The Video

Making three dimensional stuff is a wonderful business but sharing it in a photograph is tricky stuff. I tried sharing a photograph of The Message  on Monday and although it has been well received a photograph is no substitute for the real thing. A sculptural, mixed-media artwork needs to be seen from multiple directions. Multiple moving parts need to be experienced and a photograph fails to do the job. Taking something three dimensional and flattening it into a two dimensional representation is a futile exercise.

I’m very lucky that my creative partner Ben Honebone is also a music and video specialist. The moment he saw The Message he was inspired to create a video to accompany the automaton. He understood that The Message needed an appropriate platform on which to be viewed. The music in the video is a response by Ben to the artwork itself.

He tells me, “The mechanical parts suggested a steady electronic beat. The doll, the body parts, I felt were a contemporary deformation in the things we find beautiful and I wanted to reflect that in the style of music I created. This video is a response to the dark, odd, uncanny feelings I had when interacting with The Message.”

You can read more about how Ben responds to art (and how art responds to Ben) at his website: http://www.benhonebone.com/

The video of The Message can be seen by clicking here.

The Message

 

Secret Agents

On October 31st I hinted at a little secret side project I’ve been working on and finally I am able to reveal all. I’ve been helping my good friends at goldbringer by producing something which has ended up as far more than just your standard music video. Secret Agents was made in collaboration with my partner Ben Honebone and is a strange tale of justice and cat heads.

Secret Agents has been almost six months in the pre-production stages. The cat heads were made for goldbringer by local felt artist Mizz Diablo and these bespoke art works are not something that can easily be created overnight. Making items like this is a long process and has taken many weeks of research and practice. The results are definitely worth the wait. They’re quirky and different which is exactly what was required.

The video was created with help from other local artists who were more than happy to lend their skills. We have a huge history of artistic collaboration here in Swansea and it is standard practice for everyone to chip in to make things happen. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a play, performance art, exhibition, or music video, a lot of artists here believe that by widening their arts experiences they can better inform their own disciplines…. and it works!

We shot everything on location here in Swansea and the response from everyone involved has been phenomenal. Secret Agents not only looks good but it sounds awesome and we’re really happy with the results. Click on the picture below and have a look over on Youtube. Any feedback is more than welcome!

‘Secret Agents’

Creative Therapy

After yesterday’s considerations on my struggles in the studio I decided to throw myself into something completely different today. A change is as good as a rest after all. So today I found myself in a courtroom making a music video. I can’t share any information other than this snippet of a photograph but it was definitely the tonic that I needed.

My studio is home to where I cut paper and make my collages. It makes sense to be creative in other media in order to nurture and harness a new creative direction. Fuelling my desire to create through other means is just one form of research which I have always believed is necessary in order to inform my art. Amongst others, I’ve examined science, literature, and philosophy in order to enhance my rationale. Similarly my creative instincts can only grow as a result of playing with other creative media.

I have no intention of becoming a full-time film maker. I enjoy the technical and production side of things but I’m no expert by a long way. For me, making this music video is a way to unwind and relax and get back in tune with my own creative mojo. This therapy is vital if I want to bring some new ideas to my work.

Film

Every weekend brings something new and this weekend is no different. I was up at the crack of dawn shooting a new video.

I’m not at liberty to say what this was for at the moment but I can share this sneaky image that I took whilst filming.

I love working with film but I’m no director. I’m the person with the pins and glue making it all fit together. I’m the person who sources people and locations and provides all the support to those people with the vision. I’m the one who has the contacts to get the right people into the right places.

I’m not the star and would never want to be. It’s much more fun to make it all happen from behind the scenes. I’m the tech support and the camera. I’m the props and locations scout.

I’m the producer.

Gong

The interesting thing about being involved in R & Ez Art on Swansea High Street is the eclectic mix of talented artists who walk in off the street. Most have come along to put something in the window, some want to see what it’s all about, and then there’s the others. To cut a long story short, this is how I ended up learning the gong today from local gongist?… gongman? … gonger?… David Pitt.

I’ve never played gong but I’ve heard David play before so I knew what to expect from the sound. The interesting thing is how this changes when you’re the player. This flat German gong is made of brass so has a particular timbre which is more of an intense, strong crash. Since the gong is suspended, each hit I made was met with a rebound. This means it feels more like hitting a drum than a cymbal. The rebound has a physical vibration all of its own which travels through your whole body. This vibration is a shift in the air molecules as a wall of sound from the gong hits you, and it is also a vibration up the soft-headed mallet as you make the next hit. This is compounded by the vibrations of earlier hits and it’s quite easy to build up volume and resonance as well as a physical intensity from playing.

Playing involves building up a rhythm of your own but also listening to the responses that the gong gives and forming a dialogue with the gong itself. The effect is a sound sculpture which grows, breathes, and lingers for a long time. It feels more like the experience of listening to traffic on a busy road, or the sea as the tide turns. The ear becomes tuned in to nuances and a blended gradation of sounds. Even afterwards there is still a residual energy in the air as the gong settles back to its neutral state.

Interesting….

Manuscript Manipulation

Another day and I’m still working on this commission. There are so many ways that I could design this tattoo even though it needs to follow a particular piece of music. Anyone who knows music theory can tell you that there are several ways in which this last bar could be written and yet it would still be read the same.

This allows me a certain amount of artistic licence whilst retaining the clarity and communication of this piece. I can manipulate the manuscript so that there is a visibly playful balance between the notes. For example, I considered turning this E-flat into a D-sharp just so I could throw in a natural sign after but I figured this might not leave the design in a clear enough state for a tattooist to draw. I also considered a different grouping of the run of quavers at the start of the bar so that they all would hang in a similar fashion. I decided against that one. I liked the way the C-A drop along with the slurs gave a balance to the top of the design to counter the hang of the other notes.

I think I’m nearly done with this. I need to clean it up a little but other than that it’s ready for the client. I’ll reveal the whole design at a later date.

Musical Musings

I’ve been commissioned to design a tattoo. I’ve never done anything like this before but I know that I’m the right person for this. It’s not just a drawing I’ve been asked for, instead I have to turn some stuff into sheet music first and then design from there.

I have a little bit of talent in this department and can write music without too much hassle so this should be straightforward from that side of things. The tricky stuff is turning this from handwritten score into something graphic. However I choose to proceed I still have to bear in mind that the printed design will need to be clear enough to be reworked freehand by a tattoo artist.

I’ve put together several samples for the client and will see what he says later today before cleaning up and finalizing the design. The thought that this will be a permanent feature on somebody else’s body is a big responsibility but at the same time it’s exciting to be working on something which stretches my other disciplines.

Handwritten by me.

Telling the Truth

Was it really January 2nd that I… Hang on no… It goes back further than that. Yes. Back on December 16th I mentioned “creating an unusual collage for a client.” I mentioned Allen keys and bolts and Brownie parts. It was all ironmongery and lens filters and adhesives and needles.

I promised then that I’d come back to this and I did. On January 2nd I gave a hint at what I’d created but the ” blanket of secrecy” that I’d promised the client meant that I’ve had to wait until now to show you. So here we are, six months later, I can finally share this artwork in its entirety. The client is goldbringer and this collage itself was commissioned and created for their album Telling the Truth which has been released today.

This collage is the result of the first attempted artistic mind-meld between myself and Ben Honebone back in December. If anything this is the seeds of collaborative working which eventually has grown into our Structured Chaos series. I remember the conversation well.* I’m not entirely sure we ever gave this artwork a title for itself but we knew what it would be used for. The collage itself is held only with tape so there are endless permutations and combinations. It’s a totally different direction to the usual flow of my art and it was a strange process. I felt like my brain had been hijacked by Ben and that my hands were simply creating something that had been predestined as a result of our conversation. It was liberating to let go of my usual creative rules and just run with what needed to be made. I had total faith that what I was creating was exactly what was in his head. I was not wrong.

The version here is slightly different to the one used for the final album artwork, but to me this is the definitive one since it is the first version which I felt was complete. You’ll have to buy the album itself to see the differences.

The Polaroids featured in this collage came back round again recently for the Humor Me video which I produced for the band, and within the Polaroids themselves there are subtle nods to the Top Dollar video from 7 months ago. I love the subtle and deliberate temporal layering that I’ve managed to work around the contents of this collage on the build up to the album release. (It’s the kind of spatial and visual play that would make Chris Nolan proud.)

There are layers upon layers of working here, overlaps and repeats, music and art, with Time for us is being worked in its purest non-linear state. We have collaborations within collaborations, sharing visions, and the need to create and relate. This collage is telling it like it is, like it can be, like it should be…

We’re telling the truth.

* Here’s the full transcript of the conversation between us from December 13th 2014:
B: “Polaroids yeah?”
M: “Yeah.”

Humor Me

I mentioned last month that I was in the process of producing a music video and today sees the launch of our creation.

Humor Me is the second single to be released from the upcoming album Telling the Truth by goldbringer. Making a music video isn’t usually my field and I’m not really one for directing or scripting but I really am the go-to girl for logistics and production of pretty much anything and everything creative. It doesn’t matter whether it’s music videos like this, or producing A FaB Intervention, or curating exhibitions, – I know how to get the best people in place and make things happen.

It was great fun to make Humor Me and, whilst Ben Honebone and I were still making a few minor editing changes last night, I think you’ll agree the results are absolutely brilliant.

For a tiny budget we’ve created the perfect narrative to accompany Humor Me. It’s the most ambitious music video we’ve produced to date and I definitely want to explore this avenue of my creativity again in the future. We’ve also used that goldbringer photograph, which I mentioned last month, for the promotion of Humor Me. Although we’ve used this image for other promotional opportunities in the last few weeks, it seemed to just fit best with the direction of the band at the moment.

Our small crew doubled as extras and it goes without saying that we could not have done it without them. Huge thanks to everyone who supported us and helped us. Thanks yeah.

Click on the link here to see Humor Me by goldbringer. 

Concept & Direction – Daniel Leek, Go-Pro Direction – Owen Conibear, Produced by Melanie Ezra. Editing – goldbringer. Special thanks to Nick Shepherd & Kirsty Morgans.

Moving Pictures

I was going to write about this eventually but I never got around to it. These are busy times with Fringe Arts Bath opening tomorrow and a new show opening soon at The Workers Gallery (more on that soon). So yes, apologies for forgetting to tell you all about the fact that I’ve been involved in making a music video.

It’s a massive creative crossover, and the product of many hours work, to arrive at the new Humor Me video for Goldbringer. We were incredibly lucky to have the perfect team with Daniel Leek directing, Ben Honebone editing, and it was great fun for me to be producing. The video will be out soon. In the meantime click here to read all about it properly on the Bone Blog.