Exhibition & Artists

Exhibition

Arcam, August
Orange Dot Gallery London, 9-31 May 2012 

Joel Clifford, printmaker/illustrator, has collaborated with London-based musician Arcam to produce a specialist screen print series in response to each track of his forthcoming album, August. Friendship and mutual aesthetic ideals related to sight, sound and environment have formed the foundations to which this interactive exhibition has been created.


Joel Clifford is an illustrator and professional printmaker based in London. His style has a graphic sensibility and is informed by the layering nature of screen print. He doesnʼt draw; instead he thinks in collage, mentally layering and combining shapes, colours and found imagery. He collects inspiration from all over, using found imagery and experimenting with the textures and half-tones of the original image. He ʻforms a narrative with whatʼs around himʼ, drawing upon the past and mixing in contemporary aesthetics.


The artworks in this exhibition are a direct response to each individual track from Arcamʼs album August. Recorded intermittently between 2007 and 2012, the album was written as a single composition in which each track contributes to an overarching narrative exploring themes of time, memory and loss. Titles reference changes in seasons and the movement of the sea is a recurring metaphor. Natural imagery and angular modernism of the prints in this exhibition represent both these contemporary and nostalgic themes in a body of work which consists of printed paper, wood panels and hand-made/printed blankets.


August is comprised of recordings formed entirely of sounds originating from a single source: the guitar. Yet, while the tonal qualities of an electric six-string are evident throughout, they appear here in a modified state, having been digitally re-rendered through extensive laptop processing to form tones, drones, swells and surges, resonant textures, clicks and cuts.


This is a multi-media exhibition. Each artwork has been assigned a QR code. By scanning these codes with a smartphone, exhibition visitors will be able to stream the audio track associated with each artwork on their phone. Visitors are hence advised to bring a smartphone with headphones to the gallery to experience the exhibition in full.


Visitor Instructions

  1. Install a QR code reader on your smartphone (we recommend QR Reader, available free with ads for iPhone from the App Store and Android from the Android Market, or £0.69 for ads-free version)
  2. When viewing an artwork open the QR code reader app
  3. Point your smartphone camera at QR code beside the artwork.
  4. Your phone should open a webpage containing an image of the artwork the code relates to. Below this you should see a SoundCloud music player. Click play on the player to stream the audio track associated with the artwork.
The tracks can also be streamed from www.arcamexhibition.com


August will also be available to purchase on limited edition CD from Orange Dot Gallery for the duration of the exhibition and will be released digitally to coincide with the exhibition opening.


August litters over the last tread of the day, and hope ever swells in all our dark places...