Paul Murphy's SENTINELS

Something to contemplate for Sunday. Paul Murphy has been kind enough to grant permission to post these images from his series Sentinels.

Links:
Paul Murphy
Paul Murphy (Behance)

INTERVIEW: Kelly Louise Judd

Full of allegory and whimsy and spiced with a touch of subtle menace, Kelly Louise Judd's illustrations seem reminiscent of Edwardian Era imagery from Central and Eastern Europe as well as pre-industrial wildlife documentation. Combining natural and fairytale elements, her creations are at once familiar yet mysterious. Adding to the natural element, her illustrations feel as if they've been crafted from wood and the colour palette is earthy and subdued.

Kelly Louise Judd recieved a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2002. She continues to live in Kansas City where she spends her time painting, illustrating, gardening, and playing the harp. She is deeply inspired by folklore, ghost stories, psychology, Victorian literature and art, Northern Renaissance art, and flora and fauna.

Very graciously, Kelly has agreed to answer a few questions and correct me on some of my misconceptions and provide some insight to her work. All images provided with the kind consent of Kelly Louise Judd.

How important would you say narrative and allegory are in your works?
It is very important to me. I feel most drawn to art that tells a story and holds symbolism. I’m interested in the underlying stories of life. The house may be quiet and the outside might feel still, but at the same time the house is full of ghosts, and just outside the window a hummingbird’s wings are flapping 50 times per second. Nothing is as calm as its surface, and this is often a starting point for me.

Would you pick one of your works and explain the process that went into its creation and the influences that went into it?
The Peacock and the Crane was inspired by the Aesop’s Fable of the same name. I’d been doing some other works that involved peacocks and cranes separately, so I felt like it was time to do a piece focused on the two together. I wanted them to be together in the painting, but also wanted it to feel as though they were going about in two different worlds. So, the peacock walks on roses, while the crane walks lower on a peacock tail rug.

From the name "Swanbones" to their appearance across a number of your works, birds play a significant role. What do birds signify to you and how would you say you make use of them in your work?
In my work I tend to think of birds as fragile messengers. They might have a warning to deliver or something that needs to be taken away when they leave.

What artists would you say you admire the most and have had the greatest influence on you and why?
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the work of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painters. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hieronymus Bosch, and Hugo Van Der Goes are a few of my favorites. I think they have most influenced me in the way I think about symbolism and also in my color palette.

I’ve also been very inspired by the Golden age of Illustration. I love the work of Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, Helen Stratton, and Walter Crane, among so many others.

Which books, films or other media do you enjoy and inspire you?
I read a lot of Victorian literature, which always tends to bleed into my work. I like to read folk tales from all over the world. I’m also inspired by authors like Flannery O’Connor and Carson McCullers.

Sometimes while I’m working I’ll put on a documentary. The topics of these can be about anything from historical gardening to leprosy.

Links:
Kelly Louise Judd
Kelly Louise Judd (Etsy)
Kelly Louise Judd (Facebook)
Kelly Louise Judd (Art Out There)
Kelly Louise Judd (Beautiful Decay)
The Mythic Art of Kelly Louise Judd (eclectix)

INTERVIEW Guy Laramée

Seeing Guy Laramée's works, I was at once charmed by them and looking more closely, they bear the weight of further examination. I come from a point of ignorance in terms of this kind of work and it is through this lens that I hope I'll be able to encourage others to join me in my explorations. Mr. Laramée very kindly took time to answer a few of my humble questions and gave kind permission to use the imagery accompanying this post.

This is his artist statement:

The erosion of cultures – and of “culture” as a whole - is the theme that runs through the last 25 years of my artistic practice. Cultures emerge, become obsolete, and are replaced by new ones. With the vanishing of cultures, some people are displaced and destroyed. We are currently told that the paper book is bound to die. The library, as a place, is finished. One might ask so what? Do we really believe that “new technologies” will change anything concerning our existential dilemma, our human condition? And even if we could change the content of all the books on earth, would this change anything in relation to the domination of analytical knowledge over intuitive knowledge? What is it in ourselves that insists on grabbing, on casting the flow of experience into concepts?
When I was younger, I was very upset with the ideologies of progress. I wanted to destroy them by showing that we are still primitives. I had the profound intuition that as a species, we had not evolved that much. Now I see that our belief in progress stems from our fascination with the content of consciousness. Despite appearances, our current obsession for changing the forms in which we access culture is but a manifestation of this fascination.
My work, in 3D as well as in painting, originates from the very idea that ultimate knowledge could very well be an erosion instead of an accumulation. The title of one of my pieces is “ All Ideas Look Alike”. Contemporary art seems to have forgotten that there is an exterior to the intellect. I want to examine thinking, not only “what” we think, but “that” we think.
So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are.
After 30 years of practice, the only thing I still wish my art to do is this: to project us into this thick “cloud of unknowing.”

I wonder when looking at your work if you are either reverting your materials(books) into their previous state or simply altering them into something unexpected? Is your intention to revert the materials or push them toward something new?

That may sound presumptuous but I really feel I’m not doing anything. I’m rather done by a process that I really do not understand. Therefore, “intentions” get into the work through doors that are mostly unexpected and suddenly I notice that a given “idea”, “image” of feeling has been lingering for too long and that thus it is calling for attention.

“Newness” is part of the process, in the sense that there is always a freshness that accompanies the birth of pieces – well… the good pieces, because for the bad pieces, it is rather a feeling of staleness, but the bad pieces have to be done anyway…

This may sound like I don’t want to answer your question, but it is only that I think we really have – as a culture – to get out of the “maker” paradigm, something that might have been useful in the first days of the industrial era – seeing the poet as a worker – but we also have to remind ourselves that humans have always felt that inspiration came from somewhere else.

And really, I don’t feel I’m working with books. I’m working with feelings (not emotions, they are different to me). I’m glad that this limitation, this limit – books – can provide a channel for inspiration (one thing less to think about…) but it could be anything, really. I feel I’ve worked the same Romantic stuff with installations and painting.

But again, “The Mona Lisa is not a turnip” as Gerhard Richter said. I am pretty much aware of the metaphor – mountains of knowledge return to what they are : mountains – and also well aware that my gesture is a denial of content. But when I enter into a book with the chainsaw, all this is forgotten. I contemplate the birth of a mountain and like always in contemplation, I lose myself in the process. What a relief !

I find your work reminiscent of Haruki Murakami or Kafka in their transformative nature. What artists feed your imagination if not inspire?

Maybe Kafka but I would rather say Borges. Both authors share the same connection to the Fantastic, but Borges is more down to earth. More credible in a sense.

Generally speaking it is painting that inspires me. 19th century landscape painting more than anything. And very old Chinese and Japanese paintings too. It is the contemporary painter Gerhard Richter that made all this legitimate. We are not cut from the past, the past is in us.

You've previously described the euphoria you've felt when finding a beautiful book. To you, what makes a beautiful book and why are these attributes important to you?

I wish I could give you the recipe of beauty. I wish I could have it myself, then I would be rich…! Because really, life, beauty, oneness, all these are synonymous, aren’t they?
Some much have been written of the theories of harmony, what makes something harmonious. But really it is the mystery of it that makes it so appealing.

I currently prefer old books because they transpire dedication, care, etc. In the past, people made books as something which would last. The same with furniture. The spirit of someone who does something that should last long is not the same.
Today it is all rat race, carelessness, except for a couple of craftsmen who still understand what they get from work well done : calm, absorption, increased attention, vigilance, etc. All attributes that are not so far from spiritual practice after all…

One of my favourite works of yours is Tectonic which has a path or path-like thread winding its way through the landscape. For me, it pulled me right in and there I was on the path. What techniques do you use to draw the viewer into your works?

What techniques  do you use to fall in love? There are no techniques for anything.
Contemplation is the thing. If the artist really entered into contemplation, than there are good chances that the viewer will too. As I see it, contemplation is not even a “state” that you “reach”. It is the original soup in which we all soak. Going back to our contemplative nature – and it is really that ; a coming back to what we are – brings happiness. That’s all.

Would you describe a turning point or moment of revelation in your art and explain its significance and impact on your work?

There is turning point everyday Sir ! Otherwise there would be no art. It would be sheer reproduction. Everyday I feel I was mistaken and blind. Everyday I resent my mistakes and whish I should not fall in traps again. The trap of intellection for example. God, the amount of time I spent in this hell…! Thinking that I could make art with ideas, with my training in anthropology, etc. Gibberish.

“Happiness is when the “I” is not”, someone said. I just realized that this is really what I want : to disappear behind the work. Kabir said “ :If you were to free me, free me from myself”.

Links:
Guy Laramée
Guy Laramée (Pertwee, Anderson & Gold)
Guy Laramée (Jayne H Baum)
Guy Laramée (Cool Hunting)
Guy Laramée (Foster White Gallery)

Peter Zumthor & Louise Bourgeois’s STEILNESET MEMORIAL

I enjoy that Peter Zumthor and Louise Bourgeois' monument to victims of the witch hunts in what is Steilneset in modern Norway. Particularly in its bleached winter form, it is a reminder that even the most desolate and seemingly empty places can hold powerful memories. At the end of this post, click "read more" to read Liv Helene Willumsen's The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway – A Survey.

Also, I should mention the efforts and support of those at National Tourist Routes in Norway who kindly provided the imagery for this post as well as the background information featured below.

"At the end of the 16th century, witch-hunts started to spread through large parts of Europe. More people were convicted of sorcery and burned at the stake in Vardø than anywhere else in Norway. From 1600 to 1692, a total of 135 people were accused of sorcery in Finnmark. 91 of these were convicted and executed."

"The history is communicated through excerpts from historical sources as well as art and architecture in an international format, realized in a unique collaboration between the artist Louise Bourgeois and the architect Peter Zumthor. Bourgeois’ contribution comprises a chair with five gas flames reflected in seven encircling oval mirrors. The artwork is located in a separate glass and steel building designed by the architect Peter Zumthor. His contribution also comprises a 125 metre long building with an illuminated window for each of the victims who were executed in Finnmark. The memorial is located in the vicinity of the assumed execution site.
Through her studies of the old court records, the historian Liv Helene Willumsen has elucidated the fate of the 91 persons who were convicted and executed, their stories being retold on individual memorial plaques with the names of the victims."

"The texts for the exhibition in the memorial hall at Steilneset are written by Liv Helene Willumsen (b. 1948) on the basis of court records from the 17th century. Willumsen is Assistant Professor of History at the Department of History and Religious Studies, University of Tromsø.
Willumsen is the country’s foremost expert on the Finnmark witchcraft trials, having studied these for several decades and with a PhD degree in the subject. Willumsen has published several books on the Finnmark witchcraft trials, the most recent being a major treatise in Norwegian and English, containing the original sources of the trials."

Louise Bourgeois (1911 – 2010)

"Louise Bourgeois is considered to be one of the most influential artists of the contemporary era. She was born in Paris, but did not have her real international breakthrough until she was 70 years old. In 1938 she moved to New York, where she lived and worked until her death. Bourgeois’ projects have strong symbolic connotations. Her youth, which was marred by conflicts and gender complications, the struggle she faced as a woman in an art world dominated by men and the experience of motherhood constitute the thematic backdrop of her work.

Bourgeois’ creations are mostly sculptural and range from the abstract to the figurative, executed in various materials such as glass, metal and textiles. She is also well known for her intimate drawings, which are often combined with text fragments. In recent years, the art of Louise Bourgeois has been shown on major retrospective exhibitions in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles. The project in Vardø became the final major installation that Louise Bourgeois created."

Peter Zumthor (b. 1943)

"As the son of a cabinetmaker in Basel, Peter Zumthor from an early age learned to give shape to materials. In the sixties he studied at the Pratt Institute in New York and soon became involved in restoration of historic buildings. His constructions, in which he explores the structure and sensory qualities of rooms and materials, have brought him wide international acclaim. He lives and works in Haldenstein, Switzerland.

Zumthor’s approach tends to be minimalist, and his works emanate an exquisite, poetic sensuality in their choice of materials, surfaces and spaces. His work has been relatively little documented; his approach is that architecture should mainly be experienced in direct encounters.

In 2009 Zumthor received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is the most prestigious award an architect can earn. Zumthor is also commissioned by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to develop Almannajuvet gorge near Sauda in Ryfylke to a unique attraction in the framework of the National Tourist Routes."

Links:
Peter Zumthor
Louise Bourgeois
Liv Helene Willumsen
National Tourist Routes in Norway
Peter Zumthor wins RIBA (Guardian)
Louise Bourgeois (Guardian)

Read Liv Helene Willumsen's paper "The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway – A Survey" below.

Monika Forsberg's MUMMY NEEDS GIN

Since interviewing Monika Forsberg many years ago in the early days of SiouxWIRE, we have become great friends and my admiration for her work has only grown as years go by. Her latest animation Mummy Needs Gin is another sublime classic recently featured on Channel 4's Random Acts and at Bar Shorts Manchester. Based on the tweets of Lady Cook of @40elephantsmob, it tells the story of a single mother in London. And as today is Monika's birthday (Happy Birthday!), this is a particularly special post with contributions from Monika, @40elephantsmob, and Alex D. Hay.

First, watch the animation then read through to learn about how it was made and all the work that went into this gem. Enjoy.

"Bronchitis check, scarf check, blanket check, shitty little fan heater check, working boiler oh fuck. I blame the Tories. Then my ex."

How did Mummy Needs Gin first come about?

MONIKA: I thought it was time for me to make another film because it'd been quite a few years since my last one and I thought the Random Acts thing on channel 4 would be a good starting point. I came across @40elephantsmob by chance at around the same time as I was toying around with ideas for a short film

…and one day when I was talking to Lady Cook I said CAN WE MAKE A FILM OUT OF YOU(R TWEETS)?

…and she said yes without any hesitation!

She writes really well about personal highs and lows (without being self centred) and political things and life in general. Most of all, she is funny without seemingly need to try very hard. Very inspiring basically. I handed the proposal in and then we met in real life and that was scary (my son said "STRANGER DANGER! You can’t just go and meet up with people from the internet") but luckily she turned out to be a super sound girl in real life too. Very happy I met her.

Then Chris Shepherd phoned up and said to the answering machine on my phone "HEY c4 said yes to mummyneedsgin HOORAY" but since I seldom answer my phone and never listen to messages I didn’t hear that message and eventually Chris emailed me and told me the good news.

..and I went woohoo!

…and then I went OH SHIT! because that meant there was no going back. I had to make this film. Scary. It's easy to be ballsy and go "I can do this (or that or whatever)" but then when you actually get the opportunity there’s sometimes that parrot on your shoulder there going "that will be an impossible task". Luckily there’s a snake on the other shoulder going "I GONNA EAT YOU, YOU FUCKING STUPID PARROT!" Is this what’s called inner turmoil? I spend a lot of time arguing with myself.

LADYCOOK: Mummy Needs Gin came about from me Lady Cook of Forty Elephants Mob, and Monika Forsberg randomly making contact on Twitter. We instantly bounced jokes, rants and musings. I think there's a synergy between women who are not only mums, but slightly frustrated artists. It's all very well having a million wonderful creative ideas but as a mummy you literally do not have a spare moment to sit down and work them through. As a single mummy I barely have time to breathe let alone do art.

Monika asked if I'd be cool with her doing some art with the tweets and I said go for it. The twitter @40elephantsmob does have other contributors, but all the tweets for the film were written (ranted?) by Lady Cook. People had suggested before working with a visual artist for my poetry but I'd never clicked with anyone’s style, despite knowing truckloads of graf artists/painters/illustrators, then voila, the twitter universe introduced us.

How did the imagery develop from the words/tweets?

LADYCOOK: Monika developed all the images 100%, I wholeheartedly trusted her and said "surprise me". I knew I liked her hand styles and would like the end result.

MONIKA: I wanted to make a hand drawn animation with marker pens but as marker pens bleed and the scanner I got is shit and most of all; there wasn’t a very long production time at all, I was gonna do it on the computer. I met up with lady cook and showed her the tweets I liked and loved and she agreed on me using them. I studied illustration at college but I freeze like Howard Moon when I gotta illustrate things. And to put moving pictures to someone’s words is like illustrating so I froze.

But Howard Moon is cool and so am I (but I don’t play the trumpet) so i decided to bypass illustrating her words and just started to draw and doodle what I felt, my reaction to her text (maybe that’s what illustration is?) to see what would happen because the strength of her words is that I can really recognise myself in her even though I’ve not ever been in her shoes and... she just writes so you can feel as if you’ve been there.

Also I had(and still do have) a two year old called Reginald on my heels and animation takes up a lot of time and doesn’t really mix well with parenthood but luckily Reggie’s dad took time off work so I could spend a month and a half getting lost in animation... We recorded a guide track with the tweets being read out loud (that’s how I visualised it) then I spent a month drawing and drawing and drawing and nothing made sense.

When there was 2 weeks before I had to hand over the film to the composer I had something that really didn’t work so I decided to scrap it and start anew. I got rid of the voice over and put down type. I am very scared of fonts and any graphic design. Whatever you’re scared of GO FOR IT! => It won’t be scary but it might be shit. Then I started drawing in black and white, and quickly realised that I would need to practise a lot harder and for a longer time if I was gonna pull off a stark line drawn animation (because it’d have to be beautiful) so I did quick cut out drawings instead and made the whole thing in a week. It sort of just fell into place. I just drew and fitted it into the story... I wanted to make something that sort of made you go zig-a-zig… ahhh!!! The imagery didn’t develop easily.

Also, I was worried I’d turn it into something Lady Cook might hate because I was illustrating her life. She said, “You do what you want. I see it a bit like a consequences game where you draw a bit and then fold the paper and the next person takes over and does the next bit.” Such a generous girl.

To me, Mummy Needs Gin feels like swimming in memory. How would you describe Mummy Needs Gin?

MONIKA: “Swimming in memory” is a lovely phrase. I thought I’d just do whatever I think right now and then that was it. It’s very direct. It’s not thought through. It was fast like a tweet; fleeting. I’d describe Mummy Needs Gin as in-the-moment, now. When Alex came on board it all fell into place. I wanted happy uplifting music because it’s easy to get a bitter and down beat mood into the film by having the wrong music and I really, really wanted it to reflect the words that come into my mind when I think of Lady Cook ie STRONG, GENEROUS, FUNNY and very, very likeable


LADYCOOK: I have described Mummy Needs Gin as a bit like inviting people to rake through my knickers drawer, with a soundtrack of excerpts from my diary! The last year has been challenging in a lot of ways. I used Twitter as a bit of a dump bucket for the emotional shite that’s passed - it gets to a point where you feel humiliated calling up friends crying about being skint/lonely/terrified of this mad new single parent future. I love writing and words so made up a game making jokes in 140 characters of these dire situations. I'm quite easily amused so I'd actually cheer myself up writing the jokes and be sitting there laughing all of a sudden  I remember typing the pancake one. I think my son and I ate pancakes for three days running and in truth, he was delighted whilst I was thinking OMG we're going to get scurvy soon! It brought back good memories too, the needing to wee in the cab one was coming back from an MF Doom gig, being desperate to wee but also literally buzzing of how inspired I was by his show.

I didn't view a rough cut at any point, I just wanted to see it in its finished glory. I LOVED IT. I honestly think it is friggin amazing and wouldn't change a thing. My second reaction was I want mooooore, I could watch it for hours!!! I think it is beautifully drawn and it blows my mind that a few lines of plain text became this gorgeous thing, Monika is a genius and has this amazing eye to pull it all together. She made a good call choosing Alex to do the soundtrack too as it is so apt, I love the kids voice, it was like my son got brought into it which meant a lot to me.

What was your reaction to completed animation and what were the reactions of others who've seen it?

MONIKA: Without the music, people saw the film and went “oh” (it didnt make sense). People saw the film with music and went “YES!” This film was not about perfection but about being who you are and being okay with it.

LADYCOOK: I know I'm totally biased in my "it's amazing, unique, everyone must see it" opinion... but that doesn't mean it's not true? We surfed Twitter on the night it was on and there was literally not one negative comment, bearing in mind that this was strangers talking about us not to us, that was a nice surprise. I was fearful of a bit of a 'she's a bitter baby mother' critique but it was so gently curated by Monika it didn't strike that chord. Was also a bit nervous about my family and close friends seeing it, as it is slightly laying out my pain for public consumption, but they all wholeheartedly love it. I think the comments of strangers on Twitter were interesting in that a few of them were a bit 'WTF was that?' which I read as they'd not seen anything on that vibe before, taking a humorous visual stance on that domestic situation. Someone said 'Ooooh i was glad she had a nice cuppa at the end'!

Alex D. Hay of The Meow Meows wrote the soundtrack and shared his experiences working on the soundtrack to Mummy Needs Gin...


I was put in touch by a mutual mate - Danny, who sings in my band The Meow Meows. She said that her friend was needing a soundtrack really quickly for an animation that she'd done, and did I want to take a crack at it? I did.

She sent me the (silent) film right away, and told me a couple of songs that she had in mind. What was interesting was that they were completely different - one acoustic-guitar based, another an upbeat party anthem. I decided to take elements of both those tunes and mash them together, made a beat and put some chords over it, and then went from there.

I had most of the music done in a couple of days, and then we went back and forth about the sound effects, and I spent a while tweaking the mix to get something I was happy with.

I felt lucky to be involved for several reasons. The text and the animation speak for themselves; it was obvious I had to produce something to match the sort of anarchic, skewed joie-de-vivre they both suggest. I'm very happy to have contributed to such a warm, funny, humanistic project. Single mothers are demonised in certain elements of the press and it's great to see a positive portrayal which is at the same time real and not sugar-coated. Also Monika was a dream director to work with as she clearly articulated what she was looking for, but gave me the freedom to do pretty much whatever I wanted.

Links:

Mummy Needs Gin (Vimeo)

Walkyland

@40elephantsmob

The Meow Meows

Random Acts (Channel 4)

Monika Forsberg interview (SiouxWIRE)