Ephemeral-temporal

I've posted before about my unhealthy attraction to walls. I'm reviewing a bunch of graffnephemera for a future show and tell. The images below were all shot within an hour on a Downtown city block in LA September 2008.

All images and text © burgsEye 2009

Out of my Treehouse

Over the last 4 weeks I have been working on a new set of prints for sale. The series, entitled Treehouse, will be offered for sale at the Next Door Gallery, Birkenhead, Auckland and through Neil Buddle, direct. Here are the 3 individual prints presented as a triptych, with the accompanying information which will be included with the prints. The Treehouse series juxtaposes two iconic ‘Kiwi’ elements; the colonial villa and a native tree.
The depiction of modest villa/cottages, references the employment of these mighty trees in building much of New Zealand’s early infrastructure and housing. This large-scale deforestation by colonial settlers has had a huge impact on New Zealand.
These prints are intended as a gentle reminder of the importance of celebrating and conserving both the natural and built heritage of Aotearoa's majestic trees.

God's Gimp

Sketch print for a developing idea.

This image is less about sex and more about life, the idea of us being manipulated by some unseen power. Despite the struggle we enjoy it anyway, happily spilling seed, fruitlessly on the broken ground.

It also references the influence that christian moral values have had on western society and the rest of the world and how we are in-some-way, in bondage to them.

Dylanizm - A Dangerous Cult or Hope for Humanity?

DIG, The Reverend, El Presidente, Hamilton Taight are all only part of a larger picture, a greater network of underground/overground re-active agents.

Recent communiques from Hamilton Taight, have contained some startling new intelligence from RE-Active agent Burkoffski, collected at great peril in the field. This information I will now divulge to you - Please note that DIG takes no responsibility for any enlightenment you suffer as a direct result of receiveing this classified information.

One of the most intriguing discoveries is a new movement called 'Dylanizm'. This movement seems to be terra-forming Suburbia, by subtly extracting the essence of the exceptional, from what was previously considered a barren waste of mediocrity.

No-one knows who or indeed what exactly, this Dylanizm is? However despite it's secretive origins, disciples of Dylanizm are busy propagating, their manifesto, through subliminal advertising and subscription-only publications, such as that featured here.

The only questions seems to be..."Will you join the revolution?"







(Confidential Audio-Report from Stithen-AC, by Agent Burkoffski).

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No its a Roadcraft Campervan!

Here is a set of commemorative prints begun 'en route' showing the awesome Roadcraft Campervan by the Whanganui and Whangaehu Rivers and on the Central Plateau.

Kia Ora

The Wheels

The Reverend scouts for the source of the Whangaehu River.

Rev at work, sketching and cutting the days quarry.

At Whangaehu lagoon, the rivers end before it hits the Tasman Sea.

Pete's house and BaseJumper @ Whangaehu Beach.

The Whanganui River road between Pipiriki and Raetihi is now mostly sealed.

Rev's caffeine fix at Tokaanu.
all images ©burgseye 2009

The wheels courtesy of www.roadcraft.co.nz

Road Noise

A roadtrip is never complete without a soundtrack. With twelve hours of winter roads to drive alone -nary a hitchhiker in sight- before and after picking up the Reverend I decided to go heavy on the compilations and two relatively recent Aotearoan releases which served to provide the necessary reflective vibe for circumnavigating Te Kahui Tupu (the sacred peaks of the central plateau.

I'm not sure why but I almost always have an epiphany when listening to SJD albums. In this case two tunes from his rather excellent 2007, Songs from a dictaphone album: Black is a Beautiful Colour and Beautiful Haze sent me skyward, observing the mountains from above.
www.myspace.com/sjd
http://www.roundtripmars.com/

Back in the day, Auckland City seemed stacked with Victorian era pubs, with their glorious facades and grungy cigarette charred and spilled beer carpets, tiny stages and regular police busts emptying the places out as the main act stepped on. It was during those dirty early eighties that I remember the Clean's first Auckland gigs. The Velvets inspired Don't Point that Thing churning out from the Rhumba Bar above an empty Victoria Street (the streets were usually deserted by 10pm.) David Kilgour has come a long way since then and his choonage of Sam Hunts poetry collection Doubtless, retitled for record, "Falling Debris" is a perfect winter tonic. Especially "Everytime it rains like this," "Talking of the weather" and "They are clouds."
http://www.samhunt.com/
http://www.myspace.com/davidkilgour

Roundtripmars' head honcho and aural adventurer, music writer and voice over artist, Stinky Jim provided "Musky Moments" and "Stinkbombs" two downright exotically dirty compilations. These eclectic excursions diverge into dubbedupdownbeats, dancehall, and spacerocking fruitloops and are guaranteed to make any journey a trip. Jims compilations are like his BFM radio shows, at first challenging and then engaging, full of cut up voxpops and Stinky stings by some of the worlds biggest underground and overstanding musicians.
http://www.roundtripmars.com/
http://www.stinkinc.blogspot.com/

Norman Cook/Fatboy Slim's LateNightTales is 70 plus minutes of essential happy eclecticism from Mink De Ville's "Spanish Stroll," Hopetoun Lewis' version of "Express Yourself," "Trinity's Three Piece Suit" and Senor Soul's "Lay Your Funky Trip on Me." Makes the road between Te Kuiti and Tamauranui a much less lonely one to drive.
www.normancook.co.uk

"Lifestyle" by Ninja Tunes/Solid Steeler's, Coldcut, is another three score and ten minutes of the overlooked and underplayed. Check the Chosen Few doing Isaac Hayes' "Do your Thing," Esther Phillips 1974 conscious soul classic "Disposable Society" and Betty Harris'"There's a Break in The Road."
www.myspace.com/coldcut

Keeping it unreal is another Ninja, Mr Scruff whose Big Chill Classics comp provides the kind of soundscape that allows the mind freetime to wander both sides of the road. The ideal accompaniment to a hot bath at the Tokaanu thermal pools. It's a double album with too many quality dishes to serve on this post.
www.myspace.com/mrscruffofficial

Hiphop collective NASA's "The Spirit of Apollo" kept the van on the bitumen and the party going when the eyes were getting weary especially over the Parapara ranges. Featuring a potpourri of musical magic including the likes of David Byrne, Tom Waits, KRS One, Sizzla, Spank Rock, MIA, Chuck D and George Clinton to speak of only a smidgeon of the coterie of onboard quality.
www.myspace.com/nasa

Guerolito is the remix album of Becks' Guero and it picks up nicely where SJD leaves off, somewhere near Tangiwai, providing more twists and turns than the gravel road over Burma Hill.
www.beck.com/

As far as singalongs go it was two Ska comp albums sourced from the cheapie bins at the big red whare that stole the show and blocked out the bumps and thumps on the dirt track ascending the remote Turakina Skifield and had us skidding safely across the ice on the road up to Turoa, despite the boy racers. In fact Dandy Livingstone's "A Message to you Rudy" was playing so loud as we made incursions into Defence Dept land on the Desert Road, that it alerted a patrol to our presence and two Bro's in an enormous cammo' truck came to give us a soft hard word "You fallahs are not supposed to be here,eh!" Chur chur. The Specials though stole the show and we digressed down memory lane as progressed along the rail lines skirting Rangataua with "You're Wondering Now" and "Ghost Town."
www.2-tone.info/

The two track river road to Whangaehu Beach was swamped with primal New Orleans funk courtesy of a Soul Jazz comp. Doctor John is guaranteed to drive the Reverend to all sorts of extreme behavior and it was along this stretch of farm track that he decided to start making stills photos from the roof of the moving Base Jumper Van (courtesy of Roadcraft. Chur chur!)
www.souljazzrecords.co.uk

Sweet.

Awesome post from El Presidente who as always is a hard act to follow so from The Reverend on the decks (how does he remember where we played these???)......................

Unknown Mali music CD:
This CD was found abandoned and I can only presume it is a Mojo or somesuch giveaway. however the mellow tones and haunting melodies of the Mali blues musicians, provided a fantastic backdrop for the unfolding bush scenery and a fascinating counterpoint to the american blues tradition and the ethnographic migration of musical styles from one place to another and then back to the source to be re-interpreted again, much like our journey.

Combat Rock - The Clash:
I am a new Clash fan and the Pres is an old Clash fan. I can still detect a slight bemusement at my recent appreciation of the British behemoth of the punk years. Perhaps it is my age or perhaps my long-held dislike for English yob-punk, but my favourite Clash albums are everyones least favourite, Combat Rock and Sandanista.
Combat Rock being to me at least, perfection. An eclectic selection of timeless tunes that takes you around the world, from rock'n'roll to reggae, to funk, to the casbah and back home to blighty. The standout tune is of course 'Straight to Hell', as transcendant a piece of music as you could hear, full of obscure but evocative lyrics and the fantastic break, that recently made M.I.A's Paper Planes the killer tune it is. This album sounds as fresher and more relevant now than I think it would have on release. Know Your Rights!

Original Hip-Hop Greats:
On this trip the party never stopped and I used the evening to attempt to convert El Pres to old school hip-hop - not his favourite brew at all. Still after classics from Sugarhill Gang, Eric B and Rakim, BDP, Public Enemy, Whodini and a whole crew of cats, I could tell he was defrosting like roadkill possum on a mountain road. "Electro is your Dancehall' he said referring to his love of dancehall and my slow presidential brainwashing that has resulted in me liking it 'dutty' myself from time to time! "Word!"

DVD - MC5 -Kick Out the Jams:
Having a van with a DVD player in it was too good an opportunity to miss so on our last night we had a music viddy night. Beginning with this Sinclair produced montage of MC5 performances, home movies and trippy light show. The highlight of this being a lot of the live footage (although synced to other performances) showing the fives ballistic live performances including a free concert in an Ann Arbor park. Th energy is palpable as the five blast through their repertoire, with enough energy to power their very own 'Starship'.

The Doors - Collection:
The best thing abou this DVD is actually a previously unreleased and possibly last TV appearance from 1969, entitled 'Soft Parade'. A bearded and bleary Morrison, post Miami, almost phones in a few performances from the Soft Parade, only letting rip on the title track (The best cut on the LP anyway). This is intercut with some great footage of them recording 'Wild Child' in the studio and an interview section from the TV show in which one particularly memorable moment occurrs. Whilst being asked about the future of music, Morrison shows his innate insight and vision. To paraphrase, 'I can see in the future, all the music being made electronically by machines and tapes, with just one musician operating them and making music by himself'.

Death Disco - Post Punk Compilation
Somehow I kept forgetting this compilation, when atttempting to write up this post. however this was one of those fantastic comps that opens up a chink in music history, through which undiscovered lands can be found. This particular land is post-punk land, that fertile breeding ground after the punk years, when artists struggled to reconcile the punk ethos and approach with the changes in music such as electronic instruments, the birth of hip-hop and the last vestiges of the disco boom.
Beginning righteously with Death Disco by P.I.L and the resurrected Johnny Lydon, the doom laden 'white-boy groove' snakes on courtesy of Jah Wobble while Lydon deadpans the vocals. The next track is a real oddity with some real pedigree. Featuring Jah Wobble, Keith Levene and Don Letts (Clash DJ and Film-maker) toasting over a lazy dub, Steel Leg vs. the Electric Dread's tune 'Haile Unlikely', has Don professing...'Me don Wanna go to a Kingston, me don wanna inna Africa, I live inna Brixton" , a highly ironic confession for a British rasta.
Elsewhere on this compilation is the minimal electronic punk of the Normal and 'Warm Leatherette' (Covered by Grace Jones) alongside the electro-pop of Human League and 'Hard Times' and the alt-disco of the Buzzcocks 'I dont want to touch it'.
One of the standout tracks is 'Jezebel Spirit' by Byrne and Eno, a timely reminder of how ahead of its time the 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts' actually is, with its samples, allusions to world music and electronic treatments.
Although some of the tracks here are slightly dubious, hearing Throbbing Gristles, United and the Higsons ("You ain't seen me alright!"), 'Put the Punk back in the Funk, reminds me what an unusual time it was as electronica, punk, disco, dub and funk, clashed together in the fertile musical grounds of New York and London to create a new sound, which would influence much of the following 2 decades more than punk ever did. (Death Disco at Allmusic.com)

A great trip with the Presidente and as always with our joint adventures, an amazing soundtrack!

Roadtrippin'

Although the Reverend Y El Presidente are in constant contact with each other, plotting and planning, discussing and discovering, conspiring and creating, geographic location keeps these 2 brave adventurers from working together. For those that know, everytime these cats get together, something happens, something wonderful - DIG.

Luckily the planets aligned and instead of keeping the 2 compadres apart, geography brought them together again on the sequel to the 'Sightline' Project, 'Waterline'.

Here are a few shots of the dynamic duo on art-safari through the Central Plateau.

"Are you sure about this?"

"I'm not supposed to hang off moving vehicles when I'm taking my meds!"

If this was duel, the fast-shooting El Presidente would win hands down.

'Getting all the angles'

'El Presidente gets total coverage'

Viva The Reverend Y El Presidente!

Till next time Chief....................

I was asked...'What the world should know about?'

3 subjects the world should know more about?

1. Religion - Whether you are spiritual or not, you should know abou the worlds religions, their similarities and their differences (e.g. Islam, Christianity and Judeaism have around 34 prophets in common between all 3 religions - Mmm, so why do they fight so?). Religion has shaped our national boundaries, our social structures, our moral beliefs and our grasp of science. Despite this, I was told by the headmaster at my childrens school that the NZ Minsistry of Education had decided it was too hard to write a curriculum about the worlds religions, so they just teach bible studies on the sly instead! That will really help with religious tolerance and understanding in the future.
2. History - No-one seems to know anything about history anymore so we are reinventing the wheel and the world in the image of our own ignorance. To tie into the first point. Many people amazingly, do not know that the Christians started a holy war against the Moslems almost 1000 years ago. This war instigated and compounded by the christian powers has continued in one form or another until the present day and its history explains events such as the Gulf Wars, 9/1, the creation of Israel and justifies much of the passionate resentment amongst Moslems towards us 'the infidels'.
3. Economy - Our economic model is set up to 'boom and bust' so there should be no surprise when it does just that, that is the secret to making a lot of money in business, (one mans ruin is anothers profit) not the secret to maintaining a stable and consistent economy. Business are set up to make money for shareholders and employees. Not to make the world a better place, not to provide you with the best products and services they can out of the goodness of their hearts. BP is not making the world a greener place! Human beings have been around for 2 million years and the first unit of currency was not developed until approx 5000 years ago in what is now modern Iran/Turkey/Iraq. The first metal coins did not arrive until approx 650 BC in China and banknotes were not printed in Europe until the 17th century. How did we survive before that? Q: How come we are all beholden to an abstract principle which is only 2,600 years old? A: Because people have gained power from it. (Much like some religious beliefs).

Ultimately, these things all tie into History. History is not just the study of 'what happened' in the past, it is the study of 'why is it happening' in the present and the 'What will happen' for the future. Ignore it at your peril!

On The QT

Quentin Tarantino came to my town for the first time in 1992. Of the many attractions Nottingham offers, the Broadway Cinema stands proud. Tucked away in Hockley it proffers what I believe are called Art House films: the preferred nomenclature delineating the idiosyncratic and mostly thought provoking brand of entertainment, from the mindless drivel, punted down at the multiplex.

In the summer of 1992, for only the second time, the Broadway held its Shots in the Dark Festival: a feast of crime cinema, my particular bagful, and featuring a wide eyed, ever gesticulating, American gentleman showing his much anticipated debut, Reservoir Dogs. I paid £2.50 student rate and the Artist threw in a Q and us session post- viewing: a remarkable event, a fantastic film and an engaging man.

Tarantino patronised subsequent festivals and brought his equally entertaining Pulp Fiction to Nottingham as the festival's secret feature in 1994. The gaff was, by that time, well and truly blown and even a sniff of a ticket impossible. Tarantinoesque quickly became a by- word for a new cinema and the man himself the personification of knowledge, style, provocative and insightful screen writing, notably Natural Born Killers. Tarantino’s work mined the obscure, the sub-genre, alongside the classical and canonised as he reinvented the oddball cinephile as film artist, convincing us all that we too could traverse the arc from video store to the Weinstein Empire.

Of course Quentin liked the attention, the unique fame bestowed by a stellar rise, the genius discovered, the notoriety of an enfant terrible: fame, I’m told, lets him loose, hard to swallow and QT’s subsequent moves were represented by the familiar parabola describing rise in notoriety, celebrity and commercial success against a plunge in quality, substance, innovation and eventual collapse into cliché and self parody.

The taught and urgent drama, the Mamet-like dialogue, the economy of expression, the violent shocks, the black humour, the stylised yet engaging pathos of his characters, discarded for ponderous indulgence. Witness his flaccid, plodding, tribute to Pam Grier, Jackie Brown, failing to engage with the substance of crime fiction or the style of Blacksploitation. Or the un-epic Shaw Bothers cum Sergio Leone saga of Kill Bill and the RTA that is Deathproof: I found the Dukes of Hazard more substantive and engaging. His work has become an ever more elaborate litany of pastiche and plagiarism, glued together by vague notions and symbols of his own half-baked sub-genre. He is lauded by audiences for whom an easily obtained reference marks an end in itself, the cultural equivalent of a PoMo patchwork comfort blanket.

And then there came the associated industry: forests of fawning prose; popular culture bookshelves stuffed with sub-academic analysis and rejected dissertation material; the cult of personality; the procession of involved discussions led by the man himself, as dull and navel gazing as a BFI Kubrick convention and featuring another bug eyed, ADHD performance, each sentence punctuated with a million okays, double, triple positives reinforcing the complex content of his project to capture the great car chase or the interminably fine details of Beat Takeshi’s oeuvre.

The media outlets are in full chorus anticipating his latest as QT takes on the World War 2 Movie and no doubt we can expect cartoonish, stylised, ultra-violence and faintly ambiguous morality nailing its colours firmly to Pekinpah’s iron cross.... Fame: bully for you, chilly for me.

Reactive Agent Reports Activity

On the western front of music, the Reverend will be active this Friday in the lower reaches of the southern hemisphere.

The second N**i Disco gig will be held at the Mutton Club, Whanganui on Friday 5th June 2009.

The 2 sonic pranksters will be 'blitzing' the audience with their unique aural assault of Tribalspacefunknoisegrimepop. The other bands are supposed to be really good too!

The group show 'Ivan Rebroff is my Security Blanket' featuring the 'Techniques for Self Sabotage' series by Neil Buddle, is on until Wed 10th june at the Federal Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand.

this funky and ecelectic group show, features a cast of creative suspects, inhabiting the fringe of Whanganui. These include Erica Sklenars, Dylan Herkes, Bridget Tyson, Brandon Sayring, Mike Marsh, Deborah Halliday and more.

Whats in a name?

Since excitedly posting on my new recent musical adventures in a band called 'Nazi Disco', I have been challenged on the reasons for the name.

For background the word NAZI was a nickname given by their opponents and taken from the letters N and Z which stood for Nationalen Zocialisten or the 'National Socialists'. The Third Reich did develop from the National Socialists, but by the time of the war all pretense of being a political party had ultimately been discarded. The catchy nickname however remained and it seems, has stood the test of time.

To qualify, I do not support, genocide, imperialism, intolerance, mass extermination, censorship or white supremacy in any forms. I do however support free speech, equality, historical awareness, tolerance, collaboration and progress.

I didn't think up the name but in its defense and as I have explained elsewhere, its not about the Germans, or the Nazis. The name is about the relentless mechanisation of the world and the widespread and continual intolerance, violence and persecution across all cultures. to this point we are all "dancing the Nazi Disco' a petrol fuelled, idealised humanity, marching, bang-bang-bang along the autobahns, towards our own destruction and trampling ourselves in its way. It is supposed to be ironic?

Alas that symbol, the dreaded swastika, despite being a 'borrowed' perversion of a peaceful bhuddist symbol, is mythologicaly powerful in popular culture . this power really needs to fade, to be ridiculed, deflated and danced on.

The Sound device which sounds more like Balinese Gamelan than the teutonic oompah of the hordes of doom happened to come into being at the same time as the band. Truthfully as a Pom I grew up on old war movies, army kitsch, hippies wearing army german surplus, toy soldiers and many a Tommy comic full of swastikas and German soldiers crying 'Achtung Englander!", much to our amusement. The device has a sort of crude technological look and could be a stolen radio device or some other esoteric secret N**i device, like many that were the basis for the post-war industrial age and economic boom (Vorsprung durch Technik), rocket flight, radio telescopes etc.

I dont just do 'pretty pictures' and I feel that as well as celebrating the good it is important to challenge the bad. Hopefully in doing so we break down some of those barriers that stop us from seeing the complex truth of our reality and history, which is never black or white. To do this one must critique and one of the most effective forms is parody, pastiche, to amplify something until its own inherent deficiencies are obvious to all.

Of course ultimately the idea is suppoed to be that the Nazis, the Swastika are not what we have to worry about. They are no danger to us now, they were beaten thoroughly and that form of unashamed supremacy, will not occurr in that brazen form again. Whatever neo-nazi groups are left are imbeciles at best and really not clever enough to be dangerous(they would be pleased at the fear and power exterted by their old logo). However the same mentality of oppression still exists, the same persecutions are going on, whether it's religion, sexuality, colour, tribe, caste, people preaching religious intolerance, starting wars for profit, exploiting the poor and on and on and on....these are the people to be scared of, except that now they are not wearing easy to spot uniforms with distinctive symbols anymore. They are sublimated through the system, through business and their borders are not defined by the old national boundaries. They still want to rule the world at any cost, they have always existed and always will.

...and remember sometimes past victims become the aggressors, the bullied become the bully and not only is that dangerous but ultimately, as inexcusable as the original offence?

So feel free to challenge me on the name, I am not going to spend too much time making the obvious point that I am not a NAZI, but I am still doing the Nazi Disco Ja, just like all of you.

Nazi Disco

Saturday night, 9th May saw the first performance by tribal-noise-punk act 'Nazi Disco', comprising of the Reverend and Adam Elliot. A small but enthusiastic crowd watched the bands 20 minute set at Stink Magnetic Records HQ in Whanganui.

Despite its awkward moments and 'technical difficulties' the dynamic duo, pummeled the audience with heavy rhythms and discordant riffs, soaked in noise, enduring wolf-whistles and sardonic requests for the Eagles! The next gig will be at The Mutton Club, Whanganui - Da Sein Oder 'Square' Sein!

Experimental Sonic Research:

This menacing looking device was discovered by the Reverend in an old chest, hidden at the end of WW2, until now. This sonic weapon, utilises organic and man-made items to create an astonishing array of sound, that appears harmless acoustically, until amplified, when its true and frightening potential is made clear. A recording of this weapon in use, was found with the device, but efforts to transfer the signal to a digital recorder, unsurprisingly scrambled the 21st century technology!

Audio:
Song Recycle (Excerpt)

Metonymy 09

If selected 2 new works will be exhibited in Auckland from this weekend. The Metonymy 09 Exhibition is held as part of the Auckland Writers Festival at the Edge Gallery, Aotea Centre, Auckland, 9th - 23rd May. Visual artists and writers are paired up and given 4 weeks to collaborate to produce new work.

I was teamed with Desiree Gezentsvey a poet and playright. We selected 2 poems with language as their theme (Lingua Franca and Penned In).

The paper itself was hand-made form a crossword dictionary to add to the literary reference.

Feeling the Affect

Watching Pier Paolo Passolini’s Salo I was struck again by JG Ballard’s maxim that we have long since succumbed to the death of affect: we are saturated with imagery and ideas of violence, ritualised, stylised, mediated ad infinitum, and thus conditioned to treat them with the deference we reserve for the mundane. I have to disagree.
In Passolini’s film the essence of De Sade’s 120 days of Sodom is transported to Mussolini’s idealised Fascist state, Salo. Here under the auspices of Nazi troops, four members of the Italian social elite comport themselves with decadence, with zealous, experimental, abandon.
Passolini makes it clear where he stands: the ideological associations of the participants, the setting of the story, the faux-polemic, and philosophically bogus utterances of the Faschismo alumni, shows us moral bankruptcy and indulgence so foul, so sexually violent and self-annihilating , that there can be no room for ambiguity. This is, he unequivocally states, wrong.
I found the experience shocking: this is Passolini’s greatest success - affecting me with a deep-seated and brutal convulsion toward his art, infusing me with the visceral disgust I felt gazing at the horrors of his work. I have waited a while to view this sometime banned and notorious film. I attempted to approach it with the same trepidation I felt when, as a kid on the hunt for forbidden enlightenment, I was finally able to procure a pirated, videotaped copy, of A Clockwork Orange. Now I can only imagine that Ludovico’s technique comprises compulsory and endless exposure to Salo. Poor Alex couldn’t close his eyes, couldn’t switch it off. I too was unable to completely look away. Nor could I refuse reflecting upon it.
What of comparative experiences, encounters with works that have shocked me? Cronenbourg’s Crash: a car showroom; automotive fetishism; wound penetration: but there is something in the prosthetic plasticity and stylised act that lacks real power and is almost ridiculous. And it is, of course, a consensual union.
Francisco Goya’s , Great Feat! With Dead Men! show war crimes, dismembered guerrilla fighters, body parts impaled on tree branches, a torso here, a head there, discarded limbs scattered about. And here come the Chapman Brothers with their contemporary sculptured version, Great Deeds against the Dead, the meaning of Goya’s original transmuted to suit their agenda: a physical metaphor of the psychic damage inflicted by ideology, much the same intent, possibly, as Passolini’s project.
I can’t claim to like Jake and Dinos Chapman’s work; like is simply not part of the lexicon they allow us to describe it. But it is worthy of my attention and gives me pause for thought. They understand provocation, repulsion. They know how to affect. As does Marcus Harvey with Myra were children’s hand prints in primary school hues coalesce into the serial killer’s portrait, her empty eyed gaze, the same as in the thousands of reproductions of that 1950’s, tabloid newspaper photograph. It is a devastating work, the economy of expression, the simplicity of the idea, the nauseous feeling of affect.

Metonymy-Oh-Me-Oh-My

Your friendly neighbourhood Reverend (Aka Neil Buddle) has entered the Metonymy 09 exhibition, which is part of the Auckland Writers Fest. This exhibition pairs up artists and writers to produce a collaborative work, including visual art and performance. The pairs are selected by the organisers and the pairs are therefore previously unbeknownst to each other.
The Rev has been paired with Wellington poet and playwright Desiree Gezentzvey. We are working on illustrative prints of 3 poems.

If selected for the final exhibition, the works will be on display on Level 4, Aotea Centre between the 9th-23rd May.
For more information goto: METONYMY

Cut Off Your Nose

Here it s the 3rd Instalment of the 'Techniques for Self- Sabotage' series, entitled Cut Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face...

situationism for artsache

from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SvdWk8zRrI

Art Is Tree

The notion of art and artist is forever being tested and re-defined. As a self-proclaimed wannabe artist and ex-arts worker, the definitions, assumptions, cliches and stereotypes that accompany this discussion, challenge and disappoint me in equal measure.

Working with arts students as I do currently, is interesting because art school is where many people come to live out their stereotype or have them reinforced by the previous generation of dilettantes-cum-tutors. To the public, artists can be seen to be vague, lazy, pretentious, arrogant, un-professional, difficult divas. Unfortunately this is one of the stereotypes that some artists love to live out, often the less talented ones.

In my dealing with artists, time and time again, I am confronted by people asking for special help and dispensation, because they are 'creative (A hugely over-used word). These 'creative' people believe that they deserve these special dispensations, as if it is a known fact and an unwritten law of the universe. It is often at this point that I ask why do 'creative people' deserve special rules and dispensations? Are artists needs more important than that of others? Are artists superior beings, the pinnacle of humanity and above nurses, teachers, plumbers and fast-food technicians? These questions are closely followed by "If artists are open-minded, capable, adaptable individuals as is claimed, why are they/us so high-maintenance? It is usually at this point, that the art-world bubble starts to burst! They are hard questions, especially to someone couched in the comfortable assumption that they are special and the world wants to bathe in their unique wondrousness.

In my art studies one of the most influential topics I studied was the Russian contstructivists of the post WW1 period. These artists faced with a western world in ruin, dismissed the notion of art for arts sake, in favour of art for the common Good. They though that artists should get involved in social causes, politics, architecture, engineering, clothing, apply themselves to rebuilding the world in a better way through becoming integral in the processes. Their image of the artist was as creative worker, in a boilersuit, pencils in pocket; a pragmatic, creative problem solver interacting on an essential level with society. Not playing peripheral party-pooper. Espousing a life on the margins of society whilst courting and demanding the same society give attention and reward to their special gifts.

In my work often I have been amazed by how bad artists are at communicating visually outside of their art-form. If it is to do with advertising, marketing, promotion or any other form of professional networking, artists tend to either fully refuse or resist as if it is an affront to their superior moral standing and altruism or engage so badly with them as to be damaging. As with most tools and systems, they are not inherently evil. Advertising is a tool for increasing awareness of something, this is a necessary tool and as ever it is how we use it that counts. Marketing and advertising offer the artist a fantastic opportunity to communicate their uniqueness, their visual language, their approach etc. to their target audience, in advance of the actual work, in the same way an entree might whet your appetite for the main course of a meal.

One of the other damaging things is the expectation of funding/grants/support which seems like a throwback to the old 'wealthy patron'. Patronage in the arts is important but it is also a trap of sorts. Art school sets up students to believe that they will not make money, they will not be taken seriously as professionals and they will not be valued. This teaching is often based on the bitter experience of tutors who clearly followed that trajectory. With this attitude, changing whatever prejudices the professional and public world has will be hard. Funding is great and it allows for exploration of important concepts that may not be commercially supported but advance and inform practice. However what use is a generation of artists going out into the world expecting a living, producing obscure temporal art-works that preach to the converted and deter the average viewer, however 'radical' and 'new' the concept appears according to the days fashions?

Personally for me art is about communicating ideas to the largest audience possible. These ideas should be produced practically and distributed as democratically as possible. As in the time of the constructivists, we need artists to engage with the modern world and bring what ever gifts they do have to bear on society. We don't need a lot of aloof creatives, watching from the backbenches as the world turns to custard saying "I'm not a part of this".

Of course 'horses for courses'. There is room for all and that is one of the wonderful things about the art-world. However don't profess to be one thing and demand another. Don't make inaccessible works in secret and expect to be rewarded in public, however 'important' the idea. Don't sell aesthetically pleasing objects with no message and expect to be feted as an visionary artist. And whatever you do don't expect the world to beat a path to your door and give you what you deserve or expect the world to pave the way from your door to the world, just in case you condescend to walk it one day.

With gifts come responsibilities not privileges. Do your work, work hard, represent yourself well, use your creativity in all areas of your life and practice, offer all, expect nothing - you are your own reward.

Techniques for Self-Sabotage

CUT OFF YOUR NOSE!

As I have currently been working on the set of prints entitled 'Techniques for Self-Sabotage', the notion has been playing on my mind. For it seems that when in life I am given the easy job, plenty of time or a free reign - I abuse it in some way. If the devil truly finds work for idle hands, I am a valued employee of Beelzebub. This instinct has always been there, even when I was pre-teen, I would be getting top grades at school and go vandalising, breaking and entering factories or setting fires after school. These petty crimes served as excitement, entertainment and challenge, all things sadly lacking from my intellectual stimulation of the time. These activities also exposed another world, a world beyond the confines of rules, discipline and moral prerogative. This world had its own rules, its own logic and its own rewards. In its chaos, especially fire there was some sense of beauty, a very natural one, the sublime beauty and awe of a hurricane vs. a sunny day.

Sometimes these self-sabotaging instincts help, burning your bridges can be a good way to make sure you move forward in life and calamitous if you ever need to retreat. So here I am 'cutting off my nose to spite my face' in preparation for the next print in the series. And if you out there are twiddling your thumbs, doing something you shouldn't be, for a thrill that the consequences outweigh, then beware for you may also a Master of Self-Sabotage.