The faces of Parsifal

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Parsifal by Jean Delville (1890).

Continuing the occasional series of posts examining the evolution of a particular design or image, this one begins with a mystical charcoal drawing by Belgian Symbolist, Jean Delville (1867–1953), our object of concern being that entranced or dreaming face.

lamb.jpgMy first encounter with Delville’s image wasn’t via the original but came with this Seventies’ version produced for a Charles Williams paperback cover by illustrator Jim Lamb. (And this copy is the only one I can find, reused on a recent audiobook of Williams’ novel. If anyone has a link to a larger copy of the paperback cover then please post it in the comments.) Yes, this is tenuous but when I eventually got to see Delville’s picture it made me think immediately of Lamb’s illustration. Many Dimensions is one of my favourite books by Williams and unusually for him it deals with Islamic rather than Christian mysticism; in that case if Lamb was borrowing from Parsifal then it’s a case of the right image for the wrong book.

Jim Lamb is another illustrator from this period who now works mainly as a landscape artist.

Continue reading “The faces of Parsifal”

Oscar Wilde playing cards

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A set of playing cards created in 1986 by artist Rosita Fanto in association with Wilde biographer Richard Ellmann. Out of print now as these things usually are but this card trading site has more views of the cards, as does this page. Fanto and Ellmann also created a card set based on James Joyce’s life and work.

The Oscar Wilde Playing Cards condense Wilde into pictorial form. Three suits are based upon his writings: Hearts are Instigations, Clubs are Images, Diamonds are Complications. Spades are Happenings in his life. Richard Ellman, Wilde’s biographer, has devised the intricate scheme, and R. Fanto has executed the witty and unexpected drawings, with occasional allusion to previous designs.

Update: Neil Bartlett reviews Oscar’s Books by Thomas Wright.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Oscar Wilde archive

Roger Hiorns’ crystal world

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A visitor examining Seizure. Photograph by Sarah Lee.

I’d love to see this installation work which opened on Wednesday at 157 Harper Road, Southwark, London. British artist Roger Hiorns has transformed a flat awaiting demolition by growing thick mats of copper sulphate crystals on all the interior surfaces, a work he calls Seizure. Copper sulphate always brings back memories of chemistry lessons at school and childhood chemistry sets. I recall growing the crystals in a test tube but such meagre attempts at efflorescence give little indication of how beautiful these things are at a larger scale. Happily Flickr has further documentation of Hiorns’ work while Adrian Searle reviews it for The Guardian, fittingly referencing JG Ballard’s The Crystal World. “Seizure is a sort of sci-fi nightmare in Southwark, and that this happens in a council flat makes it all the more uncanny and disturbing,” he says. A shame, then, that it wasn’t situated in an empty high-rise block for maximum Ballard overload.

Seizure runs until 2 November, 2008. Artangel has location details and opening times.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• JG Ballard book covers

Reasons To Be Cheerful, part 2

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Four Hawkwind badges and a Nik Turner badge based on designs by Barney Bubbles. From the Coulthart archives.

Readers who’ve been waiting for Reasons To Be Cheerful, Paul Gorman‘s landmark study of the life and work of artist and designer Barney Bubbles, may like to know that Paul was in touch today with the suggestion that some pages of the book be previewed here closer to the release date on November 7th. I’d be more than happy for that, of course, so thought I’d mention it now in order to whet the appetite. As mentioned earlier, the book is published by Adelita and its launch will be accompanied by an exhibition at London Print Studio opening on October 23rd. Watch, as the saying goes, this space.

loveyourblog.jpgAlso this week, Yvonne at Nemeton picked { feuilleton } as one of her nominations for the I Love Your Blog award. While I’m going to sidestep the difficult choice of having to pass the award on (which would require nominating a new group of people) I can at least add Nemeton—described as “musings on philosophy, politics, mysticism, geeky stuff, literature, news and ideas”—to the blogroll. Thanks Yvonne!

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Arte y pico award
• Reasons To Be Cheerful: the Barney Bubbles revival
• Barney Bubbles: artist and designer