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The Smiths

one small seed — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:07:01 +0000

A new box set featuring iconic images of The Smiths is set to be released and we have a sneak peek for you.

The images, taken by photographer Tom Sheehan, portray The Smiths in their original glory, embracing the independence of 1980s alternative British rock. The box set is to be comprised of original negatives. The sneak peeks that we see show band members Morrissey (vocals) and Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums) in close up and intimate situations. Sheehan clearly had unlimited and unparalleled access to the group through their prime of the 1980s.

The early released images of the box set provides insight into the group’s character, the times and the band’s attitude. One photograph shows Steven Patrick Morrissey having a heart to heart with a typewriter. The featured box set is a must have for Strokes fanatics or those interested in the private history of alternative rock.

The Smiths were hailed as the most important alternative rock band to emerge out of the British independent music scene of the 1980s by prominent English music critic Simon Reynolds in his book Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984.

Source: Q
www.qthemusic.com

| Interview Preview | Mr Brainwash: Laughing all the way to the Banksy

one small seed — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:55:06 +0000

Born in Paris under the name Thierry Guetta, street artist/videographer Mr Brainwash’s gap-filled biography has prompted conspiracy theorists to speculate that he’s a Banksy/Shepard Fairey/Invader project and that the acclaimed Banksy-directed documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop is a grand hoax and offers more grift than gift.

Mr Brainwash creates satirical twists on classic pieces, including some of Banksy’s ‘own’ stuff, and his lavish exhibitions routinely draw crowds of aficionados, detractors and the curious. Mr Brainwash is dedicated to spreading a message that is positive, colourful and – like Andy Warhol’s – accessible. Jean-Michel Basquiat said, ‘I start a picture and I finish it. I don’t think about art while I work. I try to think about life.’ From his California home, Mr Brainwash gives one small seed an exclusive interview, giving insight into undeniable passion for art and for life. Here’s a short snippet…

How have things changed since your first show in LA in 2008?

Time lets you get better at what you do. The show in 2008 was 18 000 square feet and this show is 80 000 square feet.

You created street art and then moved on to massive exhibitions. It’s just getting bigger and bigger. How do you pull it off?

I don’t sleep very much. Three or four hours a day is normal. I’m very passionate about my work… though I wouldn’t really call it ‘work’ if it’s something that you’re really passionate about and have fun doing. We cry sometimes but it’s a pleasure when you finish a piece.

How does your team handle it?

I’ve got a small team and I only use other people when I do bigger shows. It’s a small team but they are a hundred percent with me. They believe in me and where I’m going.

Do you see yourself sticking to a career as an artist? Do you think you’ll change direction?

I’m an artist. I always have been. An artist is someone who is passionate about what he does and does it from his heart. He can make it happen. An artist doesn’t have to be the best in the world and doesn’t have to listen to anybody. You just go forward with what you want, because everyone has their own life. When I made clothing, I thought like an artist and came up with something new that was only for designers. And it was the same when I started filming. I took that challenge up for ten years. I’d go out in the morning and have two or three cameras with me and I didn’t stop making it happen.

…. continued

Make sure you pick up a copy of the latest one small seed – issue 24 – to read the full interview and click HERE to read the full breakdown of issue 24!

In the above video, Mr. Brainwash shares the story of his journey to take over an abandoned industrial space in the center of Los Angeles for a massive art show. But before unveiling his own work, he invites the entire street art community to decorate the inside. The story behind Art Show 2011, artshow2011.com

images: Mr Brainwash ©, interview: Jean Rene Onyangunga

A Pop Culture Debate: Plagiarism or Intertextuality?

one small seed — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:00:12 +0000

Plagiarism is defined as the close imitation or purloining and publication of another authors work, ideas or expressions and representing them as your own. Intertextuality is defined as the shaping of one text’s meaning through other texts, either through referencing or by borrowing and transforming that work into something different.

But looking at the two definitions, how far apart are plagiarism and intertextuality really. In a post-modern age so much media in all it’s forms are a hybrid or pastiche of what has been before, with frankenstein like efficiency, media is chopped up from all era’s and blended together to make something new, while paying homage to the narrative which informed it. In Issue 24 of one small seed – out now! – we chat to Mr Brainwash, the man who refers to himself as ‘Banksy’s greatest work of art’… But how original is his art, or is it ‘art’ at all?

Andy Warhol started the pop art scene in the 1960’s, with his factory and screen print process, a leading figure in the visual art movement, he was best known for his paintings of iconic american products, the campbells soup cans, coca-cola and iconic celebrities of the time, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson. Even though he was attacked for capitulating to consumerism, pop art asked what is art, who decides what art is, Warhol painted soup cans and openly embraced the market culture, courting the rich and famous and gaining commissions for their portraits.

Fourty years later we have Mr Brainwash, a pseudonym for Thierry Guetta, his art of choice involves stencils and silk screens of well known icons in the pop art style used by Warhol. How far can intertextuality and pastiche or parody go before they become plagiarism? The hyperconsciousness of Mr Brainwash’s art is far from subtle, while all art is linked in the evolution of genre and style and reference the past in a global communication while evolving, where is the line between referencing and property theft drawn? Mr Brainwash commented on Andy Warhol saying, “I think that Warhol would have done the same if he were still alive” .

Another artist Mr Brainwash flatters with imitation is Banksy the popular and controversial graffiti artist out of Bristol. Banksy’s distinctive stenciling style encompasses political and social commentary, satirizing famous artwork, artists and public figures.The stencil style of Banksy is a nod to parisian graffiti artist, Blek le Rat. Unlike Mr Brainwash, Banksy’s graffiti parodies the very people who clamor to buy it. At his inception as a graffiti artist, Banksy was considered a counterculture artist, with his stencils and artworks a scathing commentary on consumerism and politics. But how can you comment on a culture that makes you wealthy, is it wrong to profit from social commentary and profit well? In the age of capitalism and consumerism, counter culture cannot exist for in a post -modern age the boundaries between high and low culture are blurred, and that which is outside the mainstream culture will simply be appropriated by it and become part of it.

And so the cycle continues, from Warhol to Blek le Rat, Banksy and Mr Brainwash, art at it’s finest, retouched, reproduced and referenced or plagiarized. To read the exclusive interview with Mr Brainswash get your copy of one small seed issue 24 out on sale in January and hear his thoughts on his art, Banksy and Andy Warhol.

images: Mr Brainwash