Punk collage / Me & Paolozzi / Digital collage

Black Spot Fallout Threat

 

Collage: Develop Creative Powers / Were you born to make art? / Rhapsody in Video - a very scarce Nam June Paik book!

Develop Creative Powers, RTomens, 2026

Yes, I try, I TRY to develop my creative powers - those latent (dormant?), inherent, even? It can be taken two ways: develop what you have...or...actually develop some where there were none...right? Oh that ol' question: born with art right in you, or develop it through...interests? Parental encouragement? Teachers? Ah, those poor teachers at my secondary school...they did try...but what a disappointment I must have been, to the Art teacher in particular, who could see some talent, let's say aptitude, but could he get me to knuckle down and get the qualifications needed to go to college? What do you think? Yeah, me, the rebel without a cause.

I lean towards the born-with-it idea. Why? What else explains my drive to draw at the age of 10? Certainly not parental encouragement. My folks were not creative in the slightest. No-one in my family was artistic. They watched the telly whilst I drew pictures in the same living-room. So it went. Rush out of school once the final bell had been rung and into Work. 

I haven't made art consistently since leaving school. There were fallow periods when I was probably too depressed about my working life to do anything creative. Still, during Punk I made a few zines. For some reason I was attracted to writing more than art as the 80s dawned. So I set about writing novels and poetry. I even bought a typewriter. My handwriting has never been great. A few poems were published in workshop zines. I read poetry some on stages around the Aylesbury area. And so on.

You can teach Art but can you teach someone to be an artist? What's the difference? Perhaps there isn't one. I used to think being an artist was a lifetime's impulse to create...an overriding urge...a need? Now, I'm not sure. Someone could be that driven artist for just a few years, then stop because...they no longer felt the urge...or a career took over...or family life took over...etc. I make no grand claims to being a 'dedicated' artist. I mean, I don't pretend to be...anything...except a man striving to maintain some sense of equilibrium...against the odds stacked in favour of going crazy when confronted with...everything from daily life to political conflict...and seeing Mars bars gradually shrink in size. I swear, it's not that my hands have got bigger since I scoffed one as a child! 

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Here's an  incredibly rare book, Rhapsody in Video. It's unusual not to find more than one page about a book about such a well-known artist. I've searched but not been able to find any except this one

It's here.

Tony Cragg at the Lisson Gallery / Vispo-collage: And Reveal / Talking about your art & talking bollocks / Sex Pistols

 

Reflections at an exhibition - Tony Cragg at the Lisson Gallery. We sat on the low white wall in the courtyard and ate some cake. LJ thought the sculptures would be easy to steal, looking at how low the boundary wall was. But we wondered how heavy they were. Too heavy to lift? And how would they be sold? 

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And Reveal, RTomens 2025

Another collage of old vispo pieces, this time against type on a photo of material found in the street. Sometimes I would like to say more about my work but perhaps that is only the effect of the idea that artists should say/be able to say something about their work - something...profoundly illuminating, perhaps? But I am not in the Art world. I am not in the academic world, that's for sure. Do I play dumb, like Warhol, or am I really dumb? 

All I can talk about right now...no...not even talk, only mention, is the poor performance by Chelsea last night in losing to Arsenal with barely a shot on target. That and the fact that this morning, at 11.04, my mind is asleep and my eyelids yearning to close so I stare into space frequently, out the window at the rare occurrence of sunlight illuminating the houses opposite and really I should be outside in that sunlight, preferably on a clifftop with the cool sea breeze on my face instead of hunched over this keyboard in the city...

Someone leaves a comment on my FB post of a recent artwork but it is an obscure (to me) reference which I don't understand, possibly because I am dumb, or because he is a lot younger and is saying something only under-25s would understand. Which reminds me, when I said 'bollocks' as we walked down the road the other day I wondered if Young People would even know what that means/refers to. It feels like such a 70s word, even though I think it's still commonly used (amongst men) today in the UK. Americans never say 'bollocks', do they?  Now I think of the Sex Pistols album, Never Mind The Bollocks and realise that it must, to some degree, have introduced the word to a previously ignorant world, although not to the extent that it then became part of their language. The thought of people all around the world puzzling over the word in 1977 amuses me.

I presume it's common to talk bollocks about either someone else's art (hello critics!) or your own. That's a stupid sentence. 

I mean...

...artspeak is widely recognised as bollocks and artists either willingly puff up their work with pretentious bollocks or are encouraged to do so by galleries. Perhaps I'm envious of their vocabularies being greater than mine, along with their ability to concoct clever-sounding sentences in relation to their art.

Or perhaps I'm just...a...lazy sod!

Collage: Another Space Age Advance / Film: Starship Troopers

 

Another Space Age Advance, RTomens 2020

Here's a postcard I made and sold whilst working in the bookshop. Science fiction is a frequent source of inspiration to both my collages and visual poetry. That's obvious in the collages, but not always so in many vispo pieces where I've used texts from sci-fi stories which don't necessarily shout 'sci-fi', although sometimes they do. I think I may be the first space age visual poet. In July of last year I printed a booklet called Back To Earth, my only full project that's totally sci-fi influenced.

Now I have a confession: I'm watching Starship Troopers...again. I love it! Yes, I can see why some think it's rubbish. I can't see why it gets called 'fascist' - or maybe I can because, as you know, virtually anything that isn't promoting 'progressive' values gets called fascist. 

It is, in part, a revolting spectacle. Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards as the lead characters in the romance are all dazzling teeth and perfect skin, like somebody's idea of 'perfect' androids. You could say the acting is android-like too, but the script doesn't exactly demand 'the method'. I think they're perfect. They are all-American model material. That's the point. You don't get the point? It's satire. This film sets up 'the dream' (military) only to have it destroyed in the expert blood-soaked hands of director,  Paul Verhoeven, who knows how to do violence. Decapitation, limbs torn off, bodies sliced in two and pierced by bug pincers; he doesn't hold back. Anyone who thinks this film glorifies the military hasn't actually seen it.  

Renowned critic Roger Ebert called it 'totalitarian'. He also said: 'What’s lacking is exhilaration and sheer entertainment. Unlike the “Star Wars” movies, which embraced a joyous vision and great comic invention, “Starship Troopers” doesn’t resonate.' Pah! What a wuss! He was missing the point entirely. Every shallow gesture towards emotional resonance is just that in Starship Troopers. It's a B-movie par excellence, wasting little time dwelling on 'likeable' characters, or even characterisation. Humans here have one job: kill bugs. This film is total entertainment! 

Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite.

Collage: The Pupal Case / Obnoxious flies / The Cramps and Kris Guidio

The Pupal Case, RTomens, 2026

Parts of the collage were cut from The Pictorial Encyclopedia Of The Animal Kingdom (1963) in which author V.J. Stanek does not hold back regarding flies...

...can you imagine anyone writing that today? You can't label flies 'obnoxious'! It is funny though, in retrospect. Most people now probably don't like flies much but, you know, a book on the animal kingdom wouldn't be allowed such a judgemental opinion. 

Human Fly...

Savoy Books' Kris Guidio monograph, Sinister Legends. 1988. He was a big fan of The Cramps. There's a cheap copy for sale here. It contains an interview and a lot more of his art. Recommended!

Interview with Kris...

Collage: Specimen 78 / Marvin Gaye and collage / Bryan Ferry in the supermarket?

Specimen 78, RTomens, 2026

As Marvin Gaye asked: "What's going on?" Except he was pondering the state of the world in 1971, wasn't he? Not the state of a collage, although I'm sure Specimen 78 would have provoked the same query from him. So I wondered what AI would come up with if I searched 'did Marvin Gaye like collage?' Here's what it said:

'The question of whether Marvin Gaye liked "collage" is open to interpretation, depending on how you define the term:

Musical "collage": Gaye embraced innovative production techniques in his music, particularly in his seminal album What's Going On. This album featured lingering intros and outros that connected songs, creating a continuous, seamless musical narrative, which could be seen as a form of sound collage or a concept album. He also incorporated complex polyrhythms into some compositions.'

You see? AI knows everything! I question its suggestion that What's Going On 'could be seen as a form of sound collage' though despite the fact that some tracks do merge into each other, don't they? I don't know, not having played the album in years. It was never as great to my ears as pundits make out. I rate Stevie Wonder's Innervisions more highly.

AI ends with: 'There is no specific information in the search results indicating his opinion on the art form of visual collage'. What a surprise - ha-ha!

How about Bryan Ferry? Is he into collage oh mighty, all-knowing AI? (I knew this would prompt an affirmative but asked anyway). Answer:

'Yes, Bryan Ferry is a significant enthusiast of collage and has explicitly stated that his interest in the art form heavily influenced his music, particularly the early work of Roxy Music. 

The Influence of Collage on Bryan Ferry

Art School Background Ferry studied Fine Art at Newcastle University where one of his tutors for a year was the renowned Pop Artist Richard Hamilton. Hamilton's famous collage Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? was a major inspiration.

A "Collage of Ideas" Ferry described the first Roxy Music album as a "collage of ideas," noting that even within a single song, the mood would change, concentrating many different concepts. He found it interesting to collage disparate elements together, seeing it as a way to reveal his identity through his choices.

"Collages of Sound" The visual art of collage directly led to his interest in creating "collages of sound". This approach involved combining diverse musical genres, such as Bob Dylan, Lesley Gore, jazz, and Motown, which was considered innovative and ahead of its time.

Current Work The influence continues in his recent work. His 2025 album Loose Talk, a collaboration with artist Amelia Barratt, is described as a "collage of music, poetry and art" involving "spoken word and sound collages". Ferry has stated that he remains very interested in the idea of sound collage, which has "always been [his] thing" since the beginning of Roxy Music.'

So I had a skip through his latest album, Loose Talk, but couldn't find anything like a 'sound collage'. Is it so subtle that I didn't notice? Possibly. Or is Bryan talking porkies in an effort to lend the album more artic gravitas than is warranted? That's OK; Bryan can say what he likes...he's a music god. The 'collage' influence is clearly evident in early Roxy Music though.

Being a god, I wondered if He actually went to supermarkets. Can you imagine Him scanning the biscuits election? Can you imagine Him pushing a trolley? Can you imagine Bryan Ferry picking up a 9-pack of loo roll? I can't. He surely has reasonably well-paid slaves to do basic shopping for him. 

AI: 'While there's no definitive "yes" or "no" about Bryan Ferry's supermarket habits, he seems more aligned with traditional, perhaps more boutique, shopping, valuing unique experiences like vintage record stores, suggesting he likely prefers quality over mass-market convenience, though as a Londoner, he might pop into a high-end supermarket for specific items.'

I wondered if He was married, in relation to housemaids, because if He was, if I was His wife, I'd make sure the maid was really ugly.  You know what Bryan's like. I don't mean to imply that He's the unfaithful type, more that any girl/woman would be unable to resist 'accidentally' falling into His lap when delivering Him His tea. Even though He's now 80-years-old. Then again, if the maid was a musical ignoramus, she'd just see Him as an old man, wouldn't she? She may have Googled Him and seen how handsome He was, but now? Pah! Just a wrinkled old man! Mind you, if she Googled His financial status (estimated to have a fortune of £30 million in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2010) - yes! He's single, by the way.

Finally, I asked AI: 'Does Bryan Ferry like Robin Tomens' art?' Answer:

While there is no widely documented public statement from Bryan Ferry regarding a personal liking for Robin Tomens' art, Tomens is an artist and writer who has participated in exhibitions alongside other contemporary creators. 

Ferry’s documented artistic interests and collaborations typically center on:

Historical Fine Art: He studied under pop artist Richard Hamilton and has cited Édouard Manet’s Olympia as a major influence on his visual aesthetic and Roxy Music album covers.

Amelia Barratt: In 2025, Ferry collaborated extensively with painter and performance artist Amelia Barratt on the album Loose Talk, featuring her spoken-word prose over his musical soundscapes.

Contemporary Photography: Ferry often works with noted photographers such as Brian Aris, Karl Stoecker, and Deborah Feingold for his portraits and cover art. 

Robin Tomens has been associated with the UK art scene and has written about or participated in events involving experimental music and art, but a direct endorsement from Ferry remains unconfirmed in recent major interviews or retrospectives.'

Cold vispo: For Your Information / I love borders! / My art travels and so do I, occasionally / Music: The Shout (soundtrack) by Rupert Hine /

For Your Information, RTomens, 2025

Here's a new 'cold' (collage of old) vispo piece. Two old pieces went into the making, with print overlaid then further cut-out shapes added. At this rate, it will take me ages to weed out the rejects from the boxes and recycle them, but that's how it's going.

I love borders! Don't you? Oops, I forgot to cap the 'b'. You'll think me one of those crazy people who care about the type and number of people who come into their country - oh no!!! Perhaps you can't get Border biscuits in your country. I'm not sure if their sales cross borders. 

My art has physically crossed a few borders. It's travelled to Japan, Austria, Portugal, America, Australia...and probably other countries I've forgotten. It's more well-travelled than me. When I did fly it was usually to Europe because I can't be doing long haul. That and the fact that I love France as a holiday destination, especially the South and in particular Nice. As I always say, in my 'other life', I'd live there; perhaps in London too, although once in Nice, I can't imagine what would draw me back to London.

Here I am posing outside the Jean Cocteau museum in Menton. A cool building...with cool content!

Here's the view from the top of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice. 

It's the greatest gallery in my world but is currently closed for renovation so wait until it's reopened before you go. You really should go. 

Now I must stop posting holiday snaps and mention this film soundtrack...

The official soundtrack credit went to Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford but Buried Treasure's Alan Gubby has spent seven years (!) getting this collection of Rupert Hine's recordings for the film together and it's a real treat pop-pickers.  If you like electronic film cues and short mood pieces this is a must. The clip below features John Hurt as composer, Anthony Fielding, making musique concrète.

TTFN!

Remake/remodel vispo collage / Bad painting / Dub me...dub me always

 

Fool, RTomens, 2025

Yes, the vispo recycling continues apace. No definite stylistic approach yet and one may never emerge. Knowing me (as I do, in this regard, although perhaps not ultimately in every sense because...well...don't you ever look in the mirror and say 'Who are you?' No? It can't only be me that does...) I'll use various techniques.

Sometimes I do crave the technique, the one that's so damned good I have to use it all the time. But that just isn't me. I can't keep on one track. I have noticed that many more popular artists have one-track minds to their art. I mean popular in the small pond (the one related to using text and the broad visual poetics church), not that big one outside populated by Big Fine Artists making lots of money. They get invited to speak at events (OK, I did once this year), they even have studios! They have loads more followers online than I do and they know how to write or talk about their 'practice'. Yes, they call it their 'practice'. I never use the word. Perhaps I should. Perhaps it's key to their success. See? They take themselves seriously as...artists! They even have artist haircuts which, for women, must include a radical fringe of some kind, very floppy, perhaps, or the classic Hannah Hoch fringe. That's one sure sign of serious artist. 

I'm not sure about the men, although the boys...well, a walk around Central Saint Martins would surely reveal a stereotype or two. I might even struggle differentiating between the sexes - ha-ha - no, not because of long hair (aah, the 60s, when it was only long hair that caused old fogies to scratch their heads and wonder) but because...he/they whatever - it's all about neutrality, you know!!! 

Where was I? Yes, that's it, cutting up old visual poems to recycle. In Fool (above) I went all 'mixed media', yes, I did. I actually did some painting! I can't paint properly, but even as I write that I'm fully aware that I was w-a-a-ay ahead of my time by not painting 'properly', ever, starting in the 70s. It took teachers and students a long time to catch up with me but for the last few decades not being able to paint properly has definitely not been a problem. 

There's no artful anti-skill skill at work. God, no, nothing so old school as learning the rules, then breaking them - fuck the rules to start with - ha-ha! Do you think art schools today teach painting, like...um...composition, colour...er...I don't know what you're supposed to know when it comes to painting. Do they hell - it's a free-for-all! It's post-modern, innit? Yes, dear reader, I was post-modern before it was 'in'. I could prove it by showing you some bad paintings I did, but you've done me no harm so I won't.

Having cut up some work I got the idea to create shapes which ended up looking like magnifying glasses. That wasn't intentional, as you can tell by the fact that all that can be seen are splodges of red paint with a bit of text; nothing important. The black acrylic was applied dry, pure, straight from the tube. I find this the best way to achieve that Bad Painting look, don't you? No mixing with water for fine lines and neat edges. My crude efforts ended up looking a bit...Abstract Expressionist? Maybe?

The other day I compared my recycling to that of reggae producers because, as you know, they loved to recycle a rhythm. I've been listening to a lot of dub recently. It's been a constant in my musical life since the 70s and that Punky Reggae party we all had. It's not really an apt comparison because I don't recycle the same visuals often...I just liked the idea. As I also said, I can't claim to be the visual equivalent of King Tubby or even Adrian Sherwood (meow!). I made a playlist of some faves.

 

The Wanstead Independent Book Fair / Too much artwork?

 

I'll be selling stuff at this book fair. 

Let me rephrase that: I'll have work on a table which people can buy, if they wanna. It's the first fair I've done so  don't know what to expect in terms of sales. We'll see.

More info here 

Along with original pieces of visual poetry and my books there will be collages. 

Here's a recent piece I made...

Unreal, RTomens, 2025

Preparing for the fair, choosing what to take, meant sorting through all the boxes and realising...oh shit...there's too much! I got sick of the sight of it all. Which made me think that less is more when it comes to a customer's eye and maybe I should take less than I intended, which was to maximise the space in folders and on the table because if I feel sick of seeing it perhaps they will too. There is such a thing as too much choice.

Then there's the other little voice inside saying 'No, take as much as you can because that maximises the chances of someone seeing the one they want.'

Could I have a bargain bin? You know, the kind of thing you see in charity shops filled with scarves and crumpled ties...a quid each. I'd put my...lesser (?) work in there...because I do know what's lesser amongst all the pieces I've created. By what criteria? It's an instinct, as well as looking objectively. That aside, there is a lot which could go either way; pieces I think are OK but someone else might love. 

I'm sure all prolific artists have contemplated either giving away their work or just chucking it out. I could put a boxful out the front of the house and let people help themselves. Looking at the mess of papers as I have this week, it's tempting. What would it matter to me? Someone might take it home and treasure it. Wouldn't that be better than just storing it in boxes? 

I'll let you know how it went.

TTFN

Be Kind (assholes) / Erasure drawing / Love letters/Poem collage

Two Kinds Of People, RTomens, 2025

Fans of John Waters will recognise the quote in the piece above - paraphrasing, to be precise. Come on, Robin, that's a bit harsh...just because someone doesn't think like you doesn't make them an 'asshole'! No, no, it doesn't, you're right. Be nice. Be tolerant. Be Zen. I'm only playing with the idea. It may be something we all think sometimes. Sometimes we think terrible things...unkind things. Social media is ablaze with disagreements and abusive comments...don't join in...even when you read a comment by someone and think 'You asshole!!!' (In the UK, it would be 'arsehole', of course.)

Why make art? Why argue? Why go for a walk? Why anything? Another erasure piece below. I like to 'draw' (although LJ challenges me when I say I'm 'drawing'. But I am, aren't I? I'm just not drawing anything other than lines and shapes. 

Why Anything, RTomens, 2025

Love letters...once upon a time we wrote them. I suppose newer generations write 'love emails'? It doesn't have the same romantic ring to it, does it? Actual letters on paper could be felt...the indentations of a pen on paper...a smell, perhaps, like some I received from a girl who doused the pages in perfume. Your lover handled the paper...perhaps they creased a top corner by mistake...their hand is evident...oh poor modern generation...you will never know the pleasure of a letter from a lover! When one affair ended, I burnt all her letters. I wish I hadn't but at the time I needed to perform that drastic action, that symbolic (?) torching of words she wrote. Our love affair was never destined to rise from those ashes!

Love Poem/Love Letters, RTomens, 2025

Collage for sale: Mechanical Methods

Mechanical Methods, RTomens, 2023

This collage is in the shop.

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Vispo/Collage: That Memory / Punk collage

RTomens, 2025

A small piece (you can tell by the size of the type, can't you? Of course you can!). This was even more the result of rapid improvisation than my usual work In other words, I started with the squiggles using carbon paper, which means working 'blind', not being able to see where the marks will land, exactly. Suddenly they called out to be framed, which gave the type a definite space to be placed in and the type was very random, as were the marks at the top, which took on the impression of 'rain'. A base was created at the bottom, with no idea of putting anything on it until I noticed the cut-out figure lying on my desk amongst other cut-outs for collages yet to be made. I drew around him to see what could be done around the figure. Nothing elaborate...the 'Os' seemed to want to cluster around him and the straight typed lines created a kind of movement. The title comes from text in the figure.

It so happens that I've been wrestling with memory of late - nothing new there, I suppose. My recent talk at the Warburg Institute took the loose form of a retrospective, starting with collages made during the Punk rock era. It didn't quite go as I hadn't really planned, of course, but leading up to the event I dug deep into the archives, finding a lot of 'forgotten' art. 

Here's a collage from 1977, possibly my first ever. As you can see, it's a basic scrapbook-style collection of band images. It's a miracle it's survived this long...the same could be said of me.

RTomens, 1977

As I tried to say in the talk, the spirit of Punk is important to me. Don't worry, I don't walk around Camden Market wearing a leather jacket with 'PUNK'S NOT DEAD!' painted on the back, sporting a green Mohican haircut (that would have to be a wig in my case). I've no interest in seeing a band from those times (one surviving original member) either.

No, I mean, the spirit of DIY and the Punk aesthetic. That's DIY as applied to Art. But hey, don't all artists do it themselves? Some get others to do the actual making, as you know, but what I mean is that Art should be of 'the people' in the sense that Punk at it's best was a grass roots movement. No college course necessary. No qualifications. Some might call it Outsider Art, but even that's become an officially sanctioned movement.

I didn't start out with this philosophy. I just made art. The idea of writing, reproducing via Xerox and distributing was reborn during Punk, but instead of music-based zines, I copied and stapled together my art. I didn't attempt to get into Art collage, already having built up a strong aversion to any form of education since I was a kid at Junior school. 

Without wishing to bore you with my life story in Art, here I am, over 50 years later (I started drawing around the age of 11) making 'stuff'....mostly typing, these days, but also some prints and collage. Whilst the network for exposure has expanded to infinite proportions online, I don't work very hard at that. As another artist said to me the other day, for some online exposure is a full-time job. Good luck to them. For some of us creating is what's most important and we do as much online promotion as we can stand.

So I pack away the crusty old Punk collage...and carry on...

TTFN

Collage: Leave Me Alone

RTomens, 2025

 

Collage: Private Lives / The Gas - Charles Platt

RTomens, 2024

I made Private Lives late last year and a few weeks later found myself reading The Gas by Charles Platt. One reflects on privacy and what goes on behind closed doors, the other depicts a country (England) driven sex mad by gas leaked from a military lab.  'Why don't we do it it in the road?' indeed.

If sex circa 1970 in relation to the 60s 'revolution' was supposedly about liberation, Platt drives that idea to an horrific extreme in which no-one can control their desires and sex is not a choice but a compulsion. The results are repulsive and Platt doesn't hesitate to describe them in graphic detail. It's an extraordinary piece of fiction, a grotesque twist on disaster sci-fi...pulpy, conceptual, pornographic and possibly profound, if you like to read it that way. Not for the faint-hearted.

 

Collage: Disinterested?

RTomens, 20119

 

Collage: Taking Notes / Morricone Art Ensemble mix up

RTomens, 2024

I hope you're all taking notes...is probably what a teacher once said in class...and I didn't...because school was a house of horrors to me, filled with terrifying subjects, such as Maths (double Maths was an excuse/motivation to leave the school grounds by the rear exit, walk into town and browse in the local record shop...yes, that's how I got where I am today!). 

Another horror: the chance of being thumped by a bully. I was the original 7 stone weakling Charles Atlas body-building ads were aimed at. I should have taken the course, except that, had I built myself a body like his perhaps I would have got into more fights and, inevitably, lost some because, like gunslingers in the Old West, there's always someone faster/stronger/meaner. 

Have you ever confused Ennio Morricone with the Art Ensemble of Chicago? Come on, admit it, you have. No, you've never been listening to one of Ennio's spaghetti soundtracks and thought it was the AEC, of course. You might, however, have been listening to the AEC, on shuffle, which later served up Ennio's Dialogo from Dimensioni Sonore 7 and thought 'It's the Art Ensemble again'...as I did ten minutes ago. Here's the track...

I don't want to say it again because I've told a lot of people but in case you're one who doesn't know. Ennio Morricone made some astounding 'avant-garde' music for 70s Italian horror films (sorry if I'm being patronising towards you). Also, the track above is from recording made for RCA in 1972. An epic release split with Bruno Nicolai. Both created fantastic sounds fusing Jazz with electronic mood pieces and orchestral modernism yada-yada. Treat yourself for Christmas, why don't you. Take note!

Top Ten Novels / Collage: Vernacular / Andrew Rudin

 

RTomens, 20-

Whilst speaking to someone recently the subject of slimming down our book collections came up and I asked her for her Top Ten. Then I gave her mine. This is it:

The Outsider - Camus

Nova Express - Burroughs

Don Quixote - Cervantes

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

Our Man In Havana - Graham Greene

Nineteen-Eighty-Four - you-know-who

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

On The Road - Kerouac

The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald

Double Indemnity - James M. Cain

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RTomens, 2024

I've not blogged for a while, mostly been typing but - .....

recently I decided to return to collage (see above) and...

since it involves architecture perhaps, subconsciously, this was dictated by the forthcoming work on our flat due to be started on Monday - the dread - I hate workman invading my space and this will be a four-day interruption of my usual existence which may not be fun-filled or action-packed but it is my routine and that involves making art, the disruption of which would normally involve homicide but cannot until the work is done, after which I shall be too relieved to want to kill them...

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A recent post by Simon Reynolds alerted me to the existence of  Andrew Rudin, for which I'm extremely grateful. As Simon says: 'love to listen to this stuff but I'm not sure I really understand it beyond "that's a bunch of cool weird noises in a pattern" ', which is a brave (?) admission but one I can relate too and, if truth be told, so can most of us humble fans of avant-garde electronic music. Yes, there will, in many cases, be an intellectual/musical explanation of the complex arrangements and technical expertise and I even have some in books on the genre but there's no way I'm going to try and decipher what's written. Meanwhile, you might enjoy these 'weird noises' and as a bonus, visuals by Rudin himself...

Collage: Sapient

RTomens, 2024

 

Collages & Prints: Marvels Of The Mechanical Man / Robot Dance

Coming across a copy of Popular Mechanics on my shelf today I decided to work with the classic cover...classic, that is, if you're a fan of what used to be The Future. I started by cutting and pasting another edition, then adding the robot via the computer and print variations of images and text followed. 

 

Collage: Preference - the medium and the message (or lack of) / Music: Excelsior Mill - Sun Ra

RTomens, 2024

This collage isn't a comment on what you might call...materialistic greed(?) No, no. Yes, once upon a time I might have adopted a 'lofty' stance regarding money...as if I didn't like it, want it, need it or value the making of it - huh! The tinpot anarchist...or armchair anarchist...

Who doesn't like making money? But I confess to never having been good at it...aside from sticking with proper jobs, the last of which I stuck at for 15 years! As for making money from Art - ha-ha! 

No, it's a...collision of images, as was always the way with collage. Sometimes they can convey a message, of course. Look at the early Russian collages...so enthusiastic about the revolution!  Which brings us back to the subject of money-making and capitalism. Someone recently used the phrase 'post-capitalism' in an FB post. Eh? No-one told me it was over. Mind you, the UK will probably soon have a self-confessed 'socialist' as Prime Minister, so who knows.

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Good lord!!! Here's a newly-released, previously unheard Sun Ra performance at Excelsior Mill, Atlanta, in 1984...playing the Wurlitzer pipe organ! If you know anything about Sun Ra, you know he could and would play any keyboard. Well, 'The Mighty Wurlitzer' is put through it's paces by Ra, as you'd expect. We've heard him spectacularly shredding synths before and this concert is no exception. Only Ra could make such an old-fashioned instrument sound like...the future? Well, a future Hell, perhaps. But it's totally captivating.