(cover of Shrigley's newest book with extract on right)

David Shrigley

David Shrigley is a Glasgow based artist who creates art in the realm of drawing, photograph, sculpture, social intervention and lyrics. Over the last year the artist has become more and more renowned within the popular art culture for his humorous , anti-aesthetic and intuitive work. His style being “anti-aesthetic”takes more of a childlike approach.

Another important feature that helps to define Shrigley’s edge is his use of text, as the artist often writes captions to his intuitively made drawings. The subjects Shrigley captures are often stick-men or diseased figures with slight deformities. The themes of his work range from everyday situations that are often sort of horror induced, or feature a slight dark twist. The reason why Shrigley’s doodles capture my attention is because his work offers humour we experience in our mundane lives, yet also deals with heavier topics in a unique manner.

Shrigley’s art which as mentioned extends to writing, was used to create the album (released with book),where Shrigley collaborated with numerous musicians who used the artists writings from his publication “Worried Noodles”. The participating musicians, including artists such as The Liars, Grizzly Bear, Trans Am and Deerhoof amongst others, wrote songs to fit to Shrigley’s writings, which were then also released together with the eponymous book.

http://www.worriednoodles.com/

http://www.davidshrigley.com/

Picture of the week:
by french street artist ZEVS
check the link: http://www.patriciadorfmann.com/artist/zevs/

Music and Ethics (or just an over reaction?)

Music and Ethics (or just a music elitist over reaction?)

Just as I was contemplating what I could write about next, I came across a headline on one of my frequented forums that read:

Silver Mt. Zion used for "Lost" commercial on ABC

In order for this to provoke any interest, it is necessary for one to be familiar with A Silver Mt.Zion (or officially: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band ),or the band from which Mt. Zion was borne, the band Godspeed you! black emperor. The music in regard here can be classified as, that is if attempting at all, as an experimental post rock band with eerie employment of instruments, written though as if for an orchestra featuring distinguished vocals. Despite what the band sounds like, their ethics and political views seem to also be a dominant part of what they do. Both of the latter bands have expressed their adversity towards capitalism and commercialism by refusing to do interviews (even though one official interview was given), and not issueing any official band merch. Apart from not endorsing self promotion, Silver Mt. Zion also express their negative views on politics and hence the current crucial state of freedom in general. I guess it is valid to say that song titles such as “Take These Hands And Throw Them In The River” also elaborate these outspoken views…

So why does the act of the band allowing their song “Tho You Are Gone I Still Often Walk With You” off the album “Sparks Fly Upward” cause a slight uproar and sense of questioning amongst some of those who have followed Efrim Menucks releases from the start. If one has thrown a glance at the record sleeves of Godspeed and Silver Mt. Zion with their anti capitalist drawings and diagrams, their stance and views become evident. Yet, is allowing ABC to use a 20sec extract from one of their songs in order to promote a series which most of us watch religiously justifiably regarded as “selling out”, when a dozen of bands such as Coco Rosie, Muse, Of Montreal and even Minor Threat (yes, Ian Mackeye) gave companies an “okay”, when faced with the same opportunity?

No,I guess not.

Even though this caused me to slightly question the whole Godspeed and Mt.Zion discography (drama intended!), I suppose it is necessary to keep in mind that without any form of promotion, there will be no art to begin with. So yeah, let’s hope they have an extensive tour, and perhaps even manage to pay off some of the debt that must’ve been incurred when recording 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons which is to be released March, the 25^th.So at least Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band did not sacrifice their actual music in any sense and got some kind of recognition, may it be in a series ad.

Okay…as this is only my blog and not a formal assignment or publication or whatever I am not going to list references etc.

Please go check out this link if you’re interested in seeing the ad:

http://www.movieweb.com/video/V07LaxVWQLM4Zi

Here is an article based on the topic, that was posted on Pitchfork.com:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/47839-silver-mt-zion-lend-tune-to-lost-ad

Allright!…So since my first blog served more as an introduction than as a proper blog post, this can be regarded as my first official post .In this first post I’ll start off by writing something short on art…

Please do keep in mind that I am not some sort of uber-qualified art critic, as in fact I am only an art student, with three years of art history behind me. So by no means do I attempt to fully understand the workings of the art world yet. These write ups are only meant to make more people aware of what I observe happening around me and that which I stumble across, while trying to obtain a broader insight.

Anthea Moys
Still from 94.7 Cycle Challenge performance, staged in JHB:

The above image is of a South African Artist Anthea Moys, whom recently had an “exhibition”(it was only a one night event) at Intermission, and formed part of the e-invitation I received. Just as most images I receive vie e-mail, I quickly opened the image, decided it was worth the 26.5kb and saved it only to be forgotten about. I only came across it again at a later stage, only to rediscover its blatant wit, which demanded my attention in first place. I still find Moys’ work very innovative as the artist includes her surroundings into what she is exploring, thereby creating a transforming dialogue between her location, its people and the event.

The main theme Moys seems to revisit in her work that I have come across, is a strong sense of experiment, testing how far she can shake a situation out of its familiar context, challenging her surroundings, and thereby playing with any given situation that presents itself in daily life.

Check out the artists website for a thorough introduction to her work:
www.antheamoys.co.za

This is it!

Okay...I didn't even plan on starting a blog. It sort of came about when i was stumbling through some other blog sites i was reading and by accident clicked "log in". So i took it from there, which therefore would also explain the indecisiveness of my blog title...."Whatever i can think of".
Whatever i can think of will include stuff on art, music and other stuff i usually occupy my brain with.
So that's that....(i'm not sure how active my blog will be as i tend to be lazy and have no idea yet of what exactly i'll post, but nonetheless...here goes!)
blah!
here's a nice picture to get started: