Lost At E Minor: Music, fashion, design, illustration

29 - 09 - 05 / no.36

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You're Out Of This World

I was rulking (half-run; half-walk) through inner city Sydney the other morning, killing time and thoughts with mindless banter (yes, one way conversations have their benefits) when I noticed a grown man crying hysterically on the opposite side of the road to me. He was probably in his early-thirties, slightly disheveled and seemingly oblivious to his surrounds. It was a disconcerting sight - raw emotion revealed in the full glare of the midday sun. But who knows what calamitous news he may have just received; what heart wrenching decision had just changed the course of his life. Part of me wanted to turn and run as if I'd never seen it. A bigger part of me wanted to go up to him, give him a hug and open my heart up to the truth of his tears. In the end I did neither and simply continued on down the road, leaving him to his grief; and his grief to my conscience. Yes, tiny imperfections, a window to the soul. The Ancient Greeks knew it, the Babylonians knew it. Heck, even Leonard Cohen knows it. 'Ring the bells that still can ring', he said, 'forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in'. It got me thinking about the austere nature of modern society, about our collective shudder at the sight of unbridled emotion. I pass a thousand strangers every day, each one of them as faceless as the next. But perhaps I should pause for a moment and look them square in the eye, slowly peeling away their onion layers of skin to reveal the living, breathing person within.

Away With The Swans

Akos Czigany
www.spavia.com

I'm looking at putting together a series of very limited collections of artwork from Lost At E Minor contributors. It'll be a black & white folio of photos and illustrations with each edition based around a one-word theme - the first of which is 'Breathe'. If you're interested in submitting some original work for inclusion in the book, or want some more information about the project, please send me an email and I can fill you in on the details. Elsewhere there's an interesting exhibition of works on at California's Subject Matter Gallery featuring the artists behind the To Die For clothing label - Deph, Gunnar, Devious, Tim Hendricks and others - and embracing illustration, tattoo art and contemporary design. The show starts on October 1st and runs until the 18th. For more information, go to the Subject Matter Gallery website. Meanwhile, Sydney's Tap Gallery has a nice exhibition of new works from artist Peter Rudd. There's more the Tap Gallery website.

Alternate Cuts (the short and sweet of it)

Sigur Ros take minor key progressions and add a slightly dark veneer to create a 'beautiful-tragic' sound that is at once unique and compelling. Tak ... is their fourth album and its every bit as epic and experimental as their past work. It's full of cascading guitar lines, broken drum beats, lush orchestral arrangements and the light-shade structural dynamics that have become their trademark. Keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson had this to say about the album: "There is nothing clever about Sigur Ros and how we write songs, it's just mucking about really. It's all very spontaneous". Which explains the number of unexpected sonic twists. The good news is that we have five very limited edition copies of this album to giveaway featuring a rigid case-bound book with 24 booklet pages and a suspended wallet that holds the disc. Simply go to the Musichead website and then email me with the number of songs off the album that have actually been played live before. Entries close next Tuesday and the five winners will be chosen at random.

And Finally
'Sweet Dreams' by Suzanne Clements www.suzanneclements.com	'Single Witness' by Suzanne Clements www.suzanneclements.com
Suzanne Clements is a Canadian born artist now residing in Florida. Her work has been showing privately since 1998. 'The use of the figure allows me to explore those issues that I find to be most interesting and especially significant in today's culture', she says. 'Having recovered from an eating disorder myself, I use my experience and the experiences of others to fuel my exploration of how each of us perceives our own image. The intentional obscuring of the message allows the works to evoke a polarized array of reactions. While some viewers are enticed initially by the attractive detail and beauty, others are capable of directly seeing below the elaborate surface to the message hidden in the details. Just as in real life, when we put on a "happy face" some people may have the disposition to immediately accept that masquerade without question, while others are naturally more intuitive and seek to explore deeper'. Till next time ...Zolton

Lost At E Minor is a weekly newsletter that showcases the best creative work - be it music, photography, design or illustration - from Australia and beyond. If you want to send me some ideas, work, comments or anything else you can think of, just email me.