Ivan Seal | |
---|---|
Born | Stockport, Manchester, England | 22 May 1973
Education | Sheffield Hallam University, 1992–1995 |
Occupation(s) | Painter and Experimental Musician |
Years active | 2006–present |
Known for | Producing album covers for musician James Leyland Kirby |
Website | ivanseal |
Ivan Seal (born 22 May 1973) is an English painter and sound artist who specializes in surreal and abstract works centered around concepts of memory and the creation of imagined objects. [1] He is best known for his collaborations with electronic musician James Leyland Kirby, also known as The Caretaker, creating artwork for the critically acclaimed albums: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World and the six part album series Everywhere at the End of Time , both of which examine themes of memory loss through the long-term mental decay brought about by dementia. [2]
Ivan Seal was born in Stockport, England on 22 May 1973. Little is known about Seal's early life aside from attending Sheffield Hallam University from 1992 to 1995, during which Seal began to experiment with creating art installations using ambient music as a medium. [2] [3] During this period, Seal became close friends with another experimental musician from Stockport, James Leyland Kirby, who was creating music under the name "V/Vm". [4] At some point following his studies, Seal moved to Berlin, Germany, where he currently resides.
Seal's first known exhibition was as a part of the 2006 "Anonymous" exhibition at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany, in which he was one of 11 anonymous artists featured. [5] Through the years between 2006 and 2010, Seal's ambient music installations and paintings were featured within group and solo exhibitions throughout the Berlin art scene. [6]
Ivan Seal held his first major solo exhibition "personality disorders" at the Carl Freedman Gallery in London starting in May 2011. [6] Following his initial exhibition, Seal returned to showcase his works at the Carl Freedman Gallery in London in 2013, 2015, and 2021. [6] Alongside these semi-regular exhibitions, Seal's works have been exhibited in galleries across Europe [8] and the United States. [6]
In June 2011, James Leyland Kirby, under his moniker The Caretaker, released his breakthrough album An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, which featured Seal's 2010 work "happy in spite" as the album cover, giving both artists a large boost in popularity due to the critical acclaim for the album. [4] Seal's art had been previously used by Kirby for Persistent Repetition of Phrases , released in 2008, but the usage of Seal's artwork for An Empty Bliss Beyond This World resulted in a continued collaborative relationship between the two artists. In 2012, Seal's artwork was once again used by Kirby as the album cover for the soundtrack to Grant Gee's film Patience (After Sebald). [9]
Ivan Seal and Kirby's relationship is most well known due to the album artwork Seal created for Everywhere at the End of Time, a six-part album series released throughout 2016 to 2019 which was meant to musically emulate the mental decay caused by dementia and Alzheimer's disease. [4]
Gabríela Friðriksdóttir is an Icelandic visual artist, painter and sculptor.
The Caretaker was a long-running project by English ambient musician, James Leyland Kirby. His work as the Caretaker is characterized as exploring memory and its gradual deterioration, nostalgia, and melancholia. The project was initially inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in the 1980 film The Shining, the 1978 TV show Pennies from Heaven, and the 1962 film Carnival of Souls. His first several releases comprised treated and manipulated samples of 1930s ballroom pop recordings. Most of his album covers were painted by one of his friends, Ivan Seal.
The Schirn Kunsthalle is a Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany, located in the old city between the Römer and the Frankfurt Cathedral; it is part of Frankfurt's Museumsufer. The Schirn exhibits both modern and contemporary art. It is the main venue for temporary art exhibitions in Frankfurt. Exhibitions included retrospectives of Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Bill Viola, and Yves Klein. The Kunsthalle opened in 1986 and is financially supported by the city and the state. Historically, the German term "Schirn" denotes an open-air stall for the sale of goods, and such stalls were located here until the 19th century. The area was destroyed in 1944 during the Second World War and was not redeveloped until the building of the Kunsthalle. As an exhibition venue, the Schirn enjoys national and international renown, which it has attained through independent productions, publications, and exhibition collaborations with museums such as the Centre Pompidou, the Tate Gallery, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Hermitage Museum, or the Museum of Modern Art.
Artists Anonymous are an art group based in Berlin and London. They were founded in 2001 during their studies at Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) at the classes of Georg Baselitz and Stan Douglas. They finished studying in 2006.
An Empty Bliss Beyond This World is the ninth studio album by the Caretaker, an ambient music project of English musician Leyland Kirby, released on 1 June 2011 through History Always Favours the Winners.
Dudley Edwards is an English painter, draughtsman and applied artist specialising in illustration, textiles, ceramics, murals and photography.
The soundtrack for Patience (2012), a film by Grant Gee, was composed and produced by English musician Leyland James Kirby under his ambient music project the Caretaker. The official soundtrack album was issued on 23 January 2012. Unlike other albums of the Caretaker that used old recordings of playful and bright ballroom music, Kirby's score for the film uses a 1927 recording of Franz Schubert's song cycle for voice and piano Winterreise (1828) as its main audio source. It also differs from other works of the project where hissing sounds are used instead of crackles, the loops are shorter in lengths, and the non-musical aspects of each track serve as the foreground of the mix. The soundtrack was favorably received by professional music journalists.
Everywhere at the End of Time is the eleventh recording by the Caretaker, an alias of English electronic musician Leyland Kirby. Released between 2016 and 2019, its six studio albums use degrading loops of sampled ballroom music to portray the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Inspired by the success of An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (2011), Kirby produced Everywhere as his final major work under the alias. The albums were produced in Kraków and released over six-month periods to "give a sense of time passing", with abstract album covers by his friend Ivan Seal. The series drew comparisons to the works of composer William Basinski and electronic musician Burial, while the later stages were influenced by avant-gardist composer John Cage.
Everywhere, an Empty Bliss is the twelfth release by the Caretaker, an alias of English musician Leyland Kirby. Released on February 26, 2019, the record is compiled from archived tracks that were meant to be used on the Caretaker's albums. Before finishing his album series Everywhere at the End of Time, Kirby released the album as "a surprise golden farewell".
We, So Tired of All the Darkness in Our Lives is the seventh studio album by English musician Leyland Kirby, released on 28 September 2017. An electronic album, it features melancholic and gothic elements. It was produced the same time as Stage 4, and released the same day as Stage 3, of Kirby's album series under the Caretaker moniker, Everywhere at the End of Time. We, So Tired of All the Darkness in Our Lives contrasts from the Caretaker's work in that it is more positive; aspects such as drums mimicking a sound of marching are present. The album's title is a reference to the Joe Jackson song Steppin' Out.
Sadly, the Future Is No Longer What It Was is the debut studio album by English musician Leyland Kirby, released on 1 September 2009. With his ongoing aliases at the time, Kirby produced a melancholic album that explored thoughts of the future. He produced Sadly at an agitated time, when he would not work but rather drink with various girls. The record was first issued as three full-length CDs and would later be repressed as six vinyls with artwork by Ivan Seal. The release received moderately positive reception from music critics. Some criticized its length, while others praised its emotional sound.
Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom is the debut studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 1999, it consists of an influence from the horror film The Shining, manipulating songs from the 1920s to resemble the film's music. It differed from Kirby's earlier works in that it did not manipulate pop songs to create noise albums, as he did under the V/Vm alias. It rather slowed down big band records to create a hauntological atmosphere. However, the packaging was the same as other V/Vm releases. The album was met with positivity from music critics, who praised its hauntological themes.
We'll All Go Riding on a Rainbow is the third studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 2003, it was the last of Kirby's "haunted ballroom trilogy", which spans his albums influenced by the film The Shining. It features looped melodies and vinyl crackle to create the ambience of The Shining's ballroom, with its artwork emphasizing this style. We'll All Go Riding on a Rainbow was met with positive reception from music critics, who praised its haunted ballroom ambiance. However, other critics felt that the album's length was an issue. Kirby's next album as the Caretaker, Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia (2005) would abandon the haunted ballroom concept and install themes of memory loss.
A Stairway to the Stars is the second studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 2001, it was created after one of Kirby's pop manipulations as V/Vm gained attention. Following Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom, A Stairway to the Stars features new genres such as darkwave and elements such as reversed vocals. The record was met with positivity from music critics, who praised its ambiance. It is regarded as Kirby's best album in his haunted ballroom trilogy, which spans his first three releases.
Persistent Repetition of Phrases is the seventh studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released on 1 April 2008, it was his first record to cover themes of Alzheimer's disease. The album was also the first Caretaker release to present looping of short segments within tracks. It marked Kirby's change of record labels from V/Vm Test to History Always Favours the Winners, which he felt might have helped with the record's success.
Take Care. It's a Desert Out There... is the eleventh studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released on 8 December 2017, Kirby composed it after the death of his collaborator, Mark Fisher, who died by suicide on January 13, 2017 at age 48. Consisting of a single title track throughout its 48-minute runtime, its proceeds would be donated to the mental health charity Mind. Kirby's initial intention would be to give the record to attendants of his performance at the Barbican Hall in London. However, due to a high demand, he decided to release it on his YouTube channel.
Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia is the fourth studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 2005, it abandoned the haunted ballroom aesthetic of the previous albums and explored memory loss. Divided into six CDs, it consists of seventy-two drone tracks combined to create an almost four hour long release. It was compared by several critics to other musicians, including Merzbow, Boards of Canada, and Krzysztof Penderecki.
Eager to Tear Apart the Stars is the second studio album by English electronic musician Leyland Kirby, released on 3 October 2011. Following his own name debut album Sadly, the Future Is No Longer What It Was, Kirby continued exploring a more personal side of his music, though one that differs from his work as the Caretaker. Kirby produced the songs without using any samples, mostly creating piano tracks from synthesisers. This style of sound drew comparisons to the work of composers Harold Budd and Roedelius, though the record's press release claimed Kirby has his own oeuvre.
Gretchen Faust is an American contemporary artist, performer, art historian, and yoga instructor who lives and works in Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom. She is known for her visual art and performance work at galleries in New York, Pittsburgh and Zürich.
Amna Elhassan is a Sudanese visual artist and trained architect, who lives and works in Khartoum. Her artistic work is often focused on the perception of Sudanese women in public and private life, expressed in a variety of media, including printmaking and painting.