David Sylvian - Perspectives

From Brilliant Trees through Died In The Wool...

David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby Chet on Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:48 am

David Sylvian
Perspectives

Is photography an art?
This boring question will be asked and argued over as long as cameras click. It seems difficult to believe that a recording machine made of metal and glass, clever though it may be, can produce art. However, it has been said that in the hands of an artist, better pictures do emerge. And it seems to me that David Sylvian is certainly an artist. I am not speaking about music. His position there is already secure. It is this exhibition of his work in the visual arts that we are concerned with here.
David makes no claim to have invented the photo mosaic idea. We have seen David Hockney's experiments in this medium, and also the fashion pictures by de Jaeger in the French magazine L'Officiel, and although I thought that this method of photography was not really suitable forr illustrating clothes, both have produced riveting images. And now David Sylvian.
I have no idea what came first. It is tempting to think that some photographer with a handful of polaroid prints, frustrated by the inescapable dicipline of the square of paper with its white border, tore them upand threw them on the floor and lo and behold - a picture - with no border, no confines. However, it is clearly not as easy as that; it needs the trained eye. This was demonstrated to me while taking part in a video made to accompany David's single "Red Guitar". The video is based on a forty year old picture of mine of Flora Robson emerging from a desert landscape. During one of the long waits which seem inevitable during filming, David said that he wanted to take a photograph of me for his coming exhibition. And there and then, click, click, click; his camera spitting out exposures one after the other; David weaving a complicated dance with his lens over me and the landscape around me; laying out the result on the bonnet of our car in that windy field in West Wickham, under the shadow of that extraordinary church with its golden ball, and making, in a moment, first one, and then another, quite different, and quite fascinating, pictures of me. I was astonished.
Since then I have seen a collection of proofs from this forthcoming book, and my admiration is confirmed. The technique seems most suited to portraiture; a means of getting deeper under the surface, a way of lengthening the all too short moment of the snapshot. One of the pictures reminds me inescapably of Marcel Duchamp's famous picture "Nude Descending a staircase", though the camera, by its very nature, cannot achieve pure abstraction.
Perhaps we are seeing a movement to free the photograph from its frame, as William Burroughs seems to be trying to free litterature by cutting up writing and putting it together again in an apparently arbitrary fashion, but for me, at least, with less success.
Perhaps I have been writing a lot of "guff"; an old man's struggle to come to terms with the young. But one thing is quite clear. David Sylvian's photographs reflect, as does his music, a beautiful, gentle and charming personality.

Angus McBean/June 1984
Last edited by Chet on Sat Aug 22, 2009 1:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
And my heart sings of many things
User avatar
Chet
Everything & Nothing
Everything & Nothing
 
Posts: 559
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:07 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby missouriman on Sat Aug 22, 2009 12:30 pm

I went to see the Polaroid exhibit; so long ago now. It was a nice couple of hours flitting to and fro and watching the butterflies around me looking at the photos. Who else attended back in the day? Share your memories with us.
missouriman
Everything & Nothing
Everything & Nothing
 
Posts: 504
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 9:56 am

Re: David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby fletchertronics on Sat Aug 22, 2009 3:57 pm

Chet wrote:Is photography an art?


Yes, of course. But not all photography...

You describe a camera as a "recording machine", and to some extent that is true. A tape recorder, or more appropriately these days hard disc recorder is also a "recording machine", yet I doubt many here would argue that recorded music is (or at least can be) an art form. And of course there is a wealth of moving-image based art around the world, from art-house cinema to installation pieces...

It's not the tools that dictate art, but the hands and/or minds in which they are placed.
User avatar
fletchertronics
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 72
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 6:18 pm
Location: UK

Re: David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby inkinthewell on Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:43 pm

fletchertronics wrote:You describe a camera as a "recording machine"...


The author's not Chet, but Angus McBean.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans - JL 1940-1980
User avatar
inkinthewell
Everything & Nothing
Everything & Nothing
 
Posts: 982
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: Italy

Re: David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby fletchertronics on Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:11 pm

inkinthewell wrote:
fletchertronics wrote:You describe a camera as a "recording machine"...


The author's not Chet, but Angus McBean.


That'll teach me not to read the last line of a post, eh? ;-)
User avatar
fletchertronics
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 72
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 6:18 pm
Location: UK

Re: David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby Chet on Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:10 am

who bought these pieces exhibited?
i have never ever seen any on ebay, or other art auctions either.
i just remember seing some on the walls of opium arts office.
where did all the other polaroids end up?
And my heart sings of many things
User avatar
Chet
Everything & Nothing
Everything & Nothing
 
Posts: 559
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:07 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby missouriman on Sun Aug 30, 2009 12:57 pm

Chet wrote:who bought these pieces exhibited?
i have never ever seen any on ebay, or other art auctions either.
i just remember seing some on the walls of opium arts office.
where did all the other polaroids end up?


I know of a couple of former friends who bought them. They cost between 200 and 500 pounds sterling. I think they pretty much all were sold to private individuals. I wanted one, but 25 years ago it was totally out of reach financially. And people think $85 is too much? :?:
missouriman
Everything & Nothing
Everything & Nothing
 
Posts: 504
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 9:56 am

Re: David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby tulipmania on Sun Aug 30, 2009 1:15 pm

I bought one of the polaroid montages a few years ago, privately. I have been after one of them for years and always said I would buy one. I am a huge fan of DS and I have it on my wall; its for my own pleasure and as an investment. I wouldnt like to say how much was paid for it, you could maybe buy 40 of the deluxe Manafon edition with the proceeds. Its the Photo of Yuka, Avoriaz, French alps.

T.
tulipmania
Regular
Regular
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:27 am

Re: David Sylvian - Perspectives

Postby becky on Sun Aug 30, 2009 1:47 pm

:shock: 40 X Manofon deluxe!!! Blimey O'Riley! Lucky you though having it your wall :D
becky
Obsessed
Obsessed
 
Posts: 145
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:06 am
Location: London


Return to Solo Work

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests

cron