David Bowie’s 70s Sleeves Remixed

Today the opposite of tomato is the end before the beginning

Catching something of a reflection of the current World Cup ’74 drawing project here at TOoT, today delivered some fruitful internet research courtesy of following an intriguingly-illustrated ‘We Like’ link within the contents of the daily Design Week e-newsletter to which I subscribe via the workplace.
Arriving subsequently at the source of, it was interesting indeed to discover the full range of Simon Cryer’s ‘David Bowie’s 70s sleeves remixed’, themselves inspired by Gary Andrew Clarke’s ‘Art Remix’ series, & read with empathy of the enduring attachment to a youthful passion that motivated the creation of this re-imagined artwork, particularly dating as the source material does from the same period as my own inspiration.
Somehow, admiring the matrices of circular 'pixels' into which the source images have been transformed, they appear so quintessentially ‘Seventies’ in design terms that I must admit to feeling the re-mediated 1974 football stickers/player portraits would look better & more appropriate in just such a format too…

Soundtrack:

Buzzcocks ‘Singles: Going Steady’
Simple Minds ‘Empires & Dance’
Broadcast 'Ha Ha Sound'

Just another couple of youthful passions, & a much more recent one.

World Cup '74 #14 (Roberto Telch)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Embodied within the matrix of toned graphite squares, simultaneously obscured by & emerging from such manual pixelation, the portrait subject of the latest drawing to be processed in the hauntological 1974 football World Cup project is Roberto Telch of the Argentina squad, as selected to appear in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ stamp album (which provides the original image/object from which the drawing is sourced) &, subsequently, the tournament itself, where he played in five of his country’s six matches, beginning as a 67th minute substitute for Angel Bargas in the opening fixture against Poland & then going on to miss only the Second Round group game against Brazil, the 1 -2 defeat to whom resulted in Argentina’s effective elimination from the competition.
Telch, in common with the majority of players who featured at the 1974 World Cup, was previously unknown to my hazy memories of the first televised football event in which I took an interest, hence his representation in monochrome.

Soundtrack:

Vic Godard & Subway Sect ‘We Come as Aliens’
Moon Wiring Club ‘Somewhere a Fox is Getting Married’
Radiohead ‘Kid A’
Rickie Lee Jones ‘Traffic From Paradise’
Belle & Sebastian ‘The Life Pursuit’

World Cup '74 #13 (Francisco Sa)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Presenting the latest in the series of drawings being processed with the intention of having a ‘hauntological’ relationship to the football World Cup of 1974, of which personal recollections of the televised spectacle form a rather hazy memory.

The portrait subject of the original sticker, & via the process of the various stages of representation, the drawing, fragmented though this becomes through the medium of the matrix of toned graphite squares, is the succinctly-surnamed Francisco Sa, another of the World Cup ’74 cast previously unknown to me but who, a little light research reveals, was selected not just for inclusion in the Panini ‘Munchen 74’ collectors’ album (which provided the original source image for this particular drawing) but also the actual Argentina squad & subsequently appeared in four & a half matches of his country’s campaign, comprising all 3 First Round group games, & the Second Round group defeats to Holland & then Brazil, the latter of which saw him substituted at half time & thereafter take no further part in the tournament which, for Argentina, with the eliminating consequences of the Brazil result, amounted to no more than the dead rubber 1- 1 draw with East Germany.

Soundtrack:

My Bloody Valentine ‘m b v’ (mp3) & ‘Loveless’ (remastered)
Hanne Hukkelberg ‘Little Things’
Vic Godard & Subway Sect ‘What’s the Matter Boy?’
Miracle Legion ‘Surprise Surprise Surprise’
Black Box Recorder ‘England Made Me’
‘The Bridges of Madison County’ soundtrack

World Cup '74 #12 (Roberto Perfumo)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Continuing with the ‘hauntological’ drawing project representing the 1974 football World Cup, working conceptually from personal hazy memories, mostly at least, of what was my first real experience of televised football, just developing an interest in the game, & physically from the visual source material of the sticker/stamp player portraits of the proposed participants as featured in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ & Panini ‘Munchen ‘74’ collectors’ albums, then processed digitally & printed in crudely-pixellated form on A4 scale which serves as the immediate reference from which the drawings are processed.

The minimalistic regularity of the project’s standard format grid matrix of graphite-toned 5mm2 cells belies the ‘wealth of division’ (to quote Lou Reed) of configurations that is discernible as more of the drawings are produced, each individual & obviously so however compromised might be the recognizability of the portrait subject(s) who, in this particular instance was/is Roberto Perfumo, of whom I have no recollection (hence his representation in monochrome), but who nevertheless was selected for the actual final Argentina squad for the tournament, in addition to being represented in both the FKS & Panini albums. Perfumo captained Argentina in his country’s first four matches in Germany, unfortunately scoring an owl goal, for Italy, in the second, a 1- 1 draw, before being replaced after the opening Second Phase game, a 0 - 4 defeat to Holland, for the remaining two fixtures.

Soundtrack:

Sparklehorse ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’ & ‘Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain’
Moon Wiring Club ‘A Field Full of Sunken Horses’
My Bloody Valentine ‘Loveless’
Hanne Hukkelberg ‘Little Things’

World Cup '74 #11 (Ramon Ponce)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

It’s been something of a slow month drawing-wise, what with the settling-in to The Bungalow following relocation & all – not that such circumstances should in any way be used as an excuse for such unacceptable tardiness – but, as January gives way to February, not without a great deal of relief, another in the current ‘hauntological’ World Cup 1974 project has managed to be processed, not least in part due a 5am drawing session yesterday morning (surely the first ever of its kind), when work seemed a better solution than the enervating tedium of extended sleeplessness.

The portrait subject of this particular ‘re-mediated’ drawing - its formal arrangement & the process by which it was made being the project’s generic one of the grid of toned graphite squares, of course - is Ramon Ponce of the Argentina squad as proposed by the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ stamp album which provided the original source printed image-object (then subjected to various digital procedures before emerging as the print which serves as the immediate visual reference), who appears to have left but the ghost of a trace on the old Internet, at least in terms of the details of his playing career, which might be described as sketchy at best: one thing can be stated with certainty, however, & that is the fact that Ramon Ponce did not feature in the Argentinian squad as actually selected for the tournament (or. quite possibly, ever), thus inevitably rendering him unknown to my limited memories of but yet present physically via the historical document(ation) of the album.

Soundtrack:

Sparklehorse ‘Good Morning Spider’
selections from The Clash ‘London Calling’
Boards of Canada 'In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country'