Accumulated’ second version. Many offset layers are added in the hope of achieving a solid, almost sculptural feel.
White pencil on black recycled card
A1
Detail of centre:
Archives for category: Art
I’m continuing this lockdown series, accumulating shapes in ordered and chaotic formations.
A0
Mixed media on black recycled card.
Detail:
AO
White pencil on recycled card.
Irregular forms repeated around a fixed point.
Detail:
I’m continuing to draw from our flat in these weird locked down days. Two upcoming shows have been postponed indefinitely. The act of drawing is respite from thought; labour intensive activity to become lost in. This drawing has a star chart/night sky feel, employing several techniques. It’s currently composed of four A1 sheets of black card and feels like I could keep adding further sheets to it until our entire living space is consumed.
Detail I
Detail II
A0
Conté Crayon on black card.
A1 Card
Forms cluster and layer around fixed points in flux.
In September last year I was asked to create a wall drawing in the Vault Artist Studios members room. I drew this piece, a Fibunacci sequence inspired, planet like layering of regular circles in chalk. The chalk had not been sprayed with fixative, over the weeks and months parts of the drawing had been smudged and worn away as people’s presence marked the passage of time. This became a slow visual metaphor for the studio members’ transient presence in this former technical college.
Vault hosted an excellent Fringe festival on the first and second of June this year, comprising over 100 events and projects happening in the building and the car park. In preparation for this, the exterior of the building and the members room underwent a vibrant redecoration. The first drawing was covered up.
I drew a new site specific piece in a different part of the room using wax crayon:
The deep indigo background marks a break with monochrome. This drawing plays with imperfect symmetrical forms, incorporating influences from many sources including early arcade game vector graphics, sacred geometry and heavy metal logo typography.
Detail:
Here in the finished room, the drawing is surprisingly augmented with a rack holding pool cues.
Ben Behzadafshar and I recently collaborated on a series of performative works for the Vault Artist Studios Fringe Festival.
This is the trailer we used to publicise the event:
We wrote a statement that was placed prominently in the room to prepare audience members for what they would see and hear:
“This is not a conventional set of songs, it is a sonic expedition to the unknown.
Performances will consist of structured, improvisational recorded and played sounds created and manipulated by Ben Behzadafshar and John Macormac. These follow a pre-determined ‘recipe score’ that sets out parameters for what is played. This score is sufficiently loose that it may be interpreted in innumerable ways.
Behzadafshar will generate a wide variety of sounds using an array of effects pedals and an amplifier, alongside a guitar, a metal shelf and a wooden top desk. The guitar is prepared by tying it with cloth, it will act as a sound source, interrupting the instrument’s conventional role as a melodic device.
Macormac will create and record live sounds made from nails and a metal saucepan lid, hand percussion and an acoustic drum kit struck with sticks and beaters. These sounds will be layered and repeated using a loop station. The recorded layers will be played and manipulated through an amplifier and responded to with the drum kit.
Throughout each performance, John and Ben will intuitively react to what each other are playing, drawing upon their long creative relationship as members of experimental jazz punk party band Blue Whale.”
This A1 gel pen drawing combines harsh angular forms with curved ones. It was shown at ‘In Orbit,’ the Catalyst Arts gallery members show that ran from the 18th of April to the 9th of May.
200 x 140 cm
Pen on Card
John Macormac 