I recently stumbled across an underground, mixed-media, performance art piece called The Alchemy of Light by an artist calling himself 'a dandypunk' and I knew I had to bring it to the Streetlamp. You see, despite our often quite different tastes in art, one of the things that unites me, Griff and Gordon is that we are all fascinated by any artist who creates, and is contained within, their own unique stylised world, with its own conventions and internal logic. Gordon, in particular, is drawn to this type of artist, especially those who invoke the world of dreams, nursery rhymes and fairytales, as can be shown in this quote from his piece on the 19th-century inspired, weird-pop band Ödland:
"...but what we also like is musical collectives that create their own little worlds....worlds that are unique, worlds that are aesthetic, worlds that are always beautiful."
Griff too, as regular readers will know, has his magical, mystical side, seen most recently when he invited us into the "strange and exciting world" of Violeta Päivänkakkara where the "magical ambience" was such that he claimed that she:
"...makes music of such a delicate yet contrary and spectral stripe that it reminds me of something half-heard in a dream;"
So now, in the shape of the world of 'a dandypunk', it's my turn to onvite you into another new world; one of darkness and light, magic and mystery and, sometimes, just outright weirdness.
The most recent work by 'a dandypunk' is, as I mentioned above, is called The Alchemy of Light and is a one man live performance piece which combines projection mapping and choreography to travel through various fantastical worlds, interacting with strange characters and treacherous landscapes, in the hope of unfolding the secrets and learning the techniques from the ancient book of 'The Alchemy of Light'.
Here's a short video excerpt:
Projection mapping live performance art - The Alchemy of Light by a dandypunk from a dandypunk on Vimeo.
Isn't that truly breath-taking?
The direction, illustration and animation, as well as the performance of all characters is by 'a dandypunk'.
The Sacred Geometry is by Grahame Gardner at westerngeomancy.org
The Tentacle animation is by RUBBISHBELT.COM
The falling silhouetted man is performed by Roger Fojas
I should inform you at this point that 'a dandypunk' is a character created by artist/performer Joel Sebastian. As a professional dancer/acrobat, Joel is a cast member for Cirque du Soliel but the 'a dandypunk' solo work is a personal outlet designed for himself and others to inspire and motivate creativity, non-conformity, whimsy, intense curiosity and everyday eccentricity in everybody.
Born from the “do it yourself” punk mentality, the project takes elements of street-culture, such as graffiti, freerunning and hip hop and fuses it with elements of Victoriana, Steampunk, psychological horror and Gothic Lolita fashion to create an instantly recognizable and original style that is harmonised into a beautiful, seamless whole. This is unsurprising really when you consider that Joel is a virtual one-man theatre company, providing his own illustrations, animations, set-designs and choreography as well as performing and directing each piece. This over-arching control of his art allows his vision to be reflected within every element of his work.
The 'a dandypunk' philosophy is best understood by watching the following video, the first 'a dandypunk' video on his vimeo channel, released at the end of last year:
A dandypunk - inspiration from a Cirque du Soleil artist from a dandypunk on Vimeo.
The music accompanying the above is a dubstep mix of the theme to the classic movie A Clockwork Orange by the musician Jon Caton (pictured). If you want to hear more of Jon's work, and I suspect that Griff definitely will as he loves a bit of dubstep, visit his soundcloud page where a number of his tracks are available as free downloads.
Don't Swim In The Mainstream,
Ray
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