'Sick 1' In Detail: 'K'

'Sick 1', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on 4 Panels,
60 cm X 300 cm (Overall), 60 cm X 60 cm (Each Panel)

As mentioned already, the origin of my recent ‘Sick 1’ project was 2011’s rioting and the public responses to it.  The fourth (‘K’) panel of the set refers to those events most explicitly with obvious references to fire.

'Sick 1 (K)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60 cm X 60 cm

As with the riots of the 1980s, the most arresting media images of recent disturbances involved fire.  Blazing buildings, hooded arsonists and fire fighters silhouetted against flame become alluring visual clichés in the reporting of the mayhem, and a Google search reveals many such examples.  My ‘September’ post mentioned Gerhard Richter’s disquiet over an image’s potential to reduce events of psychological or historical importance to mere spectacle, (related to the events of ‘9:11’ particularly).  The mediation of human witness through the filters of T.V., print and the Web is inescapable for us as are desensitisation to events and emotional manipulation through image saturation and recycling of standard image types.

 Richter is braver and cleverer than me - he continues to probe the boundaries of representational painting, risking failure in search of a philosophical reconciliation of this problem.  My own approach is to offer textual clues and visual traces in a formal arena derived from the impassive surfaces that form backdrops to our upheavals.

The ‘K’ panel is pure invention and lacks any specific visual reference.  I wanted to suggest the creep of fire and smoke across the panel whilst forming a visual stop to the quartet’s overall composition.  The implication might be equally of ultimate incineration resulting from communal sickness or of cleansing fire.  It was achieved by attacking layers of paper and paint with a heat gun, to the point of combusting the panel itself.  The remaining portion features a faux crackled paint effect implying the effects of heat, and poster fragments to reinforce the idea of cultural collapse.  Inclusion of a ‘Flammable’ symbol suggests torched property and the wildfire of violence but also refers back thirty years to the disturbances in St Pauls.  It was adopted repeatedly by Massive Attack, - the most successful exponents of the post-riot ‘Bristol Sound’.  The tagged style of the ‘K’ implies a form of ‘vandalism’ that seems now a relatively benign form of dissent after recent events.

By chance, this post coincides with publication of the official report on the 2011 riots.  My ears pricked up at the phrase ‘Forgotten Families’ which sounds like a gift of a sound bite already.  We’ll see…

'Sick 1' In Detail: 'C'

'Sick 1', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on 4 Panels,
60 cm X 300 cm (Overall), 60 cm X 60 cm (Each Panel)

'Sick 1 (C)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel (with Sand & Plaster),
60 cm X 60 cm

The inspiration for ‘Sick 1 (C)’ came from photos I had taken of rusted industrial gates covered in graffiti.  They’re close to my Leicester home in an area that combines partial dereliction with continuing economic activity.  It includes a redundant Victorian railway station with attendant arches and a guano-encrusted bridge.  Small to medium-sized businesses trade (with mixed success) from surrounding buildings of assorted styles.  There’s a general mood of dilapidation and neglect, - of people too busy scraping a living to undertake inessential repairs and maintenance.  It appears to be a zone of making do and getting by, reflecting Britain’s status as a once-vital industrial economy fallen on hard times.

The gates bar the yard of a car repair company and are battered and heavily rusted.  I was drawn to the patterns of rust emerging through original paint overlaid by a wild calligraphy of tags and graffiti.  It leaches beautifully through the official surface coating and the aerosol swirls of outlaw writers alike and unifies them in a process of shared entropy.  As ever I’m undecided where the sickness lies.  Are these enterprises doomed to struggle in an ailing economy or adapting to colonise unpromising ground like opportunistic weeds?  Is the graffiti the only work available for the idle hands of another lost generation or evidence of an undiminished urge to find expression, however debased, outside of prescribed channels?  Is the rust a cancer consuming everything we build or a valuable reminder that we’re all just part of a larger natural process along with chemistry and physics?

With its heavy, granular texture the panel is as much a relief simulation of rust as a painterly illusion of it.  It’s built from layers of paper collage, P.V.A., acrylics, plaster and sand, drawing on my years of creating faux effects as a scenic artist.  The graffiti combines spontaneously invented motifs with elements lifted from the reference photos whilst the block C character recalls examples of dilapidated commercial signage commonly seen in the area.

'Sick 1' In Detail: 'I'

'Sick 1', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on 4 Panels, 
60 cm X 300 cm (Overall), 60 cm X 60 cm (Each Panel)

'Sick 1 (I), 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60 cm X 60 cm

For ages I’ve been inspired by the accretion of ragged fly-posters that wallpaper many urban streets.  They’re referred to in the ‘Safe From Harm 1’ Triptych and I was keen to include them again in ‘Sick 1’.  Development of the overall composition suggested a lighter tonality for the second panel, (‘I’) making it a candidate to be built from layers of white paper.

'Safe From Harm 1', 2011, Acrylics & Paper  Collage on 3 Panels, 
150 cm X 200 cm (Overall), 150 cm X 50 cm (Each Panel)

Searching for potential reference photos I remembered some I’d taken in Cornwall last year.  As often happens, the wall of a St Ives shop had become an informal bulletin board for seekers of entertainment, apparently triggering the usual struggle between shop owner and fly-by-night publicists. Less usual was the use of tape as an adhesive.  The normal pasted collage of torn edges and fragmented typography was replaced by a linear palimpsest of tape residues with minimal textual remnants.  It may indicate an arrangement between fly-posters and ‘postee’ but also created an impression of bleakness to me.

Fly-posting is seen as vandalism or as symptomatic of society’s dysfunction in official channels, but could represent a vibrant, self-generating alternative culture or even an opportunist (albeit criminal) form of private enterprise too.  Both could be regarded as positives by different ends of the political spectrum.  Beyond its obvious advertising role, it leaves a visual record of past events enjoyed as well as being a welcome splash of colour in a drab place.  These glue marks though were less a record of actual messages than merely trace-memories of the communication medium itself, - the last moment before amnesia.  One might ask which is sicker, - a society where private property is defaced in the name of cultural spontaneity or one where such activity is almost forgotten and only prescribed official expressions are tolerated?

The ‘Sick 1 (I)’ panel itself was built up from layers of paper collage, masked and transferred strips of acrylic paint and lengths of actual tape.  The chosen font for the ‘I’ character suggests traditional office type and thus might allude to officialdom and corporate mainstream society.

'Sick 1' In Detail: 'S'

I’m often told to avoid lengthy posts so I’ll discuss the individual panels comprising the composite piece ‘Sick 1’, (shown in my previous post), over a series of shorter ones.  Here’s the first. 

'Sick 1', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on 4 Panels, 
60 cm X 300 cm (Overall), 60 cm X 60 cm (Each Panel)

It was my intention that each element would be distinct from the others both in terms of treatment and text style but sympathetic to the whole.  They were derived from different sections of distressed urban surface and developed through a process of photographic research and sketchbook studies.  They differ from my other recent work by representing specific surfaces more accurately, (recalling trompe l’oeil effects I used in a previous life as a scenic artist).  I selected surfaces and text characters that might reflect different aspects of the possible ‘sickness’ of society but, as discussed previously, remain ambiguous about exactly what that might mean.

'Sick 1 (S)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm

‘Sick 1 (S)’ evolved from an idea I’ve had for a while about the red crosses once daubed on the doors of quarantined houses at times of plague.  It fit this project as an obvious allusion to historical epidemics and to the descent into societal crisis that accompanied them.  The idea of a great plague still haunts the contemporary imagination as fears of AIDS or global Flu pandemics of course.

'Asylum 1'

I wanted to juxtapose the violently daubed cross against a simple, formal background.  The economic privations of recent years have seen numerous vacant buildings barricaded by steel security shutters and this suggested a suitably geometric motif.  Their functional brutality also characterises contemporary security fears and emphasises their potential to imprison as well as exclude.  Formally, it allowed me to employ a repeat pattern in depicting the regular perforations.  That was done with black-painted adhesive labels and relates to the fence mesh motif in my recent ‘Asylum 1’ painting and to pictures by Zak Prekop.  The overall surface was built up with paper collage and plaster whilst the choice of a graffiti style S character came late - mostly to balance the similar style of the final K.

Zak Prekop, 'Untitled', 2009, Oil on Linen

Completed Quartet: 'Sick 1'

Finally, I can post about my own work again.  Since starting this blog last December I’ve worked on a set of paintings that seemed slow to complete.  Last year I produced several larger pieces quite rapidly, so these recent months have been somewhat frustrating.  Getting ill twice didn’t help - ironic, given the title of this set is ‘Sick 1’.

'Sick 1', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on 4 Panels, 
60 cm X 300 cm (Overall), 60 cm X 60 cm (Each Panel)

The four panels are designed to hang together in a quartet, spelling out the title with a single character on each.  It was completing the ‘Safe From Harm 1’ triptych last summer that suggested another multi-panel project and the attendant challenge of composing each element whilst maintaining a balance across the whole.

'Sick 1 (S)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm

The genesis of the ‘Sick’ theme was in the news reports of last summer’s riots.  As with ‘Together 1’ and ‘Broken 1’ it became a regular descriptor of our society amongst politicians and media commentators reacting to the disturbing events.  As buildings were burned and looted it seemed Britain was not just ailing but descending into actual psychosis.  Perhaps most disturbing, (in the media’s portrayal of events), were the seeming nihilism of the rioters and how, amongst a tech-savvy generation reputedly lacking core values outside of consumerism, exhortations to riot spread between phones rapidly like a virus.

'Sick 1 (I)', Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm

Conflicting explanations for the disorder multiplied in its wake.  Without any coherent ideological framework of my own, I prefer to observe and reflect such societal issues obliquely in my work. There are profound dangers for the artist in over-explaining work or espousing too fixed a viewpoint through it.  However, it’s no secret that a significant part of my current agenda is the exploration of clues to such issues expressed through urban surfaces and text fragments.  The four ‘Sick 1’ elements evolved to each have a different observational reference point whilst contributing to the whole thematically.  I’ll post again soon to discuss each panel in detail.

                               Sick 1 (C)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm                            

In the titles and textual content of my paintings I’m most drawn to phrases with an inherent ambiguity and multiple possible meanings.  It’s worth noting then that ‘Sick’ is a slang term used habitually by the school students I work amongst, (and who belong to the age group of some of last year’s rioters).  Like ‘Wicked’ and, significantly, ‘Ill’, it transforms a negative connotation into an expression of approval or enjoyment.  A further level of delightful complexity arrives with the phrase ‘Well Sick’ with its internal conflation of traditionally opposing terms.  I’m toying with the idea of a future quartet spelling ‘Well’ to create an eight-piece ‘Well/Sick’ suite.

Sick 1 (K)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm

Belbury Poly: 'The Belbury Tales'

As usual, the arrival of my last monthly pay cheque saw me chasing new music purchases, including the new Belbury Poly release, ‘The Belbury Tales’.  For once, I can comment on something that's right up to date.

 

Belbury Poly is the brainchild of Jim Jupp who, with Julian House (of The Focus Group), also masterminds the Ghost Box label and its roster of closely related artists.  Plenty has been written in recent years about the label and the Hauntology genre into which its artists are often pigeonholed.  I recommend Simon Reynolds’ November 2006 Wire Magazine article, [1.]  Adam Harper’s October 2010 Rouge’s Foam blog post, ‘The Past Inside The Present’ [2.] and Ghost Box’s own website and The Belbury Parish Magazine blog for valuable context.  In addition, the current issue of The Wire features Jupp and House in its regular 'Invisible Jukebox' item. [3.]

Jim Jupp of Belbury Poly

Belbury Poly has always impressively combined concept, music, visuals and text into a multi-dimensional imaginative world and this is no exception.  The usual signifiers of a utopian future imagined sometime between The 1951 Festival of Britain and the end of Post War Consensus in 1979 are present and correct alongside references to the Pagan ‘Old Weird Britain’ of folk tradition and the Occult.  The trick of this stuff is always to simultaneously evoke the future within the past and the past within the future.  Science walks hand in hand with fertility ritual and quasi-mysticism through New Town and English Village.

I love how these themes are re-imagined through multiple stylistic filters that allow us to apply our own, possibly nostalgic, frames of cultural reference.  The modernism is of the quaintly optimistic ‘Tomorrow’s World’ brand often accompanied by cheesy, ‘Space-Age’ synths as typified by the brief ‘Belbury Poly Logotone B’ that introduces proceedings.  Folk references usually recall the acid sensibilities of ‘The Wicker Man’ or the genteel Edwardian folk revival more than genuine antiquity, as in ‘The Geography’.  In a track like ‘My Hands’ the occultism is equal parts Arthur Machen and spooky 70s kid’s T.V.  I’ll admit I’m a pushover for these reference points, - some of which recall my own formative years.

Whilst instantly recognisable to Belbury connoisseurs, the album augments Jupp’s familiar electronics and samples with live drums and guitar on several tracks.  It’s a masterstroke that allows hints of Prog. Rock to intrude deliciously and entirely appropriately.  It’s heard to great effect in ‘A Pilgrim’s Path’ with its embroidered drum fills and washes of faux Mellotron.  Belbury might be located somewhere near Canterbury here.  Later, in ‘Chapel Perilous’, motorik drum beats recall German Rock of the 70s.  The album concludes with two tracks of electronic sequencing typical of vintage Tangerine Dream or Jean Michel Jarre.

Of the various Ghost Box projects, Belbury has put the biggest smile on my face consistently.  It’s cheering that, when the project could have been getting a little stale, ‘The Belbury Tales’ extends the scope of an established formula and might be Jupp’s strongest album yet.




[1.]:  Simon Reynolds, 'Society of the Spectral', London, The Wire, Issue 273, November 2006.
2006 was the year when Hauntology became widely discussed as a trend within contemporary music.  This article provided an excellent overview of the genre and was the my own introduction to many of the artists discussed within it.


[2.]:  Harper's post is a lengthy and fascinating discussion of Hauntological themes.  It draws links between the work of musicians like Belbury Poly and Boards of Canada and visual artists including Peter Doig, Luc Tuymans and Neo Rauch.


[3.]:  Rob Young (Interviewing Jim Jupp & Julian House), 'Invisible Jukebox'. London, The Wire, Issue 337, March 2012.
This interview includes insights into various influences and enthusiasms of the Ghost Box protagonists whilst trying to identify related recordings chosen by Young.