I contributed some guitar to this version of Kurt Schwitter's 'Ursonate' performed by Ian Hunter at the Elterwater Merzbarn. I was there on a mini residency with the Islington Mill to celebrate Schwitters birthday.
Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Ursonate
I contributed some guitar to this version of Kurt Schwitter's 'Ursonate' performed by Ian Hunter at the Elterwater Merzbarn. I was there on a mini residency with the Islington Mill to celebrate Schwitters birthday.
Wednesday, 9 March 2016
Sunday, 30 November 2014
Resonart Stockholm
I took part in Monica Sand's research conference about public space with Galleri Plywood team Jenny Simm and Olivia Berkowicz. Our piece is at the end of the video.
Friday, 5 October 2012
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Chain Of Life at Secret Garden Party
Chain of Life is returning to Secret Garden Party next month. With a new sign and new outfits.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Spartacus nominated for the Turner Prize
Spartacus Chetwynd has been nominated for the Turner Prize it was announced this morning. She's been nominated for her solo show at Sadie Coles gallery, "Odd Man Out", which Dominika Kieruzel and I performed in.
Happy May Day Spartacus
http://www.ubu.com/film/chetwynd_hermitos.html
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
KUCHAR and KA-BOOM
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Chômu book launch: Lord Magpie to support Jeremy Reed
Lord Magpie will be playing at the Jamboree this thursday in support of Jeremy Reed and the latest Chômu Press book launch. Chômu Press is an exciting new publisher of genre defying, fiction set up by Quentin S. Crisp.
Quentin and I have been collaborating recently to create the Chômu Radio Archive. This is in its early stages still but you can find an interview with author John Elliott on it already:
John Elliott talks to Quentin about Philip K. Dick, Lovecraft, Oulipo, John Calder, Queneau, Georges Perec, and many other things.
And here are some photos from Lord Magpie's last Halloween gig:
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Monday, 29 August 2011
Ben Osborn writes about my work
I was recently talking to a friend who doesn't know Joe very well; they know him by reputation as a musician and music producer, but they didn't know about his art. I was trying to explain why Joe's art appealed to me so much.
I tried to explain that his art isn't about creating objects, or images, or events. He does create those things, but they are part of his wider project. His art is about certain, sometimes very specific, moments and feelings.
Surely that's very difficult, said my friend, impressed. To give an audience one particular feeling. Make them feel just that one thing and nothing else.
Well, that's not what he does, I realised. What's great about it is that you're free - usually encouraged - to feel whatever you want to, to bring that to the art. Joe is not interested, as far as I can tell, in being prescriptive or controlling.
Italo Calvino said that the poet of vagueness would have to be the poet of exactitude as well - 'able to grasp the subtlest sensations with eyes and ears and quick, unerring hands.' I think Calvino hit on what I am trying to say here, and why I struggled to explain Joe's art to my friend. How can I find, in this art, an exact, subtle feeling - as well as a liberating vagueness, obscurity, aleatory?
Calvino says that one can't really exist without the other. The random, chance elements that vagueness allows can only be understood through a magnifying lens of exactitude.
I'll try to explain using one of Joe's pieces. It is a drawing of Mulder and Scully. It's a pretty good picture and as far as I'm aware Joe didn't draw it. He put it on his wall, fastening the top two corners of the back of the picture to the wall of his bedroom with bluetac. He happened to place the picture above the radiator in his room. When the radiator is on, the hot air rises, causing the picture of Mulder and Scully to flap very gently up and down.
The combination of the image and the movement is the kind of thing you would notice out of the corner of your eye in your room or someone else's room, and that would stick with you all day.
Presenting that art gives the audience a tiny moment, and out-of-the-corner-of-the-eye glance. The feeling of noticing an unlikely juxtaposition - a pencil drawing of some characters, with all of the stories they may or not may not conjure up in your head, and this tiny, silly movement. It happened by chance, so it's only the act of observing that matters. But such a careful kind of observing, where the images at the corners of your eyes are the most important.
Ben Osborn
I tried to explain that his art isn't about creating objects, or images, or events. He does create those things, but they are part of his wider project. His art is about certain, sometimes very specific, moments and feelings.
Surely that's very difficult, said my friend, impressed. To give an audience one particular feeling. Make them feel just that one thing and nothing else.
Well, that's not what he does, I realised. What's great about it is that you're free - usually encouraged - to feel whatever you want to, to bring that to the art. Joe is not interested, as far as I can tell, in being prescriptive or controlling.
Italo Calvino said that the poet of vagueness would have to be the poet of exactitude as well - 'able to grasp the subtlest sensations with eyes and ears and quick, unerring hands.' I think Calvino hit on what I am trying to say here, and why I struggled to explain Joe's art to my friend. How can I find, in this art, an exact, subtle feeling - as well as a liberating vagueness, obscurity, aleatory?
Calvino says that one can't really exist without the other. The random, chance elements that vagueness allows can only be understood through a magnifying lens of exactitude.
I'll try to explain using one of Joe's pieces. It is a drawing of Mulder and Scully. It's a pretty good picture and as far as I'm aware Joe didn't draw it. He put it on his wall, fastening the top two corners of the back of the picture to the wall of his bedroom with bluetac. He happened to place the picture above the radiator in his room. When the radiator is on, the hot air rises, causing the picture of Mulder and Scully to flap very gently up and down.
The combination of the image and the movement is the kind of thing you would notice out of the corner of your eye in your room or someone else's room, and that would stick with you all day.
Presenting that art gives the audience a tiny moment, and out-of-the-corner-of-the-eye glance. The feeling of noticing an unlikely juxtaposition - a pencil drawing of some characters, with all of the stories they may or not may not conjure up in your head, and this tiny, silly movement. It happened by chance, so it's only the act of observing that matters. But such a careful kind of observing, where the images at the corners of your eyes are the most important.
Ben Osborn
Thursday, 18 August 2011
Lord Magpie's Animal House theme for Ed Fornieles
James at Ed Fornieles' Animal House performance Jan 2011.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Lord Magpie warehouse gig
We have a few London shows coming up including:
The New Empowering Church - 7th April
The Main Yard Gallery (w/Pseudo Nippon) - 16th April
The Camden Barfly - 17th April
Check the myspace for more http://www.myspace.com/lordmagpies
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