Disconnection - the relation of representation to the event re-presented
Folk Songs 1- 4
In the recent Folk Songs decoupages the air of unease is politically and historically referenced. Withers adopts this innocently playful hobby-craft medium, in an act of perverse apparent inappropriateness, to reproduce newspaper images of politically potent events.
Robert Clark mere jelly 2004
I have an interest in paper folding kits, whether a duplicate of Gaudi’s ‘Casa Mila’ or a download of the ‘Twin Towers’ from the Internet, both examples remain unmade. The notion of making is more rewarding, more enticing than assembling and constructing; completion is not my interest. On my bookshelves, tucked away among the pages of printed books are examples of appealing cut out greetings cards, these use light and shadow to dramatise and sculpt the form. One the same bookshelves I have kept a few ‘pop up’ books from my own childhood. Each ‘Pop up’ is an embodiment of a theater stage where an histrionic story is enacted.
A declared interest toward craft based materials and DIY hobby project kits give rise to subversive treatment or alteration at the very least. The initiation of an altered method of ‘Artisanship’ is a process of ‘self’ apprenticeship.’ The materials used in hobby sets permit deliberate experimental miss judgments Injecting and responding to unexpected outcomes while working with craft materials is part of the humanity. An enhanced contemporary gravitas will have been in part stimulated from Folk Culture and Mythology. The work and the constituent of the nature of being are in part illuminated through myth. Arthurian legend for example utilises profound knowledge and esoteric wisdom to convey a story or a cosmic drama that also embodies symbolic messages.
‘Folk Songs’ is a series of four Decoupage works, carefully selected images from real life events that have been subject to exposure in the media. Originated from newspaper cuttings, I have taken out or drawn over the catastrophic event. I may have rubbed out the victim, up-ended the fallen and rendered some images back into a state of some normality. These are small, quiet and fragile paper works that are deliberately made unsensational albeit the subject matter. The cameo works are ‘stage set’ in large extensive frames. These artworks in a sense weave an abject Faustian* chronicle, an expression and a construction of forms that haunt the past and the present. ‘For myth is the realm of the ambiguous.’(1) They are constructed from fragments of a reality that had no direct bearing on the self. Consequently, the Decline of definition of the ‘true’ language is re-constructed using and imposing an artifice, an impure self-presence that generates self-Illusion. In neurological terms this could be a profound delusion that is akin to form of collective Capgras Syndrome. What one observes is a phantom of the brain. This is no ‘Simon Pure.’(2)
* Faust. Sold his soul to the devil in return for 24 years of additional life during which timer he could indulge in every pleasure and attain all knowledge at this command. Goethe transformed this necromancer into a personification of the struggle between the higher and lower natures of man.
(1) Christa Burger. Thinking Art, ICA 1991
(2) The Real Man, the authentic article.
Folk Songs were exhibited at The Angel Row Gallery 2007 as part of the 'Parade' season of exhibitions.'Terra Incognita' Curated by Indra Khanna.
Folk Songs 1- 4
In the recent Folk Songs decoupages the air of unease is politically and historically referenced. Withers adopts this innocently playful hobby-craft medium, in an act of perverse apparent inappropriateness, to reproduce newspaper images of politically potent events.
Robert Clark mere jelly 2004
I have an interest in paper folding kits, whether a duplicate of Gaudi’s ‘Casa Mila’ or a download of the ‘Twin Towers’ from the Internet, both examples remain unmade. The notion of making is more rewarding, more enticing than assembling and constructing; completion is not my interest. On my bookshelves, tucked away among the pages of printed books are examples of appealing cut out greetings cards, these use light and shadow to dramatise and sculpt the form. One the same bookshelves I have kept a few ‘pop up’ books from my own childhood. Each ‘Pop up’ is an embodiment of a theater stage where an histrionic story is enacted.
A declared interest toward craft based materials and DIY hobby project kits give rise to subversive treatment or alteration at the very least. The initiation of an altered method of ‘Artisanship’ is a process of ‘self’ apprenticeship.’ The materials used in hobby sets permit deliberate experimental miss judgments Injecting and responding to unexpected outcomes while working with craft materials is part of the humanity. An enhanced contemporary gravitas will have been in part stimulated from Folk Culture and Mythology. The work and the constituent of the nature of being are in part illuminated through myth. Arthurian legend for example utilises profound knowledge and esoteric wisdom to convey a story or a cosmic drama that also embodies symbolic messages.
‘Folk Songs’ is a series of four Decoupage works, carefully selected images from real life events that have been subject to exposure in the media. Originated from newspaper cuttings, I have taken out or drawn over the catastrophic event. I may have rubbed out the victim, up-ended the fallen and rendered some images back into a state of some normality. These are small, quiet and fragile paper works that are deliberately made unsensational albeit the subject matter. The cameo works are ‘stage set’ in large extensive frames. These artworks in a sense weave an abject Faustian* chronicle, an expression and a construction of forms that haunt the past and the present. ‘For myth is the realm of the ambiguous.’(1) They are constructed from fragments of a reality that had no direct bearing on the self. Consequently, the Decline of definition of the ‘true’ language is re-constructed using and imposing an artifice, an impure self-presence that generates self-Illusion. In neurological terms this could be a profound delusion that is akin to form of collective Capgras Syndrome. What one observes is a phantom of the brain. This is no ‘Simon Pure.’(2)
* Faust. Sold his soul to the devil in return for 24 years of additional life during which timer he could indulge in every pleasure and attain all knowledge at this command. Goethe transformed this necromancer into a personification of the struggle between the higher and lower natures of man.
(1) Christa Burger. Thinking Art, ICA 1991
(2) The Real Man, the authentic article.
Folk Songs were exhibited at The Angel Row Gallery 2007 as part of the 'Parade' season of exhibitions.'Terra Incognita' Curated by Indra Khanna.
The Sign
Space opens up with the erasure of the landscape and with it the memories of violence.
This premise is the foundation of the work 25 Cromwell Street. This facsimile has been crafted and cut with precision and it is a trace of something elapsed…a wrought whitewashed iron scroll; lovingly handcrafted by the homeowner…a sign now presumed destroyed, erased or concealed.
There are plenty of accounts as to what took place at the notorious address on Cromwell Street, likewise what happened to the house afterwards the swift attempts made by the Police and the Council to deter trophy hunters from making off with a ghoulish souvenir. This address along with subsequent addresses has been added to the nomenclature of missing houses…a lasting folk memory.
Space opens up with the erasure of the landscape and with it the memories of violence.
This premise is the foundation of the work 25 Cromwell Street. This facsimile has been crafted and cut with precision and it is a trace of something elapsed…a wrought whitewashed iron scroll; lovingly handcrafted by the homeowner…a sign now presumed destroyed, erased or concealed.
There are plenty of accounts as to what took place at the notorious address on Cromwell Street, likewise what happened to the house afterwards the swift attempts made by the Police and the Council to deter trophy hunters from making off with a ghoulish souvenir. This address along with subsequent addresses has been added to the nomenclature of missing houses…a lasting folk memory.
Drum
Your drum is as alive as you are. I seek the drum. Upon my drum bestow the mystery All That Is: It is so. Drum is healing
military ordnance
Eight Drum Drawings
Sleep / Beat / Origin / Ordnance / Altar / Seek / Skin / Stage
The drum skin as replication of human tissue / Paper as Skin / Skin as durable and sensitive surface / Skin - prone to be marked, to be scared, to be split, to be bruised / Marking the skin - placed under pressure, made taught / Drum skin under even tension / Over tighten
The drum as life force - beating rhythm - beating heart - life forces - vibrating air / expelling air - Venting air - rhythmical beat properties / Drum as sound device - Drum as tool for ritual - The talking drum / the silent drum - Expectant / Passive / Paused / In repose
The paper drum - ghosting the original principle.
Material transference - pulped into paper from wood - the transmutation of properties.
Drum modelled upon a 12” Yamaha Maple Custom Tom Tom
Your drum is as alive as you are. I seek the drum. Upon my drum bestow the mystery All That Is: It is so. Drum is healing
military ordnance
Eight Drum Drawings
Sleep / Beat / Origin / Ordnance / Altar / Seek / Skin / Stage
The drum skin as replication of human tissue / Paper as Skin / Skin as durable and sensitive surface / Skin - prone to be marked, to be scared, to be split, to be bruised / Marking the skin - placed under pressure, made taught / Drum skin under even tension / Over tighten
The drum as life force - beating rhythm - beating heart - life forces - vibrating air / expelling air - Venting air - rhythmical beat properties / Drum as sound device - Drum as tool for ritual - The talking drum / the silent drum - Expectant / Passive / Paused / In repose
The paper drum - ghosting the original principle.
Material transference - pulped into paper from wood - the transmutation of properties.
Drum modelled upon a 12” Yamaha Maple Custom Tom Tom
The Ark of Ills
The Self Concept – Psychological Journeys
The Ark is conceivably a stratagem for philosophical and psychological possibilities…journeys. The transitions (the theatrical images) become distinct from the self within, this is though the desire to bring them into the outside world (a compromised reality). The transitional journeys (voyages) have the potential to free the bounds of our own space. The journeys of the Ark succor the universal sense of what it is to be human. The pathos within the transitions explores realms of possibilities; these could be called epic journeys. I may seek to consider the idea of ‘The Universal’ in relation to both the personal and the collective unconscious. Whilst the Ark represents a journey of the individual it may also capture the shadow of the anima (The Collective Unconscious) upon the blank map.
I consider the Ark of Ills’ to be a contemporaneous paradigm on the Noah parable. The Ark of Ills’ acquiesces to the present whilst comprehending vibrations, echo’s and the DNA of the past…the ark is sonorous with trauma…the ark is dependent on fortitude, luck, chance or godsend in order to ride-out natures storm…would it be not preferable for the ark to sink? The Ark of Ills’ is manifest in the aftershock of man being cast adrift with his self-determination and independent from his creator.
The idea as error is present within these works and I term these successions as a series of Self-Concepts within Psychological Journeys. As written previously the ark is also an intermediary devise for this journeying. I consider that I may choose to view the idea that a journey is preferably undertaken without a map…in that sense one does not know where one is going…as the narrative unfolds so the journey may appear to be a foolish one…this is an illusionary state as the apparition is a further construct by the self. These journeys perhaps activate a comprehending of human destiny…the nature of man to explore, and the ark (boat form) becomes symbolic of this. In previous work the idea of exploration has centred on lost continents as well as the void of space (see, ‘Blue print for no tomorrow’ a continuing series of works on paper).
Additional works in the series have involved actions within the studio; these include interactions between artist and object. The scale of the fragile paper ark against the mythological giant is evident. These relationships echo the comparisons one could make between mortals and the immortals. Gods such as Zeus who as an all knowing, all seeing god represents the natural forces that govern lives of men. We are bound and held fast by mortal bodies…this may have something to do with randomness, determinism and free will.
Various photographic ark documents present the self within the theatre space…my gigantic presence in some of the images casts shadows over the ark…in this respect I am reminded of the film, Jason and the Argonauts…noting the scenes the gargantuan Talos Bronze man and Neptune (god of the sea) holding back the clashing rocks.
‘The Ark of Ills’ are a series of images incorporating Place + Time + History. Their substance includes the self in a process of acting and assignation. The works are echoes of memory, vibrations of history, journeys of countless possibilities, disintegration and authentic theatre.
Jung called the shadow, ‘The propensity for evil’; and its presence is something that resides in the depths of human nature and it could be considered to be the negative side of an individual’s personality…it is a constant presence. Charlotte Spivack wrote of the shadow, ‘the psychological equivalent of original sin… ‘That all men psychologically contain the shadow of evil’.
I am interested in the relationship between the idea of original sin, the creation of Adam & Eve (see The Garden 2014) and the vibrations and resonations into the present. In the predominantly male-dominated classical world the idea of God becoming man seemed to endorse gender separation, the reworking of Plato’s concept desire for the ‘Good’ purports to readdressing the nature of desire.
The ark could be desire made manifest, but to what purpose? This remains unknown, (perhaps it is a question of deep-rooted suppression…seduction of desire). The Ark could be considered as the positive shadow, a reflection of reality; it is a replicon (from a single source) of the unknown…it is constantly and gradually disintegrating…it is a catastrophic light. Perhaps the Ark and the shadow seek to consider the point where one confronts the other within the self. The nadir, a dead balance where the self is in a position of descendancy and to which the self may already be planning an ascent!
The arks symbology is an act of self-realisation.
I have previously considered the blank ark as a negative shadow. I conceded the ark to be a ghost, a negative form made manifest by creating an opposing silhouette (a white shadow). The arks presence nonetheless may be seen within the image but it may appear to be of interest to no one…a shadow that is a projection made manifest within the form.
The white paper suggests something that is ghost like, a phantom, dream like, a veiled presence in the real world. The ark is unreal, fantastical and an object to banish and to burn…and as such the performative work Heliogabalus consigns the ark to places where no shadows exist…this is either into a dark universe or into a alternative light one.
The position of the form within the parameters of the picture space is perhaps a dislocated object that profoundly alludes to 'otherness'. The image is a pantomime space and the environment created within that enclosure is where the play is enacted and the prop presented. The grand narrative is clear of that which is helplessly presented. The image is the vehicle for the transmission and the distribution of the narrative...the ark
.
The action brought to bear may be utterly lost and isolated from the rest of the world...the life and the death of the image is determined by the presence of a reproduction of a moment...when light turns into picture and capturing the presence of a phantom.
Making paper arks.
I have previously designed a template so that I can make them as and when I have need. In 2005 I created, ‘Roman Ark’, this was constructed in a hotel room and made use of during my stay in the city. Locations were selected and the ark then photographed; consequently after it had been exploited the ark was deposited unceremoniously in to a public litter-bin*.
One location for the Rome work had been to place the ark in front of the Temple of Caesar; this is located in the Forum Romanum. The temple was built by Augustus after the senate deified Caesar following his death. Caesar’s funeral pyre was speedily constructed out of chairs and furniture hastily brought to bare by senators and plebeian alike; out of the ashes and some two millennia forward people continue to place flowers at this sacred spot.
*Would Caesar cognise such a turn? The duplicity of the act would make amends several years later. In ‘Heliogabalus’ a performative action ensued generating the pure fire of cremation (utilising the power of the sun)…purification through fire. Ignis Natura Renovatur Integra (The fire of nature renews it constantly).
In countenance to one and then the other both acts mirror and offer the significance of capriciousness. Dumping my deference to the Caesars into a public bin, rather than setting it alight in some contrived ceremony is a practice, which continues to resonate today. Caesar (I believe) was fully aware of his destiny on the day of his death. His work incomplete; paused.
Furthermore, a series of images of an ark were taken in 2005 of the old family home of some fifty years. This was upon the death of my mother and before the house was duly sold. I shall never return . . .
Lead Arks
The small tokens (the lead arks) are talismans and votive offerings to the Gods.
The material lead is the dense matter whilst the gold leaf represents the burning sun and the light.
The Ark of Ills’ is manifest in the aftershock of man being cast adrift with his self-determination and independent from his creator.
Stencils
Series 1 & 2 (8 stencils in each series)
+ 3 additional singular stencils
Series 1 & 2 (8 stencils in each series)
+ 3 additional singular stencils