EDITORS | THE END HAS A START

Here’s “every… stave of Frederick Chopin’s Nocturnes for the piano, 2004″

What I enjoy about posting on Sleevage is not only do I get to explore music genres and bands I’d normally ignore (or even avoid) but I also learn about new artists, photographers, designers and other artistic people along the way. This example from “Editors” had me spend several hours checking out Idris Khan’s work, the other artists that accuse him of plagiarism and the works of “Bernd and Hilla Becher” from whom Idris appropriates much of his work from. This is why posts to Sleevage have been coming through a little slower. Rather than find a nice cover and spend 5 minutes posting it up I spend a few days trying to find out as much as I can about it and subsequently forgot to post all together.

The cover image makes me visualize a stadium, a racetrack or Zoetrope that were used for animation back in the 1800′s. Actually it’s a collection of industrial buildings photographed by “Bernd and Hilla Becher” layered together digitally by Idris Khan and is an example of the style that made the artist famous. This is the first example that I can see where he has added colour. I really like the addition of colour as opposed to the B/W work.

Below is a few more examples of Idris’s work that go beyond the building montages. I got many of these from this site. His style is to multilayer items until this zen type of image appears. Like a data visualization but all layered on top of one another.

Below is “every… page of the Holy Koran, 2004″

And finally “every… William Turner postcard from Tate Britain, 2004″

I do prefer the work that revolves around the buildings though. Maybe it’s the more structured result or the beauty from the ugly. It’s certainly something I hadn’t seen before from the world of art. Here’s two more examples before I move on taken from this site. I imagine these look even better in real life at over 2m high.

“every…Bernd and Hilla Becher Prison type Gasholders: 2004″

“every…Bernd and Hilla Becher Spherical type Gasholders: 2004″

Here’s a quick interview with Idris from The Guardian. Yep he’s a Mac.

There are so many Bernd and Hilla Becher bookson Amazon you can see Idris having no trouble putting his kids through college creating more work in the future.

I really like the work of Bern & Hilla Becher. The repetition in nature is always seen as beautiful but so is the repetition in manmade objects. In isolation it might be seen as ugly but when presented with a series like below you can’t but help but appreciate the mundane.

I’ve been doing this myself for a while although with Abandoned Chairs andMattresses.

It’s also nice to see that the Editor’s official website also reflects the album artwork. It’s a small thing but as bands don’t release albums every year it makes sense that the website adapt to the new release. Which reminds me I haven’t even posted the several other singles and EP’s from this album.

And lastly the “Push Your Head Towards the Air” single of which this is the biggest image I could find.

If you want to learn more about Editors or Bernd & Hilla Becher check out these products on Amazon.

I leave you with this wonderful photo from the cover of Water Towers.

So next time you’re on a road trip somewhere I hope you’ll pop out the digital camera to capture something unique (not ugly), rather than the usual happy snaps of smiling friends. Oh and Happy Easter :)

Update: I decided to take every cover posted here and do a montage. What a silly idea that was as! Working with 100+ layers in photo shop is annoying, oh what will it look like with this opacity = 10 minutes of changing each layer!!! But anyway here’s the results of an hours work.

Every cover set to Soft light @ 100% opacity: 2008

Every cover set to Soft light @ 10% opacity: 2008

Every cover set to Overlay @ 10% opacity: 2008

Album: The End Has a Start
Artist: Editors
Cover Artist: Idris Khan
Record Label: Fader
Year: 2007

credits: http://www.sleevage.com/

REVISITING MICHAEL HEIZER'S DOUBLE NEGATIVE

Revisiting Michael Heizer's Double Negative

Double Negative in the late afternoon


Like most things in life, it always takes you a little longer to find it than you had anticipated. I was driving across the top of Mormon Mesa, outside of Overton , Nevada, looking for Michael Heizer's Double Negative. Double Negative was conceived in 1969 and completed in 1970. Incredibly, Heizer was only 24 years old when it was completed. I had been to Double Negative a couple of times about ten years earlier. I lived in Las Vegas at the time and experiencing the work changed my life. I suppose in some way, I still I am trying to coming grips with what I had experienced during those trips.

When Heizer went out to the edge of Mormon Mesa in 1970 his tools were a bulldozer, dynamite, probably a survey kit and a crew talented and brave enough to be able to make his conception a reality. He received funding for the lease of the land and support for the construction costs by the gallery owner Virginia Dwan. At the time the cost of the work was about $9,000. The work itself is two channels cut into opposite sides of the mesa. Each channel is approximately 9 meters deep and 10 meters wide. The western cut is about 230 meters long while the west cut is shorter, 100 meters long. Approximately, 244,800 tons of sand stone and rhyolite were relocated to make the work. The work is so large that there is not really an equivalent in the history of Western Art. It is longer than the Empire State Building is tall. When I was looking for the work and I was examining some of the valleys on the road to Double Negative, I was impressed with the fragility of the edge of the mesa. The edges are, after all, in a constant state of erosion. After the work had been marked, it must have taken an extremely brave person to make the first cut, maybe 6" or a 1' deep, and push it off the edge of the mesa. The drop off is extremely steep. There was no guarantee that the bulldozer would not just the follow the material off the edge of the mesa if the edge had given way and fallen down toward the river below. Everyone must have been holding there breaths because there would have been no way to know if the edge could support the weight of the bulldozer until they tried it. As work progressed it probably got a little easier and any large rocks that could not have been removed by the bulldozer would have been dynamited. After approximately, two weeks the excavations of the cuts were complete and the Heizer's initial conception of the work was complete. More...


Double Negative soon after completion

FATHERS & SONS | BEPI GHIOTTI

As father as son, We're used to say.
The project was born due to a self-therapeutic need of a deeper understanding of the relationship binding fathers and sons, with the goal of investigating the ancient and unsolved love and hate conflict experienced within these two generations.
Using long exposure, compared to an instant shot, therefore having to shoot in the dark in order to achieve longer shooting times, allowed me to consider the deeper meaning of being in front of a camera and brought both the photographer and the people portrayed in a state of greater consciousness and intimacy.
I asked the couples of individuals, in the age of duty handover, to pose sitting one next to the other in a place which tells a story of their life together, and wait in the dark so that they would lose any tension, any attitude or pose to then expose the photographic slab for as long as a minute. 


Leaving a son with his father, still, in a state of abandon where I hide in the time passing by.
Silence, together, and see what's left.




Fine Art Giclée print, 58,5x46,3cm, run of 7+2 AP
2003-2006

All photo © Bepi Ghiotti  Courtesy Castello di Rivara Contemporary Art  www.bepighiotti.com

ANDRE BUTZER - GIO MARCONI

Artist: Andre Butzer

Venue: Gio Marconi, Milan

Date: November 13, 2008 – January 10, 2009