Editors: The End Has a Start
What I enjoy about posting on Sleevage is not only do I get to explore music genres and bands I’d normally ignore (or even avoid) but I also learn about new artists, photographers, designers and other artistic people along the way. This example from “Editors” had me spend several hours checking out Idris Khan’s work, the other artists that accuse him of plagiarism and the works of “Bernd and Hilla Becher” from whom Idris appropriates much of his work from. This is why posts to Sleevage have been coming through a little slower. Rather than find a nice cover and spend 5 minutes posting it up I spend a few days trying to find out as much as I can about it and subsequently forgot to post all together.
The cover image makes me visualize a stadium, a racetrack or Zoetrope that were used for animation back in the 1800’s. Actually it’s a collection of industrial buildings photographed by “Bernd and Hilla Becher” layered together digitally by Idris Khan and is an example of the style that made the artist famous. This is the first example that I can see where he has added colour. I really like the addition of colour as opposed to the B/W work.
Below is a few more examples of Idris’s work that go beyond the building montages. I got many of these from this site. His style is to multilayer items until this zen type of image appears. Like a data visualization but all layered on top of one another.
Below is “every… page of the Holy Koran, 2004″
Here’s “every… stave of Frederick Chopin’s Nocturnes for the piano, 2004″
And finally “every… William Turner postcard from Tate Britain, 2004″
I do prefer the work that revolves around the buildings though. Maybe it’s the more structured result or the beauty from the ugly. It’s certainly something I hadn’t seen before from the world of art. Here’s two more examples before I move on taken from this site. I imagine these look even better in real life at over 2m high.
“every…Bernd and Hilla Becher Prison type Gasholders: 2004″
“every…Bernd and Hilla Becher Spherical type Gasholders: 2004″
Here’s a quick interview with Idris from The Guardian. Yep he’s a Mac.
There are so many Bernd and Hilla Becher books
I really like the work of Bern & Hilla Becher. The repetition in nature is always seen as beautiful but so is the repetition in manmade objects. In isolation it might be seen as ugly but when presented with a series like below you can’t but help but appreciate the mundane.
I’ve been doing this myself for a while although with Abandoned Chairs and Mattresses.
It’s also nice to see that the Editor’s official website also reflects the album artwork. It’s a small thing but as bands don’t release albums every year it makes sense that the website adapt to the new release. Which reminds me I haven’t even posted the several other singles and EP’s from this album.
And lastly the “Push Your Head Towards the Air” single of which this is the biggest image I could find.
If you want to learn more about Editors or Bernd & Hilla Becher check out these products on Amazon.
I leave you with this wonderful photo from the cover of Water Towers
So next time you’re on a road trip somewhere I hope you’ll pop out the digital camera to capture something unique (not ugly), rather than the usual happy snaps of smiling friends. Oh and Happy Easter :)
Update: I decided to take every cover posted here and do a montage. What a silly idea that was as! Working with 100+ layers in photo shop is annoying, oh what will it look like with this opacity = 10 minutes of changing each layer!!! But anyway here’s the results of an hours work.
Every cover set to Soft light @ 100% opacity: 2008
Every cover set to Soft light @ 10% opacity: 2008
Every cover set to Overlay @ 10% opacity: 2008
K:
Nice one. Still haven’t checked their last album but I like Editors very much, also they have a good art work in general.
# 24 Mar 08 at 6:50 am
Chuck:
I’ve been getting worried that Sleevage is dying a slow death, but I can live with infrequent posts if this is the kind of research you’re doing. I’d never heard of Idris Khan, but the work is awesome. It reminds me of Sugimoto’s theatre series, which are some of my very favorite photos ever. As you say, very Zen-like.
Anyway, keep up the good work. The excellence of your site was a big factor in why me and my friends stopped maintaining our half-assed album covers site, so you can’t abandon us now!
# 24 Mar 08 at 12:40 pm
ann!:
Fantastic write up! I’m really glad to see Idris Khan’s work here. The color really makes the images starker, if that makes sense.
# 24 Mar 08 at 1:17 pm
jethro:
this is one of my favourite write-ups of a cover yet, partially because i love idris kahn’s work. your own versions are very good too!
# 26 Mar 08 at 9:47 am
Rob:
The design/art direction by Tom Hingston Studio.
www.hingston.net/
# 27 Mar 08 at 6:54 am
fabien barral:
I dsicover this album last months and it blow me away… I love the design too and was looking for images to put on my graphic blog http://www.graphic-exchange.com… can i put the ones you find and link bank to your so interesting article??
Thanks to share your passion.
# 27 Mar 08 at 8:12 am
T-Bone:
awesome post, thanks!
# 27 Mar 08 at 8:33 am
Casey:
Considering how much I dislike the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, I really enjoy what Idris Khan is doing here. I also agree with Chuck - it is a bit like Sugimoto’s theatre series, or even his series of oceans, which I love.
# 28 Mar 08 at 5:45 am
agrayspace:
Paging Jason Salavon.
Great expose on the work. I really appreciate that you are doing such in depth posts. I am not sure who exactly came first, but the artist Jason Salavon has been doing this kind of work for a long time. Check it out.
http://salavon.com/76Blowjobs/76Blowjobs.shtml
# 02 Apr 08 at 1:00 am
Ash:
hey Agrayspace. There seems to be a fair bit of this type of art going on. I read on a site somewhere but can’t find it now or when I posted this that there was a bit of “you copied me” name calling going on.
I guess it’s an easy style to rip off. The only thing you need to do is find interesting subject matter.
# 03 Apr 08 at 7:22 pm
Ngeun:
Thanks Ash for the review. Love the site!
# 05 Apr 08 at 9:44 pm
Jon:
That’s a great experiment at the end. I like overlay the best–that thumbprint texture is cool. In theory, each year should look similar, right? I wonder if some years would be ‘warmer’ or ‘cooler’.
# 16 Apr 08 at 7:44 am
Dave:
How the fuck is Editors rock?!?!
# 17 Apr 08 at 7:30 pm
Ash:
hey Dave,
Wikipedia puts them as
Indie rock, Post-punk revival
Basically I put anything Im not sure about under indie rock. As that covers a lot of stuff :)
What genre should I reclassify them as?
# 17 Apr 08 at 10:06 pm