After a 40-year hiatus from the darkroom, I have rekindled my passion for printmaking. The process of developing photos has always held a special place in my heart, and returning to it after so many years has been incredibly rewarding. There’s something magical about the darkroom—the dim red light, the smell of the chemicals, and the quiet anticipation as an image slowly appears on the paper. It’s a world away from the instant gratification of digital photography, offering a sense of craftsmanship and artistry that I’ve truly missed.
My first series of prints, available now, were taken on an old Lubitel box camera during the Cranes American tour in 1997. The Lubitel, with its vintage charm and quirks, added a unique character to the photos that modern cameras simply can’t replicate. This series holds a special significance for me, being the last time I played with the band in America, the resulting prints are not just images; they’re a piece of my history, infused with the spirit of that era.
Reconnecting with this art form has been a deeply personal journey. Each step, from selecting the negative to the final rinse, is a deliberate act that requires my full attention and care. It’s a meditative process, allowing me to slow down and immerse myself in the creative flow.
In sharing my renewed passion, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new online shop. This platform is a labour of love, showcasing the prints I’ve created in the darkroom. Additionally, I’ll soon be selling my “Kipple” artworks and there’s a T-shirt available now, celebrating my artistic journey, that has, for about 30 years now been known by the term “Ordo Ab Chao” or rather Order out of Chaos, a kind of mantra to how I work.
I invite you to explore the shop and discover the prints that resonate with you. Whether you’re a longtime aficionado of darkroom photography or someone newly discovering its charms, I hope my work brings a sense of joy and inspiration. Thank you for supporting my art and joining me in celebrating the timeless craft of darkroom photography.
There’s a lot of fuss at the moment about AI and generated content. There’s no doubt that its worrying for many artists, illustrators and writers. So what’s to be done about it? Well, lets not forget that it’s not new, its just a trend that its happening now. Over 10 years ago we were all marvelling at the auto generated postmodern essay generator (https://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/) and remember morphing? Just AI…
So why now? Well, no reason really other than the cheapness of server space and speeds at which data can be collected and processed.
Where’s it going, well let’s not forget that most AI generated… anything is a bit crap in the “taste” department, it, by definition being an amalgam of many generic styles and strokes. If you ask for a christmas scene, it’s likely WILL be cute, sentimental and snowy. Most images of people WILL BE handsome and pretty. There’s not much original thought going on, except when it errors and generates too many fingers. But of course this is just GOOD for artists, it pushes them to be more original and the market for real art and real writing will be more elite and worth more. This relates very nicely to a point made by my favorite author Neil Stevenson (who pretty much figures out what’s gonna happen in the future) In The Diamond Age, the premise is that anything can be made using nanotechnology in your kitchen, just chuck some carbon into a slot and press a button and out comes a diamond, hamburger or kitchen table. This results in a cult/style/movement call the “New Victorians” who crave real things, and a REAL table, made from trees becomes an special, elite and expensive item. Much like the re-emergence of vinyl over CD’s now.
I think this will happen with art. Of course, it will become necessary to state when a piece is made by AI, or in the case of google who have just decided to downgrade all AI text as spam, (https://the-decoder.com/gpt-3-google-wants-to-treat-ai-content-like-spam/) and even though the discussion is complex and has many ethical and awkward technological pitfalls (mostly the fault of fucking programmers who just think cos they can, they must) it sure is tricky (https://nftnow.com/features/the-ai-generated-art-debate-is-here-and-its-very-messy/) it will likely not become the new norm, that a CEO will shout “Hey Siri, create a catchy annual report with animated graphics and an intro by Obama” just before he heads for the ski slopes.
I think the AI pics I tried earlier where I gave its prompt info about my film, came out great, but not as finished work, it gave me some ideas, but ultimately took a little time to come up with something, time I might have spent just thinking myself. Likewise, if in the future we just generate a script for a film and have AI make it, its likely going to be pretty generic, action love story with handsome people. Unless of course we ask it to make a Christmas movie in the style of Tarantino, shot by Tarkovsky as written by William Burroughs, music by the Sex Pistols, arranged by David Lynch… now that’s a film I’d like to see.
Anyway here’s 100 pictures of me as made by AI.
What a handsome devil.
Kipple, Carvings and Crosses.
Today I had my exhibition at Nesoddparken!
I was very surprised at how many came and that some braved the Norwegian seas and came over from Oslo. I set up a table so children could make their own kipple and that was also very successful!
I got a lot of nice comments and people seemed to like it a lot
Guri Guri Henriksen and team put on a fantastic shadow theatre show in the “project room” that was extremely well received, we had a class from the local school visiting the artists studios, and attending a painting course… Today Nesodparken felt just like Portsmouth Art College circa 1983!!!
Special thanks to Mark Steiner who did all the fiddly Facebook event stuff, and certainly contributed to the attendance, and also Trine Brandeggen who helped me organise and mount the stuff on Friday, and finally my lovely wife Hilde, who puts up with Kipple on a daily basis…
The exhibition is now showing for nearly a month, and a Sunday visit is recommended due to open café, and various events!
Reminder, (nearly) EVERYTHING is for sale, just sms me, on the number on the price-list and stick a little heart shaped sticker on the one you want, thus “bagging” it.
I have been working on the Wooden people a lot recently, due to having had my knee operation. The people are all but finished, just need to make their boxes. Of course, everything “mark-ish has to come in a box. This tim I might make it that the people CAN be removed from the box. Not sure exactly what they will look like, But Im thinking simple wooden and stain wood, with doors, small windows, where you can “see through” to the faces maybe? Also IM investigating the technique of Laser cutting so i can maybe burn lots of text onto the outside… This is a secret though..
I have gotten myself a studio at Nesoddparken. Its a amazing room, in fact a bit too amazing, hoping for a cheaper one when one comes up… somewhat annoying that no sooner have I moved in, than I have to got to hospital for my knee operation. Darn it!
Mostly Im going to be doing my modular music there, but Ive really been enjoying the wooden people so maybe It will kick start my art stuff too…
I am working on a new series of Kipple. Called the wooden men.
Each man is being hand carved, painted and will be in boxes.
All the wood comes from driftwood found on the shores of Nesodden, or waste wood from my chippy neighbour.
Anyway, heres some WIP.
I just read this interesting article about the Art College in Brighton during the 60’s
Brighton College of Art in the 60’s
And it reminded me alot of my experience at Portsmouth College of Art and then the Fine Art Dept of Portsmouth Polytechnic. I thought it would be nice to write down a few of my memories.
Arrival
I remember that I was literally the first interviewee in a bunch for my place at Portsmouth College of Art. I was interviewed by Mark Harrington, who was to be one of my first year, foundation lecturers. I still remember him saying ” Well this is good stuff, less of the Roger Dean shit and you´ll be fine… welcome!” And that was it! After a nerve wracking 5 minutes where he just perused my folder of school Art class stuff, I was in!
I relaxed a little at school for the remainder of the year, maybe a little too much?
I arrived, a long haired hippy type, with patched up jumpers and holy (as in with holes) jeans, to be confronted with a bunch of the scariest and most way out looking punks and goths and new romantics. It took a year before my hair became black, and it has stayed dyed ever since… Im 51 now! It was frightening, but totally inspiring! I had NO IDEA (I still dont) what “kind” of Art I should do, and the foundation year was designed for me to find out. A bit of everything, drawing, painting nudes, graphics, printing, plastic, metalwork and photography. I LOVED IT! The only hinderance for me at the time was that I was “commuting” from Petersfield everyday.
By the second year I had moved to Pompey and really took advantage of life as an Art Student. Going to shows, staying till we were thrown out of the video suite or darkrooms (look them up you youngsters).
Im not sure how much talent I ever had (or have actually) but I must say that at Portsmouth I did get the interest to try many things, and that has stayed with me to this day. Not really a good thing really, but maybe. I don’t think Ive ever become really outstanding at anything really, technology always seems to whizz past before I really feel I have done all.. For fuck sake I was experimenting with hand dying film, when video came in, I was faffing with making quicktime VR circular poems, when I should have learned programming… Ja.. Programming thats the one thing I really regret never to have mastered. I mean I cant play guitar, but Ive toured the world in a famous band, I don’t know much about film, but Ive probably directed more actors than anyone in Norway… I don’t understand electronics but I have a pretty huge modular synth that I soldered myself… see a pattern here?
Anyway… I followed a girlfriend into a jewellery course, and loved it… but gave it up after a year, it just wasn’t… arty enough… silly really… I made some lovely rings, by a technique known as fusing, where you don’t really use solder, you just wait till the silver melts, and JUST before it goes BLOB into a runny mess you pull away… twas cool as hell. and to be honest.. I wish I still did that. If I hadn’t twatted about with video feedback, and got hooked on experimental video I would never have had to sit through 6 hour meetings about HSE or HR or…fucking CSR. I wouldn’t know what a company design profile was and I wouldn’t give two hoots about visions and values…
Scratch
Where was I? Video… yep lots of re-filming off screens, recording buzzing noises, burying TVs in the beach, draping apartments with white sheets and, projecting on houses. Then zippady doo dah, over I pop to the Polytechnic and join the real arty mob in the…
Fine Art department
“Your stuff is too… er slick… Mark”
they wailed…
“It must be all that time doing graphics…!”
while at the same time handing rolls of film to students who came back with black totally underexposed films (“I filmed myself masterbating at four in the morning… I left the lens cap on as a statement about pornography”)
I was stuck between two poles, I was all design-y and pop video-y and yet when I was at the Art College it was all craft, and technique…and there they said I was too weird, didnt stick to the brief…too mess… ahh well…
But it was OK at the Poly, I made a fun film, with lots of holes punched in it, I filmed some melodramatic goths poncing about on a freezing winter West Wittering, and set it all to backwards distorted guitars and techno beats. Ace! Also met James my on and off collaborator for… well… we still dabble now…
Then it was over..
I was out…
The World
not so much as a ” Well there this grant…”
or
“Heres some place that might show you films if you sent them”
or
“Have you thought about pop videos”
oh no.
It was… “Dole Office is down there on the left… let us know when you have a retrospective of your earlier work at Aspex Gallery in Southsea, and we´ll come and drink your wine…”
Bastards…
So it was Bread Pudding and coffee in a cafe in Albert Rd for 2 years discussing “scripts” with James… occasionally rehearsing with this new band I got asked to join… a one off trip to Thailand on a documentary film, taught a bit in a video course of my own devising,
and then…
well..
good old John Peel.. may he rest in peace…
