Summer 2019, interStella WIP
I’ve been working on a new series of 16 drawings, entitled interStella. It’s kind of a mash up of a number of geometries I’ve been studying, but most obviously it’s an exploration, and complication, of the maths underlying the early works of American legend Frank Stella.
I first saw his beautiful, epic, artworks at MOCA in LA in 1991, and was completely blown away. So it’s been on my mind for a long time to try and unpack some of his thinking, and riff on that beautiful style that came out of NYC in the late sixties...
I hope I’ve bought a little fresh thinking and technique to bear too. I’ll leave you to be the judge of that. The digital toolset, as ever, allows you to add layers of complexity, and fine tuning, that perhaps wasn’t previously possible.
As ever I find it easiest to discern in music. I’ve been listening to a lot of Laurel Canyon stuff, and later seventies Stateside sounds, but however fabulous they may be, in many ways they can’t compete with the cut and shut digital styling of recordings from the past few years.
My youngest son has been playlisting a lot of fabulous new music, that I may well not have stumbled across myself, and much of it has the most amazing production. Chelsea Cutler’s Your Shirt is a particularly good example.
Fascinated by her post-analogue production, I had a look on the boards, and found this brilliant explanation of what’s going on:
‘I hear this sound effect in a few different songs but it’s really apparent in “Your Shirt”. I’m talking about that synthy voice thing that’s in the beginning as a lower part and higher part playing back and forth that pops up throughout the song.
Step 1: scream into a mic whilst recording
Step 2: sample audio
Step 3: slap some space designer and maybe eq it if you screamed too loud’
I love the idea of screaming too loud into the mic and then eq-ing the result. I feel that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for a number of years!
Go way over the top, and then dial it back in, to discover a place that’s still further out than you would’ve been able to reach if you’d come in from the other direction... not sure if that makes any sense, but it does to me!
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So the next 3 editions are going to be based around this new geometry, and will probably all arrive at once, quite soon. I’m working with a digital fabric printer, to make a textile edition, which could double up as a headscarf or a display piece for a table top or chest of drawers, a work on paper, which I think will also include photography from my garden, and a metallic foil piece, that I’m working on with Ripe Digital. It may take a few more weeks to complete everything though!
The inclusion of garden photography is coming in from that idea of combining the maths with and from nature, a kind of hybrid organic / digital fusion that hopefully speaks to the idea of the digital overlaying the natural world in ways that are both positive and beneficial. I’ve been out on some demos with Extinction Rebellion recently, enjoying the positivity of the movement, and am keen to try and think about how a contemporary art studio can sit lightly with the issues surrounding climate change.
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Hope you’re enjoying the summer - best - Chuck
