Richard III & The Greyfriars Project 2: Public Open Day

I’ve already mentioned the current collaboration between Leicester University archaeologists and The Richard III Society in The Greyfriars Project, currently happening up the road from here.  As their news updates reveal, the project is already considered a success and has been extended for a third week.  They opened the site to the public this weekend so I strolled along to have a look.

I was pleased to see loads of folks there, even if it meant queuing.  The project has obviously captured the local public imagination, - revealing how clever it was to publicise it as a search for King Richard rather than just the Greyfriars Friary.  I was amused to see that the world of ‘merch’ has reached the archaeological fraternity with tee shirts and cheesy white Yorkist roses on sale, albeit with a fairly soft sell.

The archaeologists actually involved in the dig led the well-organised tour and, consequently, their commentary was knowledgeable and our questions received detailed answers.  As well as descriptions of what we were looking at in their trenches, there were interesting insights into the practical realities of carrying out such a dig in the heart of a city.  Whilst they enjoy fortunate free access to a council-owned space, it’s revealing that the only real value of the ‘geo-phys’, (beloved of Tony and The ‘Time Team’ Gang), was in showing the network of hidden drains and cables to be avoided.  In the event, the first trench just went in where it could and, luckily, struck just enough medieval masonry for a picture of the Friary’s ground plan to begin to emerge.

Sections of Corridor Walls In Trench 2

Impressions Of Floor Tiles In Trench 2

Fragment of Cloister Masonry In Trench 2

  

As usual, what to the layperson resembles a few ghost impressions in the earth and the odd architectural fragment provides the experts with a wealth of information.  As things stand, the shape and extent of the Friary Church is appearing with the more recent trenches revealing evidence of the chapter house and main body of the building.  Amongst the artefacts on display were fragments of a gothic window, (possibly from the east end of the Church), decorative tiles, coins of the period but no royal skeletons.

Fragments Of Chapter House Masonry In Trench 1

Window Fragments From East End of Church 

It seemed the prospect of finding Richard was less important to the archaeologists than the knowledge they’re gaining about the Friary itself.  His actual tomb might be located under neighbouring private property or have been destroyed by the excavation of cellars under adjacent  buildings.  The newest trench, in the currently unused plot next to the main site, has revealed evidence of Alderman Robert Herrick’s 17th Century garden where a memorial pillar to Richard once stood.  Most prosaically, he might even lie beneath the Victorian wall now separating the plots.

Trench 3 In Adjacent Plot, Containing Evidence of Herrick's Garden 

Their diffidence might be a defence against anticipated disappointment, evidence of differing agendas amongst the project partners or just of the role of the University's PR dept. in the whole process.  It’s possible that, whatever is added to the knowledge base, Richard III may remain a figure of folklore and imagination and his memory a tool for vested interests.

University Of Leicester

Richard III Society

I walked home from Greyfriars via Highcross Street.  Here once stood the Blue Boar Inn where Richard reputedly spent his last night before the Battle of Bosworth.  Amusingly, a Travelodge now occupies the site but a tidy little pub on the same street commemorates his name.

The Travelodge From Highcross Street

Richard III Stayed Here, (Sort Of)...

But Not Here

Completed Painting: 'Shut 1'

Summer flew by.  We’re back to school and there’s an autumnal nip in the morning air already.  I had half planned various trips over the break but none of them actually happened.  That was partly due to the poor state of my arthritic knees discouraging me from walking very far but, more positively, because I got stuck into an ambitious painting that I was determined to complete before the day job kicked back in.  Pleasingly, I made it under the wire and, though I say it as shouldn’t, it's pretty successful.  Actually, I think it’s the strongest thing I’ve done this year.

'Shut 1', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Two Adjoining Panels,
150 cm X 100 cm, 2012

‘Shut 1’ relates to my two previous ‘Closed’ paintings and is a partial distillation of some of their themes and motifs.  I’ve already discussed my fascination with images of closed industrial shutters and the possible meanings they suggest and composition schemes they inspire.   The source images for ‘Shut 1’ share the same parallel vertical divisions with broad sections being interspersed with alternate narrow hinge strips and simple linear junctions, but lack the punctuating door furniture, locks, or obvious damage included previously.  Vertical divisions aside, the only modulation of their essential blankness comes from the ghost of a previous paint colour showing through the dirty white topcoat and some spare, partially obliterated graffiti characters.

Industrial Shutter, Central Leicester, 2012

It seemed a great opportunity to have another go at creating something essentially blank but simultaneously full of subtle visual incident.  I’ve also discussed my interest in formal all-over abstraction and the modern tradition of the white painting before.  I wanted to move back into that territory but preserve the continuity of recent paintings.

Study For 'Shut 1', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Paper,
60 cm X 45 cm, 2012

Study For 'Shut 1', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Paper,
60 cm X 45 cm, 2012

Instead of working straight from a small sketchbook study, I took the time to produce several larger paper-based studies from which the final piece developed. It features more passages of definite colour and fragmented text characters than originally envisaged, but through its expanded scale, still seems to retain a sense of relative off-white emptiness, (an impression that is somewhat lost when colour and detail are concentrated in these photographs).  The dichotomy between something and nothing gets me every time.

Study For 'Shut 1', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Paper,
60 cm X 40 cm, 2012

Study For 'Shut 1', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Paper,
60 cm X 40 cm, 2012

As usual, the surface of the actual painting was laboriously built from multiple layers of paper, PVA and acrylic paint.  This can take ages but, at a certain point, always becomes really enjoyable.  Increasingly, I’m incorporating fragments of actual reclaimed posters into this process, - something that occurred to me after my New Year’s Day walk/post.  The printer’s dots evident in them inspired the emerging passages of repeat spot pattern in the painting.  I created them with adhesive labels and now wonder if they’re equally like the perforations of security shutters.  My intention was that these, along with various text elements, should float across the surface like ideas rather than appearing to physically exist on a particular plane.

It’s worth mentioning that the painting actually comprises two identical tall panels bolted together along their vertical edges.  I liked the logic of incorporating an actual physical junction formally, but also because splitting it's the only way to get it down my stairs!

Richard III & The Greyfriars Project I

Artist Unknown, 'Richard III'

Leicester is often used to epitomise the boring or unexciting.  Yet, I’m always surprised by how much colourful history lies on, or just below, the surface near my home.  My photos of Leicester’s New Street show a moderately attractive, largely overlooked lane in Leicester’s modest legal quarter.  However, the City Council car park behind those unremarkable green gates, (this is Leicester, after all), is currently the site of a significant archaeological excavation of The Greyfriars Friary that might just uncover the lost remains of Richard III.

The Greyfriars Project is a joint enterprise between Leicester University Archaeological Services and The Richard III Society, - those indefatigable defenders of his reputation.  It draws on the latest evidence about the location of the lost monastic church where Richard’s grave was supposedly situated.  The impressive team assembled includes military, medical and genetic expertise alongside the archaeologists.  The project’s instigation by Philippa Langley, - a screenwriter as well as an R3 Soc. member, and involvement of Channel 4, highlight how History is always as much about accounts as it is about facts.

'Loyalty Binds Me',  Richard's White Boar Emblem

Richard’s defeat to Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field and the ending of the preceding period of civil war is well documented.  I have previously alluded here to local folklore around what happened to his body afterwards and how it relates to persistent controversy over his public profile and the accuracy of the official account.  My own engagement with the subject comes both as a legacy of my school studies and fascination with the physical and textual clues evident in my current neighbourhood.

Sir Lawence Olivier Directs Himself As Richard In The 1955 Film

Ian McKellen plays Richard In The 1995
Film Version, (Dir, Richard Loncraine).

The image of a deformed, megalomaniac murderer of nephews and sexual predator, of popular imagination derives primarily from Shakespeare and a legacy of grotesque stage and screen characterisations of his Richard character.  However much we thrill at this parade of lurching cripples and fascist dictators, our contemporary understanding of propaganda and media manipulation must arouse plenty of cynicism about Shakespeare’s neutrality.  The Tudor dynasty were never so secure in their claim to the throne that they could ignore any chance to discredit Richard’s own worthiness and with it the lingering Plantagenet case.  Shakespeare might not have enjoyed the career he did without propagating the victor’s account so enthusiastically.

Anthony Sher Plays Richard, Royal
Shakespeare Company, 1984

Kevin Spacey On Stage As Richard, Old Vic, 2012

The colourful story of his disinterment from Greyfriars Friary and disposal in the River Soar as unwanted refuse at the time of Monastic Dissolution must be seen in this light, however much locals enjoy believing there’s still a crown buried in the river bed.  If DNA profiling can prove Richard still lies at Greyfriars, that particular legend would be confirmed as historical propaganda.

On my way home from New Street I passed our public statue of Richard, tucked behind the railings of Castle Gardens.  When originally situated more prominently, it was apparently a target for regular vandalism but, since relocation, has been left undisturbed.  It seems that the citizens of Leicester are undecided about him and, for now, his status remains up for grabs.

Playlist 4

It's that time again.  Things were going a bit folky this month till the Olympics and the electronic weirdoes kicked in...

‘Espers II’, Espers

Espers Strike A Classic Folk Musicians In Knitwear With Big Tree Pose 

The last decade has seen a critical re-evaluation of the late 60s and early 70s Folk Rock period and a new generation of musicians on both sides of the Atlantic tapping the same vein.  Of all the American Acid/Psych./Free Folk acts, Espers impress me most and this seems to be their masterpiece.

Eschewing verse-chorus structures these solemn, stately songs are built from repeating cycles of melody and elegant female vocals.  Although largely acoustic, they often build towards passages of distorted electric/electronic psychedelia in an authentic but bizarrely dignified freak-out.  Heard in its entirety, the album becomes monumental, immersive and rather timeless.

‘No Roses’, Shirley Collins & The Albion Country Band

More Folk Musicians, - More Trees 

Thoughts of that earlier folk revival led me to this masterpiece.  Ashley Hutchings made it in 1971 with new wife Shirley Collins and an all-star cast of dozens.  It places Hutchings’ knowledge of the tradition into an electric band context beautifully without ever overwhelming Collins’ fragile but earthy voice.  It also includes the wonderful fragment, ‘Just As The Tide Was A-Flowing’, which led, in turn, to repeat plays of…

‘Just As The Tide Was A-Flowing’, 10,000 Maniacs

Although Natalie Merchant’s own song writing can be over-precious, this band still achieved some real elegiac moments.  Here, they rip into the traditional ditty with energy and verve without losing an ounce of respect.  It’s an 80s stepping stone to the current re-re-re-revival.

‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns’, Joni Mitchell

As a singer-songwriter, Joni Mitchell always carried a triple threat.  Her back catalogue bristles with examples of intelligent lyrics, fantastic tunes and emotive vocal performances.  People rave about ‘Blue’ but, great as that is, I prefer this one.

Beneath it’s jazz-inflected sophistication and Hollywood sheen lie songs with a real cutting edge and occasional darkness.  The recurring themes focus on dysfunction at the heart of the West Coast Nirvana and New York seen as an exotic jungle.  The album title captures the contradictions of an artificial paradise perfectly.

‘Street Legal’, Bob Dylan

This one’s often overlooked and suffered from a bafflingly bad production job, but I love these mid 70s Dylan albums made prior to the lamentable Born Again years.  Religious allusions were always present in his songs but work much better when, as here, mediated by worldliness and existential doubt.

‘Street Legal’ contains three real epics in ‘Changing of The Guard’, ‘Señor, (Tales of Yankee Power)’, and ‘Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat).’  Their complex lyrics, oblique references and multiple possible interpretations evoke a real ‘dark night of the soul’ that might actually explain the subsequent retreat into evangelical certainty.  To me, the much-derided Las Vegas big band arrangements create real drama and make perfect sense.

‘Full Sunken Breaks’, Kid Spatula

More beat-driven electronic oddness from Mike Paradinas, under yet another pseudonym.  This recalls the ‘Royal Astronomy’ album he made as µ-Ziq and includes some serious attempts to out-Aphex the Twin himself.

‘Tour De France Soundtracks’, Kraftwerk

Given this summer’s focus on competition cycling, it seemed only appropriate to spin this.  Music and technology had finally caught up with the former electronic pioneers from Dusseldorf when they released it in 2003.  Nonetheless, it’s an enjoyable slice of sleek European Techno, evoking the cadence of pedals, the sweep of the peloton through a mountain stage and even the demands placed on a cyclist’s body.

We know that Paul Weller actually provides the current Tour soundtrack so maybe these clean, futuristic sounds could apply to the super-efficient, high performance world of track cycling instead.  Indeed, Kraftwerk actually performed in the Manchester Velodrome in 2008.  I’d like to think that, when Sir Chris, La Pendlena and Trotty were preparing to race in London, this was looped and synched on every iPod.

‘Supersilent 6’, Supersilent

Ah, - Those Difficult Norwegians 

Although nominally from a jazz background, these Norwegians are much closer to the world of Avant-Garde improvisation than New Orleans or The Village Vanguard.  They reputedly convene periodically, solely to record or perform without any rehearsal and in a purely improvised manner.  They generally combine conventional instrumentation with abstract electronics and edit recordings from each unique performance.  These are packaged with austere uniformity and minimal information.  Also, the one member who's not originally a jazzer calls himself Deathprod and they've recently incorporated the bassist from Led Zeppelin into their ranks.

The slowly evolving pieces on ‘6’ are quite varied but share a sombre, Nordic aesthetic ranging from solemn dignity to the threatening and just plain spooky.  Passages of unstructured exploration and careful decision making periodically arrive at points of general accord between the individual players, often around a particular phrase, but rarely settle into anything comfortable or stable for very long.  Quiet passages barely emerge from silence whilst the loud bits can be intimidating in their volume.  It’s not something to play every day but always leaves me feeling I’ve had an extensive aural and mental workout.

‘Tom Lehrer In Concert’, Tom Lehrer

Lehrer was an outwardly tweedy, Jewish, Harvard Maths professor who also wrote and performed cleverly barbed satirical songs in the 1950s and 60s.  This was recorded in London in 1960 and features all the favourites including ‘Poisoning Pigeons In The Park’ and ‘The Masochism Tango’.  Lehrer’s songs were played regularly on the radio when I was a child and often made me laugh.  I appreciate their dark humour and brilliant wordplay more knowingly now and they still make me laugh.

‘Telstar’, The Tornadoes

An Historical Artefact From The Future 

BBC Radio 4 recently repeated their smashing little survey of pioneering British electronic music, including this little gem recorded in 1962.  Joe Meek’s private life and mental health were messy and tragic but he was a truly innovative producer in the early 1960s.  The Tornadoes probably saw themselves as cowboys more than spacemen but this has a wonderful distorted keyboard sound and that lovely blend of modernism and nostalgia essential to any effective futuristic vision.

Completed Studies

Every year, I anticipate the educational summer break avidly and make ambitious plans about how I’ll spend the time and how many paintings I’ll complete.  Then, at some point in August I realise the holiday’s nearly over just as I’m getting into my stride.  It's not like the work doesn't continue throughout the year, but there's no substitute for a solid block of uninterrupted working time.  This summer’s been no different but I won’t whinge too much, - I know these official breaks from reality are a luxury most employed folk can only dream of.

Untitled Study, ('No & Red Arrow'), Acrylics & Paper
Collage On Paper, 600 mm X 450 mm, 2012

Untitled Study, ('Heart & Asterisk'), Acrylics & Paper
Collage On Paper, 450 mm X 300 mm, 2012

As I write, I’m making good progress with my latest painting but am very conscious of the need to devote most of my remaining week of ‘leisure’ to completing it before the new school term begins.  We’ll see…

Untitled Study, ('A'), Acrylics & Paper Collage
On Paper, 300 mm X 200 mm, 2012

Untitled Study, ('D'), Acrylics & Paper Collage
On Paper, 300 mm X 200 mm, 2012

Untitled Study, ('E'), Acrylics & Paper Collage
On Paper, 300 mm X 200 mm 2012

The handful of additional studies here are independent images in their own right and represent a fairly intuitive process of ongoing experimentation.  The intention is partly to compile an extensive library of characters, symbols and signs without worrying over any deeper significance.  I’m already wondering about compiling a set of 26 small ones into an oblique alphabet.  As ever, it’ll only happen if I can juggle my time effectively but forming the  intention is half the battle.

Untitled Study, ('N'), Acrylics & Paper Collage
On paper, 300 mm X 200 mm, 2012

Untitled Study, ('R'), Acrylics & Paper Collage
 On Paper, 300 mm X 200 mm, 2012

Untitled Study, ('U'), Acrylics & Paper Collage
On Paper, 300 mm X 200 mm, 2012

Previously, I’ve mostly pursued this kind of thing in a sketchbook so this really just marks a slightly more ambitious move to get ‘the process’ up there on the wall with the finished paintings.