I recently posted about an autobiographical book by Sven Berlin named “The Dark Monarch” which had quite an impact on me. One of the reasons for it’s great effect on me was my great interest in the subject matter and St Ives (the place the book is set) not to mention the gut wrenching tragedy’s which were inflicted upon Sven in that part of his life.
Well I have just returned from another trip to St Ives with another book by Sven entitled ‘Virgo in Exile‘. Sven called these books “Autosvenographys” and even though I am only a quarter of the way through this one I think they are absolutely brilliant. The way they are written is beautiful and they are a great insight into an artists mind and artists of that period. “The Dark Monarch” was set almost solely in St Ives and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about how he experienced the place. In the “Virgo in Exile” Sven is forced to leave St Ives and take residence as a sort of gypsy living in a forest. Simply the way Sven describes his surroundings and life in general is absolutely wonderful.
Another interesting thing about these books is the hardback covers… On the outside it looks exactly like what you’d expect a small artist’s publication to look like - a self portrait and some quite awkward large text with the basic author name and book title. However! When you take these plasticy covers off each one has a gold Sven Berlin logo embossed into a red hard back cover. I think the logo is Svens own invention and it really is quite a pleasant surprise after looking at the garish paper cover. Anyway there is no major point to this post other than I think Sven Berlin was a brilliant writer.
Early this year after a visit to St Ives Cornwall I read ‘The Darch Monarch’ by Sven Berlin and I absolutely loved it. The reason I came across the book was because of an exhibition of the same title in tate St Ives which was on at the same time as my visit. As explained in the video above the exhibition was about showing relationships between British modernism and the supernatural, the magical and the paranormal. The exhibition begins with a beautiful unicorn piece by Damien Hirst which leads you onto a bevy of mystical related pieces of modernism including a few pieces by Sven Berlin himself, I absolutely loved it, so I bought the book! The book itself is a kind of autobiography of Sven and life in St Ives at the end of the 2nd World War. The subject matter of the book was very controversial as many of the characters were depicted as comic but unsavory and were clearly based upon people Sven new whilst living in St Ives. Despite changing all the names of the central characters in a loose attempt to cover up their true identities Sven was sued and the following court battles bankrupted him and forced him to leave St Ives. The book is very well written with brilliant descriptions of St Ives as a place and the almost magical or supernatural feeling it has. The book is great in its own right however having visited St Ives on a regular basis for the past 15 years and having experienced what an impact it has on a person or an artist made the book all the more fantastic.
I’ve been a fan of the work created by creative agency ‘Love‘ in Manchester for quite some time. Some of the founders of ‘Love’ have now founded a new agency named: ‘Music‘. Perhaps this is one reason why I’ve really taken a liking to the work produced by ‘Music‘. Music is such a brilliant name for a creative agency when you think about it, as design like music is just another way of conveying something like an idea, feeling or emotion. I really like how music’s site works too, it’s like a big wall of design to navigate around. Take a look at their work here: www.designbymusic.com
I stumbled upon this book in a second hand bookshop in the Lake District and it has to be the best book I have ever found or even ever read - EVER. Having done a little bit of research into the history behind the book there appears to be a fair bit of controversy over how true it is. This doesn’t surprise me however I would personally like to believe every one of Jan’s fantastic tales. Also wikipedia and quite a few other sites state that the stories are true which obviously makes them 100% fact! Well maybe. The premise for the book is that the central character ‘Jan Welzl’ left his home in Eastern Europe for the Arctic circle (By foot) in his late teens which has led to the most incredible, amazing, gruesome and awe inspiring adventures I’ve ever heard of. However after 30 years of adventures in the arctic Jan finds himself shipwrecked and stranded in America unable to pay for his return to his adopted home in the Arctic where his tribe of Eskimo’s and whaling fleet await him(ok now I write it down it does sound mad, but the stories are mesmerising and really appear very real ). So in order to earn money to buy his way back Jan starts to sell his stories to a local newspaper. It apparently didn’t take long for word to spread and he became a very famous character in the early 20th Century. In a way the stories are just fascinating because they document what a different world the world was 100 years or so ago. Jan’s adventures lead down some very lonely and scary roots into some of the remotest parts of the world as Europe was only just entering the Industrial Revolution. His description of Eskimos and other tribes is both amazing and shocking. This book is not just a wild, extreme and lonely adventure but its also a bit of a history lesson it even documents the rise of the whaling industry in the arctic. Anyway he eventually managed to earn enough money from his stories to make his way back and that is where this particular book ends. I really can’t describe what a brilliant journey this book takes you on, if you can find a copy I recommend grabbing it straight away. The copy I bought has a fantastic old book look and smell to it, with faded maps on the inside sleeve and a forward by the journalists who wrote down Jan’s tales. Even if his stories are potentially exaggerated apparently Jan Welzl from Zábreh did exist and there is a statue to commemorate this great traveller in his home town. Some of his adventures have been turned into children’s stories I believe.
If you have any information on the authenticity of this book, please let me know! To read a bit more about this crazy story go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Welzl
I started reading this book back in July whilst on holiday and I absolutely loved it. If you’re a fan of i-D magazine then you’ll definitely love this book, the idea is simple as stated on the first page: “300 of i-D’s best loved international contributors and collaborators share their ideas and thoughts on contemporary values”. The book has six chapters or theme’s to which the i-D contributors seem to have been asked to respond in a way they deem appropriate. So the book is full of photo’s, quotes, short statements, poems and stories from an array of people from all over the world. As is to be expected most of the contributors are involved in creative industries and fashion in some form or another and I’ve found it incredibly interesting to read through their thoughts and ideas concerning important modern social questions. As an idea for a book it is brilliant. Go buy it! http://www.taschen.com
This is a 'Design blog', well kind of! I use the term loosely as not all the posts are design related, apart from being posted by me, a designer! Some posts are my work but most will be work by others discovered by endless searching of the web. Anyway hopefully you will find a feast of visualy exciting links and posts here. my email is: info@jeffreyshield.co.uk
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