Magne Furuholmen's "Norwegian Wood" exhibition

Magne Furuholmen and Katrina at Magne's "Norwegian Wood" exhibition 

I feel a bit of a cheat considering this is meant to be a blog about how I go about creating my own work, and I'm about to share the work of another artist, but then this is what Andrew Bracey and Ashleigh Mc Dougall would regard as "mondegreen" 
Here are some photos I took of the show

I felt very privileged to find the opportunity to go and speak to Magne about his work, to share the anecdote about lino printing, and the connections to my own work, and Magne said there was nothing new in the world. 
I said that I love the Apparatjik stuff (I had the intention to ask them if they had any time free to come to Lincoln, but this escaped my thoughts) and I said I wished I was going to Copenhagen where they performed this weekend, and Guy said he wished he was going too (he wasn't), then Magne said he was going, but then added "but no one would really notice if it was just a bloke in a mask!" which we all laughed at. 

Later on, I asked Guy if he knew much about the process of woodblock printing that the curator had very kindly spent some time explaining to me - I thought the prints would be a lot smaller, and was impressed by the large scale, and he explained that they'd been created to that scale - since then, images have appeared on the gallery website showing how Magne created the prints.

But Guy said I probably knew more than he did. He bought "Helter Skelter", so I now wonder if that's his favourite Beatles track, or his favourite Magne print of a Beatles track? Or both!
My favourite print was "Norwegian Wood" (what, no Blackbird??!). I was drawn to the Van Gogh marks in the W, that really captured a sense of frustration that something hadn't gone to plan, perhaps the ambition to be as big as The Beatles, that I think Magne felt about A-ha. But I think that, for Norway, A-ha were definitely as big as The Beatles for taking Norwegian music to a global audience. 

Magne Furuholmen - Norwegian Wood

When I was taught lino printing, we were always told that if you include text, to reverse it so it prints the right way, but in Magne's work the reflective type is indicative of seeing the Beatles tracks from a different perspective, from that of a Norwegian fan, and following on from Magne's signature Schwitters style cut-out text and interest in language. The English is in reverse. In Norwegian, it would be Norske Tre. A-ha always wrote their songs in English, not Norwegian.
The frustration of hundreds of fans that wish they could be at the show but can't make it!

In one of the prints, I noticed a tiny splinter of wood, trapped in the ink, and I thought that if you touched it, you'd get a splinter that would cut into your finger, much the same way that the piece had been created by cutting into the wood with tools borrowed from Sir Peter Blake.

Here, I have written some lyrics about the evening:

I once had a Guy, or should I say, Guy and Magne.

He showed me his print,

isn't it good, Norwegian Wood?

I asked for a photo

As he was just standing right there

So I looked around

And I saw Peter Blake in the chair

I stood on a nail biding my time

Drinking their wine

We talked until eight and then I said, "no,

it’s time to go”

I told him I worked in printing

and started to laugh

He told me he didn't

and crawled off to go for a fag

And when I went home I was alone

This bird had flown

So I caught my train

Isn’t it good Norwegian Wood?

I'll get my coat....

I had lamented a trip to Brighton earlier this year, where some friends met with Steve Barron, director of the "Take On Me" video, and I was sharing with him my experience going to Oslo to see the original illustrations for the video.
He said I hadn't missed much at that talk!! 

Happy Birthday to Steve today - May the 4th be with you and all that!

I'd been thinking about the Apparatjik project - someone asked me if I got the funding, I wondered what funding, as I've been applying for loads. I was going to ask Guy and Magne if Apparatjik could come to Lincoln, and it escaped my thoughts - but still the encounter has given me a better idea. Apparatjik asked everyone to send in images of their face to go on their Light Space Modulator, and Guy wasn't going to be in Copenhagen himself, so there will be someone else standing in for him, the guy that was in Oslo that I still cited was him! I don't know who the fake Guy A simulacra is! So... therefore, for the purposes of this current project, I'm going to fake it and ask local musicians such as Lincoln Moondog to come and be an Apparatjik. No one would really notice it isn't Magne in a mask ;-) What would be really interesting, would be if Apparatjik then display the outcome of this fake Apparatjik experiment on the LSM proper somewhere. All of this has been keeping me awake.