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mothmage · 5 months

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13 Books Tag Game

tagged by @disregardandfelicity (thank you <3)

i read a ton of non-fiction for academic and interest reasons, but i'm only considering fiction for this!

1) The last book I read:

I know I just said I was only talking about fiction, BUT I recently read Audre Lorde's memoir, The Cancer Journals, and I would highly recommend it. Lorde was such an incredible writer (i would recommend her poetry, too), and this book is half memoir and half sections from the personal diary she kept during and after her journey with breast cancer. Lorde was a self-professed Black lesbian feminist, and had unique and powerful takes on womanhood, cancer, and life in general.

2) A book I recommend:

I always recommend Perfume the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind! It's one of my favorite books.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

I've been working my way through Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and averaging about two days per book, so...lol. I would also add Carolina de Robertis's Gods of Tango, I think I read all 400 pages in one sitting.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

I loooove to reread books. One of my absolute favorite go-to comfort books is Bambi by Marjorie Benton Cooke -- it's not about the deer, it's sort of a romcom? The characters are all so vivid and fun! You have the main character, Bambi, who is a very Anne of Green Gables type character -- she's independent, imaginative, a bit of a daydreamer, loves to dance, and decides one day to be a writer. Then there's her adoptive father, the Professor, who is a mathematician and just an eccentric little old man. Then there's Jarvis -- the poor poverty-stricken playwright with his head in the clouds that very clearly thinks he's the main character of this story (he is, kind of. He's the love interest, but not in the way you think). That was long, but it's honestly one of my favorite books! Marjorie Benton Cooke wrote a handful of really fun books in her lifetime that just never got super popular (I also love Cinderella Jane and The Cricket, which are connected but can be read alone).

5) A book on my TBR:

My fiction TBR is currently sitting at 141, so...random selection: Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca! It was highly recommended by a friend.

6) A book I’ve put down:

I have a rule where, unless the issue is stylistic and I just can't bear the author's writing, I have to power through 50% of the book before I can quit, in case it gets better later. A lot of times, this works, and I end up really liking the book! But one book I tried my absolute hardest to like and just couldn't manage it (quit at 70%) was A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers. I found the narrator unlikable in an annoying way and the story itself boring (how do you make serial killing and cannibalism boring??) IDK. It came highly recommended and apparently was super popular, but it wasn't for me.

7) A book on my wish list:

Let us Descend by Jesmyn Ward! It came out last year, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet (fingers crossed my library has a copy by the time I have some free time to read).

8) A favorite book from childhood:

Silksinger, the second book in the Faeries of Dreamdark series by Laini Taylor. The series was never finished, but the characters from Silksinger hold a special place in my heart. One of the main characters is called Hirik Mothmage, for reference how much I love this book, lol.

9) A book you would give to a friend:

Ooh, good question. I recently gave someone my copy of Boccaccio's Decameron, because I think it's funny!! I really feel like if people can get through the language, they'll be dead laughing at some of the stories.

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own

I have a handful! My favorite is probably a collection of Edgar Allen Poe's works that's bound in a nice cover.

11) A nonfiction book you own:

Many, lol. Mostly digital -- I try not to hoard physical books unless I really really love them, because I just don't have the space. Something I read a few years ago and still think about often is Dorothy Roberts's Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, which talks about how the 20th century (U.S.) struggle for reproductive rights looked very different for white women and Black women (for Black women, it was essentially the right to reproduction). Her newer book Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Recreate Race in the Twenty-First Century is a great follow-up read.

12) What are you currently reading:

Currently re-reading another memoir, The Surrendered: Reflections by a Son of Shining Path by José Carlos Agüero. Picking up Pandora by Anne Rice as soon as I have some time for fiction.

13) What are you planning on reading next?

Besides the rest of the Vampire Chronicles, I really want to read Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (another friend recommendation).

No-pressure tagging: @eosphoroz @hekateinhell @lovevamp @aunteat @bubblegum-blackwood or anyone else who wants to -- tag me if you do, i love stuff like this!

#thank you!!#ask game #kind of lol

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thevoidgod · 3 years

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A Conversation With the Void-God

I have studied the arcane arts of the Void for many years. Through passion and borderline insanity, I found the Fringe Athenaeum. The infamous--and legendary plane the Void-God inhabits. Seldom few have written treatises of such a magnificent place, let alone listen to the abyssal voice of the Void-God himself. However, I postulate none have returned from his realm, for many reasons. It may be rumor, but rumors start somewhere, and I am not one to ignore information despite how it circulates, lest it hide the truth. My fail-safe for this is woven into my ritual. I will have an hour before I am pulled back to my physical body. After practicing my projection techniques, I am confident nothing can interfere with my fail-safe.

The andeamer believe Mariax Stygal entices passionate scholars to his realm, or those seeking answers to their questions, and quickly the descent into madness begins in the feverish search of those answers. I, however, am willing to take that chance as I have reasons to believe none have my gifts. I also was not intentionally drawing the attention of the Void-God.

“We have a visitor.”

His voice echoed through the Void. I searched for its origins, yet it came from everywhere… In my circling search, I found the Void-God himself stood behind me. I did not recognize this being to be him at first, no I thought it simply one of his minions.

It was a macabre creature. Imitating the form of a man veiled in black yet twisted by its own nature. It’s eyes… Its hollow eyes bore through me and I only admit to my fear now.

I dealt with these beings before, simple ones as I have learned, nothing like the behemoths that lurk the abyssal plane. I pulled the energy of the Void around me so easily. I was not bound by a veil that obscured the worlds. It was invigorating, to suddenly come from walking in water to walking on land and such ease of manipulation may have inflated my confidence at this encounter.

“Begone or I will destroy you.”

The stoic face like a mask twitched. A smile tugged the Chelsea grin across its face. He laughed.... Deep, carving, and tapping into some auxiliary fear hidden deep within me. “I know what you seek.”

“I seek nothing from you.” I so wisely stated he began to circle around me. Steps echoed through walls. Walls that had changed since I last observed them. New walls, shelves lined with books that organized themselves. Other void creatures wandered at a distance. The colors of the skies had changed their tones.

He paused. Eyes locked onto mine, or at least that is what I felt. “Are you sure of that?”

A vicious chill raced down my spine. It was at that moment, I recognized who was before me. “You are him...” I managed to say and state the obvious in the presence of the Lord of shadows.

“And you are [redacted], but you call yourself ‘Nightbane’ among your… peers.” Perhaps it was my own projection, but I felt a sting of judgement. One could never use their true name in my field of study.

“Surely, you know—”

“Naturally.” My defense of my pseudonym had become reflexive, but I sensed the Void-God would have none of it. He turned away. Hands clasped each other behind his back as he walked to the edge of the island we stood upon. His realm was ever changing… Perhaps at his will? “You have questions,” he said.

“Many.” I attempted to gather whatever sense I could, but it was difficult in such a being’s presence. I knew my risks coming here, yet… I never believed I would be in the presence of the Void-God.

“Ask and you shall receive.”

“I must know more about what your kind is—Voids and their nature.”

He looked over his shoulder. Another humored smile twitched. “My kind?” He laughed, a gentle laugh, yet it still unnerved me to my core. “You dive into depths one never surfaces from when it comes to my kind and I do not speak of the inhabitants of the Void.”

“You are not a being of the Void?”

He turned to me, “No.”

“Then what are you?”

“Our topic is: ‘what are Voids’.” I simply nodded. Finally, I saw the realm around me shaped to him. From the stone we stood on, it built upon itself a throne of sorts for him and he sat. “I do love these chats with your kind,” a slow hand rose and a blackened finger pointed to me. Behind me a throne like his had come from the ground when I wasn’t looking. “Do not mistake me, however, I lack tone and the nuance of speech so know that everything I say, I say literally. I have no sleight of hand reserved and no mirror to my words.”

“Ah,” I nodded, somewhat relieved. If he was telling the truth anyhow…

What are the Voids?

Your curiosity of the Void is shared by many, but seldom few have sought their answers at the source. These creatures are not unlike you but know that you are more [pause] special than they. They come in a variety; you have dealt with those that are but the equivalent of children; weak, blunt, small.

They are not dangerous, because they are small things. It is the intelligent ones you ought to fear and avoid. The Greater Voids were not given their positions. They took them. They are the most willful and intelligent Voidlings you will find and that is what makes them dangerous.

Where did they come from?

From the Void. This is their genesis. They are not born and do not die. They can be created from other Voids. Recycled by defeat or devoured. Some are merely contained, shackled by their foes.

What are their goals?

Their goals? Every creature has its goals and those are known only to them. Many know but a fraction of the Greater Voids. Hismael Hamariel does not have compulsion to corrupt the hearts of men. Valac Vetis is not forced to create dreams in the sleeping mind.

I see their symptoms, not their illness.

Why do they harm the living?

What makes you think they are not alive themselves? They are but another form of life. I do not know the minds of ants; however, I can speculate.

As I stated before they come in a variety same as humans. The dichotomy of man is not unique. Voids may attack because they are an animal defending its territory the same as nations defend their borders. …Or they attack because they are like a man, fearful and frightened seeking to end whatever perceived threat is near.

And then there are those who attack simply because they enjoy it. That variety, Void and man, are the closest I can confirm to be purely malevolent. They are always the intelligent kind of being. They know what they inflict on others.

Are there any who possibly help? In some way or have… traits we may consider “good”?

Yes, but you would not call them “Void” do you? The andeamer call them ätherä. But not all ätherä are benevolent Voids; they are something else.

I feel as though you’re trying to imply something—

I illustrate parallels simply because I find it the easiest means for you to comprehend. The beings of your worlds and Voids are not the same. One does not become the other.

What of the creatures called Void-turned? Many are under the assumption they’re possessed or become Void things leading many in my field to believe that we can become them.

I applaud the demonstrated will to learn in any subject, it was I admire most of you. It is what separates you from Void-borne; you can learn and change.

But to answer your question, I will be blunt: they are wrong. What you see is akin to a disease. They are not possessed in the way you think. Corrupted? Yes. Corrupted to the core of their DNA. This engineered disease does not “turn” a man into a void creature. It rots the mind like many natural diseases that deteriorate the fragile neural networks, but the difference is that whomever infected the individual can control the deterioration effectively making them a slave.

It’s a disease? Engineered? Your statement has so many implications…

Extract what you will from it then. Yes, it means you can create a vaccine to defend yourselves, but this disease functions more like cancer, and there will never be a cure for such an ailment.

There wouldn’t’ be a cure? How?

I know you’ve no background in biology, [sighs] so, I must abridge this to an extreme. The disease of the Void-turned is based off their own generic makeup. Once infected, the virus morphs to control them. However, death is never intended, common, but seldom have I seen an infector’s virus truly meld into the victims as to not kill them.

Hypothetically, a cure is possible. However, to cure every infected individual, one would need just as many panaceas.

You mention earlier how we differ from Voids, and it is what makes us “special”, as you say.

Humans can learn and change. You are dependent on it. Adaptability is very important for organisms from your pocket of existence. Voids do not possess that. They do not “learn” exactly, few do, and it is a complex subject matter I still observe. They appear to absorb information, but never truly use it.

You know of the Greater Voids, at least those the andeamer fear. Of all them, the only one I have truly witnessed to “learn”, that is to absorb information and then use it to change outcomes would be Hismael Hamariel. The great heart-stealer is one those whose meddling is merely fun. She learned how to make her victims suffer more.

Can you learn?

[laughs]I want you to revisit that question and think just a bit harder. I am not of the Void. Yes, I can learn, adapt, change, just as you. It is how I sit here, upon a throne in my world with hundreds of legions of servants beneath me.

Those Voids loyal to you, can they learn?

Some. My second, Ronove, is just one. The first. It took centuries, perhaps longer, but he can. He is my favorite lieutenant. I took him from being a scuttling little insect rushing away from being crushed under the sabatons of another and I showed him how to walk, now he is a god in every sense.

I’ve seen his name before, rarely. He is often attributed to being a servant of Mïzäirn.

You rarely see the names of those who have not caused suffering. And you often see my and Mïzäirn’s spheres overlapping.

You’re supposed to be the Greater Void of the shadows and secrecy, yet you’re forthcoming.

I know what you think, but don’t say: only if I am telling the truth. No, I cannot read minds; I have existed a very long time. The sphere of the encroaching darkness was assigned to me by the andeamer who, just as I, see only the methods and not the goals. I do not blame them, and I won’t bother to correct them.

Why would you not correct them when you’ve already shown me so much?

That is how I fit into their mythology. It is their interpretation to events, who am I to say they are wrong?

Well, given that you are very real and witnessed what they believe to be true why not tell them exactly what happened?

What makes you think I am an unbiased source? Do you know what else the andeamer think of me? They also know of my wrathful nature. There is not one voice in existence that ever tells the truth.

You said every creature has its goals and those are known only to them. What is your goal then?

You will live to see the ends, but now it’s time for you to wake up.

#worldbuilding #worldbuilding lore #fantasy literature #fantasy #fiction #fictional deities #dark fantasy #otherworld #writing #original character #lovecraftian #mysterious #original work #orginal writing #original content

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johnbunkerart · 4 years

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Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. Triangle Space and Cookhouse Galleries, Chelsea College of Arts, London, 2015. Curator’s Essay.

Frank's career as an artist endured a fiery baptism in the ferment of the 1960s. But this text is not an art-historical overview of Frank's life and how it is bound up with that legendary time of social upheaval and change. It would be too easy to dwell on the mythologies that have grown up around this period, to be nostalgic about those years and in doing so focus on just a fragment of Frank's artistic output. We are in a new century. We are in the ferment of new mythologies and legends. Frank has always said that it is vital to keep moving—to keep moving forward. He continues to make ambitious paintings that press hard upon the history of art but still take the art of painting on to new horizons. There has been a sudden resurgence of interest in and serious academic study of Frank's oeuvre—an oeuvre that spans over 60 years. But Frank is interested in what is happening right now in his studio, on that table, on the floor and on those walls. It is in this spirit that I have decided to approach this exhibition by focusing on these very recent paintings. I feel extremely privileged to have seen a number of these works develop from their very inception to their completion.

Installation view, Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts

Having said that, Frank Bowling's art is one of intelligent and complex syntheses. His unique feel for his materials allows him to harness the potentials of the field painting of the original ‘irascibles’, Pollock, Newman and Rothko. But Frank's interests also lie in the cooler ‘high’ modernism of the American Post-Painterly Abstractionists such as Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. This is then combined with his deep admiration for the British landscape tradition and the likes of Gainsborough, Constable and Turner. One could continue to throw names into Frank Bowling's painterly alchemist's hat, but what comes out is always fresh, vital and utterly his own. On top of all that is his very particular prismatic sense of memory and place. The bittersweet complexities of his colonial upbringing, the ambitious restlessness that saw Frank flit between studios in New York and London for many years; all these connections and associations only deepen the richness and essential generosity of spirit that these new works effortlessly emanate.

Installation view, Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts

If one really begins to study the world of appearances it very quickly becomes a realm of staggering complexity and dynamism. Instead of trying to mimic these infinite details the abstract artist attempts to find visual equivalents for myriad experience, celebrating sensations of life lived in colour, in paint's unmatchable rich plasticity.

For years Frank has worked on an almost molecular level with the effects and very different consistencies that acrylic paints can provide for the painter. Translucent gels can suspend particles of pigment above other layers of paint. One is reminded of sumptuous Jules Olitski paintings that work with the effects of spray, pearlescent powders, paints and gels. One might also think of Larry Poons' congealed and clotted paintings that activate every inch of their surfaces to the effects of light. But Bowling's new paintings combine larger expanses of stained canvas that are cut, stapled, stitched and glued together. There is an altogether more airy, open and presentational quality—a new and different sense of space about them. They effortlessly combine years of tireless experimentation with a new sense of confidence—a confidence and ambition that younger painters would do well to learn from. There is an exhilaration induced by the way Frank is juggling with formal complexity. But never does it tip over into utter chaos or flat 'Modernist' mannerism. So how does he continue to achieve such a captivating balancing act between the historical imperatives listed above and the here and now of painting in the moment—in the present tense?

I think he has achieved this by finding a creative friction, a duality at the heart of his developing process over the years. This core duality seems to be comprised of what at first might seem like two opposing ideas about Modernism. The first is a vision of Modernist painting that is aligned with his interest in painting's essential properties—a sort of Modernist classicism, if you will. This idea of ‘abstraction’ led Frank into a deep study of geometry, colour and the developments in acrylic paints and mediums. All these investigations carried on while in dialogue with the art critic Clement Greenberg, who helped Frank in marshalling his confidence to strike out as an abstract painter. But Frank's is a very special brand of 'formalism' that does not lose its links to the social sphere. He grew up surrounded by the imposing architecture of colonial powers transplanted from Northern Europe to the tropics, where they are symbols of both social organisation and subjugation and power. Frank’s interest in geometry has always been underpinned by a keen knowledge of its origins in architectural space and utilitarian value. In a quotidian, everyday way, we feel 'at home' with the ubiquitous formal rules of proportion that permeate our every move in the domestic and public realms of Western architecture and design. In fact, the very humble table on which so much of Frank's current work originates adheres, like any other, to a set of recognisable formal properties as regards to its dimensions and potential practical uses. The bands of colour that are stacked across so many of these new works correspond to that very table's dimensions. But there remains a critical awareness in Frank's approach to the complex histories that permeate the formal values of proportion and scale in Western art and architecture.

Installation view, Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts

The second and more difficult version of Modernism is to do with the improvisatory spirit of collage. This other ‘modernism’ seems to be almost exclusively urban. It is abstraction that is not about ‘formalisms’ as such. But it is a place where "the transient, the ephemeral, the contingent" (Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life, 1863) can grow new hybrid forms. Collage makes a direct connection to the brain’s readiness to associate, to form bridges between objects and spaces, times and places. But it also shatters patterns, disrupts control and breaks laws. From this perspective, painting becomes a realm in which the mind’s cognitive processes are echoed or played out. In Frank's hands paint itself acts as a kind of binding agent transforming anything it touches, bringing disparate collaged elements into new relationships, by turns masking and revealing, heeding some boundaries and breaching others.

It can be so easy for formally driven painting to become reified, reductive and obscure. But these works showcase Frank's deep understanding of the protean nature and potential of the medium of painting. They sing out with a wide range of paint handling and highly focused yet open and inviting colour structures. But they also have the visual 'bite' that collage can give the artist. There are abrupt changes in speed and painterly attack. Surprising intimations of space are created by the layering of cut canvas, patterned silk, or the stencils of decorative patterning that punctuate the paintings’ surfaces.

We can also see how aspects of his earlier work and career are recombined, creating new and exciting configurations. In About Recent Weather Too, Downpour and Ashton's Mix, Frank has responded to the highly acclaimed show of his poured paintings from the 70s that ran at Tate Britain from 2012-13.But these new 'pours' run across the paintings instead of straight down them. They bleed through rectangles of collaged canvas, creating exquisite pools of colour that activate the divergent surfaces held thereunder.

These reoccurring collaged squares and oblongs of canvas visually echo the edges of the works. They accentuate the 'thingness' of the painting while simultaneously drawing the eye into their complex visual echoes and semi-submerged counter rhythms. Take Fire Below and Across the Wadi for example. The formats of these paintings are deceptively simple and similar. But although these two works may seem architecturally alike, they individually take on a completely different timbre of feeling. Frank's real talent for colour can embrace and articulate such a wide range of emotional registers. Fire Below turns suddenly from rich deep red impastos to chalky cool stains that lash the top band of stitched canvas with tongues of icy fire. By contrast, Across The Wadi undulates with the repeated striations of warm yellows and oranges and pink highlights that streak the bands of collaged and stitched canvas. We can also see the emergence of more overtly gestural signs that open these fields of stains and scintillating webs of drips to a different kind of expressive and direct use of paint.

Installation view, Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts

Many people do not know what to make of the term improvisation. It seems to have become a catch-all for anarchy or just doing anything that comes to mind. Anyone who has seriously studied improvisation in any discipline will tell you that it is anything but! In fact, it’s all about ingenuity, innovation and initiative, all of which are vitally creative and very human attributes. The tighter the rules of the improvisation, the stronger the results. If those rules become shared and evolve between individuals and groups then whole new languages within any given medium are formed. If and when these rules become stiff or stale and no longer relevant to the artists and the culture at large, it is the artists, alone or in conversation, who change them; they reinvent them anew. Think of the great Jazz musicians on stage, in a heightened state of awareness, listening intently for their fellow musician’s next move. They all share a deep love of their form and its history, but each great player has a singular unique take on it, a particular sound signature that is their own. Frank remembers the exchanges of ideas between visual artists made on numerous studio visits in New York of the 60s and 70s as having a similar quality. A particular way of working or combination of materials are discovered by one artist and then shared with his or her peers. Someone else runs with it for a while and it is then passed on in a new form.

Life as an artist can be tough and at different times in one's career, money can be very, very tight. Finding materials to work with means being prepared to take up and explore what is to hand. The materials that one artist decides to throw away might keep another artist going for months. Even though Frank might not be working in the same socio-political and economic conditions now, that sharp eye for surprise and the visual potential of all kinds of materials remains intact. I remember how Frank very kindly agreed to meet me in 2008 while still recovering from a serious illness. He patiently answered all my old hackneyed questions about Greenberg, formalism and the New York scene of the 60s and 70s. Soon after, I was at a show of his and found myself drawn to one particular painting. It was beautiful in the mastery of colour and paint but on closer inspection I realised that the central configuration of the work was built up from the used tips of insulin pens. Not only was this a precise piece of formal painting but it was also a record of human dependency and vulnerability. It was both beautiful and dangerous. Frank has developed a unique kind of dialogue with the objects and the life around him and that means the ‘low’ stuff as well as the ‘high’ stuff.

Installation view, Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts

Whatever the obstacles Frank has faced in his career, he has used these attributes of improvisation to find a way round them; or he has made those obstacles part of the work. Now he is using limitations imposed by illness or being in one's advanced years to his advantage. One is reminded of Matisse attaching a pencil to a long stick and drawing on the wall from his sick bed, or those incredibly visceral 'Cut-Outs' made with scissors "cutting into colour" while sat in a wheelchair.

Installation view, Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts

Many of the paintings here are testimony to the importance that Frank has placed on the individuals and family members that are part of the fabric of his creative life. These large-scale works are a celebration of a more collaborative approach in Frank's process. Frank’s wife Rachel Scott is, like him, a graduate of the Royal College of Art. In the late 70s, dissatisfied with painting, she taught herself what she sees as the much more practical skill of weaving. Ever since she has made rugs of stunning beauty by weaving reductive geometric patterns from the wool of Britain's many and varied breeds of sheep. Rachel is Frank's constant companion in the studio. She cuts the canvases, and helps staple, stitch and glue the variously sized and shaped pieces into the sophisticated arrangements that define the very architecture of each of the works. Gradually over the years other members of the Scott- Bowling clan have become more involved in the various and diverse processes that Frank's works have included. These collaborative strategies are giving Frank access to a newfound spontaneity. Collaborations by their very nature are multifarious and sophisticated interactions and can take on many forms in the studio. For instance, Frank's heavy tray-like palette might be loaded with three or four colours mixed by Frank. The collaborator then might be asked to hurl the paint from the palette at the un-stretched canvas stapled to the wall. Or she or he may have to lean over and pour paint down a suspended canvas as directed. Frank is then all set to respond to these initial moves. The collaborator might be asked to take the canvas from the wall allowing paint to puddle, run and coalesce in new configurations. All this requires intense vigilance, good communication and a fast reactive stance as the results unfold in the moment. Stamina and some strength are required as the often large expanse of canvas makes constant journeys from the table to the wall to the floor and back again. Frank then might 'change tack' after these initial moves, spending hours in deep thought, considering how to take the work forward as the paint 'cooks' away before him.

Through the window of the Cookhouse Galleries...

As I've mentioned, Frank's working table plays an important role in deciding the formal proportions of many of the paintings. But I'd also like to focus on the buckets or paint cans that are used to hold canvases in place as they are unfurled from the walls or from the workman's table onto the floor. As the paint is applied it runs down and pools in the part of the canvas that runs to the floor. As it dries it forms ghostly circular imprints where the paint cans stand and the pigments come to rest and coagulate. In many of the paintings these simple circular imprints become shimmering moons and dark suns jostling for position in amongst the colour-saturated oblongs of stitched canvas. They invite the eyes to roam with them across the many and varied surfaces, appearing and disappearing within. But they can also act as visual anchors in the painting. Remember Thine Eyes is defined by an intense cascade of yellow-white effervescent paint running over beautiful, darker and heavier bands of colour. The circles add an uncanny symmetry to the painting. This work somehow mirrors one's body as one stands before it. The circles hum with energy as though emanating their own opposing magnetic fields from each side of the painting. They both suck in the subtler greens and blues around them and spit out a crackling fiery light. The whole painting seethes and undulates before one’s eyes. It is an intensely physical as well as a visual experience. Again we see the transformation of a practical studio procedure into stunning painterly surprise. These improvisations with his everyday working environment are supplying Frank with different patterns of process, new signs and signals that can be reconfigured in his painterly realm.

Installation view, ‘Remember Thine Eyes’ (2014),Acrylic paint on canvas, 237.5 x 189 cm. Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts

I hope this show will go some way in bringing renewed attention and new audiences to Frank Bowling's exceptional body of recent works. Painting in Frank's experienced hands is alive and kicking as never before. He has achieved this by continuing to explore the potential of abstract painting's own histories, its peculiarities and unique position in history and culture generally. Frank has made his mark by running with the Modernist spirit of medium innovation and the power of colour. But he is also a master of the collagic impulse, the subtle or overt disruption of the picture plane, always pushing at the limits of his process. There is a recognition of how life, with all its journeys and vulnerabilities, finds its way back into the work. But also there are the very special qualities that collaboration has brought to the work. They have renewed Frank's abilities to improvise and constantly expand his repertoire, always deepening his painting process. For a painter now in his 80s, this is a staggering achievement and there is a lesson here for us all—young and old.

Installation view, Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts

Frank and Rachel's donation of two scholarships to Chelsea emphasises their commitment to bringing opportunity into the arts. We are too rapidly becoming used to an education system tailored to the needs of those who take their financial resources for granted. My wish to meet Frank grew from my interest in abstract artists whose careers, like my own, didn't fit the stereotypical art student trajectory. Frank started out as a painter when the work of Black artists was only beginning to be recognised in the art world. He railed against attempts to marginalise and ghettoise his and his colleagues’ art. Frank has taken on the challenges of staking his own very special claim on abstraction with a vigour and conviction that still holds fast to this day. I believe it is more important now than ever to appreciate the historical importance of his career in these terms—but also to recognise how relevant his experiences and his example might be to younger artists. We live in times where the world seems constantly on the move. Our notions of 'home' are changing too; migrations, emigrations and immigrations are on the international political agenda as never before. Frank continues to take the art of abstract painting into new uncharted territories, always weary of being pigeonholed as a 'Black artist' both by the white elites of the art world or those looking for some kind of essential Black identity. It has been said that Frank is British art's 'best kept secret', or words to that effect. My question, though, is: why was he ever a 'secret' at all? A loaded question? I leave you to consider the implications of it. It is a question that can be added to the ongoing debates about identity, gender, race and class as they play out now in the 21st century. But here is an artist who, by exploring painting on his own terms, has gone some way in changing the agenda for the generations of artists to come. This is Frank Bowling. Right here. Right now.

John Bunker. Stepney, London. 2015.

Frank Bowling and John Bunker at the opening of Frank Bowling: Right Here. Right Now. 2015, Chelsea College of Arts, London.

Coming next... Curator’s essay for Rachel Scott. Warp & Weft 2015 Chelsea College of Arts.

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fashiontrendin-blog · 7 years

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LFW: Who the hell is Richard Quinn and why is he fit for a Queen? And other LFW news…

http://fashion-trendin.com/lfw-who-the-hell-is-richard-quinn-and-why-is-he-fit-for-a-queen-and-other-lfw-news/

LFW: Who the hell is Richard Quinn and why is he fit for a Queen? And other LFW news…

From Richard Quinn, the young designer who made history with his royal Frow to Christopher Bailey’s last-ever Burberry show – here’s all the LFW news…

First things first. This was going to be the usual kind of London Fashion Week chat – you know, a few trends, a few hot new labels to know, that sort of thing. But it’s all been blown out of the water by the ONLY LFW news we can think about. That’s right, the epic unseen-ever-before moment that was HRH Queen Elizabeth’s Frow debut. And not at a mega-brand show at a grand venue, either. No, HM toddled down to the good old official BFC showspace on the Strand, to watch the creations of Richard Quinn, a young designer most people have never heard of. And she actually sat on an uncomfortable plastic chair just like the rest of us hardy fashion frontliners. She did have a purple velvet cushion on it. And she did get to sit next to the other Queen of the Universe, Anna Wintour – who actually looked nervous (in Wintour world, that means a slight fiddle with her bob and a strange rictus smile). But nevertheless, throne it wasn’t. HM’s visit was cloaked in secrecy until the moment security in the BFC space suddenly got rather tense at around 3pm. The first thing the fash pack knew was when the monarch, accompanied by BFC chief executive Caroline Rush, popped up at ‘the stands’ (a room full of new brands displaying their wares)for a quick chat with a hat designer or two, en route to the Richard Quinn show. So, without further ado…

Who the hell is Richard Quinn and what was The Queen doing at Quinn?

Richard Quinn only launched his label in 2016, after doing both a BA and then an MA at Central St Martin’s, having interned at both Dior and Richard James on Savile Row. He specialises in textile and fabric innovation, and has spent his first two years in business rocketing to the top of industry ‘one to watch’ lists. He’s already worked with Liberty and won H&M’s 2017 Design Award. His own designs – a riot of very English wallpaper prints and florals rendered in crazy techno fabrics – are pretty standout. He has a particular penchant for covering models’ faces in matching fabrics – eerie, but fabulous. But what’s also special is his commitment to helping fellow designers. He runs an open-access textile printing studio in Peckham, South London (he grew up nearby) to give students and other designers access to resources for a reasonable price. And that’s why Richard Quinn was picked to receive the first ever Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design— a new award that recognises British fashion’s role as one of the country’s key industries. Each recipient will be an emerging new British designer who contributes to the community and/or has strong sustainable policies, according to the BFC. The award itself was designed by the Queen’s longtime personal designer, Angela Kelly (who also attended the show). Just imagine what Richard’s proud mum and dad (who he sweetly thanked in his show notes) had to say last night…

Adwoa Aboaw at Richard Quinn

Richard Quinn

2. Christopher Bailey has left the building. But who’s next at Burberry?

Burberry AW18

After a mammoth 17-year stint at the helm of Burberry, Christopher Bailey has left the plaid-checked building. He was the man who reinvigorated the house, turning it from a chav-check backwater into the jewel in the crown (see what we did there?) of British fashion. And bringing the chav check back as a fashion statement last season, into the bargain. Bailey’s sign-0ff was epic. One of Christopher bailey best moments. All his ‘Burberry girls’ were reunited again – number one was a certain Cara Delevingne, who he discovered and put in so many ad campaigns we’ve lost track. She returned the favour by taking a break from her starry new acting career for a catwalk return. There was Sienna Miller, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Keira Knightley…and Chelsea Clinton – who is best friends with Bailey’s husband Simon Woods (who knew?). Bailey collaborated with United Visual Artists for the lighting, and also worked in an art installation in the form of rainbow lasers – ‘Our Time’, loaned from an Australian museum. The collection was heavy on LGBT rainbows – including a special Rainbow Check collection, (which is already available to buy) sales of which will go to support LGBT charities. There were lashings of ironic sportswear (including some pretty spectacular shellsuits and tourist-tastic chunky checked trainers), and a melange of some of Bailey’s greatest hits, including shearling aviator jackets, military coats and brightly coloured dresses. Now, the big question his – who’s the new Christopher? Previous hot tip Phoebe Philo has apparently taken herself out of the running and the money’s now on Kim Jones, former head of menswear at Louis Vuitton. His gender-fluid, streetwear-inflected aesthetic would definitely take the brand to the next level of cool. Place your bets…

3. New names to know

You can always rely on London to bring all the fierce creativity and fashion craziness. And this season didn’t disappoint. Our gold medals for cool go to…

Matty Bovan

He’s been part of new talent showcase Fashion East for three seasons, and this week saw his first solo show. The vibe: think the new Gareth Pugh (huge inflatable balloon headpieces, aggressive silhouettes), with lashings of drag queen – via Shoreditch. Uber-stylist Katie Grand is a supporter, and he’s a contributing fashion editor at Grand’s Love magazine.

Isa Arfen

Ever since she designed a colour-block ruffled blouse that sold out everywhere (it practically needed its own Instagram account), Isa Arfen (aka designer Serafina Sama) has been on the ascent. Her maximalist approach and love of bold colours are the kind of pieces a modern-day Frida Kahlo might wear – and she wowed the crowd at her first full runway show this season. Inspired by Seventies flea markets, everything about it was uplifting. From the melodious tunes of a steel band, drumming away at the end of the catwalk, to the frilly 1980s tartan and the dancing crowd of models having a party on the runway for the finale, it was one big smile of a show.

Richard Malone

Hailing from Wexford in Ireland, Malone is the cool new face of sustainability. His sculptural shapes in dazzling colours like cobalt blue and tomato red are made using ethical textiles and recycling a-plenty. He’s worked with a co-operative of female weavers in India since his graduate collection, and his creativity knows no bounds when it comes to making best use of existing materials – from sourcing yarn recycled from dead surplus stock, to tassells woven from recycled plastic. He designs for strong women, and he believes in diverse show casting – his model lineups represent women of every colour and ‘look’. And we love him for it.

Lastly…the pound-shop styling tricks

Faustine Steinmetz

Simone Rocha

Yes, that’s right. From the smorgasbord of accessories and styling on the runways, we’ve managed to filter out a couple of ways you can give yourself a little AW18 panache on the (very) cheap. Hurrah!

Pile on the haircombs. Tortoiseshell as seen at Faustine Steinmetz and beaded overload at Simone Rocha. DIY it for pennies on Amazon….

Well, well, well. How on earth will Milan and Paris live up to the LFW that hit headlines around the globe? Stay tuned…

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kim26chiu · 7 years

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St. Louis and the Consequences of Consolidation

Anheuser-Busch’s offices in New York.

Brian Feldman’s piece about how consolidation killed St. Louis got a lot of attention when it came out last year. He argues that a rollback of anti-trust regulations that allowed industrial consolidation was the silent killer of what were once key regional business capitals like St. Louis.

Interestingly, his focus was on something you may not know ever existed in St. Louis, major advertising agencies.

If there is a living embodiment of the St. Louis advertising industry, it’s Charles Claggett Jr. The former creative director at D’Arcy, long one of the city’s largest agencies, he retired in 2000, two years before the French firm Publicis acquired the agency. One of his many claims to fame is that in 1979, he and his team penned “This Bud’s for You”—the slogan widely credited for helping St. Louis-based brewing staple Anheuser-Busch eclipse Miller during the 1980s beer wars….Another claim to Claggett’s fame is his father, Charles Claggett Sr., who led the city’s oldest and largest agency, Gardner, in the late 1950s and the 1960s. During his tenure, the elder Claggett oversaw accounts such as John Deere, Ralston Purina, and Jack Daniel’s.

…

And it wasn’t just Gardner and D’Arcy—whose twelve offices now fanned out across North America, as far as Havana—that flourished in mid-century St. Louis. With its ample supply of locally owned businesses as potential clients, the city supported a vibrant start-up ad agency scene. These new firms trained up-and-coming talent, developed cutting-edge campaigns, and often grew to become regional or national in scope, enriching the metro area by bringing in revenue from outside of it.

…

By the 1960s, St. Louis’s advertising industry had effectively developed into what economists call an “industry cluster.” Though the city’s agencies competed with each other, their sheer number created citywide competitive advantages: a deep bench of talent that moved in and out of agencies, spreading ideas and transferring know-how; a network of experienced, low-cost suppliers (printers, recording studios); and a reputation for quality that attracted national and international clients. All of it was built on the foundation of locally owned companies. These firms provided a steady supply of commissions facilitated by personal connections: account executives at the agencies and the senior executives at the corporations knew each other—from charitable events, from rounds of golf, or from attending the same high school.

…

D’Arcy followed a similar trajectory. In 1985, it merged with NYC-based Benton & Bowles to become DMB&B, a deal that saw the headquarters and executive decision-making shift to New York. The St. Louis office still handled long-standing accounts like Mars/M&M and Anheuser-Busch, but NYC now made “above-the-rim” decisions. As Claggett put it, “The agency slowly became just a branch office competing for accounts.”

The turning point came one day in 1994, when, unbeknown to the St. Louis office, the agency’s NYC-based media-buying unit signed a $25 million deal with Anheuser-Busch’s archrival, Miller, then lied about it. Anheuser-Busch’s volatile owner, August Busch III, immediately cut ties with D’Arcy, costing the agency $422 million in billings. One D’Arcy copywriter quipped, “When you lose Bud, you’ve lost it all.” Two years later, the office lost its $140 million Blockbuster account to New York. The agency closed its St. Louis doors in 2002.

In the years since the St. Louis advertising cluster disintegrated, the entire industry has taken a major hit as the Internet has disrupted its traditional business model. U.S. ad agencies today have fewer employees than they did in 2000.

One of the companies that got bought out in St. Louis was Anheuser-Busch itself, a company so synonymous with the city that its name might as well be “Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, Missouri.” The buyer was Belgium-based InBev, which was controlled (and still is I believe) by a group of Brazilian investors. Three years after the 2008 deal, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looked back at the consequences for the company and the city.

They still make big decisions here, the kind of big-spending, imaginative deals that made this place so envied. But now executives in New York City sometimes sign off on them, too….Three years out, some things are clear. A-B is a diminished but still huge, powerful presence. The worst of the cost-cutting appears over. The brewery and some executive functions have remained in St. Louis. But the corporate culture of the old A-B — tradition-bound, perfectionist, focused more on dominating the beer market than making money — has given way to an aggressive austerity.

The extensive cost-cutting has squeezed more profits out of A-B, but questions remain over whether the company’s new bosses can grow brands and sell more beer. And St. Louis is no longer the center of the company universe. A-B is now the U.S. subsidiary of A-B InBev. With that, old assumptions — and wistful illusions — about the relationship between the company and the city have changed, too.

This is pretty well known, I believe. What’s less known, perhaps outside of St. Louis, is that in 2014 Anheuser-Busch announced it would be moving brand management and other functions from St. Louis to New York City, opening what it termed its “commercial strategy office.”

Today the A-B commercial strategy office employs about 400 people in a very cool modern office in Chelsea. While the firm is still technically based in St. Louis and employs a lot of people there, including a lot of management people such its supply chain leadership, this represents a significant loss of high talent positions for that city.

Why did A-B open an NYC? Well, InBev was already there. Chicago, the most logical place for a consumer business like A-B, had already landed the Miller-Coors HQ. I don’t have any insights on that, but would speculate it played a role in the choice of New York.

But what’s most troubling for St. Louis and many other similar cities is that A-B’s main reason for staffing up in New York was to be closer to its ad agency partners. In other words, we are seeing knock on effects from previous consolidations and the rise of global cities as key financial and producer services nodes.

First consolidation wiped out St. Louis’ national scale ad agencies. Then the loss of those agencies make it hard to keep ahold of corporate marketing and other functions.

This was one of the key things I honed in on back in 2008 when I first wrote about the trend of HQs moving back to the global city. Saskia Sassen’s work on the revival of the global city noted the growth in specialized financial and producer services (like advertising). The rebirth of the global city was not built on traditional corporate HQ growth.

But then down the road, corporations started to restructure their HQs into what I term “executive headquarters”, with only top executive functions – generally only 500 at most – now part of the HQ. And that the HQ was now being drawn back to the global city in order to take advantage of the services infrastructure there. I noted how Mead-Johnson Nutritionals (makers of Enfamil baby formula) had followed this formula when it moved from Evansville, Indiana to Chicago. Here’s what the media said at the time:

Working in a large city will make it easier to conduct business throughout the world. Mead Johnson makes Enfamil and similar products and about half of its sales come from overseas. Having offices near Chicago, for instance, will place executives in close proximity to global-business consultants, leaders in the field of nutrition and an international airport.

Today we see that proximity to services providers, international airports, and the ability to recruit top global talent are all drivers of this. To date I’ve mostly noticed that the losing locations were clearly subscale cities like Evansville or Peoria. Now with Connecticut losing GE, it’s affecting larger business markets as well.

A-B’s New York office isn’t technically an executive headquarters, but it has some of the same characteristics. This isn’t about anything nefarious. It’s about companies doing what they think they need to do to address market realities. Mass market beer brands like Bud Light are in decline industry-wide. These kinds of moves are part of trying to stay market relevant. (A-B also just changed CEOs in response).

This is definitely a trend to keep an eye on since it will have a big effect on whether or not legacy business cities like St. Louis in the 1-3 million metro area range will be able to continue conducting business as the same level they’ve been used to doing. I think there is a ton of risk here in many cities, especially in the Midwest.

from Aaron M. Renn http://www.urbanophile.com/2017/11/21/st-louis-and-the-consequences-of-consolidation/

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barb31clem · 7 years

Text

St. Louis and the Consequences of Consolidation

Anheuser-Busch’s offices in New York.

Interestingly, his focus was on something you may not know ever existed in St. Louis, major advertising agencies.

…

First consolidation wiped out St. Louis’ national scale ad agencies. Then the loss of those agencies make it hard to keep ahold of corporate marketing and other functions.

from Aaron M. Renn http://www.urbanophile.com/2017/11/21/st-louis-and-the-consequences-of-consolidation/

0 notes