Article in the Observer paper which uses Blank Canvas and art schools in the title. Is it plagiarism or just obvious? Anything which discusses their importance and inter connection is great
Regional Art Schools
Tag Archives: creativity
Punk Scholars Series
I love being part of this ever expanding network of wonderful books and authors
Mercury Music Prize
And the winner of the 2023 Mercury Music prize is…….Ezra Collective. Excellent choice. A jazz group winning a major popular music prize shows how the genre is central stage and gives a real filip to events such as the Sidmouth Jazz Festival that I am part of the organising team. Ezra Collective’s album Where I’m meant to be is excellent, mixing afro beat with jazz and hip hop, showing their London roots. Accepting the award, drummer Femi Koleoso thanked Tomorrow’s Warriors and the Total Refreshment Centre community space where the group and the new London Jazz scene emerged. Taking Brian Eno’s concept of Scenius (or group genius) you need free spaces to support collective creativity, central locations where people can hang out and explore their creative selves. I learnt about playing in bands and explored musical styles through having the time and space to explore, experiment. Neoliberal gentrification housing issues that are sweeping our lands are cutting bands like Ezra at source. They will disappear without a proactive moment now to protect community spaces – it is a human need for us all.
Femi also thanked music education, schools, colleges, tutors who support young musicians to develop and explore their fields. Ezra Collective came through Tomorrow’s Warriors, a school that develops young jazz musicians in London and is expanding their reach across the UK and beyond, helping musicians from underprivileged backgrounds in Devon for example to explore the joys of jazz. In working on the Sidmouth Jazz Festival, I also want to see the expansion of jazz in rural areas, to see urbanities in the fields, swimming in the sea, hanging out on beaches, playing, dancing and listening to music, spreading our rich cultures to all parts. Ezra Collective have just made a big moment in that direction.
Women in Revolt
A great exhibition of influential women artists from 1970-1990 is coming to the Tate Britain from the autumn. Features many of the artists interviewed in my book with The Raincoats Gina Birch as the poster image
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/women-in-revolt
Boooom
So wandering around a field in deepest Hampshire, UK, I am confronted by a multitude of people under 30 dressed extravagantly, stomping around in random directions, up hills, through woods into the delerious pop up world of Boomtown.
I’ve been to many a festival but this crowd is young. I feel like a carer or available for emotional support when world’s come crashing down. It is crazy, beautiful, clever and quite feral. It’s Thursday and already people are sitting in and around increasing piles of detritous.
My first band, Hoedown at Hanks, headlined in Copper County. A bunch of old dudes who got together in their youth to play to the new youth. Subcultures are still alive. Games and exiting the real world are a key driver. Boomtown you’re too young for me but the creativity and energy is an intense memory 🕺🎉
Latest track
Calling out on another slightly raining mizzly Sunday in July with a radio edit of my latest track under the name Inochi ( life energy): Rise Up. Built on samples taken while wandering the fresh streets of Chiang Mai (Thailand). Have a listen on my SoundCloud link here if you like global funky electronic synth stuff 🎹🕺😻
Listen to Rise Up (Radio Edit) by Inochi on #SoundCloud
https://on.soundcloud.com/YsN5g
Blank Canvas sightings
It is truly delightful to witness your creation venturing into the vast world, particularly in your most beloved locations, like the extraordinary bookshop at the Tate Modern. You have the option to procure Blank Canvas: art school creativity from punk to new wave directly from the publisher (as well as from all reputable bookstores). The joy of encountering your work in beautiful artistic spaces is heartwarming and exciting.
https://www.intellectbooks.com/blank-canvas
Check out reviews and my art school creativity playlist there.
Punk Art History
I am a punk in spirit but not in music making reality. My brother was, painting half of his face blue and being a teenager in 1977. I am naturally affiliated to post punk or new wave but the word ‘punk’ is a strong symbol, something which emphasises innovative thought and new directions, anarchic and beyond the avant-garde. Punk as a word has become much more than its music; it’s a statement of intent. Marie Arleth Skov’s gorgeous Punk Art History highlights the visual impact of this time in history, providing both an archive and forward facing view of audio and visual connections, still as relevant now.
Part of the wonderful punk scholars Global Punk series. Increasingly beautifully designed and playing with the edges of academic and popular publishing, Intellect publishing provide the space for this DIY aesthetic to exist, which is an incredible feat in the fine margins they work within. Skov’s style of writing is accessible and playful in a way that supports the ethos of the series.
It is another sure fire connection between the art and music worlds that inspired contemporary music through the punk baton. The book is an art piece.
Marie clearly reviews the time period of punk, centering it around those key times from 1976-78. Unlike Jon Savage, for me highlighting the Sex Pistols, the Clash and especially Genesis P-Orridge’s Coum productions feels very London centric.The connection between COUM and punk is not one that I would always make as Throbbing Gristle were often a low, slow, industrial machine. Not the speed of punk which Skov expertly highlights. More like Gong or other hippie favourites. I would look at defining punk as for me Adam and the Ants for example weren’t punk but new wave or even new romantics.
PAH beautifully reviews connections between Andy Warhol and punk, Conceptual Art, Fluxus, the Situationists and Dada. Art and Language were also another key important connection. The image comparisons between Warhol’s Elvis and Gavin Turk’s Sid Vicious for example, are informative and visually exciting.
DIY expressions through Xerox and Super 8, the copiers and filmmakers of punk are explored. Derek Jarman was an art school guest lecturer at Hornsey. The rise of MTV and video through the visualisations that punk and post punk/ new wave brought into the pop music sphere.
A second book could explore Punk Art as a personal element – fashion and dress sense through DIY and daring. It is a brilliant supporting text to Ogg and Bestley’s The Art of Punk introducing context. Punk Art History is an excellent source of punk art so it would be great to have a follow up that connected the Buzzcocks, Exploited, the Damned, Stiff Little Fingers, Sham 69 etc.. I explain in Blank Canvas how Gina Birch of the Raincoats and Dexter Dalwood of the Cortinas for example forged a continuing visual art career.
Go buy this great historical artefact direct from the publisher or from your favourite independent book seller.
My book, Blank Canvas: art school creativity from punk to new wave can be purchased here – https://www.intellectbooks.com/blank-canvas
Sidmouth International Jazz and Blues Festival
Jazz/ Blues/ Soul/ Funk/ Latin in rural outposts
It’s a few weeks since the heady heights of the Sidmouth international Jazz and blues festival 2023, an amazingly successful venture led by the unstoppable Ian Bowden and crew. He has created a beautiful and professional event that garnered such great responses as ‘if Carling did festivals’ or ‘ what an outstanding weekend, so well organised, great bands and we hope it continues for years to come’.
My role was to support Ian when I could, help with curating bands and compere the main stage. All good fun. I was so pleased to have secured the simply superb Hannah Williams and the Affirmations, the heart wrenching Roland Gift and most talented of talented Courtney Pine somehow rocking out this sleepy and beautiful Devon town like never before. The Jazz Defenders were incredible whilst Indira Roman and Aji Pa’ti knocked it out of the park.
Every act was wonderful and it feels like a family spirit of musicians is starting to develop in our rural outpost.
Please stay in contact through our website for updates and limited edition merch. See you in 2024 as we welcome you back again
Photos by KT Bruce
Artistic connections
Any kind of artistic connections are made of a synergy which binds and weaves the two resonant forces together. Think John and Yoko or Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish or any other Liverpudlian duo. Peters and Lee maybe.
It is less common for visual artists to have this same affinity but I love the interconnection between Klimt and Mondrian which is highlighted at their Tate Modern show, open until early September.
We are currently decorating our newly bought bungalow, watching Alan Carr and Michelle Ogundehin’s natural chemistry in the wonderful design masters. Combining textures and styles for the contestants is the most difficult element so the Klimt/ Mondrian double act seems a perfect marriage of colour and form, minimalism and flow, the perfect template for informing our own design decisions.
