ostensibly, yes

Friday, June 15, 2012

Bateleur Cargo Cults – Wooden LP Series

This is a series of drawings I made for Cape Town based band Bateleur's 2012 EP Cargo Cults.

They commissioned five artists to each produce album art for four unique limited edition LP sized 'vinyls' made from indigenous South African wood (by product designer Max Basler). Each of the 'vinyls' house a flash disk in a groove in the reverse side with the music on, as well as the music remixed by five local DJs.The name of the EP, Cargo Cults, is a reference to the religious practices found in many tribal societies (especially in New Guinea and other Pacific Islands) where, in the wake of exposure to new technologies via members of post-Industrialised cultures, the tribes develop ceremony and ritual mimicking the more technologically advanced cultures as well as sometimes regarding members of these cultures as deities.Other artists who participated in the project:

BISON (http://www.bisonart.co.za/)

STUART ZIEGLER

GIVAN LOTZ (http://www.behance.net/Givan)

SEBASTIAN BORCKENHAGEN (http://sebastianborckenhagen.blogspot.com/).

The albums sleeves were designed by CLAIRE JOHNSON (http://www.behance.net/clairejohnson)

Cult Object #1: Stibnite (Kohl)

30cm x 30cm

Pen and Ink on African Mahogany

2012

Cult Object #2: Asbestos

30cm x 30cm

Pen and Ink on Stinkwood

2012

Cult Object #3: Ruby Sulphide

30cm x 30cm

Pen and Ink on African Mahogany

2012

Cult Object #4: Cinnabarite

30cm x 30cm

Pen and Ink on African Mahogany

2012

Each drawing was of a mineral used by ancient cultures for it's magical properties: Stibnite (Kohl), Asbestos, Ruby Sulphide and Cinnabarite. Each drawing is accompanied a piece of written text on the reverse

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Arad mitanguranni

annu, beli annu

umma usatu ana matia luppus kimi

epus beli epus

amelu sa usatam ana matitsu ipus

sakna usatu-su in kippat sa Marduk \

e arad ustamma ana matia ul epus

la teppus beli la teppus

ilima ina muhhi tillani labiruti itallak

amur gulgulle sa arkuti i panuti

ayyu bel lemuttima ayu bel usati.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Slave, listen to me!

Yes, master, yes.

I will benefit my country

So do, master, do.

The man who benefits his country has his good deeds set down in the record of Marduk.

No, Servant. I will not benefit my country.

Do not do it, master, do not.

Go up to the ancient ruin heaps and walk around.

See the skulls of the lowly and the great.

Which belongs to one who did evil, and which to one who did good?

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

from Dialogue of Pessimism, Akkadian.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Preparatory sketches for new work

I'm making three large drawings for a group show at 34FineArt opening this December, here are the first doodles of what I'm going to draw.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Found film

I found two rolls of film in my room a while ago. I didn't recognize them, but have lost a fair amount of film between the camera and processing so didn't think my not recognizing them was odd. I was excited to see which forgotten excursion the film belonged to and took them down to be processed. I then forgot that I had taken them down and only realized that these rolls were still waiting for me about a month later. Anyways, I finally fetched them today and they turned out not to belong to me at all...

They belonged to an old friend of my grandparents, Professor Dave Richardson, whose cameras and assorted bric-a-brac my sister and I had inherited when he and his now late wife moved to a retirement village about a year ago. So these are his pictures. Some very beautiful shots.