Let me explain some of the characters who will play a part in my Live Art gig The Shrewd Idiot & The Three Graces with guest star Appleheadman at the Arnolfini on Saturday 1st April at 5pm in the Dark Studio on level2 during the bi-annual meet of The Bristol Artists’ Book Event (BABE) 2017.
First let me explain why I do such things which keep keeping me far out of my comfort zone as every one that I do gives me lots of challenge. This time I am doing it to bring my new book series to life, literally! I have just finished creating 3 new books which centre on the life I was put through from 1969-73 between three beautiful places in England; my home town Burnley, my college town Exeter and my summer vacation town Bournemouth. The subject of the books is threefold; growing up, becoming a fully-fledged creator and my ‘affairs’ with three beautiful women. My books ram 4 years into 125 @ A3 sheets, my PerformanceArtPiece (PAP) rams 4 years into 15 minutes! Easy-Peasy.
I love making books, by which I mean the whole process from concept thru writing, image adding, layout, control of print, bind and materials. I love doing the PAPs. I been doing books & PAPs since 1972 and hope to go on a long time cos I have a big back catalogue of material awaiting production.
That’s me in the batter hat with Jamie Burr in a wig during a gig at IPA 2015 photo by Jurgen Fritz
It is useless doing beautiful books if nobody gets to hear about them nor ‘gets’ what has gone into them so I have upped my Live Art side by exposing myself to a 10 days PA session with IPA in 2015. That gave me insight into what folk are doing and where my limited skills fitted in. It also unharnessed my latent penchant for making a fool of myself.
Which brings me to the main character in my new PAP, The Shrewd Idiot (Th’S.I.). Some folk may have the mistaken notion that it’s me but it can’t be cos am not that shrewd! Th’S.I. thinks he can mime, dance, do poems, dress up and no doubt he’ll turn up next Saturday.
The Three Graces were 3 unsuspecting women who thought the guy they met at the disco was not just a great dancer but also kind & considerate. By the end of the book they all have seen the mistake they made and slung their hooks (at the SI!).
Appleheadman, an ‘alien type’ [never said what dimension he or it’s from, actually it emanates of course from my sub-conscious but I believe that store taps into other things which we don’t really understand], who was shocked at some ‘human’ behaviours when he first saw them. Then as he studied humans he saw they also had good habits too like Rock music, Beano comics Football. These areas are some that I covered with illustrations that I created to place inside some screenprinted heads of Appleheadman back in 1972, the prints were all individual at about A1 size and formed into a concertina book. Until recently print cost would have been astronomical so I never did a smaller version for public consumption but now colour print has become a reachable price and I have made 50 copies at c. A5 size which are ‘perfect bound’ with a little embossed stamp on the cover and a mirror inside.
I hope to find time & space to show my books to those of you interested in ma books at BABE. I’m bringing a ‘view copy’ of The SI book and the only copy of PK 1968-73 along with lots of copies of Appleheadman Sees hot off the press last Tursday.
I hope you can make it.
Namaste
Pete
If you like this blArty bit there’s 2 more o ma blogs yez needs to peruse about ma new buks and the next gig:
https://apulhed.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/wonderful-breaking-news-about-the-book/
&
https://apulhed.wordpress.com/2017/03/02/an-announcement-on-world-book-day/
See ya there!
apulhed tingling 