open sesame

i can not get enough of blue note at the moment, and love the fact that i happen to live directly above a record store that has a whole heap of the blue note back catalogue that they are flogging off really cheap. although i happen to be rather skint at the moment, i can still manage a meagre $10 out of my budget to add another album to my collection once a week.
and with every album i add to my collection, it means i have to rearrange my music collection in my own obsessive-compulsive way so that everything will fit and that certains genres are all grouped together etc.
it was during one of these crazy periods or rearranging that i rediscovered the joys of this little hard-bop masterpiece from 1960, trumpeter freddie hubbard's debut album "open sesame". in particular, i am loving his versions of 2 fantastic little tina brooks numbers (who accompanies hubbard on tenor sax, along with mccoy tyner, sam jones and clifford jarvis) the title track "open sesame" and "gypsy blue".
check out more of hubbard and his trumpet, both as a band leader and with artists such as herbie hancock, art blakey's jazz messengers and (as always, referring back to previous posts, http://armchairsuperhero.blogspot.com/2009/07/ascension.html) on john coltrane's album "ascension"

the armchair superhero manifesto

what started as a few notes in the back of a sketchbook on the way to uni one day has since turned into a lifelong obsession - to compile a personal manifesto as to what it is i am trying to achieve through my artistic practise. although not really a manifesto as such just yet, more an ever-growing list of ideas and concepts that is constantly added to and subtracted from, it has helped me better define some my ideas and concepts. some of the concepts/statements repeat themselves over and over again, so one day in the future when i have the time and patience, i will tighten some of these up a wee bit.

i don't know if it will eventually make some of the concepts behind my work easier for some people to understand, or whether it will just come across largely as a huge pile of art-wank. be warned - i have pages and pages of this stuff!

so here is an extract from it: (thank goodness for cut and paste!)
(art no longer a model of creativity and expression, but as a process of dislocation / disruption)
- An investigation into architectural genres in artistic terms
- Sculptural collision between "void mental space" and matter+objects
- Architectural dislocation and inversion
- Modernist ideals of systematic objectivity
- Renewed haptic experience of constructed space
- Superfluous architecture in a minimalist sense
- A personal reconstruction of left-over space
- Maquettes of a visionary low-tech architecture
- Representations of an individualistic reality
- The occupation of negative space, or rather, the non-occupation of positive space
- Sense of tension through the introduction of deconstructavist elements
- The idea of multiplication is implicit in a construction. -> Mass production
- The occupation of negative space, or rather, the non-occupation of positive space
- Rendered façade with a pop aesthetic
- Eradication of extraneous and distracting visual elements
- Visible content and invisible institutional frame
- Ways to counteract the static nature of singular objects
- Reconstruction leads to emergence of a sufficiently transparent and diaphanous place
- The extent to which modern architecture can intervene into pre-established historical settings
- Sculptural language bordering on parody
- Room dividers – components dismantling and fracturing ambient light
- a cartoonish representation or response of architecture rather than actually being architecture itself.
- permanent construction derisive of the historical buildings that have lasted for centuries
- vehicles for concepts about visual perception, re-presentation
- various forms of abstracted architecutre
- parodies of historical forms
- suprematist/minimalist bloodlines (postmodernist self-reflexivity)
- geometric abstraction
- minimalist seriality and machine manufacture
- constructavist geometry as pure abstraction
- architecture with a multiplicity of functions + experiences (simultaneous)
- establishing a point of tension with the architectural ensemble
- ethereal, immaterial qualities, integrating art with architecture. creating a dynamic interplay between viewer, object and room

hero worship

my last post on stephen hendee naming a work after a john coltrane album, and then a prvious post prior about coltrane naming a song after paul chambers, got me thinking about works of art/songs where one of your favourite artists dedicates the piece to another of your favourite artists.
been racking my brain all day for examples, and i think i've settled on this one, "untitled for v. tatlin 1966", with dan flavin paying homage to vladimir tatlin. 2 gods rolled into one. magic.
then i'm going to follow that up with the modern jazz quintet's "django" after django reinhardt. or what about bad religion's "21st century digital boy", as a mark of respect to king crimson's "21st century shizoid man". or the doves "m62 Song" after another king crimson song, "moonchild..." oh so many choices, better stop now before this list goes on and on and on

ascension

another artist who i wish i had known a little more about during my art studies, american stephen hendee creates large geometric, science-fiction inspired installations made from fluorescent light, sheets of plastic and black electrical tape. it's difficult to track down any of his latest works on the internet (i don't think his website has been updated in a while), but this one from 2007 entitled "the eye" appears to be one of his most recent, although i have been able to deduce that he is still plying his trades in the artistic arena as an associate professor of sculpture at univeristy of nevada, so i'm sure there is more work to come from him in the not too distant future.
although better experienced insitu rather than through images, the documentation is all that remains from temporary installations of this nature, so check http://www.stephenhendee.com/ for more pictures
also check out the exhibition book "ascension" (aptly named after being inspired by coltrane's album of the same title), a documentation of hendee's installation in birmingham, alabama in 2002-03.

the object of my affection

I currently have my eye on this art deco "Cactus" candle holder, from the same series as my other piece, by the austrian company goldscheider. I actually stumbled across this piece about 6months ago when i bought my piece, (see http://armchairsuperhero.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html) and i was desperate to add this one to my collection but it sold before i got a chance! to my luck, now another collecter has emerged with an identical piece, in even better condition than the first one!
it's got $1500 on it at the moment. damn, how i wish i was more sensible with my money right now.
if you could please happily send your tax-deductable donations to the armchair superhero, and help me fund this tidy little purchase, i promise you can come and visit sometimes for a look.

hits and misses

everybody must, at some point in their lives, have had a favourite artistically-inclined person. be it an artist, musician/musical act, actor or designer, you have followed their career closely and worshipped their body of work - as soon as a new album or product or artwork is unveiled, you race out and purchase it to add to the collection, knowing that the work they produce is always going to be of exceptional quality and consistent with their previous efforts. no need to read a review about it first, you know you are going to love it.
but every now and then, they release something amongst their amazing body of work, that, well, just doesn't do it for you.
i personally must confess that i am guilty of having a shopping-list of people who's practise i closely follow. i am a MASSIVE admirer of german designer konstanin grcic's body of work, and so was super-excited to hear that at milan this year, magis would be unveiling grcic's new "360 chair".
this is one of those products that you will have a love-hate relationship with - you either love it, or you absolutely hate it, correction, you absolutely DESPISE it. unfortunately, i must confess that i am in the latter half of this equation. i have not yet had the (uncomfortable)pleasure of sitting on this chair, or even seeing it in the flesh, but i know already that this is one of his products that i am just going to have to conveniently push to the back of my mind when i admire grcic's work. did i say push to the back of my mind? i meant eradicate from my memory completely. someone me the address for the clinic in "eternal sunshine..." i need to forget this chair, and quick.
in fact, i am such a non-fan the 360 chair that i would not dare taint my beloved blog by putting an image of it up, so instead, i will put an image of his previous effort from magis that i love so much, the "chair one". thank goodness for the rest of his work.

backing tracks

the man who was the inspiration behind john coltrane's track "mr p.c.", i chose an image of this album as it is the only album of paul chamber's I own that has him as band leader, but i could've picked from a bunch of albums where he featured as part of the rhythm section, i look through a handful of the albums in my collection, and realise how incrediblly PROLIFIC chambers was, and seem startled by the fact that, like so many other jazz talents, died at the relatively young age of 33. If you look at his body of work, (playing with such jazz greats as chet baker, sonny clark, miles davis, john coltrane, cannonball adderley, red garland, sonny rollins, lee morgan, jackie mclean, and the list goes on and on and on!), you realise how much of an incredible impact he had on the jazz scene and bass playing, and makes me wonder if he is, in fact, possibly the greatest jazz session muso ever?
opening track "yesterdays" highlights chambers training in classical music - chambers was the first bass player to use a bow in a jazz recording. personal standout track is chambers' version of cole porter's "you'd be so nice to come home to"
plus he played on some of my favourite jazz albums ever - monk's "brilliant corners"; oliver nelson's "blues and the abstract truth"; coltrane's "blue train" and "giant steps"; and sonny clark's "sonny clark trio" and "cool struttin'". a man definitely worthy of "hero" status.

concept model for "untitled (hallway)", 2003

I actually managed to find an image of one of the old conceptual models i used to make that reminds me so much of arne quinze's work. i made this one back in my days as a 2nd year fine arts student in 2003. built out of the scraps of an old model leftover from a construction principles subject i took in my pre-art days when i was a lowly architecture student, this unrecognised work was intended to fill a corner of the art gallery, but due to health and safety reasons, they wouldn't let me build it in large scale. also love the fact i did the cliche artist thing and labelled everything as "untitled".

Fink

had the pleasure of seeing two fantastic exhibitions the last couple of days - object gallery has a "fink design" exhibition on at the moment, featuring all of their designers. the show is full of lots of amazing prototypes and limited edition releases that haven't been seen by many previously.
metalab is concurrently running a retrospective of fink founder robert foster's works, including (of course) his signature jugs (of which i am the proud owner of a gold one), and lots of other works in his material of choice, anodised aluminium.
check http://www.finkdesign.com/who.html for more on fink, or http://www.object.com.au/home.html and http://www.metalab.com.au/ for more info on the shows.

the 7 steps to enlightenment

step 1. get this album
step 2. listen to it a whole bunch of times on your home stereo in all its glory, over and over again.
step 3. marvel at its' wonder.
step 4. now put this jazz masterpiece on your headphones, and listen to it on your morning walk to work
step 5. prepare to have your mind blown
step 6. marvel at the complex yet subtle intricacies in the composition of "black saint..." that you had never noticed prior til that moment of sheer listening pleasure that was harnessed through your crappy i-pod headphones.
step 7. build a shrine to mingus