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'

Creasing Up...

Courtesy of the workplace access to particular resources, in this case the handful of visual arts journals to which are subscribed, the freshly-arrived March (& 100th) issue of ‘Art of England’ includes a most interesting feature on the latest work by Mat Collishaw, soon to be exhibited at Blain|Southern in London.
‘This is Not an Exit’ features oil paintings based upon the source material of folded scraps of paper, torn from ‘lifestyle’ publications, such objects then lit & photographed to provide the visual references to be enlarged greatly in scale for the execution of the paintings. The subject of the paintings is the void experienced post-cocaine ‘hit’, the folded papers being in fact used as cocaine wrappers (which apparently have their own particular geometry of folds in order to function effectively as packages), but it’s this folded paper object, referencing our old friend the modernist grid of course, with subtle & more dramatic tonal shifts, represented as two dimensional surface, especially via the medium of oil paint, that particularly interests me, as does Collishaw originally finding inspiration in the form of a folded rail ticket, relating as this does to my own explorations of folded & lightly crumpled pieces of paper, primarily in/for themselves but initially also incorporating printed imagery, in a small series of drawings made during October & November 2010, with a further couple of examples from last January.

Also recently featured in ‘Art of England’ (the January edition) was Keith Coventry & his latest ‘Junk Paintings’, their ‘readymade’ formal imagery sourced from found discarded flattened McDonald’s packaging, with its branded identity consequently reconfigured, thus relating in some way(s) (at least as source subject-object matter) to the so-called ‘readymade Cubism’ of those found ‘roadkill’ aluminium drinks cans I formerly collected & drew from for some considerable time during 2009 & 2010 & which led, eventually, coincidentally, to the drawings of crumpled paper sheets.

World Cup '74 #10 (Vicente Pernia)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Continuing with the current World Cup ’74 ‘hauntological’ project, this drawing is another to take as its original source (then undergoing various digital procedures of scanning & size manipulation before emerging as an A4 print that serves as the immediate physical reference) a ‘stamp’ taken from the FKS-published collectors’ album ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’.

Via the drawing process (that itself is the subject), the portrait subject that coalesces within the matrix of toned graphite squares, in a representation of the pixelated print, is on this occasion Vicente Pernia, another of those players selected for inclusion in the FKS album but, subsequently, not actually the final Argentina squad for the tournament, thus establishing a particularly ‘ghostly’ & peripheral relationship with the 1974 World Cup, hazier even than my own memories.

Soundtrack:

Moon Wiring Club ‘Today Bread, Tomorrow Secrets’ & ‘A Spare Tabby at the Cat’s Wedding’ LPs

A first listen to the new Moon Wiring Club LP release of ‘Today Bread, Tomorrow Secrets’, having already sampled the related CD issue, most atmospherically ‘soundtracky’ in its nature, jolly good accompaniment to both the contemplative drawing process & the snow scene outside, & a rare & long-overdue outing for the vinyl version of ‘A Spare Tabby at the Cat’s Wedding’, stonkingly good & a worthy companion to the CD of the album, both played on our rather lovely old 1960s’ vintage Ferguson record player which itself seems to be enjoying its relocation to our new Sixties-built bungalow.

World Cup '74 #9 (Ramon Heredia)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Sometimes a drawing as it appears, in itself &, as here, on screen, simply can’t even begin to hint at what’s been going on behind (the scenes), the circumstances that have played out during the course of its processing. And, rather than signifying a failure to communicate, to express, sometimes that’s not necessarily a bad thing, that art can serve as the anchor in a veritable sea of changeable events, as is & has been the case in this particular instance.

Whatever, & being the latest in the ongoing World Cup ’74 series, the grid structure of graphite-toned squares that this drawing presents, in the now-familiar manner as that has developed, manages, as otherwise blank façade, to conceal not least the physical relocation (eventually) of the operations of both TOoT & Faire-la-Bise, to a place where rather attractive studio space & light is available. This being the case, the drawing was actually processed in no fewer than three separate locations, also including a session at the site of TOoT’s original physical base in addition to the new & previous ones (where it began life).

What the drawing represents, re-mediated & de-photographized via the drawing process, is an A4 monochrome print of a scanned & digitally manipulated image of an original sticker from the FKS collectors’ album ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’, featuring, as its particular subject, Ramon Heredia of the Argentina squad as proposed by that publication &, it transpired, as actually selected for the tournament, during which he played in all six of his country’s matches & scored the first of their goals, in the 2 – 3 defeat to Poland. Prior to the World Cup, Heredia had very recently featured for his Spanish club, Atletico Madrid, in both of their matches against Bayern Munich in the European Cup Final & its replay which, alas, resulted in a 0 – 4 defeat.

Soundtrack:

The Triffids ‘In the Pines’
Broadcast ‘Haha Sound’
Vic Godard & Subway Sect 'We Come As Aliens'
Moon Wiring Club ‘Today Bread, Tomorrow Secrets’ (CD)

World Cup '74 #8 (Carlos Guerini)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Drawing up to the very cusp of the festive season with the latest in the series based upon original source material taken from the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ & Panini ‘Munchen 74’ albums of collectable stamps/stickers issued to mark the advent of & celebrate the 1974 football World Cup.

The subject of the original picture stamp now represented in the somewhat distanced ‘pixelated’ form of the toned squares of the grid structure is one Carlos Guerini, who, research reveals, did not actually make the cut of the final Argentina squad for the tournament & thus, in the context of the hauntological proceedings of the Project, has a suitably ghostly presence in relation to the 1974 World Cup.

World Cup '74 #7 (Enrique Chazarreta)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

With all justificatory explanation as previously, this drawing is the latest to be processed in the project exploring a hauntological representation of the 1974 football World Cup.

In formal terms, it further establishes/entrenches the commitment to the modernist grid, with a distinct portrait subject forming from the matrix of toned squares as they accumulate & coalesce, being on this occasion, Enrique Chazarreta of the Argentinian squad, another name previously unknown to me from hazy, mostly generalized recollections of the event, hence the monochrome representation.

Research reveals that, in addition to being selected to appear in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ stamp album from which the original image upon which the drawing is based is sourced, Chazarreta made one brief appearance at the tournament itself, as a 78th minute substitute during Argentina’s second First Round group match , a 1 – 1 draw with Italy.