TWENTY FIVE PAINTINGS
Painted by
a local artist
THE SPOKEN WORD
of the written text
THE WRITTEN TEXT
16:56 Friday the 1st of September
One of my other selves, who chooses to go by the name of ‘Bill Drummond’ has been painting words on a wall under Spaghetti Junction since 2014.
As for me, as in a local artist, I only started to use the same wall as my blank canvas for series of paintings on Monday the 9th of August 2021.
That first painting back then was of The Curfew Tower. After doing that first one, I knew I wanted to do more. But as usual, I wanted to limit myself. I like limitations. The limits I would impose on myself were...
Colour – only black & white.
Paint – the cheapest emulsion.
Preparation – Sketch in my sketch pad, then small A4 painting as guide.
Location – always on the same wall.
Time – each painting should never take more than 40 minutes to paint.
Longevity – each painting should only exist until it is blanked out in readiness for the next one to be painted.
Number – No more than 25.
And I would give them the title Twenty Five Paintings. And they would exist to rival The 25 Paintings by ‘Bill Drummond’.
As for the subject matter – they all had to be of an object or lifeforce that was festering in my head on that particular day. As for aesthetics, they had to be done in as simple as way as possible thus allowing the context to have full control over how they were witnessed. As usual Context is Queen. In this case Queen Context being the smell, sound, and unfocused threat under Spaghetti Junction in the twilight years of life.
‘The twilight years of life’ being best years of your life to experience things at their sharpest – those that think it is about attempting to relive youth might have taken a wrong turn.
Anyway...
To date I have done 17 of the Twenty Five Paintings. After doing each one, I paint the painting out with either cheap white emulsion or cheap black emulsion, in readiness for the next layer of painting.
And as usual I asked ‘Bill Drummond’s’ colleague, the documentary film maker Tracey Moberly to document them using her camera. I wanted her to take a photograph of the freshly blanked ‘canvas’ and the finished painting before the ‘canvas’ was blanked again with another layer of cheap emulsion.
What I did not know until earlier this year was... Between Tracey Moberly taking a proper photograph of the freshly blanked wall and the proper photograph of the freshly painted painting, she would at times use her phone to film me, doing the painting.
Tracey Moberly has now edited together 17 very short films of each of these paintings being done. That said the first film of The Curfew Tower being painted only contains three stills – as in she did not use her phone to film it. And the one of My Paint Roller only contains backward run footage of me blanking it out in readiness for the next painting to be done.
Some of these paintings have turned out shite, while others have been bestowed beauty by Queen Context. And of course the lens of Tracey Moberly’s camera has helped frame that beauty. For me the Corby Oak is the most shite, and if I had my way I would do it again, but those ‘limitations’ do not allow for second chances.
As of this week, each of these 17 short films, are being uploaded to the Penkiln Burn website on a rotary system. As in each film will be there for 24 hours before being replaced by the next one. And each time I get a new one of the Twenty-Five Paintings done and Tracey Moberly gets the short film edited, it too will be added to the rotary system until all of the Twenty Five Paintings have been done. And then after one final rotation of all 25, they will all be removed from the site.
You can start watching today.
Post Script: As well as Learn to Suppress Your Emotions being the collective title of these 25 short films of the Twenty Five Paintings...
Learn to Suppress Your Emotions is also one of my five daily call and response mantras. The response to this one is Or Your Emotions Will Suppress You.
I’m still learning.
ALL CHANGE ALL CHANGE
THE SPOKEN WORD
of the written text
THE WRITTEN TEXT
10:06 Wednesday the 11th of October 2023
Some days I go down The Tube and instead of going where I am supposed to be going, I just stay on The Tube until the recorded announcer states, “All Change, All Change”. And I get off The Tube. And I get on another Tube. And then I will do the same again. And I don’t know where I am going. And then I decide to go up to the Overground. And I wander the streets. And I look at the world and I wonder...
That is what I did this morning. And while I was wandering, I started to wonder if instead of the Learn To Suppress Your Emotions films being screened in the order they were filmed in, they should be screened in a random order. And that the time they are up for should also be random.
We will see.
Time to go Underground and get on The Tube again. And go to where ever it is I am supposed to be going.
See you there.
a local artist
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