Greek artist Stefanos Rokos was inspired by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds that he created an entire series of paintings inspired by the album, ‘No More Shall We Part’ years after first listening to the album.
Mr Rokos states that the 14 paintings, currently on display at the Benaki Gallery in Athens, where created 17 years after the creation of the album. They show how dialogue can be developed between two artistic forms – those of painting and song writing.
“A long time after my first hearing of ‘No More Shall We Part’, I recognised that the images that formed inside me when I first heard the songs of that album were still within me. And so, in 2015, more mature artistically, I decided that, for as long as it took, I would commit myself fully to the materialisation of an idea I had been developing for years,” he said. My aim was to attempt an entirely personal visual approach of ‘No More Shall We Part’, creating fourteen paintings inspired by the fourteen tracks of the album – the original twelve songs and the two b-sides that were included in the limited edition release,” he said.
Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave was impressed by Rokos’ efforts. “It was extraordinary to stand in the studio and see the paintings for real – the grandeur of them, with all their congested details and terrifying blank spaces. I feel connected to the essence of them. I feel they are very close to the way I write lyrics – intense bursts of memory, ecstatic detail, sudden erotics, esoteric imagery; the forging of frozen narratives that hover about like dreams, haunted and strange and life-affirming,” he said.
The transposition will not end here. Rokos plans to create an art book, along with Antiopi Pantazi’s embroidery inspired by the same music.
Meanwhile, his artworks will be on display at the Benaki Gallery through to 19 May.