Porcelain Figurines

 

For a while now, I’ve made  sculptures using porcelain figurines; adding clay figures to accompany them
(below ~ last one made of ‘Sculpey’ clay ).

I’ve started making versions with no figures
(above ~ first two made of ‘Sculpey’ clay ).

Directions to a Song

This text is notation for guitar.
The lines in italic are sung.

Directions to a Song

Tune all the strings down one full step.

The chord of D starts the song.

Strum it once, slowly, with as little thought as possible.

The song has started.

Without hesitation, assume the best and worst outcomes in unison.

Immediately after the notes have died, sing:

“I was a dancer; you know how it goes. I learned to be a footstep on the ground.”

Think of a cat, arched and frozen, in front of a plastic snake.

Pluck each string on the instrument individually until you lose the image of the cat, arched and frozen in front of the plastic snake.

Begin to increase speed.

“Higher than clothes line, lower than a friend of mine, I must admit it’s strange, to be starting over again”

Sing the words, as a journalist might report a flood, or a fire.

Don’t be glum.

It’s not your house.

Play the chord of G while wanting it to be F.

You never know when you might miss something you’ve never had.

“God took scissors to sympathy. God was in my blood and in my balls. He was a true mistake. Shattered thigh bone like chalk.”

Think of yourself as a tourist and your instrument as an ugly souvenir.

Play the chord of D7 with relief, slightly more than is appropriate.

Perform this whole section as if you’ve been given something expensive you don’t want.

“She looked great in the headlights, but the flies came around and found the food. It’s not an area I’d like to look into, any further”

Something darker seems to have materialised.

Turn your instrument over and look at its back.

Keep your gaze steady, but unfocused.

There is a cameraman who looks as if he is from the 1970’s.

He takes his head from the viewfinder and looks you squarely in the eyes.

Don’t worry about a thing.

You’re only what appears to him in a ‘magic eye’ poster

He thinks it’s the 1990’s

“I made a drawing so small; I don’t know how the colours ever heard me call.”

Play the chord of A# repeatedly.

Consider the rhythm like a deer jolts in fright.

Fix your chord hand into the shape of crippling regret.

Place it on the neck of the guitar.

Push through the strings with your other hand.

All the while, listen to your teeth as they gently echo.

“Right away, it was understood. There was never any time, only ever firewood.”

Do you feel a sense of responsibility?

That’s a false sense of responsibility.

Strike the strings, as one of two people in a lift, waiting for their floor to arrive.

This is not the place to make friends – people might find it disconcerting.

Instead, turn to face the back of the lift, with your nose almost touching the wall.

Stay like this until the other person reaches their floor.

“Not only her insistence, but the miracles she worked that won the court.”

This part is the chorus.

You can hide here every so often.

Dispense the line coldly.

Like someone showing kindness, as if it’s a photograph.

Sing the chorus twice in a row.

Now go quiet, but stay inside the song.

Envying the silence of a crab shell.

It’s the most honest part.

The audience is uncomfortable about this.

Each second that passes feels like wet hair.

Break the silence with a key change.

Fold all you know about this section into a brittle suitcase.

Carry it to the next verse.

Everybody around you starts to clap.

The song’s not over.

“Where there was love, there were open gowns in kind, given to the nearest thing that fits inside”

Mouth the word ‘help’ across an empty car-park at night.

Produce a percussive sound by hitting the instrument with your hand.

Make its tone resentful, like a lover who is tired of finding loose change in her bed.

This is the elephant in the room.

Play three chords randomly, one after the other.

Repeat this three times in a row.

Make an awful mistake.

Repeat it, but louder this time, and at the speed of guilt.

It’s not really the loose change she is sick of.

“The one thing she wanted to know was why we have to burst so slow. Is it the action of an ugly brief moment that forgets to sleep?”

Play inquiringly.

Make royal your sense of inquiry.

Remember that section of different coloured tarmac just outside the video shop.

What if I tell you your heart is a giant polystyrene cup stuffed with all the words that describe loneliness?

Realise you are at the end of the song.

Detest nostalgia in real time.

Slow down the playing with the size of your self.

Stop playing.

The song ends.

Serpentine Gallery – Map Marathon – Notation text

I’m performing at the Serpentine’s ‘Map Marathon’ tonight, around 9pm.

I’ll sing  a couple of songs, and read a text.

The text is called ‘Directions to a Song’.  It’s notation for guitar – of sorts.

Read ‘Directions for a Song’ by going here.

Think – Once you understand

This is what I like.

I’ve had it going round and round an roun’ an roun’ my head for a few days. I thought I would try to exorcise it. It’s making me very nervous now, I have it playing loudly in the room.

Actually,  I hate this feeling.

No, I don’t think I do.

Think – Once you understand (press to be possessed)

From Wikipedia

“Think was a studio group put together by producers and songwriters Lou Stallman and Bobby Susser in 1971. The group released a single, “Once You Understand”, on Laurie Records which included a spoken dialogue between male and female teenagers and their parents. The single hit #23 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. It was also a hit in the U. K. and Germany, but was banned by some radio stations in the U.S. for its controversial content. The song has also been frequently sampled by hip hop artists in later decades.”

Children’s Song: ‘All the Animals’

People have been having children all around me.

It seems they’ve been dropping them out their trouser legs – like those actors did with earth – from that hole they were digging – to escape – in that WWII film – you know the one – you’ve seen it – your fat aunt was around for Christmas - everyone was drunk on stuff they don’t usually drink through the year – they don’t drink that stuff through the year because that stuff is disgusting – and don’t get me started on Christmas cake – there, there, no ones ever understood you, right? – but you have seen that film.

Which reminded me: I never finished my album of songs for children.

Here below is one of the songs.

→ All the animals ←

I might post another, which is written from the point of view of a security guard for garden birds… well, it is a children’s record.

Come to think of it, there’s no such thing as a ‘children’s record’ or ‘children’s song’. I was wrong to say so.

A cake with a face on it is still just a cake.

VENN DIAGRAM FOR THE WORLD – Part 2: poster commission

 

Commission 15

Mathew Sawyer
‘Venn diagram for the world’.

 

June 3rd – June 27th 2010

Keep Floors and Passages Clear is an ongoing project that involves the commissioning of a single A1 sized artwork from artists based in the UK and beyond.
The project has been initiated as a response to an old RoSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) poster situated in the foyer of the Stand Assembly studio and Moot gallery building on Thoresby Street in Sneinton, Nottingham. The poster features an illustration of a man tripping over a number of boxes and monolithic objects with the projects title written underneath, this has been mounted within an aluminium snap frame.

 

Each artist will be invited to produce a work that will be identically mounted and presented adjacent to the original poster. This will change regularly with the former exhibitors poster being housed within a portfolio that can be viewed upon request.

 

www.keepfloorsandpassagesclear.com for further details.

1 Thoresby Street
Nottingham
NG1 1AJ

http://www.keepfloorsandpassagesclear.com

Interview about stuff at The Quietus

“I Told A Lie: Mathew Sawyer Doesn’t Talk About His New Album“

Interview about stuff at The Quietus website by Kev Kharas, he’s a nice a feller – great writer too – have a read of his other articles.

…click on the words interview, stuff or quietus to go there. It’s that simple…

or you could click on the word simple. Shall I stop all this?

HOW SNAKES EAT

Hello There,

YES! The Ghosts new record ‘HOW SNAKES EAT‘ is finally coming out on 16th May and I’m extremely pleased to have signed with Fire Records

ALL GOOD

We will play a live show on the 21st may for album launch, with our friends at the much loved Cafe Oto.

MATHEW SAWYER & THE GHOSTS
w/David Christian(Comet Gain)/The Left Outsides

FRIDAY 21st May 2010, @ CAFE OTO

Times : 8pm
Tickets : £5 adv. / £7 on the door

David Christian will be joined by friends and will be doing acoustic Comet Gain – so that’s a rare and joyous treat!

The Left Outsides will be psych folk’ing your skin to shivering ribbons.

The Ghosts will be sober, professional, lyric-remembering surgeons of tonal precision…

…and if all goes to plan

at midnight

we cross strings
just as the ghostbusters did with streams
and the universe will pop

like a spit bubble in a baby’s mouth.

-+-ALSO-+-

FREE DOWNLOAD of  ’Mynah Birds Call’, a track from new album.

Fire Records 6 Track Cassette Tape

…..and I love that it’s in orange. The reason why involves ‘The Ugly Duckling’ – but that’s a story for another time.

“To celebrate this years RECORD STORE DAY us gentleman folk at Fire have made a super limited edition orange handmade tape complete with fancy download code and mock “matchbox”. The 6 track orange cassette features exclusive tracks from JOSEPHINE FOSTER, BARDO POND, JACKIE O MOTHERFUCKER, RYAN DRIVER and two newbies from DUKE GARWOOD and MATHEW SAYWER (…and his ghosts!). Buy the tape, register here, input the code and hey presto! 6 shimmering beauties for you. You can’t get these tracks together without buying the tape so go to your local record shop (like Rough Trade East in Old London Town or Norman Records in Leeds) to pre-order NOW”

JARVIS COCKER’S RADIO SHOW

Jarvis Cocker has a radio show on BBC 6 Music every Sunday, it’s on from 3:30 -5:30pm.

look see right hear  http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/jarviscocker/

Last Sunday he kindly played ‘The Bully Died’, a song from my new album called  ’How Snakes Eat’

you can listen to the radio show and the song, if you fancy, by clicking on this link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00qnvml

He plays my song at 1hour 43mins in… if you want to be specific about these things.

There’s only 3 days left to hear this show, I think .

A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE

I was at my friend Yagos’ s parents house, which is just outside Edipsos Spa.

It’s a popular resort for 75+ year olds –  they stand underneath the ‘healing water’.

It smells like death and there are strange water cockroach’s covering the rocks.

We were watching the cassavetes film ‘A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE’.

I think the tension in the film made the dog crave a lot of attention.

Rita is a very a sensitive dog.

VENN DIAGRAM FOR THE WORLD

To pour like English taps

Sometimes a title or a line might stick around,
and it seems to make sense to use it for a few different things.
so, below is the song, the painting, the poem.
All titled ”To Pour Like English Taps’

♪ ♫♫  Click on here to HEAR the song ♫♫ ♪

watercolour (about A2 size)

To pour like English taps

We found ourselves talking to the begonias at 14 Tufton Way

There was light appraisal of the subjects we toured

Dispensed by the Rattling Grass and Chicory

As I herded sweet soldiers indoors

‘How stuck up’ I thought

While splitting my fevers to pour

Like an English tap

All over the floor

I was poured

Straight

Into

the glass

Cul-de-sac

Vic Chesnutt 1964 – 2009

Vic’s music transcends, it really does – and you know how rare that is.

This is such awful news.

#2 RAYMOND PETTIBON

( Dream Diary #2)

I’m sitting on a bench with Raymond Pettibon

On top of a giant VHS cassette tape (don’t know what’s on it)

We have both been made out of balloons by a party entertainer

He looks pretty good… there’s no mirror

The landscape appears drawn in

I wonder if he drew it – if not, I bet he knows who did

I feel it’s my responsibility to break the silence between us

We needn’t be so glum: we’re made out of party balloons

“Hey… Ray, what are we doing here anyway?”

As I turn to face him my balloon limbs rub against each other

Causing a heart-freezing screech

Like the death of a giant mouse

We both stare into each others stupid faces

Too terrified to move

We stay like this

I’m suddenly overcome with how fragile and sad he looks

I lower my gaze

Through his thigh I notice the label on the giant tape

‘RAYMOND’S PET MOUSE –  KEEP!’

“Ray?…”

BANG!

#14 CARL ANDRE

( Dream Diary #14)

I am half of a pantomime horse with Carl Andre

We are walking down the aisle of an airplane

I am the front half

I have an overwhelming sense of duty

I start to slow down

I realise that Carl has fallen asleep

He is really going to tear this costume to shreds on the ground

I’m guessing the costume is rented

I stop and twist around to face Andre, who is curled up in a ball on the floor

I have to wake him

Seeing as we have never met, my approach is calm and considered

“Carl….Carl andre…Hey, we have to keep going, we’re not there yet”

He doesn’t respond

I look up and down the aisle through the mouth of the horse

And then back down at Carl

There is the sound of crisps being crunched

I start to get annoyed

We’re in this together

Whether we like it or not

The weight on the floor doesn’t move

I think ‘fuck you Carl’

I decide to carry on down the aisle

He’s very heavy

I might as well be dragging a bag of bricks

“God, you’re boring”, I tell the crunching lump

I start to think about the airplane plummeting into in ground

I wish he was Douglas Heubler

He wouldn’t be like this

The plane door to the side of Carl suddenly rips open

Carl Andre in the back end of the horse is sucked out

I manage to hook my legs around a passing seat – in its upright position

Carl is weighing me down

The weight of his body is pulling me out with him

“What are we going to do Carl Andre?… i can’t hold on for much longer…

We are both going to plummet to our deaths!” I said

“There is only one thing to do, I am going to bite through the materiel, and release myself into the cold hands of fate, thus enabling you to live” he replied

I can feel my grip loosening

“No Carl, you can’t! – I hardly know you – do you think it will work?”

There is a new sound

“Sorry I called you boring Carl”

RIP!