Saturday, November 21, 2009

Fluorescent Kiowa


Announcing a new research project: The reconstruction of the painting "Fluorescent Kiowa". While doing research in our archives, our staff member Ed Porter located this interesting fragment.After many inquiries our staff have determined that the image displayed above was intended to serve as a reference for a repainting project of a lost painting by the artist Lee Hiway. What we have determined is that the original painting was done in the early 1980's on a drum head for the band "Color Anxiety"--a local Wakefield County Virginia Punk Rock musical outfit.

Somehow in a later incarnation the band changed into the group known as "9353" and the drum head was loaned back to Mr. Hiway to repair some flaked off spots. According to 9353's lead signer, Mr. Hiway went beyond his original instructions and completely transformed the painting into what became "Fluorescent Kiowa". From that point the story gets murky, but the bottom line is that the location of the painting is not know and the only evidence we have of its appearance is this fragment.
As we see above Mr. Hiway left some indication of his thoughts as to probably the dominat color schemes. Those being the terms Facility Blue, Antisceptic Green, Caution Yellow, Emergency Red, and Warning Orange which we knew were his way of naming colours that fit into a unique industrial themed color palette that bypassed the traditional color systems established in the long tradition of western art.
Based on this information and the background research conducted recently concerning the execution of My. Hiway's other paintings created durning that period Such as the painting depicted here (image courtesy of the Clyde Randall collection),
our research team is considering to attempt the re-creation of the painting "Fluorescent Kiowa". Hopefully, we will get the funding and institutional support for this project and keep you posted on its progress.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Cassette Tape Covers


At one point the entire industrial output of the FBC Graphics department produced nifty cassette tape box covers. Here is an example circa 1984 of the recording "Green Concert Tape" by the band Sanction Smith.