"I GROW OLD... I GROW OLD...I SHALL WEAR THE BOTTOMS OF MY TROUSERS ROLLED"

- T.S. Elliot, The Love Song of Alfred J. Prucock

Just a couple of lines that have been stuck in my head for a few weeks, that I find quite amusing, and coincide with some research that i'm embarking upon about aging, immortality, posterity and monuments.

Hearing about the Easter Island heads again on South Pacific this week sort of fit into this idea for a project stemming from the phrase Bigger than Death, which I stole and twisted from the film 24 Hour Party People (When Martin Hannett's coffin won't fit in his grave, Tony Wilson remarks that he was "too big for death"). I wonder if the size of structures like the Easter Island statues or skyscrapers or Tatlin's Tower have behind their creation some idea that the bigger things are, the more permanent they will be; living on beyond the physical life of the maker.

I remembered something else today that i'd almost forgotten about completely. A couple of months back, Will and I were at the V&A marveling at some Japanese Netsuke; traditional 'toggles' for pouches, and carved from wood or ivory. They range from beautifully simple to the most intricately-detailed specimens, and are well worth a look...i need to have another think about how to get these into my work. Maybe i'll make some of my own.

Also, next week I should be resuming the recording of an album i'm making under the moniker Glaciers. I have decided to make a track available for download here, it's only about 40 seconds long and it's not mixed or anything. Just wanted to put something up as an idea of what it might become...

The project with Thoughtful is looking promising, as Will has mentioned. Can't wait to get started on it actually, but before that we have his Morphic Resonance book to finish, which hopefully will look rather nice. It feels good to be designing around a self-initiated project as a group, and physically moving around bits of paper to make a book. Simple pleasures. 

One website mention here. I only just got round to having a proper look at Modele Puissance's work. Lots to see. Bon choses.

To finish, I wanted to put up a short text I wrote. I used this as a basis for the work I put in our Heavy Bones show at Analogue in Edinburgh, and if I can't make any better ones I may publish this as an illustrated book at some point. but for anyone who saw the work in the show, it's from this...

The Damming (of the Beard River)

After they had eaten their fill and

After they had danced and

After their swollen bellies were quiet,

They took out their knives

And every barber was sent for.

They came with clippers, scissors and pomade,

And turkish razors with steely blades.

And proceeded to shave.

The forest howled and moaned,

The wind chimes in the trees played atonal sounds

The Beard River crashed and thundered.

And then the wind rushed in

And displaced the barbers' slicked-back hair.

Blew down the trees,

Ripped off the leaves,

And tore the houses

From their eaves...

And In the confusion they shaved themselves

And woke up bare.

A bientot...

OR,
OF COURSE,
POSSIBLY NOT.

Hello Thursday..!

I thought i'd carry on with the format set by Will of beginning with a short piece of found text. This one is a quote from a character in a PG Wodehouse novel...

Anyway, this week I have also found 'South Pacific' fascinating, and the first episode is probably the best thing I have ever seen. But it has already been discussed so I won't go into that too much. Something else that was quite interesting was 'Meet the British' on BBC 4; lots of previously unseen (in this country) archive footage of government films made to foster good relations with the rest of the world, and to show people what Britain was like. I was especially moved by the description of microwaving (in a restaurant kitchen!) that stated, "it's rather like boiling something from the inside, in its own natural juices". Pretty spot on, but makes you regret all those microwave dinners. The brilliant footage was somewhat marred by the horrible titles, but still very entertaining.

Things I have found interesting recently:

The Smithsonian Archives - a huge collection of online images of artists related to the Smithsonian Institute

Cabinet Magazine - if you're not familiar with this, an extremely interesting periodical which is worth subscribing to. It's not about cabinets either...

The Russian Linesman - Mark Wallinger's exhibition came to Leeds a couple of weeks ago. Awesome. One of the things that worries me about the internet is that there is so much information out there it's almost enough to overwhelm you and to make you give up before you start researching anything (well to me anyway). What I like about Wallinger's curation, and Cabinet's for that matter, is that information is presented and connected in really intriguing ways. Curating information is pretty important with so much to look at.

Other things I am looking at: Jaako Pallasvuo does lots of good things. Julia Selin makes a huge speaker out of a cone...

If You Could Collaborate - My friend Julien Vallee asked me to become involved in the 'If You Could' exhibition taking place in January next year. We're basing our idea on this

And Finally. If i've not bored you enough already, some sketches and things I am going to be doing.

Also planning to make a series of left and right-eyed drawings called Stereoscopes...

Really finally...I liked this seemingly casual statement about art i found on a design competition website (incheon)...seems to resonate with my idea of contemporary art and design, and the sometimes over-dependence on concept.

"It's not the idea which is the art,
It's more the way somebody handles the idea that makes art."

Don't Miss Today

This is the first of my wednesday posts where I intend to sum up my week, give thoughts and plan out the coming week and post things that have been of interest to myself,

So here goes:






















Don't miss today comes from a poster on an 'A' board outside the Merrion Market in Leeds. I believe the actual purpose was to promote a sale on cigarettes at a shop inside the market, but the ambiguous sentiment it offers is a good one, and the more specific 'Don't miss Thursday, Friday and Saturday' is one for those who like to live for the weekend.
















It is an odd thing to simply post up what you find fascinating. I am choosing to post them here as memorandum for myself, to hopefully inspire others and give an insight into and some point of reference for my new drawings and thoughts:

• Andy Goldsworthy - Always astounds me by his gentleness, thoughtfulness, simplicity and sheer beauty of his work. Often belittled by people because of his sometimes over niceness, I think this scares a lot of 'artists', that someone can make such truly honest work that is simply derived from a sheer passion from the awe of nature.
  
• Colophons - Beautiful little logos from publishers.
  
• Roma Publications - Very nice looking books
  
• Zak Kyes - Always challenging and exciting work.
  
• Lehni-Trueb - Strong idiosyncratic but true design and a very honourable DIY ethos.
  

The BBC natural history series South Pacific has been one of the best things I have seen on television all year. the BBC have not made as much of a song and dance about it as they did with Planet Earth but it is truly incredible. Humbling to think of the awesome power the earth and nature still holds over some parts of this planet. Islands where humans simply cannot survive but other animals have evolved to make them their home, islands that are growing and shrinking constantly. It brings into question the relatively modern idea of humans as holders of some sort of dominion over the world and it's inhabitants, as clearly we are just as susceptible to the power of nature as any other animal, in these climbs, even more so.

I am beginning work on (potentially) a couple of zines, one based on the archive and work of Andy Goldsworthy (as mentioned above) and bits of text and images pulled from an old illustrated children's encyclopedia. This follows a bit of 'down time' personally where, for the first time in a while, I have no large scale projects to be working on and I am returning to the exciting world of sketchbooks and drawing to explore. I find the world of the encyclopedia totally absorbing. In a way drawing mirrors this process, of trying to work things out and structure the world, then to disseminate and pick elements at random, parts that say something to you individually, it is this focus and telescopic selection process that makes us different and hopefully makes my work worth looking at.























































Some writing:
'Pockets Are Funny Things To Have'
pocket |ˈpäkət|
noun
1 a small bag sewn into or on clothing so as to form part of it, used for carrying small articles.
I never would have considered a pocket to be a bag, a pocket is exclusive, specific to a trouser, a shirt or a jacket. You can have pockets in a bag. Many people have bags for bags. Bags of bags. In cupboards, in kitchens, under sinks. Pockets can sculpt, a gift bags are bereft of. To leave a tissue in the bottom of a pocket during washing is to cast the recess, a positive of the negative space. The cast is not exclusive. The space and shape is free of the trouser, suddenly able to move at will, although sadly without assistance it will move further than the pocket, it's creator, it's maker. It is a piece of moulded, hardened tissue and cannot move. The pocket is sown into the trouser and holds this book, and the book contains words relating to the tissue and the pocket, reuniting them, but the book is able to move further still. To different pockets! Telling the tale of the tissue, cast in a pocket, the shape of a cloud, cumulous nimbus, with a face and eyes and a silver pin and made into a badge. No longer attached to the trouser but still connected to clothing, reliant on it for movement. Not like a real cloud.

The book learns from other pockets, travels with them, talks to them, feels them, sometimes moulds itslef a little to the,, gets inside the. The bag is all but forgotten, it cannot sculpt, be pinned to clothing, learn from trousers or move like a cloud, but it can carry all these things.

Bag wins in the end