Pink Floyd-inspired art and London Overground

by Parsley on Wed, 2007/11/21 - 7:26pm Post to Twitter

PARSLEY'S COMMLOCK
Exhibition Review : "Change Returns Success" - Art Exhibition on Pink Floyd 19-25/11/07
In my youth I was inspired by the artistic freedom encouraged by punk rock. However, my style had more in common with mods and the psychedelic movement of 10 years previously. When I heard of an exhibition of art to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Pink Floyd's first album, "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" I was keen to see it.

My friend Pete Huxley had suggested to me that he always took the artwork on a record sleeve literally. So if Atom Heart Mother has a picture of a cow on it then the music should in some way be about that cow. Despite having a hippy name, the 'Piper' album has camera effect multiple images of Pink Floyd on the front, and the back was made to look like a piece of 'blotting paper' with an ink blot in the shape of a picture of the band. No real artistic ambiguity there. After that though, the 'Hipgnosis' sleeves for Pink Floyd records had headed off into more surreal directions, that seemed to have their own mission, less obviously linked to the album title or contents. Of course the popularity and longevity of the albums have bonded the artwork to the music to the point where I almost feel like a heretic suggesting there might not be an obvious link.

This exhibition of artwork of Samij Datta was also mostly not literally illustrating the Pink Floyd, but was rather a collection of mostly abstract works mostly inspired by Pink Floyd songs, although notably not just Barrett's. Most were titled and accompanied by text naming other cultural references from Buddha to Nietzsche, and from Dylan Thomas to Albert Camus. There were also quotes from Pink Floyd songs.

I asked Joy Roy Choudhury, the exhibition's creative consultant, about the use of all these references. He wrote most of the accompanying text, as well as the poetry in a booklet tribute to Syd Barrett with further illustrative artwork. He said the references should help the audience, but the intention was that the art would stand in its own right. I had to confess I wasn't sure I would have linked the paintings to the appropriate songs without his texts to guide me. I also had to confess I got rather lost in his descriptive texts. If you've seen the TV show 'Heroes', the texts reminded me of the moments where a character (usually Mohinder Suresh) starts narrating in a way that sounds illuminating but leaves you confused. That said, I enjoyed the colours and patterns of the artwork, and I had every sympathy with the quote from Matisse on their handout sheet that "photography had released painting from the need to copy nature."

Some of the pictures were quite small (10" x 10") and they all seemed to have been painted in the last 2 years. 2 of them featured the faces of Syd Barrett and Joe Boyd respectively. I imagined that if you could stand far enough away from all the abstract art in the world it would reveal itself as a massive optical illusion comprising the faces of all the great names in psychedelia.

The rain kept people away from this preview night, which meant that I was free to discuss the importance of the Pink Floyd and national cultural references with Joy Roy and a friend of his. Apparently the Floyd are a major influence in India these days. Given the power of Indian culture in pschedelia it was interesting to be part of echoes of cultural influences. More info is at www.art-vantage.co.uk.

Travel News : Transport for London announce 'The Overground'
I nicknamed the Silverlink rail route from North Woolwich to Richmond (previously known as the North London line) the Scumlink. This is because it is a route whose trains I have found to be routinely vandalised, and where I am most likely to be accosted and feel unsafe on my journey. So I was interested to hear that Transport for London were taking over this route and renaming it 'The Overground'.

I expect this user-friendly route is principally for the benefit of the Olympics as it runs into the heart of it. I wondered what anyone thought the differences between a regular 'Underground' station (several of which are literally above ground) and a 'National Rail' station was supposed to be. The adverts said "more trains, more staff, Oystercards." They referred to 'attended' stations, compared to stations being unattended. This is supposed to make us feel safer, but of course, like the ridiculously ubiquitous liberty infringing CCTV, I anticipate no one will be available to assist in the event of violent action. Still, it will be nice to have some blurred images of being murdered to show on Crimewatch. Likewise it'll be nice to have the blood mopped up by the station manager before the next day's rush hour risks suffocating in horrendously overcrowded carriages.

More trains? Given that a traffic jam ensues whenever the Scumlink barriers block the level crossing at Acton Central, I'm interested to see what the net effect on travelling will be. Acton Central is certainly well attended at the moment. That's mainly because the new Oystercard barriers seem to be having trouble opening for 'Travelcard' holders.

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]