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A series of ten woodcut prints, illustrating the writings of the ingenious and insatiable one man art movement Ron Throop. All based on quotes from his Monsieur Tourette Awakens in Mid-Tic: a retaliatory fiction.
These prints are the direct result of an interview I read in the early 90’s with Billy Corgan of the band Smashing Pumpkins. In the interview, Corgan warns against discarding anything good just because you can’t find a use for it right now, and can’t imagine finding a use for it later. Wastephobic nature, the spartan efficiency beast, eventually finding everything its just homely crevice. Anything we don’t kill will inevitably thrive. Corgan was speaking, specifically, about his quiet guitar break in the song Geek USA. Initially a shorter song than it ended up, its break being a separate song altogether. He later ditched the quiet song, but kept its memory alive. Nature did the rest. I forgot everything else he said in the interview soon after reading it, but never this.
Corgan’s advice resonated as, at the time, I had written only thirty or forty songs, but had hundreds of riffs. All these lonely snippets desperately seeking a partner. I couldn’t build a song around them, nor find another song to shoehorn them into. But from that day on, I kept every riff preserved in perpetuity on cassette tape. Eventually filling thirty odd cassettes with, what turned out to be, the audio diary of my musical youth. I haven’t listened to them in donkey’s years, but know exactly where they are. I could have them all in my arms in under a minute from now.
Twenty-fiveish years later, Billy Childish and I are working on a storybook collaboration. It starts off simple enough. He writes four stories and I illustrate them with some woodcut prints. However, as we’re putting it all together, my enthusiasm suddenly bottoms out. Eventually we call the whole thing off. My fault essentially, as once I realised the illustrations aren’t going to be specifically credited to me, I lose all interest. As much as I like collaborating, I like credit more. The illustrations were 100% my own work. If the publication doesn’t specify this, I’m out.
I did about fifty woodcuts for the storybook (see video above). I don’t mind that the publication didn’t happen as Billy’s always good to work with, they were a pleasure to do, and I like them. But what do I do with them?
Today, now six or seven years since the storybook that never was, nature’s found ten of the woodcuts a home in Ron’s crevice: Monsieur Tourette Awakens in Mid-Tic: a retaliatory fiction. He sent me a copy a while ago. Ron is an artistic siamese twin of Black Ivory Printmaking & Audio Club despite geography doing its best to keep us apart. He’s a precious ally. As Corgan puts it in Geek USA’s quiet break:
In a dream
We are connected
Siamese twins
At the wrist
March 2024:
My next exhibition:
Exhibition Title: Heckel’s Horse Jr.
Venue: Highgate Gallery at Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
11 South Grove
London N6 6BS
Private View:
8th March 2024, 6 – 8.30pm
Exhibition runs until
21st March 2024
Edgeworth Johnstone is Heckel's Horse Jr. 
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