Listen to Gaynor narrate both parts of her piece here:
Today’s blog is by Gaynor. It’s a two parter. It responds to GANTOB pamphlet X13: Paint Them Black. That pamphlet exists only in the real world. There will only ever be 60 copies. They were printed in a range of colours. The pamphlet mentions a special type of paint, which came in a range of shades.
Gaynor’s piece will be included in the forthcoming GANTOB book (publication date 23 January 2024), and she automatically becomes one of the recipients of this book. If you would like to write a post, under the same terms, there are further details at the end of this blog.
Over to you Gaynor!
I didn’t think I had any kontributions/ kollaborations or whatever in me.
But I’d felt such an honour being number 11 in GANTOB’s first book.
What I do I know is Bill Drummond grey. I first encountered it in 2012. I’m being vague – not deliberately, but because memory tricks you, and sometimes when we remember we embellish things. However, it doesn’t really matter when you aren’t sharing your memory. But now I am.
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November 2023: I received some GANTOB pamphlets in the post to my joy while working from home. Taking a swift break of allocated time, I gave them my attention.
GANTOB Pamphlet X13 (Paint Them Black) jumped out at me because it was yellow. I’m very drawn to yellow. It’s a very glowing pulsating salvation of a colour full of rebirths, growth and new starts. (I had a load of therapy in the old days and yellow chose me as a safe space/ colour).
On reading the pamphlet I had some thoughts about Bill Drummond’s affair with paint. I too love a bit of paint: it soothes the soul. Bill, being an artist, and him famously offering 1000 tins of grey paint for sale. I wondered what happened to them.
GANTOB mentions a fan blog saying Bill produced/ manufactured the paint in the mid 90s.
The paint was intended to cover anything the buyer found morally or aesthetically offensive, promoting vandalism – or was it? What if, when you are covering up something offensive to your eyes, you are making it beautiful or even just bearable? Even if only to yourself?
Where are these tins of paint? Knocked over in a shed getting rusty? Under the stairs getting a skin on them? I don’t know who knows. Did anyone buy any?
I digress ……I’ve seen one of those tins of paint.
Stood within breathing distance.
Stood within holding it distance ……
Every day for three months while invigilating at Liverpool art prize in 2012, I was drawn to a partikular artist’s work. This was Alan Dunn. I breathed in his work, in my nostrils and in my pores. I couldn’t get enough. I loved Alan’s space in the gallery. It encapsulated everything I love: music, records, CDs, cassette tapes, art and of course Bill’s tin of paint. The shade was: Drummond’s International Grey.
The cassette tapes were titled: Grey is the colour of hope.
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Grey IS the colour of hope.
To be continued tomorrow…
Gaynor
9 December 2023
If you have 400 words you would like to contribute to this blog, please get in touch. Ignore the deadlines, but please remember to provide an excuse for being late. If your blog is used in December 2023 you will receive a copy of the forthcoming book: GANTOB’s 2023: A trilogy. Good luck!
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