It is very long and I recorded it in my home studio and created a video. It took a very long time, but I think it was worth it! I have always been impressed and inspired by the work of Blake. Two years ago I went to an excellent exhibition of his work in London.
It showed it in the original context of the books he printed, and for the first time I really felt I understood what he was trying to say. Before then I was only guessing. Previously, the pictures tended to be isolated from the poems. I had his poetry in a book without illustrations, and I had seen the pictures in art books. The meanings totally change, and become clear, when they are brought together and seen as a whole. I have spoken most of it and sang the ending lines which are powerful and iconic:.
If modern art has taught us anything, it is that anything can be considered art. Modern Art as we perceive it was arguably launched by the quirky and wonderfully chaotic Dada movement that took root in central Europe around and flowered in New York in the early s, causing a somewhat profound ruffling of the feathers of the status quo.
And whilst we now see Dada as revolutionary, it was uncanny to discover that Dada had a look-a-like predecessor — not a direct ancestor, mind you, more like a forgotten uncle. Paris in the s was the capital of a flourishing world empire, serious and secure. Perhaps it could afford some cultural introspection and self-analysis, if only for its own entertainment? If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then the Incoherents movement had a point: why restrict the arts, visual, music or dance world to the same old tedious and traditional offerings?
Why not open it up to fun, new rules and new media? This was to be an art for all, not just for a chosen few intellectuals. The Mona Lisa of the movement is quite literally, the Mona Lisa herself, enjoying her long clay pipe. No longer part of an exclusive private collection or purely the intellectual property of the elite, street art was now there for all to enjoy.
