Bob Georgeson, Gateway, 2014, Digital print
...to 2015 perhaps?
The future
One of my favourite examples of Australian architecture. The silo and flour mill at Tocumwal on the Murray River in New South Wales. A premonition of the year ahead?
doin' me head in...
I stopped counting after about 15000 kilometres on the road. The car was still going...I think I was driving, home or away was getting increasingly hard to tell.You go through good towns, and you go through those that don't feel so good, but wherever I went I always felt at home. It is only in the cities that I start to feel alienated. There is always a romanticism about driving down a country road exploring new territory. At the same time one can only marvel, and at times, cringe at land use and our desire and capacity to alter the landscape. The above pic is in Yeoval, a small settlement on the road between Wellington and Parkes. Someone somewhere along the way had decided to create a sculpture park and a 'benefactor' had kindly donated this bronze split 'portrait' of Henry Moore. Considering Moore's oeuvre all one could do was wonder why?
Needless to say with all the travelling this year time in the studio has been infrequent and disjointed at the best of times. The blog has been sadly neglected, collaborations come and go, being focused on particular projects has remained elusive, and yet on occasion I think I have managed to produce my best work, certainly in video anyway, and my photomedia work has seen a gradual shift from the theme of sex and death (no doubt disappointing some of my audience) to architectural decay, disorder and disintegration.
So, a year of contrast in a land of contrasts. The tunnel below is on the freeway heading east from Adelaide, town of my birth but a long way from where I live today. And below that is Bunjil, creation spirit depicted in aboriginal rock art from near the Grampians in south western Victoria. The two pics kinda summed up the situation. Massive engineering works so I can get home faster, and a timeless painting from a race who no longer have their home. I sit somewhere in between scratching me head...
3 points of a circle
Performance proposal: Griet Menschaert - sound; Denitsa Dicova - dance; Bob Georgeson - video
An earlier post Across a troubled world referred to a collaborative project I have been working on this year. We have decided to go public with some of the material, and below are the 5 video experiments in descending order from most recent to the earliest, plus the above performance proposal.
emptywhale - Smashed Light
Much excitement and anticipation about the first new release by emptywhale in over a year. Whether it be a cautious return to the studio or heralding a change in direction, or the smashed light an accident or momentary act of frustration we will never know. Enigma is emptywhale's modus operandi and that ain't gonna change, nor is his capacity to pick you up on the sonic bus and transport you to a destination far from where you had intended to go...Let's hope there is more to follow soon.
This track is part of touched two, the staggering collection of 255 tracks of contemporary sounds compiled in aid of cancer research and support. Available on Bandcamp here...
This track is part of touched two, the staggering collection of 255 tracks of contemporary sounds compiled in aid of cancer research and support. Available on Bandcamp here...
Kaspar's mantelpiece (for Arp)
Bob Georgeson, Kaspar's mantelpiece (for Arp), 2014, Mixed media, 12m x 3m
LES MAMELLES DE TIRESIAS
LES MAMELLES DE TIRESIAS is a French website run by the charming Patrick Vincent that focuses on dada, surrealism, constructivism and other avant-garde movements. Superbly researched and up-to-date with current events and exhibitions it is a wonderful resource for all who are passionate about art. Produced with an enthusiasm that only a devotee can understand I recommend it highly and encourage you to add it to your bookmarks.
I am honoured to be included in the list of artists on the homepage, many of them being seminal influences on my own humble creative efforts. I was also pleased to see Dusan Marek on the list, and I have shared some of my memories of him with Patrick. Thank you Mr. Vincent! It is indeed a privilege...
Friends
Dorothea Tanning, who taught me that you are never too old to create...
My beloved Dusan Marek, who taught me that surrealism is a way of life...
The sublime Francis Picabia who showed me anonymous waves...
The beautiful Hannah Hoch, undisputed queen of photomontage...
Jean Arp taught me that Kaspar is Dead...
Luis Bunuel, the Grandmaster, every scene my primary inspiration...
Kurt Schwitters, who showed me the marvellous in the mundane...
Telegraph - What Is Your Name
As an artist racked by self doubt and perfection paralysis where every production is akin to the breech birth of an antiquarian mutant it is delightfully refreshing when one comes across an ascribed artwork that I have no recollection of ever making! Well, it's that sort of world now, especially in the creative commons...
I have no idea who Telegraph are. The only blurb I can find is from their release 'Cookies': "And another, and another... And another one big and really strong release by our super-residents Telegraph duo! Meet six underground minimalistic deep-house tunes by excellent music-makers from Minsk!"
It's not the sort of music I would normally listen to, but it's not unpleasant. The video footage originally came from my experiment mixing up Marcel Duchamp with Candy Earle called la mariée mise à nu (the bride stripped bare) although in my film the tones are red rather than blue. Thanks to Telegraph for the credit...and for the same on another of their videos called Next Room which is heavily filtered and for the life of me I cannot work out what the source was, but who cares, transmutation is the new paradigm!
Robert Hughes on video art
"Mention video to some people and watch their faces fall. If the cliché
of "modern sculpture" used to be a piece of stone chewing gum
with a hole in it, and that of "modern painting" was a canvasful of drips,
then the cliché of "video art" is a grainy
closeup of some U.C.L.A. graduate rubbing a cockroach to pulp on his
left nipple for 16 minutes while the sound track plays amplified tape
hiss, backward."
From the review of the retrospective for Nam June Paik at the Whitney published in Time magazine on May 17th 1982.
This quote popped up in Part 2 of Howard Jacobson's documentary 'Brilliant Creatures', a study of the careers of Barry Humphries, Clive James, Germaine Greer and Robert Hughes. The quote is not only a timely reminder to myself about what I am trying to achieve in video art (visual poetry perhaps?), but classic Hughes cutting to the chase with acerbic wit underpinned by a profundity that most art commentators could only hope for at best. At a time when Australia sadly accelerates backward politically at an alarming rate towards totalitarianism, there is a slight optimism in feeling proud of our cultural heritage and larrikin attitude and honouring those pathfinders who espoused a 'cause' because they believed in it more than their own self-aggrandizement...
From the review of the retrospective for Nam June Paik at the Whitney published in Time magazine on May 17th 1982.
This quote popped up in Part 2 of Howard Jacobson's documentary 'Brilliant Creatures', a study of the careers of Barry Humphries, Clive James, Germaine Greer and Robert Hughes. The quote is not only a timely reminder to myself about what I am trying to achieve in video art (visual poetry perhaps?), but classic Hughes cutting to the chase with acerbic wit underpinned by a profundity that most art commentators could only hope for at best. At a time when Australia sadly accelerates backward politically at an alarming rate towards totalitarianism, there is a slight optimism in feeling proud of our cultural heritage and larrikin attitude and honouring those pathfinders who espoused a 'cause' because they believed in it more than their own self-aggrandizement...
Virtual versus reality?
Too often new technology is about itself, so I was pleased to see this virtual orchestra providing not only entertainment and education but challenging the historical conservatism of the classical music field. While remixing and electronic experimentation has become commonplace in contemporary music, the classics have largely remained 'untouchable'. Purists may be horrified, Mendelssohn may roll over in his grave, but I say pump up the volume!
The story of how this was created can be found here...
Mendelssohn Effektorium - Virtual orchestra for Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Museum Leipzig from WHITEvoid on Vimeo.
The story of how this was created can be found here...
Mendelssohn Effektorium - Virtual orchestra for Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Museum Leipzig from WHITEvoid on Vimeo.