Presentation Supercrit 2021

https://anchor.fm/russell-jones7/episodes/supercrit-definitive-e1alt7g

For my presentation I will display my triptych of scraperboard inspired by the Manic Street Preachers The Holy Bible album.
The triptych is apt because the front cover of the album is by Jenny Savile and presents a painting of an obese woman from three different angles as a triptych.

The Holy Bible was released in 1994 five months after Kurt Cobain’s death which shook the music world.
Richey Edwards the chief lyricist of this album and also rhythm guitarist was affected by this news. Richey’s health declined significantly during this year resulting in anorexia and self harm.
The album expresses this in its harrowing and bleak outlook on the decline of humanity in the 20th century through the lens of a religious text.
Unfortunately Richey’s health would decline and he went missing in February 1995 presumed dead.
I have chosen this album as a launchpad for ideas as it was an immensely personal album for me I was 15 when this album came out ready to be leaving school and all my heroes were dying off.

I have used the song titles as the basis for inspiration for my artwork. These are Faster, 4st 7lb and This is yesterday.
Faster is autobiographical and centres around Richey’s mindset and it feels like a defiant call to arms.
4st 7lbs is a descent into anorexia a condition Richey suffered from and puts you in the position of a girl’s viewpoint and the transcendence of bodily autonomy.
This is yesterday is a reflection on nostalgia and the yearning of childhood.
I want to mix the political and the personal which this album does and inflect my own experiences.
The album is rife with literary and artistic references such as Jenny Savile and Martin Kippenberger who have their artwork on the front covers.
The other artists of interest whilst doing my research is Raymond pettibon whose work on punk fanzines definitely has that punk DIY aesthetic of early Manics.
The album is a Pandora’s box of treasures where the more you explore the more you found out.
So the first picture I drew is Faster which I used pastel pencil on flesh coloured card, Indian ink and watercolour.
A simple picture with lyrics from the song around Richey James just to illustrate a kind of art associated with fandom.

Some aspects I like of this picture but overall I’m not happy with the fonts and it needs more work maybe digitally enhanced.

The next picture is 4st 7lb which I used velour paper and Indian ink to basically do the same thing as the Faster picture since the lyrics are so good I don’t think I could possibly add anything different.

Faster looks really good on scraperboard the image of Richey Edwards looking like the negative of a photo and also the front cover of a magazine.
In the bottom right hand of the corner is an issue number a nod to the punk zines of Raymond Pettibon.
I spat out Plath and Pinter a headline to catch the masses, a call to arms to reject the literary bourgeoisie.
4REAL etched into the scraperboard like the laceration of a blade on skin; Richey’s justification of sincerity to a blasé journalist.

This is yesterday a nod to nostalgia an excerpt from my mum’s memoirs, struggles of growing up. The personal being absorbed into the frame of a song reference.
Memories etched onto a surface become solidified become an object and not lost.
Scratches into the skin heal and maybe those memories that can be lost need some permanence. A nod to an archival process like a cave painting or even Moses’ tablet an urge to preserve beyond the ravages of time.

4st 7lbs counting the days down like the days spent in your personal hell starving yourself to achieve the goals of transcendence.

I think all these pieces benefit from using scraperboard and add a consistency and a mark making that is visceral, violent and of the punk ethic that ties in with the DIY aesthetic of Raymond Pettibon, Martin Kippenberger and I would like to think Jenny Savile who has an interest in the bodily form and violent provocative images.

These artworks I have chosen are the kind of art I am drawn to whether it is a political statement, a montage of random ideas or a picture that is simply visceral.
The medium of scraperboard may not be the same but I hope the intent is.
I hope to continue in this vein mixing more personal with the political and following disparate strands to make some sense of what I am exploring.
Too many rabbit holes to go down and the undertow will pull me under and submerged I may find the inspiration; hopefully I will emerge with the work I want.
I may be spinning too many plates just to have them all smash but maybe that is the whole idea, the artwork in its creation.

Lyndon curated the 9 sleeps online exhibition on Miro: