AN ONLINE ZINE FOR THE ARTS & CULTURE
A note from the editors After long discussions, ideas being thrown back and forth and a lot of sweat over who is doing what we have finally put our creative minds together to make issue 1. It has been a long journey to get to where we are today and we know that we have a long one waiting ahead of us. When I first put The Sublime Aesthetic Art Collective together my mission was to bring close a bunch of creative minds to ultimately make art that has its own statement, a brand if you may of subversive cultural influences, social commentary and beautiful execution. I found these minds to work with and on our long Saturday nights of discussing art and an old 45” Pink Floyd record we all came to realize that we needed more creativity, more influences and much more collaboration. How? Well this is how. By inviting artists and writers in every dark crevasse of the world to collaborate and help put together this monthly zine, a constant growth that exists on the nerve endings of every web browser, a community that is endless, constantly producing a never ending exhibition of wondrous creativity using the internet as our gallery. It’s a place for networking, friendship, influence and most of all likeminded people to express freely their vision without elitism or prejudgments of a hardfaced art establishment. After all art is our passion and the whole world has the right to view it freely. Isn’t that a utopian dream? This cover issue is a taste of what we look for, along with a taste of how to make it for ourselves. We aim to theme most of the issues to collate the correct creative together to make useful exhibitions that you can either view online or purchase a printed shiny hand held version. We hope you enjoy The Sublime just as much as we do and continue to be a part of our zestyness. Regards Jaxx & Jon
Meet The Team
Jax
Jon
Mr. Wild Calum
Luke
Contents
Music and the creative process The Body Series The Utopain Future By Tristram Lansdowne The 5 reasons you can't trust anything I say Do Something! The Unexplained Journey Of Fawn I Dream Q&A With Lauren Keegan Reality Sux Stimulus
Music and the creative process By Luke Berryman There are many elements for me which contribute to a healthy creative process. As someone whose main fortÊ is theatre, a lot of what I think about during writing comes down to how I would handle the physical side of the performance – creating an interesting and engaging visual palate to accompany and compliment the dialogue. The flow of words and speech patterns, moments of dramatic tension, emotional climaxes and physical set pieces are also important things which I consider. There are many ways in which a writer can help themselves visualise these elements, to make them work and fit together, to control the ebb and flow to a satisfactory conclusion. For me, that missing element is music. I like to think of myself as a world builder. When I write a piece, I don't just think about the characters and plot, I like to think about the world in which the play takes place. I visualise the sets, as many playwrights do, but also try to picture the neighbourhood, the town, the country around it. The society, if different to our own. With a more physical or surreal or otherworldly piece, it's important to establish rules and groundings. Even in a piece of Artaudian Theatre of Cruelty, where the intent is to induce a state of extreme emotions and inhuman release, it is vital to ground the performance in some kind of reality with it's own internal consistency, even if a strange one. As director Katie Mitchell, one of my main influences, states, even an actor playing a Giant Foot must have true belief and understanding about the foot he is playing, including the foot's motivations and aims in life.
To achieve this end, this consistency of language and flow, this essence of physicality and liveliness which I find vital in the theatre I like to write and direct, I make extensive use of music as a guidance. I listen to music to get a feel of the world of the piece, especially if it happens to be set in a particular period (for instance, a play about 1970s skinhead punks would obviously require an Oi! Playlist for inspiration). In the case of works which span different periods of time, I have often found that by listening to and incorporating music from across those eras alters the way both myself and the eventual audience see the piece. For instance while directing a showing of Philip Ridley's play Ghost from a Perfect Place, which is heavily invested in 1960s East End gang culture but set several decades later, I discovered that music helped highlight the extreme contrast between the glamorous celebrity gangsters of yesteryear
(the character Travis Flood is very much in the same vein as the Kray Twins, with playwright Ridley also penning the script for the movie version of their lives) and the brutal reality of the decades足later setting. As the character Torchie, an old woman, reminisces about the class and style of the 60s, I made use of Rat Pack music to create the warm nostalgia. Later on, darker, more contemporary music (90s Industrial Rock largely, as the play was written in 1991) was used to provide contrast. While Flood was undergoing torture and confessing to his violent past crimes, the Rat Pack music returned, this time creating an extreme sense of dissonance, peeling back the glamour of the 60s to expose the brutal reality of the gang culture of said era, in much the same way that the play already does. Another case where this kind of technique has served me well was in a production of J.B Priestly's Time and the Conways, set partly before and partly after World War One, leading to the same piece of gramophone music being used in very different contexts, firstly played straight and then used to underline the sombre post足war tone. When it comes to the actual process of writing my own work, I find that music helps me to pinpoint the natural highs and lows of a particular scene, or of the work as a whole. Short, physical theatre pieces lend themselves to a more sparse and chaotic soundtrack, while longer works often inspire the use of a specific genre to highlight the themes of the play. While writing my play The White Space, about a futuristic controlled environment, there was a moment in which I felt it appropriate for a character, suffering from a complex and conflicted emotional state, to be listening to music. Given the oppressive environment the character was inhabiting, I felt that the music should be something neoclassical and ordered, with a tight structure, but which perhaps also at the same time conveyed a sense of emptiness within this system.
The characters in the play were blank slates, raised in a secure facility which attempted to purge them of human feeling in order to create a more perfect world, and hence I felt that the music should be serene but hollow. To convey this sense, I picked a piece by the composer Philip Glass from the album Metamorphosis. The piece's sound to me conveyed exactly the right sense of what I would call unsettling serenity, a sense that things are almost too perfect. Developing from this inspiration, I decided to use music at other points in the play to underline the increasing sense of chaos and disturbance within the perfect system. I decided that the play should open with another Glass piece from the same album, and that with every piece of music the sense of things being unsettled and upset should grow. Hence later in the play, the music would expand to include more instruments, a wider range of pitch shifts and an increasing tempo.
Music and the creative process By Luke Berryman I liked this idea so much, that I decided to use musical progression as the entire foundation around which my next work, Shelter, was based. In this work, which had an overarching theme of a rediscovery of a sense of purpose in the wake of disaster and societal collapse, I decided that there should be a similar sense of rediscovery in the music. Since there was a theme of nature regrowing and reemerging from the ruins, and since the main setting for the play was a sort of postapocalyptic nightclub, I felt it appropriate for there to be a sense of artificiality from the off. Therefore the music in the play started off completely synthesised and chaotic, to reflect both the breakdown of society and the loss of natural things. As the play progressed, I made use of a progression firstly to electric instruments, and then to traditional, acoustic instruments. Near the climax, the music reached a raw, tribal level, with furious drums and bare instrumentation. Finally, at the denouement, with the characters reflecting on the reemergence of nature, a single harp piece played, creating an atmosphere of quiet and peace. Finally, I find music a great inspiration when I am genuinely stuck as to how a scene should progress. In this instance, I will again refer to The White Space. While writing this play, I became rather aware that two scenes, both of them characterdriven monologues, just didn't seem to flow right. They were, frankly, a little bit stale and boring. I decided to try an experiment – both monologues were given by characters who were related, and both focused on the same subject, another character. One of them was about falling in love with said character, whilst the other focused on a desire for revenge on her. I decided to juxtapose them by splicing them together, and set out to find a piece of music to heighten the sense of counterpoint I was trying to create. I also felt the pace of the monologues, and their sense of emotional crescendo, of vital decision making, would be increased beneficially. I stuck with the theme of classical music which reached increasing levels of chaos as the play progressed, and came upon a piece by the composer Bear McCreary, “Violence and Variations”. The effect was spectacular, and the scene became the highlight of the play for me.
In conclusion, music is highly important to me as a creator, both by inspiring me, by helping shape my writing style, and by providing me with ways to highlight the themes of the piece in performance. In future, I would like to expand upon my use of music, by creating pieces of physical theatre informed entirely by musical choices, and also to collaborate with musicians to create original music for my plays.
The Body Series By laura Mae Wood
http://www.laura足mae.com
The recent work by Laura足Mae Wood is unique and eye catchingly interesting, with the use of negative space and contrasting black and white images, it is a beautiful and intriguing way of capturing a self足representation series of work. Making her body the subject and object of research, it is shown at a very raw, natural state, which allows vulnerability to show, isolating itself behind the pressures of the media and constant social acceptance. This also reflects in the shapes and forms made by the human body, which is at times unrecognisable. Exaggerating the bone and muscle structures by well thought of poses and use of lighting, it has created an unusual and striking way of self足portraiture. This being a personal documentation she is portraying her own story through manipulating the female body into a structured mass of limbs to share her personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. Facing up to media and social pressures and capturing it in a way that exposes emotions both physically and mentally, it is beautifully confusing and yet deeply meaningful.
The Utopain Future By Tristram Lansdowne By Jaxx Shepz If ecotopia is your thing then finding yourself immersed in Tristram Lansdowne’s work “The Utopian Landscape” will capture the green fingers and nostalgic eye burrowed deep inside of you. Created in 2012 Tristram has kept to a soft pallet that is remnant of a Wes Anderson feature, combining niche pinks and blues to create a dream reality. The strength in these images is the way that each one has the ability to pull you from reality and makes you feel the need to wake up on one of these desolate havens. Beautifully transfixed on the large polygon shapes extruding from the soft calm see these landscapes mark an idea of total peace and tranquillity.
They do however hold a sinister reaction in the brain, nothing of these paintings show anything tense, horrid or morbid and they help your mind ask the question “are we living in hell” the contrast of these eloquently constructed islands compared to the streets you walk down after leaving the space where these hang makes you cringe, the dull grey ballardian buildings that entomb you followed by two burly women scrapping outside of the dog & partridge pub really makes you want to jump back into these pieces of wonder.
On the technical side of things, these paintings are completely flawless. Each stroke has been made with great care, calculated, put into its own space. I can’t criticise the manner in which Tristram mastered the medium. The strength in these paintings comes with the photorealism in the shapes. Each rock looks enjoyable for any keen rock climber, contouring and bursting from the surface with contrast and shadows that flow throughout the image. We know this place doesn’t exist and it can’t exist; yet through the great execution shown we are lead to believe it is real.We have been watching Tristram’s work for a good while and have favoured it as one to watch. Over the next few issues we will be looking more at each of the pieces of work displayed on www.tristramlansdowne.com.
The 5 reasons you can't trust anything I say By Mr. Wild
So why even bother starting the article then? Well in some ways the title I chose might be slightly misleading...which paradoxically makes it even more factual. The reason it's misleading though? Because it's not just me you can't trust, it's not even just politicians, salesmen or spouses, it's everything around you. It's even you, your eyes, your brain, your sense of self worth, all these things lie to you everyday and you don't ever even realise it. Reality itself is just a cosmic sheet of fallacy we pull over our own eyes...lift it for a moment if you dare...and see what the fuck is really going on...
We've all been there though, doubting ourselves, waking up after a heavy night on the flagon more confused than a RIKENMIT mouse. How many times have you argued with someone and they used the line “That’s not how I remember it!” Even if you believe they believe it, even if you believe it, memory is simply too unreliable to be all the evidence you need.
The Misinformation effect and synaptic plasticity are two of the main mechanisms by which memories are chopped about in your brain, information is substituted for other information, details can be sketchy, some details are simply made up and others dropped entirely. There can be various reasons for these plasticised chimera's of memorial dishonesty, but the reasons here are irrelevant, what matters is the simple fact that your memory is so lax at storing things correctly it Misremembering things is so easy even a mouse can do it. A friendly group of scientists at could be outperformed by a Poundland pen drive. RIKENMIT demonstrated how, using 1: The memory doesn't quite remain...According to the great philosopher 'Sir James of Metallica', the memory remains. An unfettered reminder stored in the synaptic webbing of your pink spongy head jelly. As smart as James is though he was clearly unaware of one small detail. The memory remains, but the factual nature of it begins to diminish almost immediately after its creation.
Optogenetics, they could basically create false memories from scratch in the poor buggers and laughed manically into the night at the possibilities. Even human memories can be manipulated by something as simple as the words used to question a persons recall of an event, a worrying prospect given that lawyers know this.
2: I'm a liar...Don't get me wrong, I'm not a serial liar, one of those guys that tries to tell everyone they meet about the seven Porches they have at home and what a chore it is choosing which Victoria's secret model to take out. I couldn't pull a lie like that off anyway, nobody in their right mind would believe in Victoria's secret models. I have however, partaken in the art of telling 'white lies'.
3: You can't really use the force...Obi wan Kenobi made us all question the validity of his 'wisdom' when he handed a stroppy eighteen year old kid a light sabre, covered his eyes with a blast shield and let him swing it about The term was coined after Michael Jackson blindly in a room full of people. Luckily the inexplicably turned from a hip black dude into a force was strong with Luke and he didn't chalky ghostfreak known to the press as 'The dismember his friends accidentally, for the White Lie'. It was all innocent enough, people force is something to be trusted, this fact alone knew it was a lie, it did noone any harm and is clear evidence that it's completely fictional. thus the term became synonymous with lies What isn't fictional though is that Obi Wan was that were more likely to start a snigger than a right about the eye thing. They can deceive war. That of course was all a lie, but it’s all a bit you, nay, they do deceive you, everyday... of fun right? Their less malevolent reputation means that even the most pure of heart could excuse themselves at least a few little white porky pies from time to time. There's probably a good evolutionary reason for our capacity to bullshit each other, for one it aids in the age old sport of selfpreservation, like say, OJ Simpson. It's also useful for convincing ourselves we're able to achieve things that if we were honest would probably fail horrifically, but it makes us at least try, we take the risk, and it sometimes pays off. It also prevents us from basically hating on each other all the time, providing a kind of social lubricant to ease the friction of our tangled messy relationships. And so the horrible truth we face today is that everyone is a liar, if anyone claims to be honest, they are lying...they can claim to be 'mostly' honest, but knowing that everyone lies from time to time means you genuinely can't really believe anyone about anything. Hell you even lie to yourself, don't deny it, you're probably sat there right now thinking 'No, I'm always up front with myself about things'...LIE! When was the last time you said to yourself “I'm Gonna start that novel I wanted to write...as soon as I've had this joint.”? You just lied to yourself right there. You can exchange the novel and joint for anything, it doesn't matter, you're a fucking liar and you know it!
Remember when everything you remember gets mixed about and faffed with by your brain? No? Well it's not just memories your brain does this with, it does it on the fly with the live feed from your eyeballs, your sense of touch, smell, taste and maybe that sixth sense some douche bags like Derek Acora claim to have. (Though he probably fits better as an example for the previous point.) Take your vision for example, the centre of your retina that collects the most detailed information, the foveal pit, comprises two percent of your overall retinal landscape. In spite of its size it uses up half of the optic nerve's capacity, the other ninetyeight percent of your retina has to fit its information in the remaining bandwidth.
That in five years for example, half the things we currently 'know' about the anal limits of Eastern European ladies will be found to have been wrong. This applies to all the sciences, and as science is how we understand our world it can be said that half of what we currently know about anything ever will be proven wrong in the quite near future. Unless of course the theory itself proves to be half wrong, which would obviously validate it while at the same time proving some aspect of it wrong...er...wait...oh screw it...
So when you walk down the street ogling some shapely sex pie there are no big blank spots surrounding them. This is because your brain is basically making shit up. It fills the voids in your visual field with assumptions about what 'should' be there. Once more, you are being lied to, by your own face! How else could David Copperfield amaze you with tricks like dating Claudia Schiffer...it's all an illusion, a trick that uses this slack sensory nonsense to mask what is really happening on stage. So there you go, next time you see some dude make a woman 5: I am a paradox; You can't trust a paradox disappear live on stage he's either a real life you know. I once lent my BluRay player to a wizard or he's taking advantage of your lazy paradox who said he would return it the day gullible eyesight. before he borrowed it to make sure I had it for 4: There is no such thing as a fact...Is that a fact him to borrow. He took the box and that was the last I ever saw of him! You'd want to look you say? Yes it is, CALL THE PARADOX out for these things if it wasn't for the fact that POLICE!! Who doesn't love a good paradox? Nature for one, a big lumpy poo floating in her they are all around you. In fact you yourself are made from paradoxical materials. The very coffee, but this isn't about the problems of a elements that constitute the pasty ball of flab paradox, we’ll get to that…this is about...dun that you are exist simultaneously in an almost dunduuuuuuhhhhh...halflife. I'd say perhaps 95% of the people reading this article are now infinite number of positions throughout the thinking about head crabs and flogging zombies cosmos as we know it. They can only be said on the bonce with a shiny crow bar. But nooooo, to be 'here or there' when ‘observed’. This I'm not talking halflife the video game. I'm not 'settles' the particle into the position it is most likely to be in. Or something like that, basically talking the halflife of atomic nuclei either. I'm nothing is really real, it's all just waves of talking the halflife of knowledge. probability, your mind picks the most likely and rides that shit out...or does it? Back in the crazy nether world that was the 1960's when your granny was dropping lot's of acid and getting multicocked a different kind of person was thinking about things quite differently. A pessimistic way of thinking, uncharacteristic of the age in which he lived, a thing that he referred to as the halflife of knowledge. This related the theory that most 'facts' will ultimately be disproven.
Do Something! By Gabby Green Look around you, what do you see? A society of people glued to their phones or sat at laptops. Either way, they are more often than not, on social media websites and talking to people through a screen.
The message is, please don’t get lazy; there’s plenty to do out there if you put your mind to it. I think too many of us just think a night out drinking or sitting on the internet is the answer and I miss days of actually hanging out in good company.
The next issue is the excuse they give. “What is So get on a bus or a train, even fill a car if you there to do?” Whole heartedly I agree, people can drive… Just get out there and do who go out drinking a couple of nights a week something this summer! must never see their friends when they are sober. I think more people should be being spontaneous and creative. Get up and go for a walk, a long walk, down back country roads until you find a farm shop or a little tea house. Find a field and have a picnic. Go to the cinema. Go to a gig or concert. Go iceskating. Don’t go out drinking for two weeks and save money, so you can afford to do something different, new or exciting for a change. With the tiny bit of extra money you could go to the Zoo, a Fair, Theme Park… Even camp or lodge in the Lake District or Cornwall.
The Unexplained Journey By Kat Arnold 'The Unexplained Journey' is an exploration of the anonymous or unexplained narrative. It relies solely on illustrative visuals without accompanying text to guide the imagination, meaning that while the images are created with the artist’s intended narrative in mind, each viewer receives a totally unique story as interpreted by their personal context, intending that the eventual photobook will be like a whole library of possibility within the mind. The series shows a progression of seasons, locations and has strong characterisation at its ‘heart’. Through the artist’s crafting, including fantastical costumes, theatrical makeup and careful staging, this work inhabits the imaginary worlds of our childhood and rekindles the emotions and memories of the fairytales and fantasies spun around us as we drifted into the realm of long since forgotten dreams. www.katarnold.com
Of Fawn I Dream By Jon Wilford
Of fawn I dream, we shared a breath, Whispered to my ear together till death. Meadows of beauty our feet laid, With my fawn I am no longer afraid. Her eyes so bright, I stare all day, With her, my mind floats away. Nothing else matters when with she, My fawn knows she completes me. Of fawn I dream, always in mind, Her touch on mine softly kind. I never want to be with out her at all, My fawn I love with heart and all. So darkness go we can be always, Tight together movement like flower sways. In my mind there is nothing else there, My fawn I think of my fawn I bare.
Q&A With Lauren Keegan Lauren Keegan interveiwed by Jaxx Shepz
Q: Lauren, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you gotinterested in Photography? A: It really started by chance, I was always interested in Art and Design but wasn’tthe best drawer. When I went away to collage I foolishly started studying Maths andPhysics thinking I would discover some unsolved truths about the universe I quicklyrealised those subjects weren’t for me; so instead I swapped to Art & Photographyand never looked back. More recently I’ve just graduated from Blackpool & TheFylde and had my graduate exhibitions in Brick Lane GalleryLondon and UpperCampfield Market Manchester.
Q: Who has been your main influences? A:When I first started photography I was in absolute awe of Bert Stern and CecilBeaton, (heavily affected by my love of their photos of Marilyn Monroe). But, theolder I get the more I appreciate all different kinds of art and draw them into my ownwork. Some of my favourites are: Ana Teresa Barboza, Tracey Emin, NobuhiroNakanishi, Regine Ramseier, Peter Gentenaar and Ann Hamilton. My inspirationscome from more artist than photographers and are often very instillation based.
Q: How would you describe your work? A: I’d say it’s a real mixed bag, my work is so heavily influenced by my emotions andwhat I feel within that very minute of my life that it often doesn’t make sense even tome till it’s finished. On reflection a lot of my current work has been about memories,the loss, protecting or searching of them. I’m fascinated by the idea of liminality andfind a lot of my work has its foundations in that — it’s neither here nor quite there yet.I guess I’m always just floating inbetween.
Q: A lot of your work has been exploratory with digital and film — which do youprefer? A: Film is definitely my favourite to shoot on! There is something much realer aboutfilm — and it’s how I learned to use a camera, you can’t hide your mistakes with film.
For Anymore information about Lauren Keegan’s work you can visit her website:www.laurenkeeganartist.com
Q: Out of all your series to date which is your favourite and why? A: I think I have to say it's a draw between two: I love ‘Dear Douglas’ for all itsintimacy and honesty, but ‘Drowned’ is exceptionally me I guess. ‘Drowned’ wascreated at a time when I really had lost myself from a bad breakup. I looked into somany different variations of how I could explain what I was trying to say, at that time Ididn’t know if I was searching for the bits of me that I had lost, for the bits of him thatI craved or whether I was throwing away all the left over objects that had becomeworthless. It’s probably my messiest piece of work but my truest selfreflection.
Q: After your success at the Brick Lane Gallery in London what are your plans for thefuture? A: I feel like I’m in a wonderfully fortunate position right now, I start working towardsmy teaching qualification in September and eventually would like to get myself myMasters. Teaching is were my heart is right now so it’s important for me to do. Alongside that I have a gallery showcasing my work in Argentina soon and have beenworking on a new piece of work to add to my collection. I’m just trying to keep busydoing what I can while I’m enjoying having the freedom to do it.
Reality Sux By Calum Terras
Stimulus By Stephanie Fawly
This series of images is about the blurred lines behind fetish's and religion. I wanted to show that people are considered bound by their religion in a similar way to what others are considered bound to their sexuality. I also wanted to show that religion itself could be fetishized by doing things like binding the hands in a praying position余 using tongue in cheek humour. As an artist I believe taboo subjects such as this project should be pushed and talked about. http://stephaniefawley.wix.com/st ephaniefawley