2015/4
A Magazine for the arts and culture.
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MEET THE TEAM
EDITORS NOTE
Jax
Editor in Chief
Jon
Creative Editor
And so April arrived, month of the great fool! Heralded in the traditional way on the first day by having Jaxx play the part and get truly duped for the whole four hours we had to toy with her.
Mr. Wild Content Editor
Spirits remained high though, and as Mr Wild’s illustration above shows, the sun has been out to play, the romantic air of a warm spring evening filling our hearts with the love and vitality of a new day to come. The April bank holiday then presented itself to us in all it’s sublime glory. As we basked in the thermal radiation of our very own star we embarked upon a mini adventure, the three of us having been invited to an awesome art and music festival just off the curry mile in Manchester...But more on that later on in the issue.
Luke
Staff Writer
The kids had two weeks off school and so did our Jon, he spent the mornings in bed and afternoons either painting or making some weird avant garde electro. Conversely Mr Wild, working in a popular children’s attraction, worked his knackers off and cursed the very idea of the ‘HalfTerm’. Made in Chelsea made it’s way back onto our screens and make us feel sick with envy over their marble arches and (in the words of Lethal Bizzle) “raries”. Snoop Dog is back as Snoop Dog with his nice sunny sun fun sun song and we were blessed with an amazing new track from that singer who sings on that clean bandit song (disclaimer: it was the worst song ever and drove us mad in the office).
Mottled Gray Staff Writer
We are now in the fourth month of the year and fourth month of missing the Commander, his journey, hopefully, is a good one. Luke The Berryman walked out of his house again this month to embark on some gallery visits which he will no doubt be reporting on as soon as he can. Skellington’s Bakery has a guide to the top three pubs in Lancashire to visit this spring. Dunc offers his take on the state of E-Sports and Jaxx, Jon and Mr Wild have their account of the fresh creative event at Antwerp Mansion. Mottled Gray has another awesome review and this month’s issue is frothing at the gills with other artist reviews and interviews.
Shelley Wild Food Columnist (skellingtons Bakery)
With the last issue topping just over THREE THOUSAND reads we couldn’t be happier right now and our sublime family of artists continues to blossom in the light of this most radiant Spring. But let us not rest, keep spreading the word fans until the whole world knows of our resplendent endeavour! Now it’s that time again folks, read this on your commute, digest it in the tub, go and find your hovel now because here, in all it’s shiny new plastic wrapped glory is the April issue of THE SUBLIME. Keep on reading guys, Remember For Calum Keep it Surreal Keep it Sublime
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Jaxx, Jon & Mr Wild The Sublime Editors.
THE SUBIME ISSUE 2015/4
CONTENTS
SARAH OLLIS
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SHIRLEY CRESSWELL 10 THE SOUND OF SPASTICS
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WONDERFUL 13 TOP 3 PUBS & RESTAURANTS TO VISIT IN LANCASHIRE THIS SPRING 14
Cover image by Josh Hunter Published by The Sublime Design by Jaxx Shepherd Concept by Jon Wilford
MUL 16 JOSH HUNTER 22 HOPE FOR LOAFERS 34 ANTWERP MANSION 36 HER LANDSCAPE
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I MEAN IT 46
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Artist of the month
SARAH OLLIS 4 The Sublime
This month’s introducing artist is Sarah Ollis, an extremely talented fine artist from the south west of the mighty Blighty. Her work is striking, in fact the bold and exciting colours scream at you to stare, digging their vibrant finger nails behind your eyeballs and pulling them into the image. We have been speaking to her to get behind the mind that creates these mystifying pieces. We asked the question you all wanted to know the answer to...“WHO ARE THEE”?
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“I Grew up in the South west of England. Drew a lot of inspiration from places such as Stokes croft, it was a place I frequented a lot when I was a teenager. There is also a lot of nature and greenery around here. Have always been interested in art from a young age, and spent every moment possible creating as a young child. Completed an art foundation at Bath College in 2009 and graduated with a first class honors degree from Portsmouth university in 2014”.
The work speaks volumes by colour, Sarah has managed to implicate an eastern feeling with roots hardened in spirituality. Each piece contains intricate patterns that you might see in an Indian ceremony, they have Buddhist narratives, exploring the morals of the eastern myths and although the colours are bright, bold and loud you get a sense of calm that almost transposes your mind into a deep meditation.
While achieving this, she has also managed to juxtapose a western cultural influence, combining the pop and trash of our very own commercial media. I can’t help but feel familiar with these images yet so distant with the idea that she has shown me something I have never seen before.
You get a feeling of the great landscapes that have influenced her whole life, each piece has a fluency
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that seems to appear organic, like hills falling into a valley full of clouds swilling In the winds. I would love to compare her work with Van Gogh (not an artist first on my list of comparisons) the use of motion contoured with colour is oozing with fauvism. The use of movement and strokes are just like Van Goghs and they are just as well calculated. Yet the difference is the subject, we don’t see starry nights, there are no kitchen sinks in these images. They reflect a more vivid interpretation of our own contemporary culture mixed with those eastern influences we have talked about.
I can’t help but feel each piece has a strong story steeped in philosophy and I would be interested to see what theories Sarah herself would write into her work. Maybe an invitation to write a passage for a future issue is in order?
As with our culture, Sarah likes to explore the taboo, this has been done many times over in a crass way yet in Sarah’s work we are met with a subtle hint of taboo that leaves us to question our own restrictions on sexuality, beauty and uncanny feelings towards our own identity.
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I hope you too will see the enjoyment and feel the fun I have with her work.
Keep your eyes on this artist, more great things are most definitely going to come from her.
Contact: sarah.ollis@myport.ac.uk
http://kaleidoscopic-creations.tumblr.com/ http://facebook.com/sarahollisillustration/
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Catch up with
SHIRLEY CRESSWELL One of our amazing past cover artists Shirley Cresswell contacted us the other day and shared this amazing event that she was apart off. It was the big egg hunt in New Zealand, a charity event set up for the starship fund, a children’s hospital fund that is set up to help give medical care to over 120,000 patients. The event invites the leading artists and designers in and around New Zealand to create these huge beautiful eggs, they are then spread out across the capitol for the public to go and seek out using maps and apps. At the end of the hunt the eggs where all auctioned of, which raised over $200,000 for the charity. A creative success. We love it when a Sublime family member gets involved with things like this and use their creative skills for the greater good of others. I would like to thank Shirley for sharing this with us and hopefully it will influence you all to either get involved with events in your local area or even set up funds for such great causes. Take your time to admire these awesome eggs Shirley painted and don’t forget to log onto the funds website to see all of the brilliant creative talent that was involved.
thebigegghunt.co.nz
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A Poem By MR. Wild
THE SOUND OF SPASTICS A shrill, a shriek, a scathing screech, A coarse attempt at making speech, A writhing mess of limbs and teeth, A gurgling lump of useless beef. Fretting, sweating, such a drain, Clinging to it’s life in vain, A joy will not this mangle bring, This clawing half aborted thing. Allowed but wrong, it sings it’s song, Caring folk say ‘let’s be strong’, Strength won’t help uppease it’s pain, “Why let me live?” it asks again. It asks, it shouts, but no-one hears, Garbled shit to healthy ears, And so it wails, it yelps and cries, Until some day it gladly dies.
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A Poem By MR. Wild
WONDERFUL A single point of energy, Expansion in an instant, Faster than the speed of light, Space became so distant, Matter, gas and other things, Filled up the great traverse, Then all the largest stars there were, Lit up the Universe. A light to light the darkest dark, Their Phoenix flame renewed, They grew, they died, they burned again, The galaxies ensued, Planets, pulsars, nebulae, All we’ve seen so far, Every treasure ever known, Was born inside a star. Gold and diamonds, shooting stars, The northern lights aglow, Every atom made for us, A long long time ago, They coalesce, they fall apart, They paint the cosmic hue, And all for this their masterpiece, The wonder that is you.
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SHELLY SKELLINGTON’s RECIPES
TOP 3 PUBS & RESTAURANTS TO VISIT IN LANCASHIRE THIS SPRING Top 3 Pubs & Restaurants to visit in Lancashire this spring These are my three favourite places to go in Lancashire, with so many amazing pubs and restaurants to choose from, I went with the three that I have visited the most, that have the most consistent service and best food. So many times I have been to restaurants or pubs with the promise of ‘locally sourced’ or ‘home cooked’ food and it’s been disappointing, I wish I had a list like this! Being the pauper I am it’s only really possible to go out for dinner maybe once or twice a month, and with a lot of you in the same position, I completely understand how disappointing it can be when the food is sub parr and not as promised
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on the website or menu. Each one of these places I’ve been to more than once and they make the list because of their service, consistency and downright delicious food. 1. The Punchbowl Country Pub and Restaurant, Churchtown Set in the centre of the pretty little village of Churchtown, this delightful historical pub is a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. Modern furniture with a rustic feel compliment the wooden beamed low ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. It has the warm welcome of a friendly local despite being ridiculously popular with people from all over Lancashire, so I would recommend booking to avoid a wasted journey. In the summer I just love sitting on one
of the benches outside with a glass of wine, and have frequently taken a post dinner stroll around the grade 1 listed church of St Helens, which is just down the road. I have visited The Punchbowl countless times over many years, each time receiving the same attentive service, and delicious food. On my last visit, I ordered the slow braised lamb cooked in port and mint, and it was outstanding. Tender meat that just melted in the mouth, fresh cooked vegetables and the most amazing red currant sauce. It was amazing value for money and couldn’t fault it one bit! The waiter who took our order was pleasant and professional, and was knowledgeable on his wines when I asked what would suit the dish. I couldn’t finish mine, the portion was a large one (or was it because I had quite a bit of wine by this point??) so the staff kindly boxed it up to take away. The menu has plenty of choice with different culinary influences so there tends be something for the more adventurous alongside the classics, which are done amazingly well. The atmosphere is relaxed, with a country pub feel, both my fiancé and I have dined there at lunch time in casual dress and also made more of a night out of it and gone a bit dressed up. This is my ‘go to’ place when I want to go somewhere we know. Perfect. 2. The Cartford Inn, Little Eccleston This charming 17th century converted coaching inn was first introduced to me by a friend almost ten years ago now, who was looking to take me out for a special Sunday lunch. Set on the banks of the River Wyre, I have to say one of the best features of this restaurant is the view. When calling to book (I would book, it's very popular) ask for a table in the River Lounge if possible, as this offers panoramic uninterrupted views of the Lancashire countryside, with the Bowland Fells in the background. The place itself has a quirky feel to it, with engraved mismatching tables and local artwork on the walls, which is available to buy. The menu changes with the seasons, with the specials board being one of the best in the area. Mainly traditional dishes
done exceptionally well, the fresh Fleetwood fish is definitely one to try. The staff are lovely and I was actually introduced to my favourite wine by a member of staff here, who advised me on what to try based on my tastes. On one occasion I ordered the cheese platter for a dessert, which included fresh fruit, celery and home-made chutney, worth saving room for! Every dish I’ve had here (and I’ve had many!) has been cooked to perfection, it’s safe to say that no matter what you order, you will receive a fresh, local lovingly cooked meal. The roast Goosnargh chicken breast is exceptionally good. In the winter the log fire burns, and with a newly added terrace to enjoy the late summer evenings, The Cartford is a great place to go all year round. 3. The Stork Inn, Lancaster This a pretty little pub located in the hamlet of Conder Green, a real out of the way rustic treasure. It’s a dream to come up to this area, to just get away from the hustle and bustle of busy Blackpool. The drive here is a particularly pleasant one, using the A roads through vast countryside, it almost makes it feel like you have gone further into the country than you actually have, adding to that feeling of escape. The Stork has a nice outside area to dine in, which is a shining feature of this pleasant Inn. In the summer bag yourself an outside table, and you won’t be disappointed with the views. On a slight incline, the outside dining area naturally sits above the car park and road, giving you fantastic views and a relaxed atmosphere. What the Stork does particularly well is lunches, with the fantastic chicken, bacon and cranberry sandwich served with local crisps being one of the best I’ve ever had. A selection of South African cuisine is on offer here, all deliciously tempting and a refreshing change from most local menus. It’s definitely worth the drive here on a lovely summers day.
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Introducing
MUL
While at Antwerp mansion we came across a fresh young artist, among the backdrop of dub and bodies gyrating to the beat we could see these striking illustrations. In the usual manner of the Sublime we had to chase this artist down and introduce them to you. So who is MUL? 1.Im 23 years old, from Manchester and my full name is Alex Mullen. I have signed my art with ‘Mul’ since I was 12 or so running around school writing it as a crude tag everywhere. I’ve always found huge amounts enjoyment and satisfaction from creating in really any medium and that’s what drives me to make art. I have worked as a full time graphic designer for the last 3 years, which has helped me, maintain a creative workflow and I think also had an impact on my ability and into the style of my work. But I find working in a corporate environment day in day out and having to create work that you don’t believe in at times can crush your soul (creatively speaking) and making the type of art that I do is a release and antidote to the pressure of that corporate poison for me. It is also at times what drives me even more to make art. Although, I still have the same energy and eagerness as I did when I started for doodling and drawing on everything or making art it’s like an addiction. At least now I have enough sense not to put my name on a wall and hopefully it is as satisfying for anyone to look at as much as it is for me to do. 2. We often find that a lot of artists have a creative job that seems to suppress their creative energy, and most of them in their own time (myself included) find a way to express them selves like you have mentioned. Aside from your art, what other outlets do you find yourself expressing the real you?
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2.I love humor and comedy in life and I express myself also with in that way a lot. I will use comedy as a defense tool when I meet people I don’t know and most conversations with close friends are rarely without absurd jokes. I always seem to see the ridiculousness in most situations and I think its important not to take anything too seriously in life and remember that most things people do take too seriously can be overlooked. I think through comedy and humor you can comment on a lot that you couldn’t do without the device of humor and I don’t think that right should be reserved to comedians and the like but everyone. Also, music is a massive part of my life and constantly keeps me
inspired and related to the world around me. I think we’re lucky to be alive now to be able to listen to the entire incredible array of music that exists from everything from the past to today. I do dabble a bit on some instruments and can at least reasonably play on guitar and ukulele which I find therapeutic in the same way as art to wind down and almost meditate - but also with humor in another aspect if I’m with friends jamming messing around or late night making stupid songs. Basically though the running theme is that I don’t really want to grow up. I also like photography and film and though it’s not something I take seriously I find it is another way to express myself. Especially through making short silly films of friends and whatever else most that will never see the light of day apart from friends and family it is another tool play with. 3. Picasso said once that the most creative people on this planet are children and those of us who never really grow up find ourselves becoming artists, its a good trait and one you will find all over the at world. I’m intrigued to how you have found your style. I can see a lot of western African influence in your portraits, the very same that influenced Picasso, Matisse and Paul Klay. How did you refine this style and end up using it on walls. Also what made you
choose the can over the brush? 3.Yes, I think there is an influence on my work from the styles you can see in West African art. I remember as a child taking an interest in the style and details that can be seen on African ornaments especially the ornamental masks you tend to find at a bazaar or souvenir shop on holiday. I remember we had one in our living room at home and I would always stare at it captivated and I couldn’t really understand what it was about it that I found so interesting, but I always felt it seemed to portray a feeling or emotion despite it being a rather simple face at first glance. I noticed it was all the small subtle details that seemed to give it a solemn look but with a powerfully resonating feeling behind it. This is something that still fascinates me today, how the small details in the structure of a face, even one that isn’t massively realistic can be so captivating and seem to convey such subtle and hard to define fundamental human emotions. As well as the many influences on my work, I feel my style comes from the processes I use when creating my artwork. I draw mostly freeform similar to doodling and try to (in a sense) let the pen run away with my hand, taking any The Sublime 17
thinking away from it and let the picture form as naturally as possible. I try to give my work a fluid aesthetic and consistent style using patterns and connected themes. I do this by using fast strokes and continuous motions to attempt to capture the fluidity of the process and for that then to hopefully be evident in the finished piece.
the same techniques I would on a small scale with a pen or a pencil as I described but on a big scale and onto any surface. It can take patience and I am constantly still learning and developing my ability with cans but I find it’s usually about my mindset and if I’m in a calm, relaxed mood the can just becomes a big pen.
I enjoy using lots of different mediums to paint and I don’t restrict myself to a particular one but I think spray paint is probably the most enjoyable and rewarding to use. It allows you to instantaneously create on a large scale and it’s that quality of the medium that makes it perfect for me to use to transfer my style to a larger scale. It allows me to use 18 The Sublime
4. Tell us more about the journey from street to canvas, I am intrigued to find out what it was you got up too with the can. 4. When I was 18 I had become really consumed with making art and I felt like it was a bit of waste if I
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was just making stuff and piling it up. I wasn’t going to university to study art so I thought I may as well put it out on the streets and that way at least if some people saw it, it made more sense to be doing it. I started taking paint out with me everywhere and making stencils from my drawings so I was always armed with my art. This lead to me doing it perhaps when I shouldn’t have, after a few too many drinks and less awareness - then one night that combined with utter bad luck and I ended up getting arrested. The police were actually all right with me and I got off with a caution and a few of the officers actually encouraged me to keep going with art just not on the streets. This made me calm down for a bit and I stopped doing any spray painting on the streets. Then a few months later the police came and searched my house again even though I hadn’t done anything. They took loads of my art, sketchbooks, a phone, iPod and even odd spray cans (some that they had already had and gave me back from the last time) and questioned me for ages showing me hundreds of photo’s of graffiti in the area and trying to claim it was me. They didn’t have much to go on though as there wasn’t anything I had done. But they kept my stuff for months before I got a letter with no information of the outcome just telling me I could go an get it all from a different station. All of this made me realizes to take my art more seriously and more positively. I didn’t do any spray painting for a couple of years and now I try and stick to legal walls and the canvas. But coming from a ‘street’ background with my art I always want to try a keep that in essence in my work. 5. From your experiences what would you tell a younger self and what would you tell a young artist, would you change anything about your creative journey? 5. I’m not sure what I would tell my younger self other than to make sure I avoided getting caught when I was a kid doing graffiti. But even still I don’t think I would want to change any of my experiences as maybe it would have lead me to a different way of thinking and aspirations. I would just say to any young artists just to keep going, trust your own instinct and decisions and don’t be afraid to try anything. The same thing I have to tell myself all the time.
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6. You journey has been a really interesting one and it’s been awesome sharing it with you. The last thing I have to ask is where is the MUL going next? 6. Lots of ideas for the near future - I hope to paint more large-scale murals and continue to produce canvas pieces. No events set in stone as of yet but I shall be getting out with my stall to as many events I can get involved in over the summer. Plans for some small pop up shows are in the works and I should be able to have a date set soon. I have a small art collective with a good group of friends named ‘Its west up North’. We plan to put on events in the near future. We have some available now but we shall be releasing products (such as T-shirts, prints, etc.) so that people can help support us. I will also be putting on some small competitions online to giveaway some art and promote myself, if anyone is interested they can find out more and follow me on Facebook at: facebook.com/mul101 - People can also keep up with me on instagram @ mul101 My work can be seen online at: www.behance.net/ mul & if anybody is interested in supporting my art I have an online shop: www.mul.bigcartel.com Thanks a lot Regards Alex | MUL
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This Months Cover Artist
JOSH HUNTER
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The cover of a magazine is a place long held sacred to the aspiring artist. To have a group of peers look upon your work and determine that it’s aesthetic brilliance is precisely what is needed to generate interest in the current issue is always going to give one a sense of pride and accomplishment. When others see a potential in your impassioned labours that they wish to share with the world it must bring upon you a sense of recognition that whether admitted or not, everyone likes to feel once in a while. This sense of recognition and pride is a feeling that must be coursing through the sun kissed body of our April cover Artist, the great and powerful Josh Hunter! Currently hailing from the radiant shores of San Diego, California, Josh Hunter caught the eyes of The Sublime with his somewhat surreal and beautiful blend of colours and lines and strolled to the front of the queue in a way so laid back only someone from California could do. His art however creates an intrigue in the viewer that is in no way subtle, it draws you in with beautifully composed gestures and beckons you to ask questions of it, to understand it, and then to simply enjoy it’s intricate composition. But more than that it has you asking who? Who created this wonder, what drives such work, from whence does it come and from what kind of mind? Fortunately for us Josh took some time out from his ever burgeoning life and opened his mind to our questions, giving us a glimpse at the brilliance locked within it. • Josh, please give us a neat little introduction to yourself. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and was a pretty curious kid, into everything. I had a striking fascination with comic books, the characters, the cliffhangers, and especially the art and color. I don’t
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think I ever kicked that interest in stories and the art that depicts them. Right now, San Diego is home and I’m suffering along with the rest of the sun bleached beauties and entrepreneurs working to figure out this thing called life. • Did you undergo a traditional undergraduate/educational experience or was there more of a self taught element to your venture into the world of art? I was self-taught up until my early twenties when I was studying marketing in Boulder, Colorado. I was supposed to be focusing on business yet, instead, was spending all of my time traveling around the country peddling my hand-drawn posters in the Widespread Panic lots and chatting up musicians and merch reps to pitch them my ideas for new art. My last semester of business school, I dropped out and moved to Missoula, Montana. I knew that if I graduated with a business degree, I would likely never go after what i truly wanted to do which was create art for a living. About two years later, I applied and was accepted into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It changed my life. I was surrounded by amazing talent, knowledge, history and teachings that just drove my hunger for creating into hyper-drive. I was hitting classes all day (mostly life-drawing and conceptual art), walking the museum for lunch, then dropping in on figure drawing classes at night before heading back to my dorm room with a fresh coffee and a head buzzing with ideas I’d stay up tackling until 2 or 3am. Wake up, rinse, lather, repeat… To be honest, I came close to not making the leap into art school. I was more fearful of the debt I might accrue than the possibility of what I might gain. I stayed on the fence until I met a prestigious sculptor who basically said that I had to go, I needed to be surrounded by other artists to understand who I truly was and what I was capable of. I can read into his intentions a hundred different ways, yet for me, it hit me dead center in my being and I agreed 100%. I left a town of 50,000 in Montana and arrived in the heart of skyscrapers and pigeons fortified in steel. • So is art a true passion for you then, something fundamental to your being? It is a passion yet that’s second to just being true with myself and living life daily from my core. To fully commit to being free to create is a scary thing. Shit, I live in California and just paid my taxes yesterday. I gave away more money to taxes than I care to admit, yet I am in complete control of my yes and no’s. The truth is, art takes serious commitment and drive. I don’t believe in dabbling. In fact, four years ago, I took on a great job working as the creative director for a prestigious company here and just stopped painting all together. It didn’t make sense to be a
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‘Sunday painter’ maybe it worked for Cezanne, but it didn’t work for me. About a year ago though I jumped back into my work and haven’t looked back since. • Do you have some grand vision for your work then? I do and I don’t. If you look back on my past 5 years of work, it might appear to be scattered. Yet, it all comes from a similar place of inspiration, from the same hand. I let my mood influence the work I make. In fact, I’ve tried against letting emotion play into how I create yet I find I will lose interest quickly. Instead, I let the piece guide me from my original concept to the finished work which may or may not wield the same idea that was there at the inception. For me, this is perfect - I’m not one who likes
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to know what I’m going to be doing a week from today. I like variation, impulsiveness, a bit of chaos, and then trying to manufacture or discover an order within all of it. • Do you have any intention you wish to instill in others, what do you hope people might take from your art? I’ve thought a lot about this lately. I think I just want others to feel something when they look at my work, to find the beauty, to get lost in the detail of color and application… But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be admired for the precision or technicality of what I’m trying to do. Social media has corrupted us into thinking we must seek approval to be worthy and I am definitely bumping my head up against this one. Its useless to try and prove oneself yet its also crucial to gaining exposure, making an impact, … I’m going to guess a lot of readers can grasp what I’m getting at… • Do you see aspects of yourself coming through in your work? How? Absolutely. I like the moments where chaos meets order, destruction invites creation, and the beauty of simple moments in the company of complexity. I think this says a lot about my personality. I would say too that the way in which I create is synonymous with my thoughts and mindset - moments of very focused and deliberate motion followed by the freedom of impulse and beauty or mess that results. • So what does your work stand for? Color and beauty. • Describe yourself in one word, and why that one? Happy. Words have power to manifest our surroundings so I choose to remind myself of how lucky I am to be doing what I do - whether its on a massive scale or just for a few. I’m living 30 The Sublime
my dream • What motivates/inspires your work? My wife is definitely my muse, she’s the complete essence of beauty both inside and out. San Diego and California definitely stir up the creative molecules within and then lastly, music, music, music. It’s rarely quiet in my studio. • So what’s happening on planet Josh right now? Right now, I’m chilling at the Living Room coffee house in Point Loma, San Diego. I come here to write and sit in the light of the sun and fresh air. My most current work is of a friend getting tattooed with a piece I created. I’ll include a shot of where it’s at at the moment. • Just for kicks what would you say is the funniest thing about you? I dunno about this one. You’d have to ask my wife or friends. I’d guess they would say I’m quite the dork… pretending to be different people or speaking with ridiculous voices that keep me entertained (not sure about them!) • What’s the next target for the great Hunter then? I’ll be much more concentrated on larger-scale figurative works in the coming months. I have several commissions I’m banging out and then I intend to focus on a new body of work which I’m kind of keeping to myself for the moment. I’ll be sure to keep Sublime updated though once it starts coming together. Thanks again for taking the time to chat and inviting me into your space. Its been cool to be a part! Cheers, J We feel privileged that you took the time to talk to us Josh and look forward to hearing more about your future endeavours. Many thanks Mr Hunter! For more information on Josh Hunter please visit
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HOPE FOR LOAFERS
By Dunc
I was watching people ‘Totally Fail’ on YouTube the other day. For those of you born before 1996 that basically means pasty colonials skidding across ice being towed behind a pickup truck on the frozen hide of roadkill they intend to marry as soon as Pastor Zeke arrives but falling off into a big tree so the cameraman can move away at the key moment and shout “OhMyGawd”. Anyhoo, a suggested video came up- part 1 of a 5-part series on E-Sports. Now, this basically means playing video games professionally for money. Nothing new. I once won a quid off my mate when I gave his Zangief a new ass with ChunLi. Then he said something about my Mum and we don’t talk anymore, the bellend. I remember back in the day a professional gamer who went by the handle “Fatal1ty”. I can’t remember his real name and I can’t even be bothered Googling it. The substitution of a 1 for a capital should tell you all you ever need to know, all I remember is he had a massive head and looked like an acne-ridden version of Joe from Family Guy. Playing games for money was one thing, but he also had a line of PC components from motherboards to gaming mice named after him. They weren’t anything special, just fairly-standard parts in a nauseating shade of blue with a 25% price hike. And, yes, there is such a thing as a gaming mouse. What’s the difference? An extra £50, more lights than Liberace’s Christmas Tree and an angular design that resembles what John Merrick would look like if he was Optimus Prime. I was curious about the current state of pro-gaming though, so I watched the first part. And then all four straight after. I’ve always known there was a professional gaming world out there but I hadn’t realised how much it had grown. The documentary in question followed an international tournament for a game called League of Legends. Now I’ve never played this game, myself, it doesn’t look like my cuppa tea. Imagine a cartoon-ish fantasy game, played in teams, with lots of pretty flashing and banging of magic, viewed from above like Sauron in a zeppelin. Ordinarily I would’ve turned it off but then I was hooked by one fact. The top prize in this nerdathon? A million dollars. That’s American dollars too, not those shit ones. Go on, say it to yourself in the Dr Evil voice and suck your little finger, I don’t mind. One million fazoules for
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winning at a video game. Now it came as no surprise that people get paid to play games. Still further, no surprise that this is big business and attracts many sponsors. What surprised was the fact that people PAY to go to a huge stadium (not your local Scout Hut, we’re talking MEN/ O2 sized arenas here) and watch these guys play. This stadium was full to the rafters. They weren’t watching basketball or a band or a great comedian. They were watching two teams of five throw pink fireballs at each other and screaming with ecstasy. Now I’m not one to make stereotypes. Well, I am but I have the common decency to keep them to myself, that’s what being British is all about. But the final four teams in the documentary I watched consisted of a single team from China, a single team from America and two teams from Korea. Now the Chinese and Korean teams were Asian. Fancy that, what are the odds? But the American team? Asian-American. Seriously! There were even GIRLS there! Christ! Although most of them were done up in some weird Anime cosplay. Actually that’s not fair, it’s not weird. A lot of people think I have weird tastes because I don’t spend my time drinking Jacob’s Creek and watching Emmerdale. And I think they’re weird because they watch Emm… you get the point. To each their own. If it’s consensual, safe and you wash your hands- knock yourself out. That said I don’t see the attraction of dressing as an Eastern Rabbit Ninja. Clearly I would’ve been in the minority though because hundreds of boys and girls queued to get their picture taken with these girls, who were queuing to be seen with these gamers. It’s a form of celebrity over there, you see? Never mind footballers, or as the great Bill Bailey once said “A bunch of egotistical, borderline rapists whose job it is to shepherd a bit of leather into an outdoor cupboard”. These tubby little chaps are combing girls out of their pubic hair. Not content with winning a million dollars for playing a fricking video game, they then go home with the cast of Gangnam Style. Unbelievable. Now that might sound all fun and sunshine but these guys aren’t just talented at one particular game and cashing in on it. They actually train, hardcore style, for 18 hours a day. You may say “Playing games for 18 hours a day? Sounds awesome.” And you’d be right, sir. But that’s as a caffeine-fuelled one off when your partner’s away and you’ve filled the fridge with fizzy beverages, microwave curries and donned a t-shirt that says “I Don’t Know What Diabetes Is”. You spend the next three days
twitching as your immune system switches back from Pepsi to blood plasma and your heart rate drops back into double digits. I once spent so long playing Star Wars Online on a Sunday, the next day I headed for work and I swear I could see a waypoint marker hovering somewhere over the office. Some kids were play-fighting at a bus-stop and I could see the health bars hovering over their heads and wondered how much XP I’d get for a long-range kill. But these poor bastards are locked in a room, they dump 5 PC’s on a dining table and a couple of people, “Agents”, walk round the room, egging them on and charting their performance. 18 hours a day. Imagine having something you love and are good at, so you get a lot of practice and credit in and think of going professional. Then you’re shoe-horned into a damp dining room, given a Red Bull enema and held at proverbial gunpoint as your beloved hobby and joyous pastime is degraded before your very eyes to the point where you sleep in separate beds and can’t look each other in the eye any more. I’ve seen several videos and films about pro-gamers and the levels of skill these people achieve in a particular game are truly astonishing. And ultimately it’s utterly useless. I don’t envy them a single bit. If you practice your tits off on a guitar, or any instrument, you become a musician. You can form a band, do session work, do covers, make great money or grow ginger hair and record maudlin, miserable crap on an acoustic guitar and make millions off a clueless generation like Slash never happened. If you enjoy driving. You pass your test, maybe take your advanced test and then go karting or to track days and get better and better. Good stuff, you can become an instructor, race in your spare time and your superb car control can translate to every day driving providing you stick to the law, don’t watch The Fast And The Furious and don’t attach sunlamps to the underside of your car. If you play Call of Duty online for 18 hours a day, you’re awesome at Call of Duty. That’s it. You might not necessarily be good at any other game, different controls, AI, techniques etc. Eventually the rest of the world stops playing that game and plays something else, your partner has left you for a tub of margarine they found in the loft that paid them more attention and all your left with is RSI, paper-thin retinas and the firm knowledge that you once beat people you never met at a game no-one gives a flying crap about any more.
tackles them head on one day and turns their spine into something resembling a dropped packet of Polo mints. Prior to that, they have to gather as much cash as they can before they’re washed up and convalescing at the age of 28. But will this franchise grow further or is it a flash in the pan? I don’t think it’s a flash in the pan phase that’ll drop off after time but I do believe there’ll always be a limited market for E-Sports as an event and an audience experience. You see, regular sports are popular for lots of different reasons. Take soccer, people support a team because they come from that town, their Dad supports that team, they were entranced by an amazing game as a young whippersnapper and fell in love with the side, or they may just fancy the midfielder who uses more hair products than the Kardashian family. I can’t see people becoming as attached to a pro-gamer from Leicester called Nigel. Or as he’s known online xXN1G3L D34THSTR1K3Xx. I think the main draw with things like the League of Legends tournament is the game itself. Similar to these huge Street Fighter IV tournaments- they rarely attract someone who isn’t a huge fan of the game itself and as such will always have limited scope to appeal to others. I don’t think the geeky stigma of the Nigel’s is a factor anymore, gaming went mainstream a long time ago and thank Christ for that. But that wouldn’t entice me to go watch someone play Skyrim or Mario Kart for two hours, much less pick a side, wear matching colours and chant slogans from the Kop. I get bored watching other people play games because I’m itching to snatch up the joypad and get stuck in myself, and I dare say I’m not in a minority there. While doing a bit of research for this (yes I do research, surprised?) I found a few League of Legends Gameplay videos on Youtube. Well, more than a few, fricking shitloads. Now Gameplay videos, although duller than 50 Shades of Beige starring Alan Titchmarsh, do have a use. You can check out the graphics, the gameplay, whether or not it seems like something you’d invest your hard earned moolah on. But I watch them for all of 2 minutes then move on. Some of these videos were 90 minutes long and had over 30,000 views! 30,000 x 90/60/24 means 1875 people days were lost watching cartoon ponces hurl cosmic turds at one another. This left me with two inescapable conclusions. 1) Maybe there is a market for this stuff. 2) When did I become cool by comparison? Jesus…
I originally balked at the idea of calling this franchise “E-Sports” because it doesn’t resemble sports in any way, shape or form. But the more I think about it, it is kind of apt. American Footballers, or as Americans call them: Footballers, have a very short career window to make a lot of money before a 19 year old roadblock from Georgia
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ANTWERP MANSION
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Mr Wild and the Hang-Over Mansion. When I first left the fetid home-town of my birth for the dazzling lights of the big city just over six months ago the last thing I really wanted to do was work a minimum wage job doing very little with my spare time because I’m too knackered to do anything else. Fortunately then the work I do is of such little importance to me that I don’t let it hinder an opportunity when such a thing comes knocking at my Facebook inbox. Now obviously when I mention working I’m not referring to the work I do with The Sublime, no no no, don’t even think it my friends, the idea of me getting paid to write is still a dream as far from me as the one I had the other night where I fingered Scarlett Johansson in the back of a taxi. By work I mean doing grunt work in a popular kids attraction and fending off the insults and beration of the terrible terrible parents we have to deal with. But like I said, it’s very much a ‘day job’, something old sayings would urge me not to give up, so I don’t give it up, but I don’t give it much sway in my life choices either. As a result of this way of thinking I’ve already garnered myself a disciplinary for ‘excessive absence’ and a reputation for bunking off when it’s obvious I’ve been out the night before getting drunk at a Burlesque show or something. But such things are the real reason I came to the city in the first place! Could I really be blamed for not caring?!?! Nope...blame it on the boogie, or in this case the booby, enjoy the night while it’s night, and deal with the ‘day job’ in the day. However with my ‘day’ job teetering on the edge of written warnings and possible P45’s it’s become necessary to evade certain exploits unless they have the potential to be something really great. Enter Antwerp Mansion....well rather, enter we, into Antwerp Mansion...We being The Sublime and Antwerp Mansion being the home of the Fresh Creative festival, an event we were invited to attend by the creator of the festival, Sebastian Walsh. This was a most welcome invite. As you should well know we’ve been writing recently for the online magazine we created, The Sublime, as an attempt to get our lives out the rut and actually make something of ourselves. So far our efforts, though not necessarily 38 The Sublime
in vain have not provided us with the opportunity to just quit our jobs and sit about drinking all day watching porn. So the two J’s....Jaxx and Jonnie for those not in the know...arranged a bit of a family excursion for us to partake in an event at this enigmatic Antwerp Mansion in Manchester. An event I was not too clear on the particulars for, but I thought it sounded fun. I checked out their website. A rather interesting little piece on the state of the estate caught my attention, they mentioned the place being a run down Victorian mansion just off the curry mile. I formed a vision in my head of what the day would entail...rows of arts and crafts stalls would line path ways in the great halls and rooms of the mansion and we would have ours, sitting at a little table taking down names and e-mails for our mailing list. Generally I thought it would be a slow day, we’d finish up by eight or nine, and I’d be home in bed to get up for work all fresh faced and sprightly the morning after. So the J’s collected me from my home on the afternoon of the do and we set off in anticipation of such a day (At least I did). Travelling with the J’s in a closed environment like a car is a bit like being trapped in a lift with a pair of fighting Rhinos. It feels a lot like someone’s going to get hurt, especially when getting lost around Manchester with Jon’s increasingly rumbly belly and Jaxx’s increasingly grumbly mood. After much arguing between them about how exactly to get to Antwerp we did finally end up finding the place, only moments perhaps before someone lost an eye. But a silence swiftly fell upon us as the mansion loomed above. We felt, though no-one spoke, as though we were about to enter the first scene of a horror story we had been unwittingly convinced to partake in. From the outside it has a kind of Addams Family thing going on, from the skeletal trees still bare from the frosts of winter, to the asylum-like facade of the house itself, I recalled the website’s assertion it was run down...well they didn’t over sell it. The place is somewhat dilapidated for sure. Now don’t get me wrong, it was standing at least, plus there were a lot of people milling about that didn’t have the skin of some teenage girl draped over their face, so we figured this was it and bravely ventured forth. Inside it sort of reminded me of the house from fight
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club, it had a similar feeling to it as well, people were milling around and carting all sorts of things, not bomb materials though, well maybe the Jaeger kind, but not dynamite or crates of soap. They were carrying sound equipment, instruments, all sorts of clothes and boxes of jewellery and other wares to sell. It had a buzz about it, a little hive of activity nestled just behind a road with like fifty curry houses on it....you would never ever know it was there if you weren’t told about it by someone. In fact we couldn’t even find it when we were right next to it. It was a little world unto itself, a strange and gnarled wonderland at the bottom of the curry mile’s spicy rabbit hole. Right under everyone’s curry filled nostrils this place filled the air with a damp and smelly aroma.... something they show no shame about. In fact it’s relished, it doesn’t have the ponce and sheen of some Northern Quarter Hipster joint, trying to be alternative with a whole bunch of rather obvious furnishings. Yeah this place really was alternative, and in their words ‘If you don’t like it you can bog 40 The Sublime
off ’. We soon met with organisers Seb and his delightful girlfriend, they were most accommodating lovely people and welcomed us to the world they had created for themselves in this little corner of the bustling city. Rather refreshingly there was none of the row after row of stalls and so on that I had expected, there was actually very little structure to the event, it was a free for all, but not like the game mode in COD where everyone does their best to frag you in a frenzied blood bath, it was refreshing to be given a sort of free reign over where you placed yourself and how you set up your section. There were no rules save the rule of common decency and we found this rule to be one which everyone we spoke to obeyed almost intuitively. After setting up in a great spot outside and enjoying the sun in the back garden for a while we had a look around the few stalls selling the beaded jewellery, head dresses, clothes and other bits and bobs before feeling the call of the intriguing house we had briefly
passed through. The gaping back door beckoned us to return to the heart of the festival that we might behold it’s disintegrated innards. The house itself is not some complicated mass of rooms and corridors as I expected, it’s a pretty simple lay-out, one main hall acting as a hub with the various area’s of entertainment spoking off directly from it. There’s a few bars dotted about and some toilets with the doors hanging off...plus the ‘Retardis’ a Dr Who inspired joke, I can’t even remember what the Retardis actually was...maybe a toilet? I have no idea, I was getting a little drunk by the time we found that, which brings me to my next point. The entertainment. Normally I’m very much a metal head, so any kind of entertainment that doesn’t involve guitars and drums is all a bit bland for me. Fortunately the Fresh Creative (The name of the festival that Seb had set up) had something planned for everyone. Having gone back outside for a while to chat to some of the other vendors, I decided to leave the J’s to sit and look after the stall and wandered upstairs in the mansion to get a drink. They had bars downstairs but I felt like disappearing for a bit. Using one of the free booze tokens Seb gave us I helped myself to a dark fruit cider and began nodding my head in a familiar way. Was that drums I could hear?!? It was a most satisfying pounding in my chest, not unlike the beat of my heart after several Jaeger bombs, a reassuring thundering behind your breast plate that reminds you you’re not dead, this was doing just as good a job at reaffirming my sentience and confirming my place in the world as a living loving entity. It was a group of all female drummers called ‘Wangari’. I was instantly entranced by the rhythmic pounding they gave my ears. It was African style drumming full of energy, there were no guitars but they didn’t need them, it would only have detracted from the percussive balance the six of them had struck up between themselves. I didn’t even know these ladies were playing, I’d only gone upstairs out of a desire to ‘explore’ a little, but was most thankful I had done. There were few other people in attendance, at this stage in the day most people were outside enjoying the unexpected appearance of our great Sun God ‘Barry’... wait, that’s just silly, he’s not really called Barry, he’s not even really a ‘he’...or a god...he’s a GIANT NUCLEAR REACTOR.... Anyway, their loss, few people had any idea what
they were missing, listening to whatever the dancy stuff was being played outside was a pale comparison to the thriving energy the Wangari were belting out. Having arrived late to their set I was somewhat disappointed when their time drew to a close all too soon. It was a welcome moment of live entertainment and for me at least was the highlight of the acts that we saw throughout the rest of the day. Their energy and mastery of the beats that drove our ancestors into fits of ecstasy or fevered battle had got my blood going though...something I hadn’t come expecting to feel, I got another drink...I drank it... And so to the bar again...an increasingly regular trip now as the inebriation took hold and told me to GET MORE. A trip only matched after breaking the seal and now going to the toilet what seemed like every ten minutes. Back at The Sublime stall things seemed to be... stalling, the event was more of a festival of music and dancing than reading our rambling mag. Which is fair enough. The J’s had come loaded with flyers to hand out, though in their haste they had failed to run the text through our proofing process and within a few seconds of looking them over I found an error on the first line! Not a good start, thankfully most people didn’t take them anyway, who would?! I wouldn’t, I never take flyers off people, I don’t know why we thought these guys would, and so most people didn’t. But what do such things really matter...they don’t really, we still got to chat to several people about what we were doing and what they were doing, people investigated our table and eventually it came into it’s own as the sun set and people used it to put empty glasses and bottles on. I drank on... The booze took hold and we shook it off, I listened to some of the music Jon had been creating inspired by our missing Commander, Jaxx stole my phone and fraped me and somewhere along the line I found an abandoned bowler hat that swiftly found a new home on the top of my greying dandruff farm. With the increased inebriation came a more The Sublime 41
confident push to get rid of some flyers, something I achieved with a slurred dignity I thought. The sun had by now set and we had fully retreated indoors to watch another act, it was a Jazz music thing, their name eludes me now and I was too drunk by this point to remember them clearly, I remember them being fun, but at this point I was struggling to talk to some girl I fancy on Facebook after being fraped earlier by Jaxx. The evening for us closed early, while the party raged on inside this crazy run down house of pleasures we retired, I had work early the next day and the J’s had to drive home yet. After a brief debrief back at my flat...and more booze...we parted for the evening and The Sublime as a locally connected system of physical entities became the more usual distance afflicted digitally connected collective it is more traditionally found to be. At the end of it all we had had immense fun, seen acts we would never otherwise have seen or even heard of, took part in an event that felt truly fringe, acquired a new hat and got so drunk that eventually I had to call in sick the next day for work...again...and isn’t that what it’s truly all about?!? It is my friends, the Fresh Creative had hosted an event at Antwerp Mansion that was every bit the reason I moved to a city in the first place and Seb and friends have my eternal gratitude for rekindling my confidence that moving away was the right thing to do...also many thanks for the free drinks ;) Cheers guys, we’ll be seeing you again soon no doubt. Until then...I have another disciplinary to attend to... wish me luck!
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A Poem By Mottled Gray
HER LANDSCAPE I feel like every single inch in my body Has a twist that she fixed when we’re intimate. Probably the most ambition Of the women I’ve been into. She’s beautifully fucked up. So we mirror each other in our substance, I’ve found comfort knowing We’re alone but together, And it’s hopelessly better Than just weathering the storm, So we both can remember That we’re energy in human form. She’s my remedy before I’m sick, She hits hard where my heart swells. My head’s light: But I know I’ve got to deal with it, I’m just totally overwhelmed.
Her landscape swallows me, I follow her touch. I’m blind in her honesty, I just cycle this cliché: Because she’s never enough.
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Is she a spirit that I’ll listen to? Or is she an image That I’m missing In the minutes Of my living room? Is she a figure I’m attuned to? Or am I just filling in a silhouette With my old regrets?
These decisions are beginning to get difficult. But this is typical. I’m just following the same old path With irregular intervals. It’s so picturesque. But life starts when the picture ends, So let’s bask in the scene instead, I just ask for her focus. No photograph can come close to the Things she shared, And I know this. So it’s bliss as… Her landscape swallows me up, I follow her touch. I’m blind in her honesty I just cycle this cliché. Because she’s never enough.
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A Poem By Mottled Gray
I MEAN IT Just let go of me. I hate when she’s close to me, I can’t breathe in her presence Her essence just deepens my weakness, Take her away. I feel sick when I think of her face: But I can’t wait to see it. When I say that I love her, I mean it. These pits of disgust in My stomach, are swollen. Why is it now that I’m feeling complete? How can these problems Revolve around fractured emotion? I’m brought to my knees And I plead when I see her to see That we’re just holding memories. It’s kinder to let go. Then maybe in time We can see what the future holds.
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