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Art exhibition and Manifesto.
Jul
23
2009
Hello! Hi!
We are having an exhibition while we're in Tokyo next month! With art by myself and James Gulliver Hancock (who does all my illustration and visual design).
So fun!
And we wrote this accompanying manifesto, which gives a little insight into where i am coming from with my music conceptually too...
WE WILL NOT GROW OLD
A Manifesto by LENKA and James Gulliver Hancock.
This is a statement about the collaborative and individual work we make as artists. It is the philosophy behind our crafts, spanning from visual art to pop music.
We embrace childhood and the unconfident mark, we revel in it. Within the work there is a playfulness and a conscious naivety. The work seeks to involve people, invite reminiscence and familiarity, pulling from common experiences and aesthetics to generate new experiences. It is practiced oddness. It is a purposeful childishness.
As children we try to be accurate and adult-like. We copy words, sounds, mannerisms and marks in an attempt to join the world around us. But the lines we draw come out wonky, the songs we sing come out shaky. We play with them and through this process we make them ours. When we become adults we are able to hone our skills, but we feel a kind of emptiness and a longing that lacks in that perfection. In our striving for accuracy we miss that child-like innocence, playfulness and wonder.
There is comfort in this universal nostalgia. We look back to our childhood to find some sense of peace and simplicity. We surround ourselves with icons of reminiscence to feel some lightness in this heavy world. Our aesthetic revels in this.
Indeed, there exists a cult of cute, an obsession, world-over, with the child-like. Are we embracing nature’s use of ‘cute’ for survival, like baby animals? Or perhaps the inherited wisdom we once had as children is what we miss. A cellular, mystical wisdom. Maybe the naïve is a passport to the divine.
Our work appropriates the childlike into adult intentions. This cuteness is utilized seductively, it manipulates, and introduces heavier adult concepts. Wisdoms and adult emotions are hidden beneath this child-like veil. Ancient philosophies are made with fuzzy felt and crayons. Mature concepts are expressed through lullabies. Crafty tactile materials and nursery-sounding instruments are juxtaposed with the technical wonders of the computer.
“We will not grow old”. Physically, of course, we will, but we will never lose the spirit of the child. We will keep it alive through our aesthetic, our surroundings, the words we speak, the melodies we sing and the thoughts we ponder.
We are having an exhibition while we're in Tokyo next month! With art by myself and James Gulliver Hancock (who does all my illustration and visual design).
So fun!
And we wrote this accompanying manifesto, which gives a little insight into where i am coming from with my music conceptually too...
WE WILL NOT GROW OLD
A Manifesto by LENKA and James Gulliver Hancock.
This is a statement about the collaborative and individual work we make as artists. It is the philosophy behind our crafts, spanning from visual art to pop music.
We embrace childhood and the unconfident mark, we revel in it. Within the work there is a playfulness and a conscious naivety. The work seeks to involve people, invite reminiscence and familiarity, pulling from common experiences and aesthetics to generate new experiences. It is practiced oddness. It is a purposeful childishness.
As children we try to be accurate and adult-like. We copy words, sounds, mannerisms and marks in an attempt to join the world around us. But the lines we draw come out wonky, the songs we sing come out shaky. We play with them and through this process we make them ours. When we become adults we are able to hone our skills, but we feel a kind of emptiness and a longing that lacks in that perfection. In our striving for accuracy we miss that child-like innocence, playfulness and wonder.
There is comfort in this universal nostalgia. We look back to our childhood to find some sense of peace and simplicity. We surround ourselves with icons of reminiscence to feel some lightness in this heavy world. Our aesthetic revels in this.
Indeed, there exists a cult of cute, an obsession, world-over, with the child-like. Are we embracing nature’s use of ‘cute’ for survival, like baby animals? Or perhaps the inherited wisdom we once had as children is what we miss. A cellular, mystical wisdom. Maybe the naïve is a passport to the divine.
Our work appropriates the childlike into adult intentions. This cuteness is utilized seductively, it manipulates, and introduces heavier adult concepts. Wisdoms and adult emotions are hidden beneath this child-like veil. Ancient philosophies are made with fuzzy felt and crayons. Mature concepts are expressed through lullabies. Crafty tactile materials and nursery-sounding instruments are juxtaposed with the technical wonders of the computer.
“We will not grow old”. Physically, of course, we will, but we will never lose the spirit of the child. We will keep it alive through our aesthetic, our surroundings, the words we speak, the melodies we sing and the thoughts we ponder.
Comments for this news article
Lyrics
Dear Lenka,
I am a senior high school student in Beijing China.I have been studyed English for nearly ten years,but I can't speak or write it very well.So if there are many spelling mistakes in this letter,please forgive me.
I like Lenka and I think her songs are fair-sounding and interesting.In the early time this evening,I found Lenka's cyberspace and I read the Blog named"Help me write a song".I think this is an opporunity for me to help my favorite singer,so i wrote this letter.
The sentence "Can you hear me" in Chinese,it writes as"你能听到我的呼唤吗".It reads"Ni neng ting dao wo de hu huan ma".But we have accent in every words,what's unfortunatly is that I cannot show you how the accent reads.
The words"Hold me"in Chinese,it writes as"留住我".It reads"Liu zhu wo"
The words"Touch me"writes as"触碰我".It reads"Chu peng wo"
The sentence"I love you"writes as"我爱你",reads as"Wo ai ni"
In fact,there is a lot different between English and Chinese,though we lable Chinese words by using HID kit English letters.We called the letters which are used to lable Chinese words as"Pin yin".The pronunciations between English letters and "Pinyin"are similar but not the same.
I hope this letter will help Lenka in a way.I will always love you!
Yours
The mouse in the schoolbag