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Ben79 · . Joined: 04 Jun 2011 Posts: 279 Location: Brixton, London

I was given a brief by the local gallery to make some work that responded to an object from the museum. I ended up with a UK-made japanese style tea caddy that had a landscape printed all round it. My response was (believe it or not) 6 prints made with line drawings, acetates and Brixton library's photocopier that were an attempt to hybridise the aesthetic of old punk and hardcore flyers and Japanese 'Zenga' art. Each one became a kind of tumbledown shrine to a punk band (though I included John Cage - was he the first punk?). I think there's a useful connection to be drawn between the embrace of chaos and the questioning of orders I find inherent to both punk and Zen, so that's really what I was trying to do with these.

PICS (taken with phone) ADDED HERE:

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Last edited by Ben79 on Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:47 pm; edited 2 times in total

serfx · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:04 pm Post subject:

Awesome man, very cool stuff.
congratulations.

gaybear · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:07 pm Post subject:

very cool!
can't wait to see more pictures.
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weed_killer · . Joined: 29 Jan 2011 Posts: 205 Location: Hamilton, ON

really cool idea. Maybe Stravinsky was the first punk due to The Rite of Spring starting a riot when it premiered.

Ben79 · . Joined: 04 Jun 2011 Posts: 279 Location: Brixton, London

Perhaps! It was certainly dissonant but it was very controlled....

The aesthetic of punk seems to be partly characterised by the extent to which chaos is allowed to enter the work. By playing 'badly', ie. having limited (conscious) control over the sound, chance (noise) comes in and takes care of the rest. In Cage's 4'33, he surrenders control completely, allowing whatever chance noise happening to occur during the temporal frame to form the work - this seems to be punk in the extreme!

In punk and particularly hardcore, the speed and urgency rolls all this chaos up into something with a rich discernable form. I think recently, bands like Sunn 0)))) have found that a similar effect can be achieved by playing low and slowing down, allowing a richness to be discerned in the chaotic fringes of the clipped waveform. Punk was a welcome reaction to public school prog rock wizards and their 5 minute synthesizer solos - I think drone and doom is a welcome reaction to the 2'30 120 bpm kick snare computer-generated viral pop video.

gypsyseven · . Joined: 09 Jan 2012 Posts: 639 Location: Germany

Very very cool!
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[quote="Doog"]Another of life's great mysteries solved.

Next week: where does my room go when I turn off the lights?

PsychoSurfer · . Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 36 Location: Connecticut

Great work!!!! Love these - I would like to have the Black Flag one hanging up in my house. Smile

gypsyseven · . Joined: 09 Jan 2012 Posts: 639 Location: Germany

I would like to have them all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please make some prints and sell them to me!
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[quote="Doog"]Another of life's great mysteries solved.

Next week: where does my room go when I turn off the lights?

Dave · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:51 pm Post subject:

HOLY FACK! Are you likely to sell prints of these? Deffo interested in the Minor threat one at some point!!
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hotrodperlmutter · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:45 pm Post subject:

i want that bad brains one
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serfx · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:25 pm Post subject:

i'd love to have the Minor Threat one

DGNR8 · . Joined: 30 Sep 2006 Posts: 4209 Location: DC Area

LOEV
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Ben79 · . Joined: 04 Jun 2011 Posts: 279 Location: Brixton, London

If anyone really wants one PM me and we'll work it out. Shipping overseas is no problem if it's unframed.

Freddy V-C · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:09 am Post subject:

The Black Flag and Nirvana ones are amazing!
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ultratwin · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:45 am Post subject:

Very very cool stuff, I'd totally frame them and put a few in a row in the company studio.

Will be watching thread with much interest!