Having just recently returned from a 3 week trip to Morocco I decided to put together a book of the photography I shot along with some artwork inspired by my time there…
This first post represents the first of many that will feature images and text that will eventually end up in a hardback book to be printed. I felt that some of my experiences were worth sharing outside of the small core of people I spent time with in Morocco, and so I present here the text and images that accompany a small feature in the book. This story concerns my fascination with these pencil drawings that covered a lot of wall space in the small fishing village of Taghazout in Morocco. Taghazout is primarily known as a surf destination, due to its world class point breaks. It was also a favorite on the hippie circuit back in the 60’s thanks to its laid back attitude. I even read somewhere that Bob Marley tried to buy land there sometime way back! Anyways this is where the story starts….
Intrigue and mystery are words freely bandied around when Morocco is talked about. Little was I to know that our own little trip was to provide me with a little mystique and a fair amount of time traipsing around the back alleys of Taghazout chasing an enigmatic figure who goes by the name of Brian.
Click thumbnails for full images.
Halfway through our trip I was increasingly aware of these unassuming pencil drawn designs that literally riddle the walls and alleys of Taghazout. Always rectangular in shape with almost architectural elements and decorative devices inside the frame, they range from the very loosely scrawled to highly detailed motifs. With lots of high numbers, either inside or outside the design (I usually took this to be a numbering system for the amounts drawn.) They either sit alone or are stacked on top of each other in two’s and three’s, and usually in their favored spot next to the utility boxes that adorn the outside of the village dwellings. The occasional beginnings of a design can also be found carved into walls and ledges, putting you in mind of prehistoric cave etchings.
My curiosity was immediately piqued by this rampant army of hand drawn designs. Early comparisons with the urban tagger of western cities was easy, this guy or girl was UP!!
One afternoon while sat outside a cafe drinking coffee an old guy dressed in a traditional djellaba and woolen beenie sat some ways from me on stone steps. He proceeded to draw on some cardboard he had been carrying. I meanwhile paid him scant attention and got on with whatever had been amusing me before he arrived. After about 10 mins I noticed him putting his pencil away and walk off, duly leaving behind the doodled scrap. On paying up I walked over to where he had been sat and took a look at his handiwork…Boom…right before my eyes was a half finished version of what I had seen countless times on the walls of Taghazout. I am not exaggerating when I say I was surprised that some old guy with a Father Christmas beard and traditional garb had been hitting up walls with a pencil.
For days I went around documenting examples of the drawings and pondering on the meaning of them. There had to be some kind of story behind it all. Why the repetition in design? Surely some old guy was not in it for the fame game.
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One detail about the drawings that was a constant was the presence of an outlined head and torso topped off with what seemed to my eyes to be a western style tie….
For some time I entertained the notion that maybe he was some leftover from the 60’s when Taghazout was popular on the hippie trail. A westerner gone native no less, and his scrawls a coded nod to a materialistic past. My next encounter with Brian (as we later found out was his name) was completely unexpected. I had spent the best part of a morning getting some footage together as reference for my own artwork when who should come shuffling past and start badgering me for a cigarette but the Sultan of Staedtler pencils himself.
I tried to engage in some small talk (albeit small due to me not speaking arabic) but Brian was having none of it. On first impressions he is either barking mad or an eccentric of the highest order. I like to think the latter. Anyways, after a few fruitless mimes of someone drawing on a wall (performed by myself) he was on his merry way again. But not before gifting me with some great shots of him doing his ‘tag’ on a wall, and then seemingly to think ‘to hell with it’, he sprawled out for an afternoon nap by the roadside…legend.
Click on thumbnail for full image.
It was only a day or two before leaving for home that I finally pieced together the rest of the puzzle….
Myself and my brothers Andy and Scott were admiring a few choice ‘Brians’, when suddenly Scott realised the designs were an abstract of sorts, the Moroccan Dirham no less. I hastily pulled one from my wallet. Yes there it was, on the right, the king resplendent in suit and tie. The mysterious numbers accompanying the drawings obviously represented the various denominations of the Dirham..1000,2000 and so on.
Why draw depictions of Dirham notes everywhere? I started to ask myself. It did not take long before that question was answered. A local guy who had noticed our group studying Brians handiwork promptly came over and told us in broken english that the artist was called Brian, and that he had once been very wealthy in the past, and then he had lost it all. We were unable to ascertain the exact details behind Brian losing his riches due to the language barrier.
I was asked while recounting this story to a guy I met while still in Morocco, wether finding out the story behind the scrawls lived up to my expectations. My answer, yes…and then some. There is something romantic and altogether sad about the old guy who spends his days armed always with a sharpened pencil and scraps of cardboard. And for reasons known only to himself, decides to decorate his village with hand drawn currency. A lot of questions still remain as to why he does it. I myself prefer to leave the answer open ended, on the walls and in my imagination.
Click on thumbnail for full image.
All images and text in this feature strictly remain the property and copyright of dreemstyletransit. 2010
Just had news that my friends over at Dusted Wax Kingdom have signed up Spinach Prince to the music label after reading about them here…I will look forward to any releases this may bring!!
This self titled album from Spinach Prince is pure instrumental cool…..
Half stepping from Chicago Illinois, these boys peddle that live instruments as samples groove in a seriously heavy way. The band is made up of Elliot Ross- guitar/keys/bass, Thomas Faulds- drums, Charles Gorczynski-woodwinds/keys and Chris Merrill- bass.
Inspired by the sounds of Madlib, J Dilla and Yesterdays Quintet their sound is raw and heavy yet very organic thanks to the use of live instruments over a purely digital set up (my speakers have set up a mushroom farm since picking this up!)
The tracks bring to my mind dusty widescreen pictures of back in the day secret agents, hustling against double crossing super villains with the lens flare cranked up to ten. This is a big city sound.
You can pick up a copy of this must have gem from the bands site here…
While rooting around in one of my junk boxes for some material for an upcoming project I spotted these two mementoes I had forgotten about..
One vintage ‘Double Diamond’ beer bottle and an access all areas stage pass for the Wisbech Rock festival.
Both set props from the 1998 British Comedy ‘Still Crazy’ starring Bill Nighy, Timothy Spall, Jimmy Nail and Billy Connolly.
The comedy charts the re-union of a fictional ’70s band called ‘Strange Fruit’ whose career came to an abrupt end at the Wisbech Rock Festival in 1977 when they were struck by lightning while on stage.
Anyways I was approached in Camden London sometime early 1998 by some people recruiting film extras, I guess the long hair,denim and retro T-shirt combo swung it. After attending an ‘interview’ I spent a week somewhere in Chelsea (London) on deserted warehouse grounds shooting different scenes that involved the band at gigs and venues. Favorite memories include a scene in a Nederland nightclub (The Rat Cage) where the band play there first comeback gig. We were directed to make out like we were getting into the band, after a minute of dancing aimlessly around the director cut the festivities saying he needed us to show a bit more passion. Myself and a handful of others duly started a full on mosh pit down the front much to the enjoyment of the film crew and the disdain of the director.
The afternoon cosied up between two swedish lovely’s filming the backstage scene at the Wisbech Festival where the band split up in 1977 (this was were I ‘acquired’ the props from. I must have spent the best part of 3 hours pretending to drink from that empty bottle and make small talk with the girls.) Oh and the daily Coffee with Baileys sessions on the shelled out bus with the other extras were a hoot too!
Trailer for Still Crazy…Love the ‘Hello Wembley!’ line…………
I am not a big fan of Ecko clothing, but if I was 10 years old again……
These Star Wars inspired hoodies and jackets by Ecko Unlimited feature a Boba Fett “Fett for Real” hoodie, Storm Trooper Jacket and an X Wing pilot hoodie among many others. The streets are never going to be the same. Can you just picture rival inner city gangs in this get up, Boba Fett holding court on the corner while a platoon of stormtroopers shoot the shit in Macdonalds. I am guessing a pitched battle between the stormtroopers and X wing fighters would be an awesome spectacle. All we need now is someone to come up with custom AT-AT & X Wing fighter inspired bicycle frame bodies in fibre glass for the complete look…..
I came across this fella while taking a walk along the beach today..
It gave me quite a turn to be on a remote part of the coast wandering along lost in my own thoughts only to catch this form out of the corner of my vision. Maybe its that fixed smile or the lifeless, deflated body sitting directly looking out to sea, head propped up by a stone, but it sure made me jump. I do not think it was left there intentionally. It looked like it had washed up with the other debris. A very haunting image in the middle of nowhere, I just wonder what his story is……..
Like a modern day tale of science and mystery, the alarming disappearing act of whole colonies of Honey Bees from their hives is one enigma that is in dire need of a ‘beesuited’ Miss Marple to solve……..
Is it just another chapter in our self written saga..’Crimes against mother nature’ or something altogether more inexplicable?
click thumbnail for a full image of an illustration inspired by this story..
From as far back as 2004 beekeepers worldwide have reported finding huge numbers of their bee hives bereft of occupants. The bees have literally shut up shop, packed there bags and buzzed out of town. To where nobody knows. Are they dying off on a mass scale globally (the absence of any dead bodies make this a conundrum of sorts) or is something altogether more inexplicable happening.
As one of our most ancient allies the humble Honey Bee pollinates up to one third of everything we eat. Without them the whole food chain would be seriously compromised, affecting our primary sources of food (fruit vegetables nuts) and the farming industry.
Forget your Hollywood doomsday fest, this would be the real deal. An unimaginable scenario. Researchers are exploring a wide range of theories for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the name given to this phenomena. Theories include.. viruses, a fungus, certain pesticides that are used in agriculture and the timely theory that the proliferation of wi-fi waves may have something to do with the puzzle. They may even just be ’stressed’ out, due to being raised to survive a shorter offseason before being put out to ‘work’ pollinating, thus likely lowering their immunity to viruses.
I have noted myself over the years the growing lack of a bee presence while out and about. What few I have seen, for the most part have looked docile and decidedly ill looking compared to the bees of years past.
A new film called ‘Vanishing of the Bees” by Geoge Langworthy and Maryam Henein attempts to address this dilemma from the viewpoint of the beekeeper and that of hard science, whilst keeping in mind the mythic spirit of the Honey Bee.
As someone who disturbed a nest in my youth and received a good number of stings to my left arm for the trouble, I seriously hope that those concerned can find a solution to this mystery. I know that some readers may consider the bee a menace and scourge of beer gardens (although the wasp surely takes top prize here for this activity, how many of us have had the pleasure of a wasp trying to dive bomb into a pint of the golden throat charmer, kamikaze style?) but gripes and fears aside the bee deserves some serious detective work from ourselves… sooner rather than later.
For more info on ‘Vanishing of the bees’ as well as screening dates and a petition to sign for a systemic review of the impact of pesticides on our most important pollinators, please visit the ‘Vanishing of the bees’ website……..
Just received mail from Brian Rose re ‘The Supremacy’ premiere at Soho Hotel London..Sounds like they had a fantastic night. Unfortunately I could not make it..shame it looked fun.
The Notion of parallel universes is nothing new……..
The theme has long been the staple fodder of countless excursions within literature, film, art and music. The works of C.S.Lewis and H.P.Lovecraft, the countless movie and television treatments on the theme, Back To The Future, The Twilight Zone and probably most famous of all, The Wizard of Oz. As far as inspiration goes for creative material it does not get much better. The absurd..the impossible..the extraordinary, it all has a place and home within these speculations of what actually exists in the alternate realms. Maybe a mirror self did marry the ‘one that got away’…England are the reigning champions of world football (fat chance) and pigs do fly (a better bet!)
Scientists believe there may be an infinite number of parallel worlds, and we just happen to live in one of them (some may speculate we were given one of the galactic short straws when it came to who inhabits what dimension.) Incredibly it is thought that these ‘other’ universes exist less than a millimetre away from us, and that our gravity is a weak signal leaking out of another universe into ours.
A few weeks back I got talking about this whole ‘other worlds’ thing when a family friend was showing me some pictures he took on his camera phone of his 12 year old son at the airport.
Liam has a healthy interest in this theory so with that in mind and the pictures of him at the airport as reference I duly designed a digital painting of him and his mirror personas in a typically sci-fi setting. The flying goldfish and the lone rhino in an urban setting were my subtle nods to the absurd. Oh and if you look on the machinery up top I managed to slip Liams name in as a manufacturers logo.
Time for me to go lay down …all this thought of other worlds has left me disorientated.
I will however leave you with the majestic ‘Waxified’ by Merlune & Daakoon which incidentally has a rather excellent sample of Dorothy from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ within it…
press to play track..
If anyone is interested in commissioning a custom painting from their own photographs give me a call and I will be more than happy to discuss any ideas you may have. Contact me through the ‘contact’ button to the left of your screen or mail me at……………………. maclarensteph@gmail.com
Waiting for your connection at an isolated train station in the depths of winter is a wretched place to be. I know.
I do not drive so I have spent many hours and many more miles crisscrossing the country using the rail system. Its a funny state of limbo experienced when traveling by train, your neither here nor there. There is nothing romantic about modern rail travel. The empty platform and slowly dwindling daylight,the forlorn look down the tracks hoping to catch sight of the next inbound engine. Travel on a Sunday with work the next day and a monkey of a hangover hitching a ride on your shoulders is an altogether different kind of beast..a personal hell. I know. So save any whimsical notions of train travel for the stateside phenomenon of freight hopping and its world of folk songs and the footloose hobo.
A year ago my brother Andy happened to play me a tune he had come up with on his guitar…
The tempo and mood of this piece evoked the loneliness and transient nature of rail travel for me. At the time I was having a small ’sojourn’ away from my artwork due to some creative block, and so found myself playing around with music as another creative release. We recorded Andy in one take doing his thang on an electro-acoustic Martin D-15 (for those that are interested in such things.) I then took the raw recording into Logic and laid some very loose (read as sloppy) percussion over it. It has a real chugging feel to it and the snare hits remind me of a loco cracking over the sleepers of a track. Steam engine whistle samples and synth weirdness were thrown in for atmospherics.
You can hear the short track below which we titled ‘Her train never came in’. At some point I will post another track this time featuring my other brother Scott and one of the earliest songs he wrote from way back. For this one I decided to drop the guitar we recorded and just keep his vocals. Some brass and Lesley Organ were added for a nice retro feel….but that’s another day and another post……
Andy Maclaren – ‘Her train never came in’ – press play to listen
This self titled album from Spinach Prince is pure instrumental cool…..
