Silence, Not Silence

Silence, not-silence. Because nature, we're told does not like a vacuum. So there's always something crashing into something else somewhere. Exploding, being pulled apart or crushed by gravity. Nature is, by nature rowdy, raucous. Even these words raining upon this page are not silent. Pitter-patted out by keyboard tapping and pencil blustering across the page. Every glittering crackle of the ground underfoot, every release of gas, breath, fart, plop. We have ignition! Not silence. 4 minutes and 33 seconds of the universe on tick over...

3 a.m. to 4 a.m. deserted street silence. Sodium neon breeze murmur in the trees, leaf-rustle, hustling trainer footfall, clip-clop heels stuttering homeward gaggle-giggle, barking vixen yapping, 22? 23? Heel skips in the groove with the weight of laughter with plenty of reverb.

Muted unmuted. Colours are filtered and only the orange part of the spectrum makes it through the night alive. Even the fatty piss-stain moon slides by jaded, smoked and insolent, tie haggard around its neck, cigarette sagging in its lips, one eye squinting a tut with a shrug and a grunt. Stacks another shot glass on the shelf above the bar.

Barking signage and street frontage gagged on nicotine and tannins. Key change up a gear, bin lorry percussion unit.

Just think about those sounds for a minute... 
Garbage truck jazz.

Two streets in the distance, duelling.
Single after-market exhaust, accelerant,
two geezers in the kabab shop, protestant.
Three, four. Blues in the night are actually an acid brown-black.
Burnt caramel. Umbrage taken.

Vocal melee red-shifted, receding into distance, melting out of focus, resolving into - dunno, I wasn't there, I just heard. A generator above the cab, air con in the alleyway. The sound of a bottle falling into the road.

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Under the covers, burrowed into the bedding, a private film club. 37 degrees celsius, circadian rhythms, liminal and subliminal unfold and refold. There is a large spiral shell on the beach. Big as a cathedral. I walk in. The entire interior is smooth polished mother-of-pearl. But I know the meaning of nacre. I've been here before.

At a table near the door is my mum, selling pamphlets and collecting alms. She tries to speak and advise me, but her voice is the sound of Aglaope, and rather than succour, I am suckered. Her pamphlets are nothing but platitudes, placebos and propaganda. "Save your art for a hobby" she says.

_____________________________________________

A gentle sizzle of rain begins around four to usher in tomorrow, the next day, uncertainty, a deadline... The tide settles as it turns. Something turns, cavitating in the water. Light ripped on the ripples. Thirty three and a third r.p.m.

The alarm beeps on entry while a pin is pushed in. Its punctuation vanishing without a trace. Ticker, ticker parade of fluorescence blossoming into life. There is nothing innocent about fluorescent lighting. It is mean, and industrial, functional, soul-sapping cold. A fridge light is more welcoming. A microwave is more human.

Foxes in the garbage, gulls and crows bicker about the dawn. East coast mainline, motorway harmonics. Dawn is a rabble clattering into the room with the radio suffused in condensation, coffee, toast.

Aroma of a freshly ironed shirt, citrus shower gel and spicy deodorant. That's De-odorant... and a quick, sneaky cigarette in the car, another on the walk to the station. The day is broken before it's even started.

The NME - New Musical Extinguisher

You know those nights when you've had a quality time at the pub with a couple of excellent buddies? You're not staggeringly drunk, but pleasantly basking in the warm glow of a good single malt, and grinning inanely at everything on the way home, when you spot a brilliant object in a skip and spontaneously drag it out, sling it over your shoulder and scuttle home. Next morning you're staring at it wondering what the fuck you were thinking...?

For all you fire extinguisher nerds - this is a 1965 Nu Swift pressurised water extinguisher, currently tuned to D4...

This piece is the culmination of disparate circumstances. The arrival of a brand new and rather excellent power tool, recent performances with other people, conversations with the lads from TVIAPB, the discovery of interesting and challenging cross-over artists playing with multiple disciplines and performances... and the never ending desire for new toys, new sounds...

Currently playing around with this thing. Looking for some more acoustic vibes - bows//drones//chimes//new ideas//themes//and stuff in the studio. It's delightfully flexible - way more so than the old Bikesichord. It doesn't have pick-ups installed yet, but that might happen in the future at some point. Right now, it resonates like a bell at certain points and tones, and a mike in the top played through a couple of effects pedals is plenty to be going on with.

Check out my Soundcloud for previous recordings, YouTube for performances and keep an ear peeled for new performance related gubbins.

Cheers.
D

 

Woodpeckers' Wildlife Mural - Devonshire Infants School - 2016

Back in November 2015, I wrote about the Woodlands Hall mural that I partially restored for Devonshire Infants School.

Well they came back for more - which is nice. The school has had a new building built to serve ass a meeting room, lunch room and additional teaching space. The main wall is some twenty something metres long and they were looking for a mural that would connect with the school's 'wildlife' themes. The classes are recognised by their wildlife names; badgers, foxes, mice etc. As you walk through the school, both the wildlife and art themes really hit you.

A while back on a family trip, we'd stopped at Ockham Bites cafe just off the A3//M25. It's a funky weird little place. Run by Surrey Wildlife trust and jolly convenient if your doggy and//or children needs a pee break. There's also an historical Semaphore Tower... a bit like one of Terry Pratchett's 'Clacks' towers...

The Semaphore Tower located on Chatley Heath was once part of a chain used to pass messages between the Admiralty in Whitehall and the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth. It was built in 1822 and is now the only restored surviving tower in a line of signalling stations that stretched from London to Portsmouth. The Tower is open to the public once a month between March and September.

However, there is also a really rather excellent tea room which has one of the best wildlife murals I've seen. By the award winning artist Helen Shackleton, the mural depicts the huge variety of wildlife around the area. That might come as something as a surprise given its proximity to two major motorway routes.

Ockham cafe mural by Helen Shackleton

Ockham cafe mural by Helen Shackleton

The style and composition were definitely cues for the mural at Devonshire Inf Sch.where I needed to include a range of creatures and environments in a coherent composition across a broad span of wall. I wanted to really go to town on this one and stretch my skills with regard to figurative painting. I know it will surprise some people to learn that I can actually paint properly, and here's the proof. 

The school were kind enough to nominate me for an award for the Woodpeckers mural too! Which was nice.

Eric Rimmington - Trafalgar House

One of the fastest turnaround murals I've been commissioned to do - less than 24 hours notice from first contact to starting to paint with a very particular brief, with a super tight deadline... and at a 45% discount on my standard rate to meet the budget... I do this to myself, why?

The Trafalgar building in Fountain Street is a former Naval officers club now in the process of being converted into student accommodation. The street level is a Wetherspoons pub that has on its back wall a post-war mural painted in 1949 by the artist Eric Rimmington who studied in Portsmouth as an ex-serviceman in the 1940's. Following his studies at the Slade School in London, Rimmington became well known as a masterful still life painter, often incorporating and combining aspects of both still life and landscape or seascape into his paintings.

The mural he painted in The Trafalgar was fought for and conserved by the Portsmouth Society, and is now listed as a scheduled part of the architecture, meaning that it cannot be taken down or removed. You can read the artists personal account of his mural HERE.

Trafalgar House Mural - Eric Rimmington 1949

Trafalgar House Mural - Eric Rimmington 1949

For my mural, upstairs in the students refectory, I wanted to echo various aspects of Eric Rimmingtons' mural. His panorama of Portsmouth and Southsea is divided into three sections with his portraits of local working class men and women viewing their 'historical landscape' from the platform of an imaginary railway station with stairs leading down [from the past] and up [to the future].

I've incorporated the full panorama of Portsmouth's landscape and the Solent in an almost 360 degree view from Fort Cumberland at Eastney to the Defra defence research establishment on Portsdown Hill, including the Solent Forts, the bandstand, Southsea Common, the Skatepark, Clarence Pier, the Square and Round Towers and the Spinnaker.

The monochromatic sepia tones evoke earlier ages, while the students sitting in the room themselves take the role of Rimmington's ordinary, everyday people observing the scene and the broad historical landscape in which they sit.

Southsea Pier, Solent Fort, Isle of Wight

Southsea Castle, Skate Park, Bandstand, Solent Fort

Southsea Castle, Skate Park, Bandstand

Fort Cumberland to the Castle

The Solent and Isle of Wight over the Southsea Common

Not Waving, But Drowning

In May/June a side project that I'm super proud to be part of - The Vulture Is A Patient Bird, was privileged to perform at a film//poetry event at The Loft in Southsea. "Not Waving, But Drowning" was organised by The Front Room. 

TVIAP  scripted this piece from quotes and inspiration related to work place cultures. As a group, we take a perverse pleasure in producing something unexpected. This ethos and our working methods means improvisation, synchronicity, spontaneity and a reliance on the resources to hand have a profound affect on the performances.

What you have here is the backdrop film I put together for the performance. This video component was filmed and edited entirely by me on 'Shotcut' - a freebie video editing software from www.shotcut.org. For the upload, this video is soundtracked by a live 'demo'/rehearsal version of the performance. The live performance was powerful, witty and great fun and it went down a storm. Yes, I was going to video the live performance, but forgot to press the record button on the camera... I'm learning, ok?

The Vulture Is Waving, Not Drowning

SO, before we get to the excitement of my lil' solo show, we have the excitement of another performance with The Front Room.

Our little unit, known as 'The Vulture Is A Patient Bird', will be creating some noise and spectacle at a film/poetry night presented by Big Adventures/The Front Room at the Loft - the bar above The Kings public house on Albert Road, Southsea. There are some outstanding acts and artists on the programme. It's definitely worth your while checking out Elephants Footprint. Earlier that day, Thursday 27th April, they'll be presenting a Poetry Film Workshop (free and open to the public) University of Portsmouth, Eldon building. 2.30pm – 4.30pm

We, The Vulture, did a wee 'taster' on Easter Sunday as part of the Trash Arts 10th anniversary event at the Edge Of The Wedge. Which was nice.

Once these gigs are out of the way, I'll post the videos up on that there YouTubes for your entertainment and edification.

Memory Loop

 Sometimes when I'm thinking about projects or pieces, I get so struck by the infinite clamour of possibilities that I can't move. There are moments when the sheer monumentality of the possible - even within the paucity of resources and the constraints that I impose on myself - is so overwhelming that my mind freezes.

Sometimes, the way out of this is to go and literally throw paint/words/ink, whatever onto paper and see what emerges. Other times, I just need to walk away and get out of the house. Each of these strategies has its proper place, though there's no way of knowing what's appropriate at any given moment. On other days of course, it's starkly obvious what needs to be done - all I have to do is get it done.

This bird here is one of those. I've written about the birds before. Their story is well told. But I'm forever searching for new contexts and narratives within them. The film here is an 8mm, black and white, home cine film called, rather dramatically "Bloodsucker". It's a vampire film apparently. Doesn't really matter, it could be anything. That's the nature of memory, and here's the point.

Learning is the process of establishing new memories. Processes, events, important data, sequences, directions etc. It's a lot like cramming film or tape into your head. Gradually your head fills up and as the space fills, the film gets tangled and knotted, until your head can hold no more and the tape/film spills out around your feet, tangling and tripping you, tying you down, tethering you to the spot.

This is just one iteration of this idea, and it's open enough to allow multiple readings. Perhaps the nature and specifics of the film do matter? Maybe it could be replaced by a number of different media producing several different narratives/contexts/subtexts? 
Maybe... maybe... maybe... it all becomes horribly elliptical again after all.

"Book-A-Day" Artists' Book Project 2017

This is a personal project that I've begun as a way of firing the synapses and motivating the mojo, banishing the procrastination and freeing myself up from conventional mundanity. 

I've spoken/written a couple of times about my methodology and how it is so dramatically shaped by deeply restricted resources, and this project is another great way to explore that. So, there are some fundamental 'rules'.  

• First, the aesthetics have got to be there in terms of quality.
• Second, all analogue.  
• Third, NO digital!  
• Fourth, some processes necessarily take a little time, such as glue drying. There's no cheating on this if I want the work to last, so some books may take longer than a day to actually produce.  That means, probably several books on the go at one time.  The object is to get a book produced, photographed and online at least once a day - for as long as I can maintain...  If the project goes a week, I'll be chuffed!
• Fifth, edition where possible. 

All of the books made under the aegis of the project will be available for sale on the site here, and you can follow my progress on INSTAGRAM  and TWITTER.

Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth and the Ministry Of Books

‘Ministry Of Books’ at Aspex Portsmouth 

11th Jan – 2nd April 2017


There is a delightful and cleverly curated introduction to the world of artists’ books, multiples and artefacts in the foyer of Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth. On display is a sample of the collection held by 'Ministry of Books' at the University of Portsmouth. Twenty or so moderately small publications cover abstract, whimsical, philosophical, poetic and cultural subjects questioning our humility, humanity and habits. Some are about mapping aspects of the psyche - others are informative, commemorative and exploratory. Juxtapositions of romance, fear, curiosity and commercialism make for a brief essay of human mores and habits seen through the ever inquisitive eyes and minds of artists. 
Artists books can challenge conventional content and purpose seen in traditional publications. But this raises the question - beyond mobility, portability and sharing what is a 'book' or any such artefact for, if not to communicate? Expression for the sake of expression is meaningless without something to communicate - a direct appeal to the reader's attention. There aren’t many overt ‘stories’ here. Largely these are commentaries, observations and statements that tend to be ‘sound bite’ structured, succinct in nature - at least on the surface. Investigation of context and subtext is for the reader to ponder on. Narratives are (de)constructed and presented through images and forms that are sometimes explicit, sometimes not so. 
Patricia Collins' humble 'Mail Art Book' is a small package wrapped in brown paper, tied with string, addressed to somewhere in Paris, France. We are told that it was part of a series of miniature boxes sent through the post in the late nineties. That's all. It is what it is. But this unpresuming object is patinated, with the tarnish of its almost twenty year journey here. This wonderful little thing appeals to the nostalgic in us, a quiet powerful sense of history without braggadocio or exhibitionism.

‘A Little Book To Be Taken Out Always, Just In Case’ is one of the smaller books that immediately pings on the conscience. This is a subtle little book with the appearance of a cheap book of raffle tickets. I’m sure this association is not insignificant. The pages are a set of perforated tear out pink tickets, printed on one stub with ‘Your Number’ and on the other, ‘My Number’. It has been used - there are a couple of tickets missing and numbers written on stubs. Such details you must look for and consciously register. What sort of person would carry - and use - such a book? Promiscuous? Needy? Insecure? Such an innocuous thing, but what would you say if you found a copy in your daughters’ handbag? It sends a little shiver down the spine.

Happily, Portsmouth’s great literary history is represented with the inclusion of Sadie Tierney’s ’12 Plates Inspired by Charles Dickens’ “The Chimes”’. Created for the ‘Beyond Dickens’ exhibition in 2012, its themes of time passing, New Year and hope are tenderly rendered in 12 small etchings drawn from the Dickens short novel.

There is much, much more to the twenty books on display here. For an introduction to a field of artistic endeavour as broad as artists multiples and objects, this is as strong and well considered a collection as you could wish for.

To find out more about the full Ministry of Books collection and the exhibit at Aspex go to:
https://www.aspex.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/the-ministry-of-books/
http://theministryofbooks.blogspot.co.uk/

Typonegative II

Edition of 20. Signed, dated, numbered.
 - 44 pages
 - full colour
 - 11cm x 11cm

*There is No Digital Printing in this edition. 

It's all about the surface qualities! These are visceral, tactile artefacts. The size, shape and texture have a distinctive feel, like the visual impact of every page. Narrative and meaning are strongly affected by contrasting imagery. The text is deeply embedded in the context and this structure in return, shapes the narrative.

Context is everything. The surface of the image is our cage. Reductionism, imposed and innate, in conjunction with non-linear image and abstract narratives, snapshots and soundbites, define moments. 160 characters to express the breadth, depth and height of humanity as it stands here, now. This is how we have come to see our small corner of the planet Earth. Empires imploding, collapsing in on themselves while refugees of unreconstructed cultures look on with a mixture of glee and horror.

Glossy magazine pages are cropped to exclude any text without prejudice, leaving pure image on both sides. More difficult than you think, but has a powerful effect on the imagery and context of each page. Any remaining unavoidable text is redacted adding yet another level to the narrative. These pages are then interleaved with prints, paintings and my own text produced in the studio, and bound together in handmade covers. 

Because of the way the content is gathered, no two copies are identical. Every copy is unique. They do however, all share a common narrative and structure as I've said. Every copy has multiple hand produced/finished elements including:-  - linocut,  - screen print,  - hand rendered text,  - painting,  - offset letterpress,  - graphite rubbing,  - stencil,  - stamped text,  - hand finished stickers and more. All hand stitched into covers made from a unique and intriguing material.

This book has evolved from a quick self-motivational one day project into a full on celebration of the physical, visceral possibilities of a small home studio, with its inherent limitations and a little knowledge of a few basic processes.I've worked under the pressure of limited resources for so long now, that finding creative effective ways of doing things is second nature to me. I know what the end result ought to be, and how it would be achieved in a fully, properly equipped studio. Working out how to get there without necessarily the 'right' equipment is fiendishly challenging sometimes, and you have to be prepared to compromise in all sorts of ways. 

When you're editioning for something like a book project, your criteria naturally include repeatability and working like this (above), uniformity and consistency are exchanged for individuality.

All good fun! You're right - I could have done all this digitally - but where's the fun in that?