Review – Learning Log

In this post, I will review about an album leaflet in three steps: a description, the context and a short analyse of the leaflet.

This is a four pages booklet of Ghost’s album “Prequelle”. The artwork was designed by the artist Zbigniew M. Bielak. The font cover represents a pope sat on the throne that turns into a rat-like gate to hell. Gigantic wings and cathedrals tops surrounds the pope. The drawing only uses grey and red tones. On the back cover, all the song are listed with a triptych of hellish scenes, monsters, saints and the three popes of the band. The booklet also contains the lyrics of all the song written in a gothic font, and a photography of the band, introducing the new “cardinal”.

“Prequelle” is the fourth studio album of the Swedish metal band “Ghost”. The band has a strong visual identity and concept composed of anti-clerical or satanic imagery. The singer dresses as a “demonic anti-pope” and all the musician, or “nameless ghouls”, wear masks. The band aesthetic goes against the catholic church and seems to preaches a satanist message, though, this is just the iconography not an actual belief from the band. The artist Zbigniew M. Bielak worked with the band since their second album “Infestissumam” and designed most of their artworks (from album covers to the stage design). In the story arc, “Prequelle” introduce Cardinal Copia, the replacement of Papa Emeritus III, as new blood was needed (check out the youtube channel). The album centres around the black plague that strike Europe during the middle age. It hints on how now beliefs and lies spreads and contaminates people like an illness.

The artwork of the front cover is clearly inspired by paintings from Hieronymus Bosch and Bruegel. The artwork contains a lot of biblical references, like the three cross on the right side, or the churches. But the nightmarish vision of the rat’s mouth and fiery colours reminds of hell more than heaven. We see dead people being carried away by skeletons with is a classical representation of Death during the middle age. In gothic art, there are multiple representations of religious figures, sometimes defeating the forces of hell, and multiple monster, like the gargoyles. The image uses religious undertone but turns them inside out. On the back, there is triptych, which is often use to represent saints, or holy subject. The disproportion of the characters and the building reminds of the medieval religious art. The lyrics are written like bible verse, using a gothic front, like the first printed bibles. The photography puts Cardinal Copia in the foreground while the nameless ghouls watches over him, which serves perfectly as an introduction for him. Overall, the leaflet really shows the visual identity of the band, and especially what the album is about. It is sure not for people easily shocked or offended by religious subject. The artwork correspond to the genre, as you would expect to find this album at the Metal aisle of HMV. The long lasting collaboration between the artist and the band created a recognisable imagery that suits the band and its concept perfectly.

More info and references:

Home

https://www.behance.net/zbigniewbielak/

Roberts, K. (1971) Bruegel. Phaidon, Oxford.

Fisher, S. (2016) Hieronimus Bosch. Taschen, Spain

You enter a dark blue room with dimmed black light and an ambient sound you’ve never heard, like a wailing drone. It feels like entering a cave to another world.

On one side you have the portraits of monsters masks under a strong black light and in the other room, is projected a documentary, followed by a short film. The documentary presents 7-year-old children discussing about environmental issues in class. Then, in the short film, we see the same children wearing monster masks made of recycled material running in slow motion toward us, edited with images of mountains dissolving. But there is a constant disturbing sound, made out of the voice of all the children, like a creature howling in deep pain.

This project was commission by the Whitechapel Gallery, Film and Video Umbrella and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art to the British and Greek artist Mikhail Karikis. His performances and short films are focused on the sound and the human voice. He explores the emotional and physical impact sound can have on us, and he explores new way to create sound. But his work is deeply anchored with social and human reality. He exposed his films in multiple biennales and exhibition around Europe.

For this particular project, he worked with a class of 7-years-old children through workshop about sound. The children were reading the book ‘’The Iron Man’’ from Ted Hugues, which gave Karikis the idea of studying with them the sequel of this fiction: ‘’The Iron Woman’’.

This book tells the story of an iron woman appearing on earth to destroy the humans because of the way they are treating earth. She gives a ‘’disease’’ spreading by touch to a little girl that allows the little girl hear the sound of the earth, of the animals and of the plants. But they are all suffering from the pollution, and the sound is a perpetual cry from all the livings. The little girl decide to warns the adults about the suffering of the earth by spreading the disease. Fortunately the book has an happy ending.

The artist had the children debate about the book and their concerns about the future. The he asked them to create the sound from this book, using whatever they wanted (their voice, objects, etc), to finally mix the sound they created together. It wasn’t the first time Karikis was working with children (see his previous work ‘Ain’t Got No Fear’ and ‘Children of the Unquiet’).
In an interview, Mikhail explains the process he went through with the children and why he chose certain imagery in the short film. There are close-up of sand (to form the ‘’mountains’’) vibrating and changing aspect with the sound, as if they were disappearing and reforming. The artist wanted to show that the action of the children could move mountains with their voice. He has the feeling that new generation are stronger and capable of more than they think they do.

The name of the installation is important: ‘No Ordinary Protest’. It is a protest you’ve never seen before, that is out of what is commonly done. You walk into a dark room were you are greeted by real size pictures of the children wearing creatures mask in the darkness. They seem to be standing in front of you, looking right at you, as if they were directly confronting you. You’re facing an army of children wearing creatures mask.

The mask hides the faces of the children and therefore their individuality. It also hides their humanity and they seems to belong to another kind of being/creature. They are one force together that pushed aside their human nature to show their animal/creature side. With this, they show they sided with Earth, with the environment and all the being that are suffering.

There is also that sound played during the short things. Something again that we’ve never heard before. A mix of cries, drone sound, and other instrument played by the children. It gives an unsettling feeling. It makes you feel uneasy. I saw a lot of people leaving the room when the sound started to play as if this sound was unbearable to listen to for them. It is somehow, in context, shows that the humans don’t want to be confronted to the pain we cause to the Earth. They escaped from their responsibility, they could not confront the problem. But this is what this exhibition is about: to make us want to act about the environment problems we are all facing now. The artist exposed children to this issue and have them debating about it, but some ‘adults in the room’ just leave the screening? It feels like the next generation is more concern than older are to this problem. Are we waiting for the next generation to fix this?

The children are an anonymous force surrounding us and, like in the book, they are trying to touch us so we could also hear the cries of the Earth, so we could all fix this.

Reference:

http://www.mikhailkarikis.com/about-mikhail-karikis/http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/about/history/

Children’s Commission 2018: Mikhail Karikis

http://www.mikhailkarikis.com/2018/08/30/no-ordinary-protest/http://www.mikhailkarikis.com/2018/08/18/text-by-prof-cathy-lane-no-ordinary-protest/

http://www.mikhailkarikis.com/2018/08/30/mikhail-karikis-interview-on-no-ordinary-protest-2018/

Category: Review

CTS – Publication Review

Exhibition – ‘No Ordinary Protest’ at Whitechapel Gallery