Thursday 30 August 2012

Wandering Word BOOMTOWN / SHAMBALA 2012 mural - collab with Daddison (& work in progress, sketches etc)

Screen shot 2012-09-01 at 1.49.51 PM

This is a mural tryptich (sp?) I was asked to create by the wonderful people at Wandering Word, a travelling performance poetry and live music stage that goes to various festivals here in the UK. This year the stage went to Boomtown and Shambala.

IMAG0017

I collaborated on the mural with my friend Dave (aka. Daddison)...

Visit his website here

...he did the monochrome patterny bits around the coloured figures (those were my bit), and he also designed the logo/typography that says 'Wandering Word'.

The three boards were standard ply which measures 8 x 4 feet. We painted the mural using Molotov paints and pens. They're pricey but worth it, imo.

I included some poetry in the image (as it seemed appropriate for a poetry stage), which can be seen in the both the girl's hair, the fox's fur, and in the fox's tail.
The text in the girl's hair is from a rather rare and special book lent to me by a friend called 'The Futurist's Cookbook'. According to Wikipedia, 'Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city. It was largely an Italian phenomenon, though there were parallel movements in Russia, England and elsewhere. The Futurists practiced in every medium of art, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, theatre, film, fashion, textiles, literature, music, architecture and even gastronomy.'
The text describes surreal recipes and bizarre accounts of dinner parties. If you have very good eyesight you might be able to decipher some of it, otherwise I recommend you try and find the book, it's a funny, fascinating and bizarre.
The poem in the fox's tail is by Charles Bukowski, and the other one on the other part of the fox is by James Joyce.

Scroll down to see details, shots of the work on location at Boomtown and Shambala, work in progress shots, initial sketches, and some images I used as references & for inspiration...

For professional shots (including the one at the top of this post) of Wandering Word stage at Shambala, click here.

DETAILS:

IMAG0026

IMAG0027

IMAG0019

IMAG0023

IMAG0022

BOOMTOWN:

IMAG0131

IMAG0128

418872_10150245758819963_583384047_n

SHAMBALA:

IMAG0293

480077_10152026607515214_2087888756_n

IMAG0348

WORK IN PROGRESS:

IMG_6365

IMG_6357

IMG_6355

SKETCH:

mockup 1

REFERENCE IMAGES:

gn_00254a

fox1

Dad_Headdress

25098775501

3104130514_d0a43f8ba8

4 comments:

zmkc said...

Really fascinating post.

zmkc said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mydeerfriend said...

Staggeringly beautiful!

I loved seeing the reference and the process...!

hi said...

loved this at boomtown, stared at it for ages!

http://la-dulcie-vita.blogspot.co.uk