Take Good Care Hina Khan

I recently put my head above the parapet to comment on the shooting by the Pakistani Taliban of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.  I've never wanted this blog to become a polemic for any particular point of view but sometimes you have to speak out, if only to maintain your own sanity.

Hina Khan, 14  (Image: Aljazeera)

For that reason, it's only fair to mention the ordeal of Hina Khan, - Malala's fellow teenage campaigner for female education.  Recent news reports indicate that she is now effectively a prisoner in her own home after threats by the same fanatical psychopaths.  This has included having a red X painted on the gates of her home.

The Gates Of Hina Khan's Home (Image: Al Jazeera)

This is not about criticising anyone else's culture or faith.  If you must follow a deity, it's none of my business.  I'm also aware that many people around the World feel indignation at the hypocrisy of the West.  Unfortunately, bullying is something else altogether.  Billions of people of all faiths and nationalities prove it's perfectly possible to praise their chosen God without threatening or attempting to murder schoolgirls.

Hina Khan With Her Mother (Photo: The Times/Robin Pagnamenta)

To the cowards behind these actions, - you only bring disgrace on yourself.  If there are valid reasons for denying girls the right to learn, then prove it through reasoned debate.  Until then,   these girls are braver than you'll ever be.

Forthcoming Exhibition: 'If A Picture Paints A Thousand Words Then Why Can't I Paint'

Please read this bit, even if you don't make it through the rest of the post...

Only A Few Minutes From The Station, - You Know
It Makes Sense...

I’ve alluded several times to my old doubts about maintaining creative momentum or producing work of any real value, (to me, at least).  It now feels like I really can put all that to bed and just get on with it into the long term.  I have no remaining doubts about painting as a valid mode of expression.  More importantly, I’m agonising less about my own work.  If a painting isn’t very good, I’d better just get on with the next one in the hope of solving any perceived problems.

Anyway, - enough with the navel gazing.  As the pile of completed paintings grows it seems only natural to look for opportunities to expose them to the world.  A while back I set myself the aspiration of exhibiting at least some work during my 50th year.  Pleasingly, that’s now reaching fruition and it feels like an important next step.  It must be getting serious, - I've even had a postcard made, (Thanks to my good mate and noted graphic designer David Weight for helping with that by the way).

Indigo Octagon is a small collective of West Midlands artists whose exhibition ‘If A Picture Paints A Thousand Words Then Why Can’t I Paint’ takes place @ The Works Gallery in Birmingham in November, (All details above and on the I.O. Facebook page).  Having had a little contact with I.O. member, Shaun Morris through his own artist’s blog I was really pleased to be invited to exhibit along with him, Chris Cowdrill, Craig Underhill and Andrew Smith, (sorry Andrew, - I couldn't find a link).  For myself, it was particularly gratifying to be invited on the strength of the work alone.

Shaun Morris, Oil On Canvas, 2012

Whilst it just goes to prove the power of all this online malarkey, it was still great to actually meet Shaun in person, when I went over to Birmingham to leave my paintings at his studio this week.  It was interesting to see his work in the studio, including one of his impressive Motorway paintings and some of the studies he produced during his recent Scandinavian expedition.  You can see examples of both in his recent blog posts.

Shaun Morris, Oil On Canvas, 2012

The opportunity to access artwork online cannot be underestimated but there really is no substitute for seeing it for real.  Please come and have a look for yourself next month and find out what all these thousands of words are really all about.

Oh, and I’m Tweeting now but that will only make sense if a few folk start following me.

Playlist 6

Abiding infatuations with Folk Rock, electronic sounds and music from my youth still dominate my current listening.  This month’s highlights included two pink things, a prince and the next stage of human evolution.

‘Espers III’, Espers

This is not as intense and inward looking as the majestic ‘Espers II’ but not much else is really.  There’s more light and air in these songs and, if that one evoked candle-lit stone chambers; this is more like a stroll through woods and meadows.  As before, these slow to medium paced pieces feature gorgeous melancholic folk melodies of a dying fall and Meg Baird’s tender vocals combine beautifully with layers of predominantly acoustic instrumentation.

Whereas songs on ‘II’ tended to climax in passages of acid meltdown, here the psychedelic element comes from fuzzy, distorted electric guitar runs threaded throughout each piece.  Reviewers habitually liken contemporary Acid Folk bands to Fairport Convention and it’s probably fair to say that, amongst their peers, Espers come closest to the spirit of that band in its prime.

‘The Marble Downs’, Trembling Bells & Bonnie Prince Billy

I can live without Will Oldham’s work as BPB but have a lot of time for Alt. Folk, improvising song wranglers - Trembling Bells.  Actually, this recent collaboration makes loads of sense.  If Espers epitomise grace and poise, The Bells can tend more towards the ramshackle, uproarious and declamatory.  Their ‘more is more’ aesthetic easily absorbs Oldham’s tuneless warbling and portentousness into a big, barmy stew.  Lavinia Blackwall’s vocal chops challenge him to raise his game in their duets whilst Alex Neilson’s song writing reaches new levels of frankness and eccentricity.

Although TB generally work out of a North Country folk idiom, often referring to hymns and brass bands, this album confirms that their wider project is to discover just what song as a form can get away with.

‘Wonky’, Orbital

Orbital, - Still Illuminating The Dance Floor

It seems that, of any musical interest group, the electronic/dance music constituency are least tolerant of any act deemed behind the cutting edge of fashion.  After their 90s heyday, Orbital fell foul of the apparent Moore’s Law of accelerating novelty and diversifying sub-genres dominating the field; making this year’s enjoyable comeback album ‘Wonky’ a brave move.

Despite clear intentions to claim contemporary relevance, the album is misnamed.  There’s little of the genuine off-centre wonky aesthetic that held sway a couple of years ago and reworking old favourite ‘Satan’ into the dubstepping ‘Beelzedub’ feels like an attempt to jump the last bandwagon but one.  The manic Dancehall style female vocal on the title track also feels like mere bolt-on street cred.  What are present, however, are the things Orbital did so well originally.  ‘Wonky’ has plenty of their trademark lush, complex, rave-friendly techno constructed from entwined layers of rhythm and melody.  If not a new blueprint, it’s still a joy.  ‘New France’ is a trancey tonic for anyone who remembers that brief period when smiles ruled the dance floor.

‘Pink’, Four Tet

Prolific laptop maestro Keiran Hebden’s back catalogue includes work with the band Fridge and collaborations with Jazz drummer Steve Reid and Burial amongst others.  This latest bulletin under his solo Four Tet alias continues his recent move away from the hideously labelled ‘folktronic’ style toward a more dance-orientated sound.  Actually, it’s a compilation of twelve-inch releases from the last two years but works fine as an extended listen.  There is an increased functionality to these rhythms but Hebden can still make programmed music sound warmly hand crafted and incorporates plenty of his favourite chimes and woody percussion.  ‘Pinnacles’ is built around a jazz sample whilst a track entitled ‘128 Harps’ will come as no surprise to Four Tet connoisseurs.

‘Ringer EP’, Four Tet

Kieran Hebden, Aka Four Tet

Here’s where Kieran Hebden’s progression towards the dance floor first became apparent in 2008. These four tracks are his most Techno releases and possibly his best work.  With a cleaner, more polished sound than we’re used to; they refer to the ambient tradition, Kosmische sounds and glitchy minimalism by turns.  I have an impression of light dancing on water and moments of sheer limpid beauty whilst listening to them.

‘The Tomorrow People Theme’, Dudley Simpson

‘The Tomorrow People’ was a sort of ITV youth rival to ‘Doctor Who’ and a favourite show of my early teenage years.  The acting was terrible and the budget apparently very low, but I loved its weird futurism and 70s grooviness.  It had a great title sequence with a synthesized theme second only to The Doctor’s own in my view.  This kind of stuff tends to be appreciated by enthusiasts of the Ghost Box and Trunk labels and all things hauntological.


'Here's Little Richard', Little Richard

The Artist Still Known As Little Richard

You don’t need me to tell you this is great, do you?  Recorded in 1957, it includes ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘Long Tall Sally’ and proves that everything we ever really needed from Rock & Roll was there from the get-go.

‘Careful With That Axe Eugene’, Pink Floyd

We’re so used to associating Pink Floyd with huge spectacles, epic internal schisms and a license to print money, that it’s easy to forget how pioneering they once were, - and how high their standards.  This is what happens when middle class white boys get right out there.  There are various recorded incarnations of ‘CWTAE’ but I always return to a clip of them doing it live in 1973.  It’s full of atmospheric tension, Waters sounds downright psychotic and the old cigarette in the strings stunt and oversized Perspex drum kit just add to the magic.  That's a perfect title too.

‘Procol Harum’, Procol Harum

Procol Harum.  You Just Couldn't Get Away with This Today

Richard Wright’s keyboard work was a vital component of early Pink Floyd and hearing it reminded me of this other band of the period with a terrific organ sound.  It’s all over Procol Harum’s eponymous first album and, of course, ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’, - the debut single that made their name.  Although it’s totally over-played, I still love that particular anthem and it’s now packaged on the re-release of the ‘PH’, as is the equally stately ‘Homburg’.

That neither single was originally included speaks both of the band’s song writing confidence and the importance of stand-alone singles in the late 60s.  The album itself is full of good stuff and demonstrates that their range included bluesy guitar work, and concert party pastiche as well as the arty solemnity they’re usually remembered for.

‘Trio Sonatas For Organ’, J.S. Bach (Performed By Robert Quinney)

Johann Sebastian Pulls Out The Stops

After all that proggy organ work it seemed only right to revisit a possible source.  Certainly, Procol Harum openly constructed ‘AWSOP’ around a piece by Bach and many of their contemporaries had at least a modicum of classical training.  Bach’s organ pieces sometimes sound a bit flashy and bombastic but these are far more reflective.  I generally prefer Baroque music to that of the Classical or Romantic periods and while Bach is sometimes disparaged for imposing Equal Temperament and a sense of order on Western music, I always respond to the formal architecture of his compositions.

Painting In Preparation: 'Shut 2'

'Shut 1', 2012

Things slowed up again slightly with my paintings since I completed ‘Shut 1’ a few weeks ago.  Any loss of momentum can unnerve me because of my old habit of losing heart with my work, stopping altogether, then eventually trying to make a completely fresh start each time.  Pleasingly, this process of self-sabotage seems to be a thing of the past now and I have a clearer sense of the whole process as a larger ongoing activity.  Slowing no longer has to mean stopping and it’s easier to rationalise the times when taking care of other business, or just succumbing to yet another school-borne virus, snarl things up temporarily.

Study For 'Shut 2', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Paper,
60 cm X 45 cm, 2012

Anyway, though it’s taken a while, I have a clear idea for the next painting in development and am close to the point of buying the wood, building the panel and getting stuck into the early bread and butter stages.  Last year’s tendency for paintings to jump straight out of a well-resolved sketchbook study has become slightly extended this year and ideas are now evolving through larger, paper-based pieces also.  It’s something else that slows things a little but, hopefully, deepens my investigation too.

  

The piece will constitute the next step in the ‘Closed’/’Shut’ series that has occupied most of this year.  Once again the composition and any vestigial remnants of subject will derive from my reference photos of industrial shutters.  The source is actually the same shutter that seeded ‘Shut 1’ but it takes on a completely new character through a closer viewpoint, - resulting in an asymmetrical, less regular composition of vertical bands this time.

'Together 1', 2011

This painting will also lack the conscious ‘all-overness’ of previous shutter paintings, focussing more on the distribution of differentiated individual motifs across the picture plane.  This reflects the increased visual importance of the elements of door furniture, graffiti and surface detail in the photos.  The collaging together of discrete elements feels like a little closer to the approach I used to compose certain paintings last year, - ‘Together 1’ in particular.

It also relates to my interest in Fiona Rae’s painting.  I’ve had a reproduction of one of her pieces pinned up for a long time now and keep harking back to the way she incorporates multiple characters, symbols and appropriated motifs into nominally abstract compositions.  I find it most appealing when such elements are scattered with clarity across a relatively open field and like the kitsch, Pop aspects of her work.  That is something that’s beginning to creep slightly into ‘Shut 2’.

Fiona Rae, 'Ringworld', Oil, Acrylic & Glitter
On Canvas, 2001

Fiona Rae, 'Moonlight Bunny Ranch',
Oil & Acrylic On Canvas, 2012

Fiona Rae, 'Rodeo', Oil, Acrylic & Glitter
On Canvas, 2001

As with the Paul Morrison pieces I saw last week, Rae’s work clearly shows the importance of digital graphics software in its construction. The relatively low-tech collages she uses to develop ideas also please me.  Those have a real glam factor with sequins, glitter, butterflies flowers and feathers all vying for attention.  It’s great to see Rae knowingly embrace such a girly aesthetic, whilst operating as a serious, grown-up painter of real relevance.

Fiona Rae, 'Untitled (Tokyo Popeyes With Japanese
 Paper)', Mixed Media On paper, 2004

Fiona Rae, 'Untitled (Value Coordinate No.1 With
Architect Grass)', Mixed Media On Paper, 2005

Get Well Soon Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai (Photo: Veronique De Viguene / Getty Images)

I really enjoy writing this blog but there’s no denying it’s a relative self-indulgence, being built around my own creative practice, attempts at cultural critique and vague musings on this and that.  I’m aware there are online diarists whose lives are full of much harsher realities than mine, and for whom claiming the right to free expression can result in real jeopardy.

Malala Yousafzai, Amnesty International Campaign

Like people of all nationalities and faiths, (or, indeed, no faith), I was appalled to hear of the shooting of Malala Yousafzai by the Pakistani Taliban.  I earn my daily bread working in a co-educational and very multi-cultural state school and it’s pretty easy to take universal access to a basic education for granted.  Therefore, it’s mind boggling to think that a teenage girl might be shot in the head for having the temerity to campaign for the same fundamental right elsewhere.  I won’t pretend to have real insight into Malala’s circumstances or cultural background but that’s just plain despicable, - wherever you're from.  It needs to be said.

Malala, In Hospital In Birmingham (Photo: Reuters)

It’s heartening to hear today’s reports that Malala may make a gradual recovery and one can only hope some degree of security can be found for her in the future.  Certainly, she’s already shown more bravery in the face of bigotry and hatred than most of us ever will.

So, from one blogger to another, - get well soon Malala.

Lunchtime Fountains & The Smears of Gerhard Richter

Here are some photos I took on the school trip to Sheffield I mentioned in my last post.  During our lunch break the majority of our party wandered out into the Peace Gardens by the Town Hall, with its contemporary fountains and water features.  Such things are fairly standard in urban public spaces these days but it would be foolish to deny the eternal fascination of cascading water.

The main example is simple in conception, - comprising a series of vertical jets arranged within a shallow, circular, mosaic-patterned depression in the paving.  A cyclical control system causes the waterspouts to vary in scale from below knee high to several metres tall with exciting effects.  Despite the chilly, overcast conditions the fountains were a powerful draw and I began trying to freeze the patterns of tumbling water with my camera shutter.

Our students became increasingly intrigued too and posing in front of the fountains for phone-photos quickly evolved into good old fashioned water play.  Putting hands over the low jets in anticipation of the sudden surge quickly gave way to dares to stand amidst the jets then to run through without getting drenched.  It was all pretty innocent and amusing to watch how willingly a bunch of apparently streetwise, fashion conscious teenagers will temporarily revert back a couple of years if the opportunity arises.

My images are apropos of nothing in particular and don’t relate to anything in my current painting apart from an interest in the compositional possibilities of parallel verticals.  However, whilst manipulating them I began to make visual connections with Gerhard Richter’s paint-smearing techniques and particularly his over painted photographs.  The portions of the background environment visible through foreground curtains of white water reminds me of how Richter will arbitrarily deface photos with a layer of completely alternative visual reality.

Gerhard Richter, 'Grat (Ridge) 2', Oil On Canvas, 1989

Gerhard Richter, 'Abstraktes Bild (Abstract Painting)', Oil On Canvas, 1995

Gerhard Richter, 'Ohne Titel (Untitled) 27.07.94', Oil On Photograph, 1994

Gerhard Richter, 'Ohne Titel (Untitled), 02.04.08', Oil On Photograph

This simple strategy actually stimulates intriguing comparisons between different imaging systems and their relative materiality.  In that respect there may also be some link with the work of Paul Morrison that we were viewing a few minutes earlier. 

Paul Morrison, 'Ice Castle',  Acrylic On Paper, 2007

Paul Morrison: 'Auctorum' (Our Day In Sheffield)

Paul Morrison, 'Stipe', Acrylic On Gallery Wall, 2012

I haven’t been to many exhibitions this year so was pleased, last week, to accompany a trip to Sheffield galleries with GCSE Art students from the school where I work.  We visited the Millennium and Graves Galleries and the day was a great success.  Dispiritingly, these school trips can become largely about risk assessment, crowd management and explanations of why we can’t just spend the day in KFC, but our students seemed engaged with much of the work on display and I discovered the impressive work of Paul Morrison, - a new artist to me.

Paul Morrison, 'Rhexia',  Lino Cut, 2011

Paul Morrison, 'Anarcardium', Gold Leaf & Acrylic On Linen, 2011

Morrison enjoys an international reputation but his Millennium show; ‘Auctorum’ is the first in his hometown.  It features paintings, drawings, sculpture, film and one large, site-specific work painted directly onto the wall.  His method involves sampling graphic motifs from disparate historical and stylistic traditions.  These include high art, pop and illustrative sources which are digitally unified into perplexing composite images, often evoking fictitious landscapes.  The resulting drawings, prints and paintings are rendered with graphic boldness, usually in black and white but sometimes in gold or silver too.

Paul Morrison, 'Tropopause', Acrylic On Linen, 2012

   

Initially, these works could be categorized as merely decorative, but I find they have strong philosophical dimensions and considerable tension through their conflicting pictorial conventions and scalar manipulations.  Juxtaposed motifs are skilfully organised to create illusionistic depth but maintain a hallucinatory quality and ‘Alice In Wonderland’ viewpoint through the dramatic magnification of botanical foreground elements.  The sense of bizarre impossibility feeds further from the lack of any atmospheric aerial perspective and ‘cool’ overall rendering of unrelated elements.

Paul Morrison, 'Anthonaxthum', Acrylic On Linen, 2007

Morrison’s relationship to figuration generally, and landscape in particular, directly opposes John Ruskin’s search for truth through observation of the specific. 

‘Ruskin’s aim was to eschew conventionalized landscape painting and, “insist on the necessity, as well as the dignity, of an earnest, faithful, loving study of nature as she is, rejecting with abhorrence all that man has done to alter and modify her”’ [1.]

John Ruskin, 'Waterfall At Brantwood', Watercolour

This is ironic as the Millenium also contains a permanent display devoted to Ruskin.  Instead, we’re brought to the realisation that our perception of reality is actually shaped by the generalised formal systems we have constructed to depict it.  The varying degrees of synthesis implicit in his diverse stylistic vocabulary stimulate a philosophical investigation into our coding and mediation of visual information.

‘In the worlds Morrison cobbles together, Ruskin’s damning label of “combinations whose highest praise is that they are impossible” becomes a badge of the highest order.’ [2.]

Such concepts are rather beyond GCSE level but many of our students responded positively to Morrison’s work, on a visual level at least.

Paul Morrison, 'Untitled 11', Screenprint, 2002

After lunch we visited the nearby Graves Gallery and I was reacquainted with one of my favourite regional collections.  For me, the highlights include a Sickert, two Auerbachs and a terrific Harold Gillman.  You could teach an entire module on colour theory from that last one.

Richard W. Sickert, 'L'Hotel Royal, Dieppe, France',  Oil On Canvas, 1894

Frank Auerbach, 'Looking Towards Mornington Crescent - Night',
Oil On Canvas, 1972-73

Frank Auerbach, 'Head of JYM'  Oil On Canvas, 1973

Harold Gilman, 'An Eating House', Oil On Canvas, 1913-14

I like the way Sheffield redeveloped its cultural quarter and linked its galleries, theatres and public squares together with the tropical Winter Garden. It was depressing to hear that spending cuts will soon remove all the Millennium Gallery’s public funding and one can only hope that some way to keep it going can be found.

Millennium Gallery, Sheffield

Winter Garden, Sheffield

[1.] & [2.]:  Christopher Miles, 'Black & White And Brilliant All Over: Paul Morrison's Pastiche Pastoral' In 'Paul Morrison' (Exhibition Catalogue), Las Vegas, Las Vegas Art Museum, 2008