Retromania on the Road

Today the opposite of tomato is 'a man who's nostalgically prone'

There seems no escaping the lure of the ‘retromania’ pervading the atmosphere & operations at TOoT at the moment, considering the latest drawing(s) to be processed, bittily, & then reassessed & reworked into a second ‘final’ state (which somehow feels less so & secure than its predecessor now appears, in retrospect…), over the course of the last few days.

Based initially with recourse to one of the recent photographs taken of the instances of ‘double black lines’ road markings located & found amongst the back streets of Chester & then developed, refined formally, to include an aspect of a second such image, this drawing (in two states) then & thus refers back to a short sequence of five others made, from the source of photographs of the original previously-local double black lines, almost four years ago & blogged at the time here.

As then, the pre-existing image content, the formal structure, subject to reformation, is utilized as the vehicle with which to explicitly foreground the process of drawing, the marks made & surface(s) (& effects) achieved through the medium of graphite (& the erasure of, as positive action) on paper.

Version 1


Version 2


graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm


Soundtrack:


The Chameleons Peel Sessions
Moon Wiring Club 'A Spare Tabby at the Cat's Wedding' (vinyl LP)
Echo & the Bunnymen 'Ocean Rain' (vinyl LP)

More musical retromania too, inspired directly by dipping into ‘The Peel Sessions’ at random points of interest in addition to reading through thoroughly, savouring every word & anecdote. The Chameleons proved to be one of those bands’ names that did indeed inspire recollections of the recording & broadcast of a ‘classic session’ as the book has it, recalled as being much enthused about with a like-minded friend back in the day, & recourse to a downloadable digital source (alas the original cassette on which the session would have been recorded from the radio has not survived, either relocations, de-clutterings or possibly over-tapings: one wonders how the music might sound thus experienced, much more directly present & palpable via its original physical form) enabled a nostalgic re-acquaintance with the music itself.
Although my musical tastes might have moved on from such as The Chameleons’ aesthetic specifically (which chimed with any number of the other bands I listened to at the time & beyond, that much is obvious), being long-since unlistened-to (not least through unavailability), still the session & especially other songs from two subsequent such recordings for the Peel show (also part of the particular download) proved not without charm & interest, & a certain frisson of recognition, of pleasant reminiscence of youthful passions: the book itself is overflowing with such irresistible seductions to indulge in nostalgia, inevitably of course. Further to this last point, & by way of coincidence, that first ‘classic’ Chameleons’ session was originally broadcast in June 1981, in the midst of taking ‘O’Level exams, the night before attending the Bauhaus gig mentioned recently: we really are on a roll, backwards.

The remainder of the soundtrack was then experienced through the medium of old technology in the form of the Sixties' record player purchased during the ‘summer’, with, first, the delights of the vinyl version of the Moon Wiring Club’s ‘A Spare Tabby at the Cat’s Wedding’ - a companion to the contemporaneous CD release (indeed being purchased together in the ‘bundle’, as recorded here, although I failed to include the LP sleeve in the photograph so there's no visual evidence of its existence) but quite different in content whatever the coincidence of some of the tracks’ titles, & equally excellent & compelling: when one factors in the related artwork, & the online presentation, the whole package/experience is profoundly rich & complex, but the music alone is a particularly rewarding accompaniment to the process of drawing.

Then, whilst reworking the drawing into its second incarnation, a re-acquaintance (probably 20 years since the last such encounter) with Echo & the Bunnymen’s mighty & magnificent masterpiece ‘Ocean Rain’ (toured & performed in its entirety during September, in the contemporary fashion for such concerts, a full 27 years after the album’s original release) in all its grandiose glory in vinyl, analogue form, the orchestral strings which constitute such an essential element of the music’s texture much richer, warmer, deeper in ‘colour’ & tone, simply more vibrant as they should be & be felt, an altogether more organic sound somehow, better suited to a fuller appreciation of the overall, encompassing sonic aesthetic. A similar thought occurred whilst experiencing the chamber-pop of Belle & Sebastian’s wonderful, adored ‘Tigermilk’ on vinyl (again, as such an album surely should be), for the very first time, recently too: good vibrations indeed.

Brand New, You're Retro

Today the opposite of tomato is all a tremulous heart requires

graphite, putty eraser, watercolour & collage/20x30cm

A return today to a major theme of the relatively recent past here at TOoT, with the confluence of the recent finds of a suitably intriguing ‘roadkilled’ can &the occurrence of those ‘new’ double black lines in Chester providing the stimulation (note the word, as present on the surface of the object & the photocopied reproduction of this collaged onto/into the drawing) to compose & process a drawing featuring both of these elements in a something of a style that harks back to that last employed in June of last year, since when the process & appearance of the body of work evolved into a more watercoloury realm before such subject/object matter went into a prolonged hibernation amidst the general slowing-down/spacing-out of instances of creative operations.

Pertaining to the drawing, in the interests of aesthetic integrity the broad strokes of the darker-toned aspects of the surface/‘ground’ relate directly to, being inspired by, those 'active' swipes of the brush that characterize some of the painting of the double black lines in the previously-posted photographs of such the feature as found.

Whether this drawing heralds a renaissance or might otherwise be but a fleeting example (of an abiding 'retromania' as documented over recent months) remains to be seen, but there’s obviously something about the subject/object matter that keeps demanding attention & some form of documentary engagement with, as the drawing provides tangible evidence of.


Soundtrack:

The Smiths John Peel session 09/08/84
Cocteau Twins John Peel session 05/09/84
Cornershop ‘When I Was Born for the 7th Time’
(here featuring the album's cassette-format artwork in all its cinematic scope)

Further to the retromania, TOoT finds itself in something of a Peel-fest at the moment & the soundtrack reflects such a fact, comprising a couple of archive recordings from the John Peel radio show & a reacquaintance with an album by a band associated with such source. This circumstance has arisen from A’s kind presentation of Ken Garner’s ‘The Peel Sessions’ book, a must-be-read-immediately volume that features a fascinating history of the show (historically contextualized within the tradition of the 'live' recordings of music for broadcast by/on the BBC) &, obviously, the ‘sessions’ that formed a particular focus for the programme & contributed in no small measure to its legendary status, including, also, an exhaustive chronicle of the facts of those sessions, lists of the bands who were invited to record them, the songs featured, dates transmitted, etc – a wealth of detail to delight those of us nostalgically prone to succumbing to fond memories of the intense musical passions inspired by Peel the man & the show, many of which have endured to this day & provided the template for an appreciation of all manner of artists & sounds.

In common with many a listener, it was my practice to listen to the Peel show with eager anticipation, a tape in the radio-cassette player, finger poised over the ‘Pause’ button in readiness to release it & record whatever delights might be broadcast on a particular night, & a selection of such cassettes have remained stored as precious relics of my own music-listening history: the specially-recorded sessions of course, featuring alternative renditions of familiar songs, differing from the versions available on vinyl or, later, CD, or those recorded uniquely for the Occasion (for that it oft was), are the jewels of the surviving collection &, for all that many of such recordings might subsequently have been granted an official release in whatever format, still those original tapes, as objects, containing the source material in what feels its purest form (however time-worn & diminished in sound quality), recorded as it was at the time of broadcast, have a special, priceless quality, a palpable, physical connection with those times.

It might also be opined that many a Peel session recording proved to be in some way superior to previous or subsequent recorded versions, the Cocteau Twins’ ‘Pepper Tree’ here providing an exemplary case in point, with the Peel version having a thrilling resonance & clarity to the guitar sound, imbuing the song with a tension & dynamic that was entirely absent on its official released incarnation, in languid form on the B-side of the band’s self-produced ‘Spangle Maker’ EP. Indeed, there remains a charm to this particular session, also including the prototypically titled ‘Whisht’ & ‘Peep Bo’ prior to their featuring in different guise, as ‘Beatrix’ & ‘Ivo’ on the ‘Treasure’ album.

In a most appropriate & poignant (for full nostalgic effect) piece of design, the contents page of the book features the list of chapters as they would be appear written of the spines of the card inlays of just such cassettes as I habitually used myself, mostly the TDK brand with an occasional Memorex or Sony, displaying subtle alterations in design as this aspect evolved down the years.

The book is also noteworthy for featuring this particular photograph of PJ Harvey, very much a Peel & show favourite, & of course a much-admired artist at TOoT, here looking very Sixties:

The Art of Not Being Boxed-in

An introduction today, via the duties of the workplace, to the work of the late Birgir Andresson, & specifically the artist's cut-out cardboard boxes of his 'Build' series, one of which is pictured in two views below:

Such an encounter brought a pleasant reminder of Leo Fitzmaurice's smaller scale 'de-texted' boxes in similar vein, examples of which, arranged on the floor to all appearances like the buildings of a model city, I was fortunate to see, & hear the artist himself discuss, in an exhibition at Liverpool's Bluecoat Gallery back in 2002. Below are illustrated a pair of the general type:

In both cases, the process of removing the lettering & logos that would identify their (former) contents, brand them, & communicate something particular through one language, transforms utilitarian objects into forms that might inspire a more imaginative, literally & figuratively open reading, such as drawing an architectural analogy to the remaining, redesigned structures, spaces to be explored & considered.

Fruitful Interlude

Today the opposite of tomato is 'works of art with a minimum of steel'

Presenting a one-off seasonal special today, rather than the habitual annual fruit-fest, as a pair of the available (just, given their ripening-to-mellowness condition) pears became resolved into a suitable composition for active contemplation through the process of drawing in graphite & watercolour.
As usual, the pears are arranged & seen in such proximity as to attempt to 'charge with energy' the space between in the manner ascribed by Andrew Forge to a particular composition of Euan Uglow's featuring a pair of pears (please refer to this archive blog post).


graphite & watercolour/30x21cm

Soundtrack:


Moon Wiring Club 'A Spare Tabby at the Cat's Wedding'
Bauhaus '1979 - 1983 Vols. 1 & 2'

There's something of the autumn that palpably informs the aesthetic of the Moon Wiring Club, rendering a listen to the goings-on of the denizens of Clinkskell all the more appropriate under the seasonal circumstances, although no such excuse is required, of course, such is TOoT’s attachment to the work of Mr Hodgson.

The re-acquaintance with the sounds (& iconography too) of Bauhaus is another matter altogether, however, with the whim to hear said music occurring what might be a good 25 years since the last aural engagement with what was a particular favourite band, back in the early Eighties (so much so, in fact, that they remain the only band I’ve seen live on as many as three occasions: the first, in fact, mentioned already in these parts, here, in relation to an appearance, also, by The Birthday Party, back in June of 1981).
An interesting experience to report, accompanied by the sense of knowing why one may have moved on from certain artists & their music, their sound, although not without a number of moments of pleasant recognition, of songs that do seem to have endured, that offer more than merely the indulgence or whatever of nostalgia (the revisiting, indeed, of specifically teenage passions: swinging the heartache of the loss of, perhaps? For all that, with the hindsight of experience, may be worth anyway…), more often than not because of their deviation from the norm of the signature aesthetic, which itself retains a certain attraction, if, possibly, preferably, in smaller doses than the two volumes of the retrospective somewhat indigestibly constitute.

Back to (Double) Black...

A grand day out indeed, this afternoon, as it concluded with the most delightful discovery, upon the surface of one of the back streets of Chester, of an example of what had become, over the course of the years & numerous documentings, TOoT's signature 'double black lines' road markings, formerly thought to have been consigned to the past (& another place) but brought vividly into the now in a new location.

In addition to both the sense of novelty & the renewing of acquaintance with a familiar subject, there is an exciting development too in the form in which these particular lines (corrective black over original yellow) appear - not mechanically applied like the previous examples, but, in numerous instances (these synechdocally suggesting the whole), quite obviously hand-made, altogether more 'painterly' as they record the passage through time & space of the brush in the dried marks of the discrete strokes.

As with the subject matter generally, the photographs taken thus picture mostly grey monochrome surfaces of a variety of tones & textures, apart from where, as in the first example below, some of the original yellow lines remain (as a compostional element, amongst others, of the whole):




The following corrections in particular - the sequence of images describing a course from left to right - display a wonderful, explicit brush-marked quality, applied, swiped at, mostly, diagonals to the horizontal of the underlying lines, the pale yellow of which is evident in traces beneath the black paint: such a process, as apparent, might well be considered to be a certain kind of 'action painting', such is the flurry of activity fixed in the form of the dried brush strokes.



In the following example, the evidence of the repaired road surface provides a further element of linear & compositional interest, with tonal & textural subtleties, at an angle to the double black lines. Also vividly apparent is the small section of yellow line left uncovered, uncorrected: what could such signify? Is it purely an aesthetic statement perhaps, devoid of any practical informational function?




By way of serendipity, the moments prior to the encounter with these double black lines had been spent having a welcome sit down in Waterstones', indulging in a relaxed & leisurely read of Bertrand Russell's 'In Praise of Idleness' in the Philosophy section, from the shelves of which A picked an edition of the 'Basic Writings' of Heidegger sporting the cover design illustrated below, with an image most appropriately of a tarmac-surfaced & paint-marked nature.


If ever there was an inducement, a sign indeed, to engage, after much procrastination & delay, with the ideas of Heidegger, which has been the intention for far too long now, then surely such must be it.

Cheese and Tomato

Something in particular caught my intrigued eye in the new, October issue of Art Review during a browse today, as, oft being a companion of tomato, it might, namely a reproduction of a photograph by Clare Strand of a cheese 'sculpture' made by her father.


Rather a coincidence this, following as it did the publication of a particular tomato-based story in a local newspaper earlier this week:


The perfect combination.

Thought Into Practice...

Today brought something of a development in relation to yesterday’s thoughts (or musings upon the lack of), & a welcome return to a session of drawing practice - not the intended active contemplation of a particular collection of seasonal objects (as has become customary during this month of the year) but, rather, others that presented a more compelling distraction during the course of making the decision where to draw.

The object matter then is, primarily, a table lantern with a translucent, frosted glass surround & some LED candle lights of a similar type, arranged upon a windowsill & observed, in the familiar if not exclusively habitual manner, contre jour.
The subject matter, of course, is the representation of a tonal study of the composition & the dialogue between the process of marks made with graphite pencils & putty eraser, of addition, accumulation & subtraction, exploring the subtleties of the transitions of tone between objects & 'tactile' space, of attempting to record what is seen in conditions of natural light - & the fluctuations, fading of - over the course of time.


graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm

What was observed was, essentially, an arrangement of simple geometrical shapes that in places & along edges, with the light from without/behind passing through their translucent forms, glowed a bright white, the drawing process thus involving erasure of the graphite marks forming the mid-toned ground back as far as possible, where appropriate, to the original white of the page.

Closely observed, the material substance & surface finish of the objects brought to mind very much the tracing paper, & overlaid accumulations of, used by Kees Goudzwaard in constructing the paper & masking tape models for his 1:1 scale painted representations of, which can thus be read as highly-realised & faithful still lifes of low-relief three dimensional objects, almost in the manner of trompe l'oeil, &/or also geometrical abstract compositions in the best traditions of Modernism.

Kees Goudzwaard: paper model for 'Transit' 2009

Kees Goudzwaard 'Transit' 2009
oil on canvas/120x90cm

Also pictured is a photograph of the objects originally intended to be studied & drawn, upon the rather wonderful retro coffee table & its closely-toned patterned surface: nice.





Soundtrack:


The Lilac Time 'The Lilac Time'
PJ Harvey 'Let England Shake'

Pause for Thought

The afternoon tea break at work today afforded the opportunity to have a brief browse at least through the latest, September 2011 issue of Modern Painters, including as it does an article on & also a Q&A with Richard Serra, during the latter of which he claims, on the subject of drawing & keeping sketchbooks, "For me seeing is a way of thinking, and drawing is my way of recording my thoughts", a philosophy that struck a mighty chord, such is the contemplative importance I've always attached to the process of looking & drawing, the activity of thought.

Does the lack of any drawing activity on my part then signify that I'm also not thinking...? And further to that, taking the Cartesian view, does that suggest that, not drawing, not thinking, therefore I am...not?

Picnic Time

Another documenting of objects found upon the road, just so, during a wander down a local country lane – not the usual ‘roadkilled’ aluminium cans on this unusual occasion, but, rather, an anomaly in the shape of some scattered jaffa cakes, somewhat out the context one might expect to encounter such, the first pair to be pictorially captured rather conveniently exhibiting the opposite sides of their forms (note the particularly aesthetic glossy chocolate topping, very much like the most luscious oil paint).



Then, returning to the more familiar ‘roadkill’ conceptual framework informing the found objects project (such as it is) in general, a third jaffa cake, existing apart from the previous pair & alone in its own space upon the road surface, appearing, we might say, a little ‘tyred’, displaying evidence of having been run over by a wheeled vehicle & consequently flattened down a little…



Also a fourth jaffa cake, still contained within one aspect of its packaging, a tube of orange cellophane, that, especially in the unusual context in which it was found, constitutes a most striking aesthetic object in itself, its colour providing a vivid contrast to the background of grass & tarmac upon which it lay.


Under the circumstances, one is very tempted to brew an accompanying pot of tea...

Brightening-up...

Presenting something of a 'painterly' post today, with the pictorial evidence of a mark of orange paint that appeared particularly flourescent against the grey of the kerbstone upon which it was made & the tarmac of the road surface, on a day of dull grey light, & which photographed in even more incandescently fiery fashion than it occurred to the naked eye, in the moment, a striking aesthetic effect.
Note also the inclusion of the painted arrow (or at least its uneroded remains) within the composition, giving the whole a certain dynamic, perhaps, & the inadvertent presence of the shoes of the 'gazer'...