zefa 1 almancil...feb 2010.....ramayana......new canvases

the weather has been holding me up on my saramago mural...rain rain rain! bota filipe of zefa contemporary art centre has offered me some huge canvases almost 3 metres squarish its like working on a football pitch after the small scale of my own studio....free reign on starting point......having recently returned from india...i intend to base the new work on the ramayana an ancient sanskrit epic some 50000 lines long...which tells the story of rama and sita....of how her father offers his daughters hand in marriage to the man that can pull the great bow....its akin to excalibar........rama succeeds with ease...rama and krishna are synonyms for vishnu.....he is an avatar.....the first canvas is a terrestial forest...eden...paradise....shangrila....forests hold secrets....trysts....it is a backcloth for adventures...are they in the forest now...what or who is lurking....good and evil ....who knows....my intention is to produce series of canvases that exist as complete in themselves... stories in their own right but can also relate together to tell a bigger story.......i have an oldish copy of the ramayana from india that i am reading now....its always interests me how chance? plays its part....2 years ago i went to the british library in london for the first time for 40 years...and what was the exhibition on show....illustrations for the ramayana....chance eh! here is a photo of the first painting in progress.......you will see that it is in portrait format...today bota said that we had a problem the wall that is earmarked for the paintings slopes downwards....the other canvases will have to be landscape....im pleased i found out today and not next week.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu9iGhM35Xo

mariana madeiras studio ......faro

on feb 10 i arranged to visit mariannas studio in faro...we met outside the market....and set off for the studio....i had parked my jeep right outside...mariana put the key in the lock and pulled a huge roller door back to reveal an industrial sized interior....that was the ground floor....amazing....in the dim light...the smell of the pigeon shit hanging heavily in the air......up an iron staircase into a space that felt like an aircraft hanger........suddenly there was a flutter of wings...we had disturbed the resident birds...........there was a constant sound of dripping water....entering from openings in the roof.....lakes had been formed....the sound of traffic outside filtered its way into the echoing cavernous area.........as we walked across the floor towards one such lake ....there was something emerging or submerged in the water... a city made from motherboards in the shape of portugal... a possible city covering the whole country....the drama is intensified by the world that it occupies...it is a secret world......the shoppers unaware of what is going on in here....its an empty building...

i dont want to go to burnley.....john cooper clarke @ it again

i have always had a thing about lower ince...know idea y...just one of those things...well heres jccs piece about not wanting to go 2 burnley...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kLhZTP4ywY

more john cooper clarke........p...i...e...s

this is ace....i cant help but think of  wigan....the epicentre of pie eating in the world.....pooles pies were to die for........lamb and mint.....yum! yum! pigs bum........please send your pie memories....for this blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vc4JJ8C4N0&NR=1       

john cooper clarke.......beasley street

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZymVWuMKVk

john cooper clarke the lanky stand up poet from salford appearing regularly with punk bands delivering uneasy urban observations on culture.....quirky rythmns.......spoken in a slow salfordian drawl but at an amazing speed...adding to the theatrical menace of the verse....he is tall...skinny......edgy....urban....he has lost none of this personna........in his shades....this video based on beasley street captures in images the story.....its worth the time waiting for it to load......it is loaded with exacting observations....not pretty...but ...true....he magnified and dissected life in the local environment........hardships.....somewhere between tragedy and comedy.......beasley street is not just northern it could be any english urban space..........

buzzcocks.....and the punk postman

http://www.last.fm/music/Buzzcocks/+videos/+1-Fd1WK0ecmko
john the postman worked in a sorting office from 72 to 80 the shifts that he worked were tailormade for finishing work...getting togged up and out to a gig....he has kept every ticket from gig one...in a shoebox...he also sold records around manchester....his great claim to fame is or was at a buzzcocks gig...the band left the stage...leaving a microphone....this was his big moment....one great leap and he was on stage belting out louie louie.....the big tune from the 60s...who knows why he chose this.....no one will ever know......perhaps he still doesnt know......a ccapello no less...no mean feat....inventing his own version as he performed........he was drunk of course.......now that is pure opportunism....it epitomises the punk era of do it yourself....he says he never performed sober!!!this was his first outing at band on the wall no less....he also says you didnt get many students at the punk gigs....which was good......it was a working class thing........his favourite band were the fall......... watch the vid it might take a while..... if you have broad band youre ok .....ive got rubber band...it takes forever...

projecto carmone..plus...antonio alonso.....tavira

what a packed weekend of culture first projecto carmone in quarteira run single handedly by maria braga in a basement apartment close to beira mar cafe on the sea front......she has plans to show videos, films, to have small scale exhibtions.....there is a small compact collection of books and periodicals....it is an antedote to the usual commercial enterprise........i went along with milita dore to see a screening of a godard film from the 60s starring a young brigite bardot and an intriguing casting of jack palance....usually the screen tough guy.........this was followed by a short vidio entitled kings and queens and lovers....the content of which argued the portraying of reality...how an actors portrays reality...what is reality...what is acting...what is the truth...how images are constructed to tell a story...this video had it roots in the godard film...which made an interesting comparison...it was hard work for me listening to french and reading portuguese substitles....i did grasp some of it?????
then off to tavira for and exhibition by antonio alonso an artists who is travelling around the world...the work on show here is from his recent sojourn in africa....utilising cut painted oil drums........he was born in angola...his work is a celebration of colour....they are optimistic.....his journeys feed his inner being.....i love his comment......"and at night, the artist sleeps and dreams of neon lights and the sound of the black harlems music.....Ill be back he murmurs......my favourite....." i go away, in order to return"

november 20 friday.....confusing eh!

november 20 friday...very confusiong its now feb 9.....8 got it wrong...2010......back in trichi...the usual...up....shower...out....rickshaw to the fort......7am...no messing!!!!.....the rock is impressive adorned with a temple on top......451 steps apparently....painted red and white....lots of derelict looking rooms off to the left and right...the grass is always greener.......on up ...legs ....going...not sure where...the last 300 are smaller but steeper in the rise....possibly to make the last part of the journey a little harder..after all we are going to a temple in the sky.........on the way up i spotted a trinket shop run by an old shopkeeper........a recap the street to the rock is infested with shops selling plastic gods......plastic flowers ...plastic toys....tac everywhere....first it is shoes off....on the way up we were allowed into a part of the temple for hindus only...a priveledge....perhaps it was because we out so early......who knows!!...up...up....looking in the rooms....that are locked...out of reach...iside sculted horses....bookcases full of ancient texts???.....at last the very top...just eagles and panoramic views.....absolutely amazing...we are on the roof of the world....close to god?????...almost there i chatted with a priest...we met later and he explained some ofi the ancient carvngs on the walls...he also pointed an entrance to a secret tunnel.....it was quick on the descent...we stopped for a breather.....just through a partly open door we could see a cow......we went in to find more with their keepers.......they were picking up cow muck..we shook hands...tea...they washed their hands in a bcket full of watery shit......tea was served....another new experience.....stopped at the old mans stall  and spent a few  rupees..........we collected our footwear....and away  down the street

manc....60s to punk.......culture

..jimmy savile...dj@ the plaza club on oxford street...filled the place every lunchtime....bands like hermans hermits..the hollies...wayne fontana an the mindbenders....and in london the rolling stones....not forgeting the beatles in liverpool......the british beat boom had begun ...in 64-66 i was an art student in rochdale...the black and white photo....moody figure in window is me circa 62..... ..we met in the san remo coffee bar in drake street........trad jazz still hung on ......in 1961 the oasis coffee bar opened ...followed by twisted wheel ........the three coins in fountain street....young mancs had plenty of places to go clubs galore....venues applenty...bands and djs by the score all ingredients for a good night out.....nothing has changed.....the mods were the dominant tribe.......there was very little unemployment at the time...there was an economic boom teenagers had jobs and cash ideal conditions for a high profile...fast moving pop culture....purple hearts....in the mid 60s there was massive police activity...the chief constable decided teenage culture was a menace......the cavern was raided...heaven and hell club....we went to london....carnaby street...swinging london........when there were pidgeons in trafalgar square.........the i c a gallery.....nxt stop punk john cooper ckarke et al....

urban manchester and algarve street art.....

at the moment i am reading a book by dave haslam ex hacienda dj about the rise of the pop cult city manchester.............. tracing peoples leisure pursuits from the 1850s to the present day.......it would appear to revolve around drinking and brawling at the weekend.....the coming of the industrial revolution.....low pay....bad conditions....slum living....back to backs....the chartists....corn laws...........gang mentality....hanging around on street corners....the monkey parade....lads and lasses dressed in their best....out walking and srutting their stuff....each gang had a particular mode of dress.........teddy boys....mods and rockers....nothings changed............the music halls...the brothels....the temperance movement....too no avail.........fast forward to the arrival of jazz...the cinema.......influences of the usa.........as haslam says you cant put an import control on ideas and attitudes.......manchester has always been a raucus city right from the start.....london had little influnce over what went on....the cotton trade came and declined .....the great depression....it didnt dampen the cities young on their saturday night out...a taste of honey....love on the dole.........what has this to do with the art of the street??????????.......this then is the backdrop to urban art........what then is the connection with the sunny algarve and its street art??????? the obvious is the images more often than not appear in run down communities....yes they do exist here in the sunny algarve.........abandoned of all hope.... the arts council of england was set up to challenge the influnces of the usa and others.......to late!!!!!!!!! i want to try and understand a little more of why.it so proliferate...from tags to illustrations in their broadest sense.........some humourous...some political  and some unplacabl;e.....many angry!!!!!

art street art the fine line...........

street art is something that i have been interested in for a long time....in particular fly posted walls.....that have a layered history....many years ago i did a digital peice based on walls in manchester....hiding serious information in the imagery.... the title of the work was "urban palimpsest" and was exhibited in digital summer in manchester.......in the past year i have been busy painting murals here in portugal...based on stories by jose saramago and i am interested in their connections ...if any?    questions like why do we paint?....is one form better than another?........i have been photographing bits of walls....graffitti......quirky things....in manchester....barcelona....tangier.....madrid.......chennai.......london.....lisbon....ever since.......and now quarteira.......i am interested in the fine line between images that communicate in a pictorial sense.......the use of tags.......and urban scrawl....are they cries of look at me?....the walls always seem to be in rundown enviroments....is there and what if ...is the reason for this?.....at the moment i am not reading any texts about the whys and wherefores of this art form....,i am keeping an open mind.....when i go walking in quarteira every morning i see some really amazing images by pixal parazit........here are a few to look @.........we also have the wall on facebook????????