Rusty'sArtWerk

‘Of Walking Abortion’ takes its title from a quote by feminist Valerie Solanas, which was also used to accompany the song ‘Little Baby Nothing’ on the inner sleeve of Generation Terrorists:

‘The male is a biological accident: the Y (male) gene is an incomplete X (female) gene, that is, it has an incomplete set of chromosomes. In other words, the male is an incomplete female, a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage. To be male is to be deficient, emotionally limited; maleness is a deficiency disease and males are emotional cripples.’ 

https://227lears.com/2020/03/31/walking-sideways/

“I knew that someday I was gonna die
And I knew before I died
Two things would happen to me
That number one: I would regret my entire life
And number two: I would want to live my life over again.” Hubert Selby Jr sample

Life is lead weights, pendulum died
Pure or lost, spectator or crucified
Recognised truth acedia’s blackest hole
Junkies winos whores the nation’s moral suicide

Loser – liar – fake or phoney
No one cares, everyone is guilty
Fucked up – dunno why – you poor little boy

We are all of walking abortions
Shalom shalom we all love our children
We all are of walking abortions
Shalom shalom there are no horizons

Mussolini hangs from a butcher’s hook
Hitler reprised in the worm of your soul
Horthy’s corpse screened to a million
Tisu revived, the horror of a bullfight

Fragments of uniforms, open black ruins
A moral conscience – you’ve no wounds to show
So wash your car in your ‘X’ baseball shoes

We are all of walking abortions
Shalom shalom we all love our children
We all are of walking abortions
Shalom shalom there are no horizons

Little people in little houses
Like maggots small blind and worthless
The massacred innocent blood stains us all

Who’s responsible – you fucking are
Who’s responsible – you fucking are
Who’s responsible – you fucking are
Who’s responsible – you fucking are
Who’s responsible

The devotion that a fascist dictator can achieve just shows such a terrible flaw in human nature. There’s always a chance that it’ll be revived, because there’s a worm in human nature that makes us want to be dominated.

Nicky Wire Melody Maker

‘There’s an overriding philosophy behind the whole album: evil is an essential part of the human condition and the only way to get over it is recognising all hypocrisies, all evils – recognising it’s in us all – which I guess is not a liberal view.’

Nicky Wire

The bleakest song [on] the album. Fascism is growing stronger in Eastern European countries now. People are despairing about all sorts of things. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, rivalry between nations has not diminished. Every country has to develop naturally, as have western nations, but with the collapse of Soviet Union these countries are about 50 years behind in setbacks. Perhaps it’s not surprising that strong-willed ideologies such as Juche are being reconsidered. But with the nostalgia that the past was better, fascist ideology is being revived.’

Richey Edwards Speaking to Japanese magazine Music Life in 1994

Track 3 of The Holy Bible and you will see by the introduction sample by Hubert Selby Jr, the title and the source Valerie Solanas it is a dark song with bleak imagery.
Yusuf Sayad has dissected the song which I have a link to in the introduction to this article.
A little information on valerie Solanas she attempted an assassination on Andy Warhol and is an extreme feminist.
Some of her views talk about man’s invalidity in the scheme of things (literally walking abortions) but I think this song takes that and say’s we’re all responsible for the state of humanity’s failings.
We’re all responsible for all the horrors and no one is innocent.

“The male’s normal compensation for not being female, namely, getting his Big Gun off, is grossly inadequate, as he can get it off only a very limited number of times; so he gets it off on a really massive scale, and proves to the entire world that he’s a “Man”. Since he has no compassion or ability to empathize or identify, proving his manhood is worth an endless amount of mutilation and suffering and an endless number of lives, including his own – his own life being worthless, he would rather go out in a blaze of glory than to plod grimly on for fifty more years.“

Valerie Solanas

“Why produce even females? Why should there be future generations? What is their purpose? When aging and death are eliminated, why continue to reproduce? Why should we care what happens when we’re dead? Why should we care that there is no younger generation to succeed us?“

Valerie Solanas

When I was researching German propaganda I found an image of an Aryan mother breastfeeding so I took this image and placed the holocaust behind her which brings forth the idea of nurture versus nature. A simple juxtaposition and I think was influenced by the holocaust imagery from the holy bible and its ideas of evil repeating itself through generations.

I adapted a photogram from my college days and used procreate to add a coathanger and some text and I am pleased with the result:

So I have appropriated the image of Valerie Solanas and created a Andy Warhol style print so she has become a product of the art she has rallied against.
I have sat on this idea for a long time but Procreate finally has allowed me to realise that vision and I am extremely pleased.

The aim of this project is to collect creative material to begin to populate your studio space. This material will be collected by walking one of a number of possible walks as shown on the handout map.

Between today and next Monday walk at least one of the map routes and collect visual material. Take time to investigate the landscape, following the map and getting a sense of the history and function of the landscape. the material could be:
-Photographs
-Drawings/sketches
-Drawn rubbings
-Notes/texts
-Objects found en route

bring this visual material back to the studio space to
-Print out photographs
-Scaling up sketches to become large scale or make sculptures from objects
-write a journal
-Make paintings from photographs

James our tutor gave us a slideshow and introduced us to this artist:
Lars Arrhenius

A-Z is an artist’s book that borrows the format of the classic street guide.
An investigative index by the author Geoff Ryman unpicks events and poses questions from the rhetorical to the unanswerable.

Psychogeography

originated in 50’s Paris “The study of the specific effects, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.”
“…and in broad terms, psychology and geography collide a means of exploring the behavioural impact of urban place.”

James gave emphasis to psychogeography referencing From Hell by Alan Moore.
There is a scene in which the ripper takes his coachman on a tour of the capital while explaining the historic significance and esoteric power of the symbols that they pass.
He marks these destinations on a map, drawing lines connecting each, to reveal how they form a pentagram over the city. The result is an occult psychogeography of London.

Desire paths

The illicit trails that defy the urban planners when cities lack the paths pedestrains vote with their feet.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-line-made-by-walking-p07149

This formative piece was made on one of Long’s journeys to St Martin’s from his home in Bristol. Between hitchhiking lifts, he stopped in a field in Wiltshire where he walked backwards and forwards until the flattened turf caught the sunlight and became visible as a line. He photographed this work, and recorded his physical interventions within the landscape.

Although this artwork underplays the artist’s corporeal presence, it anticipates a widespread interest in performative art practice. This piece demonstrates how Long had already found a visual language for his lifelong concerns with impermanence, motion and relativity.

Gallery label, May 2007

Hamish Fulton

An artist among walkers, a walker among artists: Hamish Fulton is an outlandish and inspiring figure. For almost five decades he has covered between 30 and 50 miles a day, depending on the terrain, in all weathers. From Soho to Saskatchewan, from his home in Kent to the peaks of Nepal, he has trekked, hiked and trudged the world in solitude. His object is to unite two apparently incongruous activities: walking and art.

by Carys Lake-edwards

Gilbert and George

http://www.gilbertandgeorge.co.uk/work/pictures

Chris Ware

Masters of comics: Chris Ware

Betye Saar

http://www.artnet.com/artists/betye-saar/
Betye Saar is an American artist known for assemblage and collage works. With a found-object process like that of Joseph Cornell and Robert Rauschenberg, Saar explores both the realities of African-American oppression and the mysticism of symbols through the combination of everyday objects.

Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American visual artist and film-maker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage.
Joseph used boxes to contain the world made from from found materials such as marbles, toys and seashells from souvenir shops.

George Shaw

https://paragonpress.co.uk/works/twelve-short-walks

Laura Oldfield Ford

Savage Messiah by Laura Oldfield Ford

Janice Kerbel
https://catrionajeffries.com/artists/janice-kerbel/works/janice-kerbel-bank-job-1999
Janice Kerbel staked out a bank and made an installation that looks like the plannings of a bank job.

So I went out and took photos around kelham Island and Park Hill for inspiration using my Huawei phone.

Some pictures of Park Hill.

For the journey project I was intrigued by the psychogeometry of buildings. A job centre creates a schism of an us vs them attitude.
I thought about the slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” works makes us free which appeared on the gates of concentration camps without irony.
The importance of being earnest is a book written by Oscar Wilde which i have took the title and changed into the impotence of being idle.~
What is work? Does sex work count as work?
I changed the signage of a Sheffield brothel to Paradise Lost instead of just Paradise (paradise for whom?).
I was looking for a job is a reference to The Smiths daubed above Spearmint Rhino to express that not everybody values employment is the same way.
Finally a beggar who is being choosy and wanting a minimum wage.

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/rustyjudas/my-top-fifty-albums-of-2021/

“Films seen in cinema 2021”, my list on @letterboxd: https://t.co/82HzNyOS6v

— Russell Jones (@senojllessur) December 20, 2021

This list might include Spiderman and The Matrix Resurrections in two weeks time but as it stands not been a bad year at all for cinema going despite the pandemic.

This is the link to what I have watched over 2021 including series, documentaries and films.
https://letterboxd.com/rustyjudas/films/diary/for/2021/

https://227lears.com/2020/02/01/national-anathema/

The link above goes into detail more than I could ever hope.
Here are the lyrics:

“Next Thursday you’re invited to watch Rising Tide’s live coverage of a gala tribute in salute to Ronald Reagan. Host Haley Barbour joins special guest lady Margaret Thatcher in celebrating the former president’s 83 birthday. Ticket’s are 1000 Dollars a plate but you can see the event free on GOP TV.“ This is taken from a trailer for GOP TV’s “Rising Tide” show, which is promoting an event which is celebrating the successes of former Republican US President Ronald Reagan.

Images of perfection, suntan and napalm
Grenada – Haiti – Poland – Nicaragua
Who shall we choose for our morality
I’m thinking right now of Hollywood tragedy

Big mac: smack: phoenix r: please smile y’all
Cuba, Mexico can’t cauterize our discipline
Your idols speak so much of the abyss
Yet your morals only run as deep as the surface

Cool – groovy – morning – fine
Tipper Gore was a friend of mine
I love a free country
The stars and stripes and an apple for mommy

Conservative say there ain’t no black in the union jack
Democrat say there ain’t enough white in the stars and stripes

Compton – Harlem – a pimp fucked a priest
The white man has just found a new moral saviour
Vital stats – how white was their skin
Unimportant – just another inner-city drive-by thing

Morning – fine – serve your first coffee of the day
Real privilege, it will take your problems all away
Number one – the best – no excuse from me
I am here to serve the moral majority

Cool – groovy – morning – fine
Tipper Gore was a friend of mine
I love a free country
The stars and stripes and an apple for mommy

Zapruder the first to masturbate
The world’s first taste of crucified grace
And we say there’s not enough black in the union jack
And we say there’s too much white in the stars and stripes

Fuck the Brady bill
Fuck the Brady bill
If God made man they say
Sam Colt made him equal

This was taken from the Genius website:

It’s not a completely anti-American song. It compares British imperialism to American consumerism. It’s just trying to explain the confusion I think most people feel about how the most empty culture in the world can dominate in such a total sense.

So said Nicky Wire in a 1994 Melody Maker interview. A strange defence, perhaps, of a song which seems to have nothing positive to say about America. According to “Ifwhiteamerica…”, American culture is vacuous and its disastrous foreign interventions are only matched by its hapless domestic policy. Later, Wire would clarify:

I know people are going to think ‘Yank-bashing’ straightaway, but I don’t want it to be construed as that. I’m not part of this thing that thinks British music is the best and we should all stay in Britain and wave the Union Jack and then things will be great. It’s just that people do bow down to American culture. Sometimes I think I’ve got to make myself like basketball and stuff like that, but I just can’t.

The bulk of the song’s lyrics were written by Wire, but Richey Edwards contributed a few lines. Most notably, the “Zapruder” line bamboozled Wire at first. As usual, the song’s music was arranged by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Handgun_Violence_Prevention_Act
An Act to provide for a waiting period before the purchase of a handgun, and for the establishment of a national instant criminal background check system to be contacted by firearms dealers before the transfer of any firearm.

I enjoyed drawing this picture not sure if the satire hits or exactly what the message is.
Is it that systemic racism is so embedded in our society that the caricature of an authoritarian expertly demonstrated by Cartman from the show South Park is so spot on that the brutality just seems literal.
I’m not sure if I will use this image in my final work it might be too confrontational and exploitative of black trauma.

Created on Procreate and using all the pieces relevant to the theme of the song’s lyrics.
These include the U.S. sanctioned use of torture at Guantanamo Bay, their involvement in Viet Nam, JFK’s assassination, police brutality and freedom of speech exemplified by the moral majority figurehead Tipper Gore.

During height of pandemic in 2020 went to White Lion Heeley to do quiz on my own, took my sketch book and drew my view of the night.
A year later reimagined on scraperboard A5

This year I read a lot of comics such as Tintin, factual books on BLM, social media extremists etc.
I started reading Ian Fleming for the first time and carried on with James Ellroy L.A. quartet prequels.
I digested a lot of art books too for studying in Fine Art most notably Stanley Donwood and Raymond Pettibon.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2021/27707239#

It’s that time of the year when we look at the albums that I have listened to this year.
I have listened to 68 albums this year which means all the tracks on an album for at least a minimum of three listens some listening all week long.

I have already posted my top ten tracks of 2021 but here are my favourite albums in no particular order:

1. Little Simz-Sometimes I might be introvert
2. Wolf Alice-Blue weekend
3. Carcass-Torn arteries
4. The Vaccines-Alone star
5. Maximo Park-Nature always wins
6. Quicksand-Distant populations
7. Turnstile-GLOW ON
8. Laura Mvula-Pink noise
9. The Go Team!-Get up sequences part one
10. Adele-30

Been an amazing year for music if nothing else. A vast majority of nineties bands/artists released albums in this year such as Quicksand, Garbage, Foo Fighters, At the gates, Carcass, Weezer et al.
A lot of new music this year that has been great such as Little Simz, Laura Mvula, Arlo Parks, Turnstile etc.
Music is constantly changing and evolving and every year showcases different talent and genres.

Top lyrics from this year:

“Trying to finish the book I was reading
Put it down for too long
Got distracted by other things
Forgot the characters and their names.”
Quicksand-Phase 90

“Would you deceive me?
If I had a dick
Would you know it?
Would you blow it?“
Garbage-Godhead

“Would you like me to be smaller, weaker, softer, taller?
Would you like me to be quiet?
Do my shoulders provoke you? Does my chest?
Am I my stomach? My hips?
The body I was born with
Is it not what you wanted?
If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman
If I shed the layers, I’m a slut.“
Billie Eilish-Not my responsibility


Best and worst album covers:

One of the most sombre and beautiful songs on The Holy Bible is This is yesterday one of two songs penned by Nicky Wire for this album.

That’s the simplest song, musically and lyrically, on the album. It’s about how people always look back to their youth and look on it as a glorious period. No matter what walk of life you’re in, you always revert back to childhood and look at it as a beautiful time when, as the song says, ‘Someone, somewhere soon will take care of you’.

Nicky Wire, Melody Maker

Reading that quote it just conjures up the final moments of Citizen Kane when you finally find out what Rosebud is about?
Rosebud is the last word Citizen Kane uttered before passing away and it is a reference to his beloved sledge which evokes memories of a happier time.
Despite his wealth, acclaim and status it was a time of childhood that Charles Foster Kane desired the most.

This is yesterday lyrics

Do not listen to a word I say
Just listen to what I can keep silent
The only way to gain approval
Is by exploiting the very thing that cheapens me

And I stare at the sky
And it leaves me blind
I close my eyes
And this is yesterday

Someone somewhere soon will take care of you
I repent, I’m sorry, everything is falling apart
Houses as ruins and gardens as weeds
Why do anything when you can forget everything

And I stare at the sky
And it leaves me blind
I close my eyes
And this is yesterday

I stare at the sky
And it leaves me blind
I close my eyes
And this is yesterday

Why do anything when you can forget everything. Memory more comforting than future.

Richey Edwards

A simple song in structure lyrically compared to other songs from the album this song deals with thinking about the past and coming to terms with our own obsolescence.
As I get older I have lost friends and family to illness and death.
I yearn for simpler times when self awareness and sentience didn’t make me conscious of time slipping away.

Stephen Snell was a dear friend who sadly passed away from Cystic Fibrosis and I chose to draw a picture of him as a tribute before he passed away which his family still has.
Absolutely amazing guy who was into punk rock, metal, sci-fi, Marvel etc.
Gone too soon. Cystic Fibrosis is a horrible disease.

https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/disease/cystic_fibrosis.htm

Sarah passed away in 2022 a good friend of mine so here is my tribute r.i.p.