Saturday 29 September 2012

..BAD MOON RISING..

...Night Time......

Our hero is standing outside a discreet doorway on Canal St in central Manchester - The House of the Dominatrix.  He wishes , tonight to be a submissive , to relinquish all control for once , to be punished .But now he pauses at the door , apprehensive - as so he should be .

A voice beckons...........

" Come on in , dear , she won't bite............."

........but of course she will , for tonight is the night of the bad moon rising.........

Back to the illustrative work I am producing for my MA , using buildings that I know in Manchester and the framework of architecturally drawn sections and plans to investigate alternative futures , alternative pasts , alternative presences........

 
This is still a work in progress , probably around 85% complete. This is based in the House of the Dominatrix and is entitled ' Red Riding Hood / Role Play : 1 '. Fairy stories generally always have their origins in old myths , legends and folk tales and I was interested in exploring the initial premise of role play via the Dominatrix through the idea of transformation and shape-shifting .
 
 Our hero enters the building on the understanding that he is to be dressed in the costume of a dog and then be subject to the ritual obediance lessons as required by his mistress - an inversion of the usual wolf / little red riding hood relationship.....the dominatrix is , however , at a certain period in the month a shapeshifter and does indeed become her alter-ego , wolf as the predator ; a far more terrifying presence. 
 
And whilst writing this , it has only just ocurred to me that the red signifies the menstrual flow......... 
 
Hhhhmmmmmmm
 
I see the bad moon rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
 
Don't go round tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
 
 

Sunday 23 September 2012

..MUSIC IN A DOLL'S HOUSE ( FAMILY )

...London Fashion Week , Tuesday 18th September , 1.00 pm , and down in a hotel on Park Lane , London , Anya Hindmarch's Spring 2013 Collection ' Pomp and Pleasure ' begins to roll......or at least rotate...............



Having spent much of the last forty years or so as an interior designer sketching out interiors and then seeing them come to life , it's no longer a suprise when they actually get finished , mostly just a sense of satisfaction.

For a certain Jonathan Chadwick of www.artistictype.co.uk , however , it was ' a most surreal experience , seeing my illustrations brought to life in a full / life size doll's house ' . Jonathan had been approached by the designers of the show , who had come up with the doll's house concept , to produce each and every elevation plus all the details as illustrations that would then be blown up and reproduced at a life size scale ;
eighteen days single handedly sketching out and formatting all the walls and all the furniture to the correct proportion . Not just straightforward elevations, either ; the whole design had an illustrative quality far removed from the normal ' working drawing ' style .The house was then constructed on a circular turntable and rotated slowly to the delight of the crowd , together with  fully programmed lighting and sound effects and complete with Anya playing the organ.........far beyond anything i've ever done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AMvDUu0CNiM

' Surreal , just surreal ' Jonathan commented.........and since the only thing that I have ever seen that comes remotely close to this on this scale were Hockney's designs for  ' The Rakes Progress ' then maybe some theatre work may beckon for him ? And I did notice amongst the scenery in the doll's house a quasi-renaissence putti that bore more than a passing resemblance to a certain grand-daughter , naked in all her glory.

Like a passing show that has now left town , the structure had but a fleeting presence ;
for Jonathan however the experience will remain with him for a long long time.

And , yes , for those of you who follow the more arcane and obtuse musical references in all these blog headers , the album  ' Music In A Doll's House ' was released in 1968
by the group Family. Most appropriate , I thought.......

Monday 17 September 2012

...IN THE SUMMERTIME....

.......In the summertime not much gets done on here as we have been out in France , walking up in the Pyrennees and Navarra - Northern Spain really is a lovely part of the country , and walking in the mountains in the early morning
tends to clear ones head...............

But september has arrived , term time for my MA looms and now it's down to work . One sketch I did manage to get done in the last four weeks or so was a concept sketch for a new dim-sum and cocktail bar for Dre Masso in Gerrard St , Soho........

 
The contact here came via Jonathan @ Artistic Type , who has created the logo for the bar and went on to fine-tune my sketch for the press release.............
 
 
 
.....and a fine job he did too.............and we have both been invited down to the opening.
 
More on Jonathan's work in the next posting - Music In A Doll's House perhaps ?