Lines of Communication 5

The Lines of Communication series have roots in my childhood. I recall looking up, specifically at telegraph poles with foot pegs starting some 10 feet from the ground, I was fascinated how men would climb up there for the purpose of communication. There seemed to be this whole world, visible to me yet largely unnoticed by anyone I knew. The aerial canvass seemed divided in to, squares, oblongs, parralelograms of divided space. I have always been fascinated by the mundane urban topography. Men climbed up posts for reasons I couldnt grasp, others had tools to get themselves down manhole covers into a subteranian world I knew we were dependent on. Other men opened green boxes with impossibly complex masses of coloured wires. These worlds were where I wanted to go. Operating without question I would walk by with my mother observing this intense complexity and beauty. Now I look and see the division of space, an order as fascinating as the layout of a mid game snooker table or the organisation of rugby league teams on the green rectangle. An assumed order and set of rules is in play only understood by initiates. The sky is an impossibly unfathomable organic, ever shifting picture. Seen through these lines of communication my mind can break it down in to quantifiable sections. Not only that but the grids formed themselves have a mathmatical beauty, a sense of order for me to frame the ever shifting organic mass of sky. This largely unnoticed network feels nostalgic, like it is waiting for digitisation to reopen the unquantifiable mass of sky.

Lines of Communication 4

Lines of Communication 3

followers

it would be great if anonymous followers could name themselves. There will be no advdertisments or sales attempts, it is just more work to find numbers. Skreeworld is a none commercial endeavour that gives a lot and asks for nothing. No addresses e mail or otherwise will be passed on to amyone else, you have my word.

Kieron Williamson painter

It is often said, when strangers look at contemporary art that 'a seven year old could have done that'.
Take the time to look at the work of Kieron Williamson.
It is very rare that an adult can produce works of this quality, they maybe dismissed as mere landscape water colours, which many are, but you can not deny the skill. Tracy Emin should take note. Art is changing and skill is back. I saw her on Roger Scrutons- why beauty matters being interviewed regarding her bed, David Frost asked her why her bed was art, her reply 'because I say it is', seeing her on School of Saatchi last week asking young artists the exact same question yet refusihg her own answer reveals just how weak her thinking is and being a conceptual artist, where the idea is elevated above the object, she needs to explain her ideas better. Simply the worst successful artist of her generation. I am a fan of Duchamp though presenting his idea again and again for nearly a century by Emin and others is just being stuck in a rut, her work is stuck, stuck, stuck.
Scruton argues that beauty is the central pursuit of man. Brave enough to stand up to prevailing though fading fashion, he believes beauty raises us emotionally, spiritually and morally. His passion is addictive, his ideas arent so far from where art trends are moving. Emin and her generation are increasingly looking like old, past it pretenders.
The Picturecraft gallery where Williamsons paintings fetched figures over £17000 had visitors reduced to tears, art that powerful cannot be written off,. He has been estimated by some to be the greatest child artist since Picasso and seeing his work this claim may not be overhype. The works, though traditional show a true maturity in observation of light and a real delicacy of touch.
Kieron said, 'It's absolutely excellent. I was only expecting to sell one or two. Painting is my favourite hobby but I like football too.'

Mr Benn finally honoured

At around the age of 13 or 14, having discovered psychedelic drugs, my brother and me would play truant whenever Mr Benn was on. You have a tendency to expand on your memories with a warm glow, there was only 1 series but this became cult viewing  in the 70s and 80s. Not unlike the effects of LSD , Mr Benn would enter the costume shop where as if by magic the shopkeeper would appear like an avatar of some sacred god. nBenn would try on the costume of an astronaut, a cowboy or a knight and after walking through the changing room door find himself in an alternative reality.
David McKee, the creator of Mr Benn lived in Festing Road in Putney. In the series its name was changed to Festive Road. The residents of the street have laid a paving stone to commemmorate the streets most famous reident. A tea party was heald to celebrate the laying of the stone where the residents who had raised the money for this sacred act wore costumes inspired by the spiritual journeys taken by Benn.
McKee said 'I am really happy that the occupants of Festing Road are doing this, everyone used to say that Mr Benn was stoned and now he really is.'

The Wire seminar Leeds

First session 'Omar; Ethics, power and performativity'. Opmeer is the manager for the centre for research on socio-cultural change at the university of Manchester, she sat this one out only having seen the first 3 series.
For more than 2 days over 100 sociologists, crininologists and historians from Europe gathered to discuss the jealously guarded wisdom of The Wire.
David Simons work ran for 5 series and is, without any doubt the greatest piece of television ever made. This was no fan meeting but a seious academic meeting.
Kersten Mueller from the university of london goldsmiths, having presented her paper argueing that the streets of baltimore present the homosexual thief with a canvas on which his performance identity can be projected said season 4 broke her heart.

Works analising The Wire include;

Aman must have a code; the masculine ethic of snitching and non snitching-Thomas Ugelvik, university of oslo
The writers room as fiction making laboritory; The Wire as sociotechnical translation-John Farnsworth and Terry Austin, university of canterbury, new zealand
Non text based sociology; The Wire and its relationship to public sociology and progress- Rowland Atkinson, university of York
Ethics of nthe real; screening masculinity, violence and racial everyday in the wire- Ashwanti Sharma, university of east london
Music supervision and The Wire; ma case study in ambient naturalism-Jon Stewart, lancaster university

skreeworld blog

defunct railway works

we took the back roads away from the water tower in case we were being followed, lanes I didnt know, some I feared the Sin Van might not nake it through. A happy accident brought us to a series of railway bridges that crossed, one under the other. The top one looked still in use, the bottom one was broken in to se3ctions but you could just about work out its path. I considered climbing up to see from above how the network would have once worked but by now the Wolf had gone for a swim in a river heavily in spate and fearing for his dsafety, getting him back on dry land was priority.

Lines of communication 2

More to come on The Lines of Communication series, the disection of sky or aerial space by the network of lines has parrallels in the Man Hole cover series. No one looks up or down yet our communication as a nation takes place all around us. This fascinating composition disects the square of space in to fascinating triangles and parrallelograms

Lines of communication 1

This is the New Water Tower in all it;s glory

New Water Tower

shows the construction detail

New Water Tower

Sign telling you the real name of the New Water Tower

New Water Tower

New Water Tower top

New Water Tower Detail

New Water tower joint of cones

The Real New Water Tower Day

today I woke to a hangover totally unmeritted and unfair as I hadnt drunk too much last night. The skies were grey yet the rain heald off long enough to revisit this incredible water tower. I took the detour off the main footpath, past a burial mound encrusted in coniferous trees. The entry to a mine, tatty at the entrance to a private wood looks worth going down. Have to go back with torches and Kipper sometime soon. Once out of the woods this architectural masterpiece is clearly visible from the brow of the hill. Scaling it is out of the question but I will try to get legal permission from wessex water board to go up there. The two cones have 18 facetts each.

Slade live at the bbc

jingles recorded for radio 1. The forgotten 'Move Over'. An absolute treat for Slade fans and I would like to start a campaign to get the live version single of 'Mama we're all craze now' to get to no.1, after all Slade rank along side the beatles for no.1's, though pop historians try gto write this out of history. I'm going to stop blogging and give it a blasst now

Slade live at the bbc

what occurs as natural

Earlier in the year i got to wondering how many people had climbed up moortown water tower. I was amazed when Fred told me, that as a boy, he had been to the top. I have been up many times as a youth. I returned this year to relive the experience, A friend pointed out that there are probably far less than I had thought because it wouldnt occor to most people to do it. I think this is where the difference between natural artists and trained artists lies. Some of us have no choice. Strange things appear to us as being normal. Others want to understand us so they go to college, read, study and try to understand why the naturals do what they do. Art should be intuitive, instinctual, I saw 'School of Saatchi' last week and bar a few comments it seemed a sad reflection on the judges as they repeatedly had to ask 'why is this art?' It was clear that Tracy Emin wasn't able to grasp what the young artists were showing her, a good example of a 'trained' artist. Art school gave her everything, intuition nothing.
Intuition is close to art, it is how many negotiate the world. Some havre no instinct left, nothing to separate them from the crowd. The purchase of product provides temporary relief. An ipod, a BMW, a rolex, i have personallity, they cry, yet it only lies in the intuitive. They are just consumers. There are also 'observers' who study people, wildlife.
We talk nas if animals have only instinct but now we are learning animals have exactly the same emotions as us. The inverse is also true. We act on instinct more than we would like to think. Science replaced God but didnt account for why we might climb water towers for the experience, make sculpture, recognise a good man from a bad man.

The Wire

The Wire series three part 11, the greatest peice of television ever made. The death of Stringer Bell.
Omar, Barrack Obamahs' favourite TV character, mine too.

La Pieta - Paul

grissliest one of the set

The Gallows Bracket

At 21, finding myself marooned from the tailend of recession where no one I knew worked. Having left home at 15 I followed a route of psychedelia that led to living in Cornwall, The Yorkshire Dales and finally in a caravan in Kent as a 'New Age Traveller', strange term, old age pensioner, new age traveller.
Moved back to Leeds my home town and teamed up with Andy to run a market stall selling tat we bought from jumble sales, a bit of pot and homebrew under the counter. Elliots Records, 2nd hand vinyl were in his infancy there too. Read 'last shop standing 'by graham jones.
In a dole figure fiddling measure, the government were running Topps courses, a six month course leading to a wholly unwarranted city and guilds, in my case carpentry and joinery.
We started at the beginning, sharpenning a blade, hand rip sawing a piece of 8 by 4 then planing our blocks true and square. I bought the bug.
For me it culminated in the Gallows bracket. A vertical member is upright, another piece perpendicular to its top, joined by dovetail, a third piece jointed in to tryangulate the frame. A simple shelf support.
The structure carpenters erected to formally execute people in Britain.
In france they worked with blacksmiths, ropemakers to create the guillotine, over in the middle east the crucifix, symbolic, in America the electric chair.
As a symbol, as a man raised in Britain I choose the Gallows bracket.
Lynching is a hideous practice but reading Albert Pierrepoints' book with his scientific rope length to body size, weight and strength ratio, it is hard to argue against his method.
After the execution of Gary Glitter, and all the issues it raised, I stick with the Gallows Bracket as my carpentry symbol. As I look at my heaving shelf of books supported by something I made more than half a lifetime ago, I stick with the Gallows Bracket as my carpentry symbol.

39 days left

39 days left to see Roger Hiorns   Seizure, recreation of his bedsit copper sulphate instalation-sculpture. Very important and moving work.

Bizarre deep sea creatures revealed environment guardian.co.uk

Chapmanslade Water Tower

still hungryto get some better shots of the water tower made of two fascetted cones, the base was tall, tapering narrowly as it reached the second inverted fasceted cone that flairs out. An absolutely fantastic building. Hard to get to but next sunny day we'll be there.

Looking forward to making a scaled down version of it in the near future. Today, however, I nipped up to Chapmanslade to get a picture of thier modest tower for all you water tower fans out there. Chapmanslade is an amazing name for a place, for me it always conjurs up images of Jake and Dinos Chapmans Chapmanworld combined with Slade, Noddy Holder with a Fuckface nose, maybe not.

Got to the site next to a layby, a large sign saying KEEP OUT, which roughly translated into Skreegalese meens get in quick before you get spotted. Cut through the hedge and got this picture before a bull appeared from behind the black wrapped silage and I hastily got out of the field. Still, not bad for a midweek water tower.

Dogs in Space 2

Apologies to Skreeworld readers, the info on Laika was a bit wrong, new and correct version of the story of Laika;

Laika; the first living creature in orbit

Laika, a homeless three year old husky mongrel was picked off a moscow street by Soviet authorities to be trained for the ultimate suicide mission; a one way flight in to space.
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who originally saw sputnik as a novelty project undeserving of investment or time, suddenly decided that space was where the Russians belonged after sputnik 1s success in 1957 was splashed across the pages of the worlds media. To capitalise on this propoaganda coup, he told his scientists to launch another sputnik just a month later to commemorate the Bolshevik revolution.
They began training poor Laika [whose real name,Kudrayavka, meaning little curly, was changed to Laika or Barker, as it was thought western journalists could pronounce it better] by keeping her inprogressively smaller cages. Thje spaceship was rushed and Laikas' quarters were about the size of a washing machine, with enough food and air to last just 10 days [Sputnik 2 was designed to be up there for 6 weeks]
On 3 november 1957, she was blasted in to space and within an hour became the first creature to reach Earths orbit. Not that she was enjoying it. Laikas heart rate quickly rose to 3 times her normal level, and the temperature in her cramped cabin increased to around 400c due to computer malfunctions.
Laika was dead after just 5 hours but the craft continued to orbit the Earth for 6 months before burning up on reentry. She was lauded as a hero back in Russia and her image was printed on stamps and cigarrette packets. The national Canine Defence league in Britain, however, was less pleased, keeping a minutes silence for every day she was in space. An American attempted to calm thier fears though, declaring, 'This dog is happy to be part of something important'.

It seems likely, judging from his understanding of astro physics that Tex is a descendant of Laika though modesty prevents him from admitting his ancestry.

Leeds bin strike settlement

Glad the boys got thier deal. Eh Up our cunts! see, you dont get this shit 'Down South'
Sunny weather, none of your 5 foot snow drifts!¬ people buy your work!
Yep, I'm a southern puff.

I miss Rugby League

a decent pint

honesty

Blogging

The whole Belle de Jour scandal has had an affect on all bloggers. What if it turned ou that Skree was a an aspiring trainey prostitute who was funding thier education in the oldest profession in the world by selling his soul as an artist? as soon as the doctorate is done they may blow the lid on all this art crap yet claim they were in control and never felt used or abused. Any who have guessed my identity, please keep stum until I am a fully qualified whore.

a Dog is for Life

It is this time of year we are reminded that a dog is not just for Christmas, it is for life. The same is true of Slade. Amongst all the tynsel and glitter this year, just spare a thought for the 70s when Slade and the euphoria wasnt just for christmas but for 'Everyday',
well, tere were power cuts, strikes, the Ripper, black panther, lofthouse colliery disaster


for that matter The Fall arent just for the autumn

nor Sabbath just for the sabbath

Paul Fryer - Artworks

Paul Fryer - Artworks

Chrisrmas

It is nearly the time of the year to remember that dogs and Slade are not just for christmas, they are for 'Everyday'

The New Water Tower

After yesterdays trip to Shropshire, driving through Herefordshire then over Clee Hill in the sunshine to deliver and install a piece of my work I fancied a lie in. Tex my wolf got me up and we went out in the rain early morning.
Kipper rang reminding me we had work to do. I drove over to the site of vans,buses and caravans out west. Saw Bob, who regularl readers may remember from the swiftly deleted 'Ketamin fishing'.
Torrential rain me and Kipper made our way to the tower, These photos dont do justice to its majesty but we were in truly pouring rain as the ligt died. We parked up as near as we could. In the downpour we made our way over muddy fields, over many barbed wire fences, through some woodland, intuatively took a course off path and we could see our goal in the distance
The overhang presents a serious danger and we are working on plans to overcome this. It will not beat us.
Dropped K off at another traveller site nearer humanity. Two sets of drenched clothjes in a day, under a blanket now.

Tom Waits

New Album-Glitter and Doom
do the maths

our new target. Hard to nget to

No Music Day and New Watertower day

No Music Day and New Water Tower day, as I imagine many of you know, is tommorrow. Consequently I'll have to post this quick as there is less than 2 hours to get some Slade, Sabbath or Fall in, I'm sure you all will be busy playing the same.
Saw an ace new Watertower on my journey up to Herefordshire today where I was taking the first of six 4 poster beds I'm making. It's a beauty. Concrete structure, roughly 100 feet tall, design is like a narrow pointed cone that flairs out in to an invert cone proportioned like an inverse pyramid, Saw the balcony round the top. Scaling it looks awkward but we will do our best. Tommorrow may prove to be just a rec'y for the real deal at a later date but should have some good pics for the blog tommorrow to post.
My main client is embarking on his Atlantic sailing challenge tommorrow too. Though I often sail 3 sheets to the wind I imagine he'll be going down the coast of spain, morrocco,further africa to find the trade winds that will take him across. It's ok when you can see the coast but blue water sailing must be terrifying. Wish them luck, and please come home.

Mark Wells RIP The Importance of Manhole covers and Good Samaritans

When Mark Wells shouted 'Help me, help me, please!' in the middle of the night, neighbours were too frightened to intervene. One neighbour heard his pleading tones but his friend dismissed it as someone pissed up. In the morning, Wells was dead; he suffocated after falling headfirst in to an uncovered drain hole just metres from his home in Newport on the Isle of Wight.
The coroner did not blame the residents for ignoring the poor mans pleas for help saying it was 'a sad reflection on society that people were too scared to venture out of thier homes when they heard screams'.
The story hurt me deeply both as what we have become as a nation. Too scared to be the good samaritan, we have all turned our backs one time or another be it through loyalty valued over justice or through sheer fear at getting hurt ourselves. Also that the hole was left uncovered, literally a deathtrap.
I would like to donate the first gold leaved manhole cover to mark the place where Mark Wells died. I am sure there have already been the traditional laying of flowers round the hole but the Gold cover could be a more permanent reminder. Of course, over time, the gold leaf may wear away, all things turn to dust. Perhaps a fund could be set up in Marks' memory to have the manhole cover reguilded, annually for the anniversary of his death to remind us not just of the importance of manhole covers but to remind us to be good samaritans when we are called

skree

Mark Wells RIP

Tall Industrial buildings and Holes in the Ground

Just as brave men and women need to climb large industrial buildings, sometimes to maintain communication systems, sometimes power systems, sometimes for art, sometimes to protect ourselves from ourselves. The Kingsnorth Six story is still up on the Guardian environment web page. Brave men and women need to go into holes in the ground also for purposes of communication, water, power and even art.
Thus the Golden manhole covers are the opposite inversion of the scaling of Moortown Water tower, Bath gas silos and Shivering Sands.
The surface of the earth draws a flat line between the 2 areas of endeavour.
The roots of the tree can be as great as the spread of its' branches. Miner and rigger, climber and potholer, though travelling in different directions in the phisical plane are pulling in the same direction for the purpose of understanding.


'and you climb up the mountain,
and you fall down the hole' Mott the Hoople ; All the way from Memphis

Glam Rock had the answers but was seldom understood

Fox Cub

One of the nicest moments of this summer has been seeing a young foxcub on the land by the river behind the workshop/ Our backdoor leads straight in to wild country, river floodplain, where I walk with Tex, husky cross Alsation, rather like a wolf. I have read Mark Rowlands' book 'The Philosopher and The Wolf' and it is a mirror of my life with Tex. He is, in many important ways, the dominant in our relationship. The tragedy is that human friends age at your pace where as a dogs life is compacted in to 15 or so years. The fox cub wasnt even this fortunate. He may have left home too early, perhaps kicked out of the litter for being a runt or simply taken too long a walk too young fom his home.
We hadnt seen him for a week or two. Today Mag found his decomposing corpse by the river. Maybe he fell in and his last act of strength dragged him to land, maybe someones dog got him.
I thought of photographing his remains as it is some kind of amazing picture. But I suppose a little love must have slipped under my skin unnoticed and stopped me putting this part of nature to the wire. RIP our little fox cub

art

it begins with the desire to make a mark, chalk on stone, stick through sand, pencil on paper.
every child wants approval. your mum strokes your head and tell's you that you are a clever boy for drawing so well, so you do some more.
after a while you find yourself in pursuit of some kind of beauty, even if you like looking in all the darkest most unlikely places to catch your elusive prey.
years may take you down language loops, trickery and attempts to describe that which you made to communicate that which words could not.
life and survival steers you down tributaries of the central river, making beauty for others in objects you find ugly.
you know when you are wrong as it becomes a fight.
you know when you are right because you feel no resistance. you dont even know you are doing it until it is done.
but I wonder, in darker moments if I have made the world a more or less beautiful place, or if I will ever know.
bar the honest fact that I know no other way I do believe in art, and still believe it is my duty to try.

Jesus Fucking Christ

Fotunate to live in Frome. Frome was the town that outlaws from Roman Bath were banished to. The stone masonry in Bath is well celebrated. Check out this series of the execution of Christ. A week ago it was Glitter, who would have thought the authorities would do Christ too? He didnt even do owt wrong.

Typing as I watch Bruno Tyson 1

Bruno was the first to rock Tyson. Very underated boxer.

A strange week for Glam Rock

Monday saw channel 4 broadcast 'The Execution Of Gary Glitter'
That night I walked down to Frome Gallows tree wher many had met thier end.
I painted a ring of PVA round the lynching branch, where the rope marks can still faintly be seen and sprinkled a cicle, a perpendicular halo of glitter. Fortunately the weather heald back and the glitter hoop remains.
A strange week followed, weighing up my feelings about my childhood hero and his betrayal of others childhood and by association , in some way mine.
Friday night, the One Show on BBC1, Noddy Holder chose this outing and interview to launch his new album. As we all know 'Merry christmas evrybody' is Noddys biggest annual payday. After a drunken night in Wolverhampton Noddy went home to sleep it off at his folks house. Playing with a Jimmy Lee riff he came up with the Christmas Carol for the secular.
It is far from being the best work of the Slade.
Slade, though written out of history due to reasons of class and percieved musical artistic hierarchies, are the greatest band of the 70s, only the Pistols come close. Thier technical excellence is usually overlooked. Check out thier live performance of 'How does it feel' on the Russell Harty show. Dave Hill could play base so well though a lead guitarist as Jim Lee plays piano. This is the first song Jim ever wrote though they never used it till Flame in 1975

England lose again

Well first of all England competed for 2 thirds of the game, from being ahead 16 14 they went on to lose 46 16. For me the player of the series has been Thurston, closely followed by Lockyer and Ingliss. Eastmond for England was outstanding, Sinfield until tonight. England are 20 minutes off being as good as Australia and that is pretty fucking good.
The true winner tonight was Rugby League, as I listened in the texts poured in from die hard Union fans acknowledging that this was the better sport to watch. Their parrallel series has been a dour kick, chase, scrummage mess with hardly a try, no running with the ball. As a spectater sport Rugby League is now so far ahead that I think we need not even mention the crap they are watching. Rugby union is just boring shite. Rugby League is the Greatest Game of All.
The sooner we forget the truly rubbish establishment product, the better. Thier will always be the odd idiot who wants to get on Stricktly Come Dancing after his career, not have to train so hard, go in to semi retirement, union offers all this. Bath players taking cocaine, see how long you would last in league if you took coke on a weekend.
My hatred of union goes way back to the aparthied days when if a player so much as had a trial for a league team they were banned forever from the upper class, establishment game. Note that the league game was stamped out for a while in southern fance as the union players joinede the nazi party whilst the league players joined the resistance. Long live the Catalan Dragons.
Basically union is bad, boring and evil.
League is good, exciting and good.

Well Cool

hopefully i have finally managed to get the video taken today of a work in process on cooling towers, made from Valchromat CNC components, it needs painting yet but this was a first attempt to see if it will work. For all the reasons why i am interested in cooling towers, particularly Tinsley Towers, now demolishhed, please check out earlier postings

tinsley towers

No more Glitter

I promise that there will be no more Glitter discussion on Skreeworld blog. I hope I havent put off any readers, I just became fascinated with the Execution of Glitter. It was like something from viz comic.
WE'll be back to climbing dangerous derelict guildings before you know it.
Drain and manhole covers are back on in a big way.
Just wait for the marvelous art that is in production as we speak
Stick with us

SKREEWORLD is back on track

Frome Gallows Tree

Just walked down to the Gallows Tree where in days gone by the criminals of this small town were hanged. There is a dungeon pit at the back of the graveyard, a narrow path drops down to a dungeon door. The stone construction is capped with stone slabs and a small 1 foot square grill where food or alcohol could be passed to the condemned man. Many a mother or wife must have sat up there through the night, comforting thier loved one below in the pit.
At dawn it was a short walk to the Gallows tree where the 'righteous' hung the lynching rope. When criminals were popular thier friends, relatives and loved ones were allowed to grab and pull on the hanging mans feet to bring on a mercifully quicker death.
I painted with diluted PVA a circle around the bough from where the rope was hung and sprinkled glitter to form a glitter ring of rememberance. Gadds crimes are beyond reproach yet Glitter lit up my childhood. He let me down but this is no reason for me to let him down. I am against the death penalty, how can a society expect its citizens to act any differently than how the state acts. I am no Glitter denialist, I just feel robbed of my youth. Not as much as he robbed others of thier childhood but many of my generation must feel equally let down by Gadd.
As I sprinkled the last file of glitter to complete the ring a raven flew by, giving a deep note of recognition. Paul Raven was another stage persona of Gadd.

Brick Table Michael Wainwright

The first piece in the urban myths series is the younger sister of the Brick Chair. Some people lose thier sense of perspective, Michael had lost his sense of scale. This piece was a massive change of direction for Michael. Prior to this he had been working on organic work but the work from others it had inspired was so far from Michaels intentions he felt another avenue was forced on him. His organic pieces had aimed to show our distance from nature, often using the Christ crown of thorns to illustrate natures rejection of man and, through his softening through modernity, central heating, cars, tv, western man can no longer survive for long left out in the wild. This piece turned the outdoors indoors. Intended as the view from the homeless looking in on suburban security through lit up windows in otherwise dark streets, the exclusion from that comfort. The house is turned inside out, flipped through infinity. Probably the greatest work of art of its' day regarding relative wealth, homelessness and division in society.

Stickleback black walnut and lead crystal

a deeply carved top surface creating volcanoe shaped folicles that house over 50 lead crystal spikes up to a foot in length, a concealed lightbox underneath projects through the crystal spikes creating a fibre optic like effect. The piece was sadly vandalised by right wing christians opposed to the exhibition, its emains donated to a local school. Though originally intended to be a piece of furniture that had become affected by a beautiful disease it was interpreted as a frozen moment of machine gunfire relating to a fallen soldiers dieing outburst at his attackers.

The Execution of Gary Glitter

Presumably Glitter recieved payment for the use of his name. The actuallity of this fictional story would require, not only the repeal of the death sentence but also the conviction for offences committed oversees, also the question of just how highly stacked platform soled shoes are permitted for the condemned to wear at the time of execution. Say Glitter went for a 48 inch platform sole, combined with the Leader shoulder pads he would stand a fair chance of survival. Looks like Glitter had more foresight in his fashion sense than Pete Townsend, the wrist strap would prevent any rotory arm guitar techniques Townsend developed over the years [has anyone seen a copy of the book he was doing the research for]. Personally I would have preferred to see Michael Jackson moonwalking his way to the trapdoor as Pierrepoint hooded the talentless paedo bastard. Lets face it, you just can't moonwalk in platforms. Jacksons' posters are all over London celebrating his rehearsal film as Glitter swings. It is a shame Jackson took the easy route, he truly trumped Glitter for paedo antics and it would have been a real 'Thriller' to see Jackson executed. Let us not forget this is supposed to be a 'serious' look at the statistics, 70% want hanging brought back, according to channel 4. can't wait for the internet forum afterwards. can't really believe this is happening at all.

A Great Day for British Sport

Today will go down in history, England Rugby League team beat the world chamions to meet Australia in the final of the four nations, Leeds United beat norwich 2 nil, the Nigels lost to australia in the pompous sport of rugby union and David Haye beat Nikolia Valuev to become WBA heavyweight champion of the world. There may never be a day when everything goes so perfectly.

The Full Monty

The Full Monty features two of the skreeworld blog main subjects, Tinsley Towers and two Gary Glitter songs

Rugby League

Watched France lose 4 to 42 to Australia. The scoreline hides the fact that Australia were vulnerable and disorganised in the first half. In last weeks game against England they went in at half time 26 nil up. However in the second half England won 16 nil. Next weekends final represents the best chance we have had in years to beat the Australians. The Australian game is very much a game of percentages, though mighty it can be dull. English Rugby League is , however, the most attractive, creative and beautiful game in the world. I hope we throw the ball about, batter those ausies in to the ground.
It didnt pass my notice that the most boring sport in existence, rugby union, had another bore fgest where not a single try was scored. How anyone can watch this shite is beyond me.

The Execution of Gary Glitter 5

It cant be denied that there is an inverse Christ like element to all this. As Glitter rode into town strewn with glitter palm leaves, they celebrated him and now his crucifiction awaits him on monday. He will die not for our sins but for those of
himself
pete townsend
iggy pop
elvis presley
chuck berry
jerry lee lewis
john peel
bill wyman

The Execution of Gary Glitter 4

I have thought long and hard about this, as all Glitter fans know he had a new costume for the release of each single. At first I thought he should take the drop in the red sequined jacket he wore for 'Do you Wanna Touch', however, having given it further thought he may be wise to opt for the wing like silver shoulder pads he wore for 'I'm the Leader of the Gang, [I am]' which would either catch on the trapdoor hole or at least slow his desent, aligned with sufficiently high platform soled boots the rope may not even reach the end of it's tether. At one time if you survived the hanging you were free to go, hopefully this law will still be in place in the alternative reality of the programme and who knows? this jesus like miracle could prompt a comeback of vast proportions. The Glitter band join again with the Leader and storm the charts triggering a Glam Rock revival, Slade reform with Noddy, Johnson leaves AC/DC to rejoin Geordie, Chicory tip top the charts with 'Son of my great grandfather', the remains of Sweet release 'Middleage rampage'. The possibilities are endless.

The Execution of Gary Glitter

Next week is it the beheading of Roy Wood? Slade face the firing squad? The garrotting of Pete Townsend? Where is the book? I joke. Somewhere in all this mess a man will be watching a film of his own hanging on monday. David Peaces books, The Damned United brought on a court case from Johnny Giles. Peace claimed he was writing about a ficticious Leeds United, a fictitious Brian Clough, a fictitious Johnny Giles. Strange times. What did upset me was his Red Riding series using a ficticios Yorkshire Ripper. One of his victims went to my school before me. Jayne Macdonald, I can still picture her face, a very beautiful young woman. I read his books as they were set against the background of my childhood. I knew the events, the streets and ground where the bodies were found. When I am back in Leeds I still subconsciously clock Soldiers field, the Arndale centre, woodhouse moor and places in Chapeltown where bodies were found. I can only speculate as to how the families of Sutcliffes victims felt when Peaces books came out and the TV trilogy they spawned.
There is a temptation to make art about powerful events that occured during ones childhood. The Execution of Gary Glitter may well lay to rest my interest in him as an artist. At present I feel that if you have no forgiveness in yourself then you are eternally tied to terrible events . Lack of Foregiveness empowers thier actions and disallows the horror to disperse in to banality. Forgiveness disempowers the perpetrator of the crime, it doesnt let them off the hook. If I ever met Sutcliffe I would like to walk by, perhaps call him a sad twat then forget about him as he deserves to be forgotten. He is no one of importance.
Last night I spent time on the internet tracking down footage of 'the man who put the bang in gang'. In many ways it feels that my year of research in to Glam Rock, the planning of the failed Glamfest, has all led to this. Mondays hanging of Gary Glitter will bring closure. I hope he wears the red sequined jacket he wore for 'Do you Wanna Touch' when he takes the drop, the wing like collar pieces he wore for 'Leader of the Gang' didnt really work for me and the tight glittery trousers and silver platform boots worn for 'Rock and Roll part 2' looked like an experiment, his stage moves as yet un formed. His greatest moment for me was 'Hello hello, I'm back again', by this point he had perfected his stage persona.

The Execution of Gary Glitter 2

Any readers of Skreeworld will be aware of our fascination even obsession with glam rock.
I am very disturbed about monday 9th november and the virtual execution of Gary Glitter on channel 4 9pm. this docu/drama is being promoted as a critique of the fact that 70% of the populationbelieve we should reinstate the death penalty. Birmingham 6, Guildford 4, Evans, Dereck Bentley, 'let him have it'. We are not America, we are not Saudi Arabia. Yesterday at midday , a sex offender was beheaded his body crucified his head paraded on a spike. Iggy Pop had a 13 year old girlfriend back in the 70s and has recently been awarded a lifetime achievement award. Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson is being deified in the film of his practice sessions 'This is it'. There is no way that paedophilia can be justified. It is the most hienous crime. In prison culture, all conventional criminals justify thier actions by thier mutual hatred of beasts, nonces, paedos. To take a childs innocense, to use a child as a sex object is abhorrent. I in no way condone Paul Gadds actions and it is yet to be seen how they play out 'The execution of Gary Glitter'. His virtual execution is what many feel he deserves. He seems to be without remorse as was Jackson, the only separation is Lackson paid off his victims where as Gadd tried to justify himself in court. Of course they were both guilty. Personally I dislike Jacksons music but like Glitters. As a child I was a Gary Glitter fan and still feel the magic of his music. Can we separate the art from the artist? I believe we can. Gadd served his time unlike Jackson for his crimes in Vietnam, something Presley, Jackson, Lewis, Pop didnt. So I await the execution of my childhood idol.

The Execution of Gary Glitter

I will post more on this later but on monday, like a dream, at 9pm on channel 4 is The Execution of Gary Glitter. In surveys up to 70% of the population believe that, for certain offences, we should bring back hanging. Set in an alternative reality, the government, after a serious child sex crime, bring back the death penalty. Paul Gadd, 70's glam rocker is first to be given the drop. Apparently we see the actual hanging of Glitter. Channel 4 have informed Gadd of the plotline.

gunpowder, treason and plot

Tonight is mischief night, [you dont have it down south and is peculiar to the surrounding area of the birth place of Guy Fawlkes]. Sadly the Shivering Sands project has been postponed due to boat problems though we intend to carry out the work at a later date. Also I wont post the date this time due to the official warning.
Tommorrow is the celebration of the unfortunately failed Catholic conspiracy and the death of the only honest man to enter parliament, no surprise he came from Leeds outpost Otley.

Step Back

I feel a need to step back and reappraise what I am doing. This last year I have felt a yearning to escape the shackles of my furniture making endeavours, a tunnel I entered over20 years ago with a belief that furniture could be the architecture of your home or a blurring of the boundaries of art where the background could be the foreground. The idea of interior design was my main enemy, thematic or schematic rooms for living in, I wanted to get back to how I saw the rooms as a child, more like a playground where you jump from the slide to the roundabout to the swing spinning the chemicals of the brain in to a kaliedoscope of excitement, a rejection of the comfort and order interior designers were aiming for. I believed any object carried a communicative idea, it did for me. What I hadnt gambled on was that rooms, for most were merely a background for thier human interactions or for the rich a self congratulatory reflection of themselves in what they saw as beautiful. The idea of ownership had never crossed my mind. Crime seemed as relevant as earned property. You cant take it with you was a doctrine my father drilled in to me, we are just passing through and hence the outdoors so vastly out did the indoors that any object of design could only be a toy.
So where do I go from here?
The answer is surely not object related, only the interaction with the object. Who would want to buy the roundabout and take it away from the communal playground to thier home to gather dust. Yet being so far down the avenue of inquiry in to the nature of the object, a total change of direction is hard.
I think I know where my work should steer. I have seen butterflys but never felt the need or even entertained the possibility of owning one. Not since I was a child anyway, our butterfly boards just deteriorated with time like a vase of deaying flowers. Our memories are all we can hold, the rest is like trying to catch the smoke from your cigarrette.

The Wire

When you walk through the garden
you got to watch your back
well I beg your pardon
walk the straight and narrow track
if you walk with jesus
he's going to save your soul
gotta keep the devil down in the hole
he got the fire and the fury at his command
but you dont got to worry
hold on to jesus hand
we'll be safe from satan when the thunder roles
but you got to keep the devil way down in the hole

inverse pyramids

When Boris Johnson described the scandle around his extramarital affair as an 'inverted pyramid of piffle', much as I admired his turn of phrase I doubt he thought his cast off comment would outdo anything that the journalists would come out with to describe the sensational public art opportunity that the 2012 olympics has begat. The inverted approval of Brian Sewell always seems to serve as an advert for the fantastic occurances in contemporary culture he berates. After his attack on Banksy versus Bristol museum, a totally unadvertised art event that saw 300000 travel to see the humour filled exhibition that, through word of mouth proved to be the provincial art sensation of the year, attracting artfans and general public in equal measure. Has any critic been so far off the pulse of cultural endeavour.
I hope Paul gets this one, I have been fortunate to see his idea from sketch book to model maquet mock up and now within a week the decision should have been taken. My feelings are that there are plenty of Gormleys up and down the country, I love the angel of the north, Anish Kapour has his work celebrated all over so feel it would be backward looking to have more of their work.
These are new times and a new outlook, a new name for the games would be forward looking.
Pauls piece would credit its funder, give Boris his totem but most of all, like the London eye would be both a wonder to behold and a wonder for the public to view the regeneration of an area of London.

'Piffle' Tower may rise at Olympic park | News

'Piffle' Tower may rise at Olympic park News

Cig butt

Skrees' van

derelicte.co.uk

Just found a great website that I'm sure all Skreeworld fans interested in the industrial architecture side of the blog would love. A great body of photography. Whilst mine is maybe more about the physical interaction with a certain kind of architecture I cant deny that this is down the same avenue

Songs of Misery and Darkness

After a hectic friday and saturday I managed to get to the Groucho to see Pauls songs of misery and darkness.
Unfortunately I missed the bulk of the show but caught the old Roxi Music classic, 'In every dream home', 'Boys don't cry' and the mighty NIB, the truly awesome Black Sabbath song. Paul said 'This ones for Skree', Which touched me, he forgot the first few lines so I felt helpful in being able to remind him .
Great night out, shame I couldnt stay longer.
I'm backing him for the big public artpiece for the 2012 games.
The country is awash with Gormleys, more Kapour woul be a bore. I dont know who the other two on the shortlist are but this is something intended to rival the eifal tower and Pauls stained glass pylon seems perfect for the job, as seen in last weeks Sunday Times and, I believe in one of todays major papers.
You have to support your friends.

Hen Harriers

I'm very kean on birds of prey, stems back to watching the film Kez.

In England only 6 pairs bred this year, down on last years 10.

Extinction is dangerously close.