Assorted updates, insights and observations

 

 

Greetings once again.

I often forget to share my on-goings with you all, but here’s what’s importuning the cosmos with me at the moment…

 

Raw Vision magazine, issue #111

On its cover, the current issue of Raw Vision highlights the article In The Realms of the Written by Matt Ffytche (pages 12-23). The article focusses on ‘Writing in Outsider Art’ as described in the caption on the cover. I get a mention in there, but also an image of one of my diary drawings is nicely printed should you care to peruse a well reproduced incarnation of one in the physical form. The article is also accompanied by images of work by Henry Darger, Nick Blinko, Dwight Mackintosh, Adolf Wolfli, Melvin Way, August Walla, Howard Finster, Harald Stoffers, Constance Schwartzlin-Berberat, JB Murray, Raymond Morris, Jesse Howard and Kunizo Matsumoto. Not that it will matter much to anyone, but a correction: In the description of the diary that is illustrated, the diary entry is listed as being 3rd of October 2010 – March 2013 but the dates provided are combining two sets of dates from different entries. This drawing was made between October 2010 and March 2011. Other than that, I am very pleased to see and read the article that follows, looking at Laurent Danchin whom I admired very much upon meeting in 2013. Within minutes of seeing one of my diary drawings for the first time in conjunction with learning of my family’s history in dealing antique carpets, he called me “a weaver of words”, which was impressive both for the quick assessment and manifestation of this term, and with English not being his first language. It is difficult to ascertain how many people would be responsive but I would very much love for his book on Chomo to get an English translation, by the way. Just putting it out there. You can buy this issue of Raw Vision here

 

 

Outsider Art Fair, Paris. 10th Anniversary, Atelier Richelieu, September 15-18, 2022 – Galerie du Marché

Venue:60 Rue de Richelieu, 75002 Paris, France
Dates: 15 September, VIP preview: 12–6pm
and Vernissage, 6–9pm
Open to public: 16, 17 Sept, 11am–8pm
18 Sept, 11am–6pm

Galerie du Marché will be showing my work once again at the first physically experienceable Outsider Art Fair Paris since 2019. These works will be shown alongside works by the incredible Edmund Monsiel, and a rich roster of Aloise Corbaz, Carlo Zinelli, Friedrich Schroder-Sonnenstern, Raphael Lonne, Michel Nedjar and Adolf Wolfli,  along with some very rare and notable works by Madge Gill, Scottie Wilson, Josef Karl Radler, Joules Doudin, Emile Josome Hodinos, Josef Bachler, Johann Fischer, Auguste Forestier, Johann Hauser, Oswald Tschirtner and Franz Kerbeiss

My stuff – should you make it to the fair, you’ll get to see a recent diary page in A5 format, quite possibly the last available penultimate diary page in A4 format (Dec 12th 2019 – August 19th 2020) and a smaller 5 x 8cm drawing from The Disadvantages of Time series. I’m not quite sure what it reveals, but certainly something currently intangible feels near epiphanic when considering the results of the slow burn process of my A4 diary drawings, the first of which (Feb-March 2010) clocks in at 3,954 hand written words in my little bubble text, and the twelfth and final A4 diary page (August 25th, 2020 – June 10th, 2021) contains 31,036 words in a slowly evolved incarnation of that same style. It is very fortunate that both of these ‘bookends’ of sorts are in the trusted hands of Rose Knox -Peebles and that I can access them and see them side by side.

As for The Disadvantages of Time part XVI (The Wasteland Tape part III), here’s a little tidbit:  Sometime in 2021, I found a cassette compilation I had made in the late ’90s. It was a very significant tape for me, and I was both very pleased with the opportunity but also somewhat overwhelmed with the idea of listening to it again. I decided to distract myself from the intensity of focusing on it solely, by documenting a retroactive perspective of it, song by song. The Wasteland Tape was made for the purpose of accompanying me on a hallucinogenic trip that lasted about seventeen hours. We had the tape on rotation the whole time, on a boombox as we walked around the city through the night. One song on the tape was ‘Shame‘ by Low. In describing this choice for the cassette, within the drawing, I detail discovering the band and reference being in Tower Records, in the ‘Alternative’ section, picking up the ‘Long Division‘ CD. I’d never heard of the band. It was pre-common use of internet. They were not on MTV, or in Kerrang! magazine. The cover looked somewhat ambiguous, dominated by a greyish colour. Upon further inspection, a light bulb becomes visible. What actually captured me beyond this interesting cover, was the words on the big sticker on the case. Quotes from magazine reviews. The descriptions sounded exaggerated, maybe impossible. I had to find out for myself. CDs were also very expensive at the time. To buy something like that, on a whim, with no sonic reference, it was a big decision. When I got home and heard it though, I had done it, I had found what I never knew I’d always wanted. So, I’d decided to dig the CD out and go through everything on the sticker for the drawing. I spent a week looking for the CD but couldn’t find it anywhere. I had since bought the LP version, which is the format I mostly listen to. I went on Facebook and asked around on a couple of Low fan pages, thinking among these hundreds or thousands of fans, someone will have it at hand. Tumbleweeds. I waited a couple of weeks. Nothing. Shout out to the two Andys for acknowledging the quest, at least. I decided to try again and asked within a thread on Twitter, on the topic of that album.  Uncannily Low themselves retweeted my question and within an hour someone had tweeted an image of their CD with the same sticker. The band themselves enabled me access to the sticker, that enabled me access to the band and their music in the first place. We come full circle. 

Facebook post, 24th June 2021

 

Tweets, 6th July 2021

 

The Disadvantages of Time part XVI (The Wasteland Tape part III). July 2021. (click on image to enlarge)

 

Also to look forward to within the fair, are two specially curated spaces which I’m sure will be highlights for me – One focusses on the works of Eugene Von Bruenchenhein. Interesting due to his dual output of photography and painting, the latter to which my fixation always steers. Always projecting such vibrancy, and hinting at form like clouds sometimes suggest fleetingly in continuous morph. The paintings at times highlight a focus in one area and surround it in a blur or fuzz as though captured in motion, in Bruenchenhein’s own unique fashion. There is a strong sense of life forms, energy and wonder contained within these works and I’m looking forward to experiencing a celebration of this with I Wish I Could Speak in Technicolor: Visions of Eugene Von Bruenchenhein. The other specially curated space is The Underground is Always Outside, co-curated by Aline Kominsky-Crumb, a legendary ‘underground comix’ artist herself. Having not been able to attend the New York edition of the fair earlier this year, I’m glad the ‘underground comix’ world will be tapped into here as well. This exhibition will include original art works by Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Kim Deitch, Justin Green, Rick Griffin, Spain Rodgriguez, Art Spiegelman, Diane Noomin, S.Clay Wilson and more…

 

Rest In Paradise – Julia Sisi 

 

Sisi has transcended the Earth. It was shocking news to absorb when I learned of it on the 29th of June. I had no idea she was fighting cancer. I’ve always found her to be vibrant, with a special energy powerful enough to bring back to life aspects of oneself that had become stagnant. It is a rare energy to encounter and it deeply saddens me to know I can’t have an exchange with her in the future. However, the body of work she has left behind certainly has the power to communicate some of that energy and will continue to do so for as long as those pages and canvases are around. I feel she really manifested a channel for that energy in a profound way through works she has made since 2017 or so, whereby a leap seemed to occur and acceleration into orbit. My heart goes out to her life partner and artist Dan Casado. I fondly remember Sisi and Dan tuning in to the radio show I was doing and sending me messages almost weekly in real time during the shows, possibly for the entire run of seven years. I moved from Station FM to Itch FM and then NTS Radio. Sisi followed me all the way through, always making her presence known and letting me know that she and Dan were at their studio, in the Canary Islands and then France, working whilst listening to the mostly obscure Jazz I was playing. I always got a kick out of supplying some sounds for their creation to feed off of. I feel privileged to have briefly collaborated with Sisi and Liz Parkinson in the form of PPP (Posca Pen Pals) at one of Nok‘s exhibitions in Amsterdam a decade or so ago, whereby we initiated a communal canvas that took on perhaps a dozen or more contributors throughout that wonderful day. I recall sitting with Sisi in London at a cafe in London not far from another exhibition we were both included in (thanks again Nok!), where Sisi told me why she didn’t like being called Julia and I learned more about her history. I saw her and we both spoke about our work at an afternoon of talks that were part of the Monochromatic Minds exhibition put on by Jennifer Lauren Gallery in early 2020, but my last memory of spending time together was after the Outsider Art Fair in Paris one evening when Sisi, Dan Casado and I went for some dinner. I guess it must have been 2019, the last time the fair was physically put on there. It will feel strange to attend next month with her absence surely felt. 

Posca Pen Pals (Liz Parkinson, Julia Sisi, Carlo Keshishian)

 

Triple P

 

That’s all for now, phew! More to come…

Peace out,

Carlo.

Annual update

…………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………….

 

Greetings once again. Happy New Year (?)

I’ve been on a longer hiatus than usual on delivering any news through this blog. I am now aiming to write a few shorter entries with a bit more frequency. So, today the 30th anniversary edition of the Outsider Art Fair opens in New York. I would love to be there! But I am at home, making worm costumes for my son, and trying to evict a squirrel from the loft instead.

 

 

Outsider Art Fair, New York. Metropolitan Pavilion, March 3-6th, 2022 – Jennifer Lauren Gallery / Booth C14

Venue: Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011 (between 6th & 7th Ave)
Dates: 3 March, VIP preview and Private View, 12–8pm
4–5 March, 11am–8pm
6 March, 11am–6pm

 

Jennifer Lauren Gallery will be showing my work alongside works by Robert Fischer, Shinya Fujii, Keisuke Ishino, Jesse James Nagel, Pradeep Kumar, Cara Macwilliam, Chris Neate, Makoto Okawa, Valerie Potter, Shinichi Sawada, and Agatha Wojciechowsky

Should you be present, a wall at booth C14 will reveal my

 

Diary (22.6.21 – 21.10.21)
Ink pen on paper, 15,118 words
21x15cm (8.3×5.8 inches)

     and another text drawing from The Disadvantages of Time series. The Disadvantages of Time part XV – The Wasteland Tape (part II) to be specific. You can click on the image above to experience with some more detail. 

It’s an exciting program aside from a lot of the interesting work being shown by some great galleries. There is a showcase of Bruce Bickford’s work which I feel is a lost opportunity to see his creations first hand. I already missed the chance when he was still alive and showing at The Horse Hospital in London, where my work was first shown also a couple of years later. There is also the interesting and potent looking curated space titled Field Trip: Psychedelic Solution, 1986-1995 which includes work by Joe Coleman, Alex Grey, H.R. Giger, Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin, Gary Panter, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, and S. Clay Wilson among others. There is also a curated space dedicated to the collection of Michael Stipe, which is intriguing.

 

I will post again soon with any updates regarding the fair and may also post a bit of back log, or other things moving forward.

Onwards!

Carlo.

As we enter 2020, part II: New York, Manchester, Geneva, London

…………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………….

Greetings. Here it is, part 2. Part 1 had me tying up last year’s loose ends. Part 2 looks at the near future and which walls you’ll find my work on. As usual, everything happens at once. I’m in exhibitions at the Portico Library in Manchester (UK), the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva (Switzerland), and with Jennifer Lauren Gallery at the Candid Arts Center in London (UK) as well as at the Outsider Art Fair in New York (USA).

 

Outsider Art Fair – Jennifer Lauren Gallery /// January 16-19th. Metropolitan Pavilion. New York, USA

I’m not sure exactly what happened during the fabrefaction of my July 31st – November 28th, 2019 diary drawing, but the result is 12,627 words in my bubble text on A5 card. This is almost 2,000 more words than were recorded on the previous page and by now more than have been recorded on any of the ten A4 size diary drawings. If you want to go see the combobulation for yourself, find yourself at the Jennifer Lauren Gallery booth for their third year at the fair. Jennifer Lauren will also be showing work by Shinichi SawadaAkio Kontani, Margaret Mousseau, Leonhard Fink, Chris Neate, Norimistsu Kokubo and more.

For further info on the fair, opening hours, special events etc.. see here.

Outsider Art Fair, NYC 2020

Diary, July 31st – November 28th, 2019

 

Talking Sense: The Changing Vocabulary of Mind and Brain. /// January 17th-April 13th. The Portico Library. Manchester, UK 

James Moss curates the works and minds of 50 artists in this playfully conceptual exhibition fitting to the ethos of the Portico Library, a 200+ year old subscription library in Manchester’s city center. The exhibition “explores the idea of “mind/brain-then/now” – combining 18th and 19th century literature with new artworks to create a space for conversations around the vocabulary of neurodiversity, mental health and psychology”. Sugar Glider vs. Octopus, a painting I did in 2009 will be included along with works by the homies Darren Adcock and Dolly Sen. Quite pleasantly, we are accompanied by 47 artists I can’t say I am aware of by name. I look forward to discovering their work and how all this might fit together in the context! The public preview is from 6-8pm on Thursday 16th January.

Talking Sense: The changing vocabulary of mind and brain

Sugar Glider vs. Octopus, 2009

 

Scrivere Disegnando (‘Writing By Drawing’): When Language Seeks Its Other /// January 29th- May 3rd. Centre d’Art Contemporain. Geneva, Switzerland

I’m thrilled to have several diary drawings included in this near-exhaustive exploration of writing as drawing and how this leaves the communicative aspect in ambivalence and/or ambiguity, focussing on work from the early 19th century to the present day. At least that’s my reading of it so far. I impatiently await experiencing the exhibition for myself at the opening on Tuesday, January 28th. I understand the exhibition will be accompanied by an elaborately produced book of 300+ pages. I will report back with details regarding that as I learn them. Co-curated by Andrea Bellini (Centre d’Art Contemporain, Director) and Sarah Lombardi (Collection de l’Art Brut Lausanne, Director), it will be interesting to see works by artists associated with Art Brut side by side with contemporary artists, brought together through the context of this theme. On those walls I’ll be in the very good company of Nick Blinko, Gaston Chaissac, Aloise Corbaz, Jean Dubbuffet, Susan Hiller, Henri Michaux, Laure Pigeon, Luigi Serafini (Codex Seraphinianus!), J.B. Murray, August Walla, Melvin Way and Adolf Wolfli among others.. In my previous blog entry I spoke on the writer Michel Thevoz and the artist Carlo Zinelli. Thevoz is contributing text to the book published in conjunction with this exhibition, and there is a big Zinelli exhibition at the Collection l’Art Brut in Lausanne, so I’ll also be able to experience that, which should be wonderful. I’ll report back upon returning.

 

Monochromatic Minds: Lines Of Revelation – Jennifer Lauren Gallery /// February 25th- March 4th. Candid Arts Centre. London, UK

I can’t help but feel this will be a historic exhibition relentlessly championing works in black and white, through a roster of 62 artists, most of which I admire immensely, and some I’d not heard of or seen but am thus far impressed with based on images revealed here. Jennifer Lauren has taken on quite a task and brought together an extremely impressive group of artists, which I’m overwhelmingly excited to see curated together in one space. On these walls I am joined by my PPP crew (Posca Pen Pals) Liz Parkinson and Julia Sisi, the highly potent Albert who I’ve met through the Bethlem, Madge Gill who needs no introduction, the great Aradne, it’s an endless list and I’d love to think of specific words to describe each artist but I must go and do my tax returns. It’s very tempting though.. Ody Saban who’s work I’ve admired over the last fifteen years, Cathy Ward whom I’ve crossed paths with since encountering her work at The Horse Hospital (which is in grave danger of being shut down after over 25 years, spread the word to your powerful and caring friends please!) around the time they offered to show my work for the first time in 2007/8, Nick Blinko who I’ve written about quite a lot over the years (here are a couple of bits: 2011, 2016), Rashidi, Margot, Harald Stoffers, George Widener, Ben Wilson, Malcolm McKesson, Dan Miller, Kate Bradbury, Nigel Kingsbury, Daniel Goncalves, Michel Nedjar, Evelyne Postic, Agatha Wojciechowsky, Ted Gordon, and the list goes on! I just wish brother Phil was here. Right,.. I feel like I’m about to malfunction. For full details check this  and I’ll reiterate all this in a more succinct and informative manner within the next blog entry in a few weeks, with updated specifics regarding the series of events surrounding the exhibition including presentations by some of the artists and more. 

 

Roger Cardinal (1940-2019)

It was saddening to hear that Roger Cardinal, the man who first used the controversial term ‘Outsider Art’ with having his book titled as such (published in 1972), has transcended the Earth at the end of last year. The forthcoming issue (104) of Raw Vision magazine will be a special tribute edition. I was privileged to meet him several times. My first encounter with him was interesting, I had been writing in my diary drawing for a couple of hours, alone at a table and he walks into the room and asks if I mind him sitting beside me. He then asked if I minded him taking some notes as we conversed. We went from there into another smaller room where a video interview with Jean Dubuffet was showing and we sat there for a short time before he nodded off for a while in an armchair. We crossed paths a handful of times or so after that and began a somewhat intense email exchange, which began with him actually saying he would be “honoured” to write about my drawings (too much!). He could also be quite playful in his approach. Referring back to that email, he wrote: I would be honoured to write something about your work, which is definitely on my personal list of a site of “outstanding natural beauty” (that’s a quotation from the Kent County Council road sign that you’ll find at the entrance to our local villages!). I regret not having resolved the unusual and perplexing tone of our last emails. Irrespective of that, Roger Cardinal will forever be gargantuan. 

 

End of summer updates (exhibitions, film screenings, art fairs, radio shows…)

…………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………….

.

It has been half a year or so since my last blog post.. Some updates as we transition into the climax of an unknown winter…

 

Manchester Mad Pride All-Dayer, Sunday September 8th

This subversive celebration is coming up very soon, at the end of this very week in fact. I was invited to partake and have contributed a couple of prints to the visual art exhibition, as well as my film Timmy Miller Has a Heavy Head which will be screened in a programme of short films throughout the day. It is a rare showing of the film and no other showings are currently planned to take place.  The event will showcase various artists spanning a vast spectrum of dynamic media for all your senses to glean. These are the co-ordinates:

Niamos, Chichester Road, Hulme, Manchester, M15 5EU

You can find further info here (where if you scroll down to a post from August 3rd, you can read my answers to a few questions that were put to me) or here.

 

Outsider Art Fair Paris 2019, Thursday 17th – Sunday 20th October

I’m proud to announce that some of my work will be on show again with the Galerie du Marche (Lausanne, Switzerland) at the seventh edition of the annual Outsider Art Fair in Paris this October. It has been surreal to be included among highly potent artists such as Aloise Corbaz, Edmund Monsiel, Adolf Wolfli and Madge Gill on what I have always considered to be one of, if not the, strongest stands at the fair.

The most recently completed diary drawing is on an A5 format (21 x 14.8cm). In some sort of unexplainable phenomena, it has resulted in several thousand more words than the previous diary of the same size, and contains more words than eight out of the ten A4 diary pages that exist, at almost 11,000 words in ‘bubble text’. Usually the word difference, especially in such close succession (months, not years), can be a few hundred more or less. This diary page will be on show at the fair. See here for further details.

Diary, May-July 2019

 

 Art & Mind film

I should mention the manifestation of this truly ambitious documentary film, Art & Mind, which attempts to chart evolving opinions, views and research regarding the convergence of mental health and visual art whilst considering a period of give or take 500 years. I was present at the premiere which took place at the ICA in April (where it will be shown as part of a double bill on Sunday September 8th again). There are dozens of further screenings scheduled globally, which you can find here along with the trailer and further information. The film is narrated by the unparalleled John Maizels, editor of Raw Vision Magazine, who was on the Q & A panel at the premiere alongside chair of the Adamson Collection Trust, David O Flynn and director of the film itself, Amelie Ravalec. From having viewed the film once, I recall my immediate response was a feeling of inundation. There were 350 or so images shown in the film (including one of mine), in a sort of suspended montage sequence. The film was divided into an array of sub-chapters, giving a short time to highlight each. It would not go amiss to re-edit this film and the extensive omitted footage, into a series of episodes, allowing more time for the information to flow. The sequence of images is beautiful and to see it on a big screen was fantastic. With such an amount to be tackled within the time frame of a feature film, and to summarise the centuries explored, naturally there is a lot left unsaid and, for example, failing to include non-Western art and non-Western interpretations of mental health assessment and behaviour, is significantly detrimental. I found the relentlessness of the on-going music under the interviewees words contributed to a somewhat suffocating viewing process, but paradoxically find the alignment of that to the subject, an interesting choice of formatting and that perhaps it in some way can work to the film’s advantage. Needless to say, I can’t wait to re-watch this film, probably several times. To see works by Bosch, Goya, Blake, and Munch contextualised with Lesage, Wolfli, Blinko, and an endless list of incredible artists, and practitioners active in various aspects of the field pondering on these works and how they were viewed in their time and since, is incredibly fascinating.

Art & Mind Q & A panel, l-r: Travis Collins, David O Flynn, Amelie Ravalec, John Maizels

 

See’s To Exist Show, edition 179 – The Sphereology of Phil Cohran

I recently put a pre-recorded radio show together focussing on the extraordinary music of self-proclaimed ‘sphereologist’, Phil Cohran. A difficult task to fit what I can into two hours, especially after a very rich hour and twenty minute conversation recorded between myself and harpist Josefe Marie Verna (who’s majestic opening notes on White Nile, from the African Skies LP recorded in 1993 were my introduction to Phil Cohran’s music) , which I edited parts of into the show, as well as fragments of a phone conversation I had with Derf Reklaw who was involved in Phil Cohran’s Artistic Heritage Ensemble in the late 1960s. Cohran played in Sun Ra’s Arkestra for a couple of years as the 1950s turned into the 1960s, and is known for being co-founder of the legendary AACM. He invented the Frankiphone, a sort of electrified thumb piano, which was popularised by disciples of his who went on to form Earth, Wind and Fire. I get into details about all of that and much more. Most importantly, you can hear some of this great music in the show here.

My show is monthly and you can hear the next show in its usual format of me playing some of my records live and talking about them on September 22nd, 3-5pm (UK time) over at NTS Radio.

a young Phil Cohran and his frankiphone

 

That’s All Folks!

I have some exciting news simmering and hope to report back soon. Meanwhile, back to your lives.

Take care,

Carlo.

 

Time is the whirlwind (part III: Short film, exhibition, publication)

…………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………….

.

Is it sooner than you thought?

I’m following up my previous post with one containing actual things relating more to my output, considering the last entry reads more like a sort of travel log with a sprinkle of educational Jazz referencing.

 

New York, New York – Timmy Miller Has a Heavy Head at the SR Socially Relevant Film Festival NY

The subheading for my previous newsletter/blog post was ‘New York, New York’. Initially that was because I was going to write about my trip to New York and showing my drawings at the Outsider Art Fair in January, and also mention that, to my bewilderment, my short film Timmy Miller Has a Heavy Head has been selected to screen at the SR Socially Relevant Film Festival, also in New York, this March. There was plenty of New York in the previous post, so ‘New York, New York’ was still fitting, in my mind. But anyhow. For New York part II, should you be in the vicinity and interested, my short film (18 mins) will be showing with a couple of other short films as part of a programme considered under the theme ‘Freedom’. I only found out a couple of weeks ago and have since had to quickly put together a poster and a trailer..

note: click on images to enlarge

 

It will be an undeniably rare ‘opportunity’ to see this film in a real cinema, so if you can and are into it, please do, I wish I could! Having just come back from NYC, and needing to renew my passport right now, kind of puts the nail in the coffin for me. If you do go and have a further moment to spare, do let me know how it was?! Attendance, sound quality, etc.. photographic evidence would also be invaluable.

Now that it will be out in the world, perhaps I should demystify it somewhat. I have worked on this on and off for a few years physically.. The seed was planted in my mind about a decade and a half ago and very slowly grew from there, finding its form. A bit like my drawings, in a way. In fact, the name Timmy Miller Has a Heavy Head comes from a ‘doodle’ I did in a sort of visual diary I was keeping in the mid to late ’90s. I mostly kept photographs and concert tickets in there, with associated stories written beside the documents. I also included terrible ‘poetry’ and some unconscious ‘doodling’. That’s where the title for this film was born. I had to rack my brain trying to recall it and thought for a long time that it was on some old schoolwork of mine but eventually found it in this book in January, 2018. In fact it reads ‘Tim Miller’ and not ‘Timmy’. I remembered it wrong for all those years. Not sure why I remembered it in the first place. I did start using it in a different context in the early 2000s and so it has lived on from there more so. Conveniently, there is a date at the top of the page, so I can see that it was drawn on Wednesday 1st of March, 1995. Just about 24 years ago by now. It was good to reconnect with the original drawing. I suppose at the time it was unconsciously referencing all the kids at my school, jacked up on Ritalin. Anyway, enough about me, where were YOU on Wednesday 1st of March, 1995?

 

I know none of that explains much about the contents of the film. I would prefer to leave all that a bit ambiguous at this point. This is the trailer though:

 

The screening takes place on Tuesday 19th of March at 5pm as detailed here. Various options available in regards to purchasing tickets but probably the best deal will be to get the early sales discount here. This is happening at one of the oldest continuously operated art cinemas in New York, Cinema Village. Well, I think that about covers it for now. I’ll be posting any updates on my Facebook artist page.

 

Fly Paws group exhibition in Lausanne, Switzerland

A couple of my small drawings are being shown in an exhibition with a title which translates as ‘Fly Paws’, referring to the insect rather than incorporating slang for ‘fly’ and ‘paws’, though I think the latter is more appealing. Both are amusing. In any case, this is currently on as of the 13th of February and will remain so until the 13th of April, 2019. The place to be is the Galerie du Marché and these are the coordinates.

 

Drawing/Writing/Drawing by David Maclagan

Recently, an academic journal found its way through my letter plate. The reason for this was that an article about the relationship between drawing and writing, written by David Maclagan, is included and my diary drawings get a mention in there, as well as a full page illustration. The article references a lot of artists and cross references various mark making disciplines, as practiced by artists and non-artists alike. If you’re a fiend for this kind of thing, there is a physical version (as was posted through my door) and an electronic version which I found here. The physical copy is pricey (as seems the way with these types of publications) but I can attest to the quality of my reproduced image. Maclagan’s article is interesting to consider and ponder on, and I would say an enjoyable read also. I haven’t gotten round to trying to read any of the other writings though but am curious..

 

25 years of Horse Hospital

I managed to get up to The Horse Hospital in its last days of exhibiting a show celebrating 25 years of its own existence, which is no small feat. I will forever be honoured to say that the first exhibition of my work was in a three person show at The Horse Hospital in 2008. I went along to see this current show thinking I’d be in there for twenty minutes or so but came out of there over an hour after entering. It was visually minimal in its presentation but the timeline of events they had printed out and plastered to the walls had me transfixed and I almost read the entire thing. If those walls could speak, eh? In my previous post I spoke of Joe Coleman‘s work and included some I’d photographed at the Outsider Art Fair in New York in January. One of the paintings contains a portrait dedication to visionary artist Norbert Kox who had passed away just weeks before. Both of these artists have shown at the Horse Hospital also. I forgot to mention in the previous post, that I first saw and learned of Norbert Kox’s work here, in an exhibition of his work and Cathy Ward‘s, whom I also hadn’t encountered before. Norb was present and did some speaking at a special event. I fondly recall his stories of escaping death when having to squeeze through suffocatingly tight passages in caves after water had risen and almost drowned him. He was there with his son. I think this was leading up to the exhibition I was in. So, at the celebratory exhibition, they projected images from all the shows they’d put on and I got to see my works on the walls, which by now feels like some time ago, partly due to seeing which works they were and how they were hung. That whole process of hanging large paintings, it’s been a while by now.. What really sealed the deal was a video compilation of footage from exhibitions that took place, on a screen with headphones for sound. There was a great video of Joe Coleman explaining the details in his paintings, in some detail, in the late ’90s. Fantastic. Such a special and unique place. Certainly singular.

video of Joe Coleman at his Horse Hospital exhibition, speaking about his work

 

Still image projection of my painting The Void II hung beside the door (when the gallery used to be upstairs) with painting The Void and a couple of smaller works in view on other wall behind. The Void II has been packed away for a while now. Would be good to get it out for some air soon..

 

Beginning of the Horse Hospital timeline

 

STUMP: Art From The Obsessive Mind exhibition from October 11th – November 1st (2008). Maurice Burns, Carlo Keshishian, Joe Wilson

 

The Horse Hospital timeline continues…

 

Flyers

 

That’s all for now folk dem. Most probably I won’t write another one of these for a while. Not much happens usually, I am mostly in a room drawing continuously and occasionally taking a break to put a radio show together. Hence my intense whirlwind-related trilogy of posts. The weather is likely to change for now.. Let the wind be my direction.. yadda yadda.. but give me a shout if you feel so inclined and in the meantime,

Peace,

C.

ps. For the sake of realtime chronology, I’m putting this here and not in the above section about Timmy Miller Has a Heavy Head. On my way to work today, to my bafflement, it appears I have been honed in on and retweeted on the topic of the Timmy Miller film by none other than co-creator of Troma EntertainmentThe Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke’Em High and hundreds of other inventive comedic horror films that send a message (to paraphrase Marvel Comics creator, Stan Lee). That I very rarely use Twitter and barely understand how to use it, only begins to explain how confused I am by this strange occurrence! Shout out to the master of subversion Lloyd Kaufman!

Time is the whirlwind (part II: New York, New York)

…………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………….

.

Needless to say life since the previous newsletter/blog entry has been a whirlwind and thus this ‘part II’ is justified. A lot to touch on in this post, including very recent unexpected and exciting developments…

Get your coffee, this may take a while…

Outsider Art Fair New York, January 2019

Bar the near-infuriating process of getting out of Newark airport (which is considerably less infuriating than that of JFK airport), my journey was quite smooth. I do love arriving to New York, post-airport. Feeling the cold air on my face. Getting the train. Usually something happens that reminds me where I am. On this occasion, after leaving my things at the apartment where I’m staying, I went on my way to Raw Vision magazine’s party celebrating its 100th issue. On my way there, it was perfect, I entered the subway and heard the music that was used to open and close the film After Hours. A classical piece, I forget who wrote it and what it’s called but I very much enjoy it. Most likely through the association with the film. It is perfectly fitting in the film, which is Manhattan atmosphere-focussed and from the lens of an ‘outsider’s’ view of the downtown art scene of the early-mid 1980s (near enough when the film was made also). It was great and surprising to hear this piece on the subway upon arriving to New York. As if I was being welcomed by a specially curated subway journey. It was a violinist or cellist playing. It was quite a last minute decision and possibility to come, so I was very glad to be embarking on this odyssey. It is the first time my work is being shown at the OAF in New York. Thanks Jennifer Lauren Gallery!


Carlo beside himself


Queue for Carlo


Nice image nabbed off of Instagram via kirstycnyc 

 

A couple of my small drawings (The Disadvantages of Time part IV: Time Lapse, The Disadvantages of Time part V: To What End?) were shown and both sold, covering my trip with a bit of extra change. Nice. The Raw Vision party was cool. It was a night of short films submitted to Raw Vision, which made for some interesting viewing. The jetlag wasn’t too intrusive to my wakefulness but the atmosphere was somewhat surreal. I suppose sitting in an environment like an airplane for a good part of the day and then finding yourself walking around New York City in itself would do that. I had a complimentary beer. That was nice. I saw a few familiar beings. Jennie who was showing my drawings. Cathy Ward and Eric Wright. Fresh off the press: Raw Vision will be hosting a similar event in London (UK) mid-March.

The OAF opening was busy and buzzing. I saw friend Julia Sisi there, working at the Raw Vision stand with the great John Maizels. It was cool to see them. A man came up to me to express his admiration for my drawings. We talked about the different pens I use. He said something about the level of detail “you and Nick Blinko“. Wow. The most pleasing work at the fair for me to experience were three paintings by Joe Coleman, who has finally been un-banned from having work shown there, and his works were incidentally shown at the Andrew Edlin Gallery stand, Andrew Edlin being owner of the fair also. Coleman was banned under previous ownership though. Edlin’s stand for me is generally a highlight in what they show. I was awestruck by another monumental Marcel Storr work there again. The most impressive of Joe Coleman’s works must have been finished just days or at most a couple of weeks before the fair opened, evidenced by a section in the work being dedicated to the late Norbert Kox who had very recently transcended the Earth.


Joe Coleman ‘Adam Parfrey: A Feral Man in a Feral Land’, 2018-2019

 


detail of Norbert Kox

 

Also of note, as is usually the case, to my eye anyway, were the selections displayed by the Cavin-Morris and Henry Boxer galleries. Apparently the exhibition Cavin-Morris had on at their actual gallery in New York was considered by some to be the best show they have ever put together. I was adamant that I’d reach and see it while I was there but sadly the stars didn’t align that way. They currently have a solo exhibition of Christine Sefolosha‘s work on show, which must be fantastic. Sefolosha is a force to be reckoned with. It has now been a month since the fair, and a lot else has been happening so I’ll move ever onward..

Whilst in NYC, I did manage to see the Hilma af Klimt exhibition at the Guggenheim. I was not aware of her and had missed a recent exhibition of her work at The Serpentine in London. The Guggenheim show was interesting to see. I think it could have been curated better but it was fascinating to see her work and learn about it. I can’t say I like all of it, but some of it was pretty special and considering it in various contexts was quite enlightening, notably when the work was created and how overlooked it was within art history.


Hilma af Klimt works at the Guggenheim, NYC

 

The New York trip continues with a party at the American Folk Art Museum where I saw the Paa Joe and John Dunkley exhibitions. Both interesting in different ways. I walked around the John Dunkley exhibition sensing something very familiar about the work and eventually saw this painting which immediately took me back to the museum in Kingston, Jamaica where I had seen this very painting a few years ago when I was there. I believe it was the only John Dunkley painting I saw when I was there, or it was the only one that struck me, but clearly it stayed with me somewhere in the brain files.


John Dunkley ‘Banana Plantation’, c.1945

 

Lastly, it was Saturday, I had been running around town since Wednesday and against my urge to reach everywhere I wanted to reach, felt I did need some rest. My calculations of timing had begun to be off, and it was clear I needed to make some adjustments. I passed on the Ricco/Maresca party dedicated to the recently passed Phyllis Kind, which I’d really have liked to experience. (note: I’d only met Phyllis Kind once, over a decade ago in the last year or two of her New York gallery being open. The exhibition was fantastic and I also got to see a Nick Blinko drawing up close for the first time, which was brought out from the stock room after we’d got talking about his work.) I laid low for an hour and then walked through the rain to Zinc Bar. It was imperative to check out some music, after all. I’d been in touch with trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah whom I’d interviewed for my radio shows over the years (the Sweet Earth Records special, and the Arthur Blythe special) and he said he would be performing there with a group called AfroHORN and that Bob Stewart (note: Bob Stewart’s solo on Arthur Blythe’s Lennox Avenue Breakdown from the late ’70s is potentially the most significant tuba solo in Jazz history) would be guesting also. This show was from 8-10pm and there was another show over in Brooklyn that I’d initially planned to go see from 10pm onwards. I was toying with the idea of doing both somehow. The other show was a collective improvisation featuring the legendary drummer/percussionist Warren Smith, saxophonist Salim Washington who I was interested in seeing from having listened to him on a record by QPSM Unit, and Ras Moshe Burnett whom I was intrigued to see also. I never made it to that event. Partly because, to my surprise, Salim Washington was on stage at the AfroHORN gig! I’d mentioned to Ahmed Abdullah via email, the other show, and he responded delighted to hear Salim Washington was in town and that they had known each other for a couple of decades and had been neighbours and worked together but that he had moved to South Africa. I could be wrong, but there is a possibility that Salim Washington was on that stage in Manhattan in part due to me having mentioned him in an email to Ahmed Abdullah!? Potential evidence in support of an alternate explanation is that the bassist on that QPSM Unit record was also on stage in Manhattan that night and that could have been his in. (In some sort of way, this reminds me of the time Wayne Kramer of the MC5 was performing in London on the day GG Allin died, give or take a couple of decades, and as we were in correspondence at the time, I’d mentioned it to him the day before. The first words he said before starting to play referenced GG’s death and the newspaper reviews the following day made a point to highlight this. Kind of silly, but it’s funny how and where things ricochet). In any case, I was so glad I had come to hear this. It truly lifted my spirit and rejuvenated my everything. I was fulfilled and didn’t need to rush off to any next thing. I was soaking it in and reflecting on it for some time after. Salim Washington’s partner and baby were in attendance, all seemingly leaving for the other gig ten minutes before the set ends. Also not in the listing was that the incredible Donald Smith was on piano that night. Blissful. They did a great rendition of Sun Ra’s ‘Love in Outer Space’ (standout version being from Sun Ra’s ‘Night of the Purple Moon‘ LP from 1970. Note: both Ahmed Abdullah and ArfoHORN leader Francisco Mora Catlett played with Sun Ra’s Arkestra in the 1970s and beyond. I first heard Ahmed Abdullah on one of the first records that got me into Sun Ra, ‘Cosmos‘ from 1976) and a wonderful version of Reggie Fields’s ‘Reminiscing’. I sacrificed the moment to capture some on my phone, which you can check out if you scroll down to the bottom of all this.


with Ahmed Abdullah

 

As if I don’t have more significant things to include in this already overstretched newsletter/blog post, here is an inflated rat I saw in New York, and a couple of octopus sightings..



 

You know what? This was all stuff from my New York trip and I have a lot of other things to write still, but there is enough here. To keep it neat and for those of you that have read this to the end, I’ll let you return to your lives for now.. The subheading for this post was ‘New York, New York’ because the second dose of New York will be happening in March already. Those very recent and exciting developments alluded to in the opening sentences of this post will have to wait. I’ll save that information for the next entry, which I will follow this one up with sooner than you think.. I hope.

AfroHORN – ‘Reminiscing’ live @ the Zinc Bar, NYC, January 2019

Time is the whirlwind (part 1)

…………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………….

.

Outsider Art Fair Paris, 18th-21st October, 2018

It came and went. And a lot has come and gone since. I haven’t managed to post in the blog here, and it’s all piled up and fragmented now. I’ll see what I can recollect and hope not to leave anything ‘significant’ out. I recently returned from New York, where I experienced the Outsider Art Fair there, which was certainly a whirlwind. I use this metaphor a lot. In the end, time is the whirlwind!

Paris in October was destined to be an unparalleled moment for me, due to having the calendar-diary I’d spent a year and a half accumulating over 50,000 words within in response to becoming a father and detailing every day of that until the page was filled, shown. The weekly magazine of auction sales, La Gazette Drouot, must have caught wind of this and in turn mentioned me in their ‘Vous Avez Dit <<Outsider Art>>?’ article, published in No.35 on 12th October. (note: click on images to enlarge)

People, L-R (me, Marilena with sleeping Nemo, Philippe) Art works L-R (my calendar-diary containing 1st jan 2017- 8th May 2018, a stunning work by Madge Gill)

Lucienne Peiry, former director of the Collection de L’Art Brut (2001-2012) and still working as Director of Research and International Relations there, found my drawings interesting and we had a chat. The museum have since acquired one of my diary drawings, which leaves me somewhat speechless.

Lucienne Peiry observes ‘The Disadvantages of Time, part 1: Grandfather Clock’

 

My diary efforts, sandwiched in between works by Aloise Corbaz and Madge Gill

Of note at the fair, was encountering Tim Ter Wal (represented by Maison Savant at the Galerie Atelier Herenplaats (Rotterdam, Netherlands) booth in a moment of working on his drawing. I noticed people just photographing him without actually speaking to him, which I found quite unsettling. I didn’t want to interrupt him though, but got talking to the gallerist whom I’d had contact with in the past, and in an opportune moment I got to speak with the artist and ask him if he minded me taking any photos while he is working. He said he didn’t mind. So, here are a couple of photos below.

Tim Ter Wal

I took the opportunity to visit some other exhibitions while I was in Paris and was glad to catch my friend Julia Sisi‘s solo show ‘Hypnagogies’ at the Galerie d’un Livre l’autre which had been extended, making it possible for me to see it. I don’t have any photos but spent quite some time absorbing all the energy and wonder. I also managed to see La Maison Rouge’s final exhibition, ‘L’Envol’, which was an inspired and enjoyable exploration of (some of) our collective desire to fly, physically and metaphorically.

Fun flying

 

An incredible Adolf Wolfli drawing

 

 

Detail from the George Widener piece. He strongly advises you not to fly on these dates. Pass it along.

 

Bruno Decharme (abcd Collection), who co-curated the exhibition, tells a wonderful story about this art/artist which I’ve by now managed to lose from my memory. But you can see people were entranced.

 

An original page of Winsor McCay‘s ‘Little Nemo in Slumberland‘ (1910), which to my amusement is focussed on the moon simultaneous to a time when my son Nemo is constantly expressing his fascination with the moon

I also managed to see the Jean-Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele exhibitions at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. It took an hour to get in and was very busy, but the Basquiat was well curated, unlike the recent Barbican show in London. A few years ago I saw a refreshingly unpretentious Basquiat retrospective at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, which was exciting. It was also the first time I’d managed to see an exhibition of his work. The Paris show possibly had the right balance though, overall.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Finally, I caught the dynamic and rich Halle Saint Pierre exhibition ‘Art Brut Japonais II’ which featured all manner of work by many interesting and intriguing artists whom I sadly cannot do justice to here due to time restrictions but the catalogue looked quite fantastic, so perhaps seek that out. One highlight was this epic piece (seen below) by Norimitsu Kokubo, who’s work I think I first saw at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London a few years ago. Incidentally, we were both represented by the Jennifer Lauren Gallery at the Outsider Art Fair in New York last week (at time of writing this). More on that in the next blog entry…

Norimitsu Kokubo

Yes, so all of the above should have been put together and posted months ago. The writing would have most likely been more detailed, precise, and poignant.. but even in these short months, things fade with time.. I was going to write about the New York Outsider Art Fair now, but certainly 1) do not have enough time 2) I would use up way too much space, which also means you’ll most likely not have enough time to read it all either. I really hope to post it very soon. In the next few days.. or.. next week?

Meanwhile, if I’d managed to get my phone out to film it a bit sooner, you’d get a better view but if you watch this on a loop a few times, here is a squirrel down my road, getting confused by some fake 2D trees. I guess the designers didn’t think that through, or they simply did not care, or were curious to see what would happen, etc.. Anyhow, here it is, from around the same time as all the above (according to my phone)..

New recordings, and the Outsider Art Fair Paris 2018

…………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………….

.

Outsider Art Fair Paris, 18th-21st October

It is nearly upon us. In just over a week, I shall be getting the train to Paris excited to be practicing iconolatry on such a scale yet again at the Outsider Art Fair. This year, at the new location –

Atelier Richelieu, 60, rue de Richelieu 75002, Paris.

More info here.

Some of my diary-related drawings will be on show with the Galerie Du Marché coming from Lausanne, Switzerland. I am especially pleased to be showing what I can only describe as the most monumental diary drawing to have been channeled through my nib. More on that below. . . No doubt I’ll be on the wall there, in the company of the usual unusual array of non-living artists, as that is where I seem to fit in all this. I can’t complain.

 

Diary, 1st January 2017- 8th May 2018

The photograph above was taken on the day of completion of my largest diary drawing. The format is different to the usual A4 landscape, and the text also follows a different pattern. I had intended to approach this with the idea of filling it daily, like a calendar, allocating specific spaces to each day of the year 2017. The result, however, spills into the following 2018 (8th of May to be precise, the day this photograph was taken, incidentally). The need to do this drawing came to me a few weeks before the end of 2016. My son was to be born late January/early February 2017. I felt to document the weeks leading up to the birth and capture the evolution of each day after until the end of the year. Expecting a whirlwind of developments and no time to process/retain a lot of the on-going nuanced details, this idea seemed like a way to capture these and keep them contained. Unfortunately, due to severe back issues which had me frequenting the osteopath, as well as other unforeseen instances/setbacks, I could not draw every day on this occasion, but did keep a written diary for the days I missed, which I could later include in the drawing. In any case, a somewhat uncanny thing happened. I had created the equivalent of around 5-6 usual A4 size diary drawings in under a year and a half. I am usually creating 2 a year, 3 at a push (there was one A4 diary that took me two and a half years to complete but that’s another story), and that was with the more time I was able to give in the pre-parenting phase of life. I have never been very good at Math. But these contrasting results make little sense to me. Answers on a postcard. With over fifty thousand words in the drawing, the equivalent to the most densely packed of previous A4 diary drawings is more or less reached also.

So yes, this drawing will be shown for the first time at the Outsider Art Fair in Paris.. If you’re able and willing, come to the fair and you can see it.

 

Vestiges & Verse: Notes from the Newfangled Epic book published

Earlier this year, a selection of my drawings were shown in the group exhibition Vestiges & Verse: Notes from the Newfangled Epic at the American Folk Art Museum in New York.  The accompanying publication is now available to purchase and has a profile on each of the twenty one artists who’s work was shown including Henry Darger, Achilles Rizzoli, Adolf Wolfli, and Aloise Corbaz. The text on me and my work was written by Barbara Safarova.

 

See’s To Exist Show – Doug Hammond special

I’m still at it, doing my monthly ‘Jazz’-focussed radio show on NTS. Generally I am playing records from my collection and speaking a bit about some of them. Occasionally I find or make the time to shed light on particular artists or record labels and hone in on details of interest, gleaning what I can from the conversations I manage to arrange. The most recent of these comes in the form of edition 165, my special show on the fascinating drummer/percussionist Doug Hammond and you can hear that here.  We speak on some of the collaborations he’s been involved in (David Durrah, Tribe Records, Charles Mingus, Byard Lancaster, Family of Percussion..), self releasing music, the recent documentary focussed on him and his work, and more. Enjoy.

Here is one of the recordings of Doug Hammond’s that initially piqued my curiosity some years ago..

 

GDPR

I’ve saved the most mundane for last. Some months ago, new privacy safety measures were put into effect and I made some effort to comply with this in regards to the newsletter I send out only twice a year or so, through Mailchimp. I re-invited those that were subscribed and ended up with just 5% or so of them resubscribing. It seems some tried to but were unable also, which reflects either my ineptness or how complicated this process is for a lot of people like myself trying to keep these things going with minimal understanding of the necessary technologies. Long story short, I’ve just rejigged the subscription button on this blog (top left side of the page), so hopefully if you tick the GDPR box and the other box to subscribe, it will work. Please let me know if it doesn’t, and if it does, please forward this on to anyone you know who may have previously been subscribed, that would be a great help, thanks.

 

That’s all, folks. I’ll be back.

Bright moments,

Carlo

 

 

Winter updates

Outsider Art Fair Paris 2016

Greetings. As the last update was left on the ponderous note of anticipation for what was to come in the form of the Outsider Art Fair Paris, I shall provide you with the outcome.. firstly, I have written at length about it here for Outside In. Having just revisited this writing now, I don’t think I need to add much more here. The New York edition of the fair celebrated its 25th year earlier this month and it seems the momentum has really picked up in the last few years with more attendance, media coverage and general awareness seemingly bringing the field noticeably within view from in the shadows.

A sophisticated magnifying glass with built-in light, being used to look at a detailed Carlo Keshishian diary drawing. Works by Aloise and Wolfli visible in background

 

ABDC Collection

Following on from the Paris fair, I’m pleased to announce some of my recordings have found a home in the unparalleled ABCD collection. See here.

 

Radio Shows, Itch FM, NTS and Mixcloud: See’s To Exist Show / Who Cares? And Unknowns

For those that have been following my See’s To Exist Show Jazz based radio shows in the last few years, a metamorphosis is currently taking place. For various reasons, I’ve had to call it a day in regards to providing a weekly show at Itch FM, which has been a great experience and I will forever rep the Itch family. I wasn’t sure what form, if any, See’s To Exist Show will continue to exist as, and started to put in place the creation process of a new podcast which would not be restricted by genre or time in terms of how frequently new editions would come into being, or how much time they would each run for. This show is called Who Cares? And Unknowns, of which the first instalment has now been uploaded in two parts (clocking in altogether at somewhere around the 5 hour mark). This first instalment is focussed on Joe Dub, one of the West Coast’s best kept secrets in terms of underground Hip Hop (of the Americas). I first came across his music in the form of a cassette that was given to me in 1997-98, containing material by his then group San Francisco Street Music, that I would years later find out is titled ‘The Pride’. A cassette intrinsic to the development of my own approach to a lot of things, to this day. In a previous blog entry, I highlight some record adapters I designed for Joe’s current project, and we have had an interesting exchange since the turn of the last century. He has recorded with the who’s who of mythical underground West Coast artists such as Deeskee, 2Mex, Abstract Rude, Doc Lewd, Awol One, Circus, Liferexall, Neila, Dave Dub, Ellay Khule, and a near endless list of others. In these shows I provide a generous quantity of his recordings, more or less chronologically, including collaborations with Devin The Dude, Topic, Factor, Alex 75 and many more.. You can check part 1 and part 2 out now. Enjoy.

I am proud to announce that See’s To Exist Show will continue, keeping more or less the same format, but will now be a monthly show courtesy of NTS. The new show will be live on Sundays, 3-5pm, the first of which can be streamed on March 12th. Tune in for more of the same unparalleled magical Jazz gems from the dusty depths of our world’s near forgotten treasure crevices.

 

Toilet Diary

The current diary drawing I am working on has unexpectedly taken a different path. Firstly, it’s is more than four times the size than the previous sequence which were all A4. Secondly, in theory the idea was to draw just one hour each day of the year, so as to contain the entire year in a measured manner. I’ve allocated a premeditated dimensional area divided 365 times within the page. I began drawing it a few weeks before another little collaborative creation I’m involved in, in the form of a little human, was born into being in our world. A spanner in the works of course presented itself just a few days into drawing, and with my back significantly compromised, causing me to be bed-bound for almost two weeks, I have quite some catching up to do with drawing and recollecting my thoughts, channeling the fresh impulses, etc.. I’m sure it will be an interesting challenge to the end. Other interesting new diaries being kept involve monitoring toilet activity. Who’d have thunk it. Anyhow, here is a photograph of my new diary drawing in progress, with new little human catching some z’s alongside..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Short Film

I won’t give much about this away at the moment because I’m still not sure exactly what I will do with it, but I have been working on a short film for some time now and it is near completion. I’ve been working on it, on and off, for the last couple of years or so in terms of filming and editing. The ideas for it, however, have slowly been simmering for over a decade and it somehow found its way into being created, which initially I hadn’t intended on seeing through. More on this in the next blog entry (probably/possibly?!)..

 

Uncooked Culture ‘Spring Showcase’

The mastermind behind the Uncooked Culture initiative and Circus Terminal touring exhibitions,The Bag Lady Nok has put in place another exhibition showcasing works by artists associated with the movement. On this occasion, you can find works by somewhere around a hundred artists. Other than myself, these include Ian Pyper, Cathy Ward, Pier Makanda, Liz Parkinson, Brian Robert Gibson and many many more. Nok’s acquiring of the Bag Lady title relates to the near mythical process that has been her method in carrying hundreds of art works in one suitcase and putting exhibitions on in France, Spain, Solvenia, Holland, Suriname, Thailand, New Zealand and the U.S.A. This time around, she has set up just around the corner at The Walmer Castle pub in Notting Hill (London, UK). The address is 58 Ledbury Road, W11 2AJ. I’m not exactly sure how long the works will be up but I do know there will be a three day celebration in the upstairs bar area on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of March, so if you are interested in seeing some performances, hearing speeches, and mysterious improvisational happenstance intrinsic to the nature of the project, find yourself there within that window of time. On the evening of Wednesday the 1st of March, I will be DJing so if you are around and care to experience the exhibition with a soundtrack of rare spiritual Jazz potentially among other things, it’s a good time to peruse. I’ll leave it at that.

 

Until later..

Carlo

Summer/Autumn updates

Outside In 10th Anniversary

Greetings. As usual, it has been a while since the last time I have posted here. Time passes, things accumulate, etc.. So, let’s get on with it!

Outside In have put a show together at Pallant House Gallery, in order to celebrate 10 years of Outside In, which is quite an achievement. It’s great that they can continue to carry out the work that they do and seem to be going from strength to strength. I have a couple of diary drawings in the exhibition alongside the works of other award winners. The show is on until the 30th October, so if you are nearby, do check it out! Also imperative to mention, something that really blew me away and was a total surprise, on exhibition in the DeLonghi Room at Pallant House, are some (many) collected works by Friedrich Nagler. Seriously incredible, faces created out of all sorts of materials throughout his adult life.. Some simple, others quite detailed and complex.. I can’t stress how great this exhibition is and urge anyone remotely near to go take a look, I’m not sure what the probability of seeing them again is, where or when, but I do hope it can tour for others to share this experience. These shows aren’t on for much longer, so check it out while you can!

Friedrich Nagler works on show at Pallant House Gallery

Friedrich Nagler works on show at Pallant House Gallery

Three Quarters Records

By now, I do have a somewhat dynamic history with a figure known to some as Joe Dub. He resides in Hawaii and first came to my attention in the last few years of the previous millennium for his work with the group San Francisco Street Music. He has gone through a few name changes and it is about to happen again, on this occasion to be coinciding with the launch of his new record label, Three Quarters. For their first release, Joe, alongside longtime collaborator Alex 75, handles the production for singer Doug Shorts on a 7″ called ‘Throwing Our Love Away/Slow Poison’.

I am proud to present to you all, a wooden 45/7″ record adapter that I’ve designed for the Three Quarters record label. It is my understanding that these will be available as a limited edition promotional gift with orders of the first release by Doug Shorts very soon.. Stay tuned for more info! In the meantime, you can read a bit more about Doug Shorts here.

Additionally, I have included part of an interview that I recently conducted with Joe Dub, in my 100th radio show for Itch FM (It is my 140th in total). The show focuses on the historical development of my interest in Jazz and I’ll be uploading it to my Mixcloud archive soon. It can be found on Itch FM’s archive already. Furthermore, I am in the process of putting together quite a thorough show focusing on Joe Dub and his music, which will include the full interview. I’ll provide a link to both of these as they become available.

 

The Carlo Keshishian/Three Quarters 45 Adapter

The Carlo Keshishian/Three Quarters 45 Adapter

 

three-quarters-adapter-2

three-quarters-adapter

 

Outsider Art Fair Paris 2016

It’s that time again..  October 20-23rd. Outsider Art Fair Paris, at Hôtel du Duc. A few dozen galleries and organisations from around the world will be exhibiting. I will have works on display with the Galerie du Marché (Lausanne, Switzerland). I’m in great company alongside favourite artists of mine such as Raphael Lonne and Edmund Monsiel, whose pieces are very rarely exhibited, so treat yourself to a trip and journey. Come see us! I will be writing my opinion piece for Outside In as per usual, so if you can’t make it, perhaps you’ll be able to gauge and glean something from that once it’s published. I’ll keep you posted, in any case..

Right, that will be all for now! I’ll be in touch again in due course..

Bright moments,

Carlo

 

  • Bread Trail

  • Echoes