Anarcho-hippy-punk art

Original art work by Wilf for The Mob's Let the Tribe Increase.


Wonderful review of Wilf's art show from Maximum Rock n Roll.

Read the full text here.

“The Grotty Hand of Wilf” opened at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil (South West, England) in October 2011 to a great deal of interest. The show was part retrospective and part tribute to late local artist Stephen Wilmott, affectionately known as Wilf. His credits include illustration and design for a number of bands, including many associated with the anarcho-punk movement, such as The Mob and their own independent record label All The Madmen (ATM) which released material by Blyth Power, The Astronauts, DAN, Thatcher On Acid and many others.

From the very beginning, ATM’s existence as a record label and increasing involvement with local and national music scenes helped develop great opportunities for Wilf to collaborate closely with an associate named Steve Batty. During this time they worked under the pseudonym of Cracked Image Graffix to create unique, original and memorable designs using their skills to interpret visual identities for the gritty lyrical content emanating from this new crop of bands. Wilf was based in the sleepy market town of Yeovil in the South West of England. (The city of Bristol is located 45 miles north.) The town’s biggest exports are gloves and helicopters (you might notice these references in some of his artwork, especially if you are familiar with flyers and posters featuring The Mob). The very essence of the anarcho-punk movement was born out of the need to get up and make some changes, however small, like starting a band with a message or supplying informative flyers on a range of subjects relevant to the time period. It was a pocket of positivity that Wilf became part of, especially with his early roots in the hippie subculture, which had ethical values similar to this movement. In fact, Wilf played in the Psycho Daisieswhere he performed and wrote vocals, and he was part of an early incarnation of Bikini Mutants, which featured Debbie Googe who would later be a member of shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine. As an artist it was a perfect creative outlet.....

KLF and Galloway

This clip of the Dumfries to Stranraer railway before it was closed in 1965 has scenes from newton Stewart in it. It also has a KLF soundtrack. It is very appropriate sinceBill Drummond of the KLF was brought up in Newton Stewart in the sixties. The full 26 minute film is in the Scottish Screen Archives.

Kenneth Grant sings...

Hegel and political economy

The Situationists and the Occupation Movements

One of the most notable characteristics of the “Occupy” movement is that it is just what it claims to be: leaderless and antihierarchical. Certain people have of course played significant roles in laying the groundwork for Occupy Wall Street and the other occupations, and others may have ended up playing significant roles in dealing with various tasks in committees or in coming up with ideas that are good enough to be adopted by the assemblies. But as far as I can tell, none of these people have claimed that such slightly disproportionate contributions mean that they should have any greater say than anyone else. Certain famous people have rallied to the movement and some of them have been invited to speak to the assemblies, but they have generally been quite aware that the participants are in charge and that nobody is telling them what to do.

From an article by Ken Knabb...read the rest here.

The Rationalised Landscape

This photograph is of the Carlingwark Canal, now called the Carlingwark Lane (local word for slow flowing stream). It was constructed in 1765 and cuts an arrow straight course across the Carlingwark and Blackpark mosses. It is nearly two miles long.

It goes with the Charles Oppenheimer  paintings of concrete dams being built (see previous posts). The canal was built to carry marl (a lime rich clay used as fertiliser) from Carlingwark Loch to farms upstream along the Dee/ Ken river system.

Before the canal was cut this is what the landscape looked like.[Taken from National Library of Scotland online maps- Roy's 1755 military survey of Scotland]

Course of Carlingwark Burn.

Harnessing the power of the Dee.

This is one of three paintings by Charles Oppenheimer (1875-1961) of dams built on the Galloway Hydro-electric scheme.

Art in Concrete Charles Oppenheimer

 

This is one of three paintings by Charles Oppenheimer (1875-1961) of the construction of dams on the Galloway Hydro-electric scheme.