Just figured out that I hardly ever post my heliumTALK podcasts on my own website ;)
But I’ve done a ton of them since I started in Feburary this year, both german and english language versions. You find them all over at heliumtalk.com or on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, whatever’s your prefered tool to listen, it’s on there.
And if you don’t want to miss one, I’d be happy if you’d subscribe. You can also follow my instagram, because that is where I post news directly and quicker.
Unfortunately there is no really satisfying update on the delay of the launch of our 2018 artist beer edition "The Love Me Or Die". This years' collaboration brew with Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei is still on hold at the german authorities, bureaucracy ist preventing us from selling it until we get the necessary okay on the paperwork back.
We are very sad about this, not just because this is a passion project of master brewer Oliver Wesseloh & Alex Diamond that took a very long time to realize, but also because this is a more or less uncommercial project that only costs us money as long as we can't move the product. You can pre-order the beer boxes by mail, but that is all we can offer at the moment (please send a note to info@heliumcowboy.com if you are interested).
Please stay with us, we'll let you know once the beer is going to market. It will at some point, but until then we still have to haggle with the - hold your breath, english speaking friends - "Behörde für Gesundheit und Verbraucherschutz Hamburg, Fachbereich Lebensmittel- und Futtermittelsicherheit" ...
The launch of my latest artist beer with Oliver Wesseloh / Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei draws nearer. While the beer still needs to be labeled, the limited edition Screen Print just arrived from Berlin's finest printer, Dolly Demoratti (motherdrucker.de). It looks AMAZING!
On September 14 we will officially launch "The Love Me Or Die" with a "Beernissage" at the heliumcowboy gallery. This event takes place during the Drunter & Drüber - Neustadt-Festival 2018 on September 14, 2018, from 4–9 pm.
This is the unique first chance to taste the beer and get the limited edition beer box including six 0,33l bottles of "The Love Me Or Die" Spiced Triple and the 8-color silk screen print of the original label artwork that's ONLY available in this box. The edition is limited to 100 boxes/prints.
Here's a link to the facebook invitation with more info.
Here's a little sneak peek, a little glimpse at the creation of the label and print artwork for the soon to be released "The Love Me Or Die", the 2nd limited edition artist beer I recently brewed up together with my man Oliver Wesseloh, head honcho at Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei in Hamburg ... stay tuned!
PS: The beer will be released in a limited edition of 100 six-bottle-boxes including an 8-color silk screen print of the artwork ... printed again by the wonderful Dolly Demorrati / Motherdrucker Berlin. A bunch of single bottles will be available too.
PPS: The beer edition will be launched Friday September 14, 4–9 pm, at the heliumcowboy gallery.
PPS: The name of the beer 'The Love Me Or Die' is the title of a song by C.W. Stoneking that was part of the inspiration for this brew and the artwork. Listen to the man! He is incredible!
PPS: Yes there is already a larger and pretty complex woodwork of mine with the same title - it was part of an exhibition last year and already showed my obsession with the story of this particular song. The label artwork is basically the same, only not carved, and flat, and with more skulls … (here's more about the original artwork).
This work is inspired by the 1958 Sci-Fi movie "The Attack of The 50ft Woman". It is a story about greed and fear and betrayal and passion that ends in chaos and murder and ... well, it is just onother love story really. Check out the trailer on youtube, it is a great movie and you can see a lot of the elements that made it into my artwork.
Original poster for the film.
A little bit of background: Every day on my way to the studio I drive my bike past a shop in Hamburg called "Andere Welten" (Other Worlds). We used to live above that place and it is one of these rare gems of real -life stores that are full of passion and dedication. If you are into Science Fiction or Fantasy, this is the place to go when in Hamburg ...
Anyway, I ride past this shop daily and for a very long time now they have the poster of this movie in their window. And after working on my new series "The Freedom Paintings" earlier, the idea forms in my head to recreate a billboard from the 50ies applying the trashy and slightly abstract style used in those. It is not just a tribute to the movie, it is a tribute to movie making in general, and to a lot of the things I mentioned earlier, and of course a comment on our times, and and and.
I am very happy that this piece found a new home with a lovely couple in California , where it kind of belongs.
All photos by Julia Schwendner
Photo documentation of my heliumTALK podcast number 10 with my friend and fellow artist Rune Christensen by Julia Schwendne / ThisIsJulia Photography.
Can't believe this is already number 10. I am switching between german and english language episodes, this one is the third we talk english.
The podcast is online on Spotify, iTunes, at www.heliumtalk.com etc.
Inspired by the music of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis and blending it with country and punk in my head (and on the record player at the studio) it is a sweet little in-between group of works that merges my past as a painter with my woodcutting techniques of today.
Please check available work of this series at artsy or through heliumcowboy.
Can‘t wait to show you my new series of woodcuts/paintings I am working on right now to be finished for Hello my Dear, the Re-opening of the Heliumcowboy Artspace this Saturday (March 24, 7 pm).
Inspired by the music of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis and blending it with country and punk in my head (and on the record player at the studio) it is a sweet little in-between group of works that merges my past as a painter with my woodcutting techniques of today.
Feels really good to be working this way for now ... Well. Lot’s of words, best you come around this Saturday in Hamburg and take a look yourselves:
HELLO MY DEAR
Opening Saturday March 24, 19:00 – 23:00
more information | facebook event
Work in progress on my new series of work - THE FREEDOM PAINTINGS. To be launched Saturday, March 24, at heliumcowboy in Hamburg.
Did I tell you how much I love making these new heliumTALK podcasts? Here’s me recording the intro to the very first audio podcast we produced on The Ranch (it is also a kind of preview of the rebuilt part of the gallery that is now exhibition space, artist workshop and podcast studio alltogether).
For this very first purely audio heliumTALK I spoke with artist Darko C. Nicolic, and it will be launched next Monday. In german. Well. First english language podcasts are coming LATEST in April.
To stay ahead of it all, please check www.heliumtalk.com.
You can listen and / or subscribe to the podcast here:
Recording the heliumTALK podcast with artist Darko C. Nicolic at the heliumcowboy artspace.
„The Love Me Or Die“ is a sculptural woodcut I created in 2017. It is loosely based upon a song by C.W. Stoneking of the same name (you can listen to the song below). The story told is about desire, love, betrayal, magic and evil. It is a the name of a voodoo spell - if you don’t love me I will put a magic voodoo under your floor and see if this makes you fall in love … or not. The result is in the title.
From the song, I am mainly quoting the part
„Standin in the weeds early next day,
I saw the meat wagon rollin away,
I seen Matilda layin in the back,
Her old mother wearin a suit of black“,
which describe the failure of this delusional attempt to magically influence true feelings.
It is not literally about the song, but what you can read between the lines - or the layers, as my artwork is built in multiple levels and set up like a theatre stage or a diorama. Everything is carved or cut out of wood, painted in different stages of the process and finally assembled. If hung of a wall, it stands out into the room (you can even turn the wheels).
For me, an artist who gets a lot of inspiration through popular culture such as music and film it is a wonderful thing to be touched so deeply by a song that it sticks in my head the whole time I spent creating an artwork. It is like a soundtrack in a loop. I even went and started playing it on the guitar and singing it - in my very own way of course, as there is noone I know who could possibly sound like the incredible Mr. Stoneking.
PS: There’s another, completely different angle to this piece of mine - it will also become the central artwork for my new „artist beer“ I am brewing up together with Oliver Wesseloh (Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei) with special support by Scott Jennings (Sierra Nevada Brewery). After we released the first artist beer, „The Dirty Hands Of Alex Diamond“ in 2016, the general idea of the recipe is taking the story of my woodcut and the song into a drinkable version. We hope that C.W. Stoneking allows us to use the title of the song for the name of the beer. More later, once we get closer to the final stages of producing this very limited, special artist edition of a beer.
Most likely my last work for this year: "The Reverend Remington Hunting Party" is a smaller sculptural woodcut, leaning strongly towards a pop-surrealistic / low brow aesthetic. You may say it is a rather evil family portrait, but the title of the work is actually the name of the band of my first record. Well. That record does not exist, but I guess you'll get the idea. And who knows?
This is one of those special year end works I create for the annual December-exhibition "Don't Wake Daddy" (DWD) in Hamburg, curated by my friends Heiko Müller and Ralf Krüger at the Feinkunst Krüger Gallery. DWD just opened for the 12th time, and I am proud to say that I have been part of this international group show for many years since 2007 ... so you could say it is my personal 10th anniversary of DWD ;)
The exhibition is open until December 23, make sure to check it our when you are in Hamburg. Feinkunst Krüger is open Thursdays and Fridays 12-19 and Saturdays 12-18 h.
I am super excited about this brand new documentary of my work: Over the course of many weeks in 2017, filmmaker Kai Klinke visited me in my studio to capture the creation of the sculptural woodcut "We're Here To Stay" and all the different stages of my work process. It is an intimate view into my workshop (and we also made a small campfire in the backyard).
I am very happy with the result and cannot praise Kai's work enough. I hope this film helps to understand better how I approach and realize my art, and how my multi-layered, meticulously built and highly detailed sculptural woodcuts are unique.
I am always rambling about how difficult it is to present my work on the internet, and maybe this film can help translate my craft for the online world.
Proud and grateful to be featured in the December edition of SZENE Hamburg. THANK YOU!
This is very poetic piece. "Close Your Eyes And Count To Ten" may be seen as a modern totem pole ... This work is so rich with "content", you should explore it with time.
It is a large (126 x 102 x 37 cm) sculpture "hanging" on or "coming out of" the wall - see detail images below to understand a bit more of the depth itself and all the layers I built.
It was first shown at the exhibition "Weapons Of Mass Seduction 2", my duo show with Victor Castillo at heliumcowboy in Hamburg Nov-Dec 2017. I have posted the video from that exhibition below, it also includes some video footage of this artwork, which may helps to see a bit more of it.
I am insanely happy with how this one turned out, considering the complexity of the construction ... but yet again it is also a bit frustrating to only have images on the internet to show for it, because to fully experience my work one needs to see it in the original. Facebook or instagram etc. can't do it justice at all, so I hope there will be a chance again to show it soon somewhere in the offline world.
This was actually the last piece I've finished for my exhibition "Weapons Of Mass Seduction 2", my show together with Victor Castillo at heliumcowboy Nov 11 – Dec 16 in Hamburg.
"Finally A Cowboy" is a sculptural, painted woodcut that floats on the wall. It includes a bit of my biography ;) and seemed to be the perfect work to close* this eventful year in which I turned 50 and heliumcowboy 15 years old and I had the privilege to share so many beautiful moments with so many wonderful people over the course of the past 12 months.
To early for an annual review, I stop myself here and hope we find an opportunity to chat personally about all this at some other time. If you are in Hamburg, this could happen at the exhibition, which is open until Dec 15, or at the Finissage we'll host on the 16th (more info / FB event).
PS: If you are interested - you can check the availability of this work at the heliumcowboy artsy page.
PPS: this is the work I have been working on when the NDR was at my studio to film and interview me. Here's the vimeo-link to the feature if you haven't seen it yet.
* note: well it ain't the last piece I made in 2017, but still ...
Video from the opening of the exhibition "Weapons Of Mass Seduction 2" by Philip Simon / Silberblick.co
This winter, from November 11 – December 15, my friend and fellow artist Victor Castillo and me embark once again on the journey of a joint exhibition. A cooperation we begun in 2014 with the first edition of "Weapons Of Mass Seduction" - we feel our work fits very well together, in it we tell stories of similar reference and we do have the same taste in art, movies and music, which mirrors a lot in our pop-oriented creations. A perfect match, despite the very different techniques we use.
We always wanted to do a sequel to this 2014 show, and finally we managed to find the time and the support for a second edition. While our concept is not exclusively tied to the heliumcowboy gallery in Hamburg, it was the most obvious to do it here again. Which said - we are both open to show the third edition in a different city, country and gallery ...
Anyway. The Opening on Nov 11 was a blast! Here are a lot of gallery views from the exhibition. There will be a video and some images later from the opening, too. And all the exhibited artwork can be found on the gallery's artsy-page.
Oh and here's a video from the opening back in 2014 ....
Video from the exhibition Victor Castillo & Alex Diamond WEAPONS OF MASS SEDUCTION September 13-27, 2014, in Hamburg presented by heliumcowboy gallery / Film by Kool Motion Pictures / Tobias Sundermann / Music: Walkin' by NITRO17
