A few shots from the recent exhibition of pain[and other]tings by Lupen Crook and The Mrs at the Nucleus Gallery in Chatham, which opened on Friday 21st August and ran until Friday 28th:
The Nucleus Gallery’s trippy ambience (particularly the shiny floor and mixed light levels) pushed my meagre photographic skills to their limit, but hopefully this gives you a flavour of how the exhibition looked.
It certainly made an impact on visitors. On the couple of days that I was there, everyone who entered the gallery passed comment, favourably or otherwise. “Marvellous” was one; “base, ugly surrealism” another.
I’m not trying to depict every single exhibit in this Flickr set. Plenty of Mr Crook’s paintings are visible via this website’s archives. The Mrs has a MySpace profile for now and will have a website shortly.
The slideshow above is just a taster. You can see larger versions of the pictures, either as a full-screen slideshow or on a shot-by-shot basis, by going to the set page on Flickr (choose “Slideshow” or “Detail”).
Artists are now responsible for their own marketing, says Andrew Keen. Every band needs a brand. Crook considered this proposition. Emboldened by miscellaneous wines, other peripheral measures of alcohol and the company of f(r)iends, he concluded that a literal approach was required. Under the untimely lunacy of an afternoon moon, he took a hot rod from the fire and made his mark.
The wound was sterilised with Chekov vodka, the mind calmed with a blast or two on the trusty nicotine inhaler. Days passed and the body set about its task of repairing the cauterised flesh and scabby skin. Another letter now sits on the document of the body: a C reversed, a worm straining to eat its own tail. Maybe a hungry, punning bird will fly onto his shoulder: a rook come to see.
My first real attempt at stop motion.
This is just an experiment and far from perfect so I’ve decided not to spend any more time on it. It’s been a huge learning curve for me and mostly relied on trial and error, resulting mostly with error.
Nonetheless I’ve worked out a few little tricks along the way to make the whole process slightly quicker and I couldn’t have done it without the brilliant photography of Jenny Hardcore whose patience and ideas have made this slow process far more enjoyable.
I have no idea how many photographs have been used but it must be close to 1000.
Anyway, I will now begin a far more ambitious and possibly impossible idea… impossible for a man of my limited talent anyway.
If anyone has any experience with stop motion and would like to hear about my new idea, if only to tell me i’m batting out of my league then all advice or help is very welcome.
I hope you enjoy and watch this space.
Tom x
At the moment, Murderbirds Radio is a one-off. Lupen, Bob, Tom & Craig have chosen some songs that they’ve loved over the years. Not necessarily their definitive five favourite tracks of all time, but nevertheless stuff that they’d like you to hear.
Murderbirds Fans Radio is your chance to respond. It’s a collaborative Spotify playlist to which you can add tracks, change the playing order, and so on. You can highlight songs that you’d like to play to the band, or that you think other fans might like.
You can’t see who added what to a Spotify playlist, but you can use the comments on this post to chat about the band’s choices or your own additions to the Fans playlist. If you can’t use Spotify for any reason, you can still join in with the discussion.
A short disclaimer: the band has no affiliation to Spotify (there aren’t even any band tracks on there… yet). This is just an experiment – a bit of fun. Yes, there are adverts and yes, they’re annoying, but that’s how Spotify pays royalties to fellow musicians.
So… get listening, get thinking, get adding your own tracks and get commenting!
‘Final Curtain At The Theatre Royal’ – featuring the poetry, music and art of Billy Childish, Lupen Crook and Oliver Burgess, all recorded at the Theatre Royal in Chatham a few days before it was demolished in May 2009. 21.36 minutes in length.
This exhibition runs everyday between 10am and 5pm. A lot of recent work will be shown plus a few older pieces. Copies of the last two EP’s will be available as well. Myself and The Mrs will be hosting a Private View on Friday 21st August. Work on show from 7pm. We will be supplying some complementary drinks, but you are also welcome to bring your own. This is our first exhibition so we are both a bit nervous. Please spread the word. We both look forward to meeting and speaking to you all. x Lupen.
Lupen Crook features alongside Billy Childish and Oliver Burgess in Dave Wise’s forthcoming documentary Final Curtain At The Theatre Royal. The film was shot in Chatham’s beautiful, decaying Theatre Royal building a few days before it was demolished earlier this year.
Yesterday, Kent News published an interview with Dave that explains his motivation behind the film, which was to preserve a record of the building’s interior before it was reduced to rubble. Sadly, a local initiative to restore the theatre – originally closed in 1955 – had come to nothing.
The film will be screened at The Command House in Chatham on Wednesday August 12th (8pm, £3 entry, also includes poetry performances) and will be available to view online at www.davewise.biz and www.hakimslater.com from 6pm the following day.
If you’re curious to know more and can’t wait until next week, here’s a Flickr slideshow that shows the Theatre Royal before, during and after its demolition. This thread on the 28dayslater forum is also worth a look. Something very special has been lost.
