An idjet suckseeds!

At last I did ma Shrewd Idiot & The Three Graces gig in front of an audience (of 22+ cos some came in came out as you’re allured to do in Live Art pieces, altho one or two walked out before I began!) and I finally discovered with a little ‘elp from ma frend (see below) why I do it. At the Arnifini in Brissole in their wonderful Dark Studio. It had been suggested that nobody would have the energy nor drive to wend their way up there at 5pm on an afternoon but beautifully every available seat was filled and the witnesses seemed quite attentive, nay near mesmerised.

Much to my delight, as I had practised the ting and planned it over so many weeks without knowing if I’d be talking to myself alone on the day. I wantu thank my friend Dave who was first to say how much work it needed just six days before the event. Then my friends Max, Linda, Christine & Tom who said it really needed some big changes just five days before the event. I applied their advices. Christine did a lovely print & fold job on some words for me to hand out as folk arrived from which I read my ‘intro’ before I began the real ting.

Three old college mates came and it was wonderful to see them. Each of them features in ma big new deluxe book The Shrewd Idiot based on my thoughts & activities at St Luke’s College Exeter between 1969-73. My mate Gus was joined by his daughter Hannah who also does Performance Art and wasn’t even born in the time the books are about!

Tanya came to see what my fuss was all about. I’d like to thank them all for coming as well as all the other folks who came along. The gathered presence really inspired me to rise out of my fears and let the whole ting ting along well and it seems they all enjoyed it, especially the ones I mentioned above.

So what happened?

First I shewed ma 3 new books (quickly as I was told this gig should last just 15 minutes).

Then I read from Christine’s handout.

Then I got into character for the first few movements. The mask was taken from a painting I did back in 1968 which was exhibited in Burnley Artists Annual summer show that year. It was a face which represented the 17-18 year old me-myself-I, which is what the books appear to be about. It is also the first page of the Shrewd Idiot book printed on Zander’s Translucent paper so you see the title page beyond it as a sort of palimpsest. There’s 10 images on Zander’s Translucent in the deluxe A3 version each of which brings a palimpsest quality. For me it is a metaphor which signifies that life is not just what we can see and touch, there’s lots of other ‘stuff’ behind the veil. The painted face becomes another form of veil too, my mask. I always work on hunches in most all of my creative endeavours. I had a hunch these masks would be powerful, and they were, or should I say, ARE. I hope to have many opportunities to use them again and in fact I hope to make some 3D wraparound masks for future appearances as Apulhed & The Shrewd Idjit.

I did a couple of crazy dances meant to show what a ‘wild one’ I was when I left ma home toon to find ma way in th’world. The ting got serious when I told them I’d found a new girlfriend (Rose) but (rather carelessly) lost her at the bus stop. Van D. Man brought me a Beautiful Vision of her. After I lost her Lady Gaga had me howling at the moon in my doldrums.

Suddenly, out of No-where, came a Stranger with an apple-shaped head and he seemed to want to help me. But he was a new arrival on this plane and he was somewhat perplexed by the sad things mankind does to humankind. He almost set off back to whence he came without giving me (and you) the benefit of his shrewd wisdom. When I did my first ever Performance Art gig using his visage on masks in Exeter in 1973 he seemed to see a shaft o’light thru the haze and so he stays but he said, ‘Man must mend his ways, starting with YOU!’

Then Van sang Warm Love bringing back memories of the time we had together, a memory I chased and tried to cling on to. But I returned to my old wild ways, by now I was making a Cry For Love, aided by Iggy & Bowie’s song and ma new mask.

I’d almost given up hope when this beautiful woman (Camellia) arrived and gave me a present I didn’t really deserve which Iggy Pop told the story of.

Camellia also brought her highly intelligent rational skills with her which I celebrate with The Waterboy’s song Whole of the Moon. Sadly I couldn’t keep hold of Camellia at the time and I was on the road again alone and missing her.

Once again after the moon enter Apulhed-man.

This time lifting me up onto a higher plane where I was again joined by Van. He sings about being a Dweller on the Threshold, I tip toe across the burning ground and kneel down by the water where the lovely song about spirit leads me away, to delve into the mystic. “I looked at the swim and I dived right in!”

To find the truth you got to look inside.

Meditation helps you to do that.

I actually had picked up the wrong mask for my final fling so my Apul-Swallow mask insisted he be photographed outside of the Arnolfini as a goodbye gesture.

And all my friends came too…

The feedback has been good too. One friend said he remembered that I always liked to dance, another said she thought I danced beautifully which came as a pleasant surprise. My old mate from Enfield said ma gig was ‘…very moving and affecting…’

This was also what ‘James the tech’ in the Dark Studio said, ‘I was strangely moved by it.’ I am so pleased that it came over that way.

The Enfield Man (EMan) later wrote me saying, “…we had a chat afterwards about your performance and books and we reckoned that, based on what we saw, your books together with the performance was the best thing that we saw at the event. What you did, in my opinion, was to say, “look artists’ books are really different“…they are not just books with the limited and specialist vernacular that goes with the production of a “book” for a literary audience …artists’ books are a completely separate art form. Your performance really adds to your books as works of art. ” Also- “…The Shrewd Idiot book has a wonderful feel and special value attached to it just from a “laying on of hands” point of view…”

That’s exactly what I hoped I would achieve in my works, altho’ it has not been easypeasy. Sometimes I have wondered whether I been forever Barking up the wrong trees, ‘Am a long way from home (my comfort zone). How did I get here?’ It is so gratifying that am getting such lovely reinforcing comments.

ps I am working on a smaller version A4-ish) of The Shrewd Idiot which should have much of the ‘feel & look’ of the bigger (A3-ish) deluxe version but will be a tiny proportion of its cost.

Talking about ‘the feel & special value’ of real books my downunder friend Fiona Dempster did a blog – https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15b43ee869fd87b2 on th’smell of the buk.

This coincided with my friend (who I met at BABE four years ago!) Susan at Bound’s tweet: https://twitter.com/boundbyhand/status/850335549034561537

An Incredible Coincidence

Ma next blArt will be about the poet Pessoa and my being caught between Bookartbookshop & The Poetry School on Thursday 6^th April.

The 3 Graces meet Appleheadman.

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 1^st 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.

Enter a caption

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 3 Graces; Bluebell, Rose & Camellia.

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!

Wonderful breaking news about the book.

Wonderful breaking news- I picked up the first copy of my second book in my series about my college days from my binders Sullivan & Son, Colchester and it looks beautiful. I’ll only have one display copy for BABE but it’s a great sidekick to my Shrewd Idiot book. It’s got 37 images on Zanders translucent paper and is bound in an unusual way inspired by a little book that Rauschenberg made about 1954.

After my last blArt about nearly being marmalised by my big book I received several emails from folks out there showing how my stupidity generated lots of mirth, and sympathy, including one from my blogger friend Fiona in Australia.

‘Pete, Not your brightest moment right?  Nonetheless I totally understand as I often think my way through things like that – only to realise I have forgotten one important element of the process that could cause my downfall!

The book is looking brilliant – when I first read your email I thought you had made some super stupid mistake with the book for which you were kicking yourself; but in a way I was pleased it was ‘only’ a glancing physical blow… Glad the nose is the only damage done. Fiona.’

Fiona, I love your bit about I maybe ‘had made some super stupid mistake with the book’. Super Stupid is one of my stop off points.

Much of what I ‘appear’ to do is not what it appears to be. So, the Shrewd Idiot (SI) appears to be a story about a budding artistfella but it’s not, it’s about the advent, and continuance thru a lifelong period, of ‘creative consciousness’. Which led to my interest in Dalai Lama & Buddhist stuff including Zen, all of which I have not explored sufficiently yet. But I tink that skirtin alongside it has changed my life, given me more grace and satisfaction that I am on the reight track. (In Burnley where am frum we say reight rather than right!) [But we don’t say reight for write, right].

Finally, if you’re still awake, I am doing a 15 min live art ‘performance’ of the book at Sarah’s BABE and have learned to edit songs on audacity which I’ll use as backing for my piece and as you say…’as I often think my way through things like that – only to realise…’ there’s a beautiful line in a Iggy Pop (Up man) song Shades, “that may be something my mind had not followed through” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehABjBdTq-Y ) and that so applies to me so many ways! As far as the book’s concerned, after 40 years I think I thought of everything. It’s beautiful cover, the texture of the flysheets, and even the colour of the page marker ribbon. It is my masterwork.

About my gig at Arnolfini during BABE on April 1^st.

As always I tend to do things which are considered impossible or inconsequential by ordinary folks and agreeing to do a 15 minute ‘Live Art’ enactment of the 4 years I spent at college in Exeter tween 1969-73 may seem to those who don’t know me as rather ambitious. Well representing 4 years in 15 minutes is not as daunting for me as galvanising a crowd seems to be. Those of you who know me well know too well how shy & retarded I can be so advertising myself is not an easy task but it just got harder. During last week I was taking a look at the Arnolfini website and its publicity about what’s going on around the BABE days specifically what’s on at that weekend-

“BABE 2017 includes a mini exhibition, performances, interventions, book making workshops and more! See the series of events happening throughout the weekend.”

which took me to:http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/series/babe-2017

So I contact the gallery and say that I find there’s no mention at all there of my gig and that I am getting worried as it’s a great deal of travel and organisation that I am putting into it,

“I am putting many hours into the preparation of the music, movement, masks etc and I find it quite upsetting that my Live Art gig is not mentioned at all.

Please can you flag it up, otherwise… I’ll just be doing it just for a couple of friends.”

I attached two of the 6 masks I have prepared, plus a pretty detailed outline of the piece and that will also show that, although it is only 15 minutes duration, I am putting a great deal of effort into getting it well polished.

My concern elicited a reply which could be taken as rather disheartening although I am sure it was meant with the best will in the world, I am not disheartened, I replied,

“I understand your feeling that ‘it might just not be worth it this time?’ but I am getting a lot out of preparing it which I am sure will come in handy later, for more gigs to do with the books.

I was thrilled when Sarah gave me the spot…”

I cannot contemplate backing off now, anyway, many of my costs have already accrued.

I am very committed to this gig and I want it to enhance the weekend, to add another dimension, otherwise I would not have embarked on it. I shall keep in mind the possibility that, as the Dark Studio is such a lovely venue, there will be a few come to see me do it. They can stand up too if they like and one of the things about Performance Art (PA) is folk can come and go as they please, it’s not like a performance where people sit and watch, even endure, to the end, no PA is Live Art and the ‘audience’ can be as much part of it as the PA practitioner.

I know 2 people already who will be attending, another one and ‘three’s a crowd’!

As always, the show must go on. I learned that at the Arnolfini in October 2015 when I did a PA piece outside in the rain.

I thought nobody was interested but I continued doing ma gig and only afterwards found out lots of people were watching and enjoying it. OOZin Gloop liked it as did Paul Hurley’s friend. Nicole Murman a Swiss participant took the image above and about 80 more photos for which I am really grateful. PA is notoriously undocumented as a lot of it happens spontaneously. It’s very ‘in the moment’ and the best stuff often occurs when things appear to be going wrong, that’s when Vest & Page say, ‘It has begun’ or, ‘Now we begin’. Vest & Page happened to see me jumping in puddles with some childers shortly after I had finished the rain dance and Andrea said he thought I made a good clown, Verena said she were just getting her camera ready when the kids stopped bouncing and I bowed out.

However, my PA at BABE 2017 is well planned and I shall be rehearsing the moves over the next 10 days, this is my preferred way to work. Below is a very apt quote from Walliams & Lucas of Little Britain rehearsing: 

Mine won’t (‘flow slickly’) I’m sure! And neither will my costume changes, will they?

If you can spare the time and the effort to make your way up to the 2^nd floor let’s prove that the Dark Studio can attract people* in for the actions of The Shrewd Idiot and his mates, The Three Graces plus the ‘spirit master’, Appleheadman. Nay, some folk may decide to come on April 1^st just to see me make a fool of myself! A Wise Fool hopefully. A bit of a Clown, a Serious Jester etcetera etcetera etcetera…

Don’t be a Square, I’ll see You there. Get it or you’ll Regret it!

(*people who have, already, either been showing their wares all day or folks who came to buy their books)

my caricatures old & Knew

my rework of last week’s cover of Time mag

I have to thank all the folks who visit my blArts and have to tell you that a tweet I did this week has made a mark in Tweetland! It’s ‘viral’ for any of my stuff! here’s some info:

pete kennedy @petekennedy5  Feb 17@Bonn1eGreer here’s a variation on th Time cover Bonnie! @ChiaraAmbrosio the man is a menace blame the USA voting process, we move same way? pic.twitter.com/IvbiUfxi2j {Clik to see the tweet! may need ctrl + clik

In one day (Sat 18.2.2017) 4,572 (number of times viewers saw this twit)

347 ‘interactions’

7.6% (of 4,572) ‘engaged’ with the tweet

Prior to this activity, related to my re-framing an appropriation of this week’s Time mag cover image of a noisy man purportedly elected to head one of the world’s noisiest countries my ‘organic impressions’ on twitter averaged about one a week!

The man who I believe ‘the man is a menace’ was of course a totally ludicrous figment of my imagination (because if I invented him nobody would take me seriously would they) called Bonard Crump. IF fame is what am after I’d do lots more caricature, wouldn’t I?

my Valentine this year with all ma love

Talking caricatures I did one of Nixon meets Mao [which you can see in my new (facsimile) book based on some screenprints I did. I don’t expect this to go viral cos they’re both unable to do any more damage cos they’re dead, not just brian dead!] in 1972 called Appleheadman Sees. I had created Appleheadman (aka Apulhed) in Bournemouth in the previous summer after which I spent 3 months in Tregony near Truro in Cornwall so it was not until 1972 when I returned to college in Exeter that I was able to embark on my first ‘serious’ art project using the personage. I wanted to imagine what the human condition may appear like to an entity from ‘somewhere else’, say, another planet or dimension. And it didn’t appear good. Funny, a little later in 1976 Nicholas Roeg (don’t worry am NOT saying I influenced Roeg, he lived down under and was out of reach of my activities in Exeter!)  did his take on alien visitation starring another alien, the late wonderful David Bowie. https://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-man-who-fell-to-earth

I shall be in Bristol on April 1^st at BABE in the Arnolfini (5pm in the Dark Studio)  where those who can get there will be able to see Appleheadman Sees and of course my new Shrewd Idiot book in its deluxe version. I shall be doing my Performance Art Piece (PAP), a 15 minute ‘gig’ wherein I shall try to represent all the issues in the work of my college days…phew, that’ll be easy…won’t it? Well am working on th’music for it now, and the dance, and the masks, and the costumes etc

a new ‘Shrewd Idiot’ book

Here’s a sighting of ma new Shrewd Idiot book during the binding at Sullivan & Son.

It’s A3 size, that’s with two A4 type-written (By Jill nee Williams in the late 1970s) sheets on each page. There are 13 ‘big’ images at A3 size potted thru the script along with lots oif little doodles and some nice images dropped into the typed pages. There’s lots of alterations and corrections through the document because it was originally meant to be a manuscript to attract a publisher deal. In the 1970s the publisher would take this document and hand it to the typesetter who would follow the instructions which I had put over the type and any which were added by the publisher. This ‘manuscript’ was never intended for public consumption hence the need at one point to go through and change all names when I thought maybe I’d self-publish as a normal book which would be typed into a modern form where all the corrections and changes could be implemented so the viewer never see them. However, I decided not to have it re-typed, that would have made my job a lot easier so it was a must to avoid, NO, better to really really struggle with the original typed pages, scan them in then alter them as required in photoshop then design the layout in Quark (I know, Quark is so out of vogue now and it’d be much easier in Indesign, so I stuck with Quark, you know me.

So, there we have it, the book is now printed and with my binders who have now debossed the actual cover cloth with my little drawing of the Shrewd Idiot pushing his barrow of books, well one BIG tome anyway!

This red image is only half the cover, it sits to the right hand side of the cover making it look like the fool is pushing his barrow off the book.

Everything about the book is not exactly what it seems at first glance. It looks like a story about a young bloke who left his home town and travelled as far away as he could to get an education and how he was initiated into all those things young fellas need to be initiated into. But it’s not about that at all. It’s about awakening, awakening of consciousness and the acquisition of skill to carry the revelations that an awakened consciousness finds in a pretty uninterested world. By the end of the book the idiot has a lot of disappointing outcomes but they are just more revelations about how hard life can be especially when you have a penchant for making life difficult or finding the hard way to do the easy things.

In the end the book is not about that fella back in the early 1970s, it’s about his older version now in his mid-sixties and how he never gave up on his dream of showing folk the quality of what he found in all those initiations and revelations and how it took more than forty years to bring them out in a public format. You’ll see as soon as you open it that it is not what you thought it was as the opened book shows, it has a beautiful feel to it and again that’s an acquired sensibility from over 40 years of continuous effort and striving to achieve.

And the best is yet to come because this is just number one in a whole series of publications which this guy has been preparing over the past. But there’ll be no more quite like this, I’ll find easier ways to do the design and layouts. Watch this space.

the original face of Apulhed when he saw mankind’s inhumanity all over the planet Earth

The book plus a sister publication of 37 A3 images should be available by the end of February 2017 and hopefully a facsimile publication of the famous concertina ‘book’ called ‘Appleheadman Screams’ which I did in 1972. Nothing has changed, the things he screamed about are still going on…and on…and on. Apulhed shows a perturbed visage but he won’t accept the original face of Apulhed when he saw mankind’s inhumanity all over the planet Earth, he decide that rather than flee this realm he will stayy to spread happiness and compassion, slowly but surely he knows that humankind will return to peace.

I am doing a launch Performance Art piece at the Arnolfini during the BABE book event on Saturday 1^st April. Watch out cos that’s not what it seems either, whereas if you can get to it you’ll see what looks like a Clickerti-Clix year old bloke prancing about with words and masks and dad-dancing (not! I do Zumba once a week don’t you know), it’s really an introduction to the Shrewd Idiot book with all its ins and outs. More about that in my next blog.

Rainbows

Rainbows

Real & Imaginary Rainbows in MY life.

This one is a few days old when I photo’d it emanating from ma chimbley early one morning.

This was about the year I got borned, it was released c.Dec 1949, I wer popped oot Oct1950.

I love old comic books. Tiger Tim was great but my personal fave was Toby Twirl. The illustrators were the first great artists I was ever aware of. I was lucky as my parents could not afford to buy me them so I yearned so much to have them that nowadays, when I see them in various shops, I try to buy them. I keep on forlornly hoping that the skills will rub off on me, am still waiting. Of course I’d never do a ‘comic’ comic like they were but I do intend to re-visit my 1976 ‘graphic-novel’ Applehead Lives during 2017 and re-do it using the skills and technologies am still picking up along my merry way.

 

Performance Art Life Changer a year ago now:

 

Today I want to take you back a year to 2015 from 12 to 24^th of October when I was on a lifetime best experience in any form of art that I have ever involved with.

Workshops run by Jurgen Fritz (‘JFr’) alongside others by Vest & Page (‘VanP’), which ran simultaneously, changed my approach to my Performance Art (PA). I doubt I shall ever come across such good quality inspiration again in this life. JFr and VanP were great team leaders and their respective teams were packed with people from around the world, many of whom had considerably good PA to bring to the 12 days of intensive workshops and actual PA gigs around Bristol; market, harbour and art gallery. I was privileged to both witness and participate in it and what I learned there fed into my PA part in Firstsite’s PA Day in November 2015.

The sessions gave me confidence to pick up my PA from where it had arrived and lift it to new height. It’s not for me to say how good or bad my output is, that I’ll leave for you & others to decide, but my 3 mentors gave me a will to carry on and carry out my PA with a renewed determination to be original, different and also to pay tribute to others who have gone before inspiring my work.

So today I am going to talk and show about some of the performance art I saw there done by some of my fellow participants. Altho’ I love all three of them I’m not going to talk about JFr and V&P cos you can find their work by just googling em. See- http://www.veniceperformanceart.org/index.php?page=255&lang=en

I’d like to go into some detail on Anna Kosarewska, Jamie Burr & Carol Montealegre, (I’ll get round to doing a blArt on Debbie Guinan and Robert Hardaker a little further in the future. )

All the photos were taken by and © Jurgen Fritz 2015 unless otherwise stated.

 

Anna Kosarewska,

Anna did some real beautiful PA during our time doing the course. Her best piece brought us all to tears as she commemorated several friends who had been killed during the invasion of her home country recently. PA can be a most powerful way of bringing issues into the public domain. Everything she did she did with consummate grace and care often covering her face with cloth or some other material.

I loved the piece she did in the harbour on the rail track in which she used little toy soldiers. At one time her presence nearly caused some of the local workmen to have heart attacks when she refused to move from the track and a train was approaching albeit at a very slow pace, but it didn’t seem ready to halt, and she was lifted to safety by two of IPA’s organisers Eva & Fay.

On Saturday evening she did some acts balancing glasses filled with water and walking dreamlike around the stairs.

Jamie Burr,

Jamie did some very moving pieces. His gig with bales of hay and a pitchfork on the harbour was gripping but best of all was his one done in the garden at Dunden where he covered himself in sloshy mud and threw water on himself from glass jars. I know that sounds stupid but it was quite incredible. Reality was suspended and I became one with a strange world Jamie established between the field and a willow den. He had set up about seven jars filled with water. About 200 metres from the den he had buckets with mud paste in them which he applied liberally to his naked body. Then he ran, followed by the whole lot of PA participants and leaders, to the den.

He entered it and sat inside a few minutes, then picked up one jar, walked out of the den and doused himself and walked back in and sat again and did it again and again until the jars were empty and steam was rising from his limbs when he ran into the building to shower and dress himself again.

Carol Montealegre,

Thursday 22nd October 14:00-16:00, Castle Park Artists Alba Murcia (Spain) Nicole Murmann (Switzerland) Oozing Gloop Ye Olde (UK) Taz Burns (UK) Bojana Videkanic (Canada) Pete Kennedy (UK) Andrea Greenwood (UK) Jolanda Jansen (Netherlands) Carol Andrea Montealegre Pinzón (Colombia)

Carol at Castle Park

Carol comes from Colombia, she brought some exquisitely lovely PA ideas with her. She had these ideas like using twigs which I have seen being used by some of the big names but Carol had a special touch of her own. I loved her use of black face paint, lace on garments, leather so much so that I began to use it myself- face paint that is and my first use happened to be black (it would have been gold if I’d not first painted a Zorro mask on!) in my Zorro & Beuys+Dead Woodpecker-poem PA at Firstsite last November.

This photo were taken by Priscila Buschinelli (look at the eyes!)

Photo by Pete Kennedy

But I didn’t look as good as Carol, no way. I loved the piece she did one evening as it turned dark where she blacked up and that made her teeth and eyes really stand out. She used black balloons too

(like Alastair MacLennan did, see

http://www.veniceperformanceart.org/index.php?page=186&lang=en )

but with much more beauty. Carol had brought along small props which she would drop into each of her pieces with aplomb.writing in Arnolfini lift

 Influencers of my own work.

Alfred Jarry, G I Gurdjieff, e e cummings, Kenneth Patchen, Ken Campbell are some of my biggest influences, if I can call them that. Then there’s dances by Michael Stipe of REM and Tim Booth of James, plus Samuel T Herring of Future Islands, all of which I love.

I love the way Picasso, Topolski and Japanese Zen Masters draw in front of folk.

Masks from other cultures and my own creations in the past. These are a few of my favourite tings which you’ll see pop up in ma new PA gigs. I have been told I can do 10 minutes at the next BABE book fair in Bristol’s Arnolfini gallery in April 2017 so watch this space for development.

I shall be:entering with attitude, dancing like an Idiot wearing a Tea Cosy, drawing on the zen master’s, wearing a new Shrewd Apulhed mask and costume and, if yez aks him nice & kindly he, may do a gentle, meditative dance and do an Apul-zen* drawing himself. I am going to ask some of my friends at Benton Hall to help with the choreography.

I like the possibilities! I have also gotten a new take on my old frend Apulhed. Someone in Ghana has ‘borrowed’ the idea of Apulhed and produced lots of T shirts and tings thus illegally tampering with my copyrights. I created Apulhed way back and reserve the right to call it mine. Similarly I am now creating new ideas to play with in my ‘Apul’zone, so leaf them alone.

APULZeD

&

APULRah to Yah

©pete kennedy 2016

 Finally I saw more rainbows on my horizons:

1. I received a (for this blArty Space) very rare ‘comment’ – see below.
2. My previous blArty bit was my 200th.
3. wordpress kindly informed me I have now had 200 ‘likes’, that, even with my simple math brain, is an average of one per blArt! I have always loved coincidence & synchronistic occurence and the conjunction of the fact that I had posted 200 and had exactly 200 likes is just too much.

Let’s Do It, Live Art…

‘Whilst Live Art remains elusive to most mainstream commentators its influence is pervasive, and intriguingly the concept of performativity – its central tenet’ from an article by LADA (Live Art Development Agency) Director Lois Keidan that appeared in Guardian Online on 22 October 2015 when I was half way thru the two week course led by Jurgen Fritz which has totally re-aligned my thinking on what my art is, was and forever more will BE. I am so determined to do Performance Art in my future and have just come across a conversation involving a friend I made (Andrea Pagnes http://www.vest-and-page.de/ ) at the IPA fortnight with a man whose work totally blew me away when I discovered it in a book that I saw at the bookshop in the National Theatre (I’ve yet to see anything other than photos of the man), Ron Athey. Their conversation gets to the hub of the issues in PA and altho I am a novice by comparison I felt so privileged that both Vest & Page said such wonderfully constructive things to me about my efforts. I received so much encouragement to carry on. Recently I have heard it said that ‘art’ is a minority interest (but today on Anglia BBC morning news they tell me “Creative Industries are worth £76 billion per annum to the ‘Economy’- why don’t i see any o that?), well it may be a minority interest to some but it’s been my obsession now for 48 years. I still have some more to say and it will be thru PA/Live Art which is so much more demonstrative in its appreciation than the ‘art world’ [sorry art-world but I been trying to make a dent on you fer 48 years and the door won’t budge! At least when I do Live Art they clap and cheer (when I get off)]Hee Hee.

That’s Andrea in the mask on right hand side.

Some words from Andrea Pagnes in conversation with Ron Athey,

AP‘… the richness and uniqueness that can emanate from personal experience, lived life and the consequent artistic research which arises directly from the deepest inclinations and existential urgencies of an individual.’

‘…when performance art intersects life directly and uncompromisingly, and draws on the most basic instincts, processes and transforms the deeper reasons and urgencies of Man’s presence in the world … it is revelatory: a sincere, transformative experience on human scale.’

RA says, ‘…How, in any medium, to bring something esoteric to

life, how to disturb a given, how to represent the super natural.’

AP you have … challenged conventional bourgeois mores, tastes and expectations

…by addressing viscerally emerging social hypocritical worries…’

RA performance art today… is not populist. Why not do benefits/write for funds/self produce in an amazing site-specific place? Cuz it is so much work but so worth it!

 I love the bit about ‘the richness and uniqueness that can emanate from personal experience’ and that underpinned what 3 of my course leaders said to me. Andrea saw the natural clown/fool in me in two settings which he commented on. I see from the vids on V&P website that he has done much work with clowns.http://www.vest-and-page.de/#!the-smile-at-the-top-of-the-ladder/c1orh

They all encouraged me to use my life experience in my PA, something which comes easy to me I must say as I’ve reached a point in my life where I treasure every moment I have lived and I am ready to go out there and bring my stuff to folks in a variety of settings. At IPA I used some of my Ashtanga Yoga practice in some of my pieces, particularly the Jug Dance but there were other ‘moves’ and references too. Ashtanga Yoga is a fairly vigourous form which emanated from the teachings of T. Krishnamacharya thru his pupil K. Pattabhi Jois. Another of his students B K S Iyengar popularised his Iyengar form in Britain from the 1960s. The main difference as far as I can see is that Iyengar encourages the use of aids like cushions to ease the new student into the forms that can be somewhat excrutiating for a long time for starters. I for one have massive difficulty trying to do a lotus position but no matter, you do what you can and you gradually move towards perfection.The good thing is people do yoga into their 90’s which is fortunate cos I never started til I were in ma 60’s!Photo by Nicole Murmann (thanks!)

This is not Yoga it is Performance Art, why? cos PA is what the artis says it is, Jurgen told us that, didn’t he?

I discovered a book on yoga which I’d recommend to anyone who wants to know its benefits, it’s called, The Reluctant Yogi by Carla McKay http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15000943-the-reluctant-yogi

I have been doing yoga once or twice a week and now I am so glad I began as it’s obvious it has so many astounding benefits.

Namaste.

Life begins at 65, Now!

23.55hrs 14.11.15

my table at HOFS book event

I achieved a lot in my first 65 years but NOW iBEGIN. Those 65 years were just preparation for Now. I’m 18 again today, 65 years 18 days and am coming of Age. My age is no barrier. Inside I still feel like the child I was, like the youth I was, the 21 year old, the 30, 40, 50, 60 year old, actually not the 60 year old cos I were recovering from a bad condition then, (rh.ar.) nevertheless that recovery brought me to the here is now, so I feel Lucky).

When I was a child any 21 year old was ‘old’. Now am 65 any 65 year old is young(ish). And I am Lucky, Lucky is my middle name, I have survived and now am thriving.

15.11.15 I like that.

Yesterday I took my copy of the Journal of Artists Books (JAB) to Hadleigh Old Fire Station (HOFS) to their annual book fair where they show some lovely little books. I met Karen Apps who has promised to make an Apulhed-doll for me.

Maybe summat like this, my favorite image of the Apulman! I drew it back in 1976 and it casts a nod in the direction of the little girl hero in Spirit of the Beehive (a beautiful film) who wore big boots and a long coat.Here’s one of K A’s dolls:

Karen Apps does beautiful books and tings like carving a baby face into soap then washing it until it ‘melts’ and eventually looks like a torso, rather like the Venus of Willendorf I told her.

Karen Dennison was there with her lovely little ekphrastic chain picture-poetry-picture-poetry collection, blueshift, in which I done a picture. Chris Ruston couldn’t attend but she had some of her wonderful Ammonite books on display.

It was great re-acquainting on that rainy day.

I was lucky to visit Small Publishers Fair on 6^th Nov where I re-acquainting with Jacqueline T., Nancy C., Sarah B., Mandy B., Mette A., Mike N. and also met Jan Voss an ex-student of the great artis-bokman Dieter Roth and he gave me insight into DR.

I played Nancy Campbell’s Tombola with Icelandic words and mine was isserssorpoq which translates as “‘uses the eyes’; ‘speaks with the eyes’; ‘flirts’”, but I wouldn’t know ought abArt that now would I?

Whilst in London town I bought some kryolan face paint which I had watched Carol Montealegre from South America apply beautifully during my stay at IPA. My own application of it at Firstsite last weekend was less adept and it had a life of its own which showed when I got hotter ‘dancing’ on the plate glass and it ran down my chest to ma belly button.

dusting my broom (which fell apart)

That’s where the Performance Art began as you could also see my breath as the moisture condensed onto the surface of the cold cold glass. Nicole Murmann kindly sent about 80 photos of me doing the Jug ‘dance’ outside Arnolfini gallery in Bristol and a wonderful sight they are. I never realised so many folk witnessed my movements in the rain but here are some of her images drips and all onto ma face, thank you Nicole.

getting wet for my Performance Art outside the Arnolfini, Bristol

the two images above (c) Nicole Murmann 2015

During the week JAB38 arrived in the post and I feel privileged to have an article in it. The journal is beautifully produced in B&W http://www.journalofartistsbooks.org/current/ My only reservation, and this not to criticise the wonderful production quality, is that my work often needs colour and loses a lot in B&W. I shall do an blog about jab38 soon.

B..Bam B..BAM!

VIP please note – I don’t mean the ‘B..B..BAM’ logo to overtake the word ‘artists book’, I think it’d be a good rallying call, like an invigorating ‘quality’ hallmark symbol to use on any publicity material. The ‘pop-art’ similarity is about that stimulating bounce that comes with the onomatopoeia. Pete

I do not wish to ruffle any feathers but I feel the term ‘Artist’s Books’ is a bit misleading. I believe that to attract a wider spectrum of people in to Artists’ Books markets with a view to buy the books  we make, rather than merely view them, there is a need for a more catchy symbol on publicity material, a signifier which is less bewildering, more informative and more inviting, more exciting, maybe:

I believe the term ‘Artist’s books’ can be misunderstood by anyone who is unaware of the beauty that lies within (the field). I’m not being silly nor am I joking. Some people I know who happen to be very bright-intelligent and who get about a bit have been fascinated to see what ‘artist’s books’ are composed of/can be. But, just think of the first timer who comes across a poster which talks about “An Artists’ Book” event. Those uninitiated might be put off, believing that this event is only for ‘artists’ and they are not that, it can be intimidating. I believe after my recent participation at English Artists’ Books Markets in Oxford, Bristol and now Gateshead there is a lot of (simple) work to be done to increase members of the public willing & eager to put their feet over the threshold into the ‘market-place’.

I am going to suggest maybe the slant be changed from ‘Artists Books’ to something like, ‘Books by Artist Makers’ B..BAM! Let’s think about it? Let’s talk about it? Let me know if you think it’s a good idea. We need something to get folks over the threshold, especially in England where the pinch of the recession still bites the majority and is going to worsen in the next five years as government squeeze the less well off. Books by Artist Makers take a lot of thought and a whole lot of making. They are works of art in themselves which often take longer to create than a painting. Indeed some have several ‘prints’ in as part of their beauty. People may buy a framed print for say £50 (I know that’s cheap, but it’s just a figure to play with, to try to make a point), but would the same folks buy Books by Artist Makers with say 3-6 prints in for £50?

Here’s a quickly sketched onomatopoeia for Books by Artist Makers 

Cowboy Pete, Bukman Artist-Maker

(Hooray, total ‘visits’ to my blog since it began tipped over the 7500 mark today).

Below I have added some comments which came in since I posted this blog about artists books (artisbuks) and the gap between their beauty and the public’s not ‘getting’ what they are. Please add your thoughts if you have any which say things not already said by those who added comments.

seems like we are touching a chord, thanks to yez. Here’s some replies already:

“I think that’s a great idea Pete. To me ‘Artist’s Books’ conjures up an image of books containing illustrations of their artwork or writing, with brief notes or explanations. As opposed to a complete work that you would admire as much as a photograph or painting hanging on a wall. I would never expect the book to be hand-made.” (Maxine, a ‘normal’ non-artist person.)

“Pete, I think you’re right a LOT of people do not understand Artist made books, and I do like your idea BUT how to get other people on board ? I know this is something we as a group at ArtBookArt are thinking about when advertising our event how do we get the concept across to those who think our exhibition may be books about rather than made by artists?

Yes the cost of an artist’s book versus a painting or a print, its partly to do with global forces, people can buy a book (any book) much cheaper and most people do not have the awareness of time taken + cost of materials. However in the right place and with the right buyers it is a different story. Perhaps venue and place is an important consideration in the selling and understanding of artist made books, and when trying to reach people who have never heard about them perhaps there has to be a different approach, a more educational one with some work-shops on simple book structures.” Gwen, (Artist’s Book Maker).

“You make a good point there Pete.

BookArt is a confusing term and it also hides a lot of mediocre stuff as well, just to do something in a book theme is not necessarily good art, it attracts all different sorts and some are not artists but craft people.

To me, for it to be good art, the book form has to be relevant to the art work, it has to enhance/emphasise the artistic thrust of the work. For instance your Venus Stairs book is a story of a work being created, over time and thought, into a an artwork.  Also, using the structure of a book and distorting it to jolt or draw out another perspective, such as using folding lead sheets, is another good way. Also, the attraction and power of using literature/poetry/drama/knowledge communicated in words, as another material to incorporate into the artist’s ‘palette’ is very powerful. There could be an interesting search and analysis on how artists have used words/books in their works over time.

So, anything to help explain that these works are art works based on a book form could be useful.

Maybe it could help shake out the different type of players under the ArtistBook banner from fine bookmakers, crafts people, illustrators, printers, poets/writers, to artists. There will be a lot of resistance to change the term from the established ArtistBook fraternity. But from an artist’s point of view I guess there would be a lot of agreement.

I like the pop-art shout. I have another one, WaBiAW!   Words and Books in ArtWorks!

It’s really all about the emphasis and priority, as to what comes first the book or the artwork.” Duncan (Mod from Twisted Wheel 1960’s days.)

“…The name change might work as well and I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but I don’t think that on it’s own it will make a huge difference. But B.B.Bam is a cool idea and I love the graphic. The battle I think is to change the way people think of artists’ books by having more book markets and making them as accessible and welcoming as possible. Keep making books though Pete, and entertaining us with your wonderful performances.” Gary Malkin, Book Archivist BALTIC

The Jug talk at BABE & Bukman dances on.

“… Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. … Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes… In fact, it is always in proportion. That’s its balance.” Osho Japanese Zen master, thanks to Paper Ponderer.

So, now I don’t feel so bad after having been happy and sad in equal measure in Bristol at babe last weekend. As always in life, nothing is perfect and we don’t really appreciate the good time without the counterbalance of the not so good times. Like in my little dance, there’s ups and there’s doons.

On the Saturday I spoke with about 30 people about my work and ideas and many, predominantly those with a background in graphics, loved some aspect of my work but like most artist-types, they had no spare cash to spread.

OK, time for a rethink.

I had put all my eggs in one basket- BABE 2015, which I had looked forward to since BABE 2013. https://apulhed.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/86881/ Most of my ideas had been focussed on two new books, one for BABE 2015 launch.

There’s little point banging my head against a brick wall for the rest of my days and the art-world in all its manifestations is as a brick built juggernaut which I clambered onto in the 70’s and 80’s but fell off and now it trundles on without me. I been over-looked, left behind and all that ‘sadwimpy me’ stuff. I am aware that I should pretend that selling one G BATCH is tantamount to a victory, which it is inasmuch that one person took to it enough to buy one but Honesty is my middle name. Honesty is a simple plant , a bit like my self. And am sure he’ll enjoy G BATCH, like the 5 folk who came to my gig appeared to, honest. And so did I. So, if I look at what I really enjoyed it’d be the ‘gig’ & jig and the chat with all those who expressed interest in my works. My favourite moment was watching Nancy Campbell & Donna Williams do their readings. Donna used signing (BSL) to ‘say’ her poems as she’s deaf and I loved her dance like hand movements. Nancy read some of her Greenlandic words and their English translations and she posed beautifully with her pages. My second favourite moment was talking to my pot and dancing my whirligig to a packed hall of 5 onlookers. Two longstanding friends and three women who were experiencing my dulcet tones for their first time.

And the street art in Brissol is wonderful here’s moi with my JAB Chicago cap on cos they’re gonna publish an article of mine come the fall.

I gottu ‘do watti got to do, come on and see me when you can. I was looking for that Nina Simone track ‘Come Back and see me when you can’ on utube but couldn’t trace it. But I found this Wailing Jennings track which is sad but lovely and it seems the person who uploaded it thought Wail-on must have aimed high with the women he wished for, or did he have them then lose loose them? Then Wail on Jennings! Anyhow, I aimed high and now I seem to have scorched my wings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-5_LN1_RC4

 Pete’s Rede..ready..Reed-Read Poem:

I must ree

Re treat from artist’s books events

I shall

Re cite my poems again where I can

Maybe I shud

Re price my wares better

Re novate my spirit

Re sight my activities to venues more appropriate to their wide remit

Re prise, simply, my 1970’s books now Apul-One is having its 40th birthday

Re ignite my solo exhibitions in libraries so I can exhibit my big pictures as well as books

Re concile myself to the fact my work is not attracting punters and fellow artist book makers

Re clude and retink my output

Re uniting with a old college friend for the first time in 20 years was great

Re instate my performances

Re figure my mailing list (tick the box, done today)

Re voke my desire to inform all in sundry just post my blArts and let folks find em IF they so wish

Re constitute the mix of my output

Re vive my hopes

Re negotiate my position

Re linquish my wish to join the gods of ‘art’ and just be me

Re birth I am born again now I see my past arts more clearly and

Re nascence I have taken a new look at life to

Re quire a fee or a burse-a-ree

Re view of where I been and wur am goin and wur I stand

Re member to thank Dave D. for his great company and his filming ma wee dance

Re appraise my place in it all and I shall

Re surrect my work and let you see it but

Re vived in new formats as I shall outline in my nex blArt, Ohh Bee Joy Full (w/e 24^th Avril)

De tox not needed as I don’t imbibe

De tension myself, don’t expect so much just be there and enjoy the atmosphere

De light in the positives forgit the negatives or just use them to learn from

De railed was my idea that I was getting ‘out there’ and coming thru

De livery of my ‘show’ did occur just ask one of the 5 who saw it

De luded no more now I know my stuff isn’t sell (at least I can’t sell out!)

De terminated I shall shift my focus making most of my books into ‘one off unique’ objects

See you again sometime way up along that Inscrutable Destiny Way.

You can see my artlife history here: https://apulhed.wordpress.com/about/ and ‘ta’ to G E Gallas fer liking it, you are a supreme artiswomanhonoraryblokepersonage

Next blagArt

Ohh Bee Joy Full