Two to Tango #2

Closely related to a recently-preceding example in terms of process-appearance-subject/object matter, this latest drawing-watercolour in the continuing 'roadkill' series features representations of another found 'Tango'-branded reformed can, both flattened planes of which proved to be a suitable case for treatment, as it were, in this instance also, inspiring the exploration of another all-over painterly surface...


graphite, putty eraser, watercolour & wax crayon/30x20cm

Soundtrack:


Trellis 'Green Wing' soundtrack
Test Match Special England v Bangladesh, 1st Test, days 3-5

What delight indeed to at last chance upon the availability of a recording of excerpts from Trellis's wonderful soundtrack to 'Green Wing', which, whilst recalling many a scene from the programme, also stands alone as a fine, entertaining accompaniment to the drawing & painting process.
Always a treat to return, gladly, into the cocooning aural embrace of TMS, too, word-painting a complete world-unto-itself: wise words & much enjoyment as is invariably the case with the enduring yet constantly evolving institution: summer is here, at last.

'Talking' Picture...

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour/30x20cm

Something about the form into which this latest example of found object/subject matter had been flattened, folded, tattered & torn suggested the arrangement of a formal 'dialogue'...

Soundtrack:

No, not Talking Heads, but...

Cabaret Voltaire '2x25'/'The Crackdown'
Moon Wiring Club 'Solid Steel Radio Show' mixtape
Simon Reynolds' Pontone 'Eldritchtronica & Wyrd Bliss' mixtape
Portishead 'Third'
Wire 'The A List'

Head Over Heels

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour/30x20cm

Continuing with the series of 'roadkill' diptych drawings, with here another slight twist to the habitual proceedings, (re)presenting the found subject/object matter as an inverted 'pair' of forms across opposite sides of the pictorial divide, the shape into which the original had been transformed suggesting such a device & dialogue.

Soundtrack:


Nick Drake 'Made to Love Magic'
Joy Division 'Unknown Pleasures', 'Closer' & 'Substance'
Cabaret Voltaire '2x45'/'The Crackdown'

By no means an intentional pairing of Nick Drake & Joy Division, but rather, in the case of giving the latter a spin, acknowledging the 18th May 30-years' anniversary (albeit a day late, in typical slightly out-of-step TOoT fashion) of Ian Curtis's premature passing: the power, poignancy, freshness & wonder of the music endures as a fitting tribute, ever relevant & contemporary.

(untitled)

As regularly seems to be the case, the Sunday morning shopping stroll presented another pair of examples of 'roadkill' upon different sections of the local double black lines, photographed just as found...





Somehow, the legend 'energy' can only be read as being rather an ironic comment upon the state of something so obviously 'flat out' as the object in question...

Soundtrack:

Whilst processing the above images from camera to PC & then onwards to here, courtesy of Pontone, Simon Reynolds' Eldritchtronica & Wyrd Bliss mixtape: fine stuff &, apart from a little Moon Wiring Club, all sounding new to TOoT.

Pop Goes the Roadkill (Again)

Today the opposite of tomato is a.......Drill

And another example of aesthetically-pleasingly-reformed subject/object matter (of the habitual 'found' variety), with once again the available synecdochal fragments of its iconic brand identity offering more than sufficient information to imaginatively (re)construct the whole.


graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour/30x20cm

Soundtrack:


Cabaret Voltaire 'Voice of America'/'Western Mantra'/'Red Mecca'
AR Kane 'When You're Sad', 'Lolita' & 'Up Home!' EPs
Miracle Legion 'Surprise Surprise Surprise'
Pavement 'Brighten the Corners'
Wire 'The A List'
Moon Wiring Club Solid Steel Radio Show mix

A largely ‘historical’ soundtrack, owing rather a debt to process, & specifically that of conversion from analogue to digital form, cassette to CD, having finally got around to the practicalities of doing so & subsequently enjoying something of a post-punk indulgence-fest (comfortably including the aesthetically-compatible sounds of Pavement – a fine ‘English’ word/name for an American band, to boot - within such a designation).
Also burned to CD for keeps has been Moon Wiring Club’s latest online ‘mixtape’, another fine example of the genre & addition to the growing collection of: the sourcing of found sound material & old electronica, & seamless collaging of it (exemplary research & development!) into a richly-textured & -satisfying ‘hauntological’ whole, creating an alternative world at a slight remove from the here & now, once again produces delightful results, constantly surprising & engaging.


On a related point, the process of re-reading Graham Rawle’s ‘Diary of an Amateur Photographer’ enabled the drawing of aesthetic parallels between itself – book-as-art-object & a narrative collaged together from all manner of found archive visual material - & Ian Hodgson’s sonic & visual creative project of the Moon Wiring Club, both being poignantly redolent of periods of a past still yet not too distant to have faded from memory but enough to be recognizably so, of referencing a time other than the contemporary.
Subtly-nuanced similarities abound, not least in the dynamic combination of a sense of humour & unsettling undercurrents, but most obviously in the ingenuity of the respective collage or bricolage techniques employed, ever admirably inventive as they are.

One can't help but think art-historically in terms of Rawle's 'Diary' (or that, rather, of his protagonist Michael Whittingham) with its cut up-&-pasted black & white photographs, newspaper advertisements & paper oft aged beyond yellow to a smoked, tan colour that recall the appearance & hues of Cubism: its overall appeal, & that of Moon Wiring Club, might be considered rather obvious to the aesthetic inclinations promoted here at TOoT.

Found Out Again

This morning presented another pleasing on-the-way-to-the-day-job find of aluminium can 'roadkill' upon a section of the local double black lines road markings, all the more so for having hints (highlights?) of the underlying original erroneous yellow showing through...

Two to Tango

graphite, putty eraser, wax crayon & watercolour/30x20cm

With more than a passing acknowledgement of Jasper Johns' early encaustic painting-collage entitled 'Tango' (which word appears as a formal element of, at top left), the latest found 'roadkill' object inspired a tweaking to the norm in the process of its representation, with both planes of its compressed form featuring within the picture plane, the two visible fragments of its brand name forming the whole by dint of such compositional device.
The blue cast to the watercolour 'ground' - a suggestion of a tarmac road surface - is intended to pay further homage to the colouration of Johns' 'Tango', whilst the obvious presence amongst the accompanying 'soundtrack' of Gotan Project's 'La Revancha del Tango' might be taken as a nod towards the hidden presence of a musical box as an element of 'Tango's form, activated by the turning of a key protruding from the painting's surface, an example of the interactive aspect as featured in some of Johns' early works

Soundtrack:


Young Marble Giants 'Colossal Youth'
Pavement 'Brighten the Corners'
Wire 'A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck' & 'On Returning'
Go-Betweens 'Spring Hill Fair' & 'Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express'
Gotan Project 'La Revancha del Tango'

Today's the Day...

...to remember the mighty Grant McLennan, the man & his music, the magic of which endures, not least in the form of such fitting tribute as forms this bittersweet occasion's Soundtrack: (not forgetting Robert Forster's contribution, of course)


The Go-Betweens 'Spring Hill Fair' & 'Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express'

Thanks for such poignant & lasting memories are due, as always.