The Simones are a four-piece band from Holmfirth, producing modern alternative rock tracks with choppy and catchy guitar riffs and driving drums and bass. The band have released their first single from their up-and-coming EP ‘Our Magic Taxi’. ‘Crocodile Tears’ begins with a dramatic guitar riff, accompanied by intricate chords, creating a powerful yet modest introduction. The track is follows a fluid episodic narrative: exploring the band member’s life moments. Presenting themes of love and loss through a disfigured perspective, which the band described as being “under the influence”. Both the track’s narrative and artwork identify with the surrealist nature of dreams and warped reality, aligning with the exploration of being inebriated which is really a vehicle to revealing sunken feelings. Through a spiralling of guitar and drums, the band hopes the vitality of the music heightens the flashbacks that the lyrics references: “When you’re waiting for the time zone to catch you up, when you’re waiting for some sign of life…The blathered walk up the street while gathering road signs, oh the way to the party is filled with sparkling eyes”. The reading of emotion portrays a matured self-awareness, the title “Crocodile tears” – meaning tears or expressions of sorrow that are insincere – references a drunken cry that listeners continue to find is a sign of deeper repressed meaning.
Hannah Burgess explores both sculptural and functional vessels in her ceramics. Alongside pottery, Hannah works as a freelance arts administrator for various community/arts organisations around West Yorkshire, working towards widening participation in all forms of art. She was drawn to the tactile nature of working with clay as a medium and finds the entire process both meditating and grounding in its close connection to the earth. As a fan of the handmade aesthetic of pottery, Hannah enjoys seeing and feeling the indentation of human touch on her work, often opting for hand-built techniques. Hannah’s recent work is focussed on the human form in a pondering and restful state. With each head carved out to fit a quietly burning dinner candle, these pieces act as a reminder to embrace slowing down - slowness and patience being intrinsic to the material and process of ceramics in its many stages of forming, glazing and firings.
This pairing is perhaps a less obvious one, sculpture and music aren’t apparent mediums to combine. Both Burgess and The Simones explore the human experience, the tactility of tears, embrace and the bodily human experience; none of which are two dimensional. Sculpture presents to viewers a similar experience to installation: existing and living with the art in a 3-dimensional space, being surrounded by its performance. Correlating to the sensorial nature of listening to music, where music demands to affect the human senses. For this paring I ask you to delve into your imagination. Visualise Burgess’s candle heads in a large stately room, all lit with dripping candles, The Simone’s track begins to play and as you stare at the resting heads you hear the words “the crocodile tears in the ballroom, they don’t seem right”. The human body, emotionality and tactility are at the centre of both these works. Together they enlighten the physical affects trauma has on the body’s state and demeanour.
LOUD ART LIVE, a digital exhibition where music meets art. CLICK HERE to view Hannah Burges’s artwork and PLUG IN to listen to Crocodile Tears by The Simones.
