Brief, unfinished, exposed, gone
‘Trial and Error’ exhibition, London, July 13–14
Work Show Grow is having its annual work-in-progress show this weekend (July 13th and 14th). It’s a group exhibition from members of the online art community / school. I’ve been a member for about eighteen months now and showed a prototype of Barry’s Bottles last year.
This time I’m showing an incomplete summary of a project I’ve been working on for a while called GEOMETRY. This is (or will be) a collection of stories in three dimensional form as 2D nets that can be folded into 3D shapes. I’ve been tinkering with it for a while and I’m a long way away from finishing it, but I think there’s the germ of something there and it’s an interesting space to explore.
That said, these pieces are fiddly and annoying to put together. I couldn’t subject the people installing the show to that, and if they’re not up to it then paying customers wouldn’t be, either. I’ve been working on the last four pieces and not come up with anything decent. This might be as far as the project goes. It’s difficult to shake the feeling that it just doesn’t work.
It might also be worth saying that I find these work-in-progress shows incredibly stressful. The idea is that it’s less pressure to show rough, unfinished, work but for me it’s exactly the opposite. I’d rather that people see something done.
But hey, if you’re in the area then go have a look. There’s bound to be a diverse range of work there and it’s always interesting to see (other) people’s processes.
Details:
ASC | Courthouse Projects | County Courts, Cleaver Street, Kennington, London SE11 4DZ
13 July 2024, 11am-5pm
14 July 2024, 11am-4pm (with closing event 1–3pm)
Flick book and postal subscriptions
I made these little flick books last week, as a way of doing something other than driving myself crazy with GEOMETRY. They a simple idea, but I like the fact that it’s fifty-odd images with basically only two positions - stillness in motion.
I sent them out to subscribers of my much-neglected postal mailing list. I’ve been making odd little print things for years now and sending them out to people who may or may not have signed up to receive them. It was the beginning of my forays into more playful, experimental print work that eventually led to artists books and all that good stuff. I don’t feel ready to wrap it up now, but looking back over my records I can see that I’m only sending out 2 or 3 items a year. That’s occasional enough to warrant the name Second Class Irregulars, but I always feel embarrassed by how infrequently I post stuff.
Six Six Six stock shock
This is going to sound a bit like tooting my own horn, but Six Six Six - One Hundred and Eleven Six-Word Stories About Hell is selling well. At the time of writing, I have about 15 copies of the paperback left in stock on my website’s store page.
It’s worth mentioning that I have finally sorted out the international shipping options for my webshop, so if you live in the US or EU then I can now send you goods. As a reminder, the paperback is limited to sixty copies total. Once they’re gone, your only option to read it will be the ebook, which is a PDF that will be readable on your phone, tablet or computer. As with the physical books, each one is individually numbered.
However, if you’d like to go to an actual shop and buy one, copies are available from:
Dave’s Comics in Brighton (or maybe Dave’s Books, I get confused, but they’re both on the same street).
I’m currently talking to a shop in the US, but there’s a few details to sort out. I’ll post details as and when they’re ready.
Raymond Briggs exhibition at the Ditchling Museum of Art and Design
I’ve just got back from this and feeling the effects of several hours tramping around in the blazing sunshine. Ditchling is a very pretty place, the sort that wins prizes for Best Kept Village. They have a nice little museum and gallery there and they are showing Bloomin’ Brilliant: The Life and Work of Raymond Briggs until 27th October.
I don’t like all his books, but the ones I do, I really love. As the years go on, I’ve wondered more and more about what effect his existential rumination might have had on my generation. I don’t know what it says about me that one of my favourite books when I was little was about a middle-aged man’s mid-life crisis, but I don’t think I was the only one. Briggs said that he doesn’t ‘aim’ books at children or adults, because books aren’t missiles. I like that and feel the same about a good percentage of my writing. Seeing the original artwork reminded me of how complex, dark and funny his best work is, even to this day.
Maybe you shouldn’t go to this exhibition, though. In one corner of the exhibition, tucked away from all the art, is a letter Briggs wrote in 1991, dismissing the idea of an exhibition of his illustrations.
With book illustration the book itself is the work of art. It is not the original pictures. The originals were painted expressly to be printed and to appear in the book in a sequence… if the work must be exhibited, then far better to exhibit the books themselves. They are what the originals are for and they are the result which the author was aiming for all along.
Should you choose to ignore the man’s wishes, details of the exhibition are here.
I’d just get the books, though. I think the best ones are:
Gentleman Jim
When the Wind Blows
Fungus the Bogeyman
Father Christmas
Father Christmas Goes on Holiday
The Snowman
Things to look at or listen to
One of the things I miss about DVDs is the commentary tracks, which aren’t available on streaming services. Directors still record them, though, and this site has a whole bunch of them as audio files. Either sync them up to the picture or listen to them like a podcast. I particularly enjoyed Rian Johnson’s commentaries on the two Knives Out films.
The Director’s Commentary on tumblr
This recreation of Super Mario Bros. World 1–1 is done with typewriter art (and sound effects). I never had a Nintendo, but this level is inherently familiar to me. I think it’s become part of the cultural canon, at least for a certain generation.
Super Moxio Bros on itch.io
Speaking of games, I started playing the cat-based platformer Stray but lost interest the further it moved from the original premise: that of being a solitary cat in a shabby city full of robots. It does a lot right in the first fifteen minutes, including having an option for ‘making biscuits’, i.e. kneading soft surfaces with your paws for no reason other than it makes the controller vibrate and feels good. Unfortunately, it then goes on to add a load of typical videogame stuff in there, like an inventory and fetch quests, which felt pretty boring. It’s currently on sale on Steam, if that means anything to you.
Finally, a collection of songs curated by friends of Ben Booth, a dear friend who passed away last year. We said goodbye to Ben a couple of weeks ago in his hometown of Lancaster and several people chose songs to play at his memorial, which I thought was a nice way to remember someone.
That’s it for now. Be well. Stay cool or dry, depending on the day. Maybe get in touch with that person you’ve been thinking of.
ta