest.

Other than an aforementioned similarity, at least, particularly, at the outset of the project, to some of Vija Celmins' wonderful drawings, of enveloped letters, photographs & images torn from magazines, & the historical tradition of the realistic representation of fabrics folded & draped, the first such example with which to consider something of an affinity is that of Kees Goudzwaard, & the artist’s paintings based on the subject-object matter of various paper & masking tape constructions of a variety of dimensions, all of which are represented, in oil on canvas, on a 1:1 scale, & include numerous subtly modulated grey & ‘white’ examples of.
Many of Goudwaard’s images, which maintain a compelling tension between trompe l’oeil realism & abstract design, also feature something of a grid structure, to whatever fairly rigorous or looser degree, by virtue of the use of the linear element of the strips of tape, another compositional device which links them in some manner to the drawings of creased & crumpled paper, the original objects upon which such are based are initially folded into such a formal pattern, of course.

The horizontal & vertical structure provide by the purposeful creases, & other accidental incidental diagonals & ‘facets’ of the crumple-inflected surfaces, might be considered as being not-too distant from aspects of archetypal Cubist composition, of course, a feature which generally haunts proceeding here, whilst the use of paper as subject-object matter also bears a relation to collage.

Obviously there’s something about any work utilizing the grid & surface modulations of whites & greys that might recall, generally & a number of particular examples of, the work of the familiar figure of Jasper Johns & also Robert Ryman’s ‘white paintings’ (although both are more usually associated with the palpable physicality & sensuousness of their surfaces, even Ryman's smooth ones) but, it occurred, ‘riffingly’, that there also might be something of a distant echo of Vilhelm Hammershoi, whose contemplative compositions are characterized by an habitual, exquisitely-realised muted tonality & overall ‘greyness’, & frequently include the cell-like details of domestic interior architectural features such as windows, doors, etc.

As ever, there’s such a richness to & wealth of art history that the occurrence of contextualizing correspondences are inevitable & unavoidable, but such are always welcome & more often than not informative & instructive.


Soundtrack:


She & Him 'Volume Two'
Laura Marling 'I Speak Because I Can'
Moon Wiring Club 'A Spare Tabby at the Cat's Wedding'
Sparklehorse 'It's a Wonderful Life'
Jesca Hoop 'Hunting My Dress'

And so the new Moon Wiring Club release - the CD but one aspect of the 'Tabby bundle' that constitutes its whole - arrived, ahead of expectations, to be discovered sheltering, by something of a spooky coincidence although not, perhaps, particularly unusually for something of a feline nature, underneath the car...


More will surely follow upon the subject of the richness of the sonic & visual wonders to experienced within this cornucopia of delights, suffice for now to report that the first hearing of the CD during a misty, damp & darkening autumn afternoon provided much of the anticipated entertainment & more developments besides...

Drawing a Blank...

Being the product of an epiphany occurring midway through the processing of the previous drawing, this example represents ‘nothing’ but a blank sheet of paper, folded-over numerous times & being lightly crumpled, such still life object considered to be of sufficient interest to warrant active scrutiny without the addition of any surface image content.


graphite & watercolour/30x20cm

Of course, such a representation of such an object returns us to the familiar subjects of the white monochrome & the good old modernist grid, thoughts particularly of the work of Robert Ryman, & also another reference to a pair of Martin Creed’s ‘Works’, Nos. 340 & 384, as mentioned here back during the early summer when we were previously engaged with thoughts & deeds involving crumpled sheets of paper.

Obviously, considering the textured surfaces of a good many of Ryman’s painting-objects, especially those featuring some form of grid structure in the manufacture of, the drawing here is, by way of contrast, smooth & flat as it two-dimensionally represents the textured, three-dimensional, creased & crumpled paper object, in such a way establishing something of a dialogue with, a suggestion of, perhaps, the flat object of the sheet as it originally existed before such integrity was compromised by the action & process of folding, etc.

Considering, more generally, crumpled objects displaying blank surfaces – other than subtle tonal variations, as activated by the play of light, of course – reminded me, also, as a blast from the past, of Alex Landrum’s panel ‘Perfect Accident No. 5 of 5’, as encountered at the John Moores 20 exhibition back in 1997, a seminal & epiphanic event indeed.
Here’s a representation, taken from the as-ever essentially collectable catalogue, although 2D fails to properly communicate the overall complexity of either surface or object (as might be claimed of the watercolour drawing, of course, which exists as something ‘other’, a distanced simulacrum):


Alex Landrum 'Perfect Accident No.5 of 5'
cellulose paint on polyester resin/123x123cm

Soundtrack:


The Birthday Party homemade compilation
Jesca Hoop 'Hunting My Dress'
Hanne Hukkelberg 'Rykestrasse 68'
Rufus Wainwright eponymous
Belle & Sebastian 'The Boy With the Arab Strap'
Sparklehorse 'Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain'

White/Stripes

Here follows a sequence of photographs edited from the number taken over the course of a couple of ventures out into the snowy wastes of last week, thus constituting what we might call 'the white album'.
The first four examples include instances of 'drawing' in the form of tracks, human & animal footprints, & other marks made in the snow & also shadows cast upon its surface by objects in the blanketed landscape, not least the stones of a local ornamental circle...





Whilst taking care to pick one's safe-as-possible way across & through the snow, one might also notice the texture of the stuff; its complex, delicate & beautiful formal constitution, which, framed & contained within the photographic image, could be considered as having something of an analogy with, for instance, the textured white paintings of Robert Ryman's enduring practice...




Coincidentally, Ryman is also mentioned in today's entry in Jazz Green's artist's journal, largely devoted to the subject of examples of the white 'non-colour' monochrome in artistic practice, most thoughtful, & elegantly elucidated as usual, & also very interestingly including reference to the 'lost paintings' of the early, texture-building process of her own paintings.
For the second time recently, thanks are again due to Jazz, on this occasion for the recommendation & kind words she wrote about this very blog & its contents. Reciprocal respect & admiration have been expressed previously, here reiterated.

The following four images might be considered to have a certain relationship to Jazz Green's 'found paintings' (noticing the world through the influence of someone else's vision) - photographs of the visual evidence as encountered, appropriated & represented, recontextualized, of processes of surface & material decay, corrosion, erosion, or natural colonization, & the compelling aesthetic qualities of such, fascinating & beautiful in both texture & colour.

Brought to my visual attention, in passing, by being highlighted, spotlit, by the rays of the setting afternoon sun, the photographs here feature 'archaeological' evidence of the life of a section of a school's iron railings, a history of the various layers of paint - revealed by the weathering process of flaking & peeling - which have, over time, been successively applied to them. Featuring various combinations of complementaries of red, blue, green & rust, the colours appeared particularly vivid against the white backdrop of the snow-covered ground before & beyond their immediate location, with the sunlight also emphasizing the textural details evident...





Such an encounter subsequently recalled memories of the 'stringed paintings' on which I had tentatively embarked in exploratory fashion some years ago now, but which in fact constitute the last serious engagement with the medium of oil paint. The intention of these works is that they should in some way combine painting & drawing, rigorous formal structural design & chance (in the application of paint upon the canvas-thread strings), & embodied process in three-dimensional object form , also incorporating the wall behind (upon which cast shadows play) & the spectator's space in front of the work as an active element of & in its physical, temporal realization (see this archive post for a fuller 'contemporary' theoretical explanation)...



Which painted threads then in turn suggested a certain visual analogy with the remaining, visible edges of the otherwise (not quite completely) overpainted yellow lines of the 'double black' series of original photographs (here cut up & recombined to like effect for the purposes of illustration) & subsequently processed drawings...


Everything is connected...

Used Graphite

Today the opposite of tomato is a 'signal of a symptom, soon to be exhausted'

And so, at last, the much-anticipated publication & arrival of Suzanne P Hudson's study of the work of Robert Ryman, titled after the artist's conception of painting, as an experimental activity, as 'used paint'. Having long been fascinated by Ryman's work, as objects & his process, the text is something to be avidly explored without much further ado, but my attention was initially arrested by the book as an aesthetic object in its own right. Linen-bound, this covering is itself ensleeved in a dust jacket of thick tracing-like paper, in the manner of New Order's exquisitely-packaged 'Low-life' LP from way back when (ahh, those really were the days, of the confluence of music & visual art & design...)


As is apparent, a window cut into the dust jacket reveals the linen beneath, & the particular properties of the material's texture & weave, the brickwork-like structure of which is subject to optical effects upon viewing.
A drawing was thus inspired by such a richly compelling aesthetic object, employing & consistent with the fundamental concerns of process & the realization of an allover surface, comprised of - obviously - used graphite, as each drawing, unspokenly, of necessity is. Referencing the model, a windowed sheet of tracing paper was then overlaid to create a drawing-object.


graphite with tracing paper overlay/20x30cm

The original drawing could exist as such, on its own terms, as an example of allover process, of marks made, horizontally & vertically, & the modernist grid...


graphite/20x30cm

Soundtrack:


Marvin Gaye 'What's Going On'
B52s 'Rock Lobster' EP
Tunng 'Good Arrows'
Chris Morris 'Blue Jam'
Young Marble Giants 'Colossal Youth'
Cabaret Voltaire 'Voice of America', 'Western Mantra' & 'Red Mecca'
Portishead 'Third'

Again trawling the collection & becoming pleaantly reacquainted with a couple of classics in the form of 'What's Going On', sublime as ever, & the mighty 'Rock Lobster', its energy, drama, fun & magnificence undimmed by time.
There seems something most appropriate, too, in hearing the Cabaret Voltaire albums of their Rough Trade period, & 'Western Mantra' (post-punk's very own 'Sister Ray') with its effect-laden somewhat degraded, crunchy 'scratched surface' sonic aesthetic, in particular, on cassette, taking one back to the 'C90' days of their release & the habitual, obsessive taping of obscure wonders (very much such as the Cabs) from the John Peel radio programme: the cassette itself (onto which the albums were transferred from their original vinyl incarnations, for the purposes of portability) is a profoundly 'Proustian' object, a relic from another (technological) age, a survivor from a past with which it maintains tangible contact & thus assists in becoming that much less distant.
By something of a coincidence, an initial browse-read of the most recent (essential) book acquisition, Simon Reynolds' 'Totally Wired' - a companion volume of interviews with those musicians featured in the author's earlier history of post-punk 'Rip It Up and Start Again' - has already revealed his thoughts on PiL's 'Metal Box' album, & the fascinating concept of how the physical embodiment of music is an essential component of its reception & fullest appreciation: I too owned the album in its original incarnation, very much an object of desire (at an RRP of £7.45, when most albums cost under £4.99 in its day, it had to be: I, like Simon, had to wait until Xmas to hear it, 'presented'!), the three 12" vinyl discs contained in a metal canister, which gave to the music a palpably metallic quality (not of the 'heavy' variety, although the vibrations of the bass embedded in the grooves of the records most certainly were) & its sense of otherness, that nothing quite sounded like it as nothing else had been presented in such a singular fashion. I concur absolutely with Reynolds when he states that subsequent incarnations of the album - first as a double LP in a gatefold sleeve (in which format a friend owned it) & the later "almost risible to behold" CD reissue (a single disc in appropriately miniaturized can, which really is a pathetic specimen in comparison to the physical, & psychological, dimensions of the original, further evidence of increasingly 'reduced circumstances') - have served only to diminish the nature of the music, & its significance & eerie, compelling power: 'Metal Box' really was music-as-object, & seemingly very much intended to be (the 3 12" discs themselves, with 12 tracks spread over the consequent 6 sides of vinyl, to be played in whatever order & quantity the listener saw fit on any particular occasion, were a deconstruction of the traditional album format & its fixed mode of sequencing the music, for instance).
And now, of course, so much music has no physical form, save, perhaps, for the technology via which it is experienced (which might well be taken for granted, unconsidered, anyway): what happened, where did the art go?!

More Grids

Today the opposite of tomato is ( )

Sometimes it's amazing just how serendipitous the occurrence of certain images can be.
Following on from the newspaper photo used as source material for the recent drawing featuring the check-patterned dress, came this picture, sequentially most appropriate & also perfectly relating in formal terms to the working methods of many artists, particularly those involved in the transcription of photographs.
Again, the lure of the old faithful modernist grid proved irresistible, particularly when presented in such an explicit form. Such a source image also provided the opportunity, the invitation, to transcribe it into a drawing in a classically systematic manner by a cell-by-cell process beginning in the top left hand corner, working horizontally to the right & then in this manner line-by-line vertically, to finish in the bottom right, the first time I’d ever attempted such an approach, this process being tempered slightly by occasional returns to make tonal revisions of certain individual cells as necessary once a more all-over tonal pattern began to emerge as the systematic process progressed.


graphite/20x30cm
original source: 'The Times' 22/02/08

As an example of the squaring-up & transcribing process, I shall cite the work & working methods of Chuck Close, to whom I’ve already made reference during the course of this year’s drawing-from-photographs project, illustrated by one of his measured-up ‘photo maquettes’ & then the finished painting, the scale of which is quite breath-taking when seen in relation to the artist himself.



Although this is an early work of Close’s & his technique & style have developed considerably since the 60s, still his adherence to the grid endures: indeed, it became & has remained an explicit element of the paintings’ form, with each cell its own perfectly-formed abstract picture within the complete brightly-coloured picture, the all-over patterned design from which can be discerned the figurative elements, coalescing & dissolving, of the human head upon which, in photographic form, it is based.

It’s fascinating, indeed, to trace the progress of the grid in Modernist painting, from its genesis in Cezanne's increasing statement of series of horizontals & verticals parallel to the picture’s edges, through the scaffolding of Braque’s & Picasso’s Cubism, to Mondrian’s gradual development culminating in his explicit, rigid, black-lined grid structures, & then the grid’s frequent subsequent recurrence in various forms in the work of such diverse artists as Jasper Johns, Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman & Close amongst others. Once referred to an ‘unreconstructed modernist’, the grid remains something to which I’m drawn…quite literally in this latest example of drawing practice & process!

Soundtrack:


Sigur Ros ‘Aegytis Byrjun’, ( ) & 'Takk'
Rachel Unthank & the Winterset ‘The Bairns’