narratives:
For my third interview in this series I turn my attention to Mark Nugent. Some of you will know him from his appearances on the old DVOA IRC channel. He is "The Nuge" to many; to me he's a dear friend I have valued for ten years now since we first met in Vancouver, courtesy of an introduction from Zev Asher of Roughage and Nimrod fame. I'd met Zev, discovered we had a great deal in common and he asked me to perform with him at a show in a venue which was part of a rather odd Arts-Technology organisation. Mark Nugent did the visuals for the show, projecting multiple images from the films he had made. Zev and I made a racket. Mark returned to Toronto soon after and when cEvin Key and I set out to perform some shows in eastern Canada in 1995 as Dead Voices On Air, we asked Mark along to project his images. Thereafter, he was a logical candidate to provide images for the only ever Download tour, projecting them himself in Europe in 1996.
Mark is one of my favourite image-makers. His films are painstakingly created, interspersing his own work with found footage. I believe his true gift is in the colouring of images. I would say that together with the late Derek Jarman, he shares an uncanny ability to create almost transparent dreamlike images that are evocative and intensely beautiful. Like Jarman, I think that Mark is an artist whose worth is appreciated by other artists. As a colourist alone he's as close to Jarman's sensibility as I could imagine. As far as I am concerned, the videos that he made for Coil's 'Dark River', Elliot Sharp's Carbon and Canadian band I Mother Earth are some of the best music videos created. The fact that Mark's work is commercially unnoticed is no fault of his own. Mark is a sensitive soul in a cut-throat world. He's raw genius. He's lived and worked in Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and his native Montreal. He travelled extensively with Canadian band Fat and has continued to collaborate with me, creating concert footage, notes for my album sleeves, web art and all sorts of bits and bobs for Download.
Mark was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in England. In fact, it's the same city that I now work in. We are the same age. He calls me often and we talk enthusiastically about our love of football, Wire, art, memories and the worlds that we have inhabited over the years. We share a healthy interest in Dadaistic humour, typified by the 'movement' we cultivated, 'Dataism.'
I interviewed Mark by e-mail. I have included some of his emages with this interview and links to the various pages that he has contributed to.
If I won the lottery I would build a shed in my garden and let him live there.
Please visit:
Psilence Image Environments
http://www.psilence.com
http://www.deadvoicesonair.com/melding/emage/nuge/index.html
1. Describe yourself without using the word 'b**tard.'
As old Fred Nietzche said "God is dead" so I guess we're all bastards in a sense. Speaking in a rhetoric of inversely reciprocal metaphysics I am an uber-bastard. Like i said its impossible to not use the word bastard. As far as i'm concerned black humour and poking fun at consensual reality is the bomb. Life is short and without a giddy humour things would be terribly boring.
2. So what is so wrong with alcohol?
Tough question. Alcohol is a great way to lose your inhibitions and used excessively leads to excrucuating liver disease. But let's look on the bright side, a beer a day keeps the doctor away.
As Descartes said to himself as he was taking a beer shit, "I think therefore I drink".
3. "Depravity gets bad press" N.Ceaucescu, 1987. What's your contribution?
As a gentleman I can't discuss such things. Everything, after all, is in the eye of the beholder. Suffice it to say I have experimented with pushing the envelope of the erotic maelstrom. Compared to old Nic, however, I'm an amateur. He was able to foist his fantasies on a whole nation and what's more he had diplomatic recognition. He lived till the end with the delusions of his grandeur and the left -handedness of someone who couldn't come when he masturbated. Kings of the dark ages couldn't touch him.
4. Mark. E. Smith famously extolled, "I am Damo Suzuki." Who are you?
I can't think of anyone in particular that fits the bill. On a good day I feel like Nietzche at his best on a bad day I feel like a shoeshine boy. That's the interesting thing about personal identity it's all essentially flux. It all depends on who I'm with at a particular moment.... alright....alright... I am Nicolas Ceausescu...after all he died for all our personal sins. Romania will rise again......
5.Finish the scenario·."I'm on a tour bus in the middle of eastern Germany. Someone bangs me on the head with a blunt instrument. Nothing new there. I wake, spitting teeth, lying on a road, with a sign 50 metres behind me saying, "Welcome to Romania.."
Obviously I can't reveal the details of this particular mission. But suffice to say I was med-evaced by the brutish and brightestest.....of course at her majesty's pleasure. Suffice it to say I am still awaiting further orders. The darkness of twilight enlightens and oppresses. What do I care, from the right perspective most things are humorous and numinous and .....well...lets face it....punthetic. Please send me any spare cash.....
Anything to add?
Oh yes....any resemblance to person's living or dead is purely coincidental.