Having a Re-think/Re-draw Again: World Cup '74 #1 v3

Today the opposite of tomato is Double Negative

For the third time, the nascent project of drawings based upon the primary image content of the collectable stamp/sticker collections published by FKS, ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’, & Panini, ‘Munchen 1974’, has undergone a formal reappraisal, with the first physical result of such a decision & process represented here, returning to square one, with pun duly acknowledged, with what comes, eventually, to form a crudely-pixellated portrait of Norberto Alonso, the first featured member of the Argentina squad for the 1974 football World Cup tournament.

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

From the original stamp, scanned & then reduced in size, by experimental degrees, to 30% of its dimensions, a black & white A4 print was made, enlarging & consequently breaking up the image into a collection of modular units, & this served as the immediate visual reference from which the drawing was processed, more than anything an exercise in looking & tonal control, given the subtle differences apparent (barely, at times) between many of the individual squares within the overall grid of the image: the ensuing ‘portrait’ is a by-product, although significant in the context of the project as (if) it develops.

Although the original sticker & its portrait image was/is printed in colour, the decision was taken to work from a black & white reproduction for two significant reasons: firstly, in the context of memory, I have no recollection of a footballer such as, in this instance, Norberto Alonso, & thus a monochrome representation seems appropriate (those players I do remember are intended to be represented in colour, to suggest something more vivid); secondly, I experienced the 1974 World Cup - &, indeed, the 1978 tournament – via the medium of black & white television, & this thus constitutes a distinct ‘hauntological’ dimension to the project.

Such an approach to the representation of the human face from a photographic source most obviously references the practice of Chuck Close, as might be appreciated from the following images, a drawing & watercolour, taken from Martin Friedman’s ‘Close Reading: Chuck Close and the Artist Portrait’, a much-revisited source of fascination & inspiration.

Soundtrack:

Vic Godard & Subway Sect ‘What’s the Matter, Boy?’
Broadcast ‘Ha Ha Sound’
Bat For Lashes ‘Fur and Gold’
Cornershop ‘When I Was Born for the 7th Time’

Another 'Close' Encounter...

Another little twist to the representation of the ‘roadkill’ can subject/object matter today, coming about as a result of the habitual practice – which actually forms the very first part of the process after the finding & litter-picking of the objects themselves – of taking a copy of such, for reference purposes (although the actual physical objects now serve as the models for the drawings & watercolours of, the initial drawings in the ongoing series were made from reference to photocopies of the cans, a process that was, at that particular time, a continuation of the practice of drawing from photographic sources, dating from the beginning of 2008, rigorously adhered to throughout that year, as ‘The Project’, & following into 2009).
It had come to attention that such photographic copies of the objects took either of two distinct forms. Those cans scanned by the high-speed copier available for use at the source of the day job produced an overall sharply-defined representation, clear in all detail, whereas those examples scanned using the considerably more slowly-copying domestic hardware gave a much less fully-focussed result, sharp in parts but blurred in others.

It occurred that such home-copied representations bore a certain affinity to the appearance of the recently researched printed reproductions of the daguerreotype portraits & nudes of Chuck Close, which also display a combination of finely-defined & intensely-detailed areas (literally every pore is reproduced, in common with Close’s early Polaroid-sourced enlarged-scale monochrome ‘heads’ paintings) with others, immediately adjacent, of much softer focus, blurring from definition to the verge of abstraction, the result of the long exposure time of the daguerreotype process producing an extremely shallow depth of field, something shared by the nature & action of the scanner.

Thus the ‘referential’ inspiration to attempt to produce more deliberately artificial ‘apparent daguerreotypes’ of the roadkill cans (each of which have been represented previously in pencil & paint), setting a dark ground to replicate the velvety black ‘void’ in which Close’s portrait heads - & thus the objects - appear to float, desaturating the scanner software’s colour settings to the zero point of monochrome & then allowing the scanner to make its long exposure passage across the defined area (timed at a full 23 seconds at a resolution of 200dpi – compare such with the familiar split-second action of a camera shutter), thus representing those parts of the objects that come into direct contact with the screen in high definition & rich detail but those areas even millimetres away much less focussed, producing an intriguing formal dialogue & transformation of the representations of the objects into something ‘other’ & additional to the habitual process of the diptych drawings & watercolours, with, also, a little playful link to the history of art & photography.


Possibly a little sideline worth exploring further, given the choice of such appropriate objects as may be in the collection.

Close Call

Today the opposite of tomato is 'like watching a conjuring trick performed in slow motion'*


graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour/30x20cm

Continuing the 'roadkill' diptych series of drawings processed (increasingly slowly of late, it must be admitted: performed & unfolding in slow motion, indeed) from the close empirical study of found object/subject matter, with another intriguingly reshaped, reformed character thus represented, pleasingly rusting in the interests of providing further subtle incidents of colour in addition to those of its branded identity (which, rather ironically, are black, white & grey, enlived by a flash or two of red), a small synecdochal hint of which is offered - fittingly, perhaps, as the 2010 World Cup gets underway, that it proves to be one with associations to football.

*The tag line leading this particular post being found in & thus appropriated from Christopher Finch’s massive ‘Chuck Close: Work’, a recent investment in which we’re currently immersed: a truly fabulous art book, lavishly & exquisitely produced, which might be rashly but not necessarily wholly unreasonably claimed to be one of the best of its kind ever. The quality of the reproductions of many examples covering the complete scope of the subject’s painting, drawing, printmaking & photographic practice are stunning (including many details to be pored over – if you, dear reader, might excuse such an obvious pun - & scrutinized with great delight), with the accompanying text complementing such visual evidence perfectly, offering much fascinating insight into the creative process (& emphasizing that key word, with its especial value to operations here at TOoT), the work of art, its developmental stages & incremental progress, woven into the broader biography. Altogether an exemplary volume, a big one for a big subject, one to be treasured for its many & profound riches.

One of the particular issues related to the work of Chuck Close is, of course, scale, &, considering also a enquiring comment recently kindly posted by Jazz Green concerning the size ('life') of the objects represented in the ‘roadkill’ diptych series of drawings, this is something that’s been mulled over in terms of potential future developments of this very body of work, if such might indeed occur, whether it might be fruitful to explore enlargements of the subject/object matter, as found, as an aspect of the drawing process, for the scope such a device might offer for the representation of detail, for example, which can become frustratingly difficult, to a satisfactorily-realizable extent, on a 1:1 scale.
Of course, if such were to occur, the represented images would inevitably become something ‘other’, offering the possibility of being read as being more obviously ‘iconic’, ‘glorified’ or whatever, but the distance thus created from the original source could well be an interesting one to travel & explore - it might, for instance, be a fascinating experiment of both mark-making process (imagining this to be much more expansive under such circumstances) & perception to represent the objects on a scale of 5 – 6 feet tall, similar to the height of a human being (e.g. the viewer in the context of a physical spatial engagement with the work itself on a wall), where the shapes, kinks & angular folds into which many of the objects have been accidentally, unwittingly reformed (habitually chosen for such very reasons, of course), might well suggest & reflect those of various human stances & arrangements of limbs, etc, where a ‘dialogue’ between work & viewer could accordingly take place.

Someday, we really will require the environment of proper studio space & clear-the-decks-I’m-an-artist-&-nothing-but time in which to carry out some of these ‘dreamy’ proposals...

Soundtrack:

Pontone's 'Spectral Cassette' mixes Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol.3 & Vol.4

Alerted by Mr Reynolds to the existence of Volume 4 of the Pontone website's downloadable series of 'Spectral Cassette' mixes of various examples of obscure contemporary electronica, in the interests of TOoT's continuing aesthetic research projects it was felt to be of sufficient import to the sonic branch of proceedings to sample the preceding 3 volumes also.
Whilst the third of the compilations provided little of lasting or even follow-up interest (many of the selections within proving to be of insufficient duration to make much of an impression), the other 3 mixes revealed all manner of fascinating findings. Volume 4 in particular is a most compelling, immersive experience, characterized by periods of dreamy wooziness that recall early-ish Boards of Canada as something of a reference point, with all manner of found voices drifting in & out of consciousness, half-heard, half-remembered, very much appropriately spectral prescences haunting the overall enveloping atmosphere as it slowly unfolds in a sequence of minor shifts from one artist's chosen contribution to another, utterly engaging & a(nother) most efficacious accompaniment to the drawing process.

Return of the Grid(s)

Delighted today to notice, upon passing the frozen pond as pictured previously on New Year's Day, the presence in the grid-format fence of a section patched by means of not just one but a veritable visual, formal feast of a further two grids, one of silvery wire in diagonally-halved form behind a bolder, stronger rusted iron one, creating a compelling, complex arrangement: modernism is alive & well into the post-noughties...





Further to the subject of diamond-format grid patterns, this wonderful image of Braniff Airlines hostesses modelling rather fabulous 1960s Emilio Pucci-designed uniforms is to be found within Stephen Bayley's sumptuous volume & intriguing thesis 'Woman as Design',


which pattern structure in turn brings to mind a visual analogy in the form of an example of Chuck Close's latter style of painting, in this case a self-portrait.


Chuck Close (from 'Close Reading' by Martin Friedman, Abrams, 2005)

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'

The Next Drawing...

Today the opposite of tomato is Scott Walker's interpretation of Jacques Brel's song 'Next'


graphite/40x30cm
original source: 'The Daily Telegraph' 20/03/08

The original photographic image for this transcription suggested itself primarily due to its relationship to the previously posted photo of the artist Chuck Close standing beside one of his self portrait paintings, & the sense of scale both share with their depictions of the human figure seen against massively enlarged images of the head.
The passing figure was included in both sections of the diptych to maintain this sense of scale during the drawing process.

Note too the inclusion in the advertising image of such familiar signifiers of desire as the sensuously parted lips & the strands of hair brushing the neck, & the male model's strong, masculine profile...


Chuck Close with 'Big Self Portrait' 1968

Soundtrack:


Lambchop 'I Hope You're Sitting Down'
Belle & Sebastian 'Push Barman...' & 'Fold Your Hands Child...'
Sparklehorse 'Good Morning Spider'
Duke Special 'Songs From the Deep Forest'
Sparklehorse 'It's a Wonderful Life' & 'Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain'
Portishead 'Portishead'

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’

Close Encounter

Today the opposite of tomato is
“alright for someone who can hang the absurd on their wall”.

By one of life’s examples of serendipity, whilst working on the previous drawing of the pixellated, ‘gridded’ faces & being reminded, naturally, of Chuck Close’s portraiture, habitually employing such a device however much his style might have developed over his career through both intention & force of circumstance, there occurred in the print media a feature on photographic portraits, illustrated with, amongst other examples, one of Close’s daguerreotype images of Philip Glass.
This, obviously, with its direct reference to an artist who might be regarded as one of the masters of both photorealism & the practice of painting from photographic sources, proved an image too compelling not to feature as the immediate continuation of The Project, as this current body of work has now become, into its second month as it is.

The source photograph is a thing of great beauty, the daguerreotype having a wonderful appearance of antique, burnished metal - understandable given its base of a copper plate. The shallow depth of field is fascinating too, with near detail described with such intense clarity of focus yet, merely a few inches further back, the image blurs into hazy almost-abstraction, devoid of descriptive marks. A cursory glance in the mirror reveals this to be akin to the manner in which vision actually functions: studying one’s own face, little is observed in focus, much of the reflection is peripheral.

Thus the challenge was to transcribe by a process of discrete mark-making the daguerreotype as observed, as a wholly abstract process that, eventually, coalesces into all-over tonal resolution as a surface image, with a constant shift between vague formlessness & a degree of partial clarity.


graphite/21x30cm
original source: ‘The Guardian’ G2, 07/02/08

Also presented is an example of Chuck Close’s self portraiture in graphite, from a photographic original, employing a similar tension between sharpness & blur, relating closely to his early monochrome paintings.


Chuck Close ‘Self-Portrait’ 1968 pencil on paper, 23x29”

Working intensely on the drawing for 2 days, it’s interesting to consider the soundtrack to which it was produced, how the work involved in this particular instance can be measured out in terms of music.
Saturday was a day of Scott Walker, following the previous evening’s televised documentary, & a compilation of his first 4 solo albums from the late 60s & also his much-loved interpretation of the songs of Jacques Brel, camp as a row of pink tents & kitsch & over-the-top they might be but still they’re a fabulous, life-affirming experience.
The documentary itself featured quite surreal footage of a performance of ‘Jackie’ on, of all things, ‘The Frankie Howerd Show' - would that such televisual 'happenings’ were possible now…we live in such culturally-diminished times.
The first 2 Goldfrapp albums, the glorious cinematic atmospherics of ‘Felt Mountain’ & the sensual electro-pop throb of ‘Black Cherry’ along with assorted remixed tracks, stylistically & sonically different but similarly of an enduringly enjoyable quality were also given an airing on a whim after too long a hiatus, great to make an aural reacquaintance with such fine music.

On Sunday, & considering the coming week during which Valentine’s day occurs, it seemed appropriate to excavate The Magnetic Fields’ collection of ‘69 Love Songs’: a unclassifiable album in terms of description, covering every songwriting style it’s possible to imagine with, even amongst the pastiches, such an array of fine songs, irresistible tunes, witty & erudite lyrics, addressing the whole gamut of experience from infatuation & devotion to the contempt-turning-to-murder of ‘Yeah Oh Yeah'. It seemed quite an endeavour to attempt to listen to the 3 Cds all through in the one day but it proved such a pleasant experience to be reminded too of its enduring quality & to be excellent accompaniment to the drawing process.


Finally, the contemporary folk - very much of yet transcending the genre - of Rachel Unthank & the Winterset’s ‘The Bairns’, an accomplished achievement & a profoundly affecting experience, traditional & original songs, timeless, magnificently performed, the sister’s voices & the harmonies between are things of beauty indeed, one having the smoky, slightly parched undernote of Cat Power, as too are the instrumental interplay of piano, violin & cello: an album in which to immerse oneself, to surrender to the sonic & emotional depths of, completely. Paul Morley's description of the music as being both 'desolate & intimate' is spot-on, as is his reference both to the Gothic quality - the prevailing mood is often darkly, starkly romantic & evocative of mist-shrouded, lonely shores & bereft souls - &, perhaps surprisingly, the Cocteau Twins, whose presence I was reminded of particularly during the complex vocal harmonies of the closing piece, 'Newcastle Lullaby', which is quite astonishing, the snippets of which scattered throughout the course of the album give no clue as to this form of resolution, where space & time shift in a manner impossible to locate, infinite. Indeed, another of the music's qualities is the sense of space it conveys, both physically, compositionally, between the actual notes played & sung, & imaginatively, which brings to mind, comparably, the music & aesthetic of Low with their tendency towards a spacious minimalism of long, drawn out pieces - simple yet complex - slowly unfurling, & pure, beautiful close vocal harmonies, even though Low's employ a female-male dynamic. The leavening of the whole with the occasional briefer, lighter tune is another factor common to Low & 'The Bairns'. Whatever, it's music most conducive to accompanying & inspiring the meditative process of drawing, whether or not it's possible to communicate this through the work itself: ah, that old chestnut - can visual art aspire to the condition of music?