Bookworm presents ‘The Art of Worms’

After the launch event comes the book itself… The Tapeworm announces its new publishing venture, The Bookworm, with a tidy compendium of its cover art, alongside a specially commissioned essay by writer Ken Hollings…

TBW#01 - The Art of Worms
The first publication from The Bookworm
Contents:
“Parasitic Infestation”, an essay by Ken Hollings.

Illustrations from the first 25 Tapeworm tapes, including works by SavX, Derek Jarman and Leif Elggren.
Cover illustration: Savage Pencil.
66pp, 110mm x 117mm, soft cover, thread bound booklet – no ISBN.
Edition of 250 copies only.
Printed on Munken Print stock
Typeset in Aldine 401, Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk and Miso

You can find all the ordering information at the Touch shop by clicking here.

See also: Worm Eats Bear: A Special Evening Just for You from the Tapeworm

Pictured above: The Art of Worms, plus a view of KH at the mike from The Worm Eats Bear event, October 20, 2011, courtesy of the i-Wyrm.

The Tapeworm Turns

You couldn’t pick the venue out from any of the other post-industrial firetraps currently passing for gallery and performance spaces on major land masses from Brooklyn to Berlin – although the toilet cubicle knocked together from plywood boards at the back of the room would certainly have made Henry David Thoreau blush with pride. The evening itself, however, could not have been more special: Worm Eats Bear was a series of short, tightly focussed pieces from artists closely associated with the Tapeworm cassette-only label and audiovisual publishing powerhouse Touch. I was there to read my introductory essay to The Art of Worms, a 100-page booklet containing reproductions of the cover art from the first twenty-five tapes released by Tapeworm. It is a truly handsome volume, and I shall be plugging it relentlessly in future posts; but meanwhile, here is your chance to enjoy some of the sights sounds and, yes, the smells of a remarkable night.

Pictured from top to bottom: Michael Esposito communes with Edgar Allen Poe and the spirits of angels; Mike Harding and C M von Hausswolff hail the conquering worm, Joachim Nordwall gets serious; BJ Nilsen gets his game on; Edwin Pouncey, Peter Hope-Evans and the Veiled Lady of Harmonia bring some quiet dignity to the proceedings; and KH throws shade while reading ‘Parasitic Infestation’ as photographed by Mike Harding.

Worm Eats Bear – A Special Evening Just For You from the Tapeworm

The following information is currently being circulated by my good friends at Touch – I hope to see you at this fascinating event taking place on the evening of October 20:

Announcing a special evening of Bankside performances curated by The Tapeworm, as part of the Merge Festival. London’s finest cassette-only label, The Tapeworm, presents its third annual event in the Capital. Exemplary music and much excitement is to be expected from a line-up of the label’s mates.

Mr Ken Hollings, a writer of note, shall be reading his text from the first Bookworm publication, to be launched on this very same night. Sweden’s BJ Nilsen will be flying in and making a splendid noise for you all. A second Swede, CM von Hausswolff (...he’s a king, dontchaknow!) will share a stage with Touch’s Mike Harding in a reading of Edgar Allen Poe like none before. Cult vs. occult — former Medicine Head man Peter Hope-Evans and illustrator Savage Pencil  will whip up a dark blue storm. Mr Pencil’s fine drawings will also be on display — exhibition continues 21st to 23rd October, 12 to 6pm. Hopping on the bus from Elephant & Castle is zerocrop and his band; pop perfection from a local lad. And finally, a London eye — video installation by Vicki Bennett, aka People Like Us.

Date: 20.10.11. Time: 7pm – 10.30pm.
Free entry. The Bear Pit, Bear Gardens, London SE1 9EB.

You can download a PDF of the flyer for this event by clicking here – the illustration is by Savage Pencil (who else?)

‘Activate Only When Absolutely Necessary’ Now Available Online

Utopia is merely a temporary hoarding where such coming attractions are fly posted for the future. The scraps and remnants overlap each other: a forgotten snatch of library music, some frames from a promotional film, laboratory test footage, a moment at a trade fair or a flash of text from a television commercial. When the pieces fit together, we call it progress. When they don’t, we rely upon a filmmaker like Mika Taanila to make stories out of them.

A download of ‘Activate Only When Absolutely Necessary’, my essay on the extraordinary films of Finnish artist Mika Taanila is currently available from the online archive for doCUMENTA 13. It can be accessed by clicking here. Originally written for the catalogue accompanying ‘Human Engineering’, Taanila’s 2006 show at the Migros Museum in Zurich, it offers a retrospective overview of failed futures as documented in his work. It is a still from A Physical Ring, one of Mika;s films, that graces the cover of Welcome To Mars – soon to be made available as an eBook from Strange Attractor Press – more on this exciting development in due course. In the meantime, please feel to enjoy this little piece of the past – where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.

Pictured above: front cover of the ‘Human Engineering’ catalogue, Migros Museum, 2006

Nude Bares All – Never Has To Say Goodbye

‘From lowbrow art to indie crafting, via street art, outsider art, comics, illustration, cult fiction, outré architecture, indie crafting, photography, indie and underground film, tiki, burlesque, designer toys, steampunk and leftfield music… Nude covered it all over the course of seventeen fabulously eclectic issues.’

Suzy Prince and Ian Lowie have just announced that Nude Magazine is about to walk out of our lives but will be doing so in the style to which we have become accustomed. Publication of this classy little rag will cease for good after issue 17 – but to make sure we never forget its many charms, Suzy and Ian have also produced Bare Essentials: the Best of Nude Magazine. This toothsome nugget brings together some of the best articles published by Nude during its seven-year existence as a lively, international indie and counterculture magazine. I was very pleased to be associated with Nude as Ian and Suzy always proved to be enthusiastic and sensitive people to work with, both as publishers and editors – and so I am delighted to discover that my piece on Coney Island, ‘Babylon by the Sea’, from Nude Issue Ten, has found a place in Bare Essentials. Also included in its 176 pages are five new features and a bonus sixteen-page insert produced in conjunction with some of the finest design wonks at Central St Martins. Add interviews with Charles Burns, Jamie Reid, Alan Moore and John Waters, plus articles on the Futuro House, British Horror Movies and Blythe Doll Portraiture among the delights on offer, and you’ve got yourself a hell of a deal there, friends.

Bare Essentials: The Best of Nude Magazine 2003-2011
Dimensions: 250 x 210 mm
Extent:176 pages plus cover
Full colour throughout
Plus a free sixteen-page insert featuring interpretations of Nude article by graphics students at London’s prestigious and internationally-renowned Central St Martins College
ISBN: 978-0-9569059-0-1
Published Cover Price: £14.99.
Buy Now for just £11.50 (plus p&p)
Published: 15 October 2011

See also:
Catching Up With Coney Island
In Memoriam Joe Rollino 1905-2009