Guenther Dobrauz, organized Röchaholics II, a great gathering of some of the world’s best Rock Poster artists and photographers. Guy Burwell, Lindsey Kuhn, Ron Donovan, Malleus, Chris Hopewell, Blackyard, Michael Hacker, Fabien Von Unweth and I took residence at the Rosenmatt Villa (pictured above) to throw down some rock visuals and have a great opening. I was met at the Zurich train station by Lindsey and Guenther who took me directly to meet the other artists; we were shown around the premises of Heinrich Mantel AG, maker of the finest anodized aluminum in Europe, and large format, highest quality, silkscreen printer. Here’s some shots of us in the Mantel’s amazingly appointed print studio. It was explained how our editions of anodized aluminum would be digitally printed by this devise below – ink would be layered over and over in a very time-consuming process where the image is scribed 7 times – over and over – to drive the image deeply into the carefully prepared aluminum substrate. In exact, precise alignment each print in the edition is entirely scribed over and over to add richness and detail.
Then the aluminum, with the image deeply imbedded into it, is heated in a finely controlled process to bond it into the metal and seal it over with an anodized layer of bonded oxygen molecules. You can see the gang here in front of the heating chamber.
Then Guenther and the whole crew at Mantel made us a warm, hospitable fondu at the print studio. Good to taste fondu and smell the familiar smells of the print shop all at the same time. Really outstanding, so good!
Back to the Rosenmatt to set up. Here’s Lindsey Kuhn, Chris & Jo Hopewell, and Mr. Mantel on the pitch.
And no Hooligans – that goes for you!
There are great shots from the actual Röckaholics II show here – One final pair of shots – dawn in Zurich – as I took a few hours to walk around and ponder. Listening to something very good on my headphones, I was surprised to watch a woman exit from the front door of her house near a bridge demurely wearing a beach towel, slip nude at dawn into the freezing river that rushes out of the lake right in the heart of beautiful old Zurich, and swim with the swans flanking her on either side. It was about the most graceful thing I ever saw.
Mart Infanger is a great poster artist, art instructor, musician and world class host. After partying down with all the great artists in Zurich the night before, he sheepishly asked if it would be okay if we took a hike in the mountains, and Lindsey and I were super stoked to say, “Yes!” We crossed beautiful Luzern by the lake by small rail and walking…
Took a gondola up to the mid-point of Mount Pilatus, named after the dragon who is fabled to live there (the mountain was shaped like a crouched dragon with wings folded against the ground) so cool! Mart told us how supposed socerers who came to Luzern in the Middle Ages were called “Venetians,” because the Venetians were just through the pass yonder and brought advanced gadgets and ideas.
We took a good long hike through the woods at the foot of Pilatus. Met the old man of the forest.
Took in the view and went to have lunch in the sun. I had Jäger, Spatzli, and Red Cabbage, great fall food!
Totally refreshed we descended back down into Luzern to set up our show at The Metzgerhalle, a great rock club in the heart of Luzern.
Here’s some shots from the night. You can see a progression here. Connect the dots. Great night!
Back in lovely Bern! I love the Reithalle, where we had our show in the cafe Rössli on the ground floor. We shared the show between me and Ron Donovan, Lindsey Kuhn and the local Bern artistic geniuses Blackyard, Philip Thöeni, Silvio Brügger, Christian Calame and Jared Muralt. Great time was had by all. Here’s a friendly Foozball match caught in exciting video:
Robert Butler came to the show. He set up the print studio at the Reithalle. Robert has my respect for sure, he’s an extremely talented designer and printer, musician (he recently toured the world with Reverend Beat Man), and all around renaissance dude. Cheers Robert, thanks for hanging out – it was great to see you!
Shellac had a rocking show in the concert hall upstairs called The Dachstock – and they were awe-inspiring, great! Todd Trainer, Bob Weston and Steve Albini came and checked out our poster show. We shared a relaxed coffee in the morning in the empty concert hall – and headed out to our respective “next date.” Here’s my incredibly blurry photo from the show:
