Kaitlin Beckett's Five Things.

Written by Lazy Gramophone on Saturday the 13th of April 2013

Five Things is a series of short journal posts introducing each of the writers and artists involved in our up-coming Time project.

Since the project's inception, the idea has been to create an environment where independent writers and artists could come together in order to share their work. The result of this endeavour is a collection of stories, images and poems based around the theme of time, its pages placing particular focus upon the relationship between words and pictures. By sharing in this way we hope to inspire each other as well as those around us, to draw a diverse audience and so help to illuminate the work of alternative artists and writers everywhere.


Biography.

A collection of curious beasts of the sea, air, land and subconscious; painted and drawn with airbrush, dip pen and stained fingers, lovingly embellished with iridescent pigments and metal leaf. Kaitlin is originally from New Zealand and is currently living and working in Melbourne, Australia. She has exhibited in and her works have been collected in Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK.

"Since childhood I have had a love for the fantastic and the imaginary - I enjoy depicting the real and the unreal together, biomechanical juxtapositions, the unusual engaged with the everyday. The natural world, odd dreams, cryptozoology, literature and science fiction inspire me; and attachments, disguises, viscera and machinery are recurring themes in my bestiary. My characters invoke a sense of pathos, unease or humour, and I like to encourage others to invent their own narrative around my creatures.”



Five Things that Inspire Me.

There are all kinds of works that are far cooler and more obscure I could reference, but I'm going to be honest here and stick to things that I know have specifically influenced my art. So here they are:

The Google Book:
This was given to me as a small child. It's nothing to do with the search engine - it's a very strange collection of illustrated poetry by VC Vickers, written in 1913. I think it's out of print now. It had a dark bleakness to it and the creatures inside were both endearing and frightening, with a curious humour, and I think my love of strange creatures probably started at this point. He wasn't a particularly good illustrator but his beasts had such character.

Alien the film:
I always loved sci-fi movies from a young age and watched the original Star Wars trilogy as a kid more times than I'd like to admit. Alien was for grown ups, far scarier and Ripley's character is so iconic and has probably inadvertently become a feminist icon. Me and my brother watched the films all the time....we still quote the movies constantly, with much eye-rolling from those around us I'm sure.

HR Giger:
The real star of the Alien films is HR Giger's alien. Probably showing my age a bit here but back in the day the internet was a bit of a new thing and most people didn't have access to it at home. When watching the films I knew nothing about the original designer until a few years later when I walked into a bookstore and saw a compendium of HR Giger's works with the Alien creature featured on the front. I found his work completely thrilling, I'd never seen anything like it before and I credit Giger with renewing my interest in visual arts. My favourite piece of his is probably 'Hommage à Böcklin (1977)', which I know is a reinterpretation of another artist's work but I just want to dive into the water and swim out to the island.

Beksinski:
He was my next massive art crush in the late 90s and I think he's still my favourite. Again it was pre-internet, I came across one of those Morpheus collections of his works. When I flipped through it I saw a painting that looked almost exactly like something I'd dreamt only a few days before which was a bit spooky, so I had to have the book despite being a poor student...probably put it on layby and paid it off $5 a week. I love the monumental structures that seem to be eons old, his surreal exaggeration and the obsessive detail. Beksinski doesn't give his work titles which I admire but it makes it hard to talk about his work. My favourite piece of his is 'Untitled' ;)

Slint "Spiderland”:
Music is my constant companion and I even like to plan my playlists depending on what I'm doing artistically. So I felt I had to put something musical in this list though it's incredibly difficult to pick one thing. This album was a kind of 'gateway' album, and when I first heard it I loved it straight away and it got me into a whole different world of postrock stuff like Shellac, June of 44, Fugazi and Jesus Lizard etc.


The Time Project.

1. Time Book Launch Lazy Gramophone Events Page 

2. Time Book Launch Facebook Page

3. View our Clock page (counting down to the release of Time)

4. An introduction to Time

5. Contributors' Five Things Journal Posts:
- Adam Green
- Bryn Hall
- Inua Ellams
- Zoe Catherine Kendall
- Andrew Walter
- Laura Dockrill
- Mat Lloyd
- Sorana Santos
- Will Conway
- Hannah Stephenson
- Matt Black
- Claire Fletcher
- Carl Laurence
- Zophiel Webb
- Jude Melling
- Stacie Withers
- Tom Hirons
- Megan Leonie Hall
- Vincent J Prince
- Kaitlin Beckett
- Guy J Jackson
- Eliza Gregory
- Jeannie Paske
- Jo Tedds
- Maria Drummey
- Tom Harris
- Liz Adams
- Lola Dupre
- Kirsty Allison
- Alexander Aspinall
- Paul Bloom

6. Buy Time from the Lazy Gramophone Shop 

7. Press/Reviews
(Click the links below to read each article in full)

Huffington Post:
'An intriguing book project from one of the most innovative groups of creative people in the city.' ~ Huffington Post

Fabric Magazine:
'...we'll bet you've never seen time as it's portrayed in this stunning new publication.' ~ Fabric Magazine

Rooms Magazine:
'Time is a treasure box brimming with creativity and fresh talent.' ~ Rooms Magazine

Annexe Magazine:
'Lazy Gramophone's anthology, Time, lives up to the high bar it sets for itself.' ~ Annexe Magazine

MORE...

For more on The Time Project tweet us @lazygramophone or #TheTimeProjectLGP or visit our Time Facebook page.
Tags for this post: Kaitlin Beckett, Five Things, Time, Lazy Gramophone, Curious Beastary.

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Title: The Time Project - Lazy Gramophone Press
By: LazyGramophone
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