"small places"...a project in faro...an urban palimpcest.....grafitti.....punk funk.2010

"small places" is a combination of flyposted walls....grafitti.......street art.........hidden messages.....lilliputian sized people...poetics.......it is an urban palimcest.....invisible cities....this project is takingplace in mariana madeiras studio in faro........it is an enormous x business space complete with pigeons and holes in the roof......the building makes eerie sounds...mariana is work on"an imginary city"constructed fom mother boards...in the shape of portugal.....i am trying  link my idea with to her city.......the sheer  scale of cities......exciting and also lonely....e  and what part do we play in this urban playground....each of us going about our daily routine...each in our own bubble.....like ants ........the little people are here too....watching from the window....unseen.....invisible...........we are people of different tribes........different values...different customs......we inhabit the city....we work in the city....some live in the city....some have nices apartments....some live in doorways....some have jobs.....today many have no job..... decay

ian dury and conceptual art.....do what john!

 ian dury poet painter ex walthamstow and rca friend of peter blake...ian studied at both walthamstow and the rca....fine art painting........peter blake his teacher and later his friend taught at both institutions.....i too was an art student in the 60s.....as soon as i heard ian first records i was hooked....a poet....a punk funk poet......his wacky eccentric dress code....he was a performance and an installation all at the same time...a great stage presence and what a band.....the blockheads...so tight they nearly explode......chaz jankals percussive piano really making the music drive along....coupled with ians words that created exceptional surrealist images....tantalising stories......quirky scenarios......essex in the raw...the places had a ring to them for me some where of real memories....my grandparents lived in becontreee and later barking....we used to wait for the bus at the dutch little just outside brentwood....i remember romford cattle matket as a child...my uncle stewart and aunty ivy lived on the harold hill estate for many years.....they had a telly that used to play up so stewart used to give it a thump and that seemed to fix it......my uncle jack lived in bilericay...........upminster the end of the district line......many years later i taught at what was brentwood college of higfher education....and lived in a college house on ivy lodge lane right by the dutch little....coincidence or what...........ians lyrics combined with music were a perfect combination....i have a kind of affinity with ian ...the blockheads.... and essex........desert island discs was a sublime treat...i have a copy on video and listen to it often.
i wonder what he would have made of conceptual art......any ideas??????? i would like to find some images of ians paintings....can anyone help???????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-JIzWFfsPk       

hugo canoilas in loule march 2010....some thoughts

some random thoughts on the hugo canoilas show which has just opened at espirito santo gallery in loule it runs til april 4.it contains a number of distinct peices, plus one collaboration with pedro reis. the works that i am drawn to are the text paintings....they contain references to surrealism...., the word "chance" is present...an important surrealist element....possibly the most important...are the words on these canvases "Chance" or selected?....perhaps in this context....they are conceived .....planned ....organised....are  they a message?....the message is the medium....that rings a bell!.....are these paintings conceptual peices like other works in the show ?....or do they make references to jasper johns!.......the letterforms sit on or in an unidentified place or space....is there reference here to colour field painting...a la rothko or more to newman whose shapes extend beyond the picture plane.....some of the text in these paintings are missing .....are they to beyond the picture plain!!!..is pop art present ....that movement of the 60s that took popular imagery as its starting poiut......these text poems have an autographic feel....they have a painterly presense, including accidental marks left by the stencil...this is not chance or random...this is using these two elements in a positive way,,,,even though they are produced with an anonymous stencil...a stencil that would be used to label a sack or a parcel.......the text generated from the computer does not follow this archaic system....the computer controls the spaces between letters....there is no happy accident....."rivers" run amock in present day print........i am interested in the way that they are presented....not hanging on a wall but hanging back to back....you are invited to find out!..........if tjere are any spelling mistakes then so be it....its chance......over the years my own work has been influenced by artists such as magrtte ..daniel sporrie....concrete poetry....hockney....alfred jarrry...and crossword uzzles........words...signs and cymbols...myths and legends....borrowing from other cultures.........lots of  mental suitcases full of collections of experiences...thoughts....conscious and subconscious connections....that might interconnect a any given time......below are 2 canoilas works and one of my number paintings.....my routes are in pop and the early conceptual days in the 60s whilst still a student...its interesting how events go around....and re appear......we have ideas that we redress like a cindy doll?????? the doll remains constant........? the equisite corpse?

zefa and rama and hettie goverts a mystery artist and gallery margem

this week i am busy at zefa 1 in almancil on a new painting based on the ramyana,,,,when out of the blue....a message from holland...who could it be...how did they find me....or why?.....hettie had been visiting th algarve last year and went to see joao viegas...joel mestre et al at margem...she was looking for a studio top work in so they pointed her in the direction of zefa...and off she went...spending a lot of time talking as she says with her arms and legs....and taking lots of photos......whilst back home she forgets the name etc etc....and does a googly.....bingo...a hit.....which goes to show that blogs are good for you......have a look at hetties paintings @........goverts.info

works starts on the ramayana canvas.....the whole idea is a theatre....rama and sita acting out the epic...the stage curtains are the sky....sita who is based on a rajistan doll that  i bought in pushkar..... standing on a carpet of floating clouds......the skyline comprises some of the buildings @ zefa 1 in almancil