Archive for the ‘books’ Category
Reading ‘Pride of the Peacock’ by Sven Berlin this Christmas
Sunday, December 25th, 2011Alfred Wallis
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
Currently reading ‘Alfred Wallis, Primitive’ By Sven Berlin. An amazing take of a true innocent.
Jonahs dream
Sunday, June 26th, 2011“The human hand is the most beautiful, the most functional, the most strong and yet delicate instrument ever created by God or man. It can carve jade, instilling into it the rhythms of the universe, build a bridge, can draw an insect like Hokusai, play a violin like Menuhin, conduct like Toscanini. It can kill with the sword and gun yet can cast a fly delicately on still water; with great tenderness it can make love yet twist a head in chancery. The hand can write and feel, it is the perfect servant of the brain and spirit; the hand can pray and lay supine.” - Sven Berlin, Jonahs dream.
The Genius of British Art
Sunday, November 7th, 2010
I recently watched the Janet Street-Porter episode of ‘The Genius of British Art‘ on 4OD and absolutely loved it! The episode begins and ends in St Ives Cornwall, one of my favorite places in the world not just for art but for surfing and it’s beautiful setting. Janet begins her exploration of modern British art by introducing St Ives as the place that she first fell in love with British art, I could quite easily say the same for myself. The episode also ends with Janet talking about ‘The Dark Monarch‘ exhibition in the Tate St Ives at the end of 2009. The image above is of Janet stood in the entrance hall in-front of Patrick Heron’s large stained glass permanent feature and Damien Hirst’s unicorn piece which in my opinion was the perfect magical way to start the ‘The Dark Monarch‘ exhibition. The Dark Monarch is also the title of a book by Sven Berlin, since reading it I have become almost obsessed with his other works which give a great insight into the transformation of British Art in the mid 20th Century and of the artist himself.
Sven Berlin
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
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.
The Dark Monarch
Friday, May 28th, 2010Early 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.
Designed By Music
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
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
‘Thirty years in the golden north’ – by Jan Welzl
Monday, September 28th, 2009
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-D Soul
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
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
