issue021

Tu ne dis jamais rien

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Je vois des tramways bleus sur des rails d’enfants tristes 
Des paravents chinois devant le vent du nord 
Des objets sans objet des fenêtres d’artistes 
D’où sortent le soleil le génie et la mort

Attends, je vois tout près une étoile orpheline 
Qui vient dans ta maison pour te parler de moi 
Je la connais depuis longtemps c’est ma voisine 
Mais sa lumière est illusoire comme moi

Et tu ne me dis rien tu ne dis jamais rien 
Mais tu luis dans mon cœur comme luit cette étoile 
Avec ses feux perdus dans des lointains chemins 
Tu ne dis jamais rien comme font les étoiles
— Léo Ferré

By Patrick La Roque

My dad would play Leo Ferré’s La Solitude when were kids...I wasn’t a big fan.
But one day, a few years after he had passed away, I brought the album home with me. As a memento I guess...I’m not sure why. I was living on my own by then, in a small basement apartment of the Côte-des-Neiges district. I was in a band and fancied myself a painter, splashing blobs of industrial paint on large pieces of cardboard I’d lay out on the floor. Stuff I’d found in the trash. So damned serious.

Amidst Bauhaus and other prophets of gloom I (re)discovered La Solitude and soon became obsessed with Ferré—both his music and his words. A clash of such powerful images in each sentence; something like a declaration of war or a dark secret unfolding.

This song—Tu ne dis jamais rien—stops me to this day. It stops me to the point of losing the ability to speak, of needing a moment to recover and find my bearings again. My mind’s eye sees shapes, their edges diffused; an obsession slowly revealed in minute traces, fragmentary glimpses of hell and abandon.

Unholy, quiet and beautiful.

Empty Vessels

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PHOTOGRAPHY & TEXT BY DEREK CLARK

You are the Potter and I am the clay.
Mold me and make me, have Thine own way
— Norman Hutchins

With more patience than I could only dream of, Loraine Robson rubs the clay with fine sandpaper. I feel a little guilt as it starts to look as though she has ruined an already finished piece to help me get the pictures I need. But Loraine knows something I don’t, and slowly a single thin line of brass starts to appear, which then takes a sharp 90o turn. This transforms into a pattern that to someone like me that loves to program synthesizers, looks an awful lot like a square wave. 

It’s a dark Scottish winter and I’m inside Ceramic artist Lorraine Robson’s studio at the bottom of her garden. We arranged this shoot a few weeks before, but now that I’m here, the light is poor. Not only that but we’ve been talking for a while and the already dim light is fading and it will be dark soon. I do a custom colour balance on my camera but the ISO is pushed so high that the colours are poor. I wish I could come back another day when the light is better, but I’ve already taken up Lorraine’s time and I’d rather work with what I have than risk no shoot at all. 

Lorraine has a series called Empty Vessels. Some of these pieces consist of two parts connected by a chain. The larger one is the empty vessel, a hollowed out container. The smaller is a spoon. Lorraine went on to tell me that the series was inspired when a close relative developed dementia (the empty vessel). The spoon represents her role as the carer.

Oh, Harbour Bridge

Oh, Harbour Bridge

One of my favourite things about Don McGlashan's songwriting (and there are many) is this - the choice he makes about the perspective, or point of view, of the characters in a song. 

Harbour Bridge is a perfect example - it's a song about parting, about breaking up with someone you love; but the person singing it manages to pin all their problems on the various failings of...the bridge they're driving across.

If only bridge weren't so grey / long / high / convenient, he'd have been able to think of, and say, everything he wanted to tell her; and, maybe, she'd have stayed...

Scism

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Photography by Jonas Rask

I know the pieces fit ‘cause I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smoldering. Fundamental differing
Pure intention juxtaposed will set two lovers souls in motion
Disintegrating as it goes testing our communication
The light that fueled our fire then has burned a hole between us so
We cannot seem to reach an end crippling our communication

I know the pieces fit ‘cause I watched them tumble down
No fault, none to blame, it doesn’t mean I don’t desire to
Point the finger, blame the other, watch the temple topple over
To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication

The poetry that comes from the squaring off between
And the circling is worth it
Finding beauty in the dissonance
— Maynard James Keenan

Outside The Wall

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEREK CLARK

All alone, or in two’s
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands
The bleeding hearts and the artists
Make their stand
And when they’ve given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it’s not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger’s wall
— Roger Waters - Pink Floyd
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I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock And Roll

Photography & text by Kevin Mullins

This month we are tasked with the theme "music".  

I've had a very busy February and March including long-distance travel and weddings so I'm running behind on my storytelling essays.

However, I have interpreted this theme to coincide with one of my favourite Nick Lowe songs..... and it all ties together nicely I think. 

7x021

Dressing Room PianoDerek Clark | X100F - 23mm - ISO2000 - f/2 - 1/125 sec

Dressing Room Piano
Derek Clark | X100F - 23mm - ISO2000 - f/2 - 1/125 sec

Hilltop Silhouettes, Sydney
Robert Catto | X-T2, 35mm f/1.4. 1/250 at f/11, ISO 200.

StatuesqueJonas Rask | X-H1, Laowa 9mm f/22, 1/1000, ISO 800.

Statuesque
Jonas Rask | X-H1, Laowa 9mm f/22, 1/1000, ISO 800.

AuxaneVincent Baldensperger | X-Pro2. | 56mm 1/125 at f/1.8, ISO 100.

Auxane
Vincent Baldensperger | X-Pro2. | 56mm 1/125 at f/1.8, ISO 100.

While Reading Patrick La Roque | GFX 50S, Pentax 50mm f/1.7, 1/125 at f/1.7, ISO 100.

While Reading
Patrick La Roque | GFX 50S, Pentax 50mm f/1.7, 1/125 at f/1.7, ISO 100.

A Snow DayKevin Mullins | GFX 50S, Minolta MD 1.7/85mm Rokkor Lens 1/2,000 ISO 200

A Snow Day
Kevin Mullins | GFX 50S, Minolta MD 1.7/85mm Rokkor Lens 1/2,000 ISO 200