tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-788853868491372452024-03-14T04:25:22.132-07:00200% MeetsThe blog of 200% magazine: www.200-percent.comwww.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-65195339837095857122011-11-01T07:35:00.000-07:002012-01-15T03:11:22.963-08:00New blog: 200percentmag<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3ubGQEt7k0N-Qv3DdDrXPFABbEQpp0jL-nDKEvTYDVlDjmmSSCAnffrGCljaMXDiACEV4JDVuaFXJqt7JWSVZ9lDHok-FfDvEWg1Nfdg3CSUrWIHiSN4-ui2GV6tZ011PCDccbcS-R0/s1600/ShameCareyMulligan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3ubGQEt7k0N-Qv3DdDrXPFABbEQpp0jL-nDKEvTYDVlDjmmSSCAnffrGCljaMXDiACEV4JDVuaFXJqt7JWSVZ9lDHok-FfDvEWg1Nfdg3CSUrWIHiSN4-ui2GV6tZ011PCDccbcS-R0/s320/ShameCareyMulligan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dear Visitors,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Great that you take the time to visit our blog, but you are aware that we don’t post any new articles on this blog anymore… <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our new blog url is </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://200percentmag.wordpress.com/">http://200percentmag.wordpress.com/</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There you can read our recent interviews with director<b> STEVE McQUEEN</b> discussing his</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> new film 'Shame' about the life of a sex-addict in New York City starring Michael Fassbender and Cary Mulligan;</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> if 2011 has been, in terms of sleeve design, a good year for the designers </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>MARK FARROW, VAUGHAN OLIVER, NON-FORMAT </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>BIG ACTIVE</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">; a review of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>SCRITTI POLITTI's </b>first concert in four year at a local pub in Hachney, East London;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> perfume reviewer <b>TANIA SANCHEZ</b> on the scents she recalls from her own childhood.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To make sure that you won’t be missing any future interviews, don't hesitate to sign up with the email subscription button on our new blog. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22px;">Picture: Momentum</span></span></span></div>www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-73662746314598048642011-08-23T08:40:00.000-07:002011-08-23T08:43:02.869-07:00Romola Garai<br />
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</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Some scintillating quotes from our interview with the actress Romola Garai (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">The Hour</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Atonement and One Day</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">):</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On her struggle with the morality of acting:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"You have to use whatever you have from your own life in order to connect with that story. It's clearly a kind of emotional prostitution; you're selling your emotions and it feels wrong". <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In respect of actors who secure jobs for which they don’t have to audition:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"When an actor has so much power that he can elect the work that he wants to do, I believe, that’s not the way it should be. It should be the director choosing the person that’s correct for the part". <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Whether Hollywood is a good place for women in the workplace:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"We still haven’t had any test cases where actresses have sued studios for bullying them about their bodies: that has not happened and it should have happened by now. </span></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 3px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 3px;"><a class="fixed" href="http://200percentmag.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/romola-garai/" style="color: #333399; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">http://200percentmag.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/romola-garai/</span></span></a></span></div><br />
www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-59352572512992235182011-07-22T01:47:00.000-07:002011-07-22T10:36:40.713-07:00Björk’s Biophilia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEQSKEXvWf-eSbAklNzUJGyXiDqypfXsw2wRzRiVXM_PUZTvCcf2mLoiczOVh6d0vZt9mV5Lp6A4qA2M8mo6OSzbQILjCTErclXqbPNaoT8cOGr3Vfhbyiynsm9tYAfKR5fDAtRM4hbE/s1600/Bjork_Carsten_Windhorst_1_MBab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEQSKEXvWf-eSbAklNzUJGyXiDqypfXsw2wRzRiVXM_PUZTvCcf2mLoiczOVh6d0vZt9mV5Lp6A4qA2M8mo6OSzbQILjCTErclXqbPNaoT8cOGr3Vfhbyiynsm9tYAfKR5fDAtRM4hbE/s400/Bjork_Carsten_Windhorst_1_MBab.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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</span></i></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">In a short period of time the Manchester International Festival (MIF) has built a fast growing reputation as one of the most avant-garde, cultural festivals </span></i></b></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">in the </span></i></b></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">world. The city has strong artistic roots and an impressive list of artists in music, literature and the visual arts were born in Manchester: Morrissey, Ian Curtis, the Gallagher brothers, Anthony Burgess, L.S. Lowry, Peter Saville, Mike Leigh, Norman Foster, and Tony Wilson (‘Mr Manchester’) one of the founders of Factory records and the Haçienda nightclub.</span></i></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">The MIF, organised bi-annually, has invited and stimulated visionary artists from around the world including Kraftwerk, Steve Reich, </span></i></b></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Marina Abramovic, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed</span></i></b></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> to create new works and cross boundaries. No wonder that, for its third edition, the MIF was the perfect stage for the world premiere of Björk’s ‘Biophilia’ – a show that brings together music, nature and technology. </span></i></b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Born in Iceland it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Björk, one day, would be interested to undertake an entire project on nature, cosmos and science, as she comes from an island where the elements are omnipresent in people’s daily lives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For ‘Biophilia’ Björk extensively researched areas where science and sound intersect. Thus, it’s understandable why she asked, Dr Nicola Dibben, </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music studies at </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the University of Sheffield who teaches </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">science and psychology of music, </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> write the introduction to the leaflet that was given to guests before the show. Inside was an explanation about the concept and context behind the project.</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Biophilia celebrates natural phenomena from the atomic to the cosmic, and presents musical sound as part of a whole”, Dr Dibben explains. Later text states that, there is a positive and contemplative message behind the show: “Biophilia’s celebration of scientific discovery and new technologies takes us forward into nature – the idea that, by combining nature with new technology we can create a more sustainable future”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Inserted into the leaflet was an A5 floor plan of the live instruments of the show, containing a short description of their capability, by whom they were built, and in which song they would be played. The guests could study and admire some of the intriguing looking instruments with adventurous names, for example, ‘Sharpsichord’ (a pin barrel harp with two huge horns of an old fashioned gramophone player).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some of the instruments were newly invented musical instruments commissioned by Björk, for example the ‘Pendulum Harps’ (four, three meter long harps that swing on pendulums powered by gravity) and ‘Gameleste’, an instrument where Björk had all the silver musical notes taken out of an old celeste and replaced with bronze gamelan bars for it to produce a richer sound.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The ‘Singing Tesla Coil’ featured in the first song of the night ‘Thunderbolt’. A large bird cage, lowered from the ceiling with two tesla coils, has been modified, so that their electric sparks could be pitched to create musical notes. The sparks are then controlled to play the arpeggio baseline of ‘Thunderbolt’. This instrument created a sound familiar to that of a fly killed by an electric shock when it encountering an electric fly killer. The effect was visually more spectacular than the sound it produced. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another instrument producing a remarkable sound was the ‘Hang’ played by Manu Delago. This instrument is made from two deep drawn nitrided steel sheets that are attached together creating the recognizable disc shape (It looked a little bit like a wok). It is played with your hands and fingertips and produces an intimate, consoling and sweet sound. It’s a far cousin of the Caribbean steel drum, but it’s more layered, demonstrated by the virtuoso Delago in ‘One Day’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the press, ‘Biophilia’ is presented ‘as a multi-media project encompassing a studio album, apps, internet, live shows and educational workshops’. Björk stars on the cover of the August UK edition of ‘Wired’ with the bold headline: “Where Apps Go Next – Björk Reinvents The iPad”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The concept is that the ten songs of ‘Biophilia’ come with an inventive app based on the theme of each song. </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Each app combines a natural element with a musicological feature</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. For example, the app ‘Virus’ works like this; if the user succeeds in defending a group of cells from a virus, the track stops; to hear the full song, the virus must be allowed to win.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In theory, the grandiose ideas behind 'Biophilia', the apps, and the newly invented instruments might convey the impression that the project is not easy to comprehend, perhaps even a tad highfalutin. As an artist, though, Bj</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rk has built a reputation of reinventing herself; successfully crossing boundaries with a back catalogue of combining futuristic technology and human warmth. In practice, ‘Biophilia’ is very accessible, playful, humane, which all comes naturally together.</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also, </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bj</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rk</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> has a fine ‘nose’ for choosing her collaborators and a talent for bringing new arrangements and instrumentation to her songs, shining a new light on her work. For her ‘Vespertine’ tour in 2001, she travelled the world with a Greenlandic choir, a harpist, the electronic duo Matmos and a 70 piece orchestra. This year’s line-up consisted out of an eclectic group of musicians: Matt Robertson (Electronics and Midi Instruments), Manu Delago (whom she introduced with self mockery "Manu Delago: on Hang and percussion and instruments of which I don’t know the names myself") and, in the role of Best Supporting actress, a 25-piece female Icelandic choir.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For each song the choir formed a new formation on the stage, positioned at the middle of the venue, which created an intimate atmosphere. ‘Crystalline’ – one of the new songs on the Album – had the cheerful energy and uplifting beat of </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bj</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rk</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">’s first hit ‘Big Time Sensuality’ that was sung crystal clear, with an infectious joy and enthusiasm, by the choir. </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The set list also included songs from the experimental album ‘Medúlla’ – an album constructed entirely around human vocal sounds. The songs ‘Mouth Cradle’ and ‘Where is the Line’</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> were performed by the choir in a pulsating manner, with a lot of spontaneity that came across much warmer than the album versions. The beautiful string lines of Eumir Deodato and </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bj</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rk</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> on the album version of ‘Isobel’ were fluently replaced by the singing of the choir and a crisp and strident drum riff by Delago, reminiscent of a military drum band. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">‘Biophilia’ affirms that the MIF is the place on earth for avant-garde entertainment. The show contained cutting edge graphic screen projections of vector graphics </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">such as D.N.A. strands, cells, </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the cosmos and cross sections of the earth. Also, the innovative ideas of how to approach and create music on newly invented instruments was inspiring, although, the ‘instruments’ of the show were the voices of </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bj</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rk</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and the Icelandic choir.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Written by Thierry Somers<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Picture <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bj</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rk</span></span></span>: Carsten Windhorst<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Picture Pendulum Harps: Pattenstudio.com, built by Andy Cavatorta</span></i></span></span><br />
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The Biophilia live show will travel to major cities around the world following the Manchester premiere.</span></span></span></i></div>www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-48306941635706876862011-07-20T10:56:00.000-07:002011-07-20T12:43:23.121-07:00Anthony Burrill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2STQcCohAHTP1sOMIfA0PQmcvwEI_ItrqtZUtrv3lZ0gh64rLR275waFXDTYQMDCINqsyJ1NmmF8BWYVtHNjqNb84KeBnVeDzhxs63bTUeKr3WKnOigbky6UncdgyLX1nGDzg5MNPtU/s1600/01_WORK_HARDabc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2STQcCohAHTP1sOMIfA0PQmcvwEI_ItrqtZUtrv3lZ0gh64rLR275waFXDTYQMDCINqsyJ1NmmF8BWYVtHNjqNb84KeBnVeDzhxs63bTUeKr3WKnOigbky6UncdgyLX1nGDzg5MNPtU/s640/01_WORK_HARDabc.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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</span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: #fb0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In May we posted an interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist of The Serpentine Gallery (London) where he discussed his obsession for the titles of his exhibitions, the inspiration for our post later that month ‘Titles’. This post featured some artists whose titles play an important part in their work; in fact, are the work. Here is an interview with the graphic designer, Anthony Burrill, for whom the titles are also the work.</span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anthony Burrill became renowned for a series of typographic covers for Wallpaper* magazine in 2008 'The Wallpaper work issue: Defying the daily grid." The covers featured slogans that included "Work More Live More" and "Work Hard & Be Nice To People", printed in traditional woodblock technique on bold colour backgrounds. In 2010, Burrill created a poster with oil from the Gulf of Mexico disaster: "Oil & Water Don't Mix".<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here, Burrill discusses the origination of the phrases, some of which resulted from eavesdropping on conversations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Work More Live More.”</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This was commissioned by Wallpaper* magazine as one of a series of four front covers I designed for their 'Work' issue in June 2008. The other three phrases had a positive spin on the live / work idea.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Work Hard & Be Nice To People.”</span></span></b><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is another phrase of the Wallpaper* series, that I overheard whilst queuing in a supermarket. An elderly lady, talking to the check-out girl, was explaining the secret to a happy life. The phrase struck a chord with me and hung around in my head for a couple of years until I made the poster. It has become very popular and is my most recognised work so far. I'm very proud of it.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
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</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“It’s Ok For Me To Have Everything I Want.”</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I first found this phrase in a newspaper article about subliminal messages in advertising from the 1970s. I thought it was an interesting phrase, as I don't think it is OK for you to have everything you want. When I made the poster some people saw it as a positive comment on consumerism whilst, in fact, it is quite the opposite.</span></span></div></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Someday, someone may make a movie of your life. Make sure it doesn't go straight to video.”</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This phrase was written by my old friend Chad Rea. We first met whilst he was working at KesselsKramer [advertising agency] in Amsterdam. Chad had hundreds of phrases and we decided to consolidate them into a series of books – the Booksmarts series, which was a personal project, with only a couple of hundred copies printed. Subsequently, we've put some of the phrases (from that book series) into prints and posters. I really like the phrase; it resonates with people in a positive way, whilst still conveying humour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Burrill has also collaborated on a series of posters with the author Alain de Botton* – who discusses contemporary themes and subjects in a philosophical style – including slogans “Pessimism Is Not Always Deep” and “Optimism Is Not Always Dumb”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The characteristic woodblock printing of all these phrases is completed by the company ‘Adams of Rye’ – a rare print shop of typefaces in East Sussex that produces print and posters in the almost extinct processes of woodblock and letterpress.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How did you find ‘Adams of Rye’?</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anthony Burill: I moved from central London to live in the countryside with my young family. We live very close to the ancient town of Rye, which is very traditional. I noticed that local events were advertised by beautiful wood block printed posters. I found out where the posters were printed and, to my delight, discovered an incredible archive of traditional wood and metal typefaces in their archives. Even more importantly, the company have staff who master the skills to set and print using this equipment!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Interview written by Thierry Somers</span></span></span></i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Your house could use some decoration? Some of these phrases could feature on your wall at home or studio as they can be ordered as a signed poster from Burrill’s website, printed by ‘Adams of Rye’ on 100% recycled paper. www.anthonyburrill.com</span></span></span></i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">*Alain de Botton shares his thoughts about passion, the subject of 200% magazine, in our second issue.</span></span></span></i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">www.200-percent.com</span></span></span></i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #343434;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</div>www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-21797270946285754062011-07-13T13:11:00.000-07:002011-07-13T13:11:06.160-07:00Matt Clark<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUI_42NG2tRJjsdmopc7HeZvRSwcqkT6v3xzp9gqmekdzPBHAQ3iaaxMy4RIm55spRtMHBOk3M7AK6JFIDJhZM75tjbDOAUoxt_jb4q4TjiwXJwYbnyeCcPqxOjZBiH8zc8zhp143N4s/s1600/UVA_NMM_JA__HR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUI_42NG2tRJjsdmopc7HeZvRSwcqkT6v3xzp9gqmekdzPBHAQ3iaaxMy4RIm55spRtMHBOk3M7AK6JFIDJhZM75tjbDOAUoxt_jb4q4TjiwXJwYbnyeCcPqxOjZBiH8zc8zhp143N4s/s400/UVA_NMM_JA__HR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
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</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Al Gore’s film ‘The Inconvenient Truth’ (2006) was very effective and successful in bringing the issue of climate change to worldwide attention. Since Gore’s film, and of the various initiatives in the intervening years, raising the subject of climate change leads to a certain apathy amongst the public.</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">One of the reasons why United Visuals Artists (UVA), in collaboration with Cape Farewell, will bring climate change to the public’s attention in an emotionally engaging and interactive installation called ‘High Arctic’ at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.</span></span></b></span><span lang="EN-US"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">200% discussed with Matt Clark, Creative Director of UVA, how to bring climate change to the public in an engaging and non-preachy way; the interactive and playful component of the installation; the ignorance of people who believe that climate change is not occurring whilst the scientific facts are there; and Clark’s expedition to the Arctic, where he experienced climate change.</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Could you explain how the project started?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: We [UVA] were invited to submit an idea for a competition process to design the first exhibition at the National Maritime Museum for the new Sammy Ofer wing – a brand new space at the rear of the museum. As a source of inspiration for the competitors, an individual, nominated from within the winning company, would go on an expedition to the Arctic with Cape Farewell. When we won the competition I was the lucky one chosen. I was sent to a place called Svalbard, which is an archipelago of islands 400 miles south from the top of the North Pole and 400 miles north of Norway. At </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Longyearbyen, </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the capital of Svalbard, I boarded the ship ‘De Noorderlicht’, an 100 foot Dutch scooner boat with a Dutch crew. There I met my fellow crew mates for the first time, consisting half scientists and half artists. The idea behind Cape Farewell is to organise expeditions to these extreme places that are visual signposts for climate change and to inspire artists and scientists to create work that gives a fresh perspective on climate change. It’s more a cultural response to climate change than a scientific endeavour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We sailed around Svalbard for three weeks and had an incredible adventure: we helped to sail the ship, we walked on glaciers, trapped across tundra and saw amazing species of sea life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The isolation was also incredible as I have never been to a place where there is no civilization, not much wild life, no trees, no architecture, except for the archers hut. It was very difficult to gain a sense of scale and perspective. During the first two weeks, we also experienced midnight sun, which is where the sun barely gets under the horizon, so it never got dark – a very surreal experience. It wasn’t just a leisurely cruise. Sometimes it was also quite dangerous as we got stuck in sea ice and had to call for emergency services to help us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The scientists were conducting scientific studies, including taking sea surface temperature. There was a scientist studying ocean certification and he was hunting for this magical creature, called a terrapod, which is a marine species that looks a bit like a snail, but with wings that flies through the water. This was found at the end of the trip. Within their shells, these creatures hold important information about calcification in the water.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Arctic is very important for mankind as the ice acts as a huge reflector for the sun’s energy. As the ice melts, the sea levels rise, the extra heat from the sun will be trapped in the atmosphere, resulting in oceans being warmed up and then expanding. It’s not really the Arctic that will suffer, it’s more the countries around the equator line, the hotter areas of the World, some of whom are already feeling the first effects of sea level rising.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What was the point of inspiration for the exhibition at the Maritime Museum?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: There was a moment that I recall vividly, when I was standing on these glaciers, which take fifty thousand years to form, surrounded by this complete beauty, when one of the scientist said to me “when your son is your age this won’t be here, this glacier will be gone”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I felt a sense of loss, but also an overwhelming sense of scale and fragility. It is those feelings that I would love our exhibition to embody.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How are you going to do that?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: We’re going to create an environment that conveys the beauty, the scale and the fragility of the Arctic, but it will be abstract. We’ve scaled the archipelago, digitalized it, with the landscape essentially being a monument to the Arctic’s past, set one hundred years in the future. There will be a sense of loss, but it’s not going to be a depressing “gloom and doom” experience, as it’s going to have a sense of beauty at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: That must have presented some challenges?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: Yes [laughs]. Before the public enters the exhibition space they are provided with a UV torch that doesn’t emit much visible light. As you enter the space you view a terrain of 3,000 individual monuments, pillars that vary in height, which represent the glaciers of Svalbard. The monuments are not white like the ice, but are grey to create a landscape of stone symbolising something to be remembered of the past and emphasizing a sense of loss.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When you point your torch on a monument the name of the glacier appears, printed in phosphor ink, for example, Telbreen, Portierbreen, Brombreen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: UVA is renowned for its innovative and interactive installations. Is this exhibition also going to be interactive?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: Absolutely. Between the monuments there are several areas of ‘open spaces’ that contain smaller monuments in the middle. Ceiling-mounted projectors emit patterns of light onto these spaces. One of the projections is squares of light that represent floating ice. When you shine your torch on the light square they start to break into pieces and vanish. It’s as if your torch becomes the sun, which makes the ice melt. In another space is a projection of white lines. Here, when you shine your torch on the lines, they disappear and become black, creating the effect of a fast spreading oil spill on the water. With his torch the visitor can see the effects of global warming.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Seems like an interesting device this UV torch. Where did you find it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: We had to hunt high and low for these torches. These are used mainly for counterfeit purposes. A lot of security systems protect cash, vaults, with UV paint, which explodes when it’s being stolen. When a criminal takes the money he won’t see this paint as it’s fine powder. The police will use torches like this to prove that a thief has been exposed to that paint and stolen that particular money.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The museum wanted something high-tech, at the forefront of digital technology. We were keen to keep the technology low spec, as an act of symbolism of it being the only ‘gadget’ with which everyone can associate with a sea expedition like ours – everyone on the boat had a torch.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Aside from Cape Farewell, were there other people with whom you collaborated on this project?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: Yes. As we wanted to create a sonic landscape we collaborated with Max Eastley and the poet and novelist Nick Drake. Max has been on several trips to the Arctic and has all sorts of interesting devices to record sounds below and above the ocean. Max has amassed a vast library of sounds that we are using for the installation, including glaciers carving, bearded seals, whales, various winds, birds, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nick was on our trip, during which time he was working on the poem ‘The Farewell Glacier’. He read it to the crew and it was such a profound and beautiful poem that embodied the same feelings that I had experienced. When we returned to London I invited Nick to the studio and asked him if he would be interested to work with poetry in an installation environment, for which he was happy to collaborate. He created an epic poem that is fragmented across this landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Is it also your intent to further enhance the public’s awareness on climate change?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: Yes, we have inserted around 60 speakers into our monuments to create voices within the archipelago, within the ice. The idea for that came from the local </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Inupiaq</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">who believe that voices are trapped in the ice, their ancestors are trapped in the ice. These stories are told by a male and a female voice in a very neutral monotone manner, not biased or preachy at all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: On what would you like the public to reflect following their visit to the exhibition?</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: From the beginning the Maritime Museum didn’t want a traditional exhibition. They didn’t want a science lesson, but something immersive and something that appeals to a wider demographic. The idea is to create curiosity about these issues and present them in a non-biased and playful way, although the message is serious. We would like people to feel the excitement of entering the space, to go on their own expedition. We have created a multi-sensory experience that is as accessible to a four year old as it is to a 90 year old. That’s quite a difficult challenge. You don’t want to dumb down work but it still has to be engaging to a wide audience.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: The disappointing outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Conference in 2009 has led to a sense of apathy amongst the public regarding climate change. Does this in itself present challenges?</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: Yes, I think so. The pitfall is to appear to be preaching, something of which we were acutely aware. This is not the aim of our exhibition. It’s actually a beautiful place in which to be; it’s about contemplation and experiences from this far away place, of which the climate issues are a part, but they are not the only part. I think as soon as you deliver information that has a prejudicial tone people switch off. Not everyone, of course, as some people are open to an understanding of climate change, whilst other people pretend it’s not happening. In my view, this is ignorant as there are many scientific facts* that climate change is occurring. Maybe it’s just human nature to make a change only when it’s too late. Hopefully, our exhibition will plant seeds and an emotional engagement through the atmospheric conditions that we created that will prompt people to make the next steps themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: The public can make a contribution, but surely it’s governments who can make radical differences?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: Yes. Simon Boxall [a scientist of the </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">National Oceanography Centre in Southampton] </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">who was also on our trip, is convinced that we need to contribute as individuals. Now, the scale of the issue, CO2 in the air, can only be addressed by governments producing clean energy initiatives. One of the Canadian states (Ontario), is implementing programmes to produce non CO2 emitting clean energy. Sadly, in times of austerity, investment in clean energy is not a priority for other governments.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Did the Cape Farewell experience change your outlook on life?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt Clark: To be on a boat for three weeks with no opportunity to ‘opt-out’; to go to a place that is quite dangerous and to travel on the oceans, something I had not done before, made me quite terrified. Questions such as, “will I be seasick, will I suffer from claustrophobia or acrophobia, will I get eaten by a polar bear”, all crossed my mind. Interestingly, when I discussed this with my fellow passengers most of them had the same fears, which makes you realize that you are just a human being and it’s quite natural to have these fears. The surprising thing is that none of those fears were justified. All of them were in my head.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My trip to the Arctic has given me increased confidence about myself and of interacting with diverse groups of people with whom I’ve previously had no connection. I also discovered, irrespective of vocation, whether artist or scientist, that we’re all searching for something but uncertain if ‘it’ will be there. Will the artist produce something worthwhile; will the scientist find the terrapod. We’re all searching for the unknown, which is part of the excitement!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">*Sadly there are still people, including politicians, who consider global warming an "hoax”. 200% asked Simon Boxall, scientist of the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, to provide 5 scientific facts that show climate change is happening. We will post the responses in a forthcoming post.</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Interview written and conducted by Thierry Somers with a contribution from Marie Drysdale.</span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">‘High Arctic – Future Visions of a Receding World’, Special Exhibitions Gallery, Sammy Ofer Wing (National Maritime Museum), 14 July 2011–13 January 2012 </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">www.nmm.ac.uk/visit</span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><a href="http://www.uva.co.uk/"><i><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">www.uva.co.uk</span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><a href="http://www.capefarewell.com/"><i><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">www.capefarewell.com</span></span></i></a></span></div><!--EndFragment--> </span><br />
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</i></span></span></div></span>www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-26064525845346125792011-06-30T02:58:00.000-07:002011-06-30T02:58:40.391-07:00Andris Nelsons<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHESX05L3b95JzHaLgl2cZR90TL_XYhuk1v8j3fMn1Pp3zRX688rwXznfAN6kOM65A35Q_65AsaCPsPhyphenhyphen1KGTyO8LIEPVjpshJWaLzGgfhzA1cIyhzx5vZaT1tHP9M9k_6lRXRcHS1eh4/s1600/Nelsonsconducting005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHESX05L3b95JzHaLgl2cZR90TL_XYhuk1v8j3fMn1Pp3zRX688rwXznfAN6kOM65A35Q_65AsaCPsPhyphenhyphen1KGTyO8LIEPVjpshJWaLzGgfhzA1cIyhzx5vZaT1tHP9M9k_6lRXRcHS1eh4/s400/Nelsonsconducting005.jpg" width="311" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b><br />
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</b></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>At the age of 29, the Latvian, Andris Nelsons, was appointed Music Director to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO).</b></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>This is a prestigious position for a conductor as the CBSO, which has grown into a 90-piece ensemble, has gained a worldwide reputation since Simon Rattle became the Principal Conductor in 1980.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>One would have thought that an orchestra of such calibre would have chosen their music director after a protracted period of contemplation and review of several candidates, but quite the contrary. Nelsons was appointed to the job in 2008 following only a private concert and a recording session, without having conducted the CBSO in public. The young conductor is signed through the 2013-2014 season.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>There must be something about him as to why the CBSO decided to appoint him in this manner. Meeting with Nelsons one quickly gains a sense as to why the CBSO consider him the right man for the job: he comes across as a sympathetic, generous person who talks very knowledgeably, passionately and openly about his feelings and emotions in music, sometimes in an disarming way. One could understand that Nelsons is a person who can inspire and excite an orchestra. <o:p></o:p></b></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>Stephen Maddock, the CEO of the CBSO, called Nelsons “the next big thing” when he talked about the CBSO’s search for its new music director. </b></span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>Alex Ross, music critic of ‘The New Yorker’ expressed a similar thought whilst Nelsons was touring America as a guest conductor, writing “He has the makings of a great conductor, and orchestral administrations on several continents are doubtless keeping an eye on him”. </b></span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>200% met with Nelsons in one of the dressing rooms of the Royal Opera House in London during the rehearsal period of Puccini’s ‘Madama Butterfly’ to discuss whether </b></span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>music is his means to find answers to the ‘big questions of life’; how he finds solace in music; whether to sacrifice your life for another person; and the criticism of his expressive mimic and gestures when he conducts.</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: </span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You have called watching the opera performance of Wagner’s ‘Tännhauser’ as a five year old child “one of the strongest experiences of my life.” Could you explain why this experience made such a deep impression on you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: This was the first opera I ever saw; had it been another opera, it might have also influenced me so strongly. Sitting amongst adults and being, perhaps, the only child in the audience might be one of the reasons why it made such an impression on me, but I think, most of all, it was being exposed at such a young age to serious questions about life and death, about love, that made a big impression on me. Since then, in my life, I have been thinking a lot about these ‘big questions’, about the purpose of life, etc. Maybe that’s why I became a very serious person [laughs].</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The music of ‘Tännhauser’ which is not necessarily the music for a five year old, made a formative impression on me, as it is so powerful and compelling. I think since then Wagner has been a very strong influence on me as a composer. I love his music and it’s like an hypnotic power to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Have there been other experiences in your life that have had similar impacts on you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: Yes, about the same age, maybe one year later, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ by </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Franco Zeffirelli</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> – a six hour long TV series about the life of Christ – made a big impact on me. I believe that ‘Tännhauser’ and ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ are the reasons why I became a musician.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What specifically appealed to you from ‘Jesus to Nazareth’ – was it, again, questions of life and death?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: Yes, I started to think about death from a very early age; what happens after death and what’s the reason of living? Should we be afraid of death or not? All these questions continually worry me, as they have worried all the great composers, such as Mahler, Wagner and Beethoven. Most of these composers I think, struggled with fate, with destiny, with death and love.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Is music your means to find out the answers to those questions?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: I don’t know if you will find answers. Mahler ends his Ninth Symphony with a big question mark, which can be seen as the soul going to heaven, or somewhere, but still a question mark, ie what happens after death?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Beethoven finishes his Ninth Symphony almost like a victory, the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Ode to Joy” chorus</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> in the final movement, but about what is this victory really? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Whilst it may not provide answers to these questions, I think the great thing about music is that it allows you to dream; to have different interpretations, scenarios of life. Through music you can ‘live’ all those different scenarios with a happy or a tragic end. Music gives me the ability to live a different life. It allows me to play different characters as when I conduct, for instance, an Opera like ‘Madama Butterfly’ I can identify myself with its characters; Butterfly, Pinkerton or Sharpless, which makes you live a different life at that moment. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Generally, in life I’m a shy person; when I conduct, though, I forget about my shyness. When I’m conducting, I can be brave, which I’m not every day, I can be an hero, a terrible or a nice man – I can be anything I want through music.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Thus, is conducting a way for you to be your true self?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: Yes, I think so. Conducting allows me to show who I truly am, which I can’t do in everyday life, due to my shyness or, perhaps, out of politeness. When I’m conducting I can show my ‘feelings’ to the whole world, whether good or bad, and express myself without words, which is great as I’m not a person who is able to readily express himself in words. I try, but it never works [laughs]; through music I can express what I feel in life. Of course, when you rehearse with the orchestra you need to be clear, and express yourself through words, somehow that comes naturally to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What attracts you about ‘Madama Butterfly’ which you perform at the Royal Opera House?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: ‘Madama Butterfly’, for me, is one of the strongest personalities in all history of music as she is willing to sacrifice everything for her husband, Pinkerton, who actually isn’t worthy of her. He is a very weak man with no backbone. He doesn’t have much of a conscience, which she knows, but still she loves him. She gave up her religion, she gave up her family, everything, for her love, her hopes, and finally sacrificed her life in the face of dishonour. I believe that to sacrifice yourself for someone else is the hardest act in life. I’m so fascinated about this and I don’t know if I could do it – I don’t think I could do it. Therefore, I believe this is why Butterfly’s story it’s such a touching and evocative story.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you also find solace in music?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: I think I do. When I read about the work and life of composers I</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> realize that I am not alone with problems or thoughts: they also struggled with thoughts such as escapism; pretending they didn’t see the problems or questions they didn’t want to face and, by not dealing with them, they become even bigger problems. As they also struggled with these issues I feel supported somehow realizing that I am not alone with doubts and insecurities.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Is there a specific example of something with which you have personally struggled whereby you found solace in a particular classical composer’s life or work?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: [long pause] As I travel a lot for my work I experience feelings of being homesick. When I’m in America rehearsing and touring for one month, I sometimes feel very lonely and miss people who are close to me, my wife, my family.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Antonin </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dvořák</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">’s composed the Ninth Symphony ‘The New World Symphony’ when he was living in America. I always thought it was about his experiences and impressions of this country, but subsequently discovered that when he composed it </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dvořák</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> was feeling intensely homesick: this symphony is also about home, about being lonely and how it is to be lonely. The famous second movement [Largo] can be seen as a nostalgic reflection on his home country Czech Republic.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I like being in America, but when I’m there for a long time I start to miss Europe. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Composers like </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dvořák</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, B</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">é</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">la </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bartók</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and Sergei Rachmaninoff</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> endured periods of homesickness when they left their native country. When I first heard their music I couldn’t understand why these incredibly successful and wealthy composers made such sad and melancholic music. Now I understand it as I have experienced feelings of loneliness and homesick myself when I’m travelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These composers were living one hundred, two hundred years ago and it was more difficult for them to deal with these feelings as there were no mobile phones and the post was very slow. Today, if you love someone, you can text to them “I love you” and your message reaches them in one second. Or, when I’m sad, I can call someone and talk with them directly about how I feel. In those times, though, if you felt lonely you couldn’t immediately tell your loved ones – you had to write a letter, which took, maybe, one month to be received; then you open the letter and you read it and write a reply. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thus, if they hadn’t experienced those difficulties and feelings of loneliness, they may not have been inspired to produce such great compositions. For me, dealing with loneliness, I find solace in their work.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: There has been some discussion about your conducting style on the Internet: some find your body language irritating, distracting and excessive, whilst others find it overtly physical and idiosyncratic, but point out that it is because of an enthusiasm and enjoyment of the music with your physical style being so clearly for the orchestra’s benefit. What is your view on your own conducting style? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: [Laughs] When I conduct I don’t think how I look in an aesthetic sense of “do I look nice or too sweaty”? I only think of how to communicate my ideas about music to the orchestra. This means that my mimic and my gestures can be quite expressive and some people might think it is too much. When I conduct I’m also very much in the moment, where the music takes me, and I don’t think about how my body moves looks from the audience’s viewpoint.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It might change with age as young conductors seem to have bigger gestures but when they get older they reduce their physical demeanor. In maturing, some conductors become very minimalistic in their gestures, for example, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yevgeny Mravinsky or Wilhelm Furtwängler, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">but they compensate with their great personality or their prestige as a conductor. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Are you looking to that moment when you become a ‘minimalistic conductor’?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andris Nelsons: Yes, I am. Some people say that the orchestra is like a horse, which you shouldn’t over control otherwise it will throw you off. You need to let it have free rein, but there are also moments when you need to rein it in.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As experienced musicians, orchestras can play themselves. There are, though, moments when they need your help, which you have to sense. The more and more you perform a work you have a sense of the moments “now I don’t need to conduct, it goes so great I shouldn’t disturb” or “here I need to be involved more”. Sensing these moments, finding this balance of whether to conduct or not, is what I believe comes with age and experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Interview conducted and written by Thierry Somers, with contribution from Marie Drysdale.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Photo: Marco Borggreve</span></i></span></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Andris Nelsons will conduct ‘Madama Butterfly’ at The Royal Opera House on 2, 4, 8, 12, 15 July.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-33906377795388676922011-06-17T03:54:00.000-07:002011-06-17T03:54:43.455-07:00John Currin<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</span></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Artist John Currin talks about ‘the tools of his trade’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you have a favourite brush?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: My favourite is similar to Richard’s [Phillips], the Da Vinci Maestro hog bristle. My next favourite is probably my Rafael mongoose brushes. I also use sable brushes such as </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Escoda, Manet & Da Vinci – </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">but they’re not my favourites.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What do you like about the hog bristle?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: You can do a lot with it: in fact, you can almost do a whole painting with it. They’re very big, but you can do a surprising amount of detail with it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: So you have a good feeling with that brush?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: Yes. There is only one problem in that Richard goes out and buys them out as soon as they come into the store. I’m pissed at him for that [laughs].<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you especially maintain them, clean them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: They wear out so fast it is just better to buy a new one. They get ruined very quickly, get worn down. When they’re new they’re fantastic, and good for about four days of work; when they become ‘old’, you use them for other things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My assistant, Suzanne [Bennett], cleans my brushes. Even when they’re clean, though, they’re never the same as the first time you use them. There is nothing like a brand new brush. They are 100 dollars each. One of the nice things of being successful is that you can buy tons of brushes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: You do you have a favourite knife with which you paint?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: Yes. It’s an inexpensive knife that I’ve had since I was 25 years old, but it’s become my favourite. I have used it so much that the steel is worn into a very nice shape. It’s a very nice knife. I keep trying to get another one, that will be just as good, but they never are. There is something lucky about this one. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What kind of paint do you use?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: I use a combination of things: regular old Winsor Newton; Robert Doak in Brooklyn makes really lovely paint; Old Holland Classic – that’s also a very nice paint; Blockx, that’s a Dutch one, and a Japanese company Holbein: they make very good paint and they make good palette knives, good metal things, very expensive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What do you like about these paints?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: It’s consistent, it’s good paint. Different brands do different colours best for example, Winsor Newton have very nice colours. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How do you mix your paint?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: On a palette. Unlike other artists I don’t put my paint on a glass palette.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: In which position do you paint?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: I paint at an easel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Who stretches your canvases?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: I used to do it myself and then I hurt my thumb – I have arthritis in my thumb – so I don’t do it anymore. You have to be strong and I’m not strong enough anymore. Now Simon Liu stretches my canvases. They might do it by machine, but they do a fine job, so I’m happy with that. They glue the canvases with a rabbit skin glue to coat them and then they deliver them to my studio. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: And do you prime your canvases yourself?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: Yes, I hate doing it, but nobody else does it well, so I like to put the ground on myself, although my assistant, has done some and she has gotten pretty good at it. Also, the assistant of my wife [Rachel Feinstein], has also done some canvases for me and he, too, started getting good at it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What is the craftsmanship of priming a canvas?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: When you prime a canvas you put the paint on with a knife, similar to a spatula that a plaster worker uses. It takes a lot of skill and experience to do that properly. I have a certain preference how to prime my canvases and it’s important that the mix that is put on the canvas is right. Mine consists of white lead with a little bit of dry pigment in it and marble dust, like a talcum powder. It becomes this ugly grey blob of paste and you put it on the canvas with a knife.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Priming canvases is very time-consuming. When I’m painting as I would like to have a hundred canvases ready for me, I have to prepare a lot. I like my canvases to dry for a year before I use them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Working with paint and how to use it, has it been a trial and error process?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: Yes. I know by now what colour to use. If you’re going to make something yellow, there is a number of ways to make something yellow; you can just use yellow paint, but you can also paint it white and stain it yellow, or paint something red and paint the yellow over the red. It all makes different kinds of yellows, different character and that’s a big thing for me – how to make a colour look right. I don’t really paint opaquely. A lot of times, I probably should; I just don’t mix the colour on my palette and paint it on the canvas. For instance, with flesh tones, I first paint a ‘funny’ colour, put another colour over that and they combine transparently which makes this third colour, the colour that I want.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Is craftsmanship something you would like the viewer to appreciate?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: No. I’d rather like that people don’t know about it. First of all my craftsmanship is so terrible compared to anybody in the N</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ineteenth Century, it’s not that great. It’s like drawing. I don’t want it to be some sort of moral thing that I do it because it is the right thing to do. I just do it because it’s the way I like it. I guess I also want to be able to say if I change my mind and I want to do it the ‘shitty’ way that I’m allowed [laughs]. A lot of my paintings have really God awful things in them and there are some wonderful, perfectly done things in them. It’s always a combination, and that’s actually true of all artists, even in the old days.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: When people admire your craftsmanship you’re not happy with that?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Currin: I like it if people think that I’m a good painter, but in a way, to me, it feels like another way of saying I’m really boring [laughs]. I would like it if people thought I was the best painter in the world but I’d rather they thought that my paintings were beautiful, then well made, that they have a certain kind of magic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As any painting that is good, it has a certain kind of magic. I’m not a big spiritual believer, or magical type of person, but I do think that painting is mostly magic, and at least has the effect of magic; it’s very hard to control how it turns out. You can control how it looks but you really can’t control the magic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Written by Thierry Somers</span></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-14718206722597058472011-05-27T02:45:00.000-07:002011-05-27T02:45:56.438-07:00Titles<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</span></i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">In our last post Hans Ulrich Obrist discussed his obsession for the titles of his exhibitions and </span></i></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">different schools of titles, inter alia, titles of the artists Gerhard Richter, Gilbert & George and Damien Hirst. </span></i></span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Here are some other artists for whom titles play an important part in their work; in fact, the titles are the work.</span></i></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1. “I WOULD GLADLY PAY YOU TUESDAY FOR A HAMBURGER TODAY” – Ed Ruscha<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">‘Art’; ‘End’; and ‘Pity’ are titles of word paintings of the American artist Ed Ruscha who painted these words against backdrops of mountains, clouded skies, or just colour gradients. Later in his career he started to paint comical phrases, including “I WOULD GLADLY PAY YOU TUESDAY FOR A HAMBURGER TODAY”; “I PLEAD INSANITY BECAUSE I’M JUST CRAZY ABOUT THAT LITTLE GIRL”; and “HONEY, I TWISTED THROUGH MORE DAMNED TRAFFIC TO GET HERE”, some of them painted in Ruscha’s own designed typeface named “Boy Scout Utility Modern” – an angular capital typeface, with no curves.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Margit Rowell, the curator of Ruscha’s Show, “Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips®, Smoke and Mirrors” commented, “Ruscha’s work includes paintings, photographs, prints, books and films, but his works on paper are perhaps his richest vein. Through his interpretation of cultural icons and vernacular subjects, such as the Hollywood sign, trademarks, and gas stations, as well as his renderings of words and phrases in countless stylistic variations, Ruscha proposes a modern landscape based on keen observation and wry humor”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ruscha’s works remain extremely relevant today: he could be regarded as a predecessor to Twitter as his works are comparable to an “intriguing” Tweet, made in a concise statement or comment of less than 140 characters.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2. “I Shop Therefore I Am” – Barbara Kruger<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Kruger became renowned for her – much imitated – graphic style of bold and confronting phrases, which are usually set in white on red in Futura Bold Oblique typeface. The layout of the phrases appear as a threatening letter, and are displayed in a collage manner on black and white pictures. Kruger’s text are often politically charged statements, addressing issues of, for example, consumerism (“Buy me I’ll change your life”), and power (“77% of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100% of them will never be pregnant”).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“You Are a Victim of the Rules You Live By” – Jenny Holzer</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just like Kruger, the work of the American artist Jenny Holzer, also deals with the issues of violence, oppression, sexuality and feminism. Holzer disperses her ideas in public spaces which are projected on buildings in the street or shown on LCD displays. Her phrase “Protect Me From What I Want” even made it to Times Square where it was largely displayed on a LED billboard.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At the beginning of her career, Holzer wrote her own texts and became renowned for her “Truisms”, short statements such as “Men Are Not Monogamous By Nature” and “Money Creates Taste”, which were printed on cheap, coloured paper and plastered on the walls in New York in the 1970s and also printed on T-shirts. From 1993 Holzer started to use texts of others, including Lenin and Mao and Nobel Prize winners Elfriede Jelinek and Wislawa Szymborska. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Holzer has chosen Futura Condensed Bold as her signature typeface for the texts that have been projected in many cities throughout the world in the language of the country. Unfortunately, her texts haven’t been projected (yet) on buildings in dictatorial regimes where they could articulate the thoughts of repressed civilians who are not allowed to express ideas, like Holzer, in public but can only think about them in silence.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“FRANKIE SAY WAR! HIDE YOURSELF” – Paul Morley</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Paul Morley also used the T-shirts as his medium. For the band Frankie Goes To Hollywood he created a series of popular “Frankie say” T-shirts based on a controversial T-shirt that the fashion designer Katharine Hamnett wore when she met Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. The text on Hamnett’s shirt read: “58% DON’T WANT PERSHING” voicing the British public resistance to basing nuclear weapons in the UK. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To promote the Frankie Goes To Hollywood protest song ‘Two Tribes’ Morley designed a T-shirt marketing campaign. Set in a bold typeface, the slogans were “FRANKIE SAY WAR! HIDE YOURSELF” and “FRANKIE SAY ARM THE UNEMPLOYED” that sold 250,000 copies fulfilling Morley’s desire for the song to become ‘part of public language’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji6D4bugFnUoA9XCMP09Qa16Uf4idNHBwG0XoSGYo-ifNw-xl3aK3_V-9I4I7QQn0OtuiJVaPNj4ASaRh1FLOdNAEqALamC_lM2AGir4awX2t3pZZk3B7E3ZZqjGMkg_txiw04Ay-YskA/s1600/200px-Frankie_says_relax_t-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji6D4bugFnUoA9XCMP09Qa16Uf4idNHBwG0XoSGYo-ifNw-xl3aK3_V-9I4I7QQn0OtuiJVaPNj4ASaRh1FLOdNAEqALamC_lM2AGir4awX2t3pZZk3B7E3ZZqjGMkg_txiw04Ay-YskA/s1600/200px-Frankie_says_relax_t-shirt.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Written by Thierry Somers<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Picture: Barbara Kruger “I Shop Therefore I Am” (above) <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“Frankie Say…” T-shirt designed by Paul Morley and modeled by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>If you have a suggestion for a great Exhibition Title, including the reason why, please let us know.</b></span></span><o:p></o:p></i></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-24056282053202006782011-05-17T13:29:00.000-07:002011-05-17T13:29:34.811-07:00Hans Ulrich Obrist<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</span></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">‘DO IT’ is not only the title of an exhibition that Hans Ulrich Obrist curated in 1997, but it also sums him up. The Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects for The Serpentine Gallery is one of the most prolific, hands-on, art curators in the world, who merges science, architecture and literature into his work. He is the founder of the breakfast club ‘Brutally Early Club’, where people from the arts meet people in science, architecture and literature professions at 6.30 in the morning. “If you want to understand the forces that are effective in visual arts, it’s important to understand what is happening in other disciplines”, as Obrist quoted the art historian and museum director, Alexander Dorner, in a story in our fourth edition of 200% (“Expanding the Notion of Curating”), as to why Obrist has such close ties with other disciplines.</span></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">For that story Obrist provided us with lots of interesting material that didn’t fit into the subject of our story, but is still worthwhile sharing, for example, his obsession for the titles of his exhibitions, different schools of titles, inter alia, titles of Gerhard Richter, Gilbert & George and Damien Hirst, and whether the relationship between </span></span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">an artist and a curator may be comparable with the relationship between a novelist and his editor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">In this interview, Obrist gives his viewpoints on these topics, and also discusses </span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">what he considers have been the major developments in the art scene, </span></span></i></b><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">and what museums could do with all the hidden treasures they have in their vaults that can’t be shown to the public due to space constraints.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How do you come up with the titles of your shows?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hans Ulrich Obrist:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> For my house museum shows the artist Douglas Gordon invented the titles: ‘Retrace Your Steps, Remember Tomorrow’ for the Sir John Soane’s museum, ‘The Air Is Blue’ for the Luis Barragán show in Mexico, and ‘Ever Still’ for the Lorca Show in Granada. For the other shows I came up with the titles in dialogues with others. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">‘Cities On The Move’, which I co-curated with Hou Hanru, was inspired by a conversation we had with the Italian philosopher and politician Massimo Cacciari. ‘Do it’ was a collaboration with Bertrand Lavier and Christian Boltanski. ‘Utopia Station’, was a collaboration between Molly Nesbitt, Rirkrit Tiravanija and myself for the 50th Venice Biennale. Molly and I had worked on an exhibition ‘Utopia’ and Rikrit worked on ‘Station’ and our ‘Utopia’ and his ‘Station’ became ‘Utopia Station’, so very often my titles are shared space. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Titles are key; they can become self-fulfilling prophecies. If we call a show ‘Cities On The Move’ or more recent our Serpentine Show ‘Indian Highway’, which I co-curated with Julia Peyton-Jones and Gunnar Kvaran, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that these shows are going on tour, which is what they did. Thus, titles are more than titles: they are a production of reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: The titles of your shows are usually very short. Is there a reason for this?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hans Ulrich Obrist:</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Yes, Gerhard Richter told me that titles should be iconic, normally very short. When we did the show in the Nietzsche Haus in Sils Maria, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">where Nietzsche wrote ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I suggested ‘</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Circulus vitiosus pictus’ instead of ‘Circulus Vitiosus Deus’ (Nietzsche’s Ethics), but Richter said “no, that’s too complicated. In a few years, it is not going to be good”. The longevity of a title is also very important. A title has to work in twenty or fifty years, and Gerard asked me “where is this show?” and I answered “Sils Maria” and he said “too long” and he reduced it to ‘Sils’, which became the title of the show. We then applied this methodology to the next book we did together, which was Gerhard Richter ‘Text’. The working title was ‘The Daily Practice of Painting’, and at some point Gerhard asked me “what </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">is</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> it, as a matter of fact”. I replied “It’s text, it is your writings”. So we called it Gerhard Richter ‘Text’. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ever since, I have applied this methodology to some of my other shows. When I did the show at Hotel Carlton Palace, we just called it ‘Hotel Carlton Palace – room 763’, the room in which it actually took place. When I did a show in the Zurich drainage museum [Museum der Stadtentwässerung], I called it ‘Cloaca Maxima’. I also liked the titles of Pontus Hultén shows. When he did his big blockbuster shows he called them ‘Paris-Moscow’ or ‘Paris-Paris’. Titles have always been an obsession for me. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Besides Richter, are there any other artists who you think are ‘good’ in titles? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hans Ulrich Obrist:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Ed Ruscha, Martin Kippenberger and I was always very fascinated by the titles of Gilbert & George (G&G). I met them at the same time that I met Christian Boltanski, Fischli Weiss and Gerhard Richter – at the very beginning of my trajectory as a teenager when I was 18 years old. G&G would always come up with these amazing titles. I thought it would be nice to do a book on all G&G titles and I had many years of conversations with them. Finally, last year, they agreed to do a book, that they would also design, ‘Art Titles 1969-2010’, in collaboration with Inigo Philbrick and me. It’s a bit of a ‘user manual’ for people in search of titles. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">G&G had this idea to print the titles in the book twice: in chronological and alphabetical order. [Obrist reads from the Foreword of the book] “G&G likened their evolution to a pilgrimage; invoking John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim's Progress’ as a model of their desire to continually and uncompromisingly discover life anew</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">”. Thus, titling for G&G in their artistic practice is a question of ‘one thing after another’. [Obrist continues to read from the Foreword] “With each idea following intuitively from what has just been named. Their art is above all an attempt to take what is at hand and to make of it what they can; to search amid everyday life for ways to invent what Raymond Roussel might have called ‘wily stratagems’ performative gambits, to form pictures and exhibitions from reality.” When you read the book, it feels a bit like a rap and they want the reader to read it aloud.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What do you think of the titles of Damien Hirst’s shows, for example, ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’, ‘Romance in the Age of Uncertainty’, and ‘</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Towards a Better Understanding of Life without God aboard The Ship of Fools’. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hans Ulrich Obrist:</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They are great titles. His titles are the other side of the spectrum as they are long, but interesting ominous loops. They are somehow between a music song and a poem. I’ve also been inspired by music songs. I did this other show ‘Take me (I’m yours)’, which was inspired by a music song of the band Squeeze. It actually was my first show with Julia Peyton-Jones at the Serpentine Gallery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: You don’t consider Hirst’s titles pompous?</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hans Ulrich Obrist:</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">No, I don’t think they are pompous. It’s a very different type of titles. I’ve been more of into iconic, short titles but I think Damien has invented his own sort of title. I think they are quite enigmatic and they make you think.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How much is the relationship between an artist and a curator a bit like the relationship between a novelist and his editor? Is it a curator’s job to tell an artist ‘This is good... this needs more work... this should be thrown in the bin?’<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hans Ulrich Obrist:</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the literary world often an author works with one editor. I think in the art world, though, there is more a promiscuity of collaboration, because artists are collaborating with different people; curators, galleries and have dialogues with critics, so I think it’s more polyphonic in the art world. When editors are telling me about their extreme proximity with their authors and how they speak all the time, it reminded me of certain relationships I have with certain artists that have sustained over a long time. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What have been major developments in the art scene since you started as curator?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hans Ulrich Obrist:</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> We’re in a situation where you have a polyphony of voices in museums and people with all kinds of different approaches; it’s more trans-national. Now, a museum director works in other countries. I think that’s an opening up and that’s our task in the art world as the forces of </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">homogenization</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> are also at stake in the world of art. Maybe we can dedicate this interview to the memory of </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Édouard Glissant</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> as he was such an amazing visionary in terms of “</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">mondialité" and "créolisation”</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> to actually show us ways how we can engage in a global dialogue to produce differences and avoid the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">homogenization</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> of languages. I believe that there should be a pluralism and a variety of different museum approaches. It’s important that Shows are not only curated by professional curators but also by artists. Last year, Julia Peyton-Jones and I, asked the industrial designer, Konstantin Grcic, to curate a design show at the Serpentine Gallery – these unexpected curatorships can lead to very unexpected shows.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What is also interesting, is that, to take as a positive sign, is the move from the art world that used to be a very limited field. Previously, it was only the Western art that was considered; what has happened over the last 10, 20 years, is extraordinary; China, Middle East, Latin America and all these powerful strong art scenes, are finally gaining credit and entering museum collections and museum shows. There are also more curators and artists from these geographies who start to play a role. We have a greater variety now. The art world used to be much smaller. When I started in the 1980s, you had less curators and they often had a local monopoly and, now, no-one has a monopoly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Within curating I notice there is a lot of re-visiting of positions from the past. Ten, twenty, years ago curating was all about the ‘new’ and there was an excitement of finding new artists; now, there is, again, an additional layer to that which is memory. I see more and more curators being interested in artists from previous decades, undigging sources that help us to invent the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you have a solution as to what museums could do with all the hidden treasures they have in their vaults that can’t be shown to the public due to space constraints?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hans Ulrich Obrist:</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Museums can only show a little bit of what they have, and even if they do an expansion, and double or triple their surface, it is still is a very small percentage of what their collection includes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I think it’s interesting to return to an idea of the architect Rem Koolhaas for the expansion of the MoMA, which must have been 10 to 15 years ago, but it was turned down (MoMA decided to adopt Yoshio Taniguchi’s concept). Koolhaas’s project was actually that the museum would have different parts, not only the physical part, the display of art, but that the viewer would also have the possibility to see parts of the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">storage e.g. accessible digitally</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: maroon;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One of the things that is very fascinating in the world of curating is that when I became a curator my relatives thought it was a medical profession, as it was so obscure, they had no clue what a curator was: today, though, the word curating is used everywhere. It’s used on the Internet, used by blogs: websites are being curated, the TED conference is being curated. From this point of view one can obviously say if Joseph Beuys says “everyone is an artist” could we say, 40 years later, “everyone is a curator”? Now, that doesn’t mean that an expertise disappears, because obviously museum curators have a life-long expertise – as a scholar, as a researcher, as a profession of how to install a show – and that is something we need in the future, as we need experts in all fields. It is, however, very interesting that, in addition, you could say there could also be the idea that every viewer is a curator. Actually viewers, through the digital connection, can go to the collection, they could put together their own display, and there could be all kinds of alternative proposals of use; you could then digitally, view other things than you see in the space that I think is not yet used so much, which I think has huge potential for the future. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Interview conducted and written by Thierry Somers. </span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Additional contribution by Marie Drysdale.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Picture: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Photographed by Juergen Teller</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"></span></i></span></span></i></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><i><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="SV"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">©</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Juergen Teller</span></span></div></i></i></span><br />
<!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-7156338550814196112011-04-28T07:05:00.000-07:002011-04-28T07:05:20.774-07:00Wil Malone<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</span></i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Wil Malone is a musician, producer and responsible for the string arrangements of Massive Attack’s </span></i></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and The Verve’s </span></i></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ – two songs that featured on our playlist ‘Pop Meets the Classics’ (January 2011 post). <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">As a musician, Malone was a member</span></i></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> of the psychedelic bands ‘Orange Bicycle’ and ‘</span></i></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://peppermintstore.blogspot.com/search/label/Motherlight"><b><span lang="NL" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Motherlight</span></i></span></span></b></a></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">’ and </span></i></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">classical instruments feature prominently on his solo album ‘Wil Malone’ and the soundtrack for the horror movie ‘Death Line’. Malone mentions Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’, Paul Buckmaster’s string arrangements for Elton John’s albums and David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ as big inspirations for his own string arrangements. <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Earlier this month, Anne Dudley explained on our blog how the string arrangements of ABC’s ‘Lexicon of Love’ orginated and here Wil Malone shares, the origins of the string arrangements of </span></i></span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and </span></i></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’.</span></i></span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">‘Unfinished Sympathy’ <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ it was the band and the producer who asked me to do the string arrangements for the song. I remember, the track was originally eight minutes long and they let me hear many demos of the song; all sorts of constructions and different ways of doing it. I asked them what they had in mind for the string arrangements of the track and it was Massive’s producer Jonny Dollar – he was highly responsible for putting together the track – who said: “do what you feel like”. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The reason for inclusion of the string arrangements was to be supportive. In my view, in pop music, strings have to be supportive to the vocal, although they also have to give a boot and a sense of tension. If you have a rough track, it’s good to have the strings as a classical contrast sound so that you create a tension, a suspense going on all the time between the roughness of the track and the purity and classical feel. In pop music you’re usually working on a track with bass, drums, guitar, synthesizer, vocals and the strings have to blend with all that. My approach for ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ was that it’s a really open track: basically it’s just a groove – keyboards, and a great vocal by Sara Nelson – so you just let it drift, just let it chill. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With most string arrangements that I do, the strings are ‘put back’ in the mix. In other words they are so quiet you don’t really hear them, or they’re mixed up, so that you can just hear the top lines; but on ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, the strings are exposed. You can really hear them and I think that makes something different. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The string arrangements were played by 42 session players in EMI Abbey Road studio 1. I wanted to make the sound rich so that it vibrates in your chest and stomach, but to also keep it cool, so not so much vibrato – hit the bar lines very accurately. When you are writing, descriptively, in classical music there are emotions that you want the orchestra to have or play, but in pop music that isn’t true. There is no point in writing instructions like ‘dolce’ unless it really means something; basically it is a different way of writing for strings in pop music as you’re writing to a mix, you’re trying to blend your sound into the sound that is on the track.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Ashcroft, the singer-songwriter of The Verve, asked me to write the arrangements for their track ‘History’ from their second album ‘A Northern Soul’. He liked what I had done and he asked me to write the strings for ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ for their album ‘Urban Hymns’. And this track came up and they played me a riff [Malone hums the tune of ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’] and they said that’s what we want. So I wrote it and but I wanted to have it a bit more bounce, jump if you like, and I added some bits and pieces. And it’s always on the same chord, quite Arabic – it doesn’t change. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also in this song the strings are very pronounced and that’s why people talk about it, because you can hear them. Apart from Richard’s voice, they became the most important element of the song. The strings were basically performed by the same team of session musicians who did ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ but done by a smaller group of 24 people at Olympic Studio. My instructions to the musicians were to make the strings tough, determined, not pretty, not to make them poetic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Emotional response <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When people hear a string ensemble playing together, sometimes, they are emotionally moved by it. I have seen them cry on sessions when they hear it; but as the person who has written the string arrangement, I know what they’re going to sound like, so I’m not going to cry about them, I will just be happy when they sound great. In a certain sense all show business, film, music, etc is a form of manipulation. The benefit, thus, is for the person ‘receiving it’. That’s what you try to do: to put a bit of humour in it, or some wit, maybe a bit of elegance or create an unnerving effect. That’s what great string arrangements can do.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Written by Thierry Somers</span></i></span></span></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-23964387603675858972011-04-13T01:03:00.000-07:002011-04-13T01:03:55.177-07:00Anne Dudley<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</i></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>Throughout her career Anne Dudley has experimented with many musical genres. She has been a member of the </i></span></span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>avant-garde synthpop group,</i></span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i> </i></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>Art of Noise, who used innovative ways of ‘sampling’; has created many film scores, including ‘Black Book’, ‘The Crying Game’ and ‘The Full Monty’ (for which she won an Academy Award); has been </i></span></span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>the musical director of Bill Bailey's ‘Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra’;</i></span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i> </i></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>and, most recently, she created her first opera ‘The Doctor’s Tale’ in collaboration with Terry Jones (one of the members of Monty Python).</i></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>Dudley is also renowned as a string arranger: she arranged and conducted a Russian-school classical music opening theme for Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ and the epic string arrangements for ABC’s album ‘The Lexicon of Love’. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>Two of the fifteen songs on our play list ‘Pop Meets the Classics’ (January 2011) featured Dudley’s string arrangements. Here, in her own words, Dudley shares how the string arrangements of ABC’s ‘Lexicon of Love’ originated; explains the difference between ‘real’ strings and strings created on a synthesizer; and how it feels to be standing on the conductor’s rostrum.</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The big epic sound <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In 1980 Trevor Horn was producing ABC. At that time the band didn’t have a keyboard player or a bass player, but they had some really good songs and lyrics that Martin Fry had written. As the songs were in a basic form, Trevor wanted to re-arrange them; to have them become more interestingly structurally and to build a much bigger epic sound around the ‘bare bones’ of the band. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I had worked with Trevor before on a few things and he asked me to do the string arrangements of the songs. The first track on which we worked with ABC was ‘Poison Arrow’, which was released as a single and was quite successful [</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It reached #6 on the UK singles chart].</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> The next main single was ‘The Look of Love’ for which Trevor wanted a big string arrangement on the song. This seemed a great opportunity to do something big and bold.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We recorded the strings in Abbey Road in Studio 1 and had, what I considered, a quite large string section in those days – probably about thirty musicians. We had the full string arrangements, violins, cello’s, contrabasses, and a brass and winds section – so we used the whole spectrum sound. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When I first heard the mix of ‘The Look of Love’ I was quite surprised how Trevor really featured the strings, which became a major part of the whole sound. They had more importance that I had first envisioned. They weren’t just the icing on the cake: they were the substance of the cake and a lot of commentators spoke about “the big epic sound” after the album came out. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">‘All of My Heart’ <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was one of the last songs we did. To be honest, I thought it was a very dull song. By this stage, after recording most of songs, we were very confident that the strings would give it something really different and elevate it above the ordinary. Thus, there are some really bold counter melodies in the strings’ part; and at the end of the song I took the opportunity of doing something quite intricate, quite complex. I was very pleased with the sound of the ending. It went somewhere else, it seemed slightly English pastoral, Ralph Vaughan Williams-esque.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’m also very happy with ‘Valentine’s Day’, which starts with these manic arpeggio’s. Again, there was nothing really in the song until we put the strings on it and we made a feature out of the arrangement of the song.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It’s quite interesting to look back at the things one does. The album, as a whole, has a distinctive character about which I’m quite pleased.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fun and joyful</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the lyrics on the album there are some funny lines, for example in ‘The Look of Love’: “</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you judge a book by the cover / Then you judge the look by the lover”. It’s meaningless but it sounds important. I have always liked humour in music, which is a very rare and difficult thing to do; if there is a little tongue in cheek in it then I’m very happy about that. I suppose the string arrangements on ‘The Lexicon of Love’ are quite fun and joyful. It’s very grandiose as it swoops up to the high octaves – perhaps just a little bit over the top. A little bit too good to be true –quite lush and extravagant.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Strings vs. synthesizers<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I believe records where the string arrangements have been recorded with ‘real’ strings will sound less dated, than those when the strings were played on a synthesizer. For example, Ultravox’s ‘Vienna’, a record of the 1980s, sounds very dated to me. I think it is a great song but the strings really don’t sound like strings. It would have been a different record if the strings were done by an orchestra, although now, it has this wonderful synthetic 1980s gloss to it. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the rostrum<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When you’re conducting an orchestra the sound of strings playing together can evoke an emotional response. It lifts your spirit when the strings start playing together. It’s almost like a sort of manipulative thing. I don’t really know why. I sometimes put it down to energy. When you got 30 or 40 musicians in a studio in front of you they are giving you a lot of energy. If you are recording strings, even if they play quite quietly, you can sort of feel that energy. It’s quite difficult to get anything like that if you’re just using synthesizers because you haven’t got the energy of all these musicians. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’m not the world’s best conductor but I want to be there on the rostrum conducting the musicians because I think they like to have direct communication with whomever has written the notes. And to be on the rostrum is a nice feeling. I wouldn’t swap it for the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Written by Thierry Somers</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Anne Dudley and Terry Jones’ opera ‘The Doctor’s Tale’ – a tale about a devoted doctor, whose patients love him and who has a wonderful cure rate, but the General Medical Council say he has to stop practising because he is a dog – is commisioned and prodcued by ROH2, and performed from 8-16 April at the Lindbury Studio Theatre in London.</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-22936464244274395632011-03-28T14:34:00.000-07:002011-03-28T14:34:14.750-07:00Shaun Samson<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOc6QR2xvHpbyyCz9O-0aRDhWtt3dLy-kPjMSn2b2gLxOFH4VTM3BLhwi6r5Hi0DdOB78fPxjkPFnPgV7TRubv4GfbO-2lOvgatXBl77vqo012h7Q1hOgjlfouw6S8oZcKyJuoN1c6c0/s1600/sssss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOc6QR2xvHpbyyCz9O-0aRDhWtt3dLy-kPjMSn2b2gLxOFH4VTM3BLhwi6r5Hi0DdOB78fPxjkPFnPgV7TRubv4GfbO-2lOvgatXBl77vqo012h7Q1hOgjlfouw6S8oZcKyJuoN1c6c0/s640/sssss.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One of the highlights of the Central Saint Martins MA collection presented at London Fashion Week (February, 2011) was the work of the young designer Shaun Samson. The work of the graphic artist </span></span></i></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">M.C. Escher</span></span></i></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> was one of the inspirations of Samson’s menswear collection for which he fused plaid wool, Aran knitwear and denim into a single fabric, </span></span></i></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">using the ‘felting’ treatment. Samson presented a visually arresting collection that looked sophisticated, artistic and minimalistic.</span></span></i></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In our interview with Samson talked about the process of the ‘felting’ treatment, Louise Wilson’s contribution to his MA collection, and what he considers to be the difference in struggles between ‘young’ and established designers.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How long did you work on your MA collection?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: I started research during the Summer holiday before my final year, and worked on it up to the Press Show in February 2011. Thus, I’d say it was around six months, similar to working on a normal Fall collection. During that time, though, there was a lot of “shit work" that lead to absolutely nothing. Toward the end of that six months, however, everything was scratched and I started over again. I used the same reference points, but revamped all the shapes. I think after working on a project for too long it becomes harder to have a new opinion on it, and becomes harder to see what you need to do to make it fresh.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What made you come up with the idea to fuse Aran knit wool, denim and tartan into a single fabric for your MA collection?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: In my research I looked at traditional men’s workwear, transfiguration, and the work of M.C. Escher, from which I wondered if I could recreate the idea of something morphing into another thing in real life. I’d seen ‘felting’ as a treatment to decoratively apply one fabric onto another, which was a starting point for my technical research – then, I wanted to see how far I could push it. When I was felting those small samples of wool to denim and to linen I started to imagine how it would look in large scale if I joined a whole garment onto another. That's from where the idea of fusing Aran knits to all these other fabrics came into the picture. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Could you share something about the process of the ‘felting’ treatment that you discovered during this time?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: I actually have to do everything on the reverse side of the fabric, so I never see exactly how I’m felting. It’s only when I take the fabric out of the machine and turn it right side up where I see what I've felted. I had to learn to be really intuitive to the process to get it to finally work the way I wanted it to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Can you say what is was that Louise Wilson (</span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Central Saint Martins Master of Fashion Course Director</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) contributed to your education throughout the MA course? </span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: Louise has an extensive knowledge of fashion and shares it with each of her students. She keeps it from being just another collection, and knows how to make things more special. At the end of the day, though, it is up to each student to take her advice or not. I thought I was “hot shit” coming onto the MA with amazing marks from my BA collection. Louise made sure that everyone, including me, was “knocked off their high horse” from the day we started the course. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Was there any advice she provided to students that remains with you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: Her first piece of advice was eloquently clear: “It's right to be wrong”. I still have the sheet of paper she gave us taped to my wall in my room.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What did she mean with “It’s right to be wrong”? Did she gave that sheet of paper with this advice to all students on the first day of the course?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: Louise walked into the classroom on that first day, and, instead of giving a long welcoming speech and overview of the course, she passed out this piece of paper that she had photocopied and read it aloud. It was akin to one of those calendars with ‘daily affirmations’, but this one, I believe, she especially thought would resonate with us students. It read: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">It's Right to Be Wrong<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Start being wrong and suddenly anything is possible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">You’re no longer trying to be infallible<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">You're in the unknown. There’s no way of knowing what can happen, but there’s more chances of it being amazing than if you try to be right.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Of course, being wrong is a risk.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">People worry about suggesting stupid ideas because of what others will think.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">You will have been in meetings where ‘new thinking’ has been called for, and at your original suggestion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Instead of saying, “That's the kind of suggestion that leads us to a novel situation”, the room goes quiet, they look up to the ceiling, roll their eyes and return to the discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Risks are a measure of people. People who won't take them are trying to preserve what they have.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">People who do take them often end up by having more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Some risks have a future, and some people call them wrong. But being right may be like walking backwards proving where you've been.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Being wrong isn't in the future, or in the past.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Being wrong isn't anywhere but being here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Best place to be, eh?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I don't think she does this every year. She probably read this the day before the course began and decided to share it with the class. But it's definitely advice that I consider when I'm questioning my work and want to push it further.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: As a student of Louise Wilson how would you describe her teaching style?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: Necessary. I don’t think I would have grown the way that I did on her course had it not been for the way she treated me. I think she has a special knack for being able to understand a person’s personality to know how to get to their core; and she treats everyone accordingly to that. She’ll be really excited with some, whilst antipathetic with others at different points during their collection. It’s hard not to take things personally when the criticism is purely about the work. For me, what made me feel most like an asshole was when she was fairly calm and guilted me into thinking that I failed her expectations. Then there were other times where her precise attention to detail brought out the best of me – during which times, I’d shake during tutorials, which is just as bad. I will never ‘falter on a hemline’ ever again. It's actually quite amazing how she does it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Whilst the MA fashion show is the end exam, were there other objectives and / or goals for you in participating in this show?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I've always wanted to start my own label, so being in the press show was a great way to launch myself out into the real world. But I didn't just do the MA in hopes that I would get into the show. I really wanted to work with Professor Louise Wilson as a teacher/mentor. I'm always up for a good challenge, but didn't really know how to prepare myself for how intense the course really was.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What makes you interested in menswear?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: I studied Menswear because it's the only thing I want to do. I doubt that I will ever have a women’s line. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Why do you feel so strongly about menswear? Is there something specific that appeals to you in menswear which you don't find in womenswear?</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: With womenswear the possibilities are endless, but there is a certain line with menswear that men will not cross. I like seeing how far I can push that line without compromising a man’s masculinity: it’s just different designing for guys – they want to be cool. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: There are many designers who design for men. Do you perceive that there is a gap in the market that you can fill and if yes, what do you think you can do differently or revolutionize?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: I think I design for a man that isn’t represented in fashion, otherwise I wouldn't feel the need to start my own label. I make men’s’ modern street wear, or at least that’s the best way that I can describe it if you have to put me in a box. I actually like being in this grey area. I don’t have to abide by any rules that make me specifically a ‘tailor’ or ‘luxury designer’. I use other devices to present fashion on the modern man, like felting...ha!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: According to Toby Bateman (buying director at Mr Porter, the online luxury retailer for men) “Men want a guide to buying the white shirt or jeans that works best for them, rather than seeing what’s the cutting edge of fashion”. Do you agree with him? Do men tend to be a little conservative in what they wear and not go too far, or is that a cliché?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: It’s not just men that are conservative; some women are the same. Personally, I think the men that follow these ‘guides’ are the crazy fashion victims that tend to go for the cutting edge of fashion. No normal straight fashionable man would want anyone telling them what to wear. It would be too gay.</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Could you explain how important is wearability for you as a designer?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: Of course it’s important. I'd like guys to wear my clothes everyday, although I know they won’t. Most of the people I know are precious about designer clothing, because when you spend so much money on it, people give it a sense of preciousness which isn’t for everyday. I like people that treat their luxury garments as another piece of clothing, because in the end clothes are meant to be worn.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Has the work of the Raf Simons influenced you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: He represents the modern man very well. I like his silhouette and admire his contribution to menswear every season. It’s hard not to applaud his work when he’s been so successful at being Raf Simons for so many years. His designs are quite timeless. You can wear anything from his past collections at any time and still be cool. I’d love to have that much might.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Invariably designers face struggles and make sacrifices. As a ‘young’ designer do you consider your struggles different compared to ‘established’ designers?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaun Samson: Obviously, as a new designer getting my label started is definitely harder than those that already have their label up and running. Establishing the business side is a lot of unglamorous work, but it needs to be done, on top the work that I need to do to design my next collection. But I’d say that as a young designer there’s so much more creative potential. Established brands have a customer to whom they have to cater. I don't have to worry about selling...yet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3cQT3aeCh3drwKAQIJ4Og7mdtbAgGhHPM-n-HKpCyxms2EAicbJ7P_pZO4SPlK9MhCtqw6GwStk8dIPR2dBX0ikrt0b_5m8M4uJqSLIkJhj5bXIa7Cfuyhn0fDOuGbttwazsukPBkS0/s1600/ssss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3cQT3aeCh3drwKAQIJ4Og7mdtbAgGhHPM-n-HKpCyxms2EAicbJ7P_pZO4SPlK9MhCtqw6GwStk8dIPR2dBX0ikrt0b_5m8M4uJqSLIkJhj5bXIa7Cfuyhn0fDOuGbttwazsukPBkS0/s640/ssss.jpg" width="506" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Interview written and conducted by Thierry Somers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Images: Photographer: Pelle Crepin, Art Direction: Rob Meyers for RBPMstudio, Design: RBPMstudio, Grooming: Christopher Sweeney, Model: Tom Lander @ Select</span></i></span></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-50157705891595509802011-03-01T13:54:00.000-08:002011-03-01T13:54:23.872-08:00Richard Phillips (Part 2)<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit-I9EIU-0ftF-_lsTpuiIJkM_CE-ctR091X5FXAw_5uDJOwIDG1iwJpChuVb8b2Nt0nH9o5P1dgb65S8j685qbW0IsoGC3McvBCr0WPRQVU0K5cIT5W8_gndf4zNk6nePudyNtfo9ELY/s1600/Richard+Phillips+Zac+Efron+2010+a4klein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit-I9EIU-0ftF-_lsTpuiIJkM_CE-ctR091X5FXAw_5uDJOwIDG1iwJpChuVb8b2Nt0nH9o5P1dgb65S8j685qbW0IsoGC3McvBCr0WPRQVU0K5cIT5W8_gndf4zNk6nePudyNtfo9ELY/s400/Richard+Phillips+Zac+Efron+2010+a4klein.jpg" width="326" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Monaco; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">In the second part of our interview with Richard Phillips we spoke with him as to why society is obsessed with celebrity culture; Kim Kadarshian’s talent; </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">how his painting method has changed over the past year; and why Warhol's ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ no longer has relevance.</span></span></i></b><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Monaco; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">200%: Why do you believe society is obsessed with celebrity culture?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Richard Phillips: As the gap between the wealthy and poor continues to increase, and the large public educational systems remove any notion of art from their<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>curricula, a vacuum is created that is filled by opportunistic entertainment conglomerates who produce the fantasy of celebrity culture and its exceptional lifestyle separate and unto itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">200%: How does “the large public educational systems remove any notion of art from their curricula”?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Richard Phillips:</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The public school systems across the country have systematically cut the budgets for arts education. In the absence of arts education children are left to believe that entertainment systems media constitutes the sum total of art. If the art that is housed in museums gains exposure to this audience it is only in relation to whether it has entertainment celebrity endorsement.</span><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">200%: Can you further explain how you consider this illustrate </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">society’s obsession with celebrity culture?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Richard Phillips:</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> Reality programming, in which I myself have been involved via the Bravo television series ‘Work of Art’, shows that the language of art is not immune from this logic. The obsession exists in the careful construction of a psychological potential for irrationally assuming that the one-sided recognition of passively viewing a ‘star’ is somehow shared and amounts to intimacy. This fiction is a powerful one, which leads to the need for compensation in the form of consumable goods that are star-like or seen being worn by stars. Once complete this circuit is like the distorted dopamine receptor of an addict that must be filled again, but with more powerful drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Monaco; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">200%: It has been reported by 'The Daily Beast' that "celebrity culture is over". They say that the price for paparazzi photos is down 31 percent; photo budgets of celebrity obsessed magazine 'US Weekly' has fallen from $8m to $5m; and US sales of celebrity-licensed products. e.g. perfumes, are decreasing. Do you see this as signals that celebrity culture is over, or is there a certain celebrity fatigue amongst the public whereby it's in a waning phase as celebrity fascination is always with us to a greater or lesser extent?</span></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: maroon; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Richard Phillips: There are bound to be periods of over celebrification. Fatigue occurs when the production of the form exceeds demand. The specialization of blogs, websites and now Twitter is to distribute the minutiae of needless information about every A to D-listed star. At a certain point attrition and consolidation are inevitable, as in any marketplace. The backlash is articulated at present in the propulsion of the non-celebrity celebrities of reality productions, for they increase the potential that the next superstar may be in fact ourselves. Warhol's fifteen minutes no longer has any relevance and seems as quaint as twenty-cent gallon of gas.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Monaco; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">200%: What is your view about people like Kim Kardashian of whom it has been said "don’t need any talent whatsoever to be able to become a celebrity".<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Richard Phillips: Kim Kardashian's talent IS the production of celebrity itself. Those who say that she has no talent are hanging on to an antiquated idea that equates a conventional separation of celebrity being the result of a distinctively recognized set of accomplishments. Her ability to understand the reductive constituent components of what it takes to create and maintain the full-time presence of celebrity is what sets her apart from all reality personalities and has placed her in context with those who achieved celebrity through older methods. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Monaco; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">200%: Do you consider that your understanding of painting has developed further (increased depth of knowledge) in the last few years? Have you become more proficient in photorealism, or painting flesh tones?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Richard Phillips: Over the past year and a half my painting method has changed in some specific ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Rather than developing an image from a charcoal drawing, I've switched to pastels because it allows me to focus on color and drawing at the same time in preparation for my painting. The advantage of this change is the immediacy pastels create to my subjects and the move away from photographic imitation. In the construction of my paintings I have worked with the paint maker Robert Doak and the printing studio Axel Fine Arts in Brooklyn to come up with a way of technically screening my composite images in paint onto a traditional ground. I therefore start from a photo silk screened grisaille which is ready to accept the final stage of my painting. This dramatically reduces the time a painting takes to create and makes the process more responsive.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Since it is, in effect, painting out an existing photographic image, it is precisely anti-photorealistic and entirely sensibility based. This accounts for a greater sense of presence of flesh like our own.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Monaco; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">200%: John Currin told me that "you're very good at finishing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>paintings". Can you describe how you know when and / or how to finish a painting?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Richard Phillips: As one of my paintings moves toward conclusion, the options for changes decrease to the point where the painting literally turns the corner and starts rejecting further effort. If I go past that point, adding or changing anything forces me to immediately backtrack and reestablish what was the finished state. This was very much the case with the last painting of the group, Dakota Fanning. That point came when I was working on the last section of her hair, and after nine previous paintings, I knew unquestionably that it was time to stop.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Interview written and conducted by Thierry Somers, with contribution by Marie Drysdale.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Paintings: Richard Phillips, Zac Efron, 2010, Oil on Linen, 95 x 78 in. (241.3 x 198.1 cm), © the artist, Courtesy White Cube</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/rp%202011/"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Richard Phillips, “Most Wanted”,
28 January - 5 March 2011, White Cube, Hoxton Square</span></i></span></span></a></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-66621500426969841492011-02-14T03:03:00.000-08:002011-02-14T03:03:20.595-08:00Louise Wilson<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">As London gears up for ‘London Fashion Week’, 200% brings you an interview with Professor Louise Wilson OBE, </span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Central Saint Martins Master of Fashion Course Director</span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">. Wilson is known for her deconstruct-then-reconstruct teaching style, and clear and outspoken views. Here she explains why “preparing” students for business is not the primary role of CSM; why she longs for “fashion to be unfashionable”, and whether there are any benefits for her to give interviews.</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Each year you review many portfolios from young, aspiring, fashion designers who apply for Central Saint Martins. How do you spot if someone has talent; for what qualities are you searching?
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: My job description is not to spot talent; my job description is
Course Director. If I was a talent spotter, I would be called a ‘talent spotter’. I’m an educator: thus I’m looking for people that are interested in their subject, some of whom may become talented, but the premis of Central Saint Martins MA course is to educate people. Thus, whilst not being spotted as talented, with an education, you can still contribute to the design world. Saint Martins is tagged with this ‘star-talent-spotting’ label: but, when you’re here in the building, that’s not what we’re about – that’s other peoples’ projections.
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: For what do you look when you review a portfolio?
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: I look for different skills: some people have cutting skills, some design or colour skills, some research skills, and some have it all. Whilst some people have only one or two skills, you take them in the hope you can drag the other skills out of them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you also teach your students the business side of the job?
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: No, because we’re too busy teaching them the creative aspect of the job, and we can not and should not be expected to do everything.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Somehow, though, you teach your students the business side of the job as they all go on to have quite successful businesses.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: I don’t think we do anything in particular, as we don’t give any lectures specific to business as it’s in-built! In-built in the briefs; in-built when we speak to them; in-built into dialogues, and with people that they meet and whom we suggest they meet. Whilst this is how we “prepare” them for business, this is not our primary role. We’re an Art college, and I never say we “prepare” them for business. Many art colleges have tried to tackle business and it has not been a success. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: It appears that some fashion journalists make your name synonymous with the words of ‘fearsome’, ‘opinionated’, or ‘abrasive’ when they refer to your teaching style. Does it bother you how you’re portrayed in the press?
</span></b><b><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: Yes, it can be quite irritating and stupid. It bothers me in the respect that, if a
multinational company was considering employing me as a consultant they may be put off, which is complete bullshit as I have previously worked as a consultant for Donna [Karan] and others. The rest of the time I don’t really give it much thought. Luckily I have another life, so I couldn’t care less. I also realize that a lot of people don’t even read most of the interviews, but it’s guaranteed that when it’s truly nasty it’s in the most well-read publications. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Is there any benefit for you to give interviews?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: The interviews don’t bring anything compared with, for instance, that it does for a film actor. If you’re an actor like
Brad Pitt, you’re selling a
film and when you do those press interviews you’re getting paid technically. That’s been negotiated, it’s in your contract. If I give time to do press interviews I’m taking time out from teaching that I have to make up at another time. I’m not getting paid and there is no benefit. Whereas every other sector when you read interviews there is a knock-on effect, there’s a product to buy or they benefit somehow in kind, like the actor promoting a film. With education there is
nothing to buy. What happens in education is you give more and more
of yourself and then you realize you get less and less back. My mother is upset by some of the articles. There is little or no benefit and I have thought
like that for years.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Central Saint Martins has a good reputation; the MA has a good reputation. It’s a reputation defined by it’s work, its moniker, not by me or how many interviews I do as the work stands for itself. This is why I’m sort of
ambivalent about interviews on me because it [Central Saint
Martins] will continue long after I’ve
gone, as the college is bigger
than any one person.</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Thus, does it concern you that the public’s perception of the MA Fashion course is that it is ‘Louise Wilson’?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: Yes a concern is that you have a group of
students that think they’re coming to be taught by me, which is wrong
as they’re coming to be taught by a great course team. It shouldn’t matter whether I’m there or not. They’re coming here to do
their own work. It’s only when they do their own work that I can even give them a critique. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was just recently talking with a student who was asking for an
address for something and I knew he was looking at me as if to say “why don’t you
have it in a rolodex”, which is stupid as the rolodex would have to be as
big as this desk. If you’re just handing over numbers
and information that would be useless. A student has to start at the
beginning. It’s the whole process of them making a phone call, them sending an e-mail, try this and that. It’s not just giving them a contact
because they miss the whole journey of what they might find on the way.
I like being with young people and seeing them get better. That’s very rewarding.
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you have an explanation as to why there is always this pressure
on fashion to deliver more?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: In the 1990s, fashion produced Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen, amongst others; in the 1980s fashion produced John Galliano and Rei Kawakubo. They all created things that had never happened before that have stood the test of time. Thus, with such success, there is always this pressure on fashion to deliver more.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: The incubation period of fashion is not as long as, for instance, product design, as people expect fashion to be constantly associated with ‘new’ things.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Louise Wilson: Fashion is very fashionable. I’m longing for it
to be become unfashionable. Maybe they could do architecture and
product design in reality shows and find ‘The Next Top Kettle’. Those
subjects are allowed much more time to incubate. People revere Marc Newson and people like him. They have much longer incubation periods and there is maybe less pressure on them. But fashion is quite naff
because fashion is fashionable. It’s debatable what is fashionable
because Nokia phones are fashionable, but they are not classified as fashion even now fashion people may well be designing them and coming up with
colours for them. But it’s not related as fashion, because fashion is
only allowed to be clothes on models, but fashion is a much wider
spectrum than that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Written by Thierry Somers and Marie Drysdale.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Picture: Greg Kessler (</span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.gobackstage.blogspot.com)</span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-83455581666874780032011-02-10T08:22:00.000-08:002011-02-10T08:22:07.574-08:00Richard Phillips (Part 1)<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</span></span></i></b></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="" name="OLE_LINK1"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">For the second time, 200% meets the artist Richard Phillips and interviewed him on his latest White Cube exhibition ‘Most Wanted’ – a series of ten paintings of "ten of America's most instantly recognizable celebrities".<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">We spoke with Phillips what triggered him to come up with the idea of ‘Most Wanted’; the rehearsed, red-carpet expressions of powerful stars;</span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">the competing interests that corporate luxury and entertainment systems have in shaping and deciding what constitutes contemporary art;</span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> and his view on </span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">MoMA’s status as a place of great popular interest, “not unlike a Planet Hollywood or a Hard Rock Café”.</span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Was there a specific cultural experience, observation or fascination that triggered you to come up with the idea of 'Most Wanted'?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: The initial inspirations for my ‘Most Wanted’ series came from a combination of experiences involving art, politics, media, luxury, and celebrity endorsement. During a visit to the Venice biennial I visited the Doges Palace and within it the large Hall of Doges. Ringing the room were portraits of the Doges, who ruled the city-state over the years. These portraits, all in similar scale and painted by Tintoretto and his son, served a political purpose beyond their record of legacy, which was to communicate an image of stability, intimidation and authority to any visiting dignitary who entered the chamber. Here, painting is used as an articulation of secular power and wealth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Later, I attended a fundraiser for ‘The Kitchen’, the avant-garde performance space in New York. At the entrance was a step-and-repeat logo backdrop intended to create endorsement opportunities for visiting celebrities who were attending the event</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to lend popular legitimacy to The Kitchen’s program and to create a context of exceptional importance for the attendees. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What do you mean by “popular legitimacy”? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: By having celebrities pose in front of the brand logo of ‘The Kitchen’, the institution and its members are granted a photographically verifiable status of being celebrity worthy. The proximity of a celebrity to The Kitchen’s fundraising apparatus lends a sense of legitimacy within popular culture at large. Without this celebrity endorsement, the institution would be left outside of, or seen as illegitimate within, the context of the dominant popular culture that associatively determines its worthiness of attendance.</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Were there any further experiences that contributed to the idea of 'Most Wanted'?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: Yes. Within this time frame I was asked to license two of my painting images for the CW television network's production of the hit show ‘Gossip Girl’. When visiting the show’s new set where my paintings were installed, the way in which the producers, directors, actors and crew worked so responsively together to synthesize a first production of pop culture using real time cultural information from all sectors had a lasting impression on me. The painting facsimiles served as a visual backdrop for this dramatic synthesis and appeared a form of cultural collateral that now had a chance to reach large audiences around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Following the ‘Gossip Girl’ collaboration, I was approached by MAC Cosmetics regarding a commission, painting for their artist series. As I was in the middle of a deadline for an exhibition, I was unable to make a dedicated painting for them. Thus, I proposed hiring the best-known photo retoucher, Pascal Dangin, to digitally retouch one of my paintings to create the appearance that MAC products had been applied within the image of that painting. The completed digital painting was used as point-of-sale advertisement in over 1,200 store locations around the world. The integration of a commercial brand product in an existing painting, to be sold as the “Richard Phillips” line of cosmetics, deepened the connections between that which had been previously segregated – art’s need to remain distinct in its relation to commercial objectives. Now, the sanctity of both art and, in this case, fashion could co-promote their exceptional roles in consumer culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One last influential experience occurred in the MoMA lobby during the opening night of the Tim Burton exhibition. I was standing next to a trustee, and we observed the large crowd gathered near the entrance and the crush of photographers lined up in front of the step-and-repeat backdrop emblazoned with MoMA and luxury brand logos. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp walked in; the crowd screamed and the photo flashes blasted off at a blinding rate. The trustee turned to me and said that this was an important moment for the museum. I agreed and said that the power of celebrity had finally merged completely with the institution of modern art, where all of the work in the museum would be put firmly into context with the power of the global entertainment system, not just as conferrer of celebrity legitimacy by proximity but as content and product. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The presence of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp within the Museum of Modern Art not only meant that by going to MoMA one may be entering a celebrity approved environment and engaging in celebrity approved activities, but in the case of this specific show, the content and products within the exhibition and therefore institution were solely focused on the promotion of celebrities themselves. The art within the rest of the museum could now be seen within the context of official celebrity production that in turn raises MoMA’s status as a place of great popular interest, not unlike a Planet Hollywood or a Hard Rock Café. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The exhibition went on to set all attendance records and inaugurated MoMA into the present. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The combination of these experiences led me to make the decision to dedicate this body of work to the irreducible logic of art’s total subordination to luxury brands and celebrity endorsement. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What was your selection criteria to select these as “ten of America's most instantly recognizable celebrities...", as people would suggest that there are others more 'instantly recognizable' than Taylor Momsen... as opposed to, say, Scarlett Johansson.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: My selection criteria evolved from an initial conversation with Stephan Gan and Dominic Sidhu of VMAN magazine for a proposed layout of the top ten male celebrities working today. Due to deadlines, the original proposal of ten men was reduced to five, and the medium was changed from paint to pastels. The first group proposed comprised more established actors such as Brad Pitt, Viggo Mortensen and George Clooney. I urged that we consider younger actors who were involved in various disciplines of television, cinema and music. My relation to 'Gossip Girl' had a roll in the inclusion of Chase Crawford, and from there it was a matter of discussion regarding which stars hold the highest degree of influence and popularity in the various mediums and represent the biggest brands in entertainment such as Disney. Their roles as tween and teen idols were also factored in. Held over from the original list was Leonardo DiCaprio, who casts a long shadow having arisen from preteen television stardom to teen heartthrob and then to respected Oscar-winning actor. He literally serves as the template for the kind of success to which any of the other young actors could aspire. The young women followed the selection of the men using similar criteria, with the additional stipulation that they be born after 1990. I felt it important to connect to a younger generation and to create a distinction between the thresholds of pop acumen. Chase Crawford, Taylor Momsen and Zac Efron may be unknown to you, but only if you're too old!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: From where did you select the poses of the celebrities?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: The poses were selected from an aggregation of red carpet images drawn from celebrity blogs. The exact poses are the ones each of the stars creates when standing on the red carpet in front of step-and-repeats. Their expressions are rehearsed and coached so that they can print a stable presentation that functions for any endorsement opportunity. To start the process, my studio managers and I individually gathered images on our computers, which we narrowed down to our own top three shots for each star. We then got together and selected the winning pose from the final nine. This last image served as the basis to create a working composite image.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Is there a particular point with this body of work about which you would like the public to ponder?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: The point I would like people to pause and consider is their relationship to the competing interests that corporate luxury and entertainment systems have in shaping and deciding what constitutes contemporary art, as they exert financial pressure and determine legitimacy by proximity to their products and celebrity brands. The convention of large scale figurative portraiture that negates the instant assimilation of the photo serves to present the contraction of physical human presence when considering the irrational desires initiated by the image of celebrity and fashion brands. The logo-covered front and back walls of the step-and-repeat emphasize the omnipresence of the almost celestial, and certainly inescapable, influence of these brands on all cultural praxis.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: On the press release of 'Most Wanted' it is stated that you "selected ten of America’s most instantly recognizable celebrities to create distilled portraits of powerful stars exhibiting their rehearsed, red-carpet expressions” – do you know if celebrities actually rehearse red-carpet expressions with a coach beforehand for the cameras?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: As I mentioned above, many of the celebrities do rehearse their expressions with the aid of coaches, just as they might work with acting or stunt coaches on the set of or in preparation for a film. When building a celebrity brand it is essential that the projected image of a star remain consistent for endorsement purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How did the paparazzi pictures and 'external' information (from the tabloids or other mediums) influence your depiction of these stars in your paintings?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: The source photos that inspired the paintings influenced the images in a couple of ways. The distance of the subject to the lens and the relative clarity of the images were important because they establish the feeling of hard or soft focus in relation to the step-and-repeat. The universal use of the strobe flash suppressed the illusion of volume in the portraits. Because of the scale of the paintings, being nearly 2.5 meters tall, these factors are greatly exaggerated when standing in front of the works.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Did the external information about these people, i.e. gossip in magazines, sound-bites on entertainment shows, public image etc, influence your depiction of them on the canvas?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips:</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The depictions of the celebrities were influenced by the external information about these people in so far as the choice of the best red carpet expression needed to match the overall projection of the popular image of the star that is constantly promoted in the magazines and entertainment shows. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Did you paint these celebrities against 'step and repeat' backdrops to illustrate that these celebrities are used as pawns to sell products?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Phillips: No. They are by no means pawns. The presence of a celebrity at an event is the result of a carefully orchestrated deal, where a brand’s celebrity relations representative has reached out to the star’s manager as well as their publicist and set the conditions for a compensatory agreement. There is an implicit understanding that celebrities must perform in these endorsement situations not only for financial gain but for maintenance of a level of influence.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>TO BE CONTINUED<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>In the second part of our interview with Richard Phillips he shares his thoughts on:</i></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i> why society is obsessed with celebrity culture; Kim Kadarshian’s talent; </i></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>how his painting method has changed over the past year; and why Warhol's ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ no longer has relevance.</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Interview written and conducted by Thierry Somers, with contribution by Marie Drysdale.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Painting: Richard Phillips, Taylor Momsen, 2010, Oil on Linen, 95 x 78 in. (241.3 x 198.1 cm) </span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">© the artist Courtesy White Cube</span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></span></i></div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Richard Phillips, 'Most Wanted', 28 January - 5 March 2011, White Cube, Hoxton Square</span></span></i></div></span></i><br />
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</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">More Richard Phillips in the first issue of 200%: </span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">www.200-percent.com</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-88155294427585501702011-01-28T06:58:00.000-08:002011-01-28T06:58:41.203-08:00Pop meets the Classics<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: #fb0000; font-family: Georgia;">Alex Ross’s recommendations of great examples where Pop meets the Classics (December 2010 post), triggered the editors of 200% to search for more pop songs that cross the border into Classical Music.</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: #fb0000; font-family: Georgia;">Here’s 200%’s playlist – 15 pop songs, in alphabetic order.</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">1. ABC - All of My Heart - Orchestration by Anne Dudley</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Dudley composed all the string arrangements of ABC’s album ‘The Lexicon of Love’. Her string arrangements for ‘All of My Heart’ are Dudley’s finest hour on the album. For two minutes, at the end of the song, the strings command full attention as you hear epic, flowing, grandiose, romantic music reminiscent of Powell & Pressburger and Douglas Sirk movies, ending in an Hallmark moment that slowly flickers like a night candle.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">As one of the founding members of Art of Noise Dudley composed a few instrumental tracks, for example, ‘Debut’ and ‘Promenade I & II’, which focus entirely on the strings and demonstrate her melodic sensibility.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">2. Björk - Joga - Orchestrated by Eumir Deodato</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Taken from the 1997 ‘Homogenic’ album and led by a string arrangement that carries you into a tune that builds up until it reaches an emotional, and experimental, explosion. The album is a seamless fusion of ‘chilly’ strings (courtesy of the Icelandic String Octet), stuttering, abstract beats, and unique touches that include accordion and glass harmonica: ‘Homogenic’ alternates between dark, uncompromising songs. ‘Joga’ contains a nostalgic string theme arranged by Björk and orchestrated by Deodato (of – amongst others – Kool & the Gang fame) that matches the nostalgia for Björk’s home country expressed in this tune.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">3. David Bowie - Space Oddity - Arranged by Paul Buckmaster</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">A year after the release of Stanley Kubrick’s film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, the single was released – produced by Gus Dudgeon, who later became renowned as the producer of several Elton John albums, with arrangements done by Paul Buckmaster, who trained as a cellist. The song, about the launch of ‘Major Tom’, a fictional astronaut, coincided with the Apollo 11 moon landing, which was played at the BBC’s coverage of the landing, and became Bowie’s first hit in the UK.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Buckmaster’s arrangements contribute to the narrative of the song: first, the orchestra accentuates the tension of the launch moment; then, later similar to The Beatles ‘A Day in the Life’, the orchestra is used as a medium to convey chaos, which is used in ‘Space Oddity’ to express the space disaster that is happening to Bowie’s astronaut. At the end of the song the orchestra slowly fades away illustrating the image of a space ship vanishing anonymously in the universe.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">4. John Cale - Paris 1919 - Arranged by John Cale</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The title track to John Cale's 1973 album, ‘Paris 1919’, is a four minute masterpiece carried by a dynamic piano and strings arrangement – a wondrous backdrop for the lyrics that combine the best of Cale's own eccentricity and introspection with lines such as “She'd open up the door and vaguely carry us away” combining perfectly with the playful “You're a ghost” chorus. Musically, it is a step away from his Velvets past as this is an album on which all songs are written and arranged by Cale, performed by the U.C.L.A. Orchestra with J. Druckman as the Orchestral manager.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">‘Pitchfork Media’ notes on the bonus tracks of the album: “The album's title track appears in two additional versions – a ‘string mix’ that features only Cale and a small chamber ensemble, and a ‘piano mix’ that includes a beautiful, overtly Brian Wilson-inspired vocal bridge.”</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">5. Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - Rattlesnakes - String arrangements by Anne Dudley</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The strings on the entire album are ‘sort of’ out of tune. ‘Rattlesnakes’ is a college rock masterpiece of smart, ironic lyrics and sympathetic folk-rock-based melodies. Who needs strings on records like these? The trick, though, is that it works, and adds meaning to the lyrics, especially where the strings accentuate them. Listen to the arrangement from 1:27 minutes onward. The words “She reads …” are sung on layers of sentimental orchestration. The title track, for example, is based on a key image from Joan Didion's stark Hollywood novel ‘Play It as It Lays’, and its chorus compares the song's heroine to Eva Marie Saint's character in the film ‘On the Waterfront’.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">6. Bryan Ferry - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Strings arranged by Ann Odell</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The original version of ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ was a show tune of the 1933 operetta ‘Roberta’, written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach. Mr Ferry’s cover of the song appeared on his solo album ‘Another Time, Another Place’, a title that can be taken as reference to the period for which he has a penchant; the highly stylish Hollywood glamour of the 1930s.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Mr Ferry’s version of ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ is a sophisticated and nostalgic ode to the period where the strings bring back melancholic memories of a sweet and romantic affair of the past.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Odell also composed the placid string arrangements of Japan’s ‘The Other Side of Life’.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">7. Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine -</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <b>String section of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gordon Staples</b></span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Norman Whitfield produced four versions of the song, including versions by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Gladys Knight & the Pips. The drama of the lyrics, which are about a man who hears through gossip that his relationship is beginning to break up, is expressed in Gaye’s version to the best effect by the strings that are moody and soulful, but also reminiscent of Bernard Hermann’s Hitchcock film scores with unnerving, unpredictable suspense and doom. The lament in Gaye’s voice – Whitfield challenged the singer to sing the lyrics in a higher key than that to which he was used to do – made this version of the song the biggest Motown hit single at the time. Starting from 1963, the string section of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the concert master Gordon Staples, provided the strings for the all Motown records throughout the 1960s.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">8. Elton John - Madman Across the Water - Arranged and conducted by Paul Buckmaster</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Paul Buckmaster is also renowned for the orchestral arrangements of several Elton John albums. The original version of the song (included on ‘Tumbleweed Connection’) with Mick Ronson on guitar didn’t feature any strings. In Buckmaster’s version, after 2.30 minutes, the strings erupt with spiky, aggressive and determined movements, reminiscent of the rage that can be found in some of Beethoven’s symphonies. In 1986, a dramatic, and compelling, live-version of the song was recorded with The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">9. The Knife - Tomorrow, In A Year - Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">'Tomorrow, In A Year' is the title track off a concept album about Charles Darwin and evolution. The Knife led the project but collaborated with a variety of musicians on the compositions. The dense and complex record divided critics' opinion; it received a rare 10/10 review in ‘Drowned In Sound’ and was hailed as one of their top releases of 2010, while the more commercial ‘Q’ Magazine gave it a 4/10, labelling it unlistenable. This track, built on a tribal drum pattern, blends haunting operatic vocals with electronica, creating rich and multi-layered hypnotic rhythms.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">10. Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy - Arranged and conducted by Wil Malone</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Malone’s string arrangements created a lot of subcutaneous tensions in the song. Throughout the song, there is an ominous feeling where it creeps under the skin, but there is also a Mahleresque melancholy. The strings gradually become higher and higher in tone, building up to the climax akin to Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ – a piece that had a formative impact on Malone when he first heard it as an eleven year old.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">11. Radiohead - Pyramid Song - Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 17.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Radiohead have the enviable knack of being able to tread the fine line between creating high art whilst still sounding melodic and accessible, which is aptly demonstrated by this piano-and-strings led track with its unusual timing. Amidst sparse piano chords, and swelling string arrangements, Thom Yorke muses over being accompanied by black eyed angels in rivers – referencing Dante's imaginary journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. The strings rise gently and then sway to and fro, and are then joined by trippy melodies played by Jonny Greenwood on an Ondes Martenot – an unusual Theremin-like device. The resulting effect produces a dreamy, yet gently hypnotic journey, drawing the listener into one of Radiohead’s finest moments.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">12. The Rolling Stones - She's a Rainbow - John Paul Jones
</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">'She's a Rainbow', featured on The Rolling Stones's ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ from 1967, is a bold statement of confidence: it captures The Stones parading their musical swagger at the crest of the scene of the period. Never before, or since, did The Stones take so many chances in the studio, possibly following the psychedelic lead of The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Peppers' released earlier in the same year. John Paul Jones (a session musician before joining Led Zeppelin) arranges the strings in a skittish and playful way that boldly complements Nicky Hopkins impeccable music-box arpeggios piano playing. The composition reverberates with joy, and captures the sentiment of the forthcoming, and ultimately doomed, “Summer of Love” perfectly.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">13. The Temptations - Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - Norman Whitfield</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">‘Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone' was composed by Norman Whitfield, with lyrics by Barrett Strong – a formidable team responsible for an array of Motown hits. Eight versions of the track were released, lasting between 3 minutes 45 seconds to over 15 minutes. The lavish orchestration borrows from Ravel and Tchaikovsky and sits perfectly on the most unrelenting of bass lines. The tune is a pillar of cultural significance in African-American and pop music culture.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">14. The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony - Arranged and conducted by Wil Malone</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The simple and memorable string riff possesses anthem-like glory. The strings have a pulsating effect in the video, which is an homage to the video ‘Unfinished Sympathy'.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">15 Scott Walker - It's Raining Today - Accompaniment directed by Wally Stott</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The album contains ten originals by the artist and three covers. The album is criticized because it's too difficult to penetrate Walker’s insights through Wally Stott’s string-drenched production. It shrouds the lyrics in a fog that's often too syrupy (according to critics). The song opens with a sparse string arrangement, or is it a hissing noise accompanying a guitar stroke, that builds up dramatically towards the second part, where the glacial grace explodes and becomes a romantic reverie of descent. It’s a majestic opener to a melodramatic album that closes with Jacques Brel’s ‘Ne me quitte pas’.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This Playlist has been compiled by Marcel Harlaar, Louis Warner and Thierry Somers.</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Picture: ABC 'All of My Heart' (single)</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">If you have a suggestion for a song to add to our Playlist “Pop meets the Classics”, including the reason why, please let us know.</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Upcoming post: interviews with the string arrangers </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Wil Malone</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> (Massive Attack “Unfinished Sympathy”, The Verve “Bittersweet Symphony”) and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Anne Dudley</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> (ABC “All of My Heart, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions “Rattlesnakes”) who will explain how the string arrangements of these songs originated.</span></span></i></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-13780914559473043152011-01-14T02:45:00.000-08:002011-01-14T02:45:09.868-08:00Simon Garfield<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</i></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>The sentence you’re reading now is set in the typeface ‘Georgia’ (Bold Italic) – a typeface that was especially designed to be readable at small sizes on a computer screen. </i></span></span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>The sentence you’re reading now is set in ‘Verdana’ (Bold Italic), which was also designed to be readable at small sizes on a computer screen.</i></b></span><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>In his book ‘Just My Type’ the author Simon Garfield has written a light-hearted, educational (but page turning), engaging book on typefaces that is filled with amusing and, in some instances, bizarre anecdotes about the people who designed these, or the purpose as to why they were designed. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>In the Q&A with ‘200%’, Garfield discusses the ‘playful’ typography used within his book, the ‘disease’ Typomania and the </i></span></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>top 10 modern typefaces that are currently his ’type’…</i></span></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Was there a particular experience that triggered you to write a book about typefaces or was it purely on the basis of Duncan Clark’s original idea?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simon Garfield: I’ve been interested in type since I pored over album covers in my excitable youth – Bowie, T Rex, The Faces. They were as important as the image of the artist, clearly saying something about what lay inside. And after that, as most writers would attest, there’s great fascination in how using a different font can change the emotion and intensity of what you’re writing. So when Duncan Clark had the idea, and my editor Mark Ellingham mentioned it to me, it took me about three seconds to realize what a good idea it was.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: </span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the chapter “What is it about the Swiss” you write about the New Yorker Cyrus Highsmith who tried to “spend a day without Helvetica”. This was quite challenging as the typeface is ubiquitously present in our lives. Whenever Highsmith saw something spelled out in Helvetica he averted his eyes. He wouldn’t take any Helvetica-signed Transport or buy any Helvetica branded products.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After you had written this book, when you walk in the street, do you look at signs of shop windows and try to identify the typeface?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simon Garfield: </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sadly, yes. It’s a disease called Typomania – wherever I go, I see lettering and signs and advertising in a new way, looking behind the message, at the clothing of what’s being said. I might not enjoy a film so much if I can’t recognise the font of the opening credits. So I loved “The Social Network”: Futura – that was easy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Your background is not design journalism or critiquing, which may be the reason that your book on typefaces and fonts is very light-hearted, amusing and engaging, whereas most books on typefaces are very serious, even earnest. Do you consider it turned out to be advantageous that you don’t have such a background and could approach the subject more as an outsider?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simon Garfield: Definitely. The world of type designs and typography, like any important and creative world, is full of little debates and spats and wars, sometimes based on elitism, most often based on heartfelt passion. So it helped that I came to it all afresh. This also enabled me to pick out what I thought would be the most interesting stories for the general reader – freed up rather than hampered by what had gone before. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: </span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The typography of your book is quite playful. The text is set in a variety of typeface, including Sabon, Univers. When a typeface is mentioned it is printed in the actual typeface, i.e. when you discuss Helvetica it is printed in Helvetica. Could you tell me how the ideas of the typography of your book came about? <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simon Garfield: There was always this question from the beginning: how do we present the book in the most appealing way? One initial thought was to have a different typeface for every chapter, connected with the main face under discussion, but obviously display faces like Albertus and Cooper Black would be almost illegible at text sizes. So the designer James Alexander played around with a few options, and we settled on Sabon as the main text, Univers for the diversions about particular designers, and then we had a one-off use for all the type names we were describing. Not a cheap or easy exercise – we used more than 200 – but I think it works. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: </span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You have interviewed a lot of typeface designers and written about their work. Having heard the anecdotes, the purpose of the typeface design, and the creative process, what do you consider is the most remarkable achievement produced by a type designer?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simon Garfield: </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That would be the achievement of producing anything original at all, and having the patience and inspiration to do so. How can one possibly create a new M or A that hasn’t been made in the proceeding 560 years? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What do you think is one of the funniest anecdotes about a typeface you have heard?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simon Garfield: </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It’s more poignant than funny, but I do love the story in the book about Doves, and the desire to drown it in the Thames so that no one else could use or abuse it. The type is still in there somewhere, if you’re feeling adventurous. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And I do like the story, not in the hardback, but certainly destined for the paperback, in which the all-round family entertainer Michael Ball introduced a listener’s email request on his Radio 2 show by saying, ‘And this one’s from Helvetica Bold – what a lovely name!’ <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: </span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our choice of typeface can send a signal about a person’s character. According to the Pentagram online questionnaire called “What type are you?” your type, is a typeface called Archer Hairline. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Your name on the cover of your book 'Just My Type' is set in the typeface Gill Sans, which is said to convey Britishness, scarcity, proper, reservedly proud, no fuss and practical. What typeface do you think portrays your character: Archer Hairline, Gill Sans or one of the typefaces of your other books Bookman, Sabon, Akzidenz Grotesk, Bembo? <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simon Garfield: </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ah, that would depend on my mood at the time. I think we chose Gill Sans as a sane contrast to the other mad choices on the jacket. If my head is full of music, then I’ll go for something dramatic and flowery; if I’m being sincere I’ll have Helvetica. I think the fonts on my other books have fairly well represented what lies inside. On my gravestone I’d settle for Albertus. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: </span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the inside of the book jacket you say you have a current soft spot for the typefaces Mrs Eaves and HT Gelateria. Could you give a top 10 of your favourite typefaces, and the reasons for their selection?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simon Garfield: Oh well, here goes. I need to tell you that these are my current modern fonts (i.e. it’s pointless putting them up against Baskerville etc) and that the list tends to change every hour or so:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1. Vitesse<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is a modern slab serif, with prominent feet grounding it to the page. It’s quite a traditional look, but the design company Hoefler & Frere-Jones have given it some nice quirks, not least on the upper-case K and G. I especially like the wafer thin version.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2. Progress Two<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This reminds me of shapes one might make from pastry cutters. Just as you think you know what’s coming, an irregular cut-off stops you short. The upper-case B is a D with an elbow in its stomach. Slightly queasy, never boring.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3. HT Gelateria<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The name says it all, a typeface that sells you ice cream. A thick, gooey script font – I wish I had handwriting like that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4. Candy Script<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just outrageously beautiful and painterly. The o and w are my favourites. Put this on a bag of homemade cookies and you’ve got a sale.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5. Albertus<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The oldest type in this list, and always a reliable standby. Designed by Berthold Wolpe in the 1930s, it features on Faber book jackets and street names in the City of London. I love it for its human carved qualities, and because it decorates the signs on Hampstead Heath, my local walking spot. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">6. Jimbo<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Made by the great Jim Parkinson, who also designed the current Rolling Stone magazine logo/masthead. It’s a modern fat face poking fun and bursting with energy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7. Lavigne Display<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ultra-fashionable and decadent, this serif is inspired by calligraphy and the flapper age, a high-contrast style with surprising thick and thin strokes. The brilliantine lick of the ear of the g is straight from Gosford Park. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">8. Ogaki<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Almost easier to draw than describe, this is a heavy display face with traces of Matisse. Distinguished by its fine dissecting lines, it’s one of the boldest new faces of the century.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">9. Blur<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Neville Brody’s vision of type in the beerlight, or type viewed through glass. Or perhaps it’s a typewriter ribbon that should have been changed a fortnight ago. A modern classic. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">10. Dionisio<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Only one way to describe this, and it’s the font fan’s favourite word: elegant. Not quite Bodoni, but an indulgent contemporary equivalent. The a looks noble, the F like a train shunt. The only choice for today’s discerning wedding invitations.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Interview written and conducted by Thierry Somers, with contribution by Marie Drysdale.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Picture (above): Jonathan Barnbrook's </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">limited-edition print </span></span></span></span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to celebrate the launch of '</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-My-Type-About-Fonts/dp/1846683017/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1287501424&amp;sr=8-1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">Just My Type</span></a>'.</span></span></em></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-81517032140558938822010-12-30T02:13:00.000-08:002010-12-30T02:13:47.530-08:00Ian Anderson (Part II)<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: #fb0000; font-family: Georgia;">Autechre’s album cover “Oversteps” is one of the 50 nominees of Best Art Vinyl 2010. 200% asked Ian Anderson, the designer of "Oversteps", to shine his “light” on this year’s nominees and to pick his favourites – and the reasons for their selection – in no particular order, well, apart from the first one.</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Autechre – Oversteps – Warp</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Because it's the best.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Anberlin – Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place – Universal Republic</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Clean, clear and immediate, but keeps you guessing as to the narrative. I trust things that implicitly aren't what they seem – they appear more honest. I mainly like it for the name of the record label, nice idea.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Arcade Fire – The Suburbs – Mercury/Merge</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I don't like to hear Arcade Fire, but I love the intense stillness of the cover image. It conveys so much about the subject, or better, it creates a format for the viewer to fill in the blanks and own the image of their own suburbia for themselves. There's a sense of intense suffocation there for me similar to minutes leading up to the explosion scene at the end of “Zabriskie Point”.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">No Age – Everything in Between – Sub Pop</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I like this simply because it's almost identical to and therefore, gives me an excuse to mention the “do not destroy” imagery TDR [The Designers Republic] originally created for Funkstörung’s Grammy Winners project that we still use as part of the Brain Aided Design rolling revue.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra – Kollaps Tradixionales – Constellation</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Everything's skewed – I like the balance and the drama in between, and I love the visual play of the typography. It has caught my eye all year but I liked it more before I realized the image was simply upside down trees.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Devo – Something For Everybody – Warner Bros</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Everything up from the “focus group approved” sticker is potentially too clever, too literal to a basic idea, and some find the “ironic” involvement with Mother New York Advertising agency a little too close for comfort, but for me, it works. It delivers against what it sets out to be in the same way TDR launched The Peoples Bureau For Consumer Information not to sell merchandise, but to test theories and better understand consumer behaviour from the other side of the fence. There’s a sense with this project that Devo are engaging with, and immersing, their public into a greater-concept album – like Sigue Sigue Sputnik's “Flaunt It!” album’s between track advertising: this is more encompassing than the usual songs-about and pictures-of approach to most album’s narratives.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The cover image is a perfect expression of all this with its nods toward “The Stepford Wives” world.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Glasser – Ring – True Panther Sounds</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I don't know if I do really like this but it’s a well crafted abstract image that sits well on the cover that catches the eye and I'd probably like it on my wall. Maybe I don't like it because I can't justify it – maybe that's the point. So, I'll vote for it anyway, unless the image is supposed to represent (shards of) glass – then I'll have my vote back!</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">M.I.A – /\/\ /\ Y /\ – XL</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">More punk technology is more punk technology. It's deconstructive and a beautiful afront to what, for too long, has been considered default good record cover taste in design magazines for way too long... Out: vile demons! Out: Helvetica 6pt “properly” kerned! Out: intelligent use of negative space! Out: “tastefully correct” cropping! Infact... Out: design designed for other designers! This is where PSB should have been all along :-) This, and the Goldfrapp cover for instance, both tell you a lot about the music – it sheaths ambition... the difference between this and Goldfrapp's is that /\/\ /\ Y /\ is designed to knock people off the fence, whereas Alison Goldfrapp’s music seeks approval by association with whatever already seen pre-known chameleon theme's lodging in her head at the time.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Mark Ronson – Record Collection – Columbia</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I don't like it but I think it's good. It's humorous and tells a story, although not necessarily an obvious one for his audience. It’s a clever way to convey both the idea of the title, the idea of the modus operandi behind it and the making of the album, whilst keeping the focus on Mark. Honestly, I'm not saying I like it!</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">View all the 50 nominations of Best Art Vinyl 2010:</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Times;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.artvinyl.com/en/nominate/nominations.html</span></i></span></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-45669756246963877242010-12-23T14:11:00.000-08:002010-12-23T14:11:46.926-08:00Alex Ross<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">In his features for The New Yorker, the music critic Alex Ross covers the whole music scene, with articles ranging from Verdi and Mozart, to </span></i></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Björk</span></i></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> and Radiohead.</span></i></span></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">After his bestseller, “The Rest Is Noise”, Ross’s second book </span></i></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">“Listen to This” gives “</span></i></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">an introduction to crucial figures and ideas in classical music, and also provides an alternative perspective on modern pop”.</span></i></span></span></b></span></span></i></span></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Triggered by reading one of the book’s chapters, “Listen to This: </span></i></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Crossing the border from Classical to Pop”, </span></i></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">200% spoke with Ross in London to understand what he considers to be the greatest examples of where Pop meets the Classics (Björk – “An Echo, A Stain”, Radiohead – “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” and The Beatles – “A Day in the Life”) and where the Classics meets Pop (Steve Reich’s minimalistic music and Igor Stravinsky – “The Rite of Spring”).</span></i></span></span></b></span></span></i></span></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you have criteria against which you are able to say this pop band uses classical elements in their pop music very well and this band not, here it becomes kitsch? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: It is the same criteria I use judging any piece of music: the dimensions of technique, expression and emotion. I don’t have a scientific method that I follow. It is more an instinctive reaction. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">First of all: Do I have the sense that the music is technically well put together; are things just being thrown together at random, or is there some thought to the process. Even in a three minute song there is so much you can do and so many ways you can employ musical technique. Take a simple idea, start developing it and looking at it from different angles instead of repeating the same idea over and over again. I’m interested when there are variations on a strong idea and someone is thinking it through in musical terms. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Secondly, the emotional dimension. Is there some point to all this, is there a core, a burning conviction and passion in the music? Is there something at stake? And when I feel all those things together, that’s what carries me.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: When it comes to pop musicians who incorporate Classical music into Pop music, you seem to be more interested in those who use classical elements planted at the core of their music?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: Yes, if you are going to make this move, I do tend to get more out of it when I feel a classical idea has been integrated from the very beginning, rather then added at a very late stage of production – as when a producer decides “let’s put some strings on top of this”. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: In your book you say that The Beatles were by far the best of throwing in bits of pieces of classical music into their mix. Could you explain why you consider that they were by far the best? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: They were the first to attempt to do it in a serious way in the rock world. They were very thoughtful about how they incorporated classical music into their work and it felt very organic. I love “A Day in the Life” because they used the orchestra as a medium of chaos and not just as a grandiose, richly varied musical picture. When the orchestra appears in the song it seems to erupt from the nature of the song. It is part of what the song is aiming to express.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also like the ruggedness of how they used the orchestra in “I’m the Walrus” as it’s insistent, rougher in tone. Not using the orchestra as beautification but making it pungent, like a blow to the solar-plexus. Also the raw recording of the classical instruments is very striking.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What do you consider to be other good examples of contemporary pop musicians who integrate classical elements in their music? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: Musicians like Björk, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom are making very intelligent and purposeful use of classical elements in their songs that are comparable to what The Beatles did in terms of incorporating it into their music. It was not because they felt “Oh, it is time for us to have a song that has an orchestra attached to it” but they had something that they musically needed to express, which could only be done with classical components.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Could you mention a great example of a song where one of the contemporary musicians integrated classical elements in their music? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: All of Björk’s album “Vespertine” is full of these moments: sometimes it’s hard for me to decide if it’s pop music that is making reference to classical music or a case of a composer who happens to use pop music as a medium on this occasion. For instance, at the very beginning of the song “An Echo, A Stain”, if you start listening to it without knowing anything about Björk, you might say “this sounds like a contemporary classical composition”. You hear a chorus: it is not a simple harmony, it is a very spread out, dense chord, somewhat dissonant but also dreamlike, through which electronic sounds are filtered. After thirty seconds, Björk’s voice enters and you realize “Oh it’s recorded in a way that’s typical of how pop voices are recorded”; however, the way her voice moves musically, she is not singing a pop ditty – it’s fragments of vocal lines, with the chorus constantly moving in and out. For me, it’s wonderful as it’s so hard to classify: it could be a pop song, it could be a contemporary classical composition: in the end you realize it doesn’t matter what you call it. The important element is that this is Björk, this is her individual personality that is being expressed by means that are interesting to her. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What do you think of Radiohead’s rock version of “Arpeggi”, “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”, which was based on their atmospheric string based composition “Arpeggi”?</span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: It is a great example where I think the classical element is a little bit more under the surface. You have a guitar, you have voice – your first immediate sense is “here is a rock song”. There is a mellow, dark kind of mood and, as the song continues, it becomes more and more uneasy in a sense that into which category does this “rock song” falls because of these minute changes that are constantly taking place. It never quite goes in the direction you think. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rhythmically, it is very complicated; there are cycles of patterns happening that are constantly spilling outside of the frame over a very regular one, two, three, four beat and the multiple cycles fall on top of each other. It’s very tricky as it keeps slipping out of your grasp, but it also never breaks the mood completely either. In their music there is always this constant flux and unease and I think this is also a very significant achievement as Radiohead – whilst they are a rock band with a huge commercial career, sell-out arenas wherever it goes – they seem never contented to do the same thing over and over again. Within each song they are thinking; “ok, this has gone on long enough in a particular pattern, but let’s throw in a new element, whether it’s a rhythm or harmony, so it is constantly changing.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What do you think of the arrangements in Marvin Gaye’s </span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“What’s Going On”?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: That’s an incredible song. It makes me think of the great tradition of Motown and the beauty of many of those arrangements. It has something in common with the great Frank Sinatra arrangements where you begin with a voice of great colour, a voice with so many nuances and layers to them, and, the arrangements seem to complement it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Could you mention some good examples of where the Classics meets Pop? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: In the twentieth</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> century you had classical composers who were engaging with popular music, like Maurice Ravel, who loved jazz and he referred to jazz, and George Gershwin, who is primarily known as a composer with a dual career in popular and classical music. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After the Second World War, many composers were affected by Bebop and modern jazz. In the 60s and 70s, the strongest example you had were the American minimalist composers who grew up with Bebop and Rock and Roll and wanted to find a new kind of American contemporary classical music that reflected their world. Steve Reich created pieces that didn’t sound like anything else, but when you go below the surface, you realize he is picking up an idea from John Coltrane [American Jazz saxophonist and composer] taking a very short motive, repeating it insistently and then starting to vary it. Reich also makes reference to West African music, such as rhythmic ideas. The fascinating thing is that Reich immediately had this enormous influence on pop music, on Brian Eno, David Bowie and Sonic Youth, who were definitely affected by the New York minimalist music scene and so you had this great back and forth. I think minimalist music remains incredibly influential to this day as there is a lot of electronic dance music where you hear this sort of pattern starting and you think, “Oh that’s Steve Reich”. It’s important to have a contemporary composer who grew up with pop music, listened to it, incorporated ideas from it, and then affected it, influenced it, progressing from there. For me, that’s one of the most exciting moments in all of twentieth</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> century music – the series of influences that took place in, and around, American minimalism.</span></span></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you consider Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” to be a piece where Pop meet the Classics?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alex Ross: That’s a very special case. The rhythms are so potent: we can’t be completely sure where Stravinsky got them, as it feels as if he could have been listening to African music or even Indian music. This idea of a pattern starting and than an extra pulse being added and subtracted – these are not things found in a lot of non-Western musical traditions; this very vibrant, unexpected and sort of propulsive syncopation in “The Rite of Spring”. It appears that Stravinsky made it up – he wasn’t listening to, or had no knowledge of, African music. Jazz didn’t yet exist and he didn’t know anything about Ragtime. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At the beginning of the twentieth</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> century, Stravinsky felt the need for this rhythmic dynamism, to reject a romantic grandiosity, and find an energy that came much more from the ground, from the earth in a sense, and he put that into the world. That piece has gone on to have a strong effect on Jazz and Rock musicians. They may not be directly influenced but there is something uncannily familiar about it, where it feels like a </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">progenitor</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> of Rock and Roll or Bebop. It’s a classical piece, but it seems like a prophecy of things to come in the popular music world as well.</span></span></span></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Interview written and conducted by Thierry Somers, with contribution from Louis Warner.</span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #282828; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small; font-style: italic; line-height: 14px;">Listen To This by Alex Ross, Fourth Estate</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-71432070658466028572010-12-15T08:59:00.000-08:002010-12-15T08:59:33.755-08:00Ian Anderson (Part I)<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Autechre’s album cover “Oversteps” is one of the 50 nominees of Best Vinyl Art 2010. 200% asked the designer of “Oversteps”, Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic, to share some insight into the creative process as to how the artwork originated. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Did you hear the tracks of "Oversteps" that Sean Booth and Rob Brown of Autechre created before you started to work on the artwork of the album?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: No. I chose not to listen to it all until I wanted to populate the basic idea. I usually don't listen to the music first. I'm interested in the motivations and inspirations of the artist and I'd rather refer to their source material than their output. I'm more interested in what they want to communicate to which audience, and why. I want to create something that exists in parallel to their response to their input, rather than reflecting, or attempting to, represent their output.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Were Sean and Rob involved in the creative process of the album’s artwork?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: Yes, they had to understand what I was doing, and be ok with it. Over the years we have developed an understanding, and they know that I'll probably get closer to that which they aspire if they don't tell me what they want. Of course we discuss their work, and where their heads are at before starting the project.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: From where did the idea of the black circle come? Was is inspired by Kazemir Malevich’s painting “Black Circle” from 1913?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: No, the similarities are not intentional. The “Oversteps” artwork relates to Autechre's work. </span><span style="color: maroon;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Malevich was also the founder of “Suprematism” – the "grammar" of this art movement was based on fundamental geometric forms; the square and the circle. On a forum discussion on the artwork of "Oversteps" someone wrote: "Have any of you armchair conspiracy theorists noticed that Quaristice's [Autechre’s</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> album before "Oversteps"]</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">artwork involved a series of squares whereas this album [“Oversteps”] is all circles?" Is that a correct observation and was it done deliberately?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: In both cases there was a sense of reducing the essence of the visual communication to the raw data of simple geometry but there was no plan. “Oversteps” was a reaction to “Quaristice” only by the same degree as the music, and Sean and Rob’s intention.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Was the black circle painted by hand or created with Corel Painter on a computer? How many circles did you create before you said: "this is the one" for the cover of the album?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In fact, did you create not one but 14 slightly different black circles corresponding with the amount of tracks on the album – just like the artwork of “Yes, Pet Shop Boys.” where the 11 squares on the cover stand for the 11 tracks on the album?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: The number of circles relates to the number of iterations for various mediums in which we needed to use the cover image, or a version of it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Across the limited edition vinyl packaging and vinyl labels, and over the CD packaging and to digital only releases, ads, posters, merchandise, point of sale, etc, the same circle never appears twice. We painted around 72 circles on various media with various brushes.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With “Quaristice” the combinations of squares and colours and relative size did not relate specifically to the number of tracks.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We didn't aim for any revelation in finding the “one” [circle] image for the front of any of the formats. We painted some bigger circles for bigger reproduction and some smaller ones for labels and digital.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What is it that you want to communicate with the "Oversteps" artwork?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: Human imperfection in the quest for technical (or technological – in Autechre's case digital) perfection.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For me, Rob and Sean are two very human characters, full of the contradictions that define us all, and yet for two people, vivid in their own ways, they seem, to me, to strive to become subordinate to science and technology, reveling in finding ways to create templates that will, by mathematical equation, extract or divorce them from the creative process; by building theoretical machines (software) that they can operate to build sound.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And yet, for all this, they have crafted an album that, for me, has an ambience of something human-made and organic sounding, a sound that can be felt and experienced three-dimensionally. For me, there is a spirit of the improvised meandering of a pre-service church organist accompanied by the barely inaudible murmur of the congregation – this is a creative response not a review.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So... that two, naturally, perfectly “imperfect” people, in awe of, and adept at, harnessing the potential that science has to inform new sounds, new approaches and possibilities, making and using those sounds, coupled with constantly evolving technology should, inadvertently, make an album so full-circle, rich in the soul of real life, inspiring an human attempt at digital perfection in the design and the artwork.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What is your definition of a good record cover? Does the album artwork (for you) have to express the mood of the music?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: It has to both compliment the product and expand the consumer experience. The artwork should engage, on whatever level, from the listener’s experience throughout duration of the album, or by repeated exposure. It should be something equally cherished to the music, and intrigue to the viewer all the way from purchase to first play, and beyond.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What was the idea behind the raw typeface and its positioning on the album, sometimes, being overlapped by the circle?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: The font is Norm's Replica font – the hyper grid-ism of Replica with its cut corners conveys the dry modernism of the future emphasizing the man-machine perspective, that is, </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the fascination with being the machines we create from the Futurists to science fiction to Gary Numan, early John Foxx etc.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Are you happy that "Oversteps" is nominated as one of the Best Vinyl Art 2010?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ian Anderson: I'm not sure how I should answer this question. Yes, I’m pleased people see value in what I do, and I'm sure I'd be even more pleased if it won, but honestly, I don't give a fuck about prizes – I don't design to enter, or win, awards, and how good what I've done isn't dependent on the say so of a jury. I'm more excited that it has provoked dialogue in the press and on blogs, and I'm stoked that Sean and Rob like it. It does its job.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Pictures: Artwork for Autechre "Oversteps", The Designers Republic</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">In Part II, Ian Anderson, shines his “light” on this year’s nominees of Best Vinyl Art and to </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">pick his favourites – and the reasons for their selection.</span></span></i></span></span></i></span></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-71801286348767476892010-12-10T07:50:00.000-08:002010-12-10T07:50:55.965-08:00Stewart Copeland<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0duAJ8qqms0D8sx9ceewJmD9Byb1EIlTQ2av71maFu0UBnddjY9-3sE9swIKBbKZHVcv2mJ1ssOo-ETSOI-tjh_-kGNYYAL1PdvaQ957uFRVuGSKUyo3PH6CaDRChsE7Do9b55Jfgfe0/s1600/stewart+copeland+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0duAJ8qqms0D8sx9ceewJmD9Byb1EIlTQ2av71maFu0UBnddjY9-3sE9swIKBbKZHVcv2mJ1ssOo-ETSOI-tjh_-kGNYYAL1PdvaQ957uFRVuGSKUyo3PH6CaDRChsE7Do9b55Jfgfe0/s400/stewart+copeland+6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
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</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Stewart Copeland’s new composition “Microkosmos” premiered at “An Evening with Stewart Copeland” – the opening night of the Tromp Festival in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The night was in honour of a most influential drummer who developed from a rock star, being the drummer of “The Police”, to become an all-round and prolific composer, with solo albums including “The Rhythmatist”, to composing scores of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Whilst Copeland didn’t perform ‘Microkosmos’ that night – this was done by Elbtonal, a stunning German quartet of skilled percussionists – he performed with the New York/Brazilian band Forro in the Dark, BEAM, violinist Daniel Hope and string quartet ETHEL!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">In “Microkosmos” several aspects of Copeland’s compositional skills come forth: the rhythm is omnipresent and gives the melody a drive throughout, thus creating Copeland’s own percussive microcosm. The composition, which consisted of four short pieces, started gradually, growing into a bombastic apotheosis of notes and chords. The two quiet pieces were more repetitive, minimalistic and the use of marimba and vibraphone was rather unnerving at times, whilst the two faster parts were more dynamic, pulsating and impressive.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">200% spoke with an animated Copeland in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Amsterdam, three days prior to the concert.</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: The information posted on the website “Drummerworld” doesn’t say much about the period before you started playing with The Police. What was the drive to take up drumming?</span></span></i></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: The very beginning – a magazine from the Slingerland Drum Company that had pictures of drum sets. The first page was with the small sets, the beginner’s item and, when you flip the page, there’s a larger set with all the tom-toms and bass drum; then, finally, you reach the last page to see the largest drum with two tom-toms on the front. It looked like a chariot of fire. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Your brother Ian was already playing the drums?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: No, Ian had a bunch of buddies who played in a band called the “Black Knights” – American kids coming to the American community school in Beirut. Their drummer left town suddenly for some reason. Then, Ian, as the “coolest kid” in school, was the band’s obvious choice to be the drummer – but he couldn’t play. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I remember that they dropped the drum set off at our house and Ian would blast away on it trying to get it together. I was outside the door listening to what he was trying to do. When he was out I would sneak in – under penalty of death – play on his drums trying to do the things he was doing: but there was something really strange about it: I could do it! I’d hear Ian tap ‘tsitsidada tsitsidadda’ and he’d exclaim: “Oh no, try it again.” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How much do you have to be innately talented (i.e. possess natural rhythm) to play the drums, or do you consider that anyone can learn to play the drums through practice?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: I think people have gifts for different things, in a different mix. And maybe people don’t even find the combination that takes what they have as an individual. It works. Drumming is maybe a cluster of genetic traits in the neuron system; which means, for some reason, I find certain aspects easier than another person. It’s not because I am smarter, or I work harder or practice more. I just sat on it until I could figure it out. There is a biological, neurological difference that means it happens.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: In the documentary “Does Everyone Stare” about The Police you say your style comes from Lebanon. Can you tell a little more about that?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: Yes, the Baladi rhythm. It’s not like reggae, it comes from a completely different cultural source and in the roots there are no overlaps with the beginning of American music. Baladi and reggae, though, have two aspects in common. They share the use of ‘negative’ space, which is when the rhythm is constructed in a certain way – in that there is a gap in the construction which the drummer can fill with his own interpretation. The other aspect they share is that they emphasize the third beat in the bar – to which they gravitate – not emphasizing the second or fourth beat.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Did that influence the way you were playing at first?</span></span></i></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: Well, in Lebanon I wasn’t specifically listening to Arabic music, but I was surrounded by it. My ears were gravitating to my own cultural roots, i.e. American music [Copeland’s father was a CIA agent stationed in the Middle East where he spent his childhood years]. Whilst I had no memory of having ever lived in America, I was an American kid in Beirut, who thought “I am an American, God damn it” and, with all the other American kids, we could at least try to pretend what it’s like to be an American. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We had the BBC with an hour a week of the “Sounds of the 60s” and there was the “Voice of America” [An American radio station] which included two or three slots per week of American music. Everyone at school gravitated around those shows and understood whatever was going on. That American stuff I was listening to was just three or four hours a week. The rest of the time, every taxi, every shop, everywhere was this Arabic music, all the time. So that is kind of infused (in me).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Does this influence your current work?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: Oh, it’s all from there. When you’re creating something, you have on one hand a target, what it is you want to create; whilst, with the other hand there is the resource, the oil well of whatever it is that it supplies – so you balance those two aspects to achieve a result. And that Arab music is part of the resource. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: You also recorded under the pseudonym Klark Kent. Were the songs written before, or during, the first The Police album?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: Before. The Police was already a group at the time. Sting was a big fan, very supportive of Klark Kent. The Police, though, wasn’t going anywhere (for a while). I had these songs: I knew this guy with a studio, so I recorded them. One of them [“Don’t Care”] became a minor hit in the English charts. Radio One had it on the play list and suddenly, with Klark Kent, for the first time in my whole life, I was gaining some recognition – having a hit: loved it. That was a great experience. Initially, the Klark Kent songs were ideas for Police songs that didn’t make it to our first album ‘The Police’. They were the rejects – the ones with dumb lyrics. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you have an explanation as to why Western drummers are drawn to African drumming and rhythm?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: I don’t know particularly that they are. A few American musicians (not just drummers) have been curious about the roots of American music that came from Africa. There was a part of American music that was a cross between European chord structures and African rhythm, which produced music that dominated popular music for fifty years. But, as to what’s the African part…? We know the Mozart part, we all know that. We all know from where G and the C-major chords come, and the well-tempered scale. We know how harmonies are built from a Western concept of music. But it’s not specific from where the African influence originates.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: In terms of playing together, is there a special bond between the bass player and the drummer in a band?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: A mystical relationship between them, you mean? Strangely, it’s actually true. I have nine best friends who are bass players, maybe one or two guitarists, and actually a few drummers now. For some reason, some of my best friends are bass players: Stanley Clarke, he is one of my best friends; Armand Sabal-Lecco, Les Claypool [the bass player of Primus and Oysterhead] – he is one of the closest people to me – Trevor Horn, who is a producer, but he is also, basically, a bass player. Then there is Sting. On stage it’s a matter of getting the feel of each other and there is a particular mission that the bass player and the drummer need to do. Part of the punch of the bass comes from the kick drum, and the melody from the kick drum comes from the bass. So in a way we are both playing the same instrument. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: What is your favourite drum song?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: I would say ‘Take Five” by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. One of the reasons I enjoy saying that is because it’s one of the most sublime pieces of recorded music and the drum solo is just amazing. Anyone who loves John Bonham [the drummer of Led Zeppelin] should have to understand the connection between simplicity and sublime power.<br />
The other reason why it’s fun to mention is because most jazz people would howl DAVE BRUBECK? Apart from that song maybe “Blue Rondo a la Turk”. <br />
My friends would call it ‘wrong’ jazz. I like to criticize jazz because a lot of my friends are jazz musicians. With Stanley Clarke, who considers Dave Brubeck the epitome of wrong jazz, we “go at it”, insulting each other’s music: but that’s what friends can do. </span><b><span style="color: #bfbfbf;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: You were also inspired by Buddy Rich.</span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span></i></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stewart Copeland: Buddy Rich is the master. He’s the Mozart of drums. He is the guy that took it to the point “Okay, that’s what you can do with drums”. And everything else came from that. So Stanley has to get over that one. [laughs]</span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Interview conducted and written by Marcel Harlaar.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Friso Keuris.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-74182091814697069022010-11-22T04:00:00.000-08:002010-11-22T04:00:05.896-08:00Yulianna Avdeeva<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The pianist Yulianna Avdeeva is the first woman in 45 years, after Martha Argerich, to win the Fryderyk Chopin Competition 2010 in Warsaw, an event organized only every five years. Two weeks after winning the First Prize, the 25-year old Russian gave a breath-taking two-and-half hour performance of an all Chopin programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Avdeeva talks with 200% on being the first women in 45 years to win the Competition, Chopin’s genius, how to perceive and understand composers’ intentions, and her total immersion in the music whilst she performs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: There has been a lot of publicity about the fact that you are the first women in 45 years to win the Fryderyk Chopin Competition – does that mean something special to you?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The moment that you’re on stage, you are a musician and a musician, for me, has no gender. Being male or female is not an issue for me. I just feel very honoured to win this Prize and it’s very special to me.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: Can you describe how you prepared yourself for the Competition? Did you have a teacher with whom you practiced intensively?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In 2008, I graduated from the Zurich University of the Arts and then I attended the International Piano Academy Lake Como in Italy. Once a month you have different master classes with different musicians. Thus, you don’t have one sole teacher, which is very interesting to me as you have [insight] to many musical styles, many different influences and, therefore, you take what feels that works for you. All this knowledge was, therefore, inside of me that helped me prepare for the Competition. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Of course, I also practiced, every day, intensely and seriously, at the piano: for me, though, as music is also connected with other arts, it is very important to know what’s happening in these other arts. Thus, I visit exhibitions and read, especially literature about the times and history of Chopin. I’m interested to know to where did he travel, which people he admired, etc – which enables me to understand more about Chopin’s view on the world. I try to absorb this knowledge into the music and, in some way, it contributes to my performances. It was also good to be in Warsaw, where the Competition was organised, to see where Chopin had lived, where he has been to in the city and to visit the Chopin museum.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: In the same way that an actor learns lines “by heart”, for </span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the Chopin Competition the Repertoire must be played from memory – was that difficult to master?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: When you play a piece on stage, by heart, you have to be very well prepared and every note has to be understood. When I’m practicing a piece, there comes a moment I know the piece so well, that I don’t need to see the score in front of my eyes – I can play it with my eyes closed. Actually I never think about these things – playing a piece by heart is something I take for granted when I’m performing.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Your success didn’t come overnight – you worked very hard for it. Are there specific examples of sacrifices, which you could describe, that you have made in your career, to be where you are now? What did you gave up?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva:</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Well, I wouldn’t say I had to give up things for music. Music is my life and I carry it inside of me, but to be able to play music, you have to understand music and you have to understand the composer’s intentions or his view on the world. Every composer has his global view on the world, which is expressed in his music. To be able to understand the composer’s view you have to possess life experience yourself. You have to understand life, how people think and feel, and what are collective life experiences to which people can relate. To be able to understand this, I dedicate a lot of time, even my life to this.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Could you tell me what you think is Chopin’s genius?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: Chopin is a very different composer compared to other composers as he combines so many things. On the one hand his music is very clearly, classically structured, on the other hand his music has an improvisational character that you somehow have to ‘read’ when you perform the pieces. Also, when you play Chopin’s music you have to be very honest and pure as he is a very truthful composer with a lot of integrity.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Because of the improvisational character in Chopin’s music do you believe that’s the reason why his music lives on?</span><span style="color: grey;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: Yes. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have played Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 many times, but the interesting aspect is that you’re never tired of it as the music allows you to search for new ideas; and I try to dig deeper into the music to understand what Chopin wanted to express in the music. What is important for me is that I find the time to develop and be deeper inside the music, as I believe that a musician should never think, “I have played this particular piece now a thousand times and now it’s good.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: For the Competition the organisers recommended participants refer to the </span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Urtext of the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin by Professor Jan Ekier.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Do you consider that these are the closest to how Chopin thought his music should be played, as they are </span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">based wholly on Chopin’s hand-written manuscripts?</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: The first moment I opened Jan Ekier’s Edition of the Works of Chopin it was a real inspiration. For me, this Edition represents a pure and insightful view into Chopin’s work. Whilst I started to learn Chopin’s music by different Editions – as there are so many great musicians who actually did think about Chopin’s music and gave their vision on his work – it was also difficult to find out what were really Chopin’s intentions and what were his real ideas. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After I saw Ekier’s Edition it opened a new world for me because, in my view, it’s very truthful. I know it took Ekier many years to find all of Chopin’s original hand written manuscripts, and, therefore, his Edition contains so many details. In each piece, at each note, you see the remarks made by Chopin. It gave me an incredible new interest in the pieces when I compare it with other Editions, as you understand the essence of what Chopin wanted to convey with his music. I was very excited about it, and it gave me new inspiration to perform his music.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: When you play, you totally immerse yourself into the composition. Your body crawls almost into the piano, you throw your head backwards in the sky, the mimic on your face is incredibly expressive, you even sometimes breath heavily. Could you describe what is occurring in your body and what you feel when you play? Do you step out of yourself?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: When I play, I wouldn’t say I lose control, but I don’t realize what I’m doing. When you perform music you are so inside of the music you try to express all these feelings, which belong to the piece that you’re performing. When you walk on stage it’s a very special feeling. In a way you are out of this real world when you’re on stage and when you are playing. It feels like you have no body actually: you’re in your mind, a feeling that is hard to describe. What I can say with certainty is that “I step into another world”.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: How to touch the keys of the piano – soft, gentle or hard and firm – is that difficult to master in Chopin’s music?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: Everything is written down in the Editions. When you start learning the piece your fingers automatically try to follow what is written in this work: what also matters is whether you’re playing in a hall or in a dining room. When you play Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 in a dining room it’s very different when you play the piece in a hall with two thousand people. To understand how to touch the keys – it happens automatically in my mind. Also, you have to think about the acoustics: when you’re playing in a big hall I have to envision my sound to the hall’s perspective as if I would be sitting in the public auditorium.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Why is the piano your instrument?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: The piano is such a rich instrument as it has so many colours and dynamics. It gives you so many possibilities to play, so many different pieces and different repertoires. I couldn’t imagine playing another instrument, even though I like the violin and the cello. The </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">versatility</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, the possibilities of the piano, is endless to me.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Where do you think you can grow or improve yourself as a classical musician?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yulianna Avdeeva: What I really need to do now is to continue my development. I have to concentrate on working on the piano and digging deeper inside of the composers’ intent. It’s important, but also difficult, to understand how the music should be played: this is not only for Chopin music but also for so many other composers. I have to read more about their music, mature as a person, and gain life experiences. I also hope I have the opportunity to work with current musicians in this world from whom I can learn, as they will lead me into new directions. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I hope I will continue to develop – this is my desire.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Picture: B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">artek Sadowski</span></span></span></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-61985918790576903802010-11-16T03:14:00.000-08:002011-07-28T08:16:26.375-07:00Nic Clear<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1UigyrXdl1plyRywMlKddB0tkyVOippYjXIFQ3m060n2TV-vAxxdpaDaK5C2qw-CWXKZmHZFvS222KH9kjcCW1Qes9Yf81ULa4Gl16eshs2htnQeBcLiodTrVx9UDLNC7uL26O-M21Bw/s1600/Bartlett_U015_KeiichiMatsuda_II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1UigyrXdl1plyRywMlKddB0tkyVOippYjXIFQ3m060n2TV-vAxxdpaDaK5C2qw-CWXKZmHZFvS222KH9kjcCW1Qes9Yf81ULa4Gl16eshs2htnQeBcLiodTrVx9UDLNC7uL26O-M21Bw/s400/Bartlett_U015_KeiichiMatsuda_II.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br />
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</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Nic Clear is the Course Director of Bartlett School of Architecture. He runs “Unit 15”, a postgraduate design unit, which uses film, animation and motion graphics to generate, </span></i></b></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">develop and represent ‘uncertain’ architectural spaces and narratives. 200% met with Clear during the Alpha-Ville festival – an international festival of Digital Arts and Culture hosted by The Whitechapel Gallery – and discussed with him the danger of </span></i></b></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">the majority of contemporary architects operating in the highest stratum, why he perceives that the future represented by architects is not realistic,</span></i></b></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> whether London is a visionary city, and</span></i></b></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> his belief that a maintenance of property prices is the reason why London made the Olympic bid.</span></i></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Could you explain what “Unit 15” exactly does?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nic Clear: One of the main interests of the design unit that I run is to look at the possible futures of architecture and the way people occupy urban cities. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’m very sceptical of visions presented to people by the architectural profession. They [the architectural profession] give us a series of fully rendered, computer generated images of lovely sleek, slick cities made of these complex doubly curved surfaces filled with people drinking cappuccinos – for me, it doesn’t ring true as it only illustrates one kind of stratum. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I come from a background that also looks at the political and cultural diversity – so with any kind of city that has this ‘polish’ you can usually guarantee that there is an existence of another side. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We [Unit 15} are looking at alternatives, that the future might not be as rose tinted as it is often presented to people; it is this that, in my view, engenders a lot of the interest, on which students pick up.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: The English novelist J.G. Ballard has been a big influence in your architectural teaching and on how you think of the future, hasn’t he?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nic Clear: Yes, he has. It is strange that someone like Ballard, who sets up in some cases extraordinary unlikely scenarios, that they actually ring more true to the kind of propositions and proposals that we read about in the architectural press. There is a strong element of a Ballardian influence in the way in which I think of the future. When we assume the things that can go wrong, and the future isn’t going to be as shining, that doesn’t necessarily present a problem because, actually, one of the enduring aspect of the way in which people occupy space is that they attempt to make the best of the circumstances in which they find themselves. Even though the work that the Unit might present is a seemingly dystopian future, there is actually an incredible level of optimism and joy that lies behind that as well. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Could you give an example of that? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nic Clear: One of my students [</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ben Olszyna-Marzys] </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">did a project called “London after the Rain”. It took Max Ernst’s painting “Europe after the Rain” and it presented London as a fragmented, urban landscape with part ruins, part Arcadian landscape – it was an incredible beautiful piece. In the final shot there is a pen to Canary Wharf that blows up in the future and, personally, I almost prefer any future than the one given to us by Canary Wharf. I think a world dominated by that kind of corporate understanding of the world is something of which I would not want to be part. This, actually, is the kind of vision that is perpetuated by mainstream architecture.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you believe what architects represent as the future isn’t realistic?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nic Clear: It will be very much contained. We’re seeing much more the fragmentation of urban culture into very sort specific ‘tribal’ areas: the rise of gated communities and areas that are massively secured and massively policed, with other areas almost written off as "no-go” areas. This is something incredibly dangerous and it’s in these kind of highest stratum in which, I believe, the majority of contemporary architects are operating – this is something that we, as an architectural profession, need to question, i.e. is our motive only to service a very small portion of society? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%</span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">: You’re passionate about using film in your architectural teaching. Why is that?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nic Clear: Film is a medium that can communicate ideas to a much wider variety of people. When you show the majority of people a set of architectural drawings they have absolutely no understanding as to what they’re about: whereas with the emersion of cinema and television, people can take on quickly very abstract complex ideas through the moving image. I think, more and more, the architecture profession has to use these new means of representing work. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another reason why I started using films in my architectural teaching is because I’m such a science fiction fan of how they represent the future i.e. what I think is really effective about sci-fi films is that the future isn’t all clean and shiny; there is grit, there is dirt, there is a kind of sense that people moving past things. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: Do you use, for example, “Blade Runner” in your architectural teaching?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nic Clear: Yes, I show them the making of “Blade Runner”, “Dangerous Days” the three-and-half hour documentary. I show that to all my students as it was the last film that used “in-camera” special effects. When I try to explain to students how to use something like “after effects” and how to do it in-camera, there is a brilliant sequence in the making of [“Dangerous Days”] where they actually show how the matte photography was done and how they used miniatures with false perspectives. I believe that, when you show students how it is done manually, then the moment they move into digital software they understand what it is that they are trying to do. The understanding of doing something in an analogue way helps you to then understand how to use digital tools, to be able to do that without the same kind of laborious processes. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200%: The theme of this year’s Alpha-Ville festival is “Visionary Cities”. Do you think that London is a visionary city?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nic Clear: I belief it was. I moved to London in 1982 to go to college. At the time, London was really exciting, and in a way, it is still kind of exciting as it is big, and big is exciting. London, though, is too expensive to be really visionary. It is a place where so many people are so pre-occupied with how to pay the rent – when you’re only pre-occupied by that then you can’t take risks. The London art world, since the early ‘90s, I think, has become one of the most banal places to make art because it’s all about the galleries, all about selling, and art as a commodity. The interesting spaces are places where people are making art because it is a kind of interesting idea. They don’t really care whether Charles Saatchi is going to walk through the door and get his check book out. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I remember I went with a friend to a gallery in Berlin and we turned up and it was closed. There was a sign on the door saying: “Key is under the mat”. So we took out the key, let ourselves in and there was an installation with four projectors – I was thinking “no one in London would do this”. In Berlin there is sense where the whole atmosphere is much more laid-back, much more relaxed. I don’t experience that here [in London]. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">200% Do you think that the London Olympics are going to be an opportunity for the City to present itself to the world as a visionary city?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nic Clear: I remember when we were bidding for the London Olympics: I said at that time, the only reason we were going for the Olympics was to maintain property prices as there has to be massive infrastructural spend: it would maintain the whole kind of level of property values, which has been kind of borne out. There is some individually kind of interesting bits of architecture, but I don’t consider it particularly visionary. The whole kind of legacy thing is actually bit of a sham to me – it’s just PR.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div>www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-37664010358791666182010-11-14T10:00:00.000-08:002010-11-14T10:00:22.762-08:00Christopher Raeburn<!--StartFragment--> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">200% meets Christopher Raeburn, the designer who makes sustainable fashion – clothes made out of re-appropriated materials like military fabrics, parachutes, and deconstructed military garments that have been completely taken apart and reworked in his collections.</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: What made you decide to make clothes out of re-appropriated material?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christopher Raeburn: I’ve always been fascinated by military fabrics particularly as they lend itself to the right type of 'hardware', i.e., being waterproof and windproof, which is the basis for outerwear. Also, I’ve always been fascinated by outerwear. When you put the two elements together it became a truly interesting concept, particularly in re-using original garments to make something new. There is also something quite poignant in the fact that we’re taking old military garments, something that has been in a warehouse for up to 60 years, and giving it a completely new life.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: The contacts of how to gain access to the material from the Military – how did that came about?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christopher Raeburn: I’ve been collecting pieces since I was 12, so I’ve built up a lot of contacts over the years. I’m very fortunate that people often contact me, as lots of people know about what I do – essentially people are looking for things for me, which is really quite fantastic, and also helps to keep the brand very fresh – with the continual search for new fabrics. For our Spring/Summer 2011 collection we have a tyvek Swedish snow camouflage – we haven’t put the holes in the fabric, they are the original camouflage – which became the inspiration for a lot of the rest of the Collection. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For our Autumn/Winter 2011 collection we’re going to work with Victorinox, who make the Swiss army knives. I’m working on a capsule collection with them for A/W 2011 and it's an opportunity to broaden the range of products and opportunity to work with a brand I have always loved.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: Does your interest in military have a connection to your family background?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christopher Raeburn: Not at all. I think it connects to my childhood. We lived in the heart of the country in Kent, South East of England, with the nearest shop being four distant. Thus, in the Summer myself, and my two older brothers, went out exploring: my parents imposed one rule in that, as long we were home by dark, there were no other ‘restrictions’ – this meant we had adventures every day. I believe I've adapted that ‘view’ to the rest of my career with regard to how things develop (i.e. there is no prescribed structure) as our adventures involved building stuff and making thing, i.e. a natural progression. What I truly like is the process – the fact that you’re researching something and then going all the way through to a final product that is, hopefully, commercially viable and also very appealing.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: Your clothes are made from recycled material, but you don’t see it in the end product as it looks brand new, elegant and sophisticated.</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christopher Raeburn: Ultimately, whilst being a sustainable designer, your product still has to be sell-able. In order for it to be appealing, taking account of the consumer views (re sustainability) garments still have to look new or considered: certainly my work has always been design-led first, and the fabrics come with it. For me, therefore, it's really important that the design is correct. Thus, I tend to try to use fabrics that will help to make the garments more special.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With my fabrics it's really a happy accident – I didn’t necessarily set out to be a sustainable or ethical designer, it's just I love the fabrics, and when you put that together, with the [current] combination of manufacturing ethos in London, and the right design, aesthetically it works quite well.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: Your career in fashion is going quite fast, isn’t it?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christopher Raeburn: Yes, this is actually my third season, the second one at London Fashion Week. It is the second time I’ve been here through the NEWGEN scheme and doing the re-appropriated fabric design. I started with that [re-appropriated fabric design] when I was on my Degree course, which was 8 years ago. Also, I undertook more work on this when I studied for my Masters at the Royal College of Art; subsequently, I spent a further two years working for other designers, freelance pattern cutting and designing. During that period I thought about what I wanted to do and here I am now two years later putting that into practice so it is actually a quite a quick process. I’m now the first designer that has won women and menswear NEWGEN in one season.</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtbny6B7pN7akI3jbg7Y6lj_4XyBhAnBQ5cVwAGG2kruQb9C8COsaKAjCJSQ7E7GbuTz5kpGF734ZKaMf2wXGCtiM_z89b2d9FcMzTZ-EpL4W4aGkBjbAeStW_3D_PcxBMlINgZfkzEA/s1600/Parachute_Parka_low-res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtbny6B7pN7akI3jbg7Y6lj_4XyBhAnBQ5cVwAGG2kruQb9C8COsaKAjCJSQ7E7GbuTz5kpGF734ZKaMf2wXGCtiM_z89b2d9FcMzTZ-EpL4W4aGkBjbAeStW_3D_PcxBMlINgZfkzEA/s640/Parachute_Parka_low-res.jpg" width="472" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><!--StartFragment--> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;">Christopher Raeburn, Spring/Summer 2011 Menswear Collection, Parachute Parka</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Christopher Raeburn, Spring/Summer 2011 Womenswear Collection, Tyvek Parka (displayed at top)</span></span></div><!--EndFragment--> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78885386849137245.post-61589646744664265202010-11-04T10:11:00.000-07:002010-11-04T10:11:08.035-07:00Sadie Coles, Daniel Buchholz and Anna Helwing<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg37qlZxutQztGZ8K_IX76swjyzFzIK0Aj805RgQuei4HxsankM5oo2LM2pQOmm2cPBhQ6DqR9N3NPXADb7epGHP83fgWHnRc7i-z8uC59vmJkWPag9hFQV8w_sGYzjVMztHpPpQ1JKIfQ/s1600/asadiecoles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg37qlZxutQztGZ8K_IX76swjyzFzIK0Aj805RgQuei4HxsankM5oo2LM2pQOmm2cPBhQ6DqR9N3NPXADb7epGHP83fgWHnRc7i-z8uC59vmJkWPag9hFQV8w_sGYzjVMztHpPpQ1JKIfQ/s400/asadiecoles.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sadie Coles Headquarters</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2YBcv2uNlUj5WTNz3Nt-ggOeSSgK5pKEgzkeh7rhZJiLFB0VyzmQzgYPLZgHfCm4P9I5cNantT91Gt7XWTV2pqtBN2dZHw2Who3k4gYMCr1BBIIOnl3y0aFAkOV7HY0HQT-8nSYgfE2g/s1600/bsadiecoles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2YBcv2uNlUj5WTNz3Nt-ggOeSSgK5pKEgzkeh7rhZJiLFB0VyzmQzgYPLZgHfCm4P9I5cNantT91Gt7XWTV2pqtBN2dZHw2Who3k4gYMCr1BBIIOnl3y0aFAkOV7HY0HQT-8nSYgfE2g/s400/bsadiecoles.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sadie Coles Headquarters</span></span></td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCuOmV5ZqFpB7hlinafORnxUs7QRbTcJQl2qvEV6pBBxf3xgAC7RxXvy-YS6-Tg3dW7NLhQkIGF5C2g109GkUkwZemiKY5GMZglAXd2TiSjRYGfpKglC2V76uWMjsJgjTm9K2ekFq6Qow/s1600/buchholz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCuOmV5ZqFpB7hlinafORnxUs7QRbTcJQl2qvEV6pBBxf3xgAC7RxXvy-YS6-Tg3dW7NLhQkIGF5C2g109GkUkwZemiKY5GMZglAXd2TiSjRYGfpKglC2V76uWMjsJgjTm9K2ekFq6Qow/s400/buchholz.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Buchholz Gallery</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhj9mHvcpBj6cdoFtZqs2zvmsEe-lvlbgslv8-oL_sDHD69Dno0sdLGV8iU2WOo7wkDHSkuGAEgk7194ysMSCPrGtFY7v6quyoh9ZEcu-2gK-pwohYCbcAz4xoesstsZJjweuxH-t6HU/s1600/hauser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhj9mHvcpBj6cdoFtZqs2zvmsEe-lvlbgslv8-oL_sDHD69Dno0sdLGV8iU2WOo7wkDHSkuGAEgk7194ysMSCPrGtFY7v6quyoh9ZEcu-2gK-pwohYCbcAz4xoesstsZJjweuxH-t6HU/s400/hauser.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hauser & Wirth</span></span></td></tr>
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</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">How do gallerists curate their own booth? At Frieze Art Fair, 200% asks the question to Daniel Buchholz, Buchholz gallery, Anna Helwing, Hauser & Wirth and Sadie Coles, Sadie Coles Headquarters – winner of the Best Booth of the Frieze Art Fair 2010.</span></i></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: How do you decide which artist to represent at the Fair, with which work?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Sadie Coles</b></i>: Initially, it starts with the artists. On a regular basis I ask all of my artists what new work they are making, and what is in their studio: then, often, there will be two or three key works, new works, that have been made by them and these will form the framework for the booth. In this booth, for example, the work “Still Life (Johns Fireplace)” by </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ugo Rondinone,</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> we decided that we would like to show this work and that basically helped us decide the stand lay-out, the flooring, the lighting and then, to a large extent, what other works to display with this piece as it is so dominant. When you’re doing a booth design you often have one or two dominant things, which then push the concept in one way or another. Thus, the moment you have this big fireplace in your booth, the walls of the booth then start to feel a little bit like walls of a house, like a big domestic space – so we decided to go a little bit with that.</span></span></span></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Daniel Buchholz</b></i>: We install our booth almost like a curated show. We make a plan and think about what looks good together. We’re using new work to exhibit at our booth, but that depends on the artists’ work that is available, or if there is new work in their studio. Thus, we discuss it with the artists together. We are not following the public, but we just do what the artists want or what we want. That’s the best way to do it because when I think what to display on the basis of “Oh, the English like more that” and the “Americans like more that” I believe that never functions.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Anna Helwing</b></i>: It depends on many things, including which Art Fair, in which context, in which part of the world. We also think about what is the focus of the Art Fair; is it a contemporary, young Art Fair like Art Brussels with collectors who like to collect younger, less expensive, more experimental artists, or, Art Basel where all the big collectors in the world come. For Frieze Art Fair – which is </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">definitely</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> a fair for contemporary art, younger artists – we bring a selection of our program. Sometimes, though, artists are also busy with other exhibitions, like museum exhibitions, so they can’t always make a new work and, therefore, we have to see who has a good piece. We put together a list of outstanding pieces and we make a plan of how the booth will look and where the pieces will be displayed: in reality, however, it always looks a little bit different. You have to feel it in the booth and sometimes you have to replace a piece because it does not work with other pieces. We also change the works during the Fair. On an opening day you have a different clientele to those whom you have on a weekend. On a weekend we wouldn’t display a piece that is maybe half a million dollars as it wouldn’t make sense, necessarily, to put a piece up on a wall for the weekend clientele as the major collectors attend during the week. In the first days you have the more exclusive works in terms of finances because that is the clientele you have then.</span></span></span></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: Do the works you display at your stand have to work in a complimentary way?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Sadie Coles</b></i>: Oh yes, the John Currin work – which is actually a secondary market work from 2003 – obviously looks fantastic with Ugo’s fireplace because it is a still life painting of flowers that sort of feels domestic; the blue colours in the Currin painting picks out the blue of Ugo’s fireplace – it looks incredibly tasteful.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Daniel Buchholz</b></i>: Yes, but that would be difficult to explain, it’s more intuitive. It’s not historical or </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">chronological</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, but more like “why are you putting Morgan Fischer next to Cosima van Bonin”? We try that out before the Fair, but when it comes to installation and it’s seen in the flesh we might alter the display.</span></span></span></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Anna Helwing</b></i>: Not necessarily – it can also create a kind of a friction or an attention that they are playing off each other. There doesn’t always have to be harmony.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: Do commercial objectives influence which artist and work to display at your stand?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Sadie Coles</b></i>: They influence it a lot because at the end of the day I’m a shop and this is a professional fair to sell art, it is a trade fair. Thus, it does have an influence: then, you also need to make your booth look interesting and dynamic so there will be some works in here that are, to some people, quite uncommercial. Film and video, for example, is much more difficult to sell, but the work by Hilary Lloyd [a video and film artist] here in this booth really adds something to the program of the gallery and it’s a very beautiful piece, and I’m trying to educate the more conservative collectors about different aspects of my program. Somebody might come to this gallery to look at John Currin but I will end up talking with them about Hilary Lloyd and that will hopefully start a dialogue. Things have to very mixed up and a bit organic.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: Do you make a small mock-up of your stand beforehand to see what work is going to hang where at your stand? </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Sadie Coles</b></i>: Yes, we make a model to see how it looks. Sometimes, though, that can be very misleading as the volume of pieces can feel very different once you are actually placing them together: actually we did change the stand design quite radically in the last few days before installation. Initially, we didn’t have any flooring as we thought it would be better for the sculptures and everything to be on the bare wooden boards, but when we got here and put the works in, the floor was too busy. As everything we exhibit in the booth needs to be quiet, at the last minute we had the vinyl floor laid in to calm it down. Thus, your intention can sometimes be completely different.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Daniel Buchholz</b></i>: Yes we’re making a mock-up to see which pieces work together – so we have a plan for that.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>A</b><b>nna Helwing</b></i>: No, not really a model-model, it’s more like a printed plan, not a three dimensional model.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: Do you walk around at the Fair and look to see how other galleries have displayed the works of their artists?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Sadie Coles</b></i>: Yes, absolutely and I can learn a lot from how other people are working. Things change every year; one year you can have a favourite booth and then the next year the same gallery, pretty much with the same program of artists, present a booth that you don’t like at all. There are, though, one or two galleries who are very consistent in terms of the effort they put, for example Cabinet, Gavin Brown and </span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jeanne Greenberg. They always have a good booth</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. There are certain people that always have a good booth at which I can look. Through the years, I’ve learned a lot also: when you are a very young gallery you actually are not quite sure of how to put/present your artists best together.</span></span></span></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Daniel Buchholz</b></i>: Yes, I do, because I’m on the selection committee of the Frieze Art Fair, and we, a group consisting of 6 or 7 people, are looking at all the applications from the gallerists. We decide which galleries comes in or have a bigger booth. I’ve been on this committee for four years. During the Fair we’re meeting here at 09.00 and we look at every booth so I will definitively see every booth and see what the colleagues are doing.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Anna Helwing</b></i>: Maybe – not in terms of how they are installing their booth, but more as to what do they display. It is of interest to stay on top of things, to be informed, what’s in view, to see interesting work, and, if something is really standing out in terms of booth layout or booth configuration, of course it gets noted as well.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>200%: What does it mean that you won the 2010 Frieze Art Fair Stand Prize – the best booth of the Fair?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Sadie Coles</b></i>: We were totally thrilled because the jury who voted for us, the three judges – Jerry Saltz, Beatrix Ruf and Stuart Comer – I really respect and admire them. Thus, for them to pick us means a huge amount. At the end of the day, however, they are really choosing our artists and that’s a really fantastic feeling: they like the artists that we represent.</span></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->www.200-percent.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07877909148859092186noreply@blogger.com0