Carl Abrahamsson's Blog, page 31
April 10, 2021
A new Flesh Prison comp
I have a piece on this great new album, released on cassette and online: THE WORLD ITSELF IS HOLY. And in mighty fine company, too: Thee Majesty, Xambuca, Sprung Aus Den Wolken, and many others.
https://www.fleshprisonrecords.com/store/va-the-wild-world-is-holy-itself
https://fleshprisonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/004-v-a-the-wild-world-world-itself-is-holy
March 31, 2021
A new Vanessa Sinclair book and film program!
My wonderful wife Vanessa has made a new book! Cut-up poetry plus psychedelic collages – a real mind-bending treat from the woman Val Denham called “a female William Burroughs for the age of desperation.”
Vanessa Sinclair: “The Pathways of the Heart”
Vanessa Sinclair’s new collection of poems and collages is rooted in the dark earth of death, but to an equal degree it also celebrates the vibrant life-force that grows inside this eternal darkness, and the transformation, love and magic we all need to live. The constant interplay of motion and emotion filters fragments of questions we try so hard to avoid but always fail to. The Pathways to the Heart are many but they need to be trodden lightly, with love and deep appreciation. Once there, you can assemble the fragments of your life and see what they say – the poetry of an existence that is inevitable until it is not.
Trapart Books, 2021. Paperback, 178 pages with 31 colour collages. Also available as an e-book.
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/9198691937 (check your regional Amazon store for better postage rates)
E-book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091DMY62D
And let’s not forget how it all began: with the album “The Pathways of the Heart (for Jess)”
And why not launch a Vanessa Sinclair film program at the same time…?
“Vanessa Sinclair – Poetry In Emotion” is an experimental film program featuring words, music, and images by Vanessa Sinclair, Carl Abrahamsson, Xambuca, Witchbeam, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Mikronesia, Joachim Nordwall, Julie Fotheringham, Thomas Bey William Bailey, Katelan Foisy, Val Denham, and Sheer Zed.
The program contains the following films from 2016-2018: This is New York, The Scarlet Woman, Pushing the consistent failure, Message 23, Believe in any space, Make the Witches Come, Fetishize Immediacy, Wormhole Staircase, Are you doing the work angelic?, The spirits of a place call, 23rd Mind, Dream and Body and Voice, Someone is waiting for me, To be back with you, Waiting, It can be chaotic and disturbing, Hunter’s Moon, Eleven, The path behind you
March 30, 2021
The Magic of Dreams Made Real
In our contemporary culture, the dream sphere has been moved to a mystical and stigmatised corner. A sphere which we usually try to understand by simplified interpretation models and a superstitious rationality. In this lecture, I challenge hierarchic models of interpretation and encourage a more artistic and intuitive approach to our dreams. Are our dreams perhaps messages, and, if so, messages from whom?
#carlabrahamsson #renderingunconscious #dreams #carljung #23rdmind #glitchcraft #themegagolem #occulture
Photo by Vanessa Sinclair
March 10, 2021
FanzinEra Expanded is available!
Swedish writer Carl Abrahamsson started taking photos to go along with the interviews he made for the fanzines “Lollipop” and “Acts Of Interstellar Torture” (1985-1988). From this vast and snap-happy collection comes “FanzinEra”… A selection which includes portraits and live shots of underground superstars like: Iggy Pop, Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch, Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Joe Coleman, The Gun Club, The Cramps, Union Carbide Productions, The Leather Nun, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Alex Chilton, The Church, The Go-Betweens, Long Ryders, Died Pretty, The Scientists, The Saints, Sort Sol, Sator, John Lydon, Legendary Stardust Cowboy, New Order, The Godfathers, Genesis P-Orridge, Henry Rollins, Pere Ubu, Hüsker Dü, The Shamen, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, Dom Dummaste, The Stomachmouths, The Nomads, The Creeps, Pushtwangers, Livingstones, Wylde Mammoths, Blue For Two and Cortex… To mention but a few! Also included are textual flashbacks and quotes from the interviews, full color reproductions of the fanzine covers, and an introduction by American photographer Richard Kern.
Trapart Books 2021, 136 pages, 210 x 297 mm, paperback.
Get your copy right HERE.
March 7, 2021
“Outsider Inpatient” is available!
Another brand new book from Trapart:
OUTSIDER INPATIENT – REFLECTIONS ON ART AS THERAPY
Outsider Inpatient is an anthology of perspectives about the value of art and creativity within psychiatric environments. It specifically shines the light on experiences at Lillhagen Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, where inpatients were allowed to paint and decorate the entire walls of long corridors in the basements of the hospital. Also included are valuable thoughts about creativity in general from clinicians, art historians, psychoanalysts, and artists. What constitutes “outsider” art? How can creativity be used in the treatment of (in)patients? Why do certain artists create the way they do, and how does it affect them? Outsider Inpatient is an informative study about a topic that has created as much controversy and criticism as it has support and adherents, in environments as diverse as clinical psychiatry and psychology, art theory, social sciences, psychoanalysis and philosophy. This book has been produced in cooperation with the Center for Critical Heritage Studies and the University of Gothenburg, and contains texts by Elisabeth Punzi, Per Magnus Johansson, Johannes Nordholm, Inez Edström, Christian Munthe, Carl Abrahamsson, Vanessa Sinclair, and Val Denham.
Trapart Books 2021, 6 x 9” paperback, 100 pages, illustrated. Cover art by Val Denham.
Contents:
Elisabeth Punzi: Editor’s Introduction
Per Magnus Johansson: In the Beginning…
Johannes Nordholm: The Asylum of Art
Inez Edström: Reflections
Elisabeth Punzi: The Art Activities at Lillhagen
Christian Munthe: The Interlinked Fluidity
Carl Abrahamsson: Hugo Lindblad: The Odd One In (on the amazing Swedish outsider artist Hugo Lindblad)
Val Denham: Playing with the Universe (on the phenomenon of “outsider art”)
Vanessa Sinclair: Creativity & Mentabolization
Carl Abrahamsson: Spare Me A Pound (on the neurotic kinship between Ezra Pound and Austin Osman Spare)
#valdenham #outsiderart #ezrapound #austinosmanspare #carlabrahamsson #vanessasinclair #trapartbooks #arttherapy #creativetherapy #Lillhagen #creativity #mentalhealth #outsiderinpatient #hugolindblad
February 26, 2021
Temporarily Eternal is now available!
Presenting: “Genesis P-Orridge – Temporarily Eternal: Photographs 1986-2018 by Carl Abrahamsson” – A brand new photo book with all the classics but mostly never before seen portraits of Gen from London, Paris, New York, Stockholm, Oslo, Kathmandu, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, California… What an amazing trip… Available NOW! Also includes my essay on Gen’s “psychic anarcho-sartorialism.”
(Make sure to choose the Amazon site closest to you to save on postage!)
Temporarily Eternal is an emotional-visual summing up of a creative friendship between Swedish author Carl Abrahamsson and British artist Genesis P-Orridge (1950-2020) that lasted for more than three decades, and which was filled with musical projects, films, books, writings, conversations, travel, and a great deal of magic. This book both is and is not a companion to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Sacred Intent – Conversations with Carl Abrahamsson 1986-2019. It is, in the sense that the present book also focuses on shared moments during the same period of time. It is not, in the sense that it’s not an intellectual trip into concepts and thoughts expressed via language, in conversation. Instead, this book contains photographic portraits: some are staged, considered, thought through, and some are pure snapshots of auspicious and fleeting moments. And some are definitely somewhere in between: juggling immediate form with desired content. Trapart Books 2021, paperback, 8,5 x 8,5”, 182 pages, with approximately 150 photographs, and an essay by Carl Abrahamsson.
February 25, 2021
Fendi Fashion Fever!
Wow! This is a first! Our music in a (virtual) fashion show by FENDI… “S/HE IS HER/E!”
https://www.fendi.com/se/woman/highlights/fall-winter-2021-22-collection
Always more at: www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl
#fendi #fendicollection #fashion #fendifashion #genesisbreyerporridge #genesisporridge #carlabrahamsson #loyaltydoesnotendwithdeath #kimjones #idealrecordings
February 17, 2021
I’m on Brainwashed Radio!
February 13, 2021
23rd Mind TV – Episode 8
Wow! It’s been a while, but here it is: “23rd Mind TV,” episode 8!
Focusing on the An Art Apart crowd-funder, but also the Mega Golem book, the Scansion book, new records, and more. Check out your favourite TV-show right now!
February 12, 2021
The An Art Apart crowd-funder!
Coming up… An Art Apart: “Number One” – a film, a book, and a phenomenon.
Please check out the crowd-funder campaign right here!
In 2013, I embarked on an ambitious project: “An Art Apart” – a series of documentary films about artists and their creative processes. So far, I’ve filmed 14 artists: Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), Gustaf Broms, Charles Gatewood, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Kenneth Anger, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Angela Edwards, MV Carbon, John Duncan, Gea Philes, Michael Gira, Mark McCloud, Val Denham, and Little Annie Bandez.
I have so far finished and released five of these films: Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), Gustaf Broms, Charles Gatewood, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, and Kenneth Anger. These films have been well received and have been watched by thousands of people all over the world online, in cinemas and on DVDs. (Also worth mentioning is that my 2019 documentary, “Anton LaVey – Into the Devil’s Den,” was successfully crowdfunded, and has since been watched by thousands of people online, in cinemas and on BluRay/DVD.)
To regain momentum in the time- and cost-devouring An Art Apart project, and to increase international interest in the project as such, I am now preparing two manifestations at the same time:
A “stand alone” film called “An Art Apart: Number One.” This will become a one hour film (approximately), containing the best of the best from these very unique people/films. My aim is for “Number One” to become an inspirational and creative blast for anyone who watches the film.A book with all the interviews/conversations, also called An Art Apart: Number One. The book will also contain never before published bonus interviews with brilliant artists Joe Coleman, JG Thirlwell and Alison Blickle, made in New York and Los Angeles in 2016-2017.To get these two substantial darlings off the ground, I need funds A) to work, and B) for related costs (editing, audio mixing, color grading, etc). Everything is ready to go; I just need to feel financially safe before I can truly toss myself head first into this hot stew of greatness.
Please also consider this as a crowdfunding campaign for the An Art Apart project in general. At the moment, I have nine films to wrap up!
Thank You so much for your consideration and support!
Carl Abrahamsson, Stockholm, February 2021
Please check out the crowd-funder campaign right here!
And please spread the link as much as you can. It really helps. Thank You!
