by James Rettig, April 17, 2018 • Billboard
Back in 2015, Nick Cave teamed up with the Australian skate company Fast Times to make an official Nick Cave skateboard, with an illustration from San Francisco artist Chuck Sperry.
That same trio of collaborators has teamed up yet again for another board. This one’s inspired by “Heathen Child,” a song from Cave’s side project Grinderman. A banner on the top of the board features some lyrics from that track: “Hey little Moo Moo, light as a rainbow.”
The board comes in street and cruiser deck styles, and there’s also a t-shirt to go along with it — you can now order any of those world-wide from Fast Times Skateboarding here.
Here’s a select list of links to articles dropping everywhere in the world press:
Billboard • Spin • NME • Uproxx • Stereogum • Go See Live Music • Post-Punk • Rolling Stone (Italy) • Happy (Australia) • Tone Deaf (Australia) • Oor (Holland) • News Monkey (Belgium) • RTBF (Belgium) • Far Out Magazine (UK) • Nova (Ireland) • Two Eggs (Japan) • Intro (Germany) • Rockol (Italy) • Blitz (Portugal) • Indie Rocks! (Mexico) • Filter (Mexico) • Marvin (Mexico) • Playtusu (Turkey) • Musika Zona (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
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This is one of many insanely cool projects I’ve collaborated with Nick Cave on. In addition to a number of beautiful rock posters I’ve made for Mr. Cave, Nick was kind enough to contribute his lyrics from “The Lyre of Orpheus” from “Abbatoir Blues” to my collection of art and poetry, “Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry.” Read more below:
Chuck Sperry’s new book “Helikon” gathers together his masterfully screen printed wood panel series of contemporary-classical muses: work inspired by the spirit of the modern rock poster, graffiti, and the utopian ethos of 1960’s psychedelia.
“Helikon” presents 36 sumptuously photographed Sperrys paired with the prose or poem — from Homer to Nick Cave — that inspired each. Over a dozen photos by Shaun Roberts give the reader an intimate portrait of the artist at work.
“Helikon” is Sperry’s beautifully designed, hand-bound coda to 5 years of artwork devoted to the perennial theme of Orphic Dionysian mysteries.
Forward by New York Times’ bestselling author, Charles Bock, Beautiful Children, Alice & Oliver (Random House), and Best of NYC Culture 2016, Village Voice.
Published by Hangar 18
Foreward by Charles Bock
Hardback Second Edition of 2000 / “Silver Edition”
Silver embossed cover
9 x 12 inches / 136 pages
54 color illustrations
Printed and bound in the United States
ISBN: 978-0-9981407-1-1
$55 Including Shipping. US Orders Only!
“Sperry draws from a deep, classical tradition of storytelling to visualize the famed and obscure characters from mythology. He continues by personifying “Music,” “Justice,” and “Equity” — putting faces on the concepts that seem to inspire his work greatly. Vivid and striking, the works inside Helikon are beautiful on the surface, but combined with the text, both classical and modern, they give insight into the muses that drive Sperry to create.” – Liz Ohanesian, Hi-Fructose, The New Contemporary Art Magazine, vol. 43
San Francisco artist Chuck Sperry has earned his right in the rock ‘n roll hall of fame….. not for music but for his incredible talent of designing and silkscreen printing distinctive rock posters, he has a slew of famous names that he has worked with and his artwork has been exhibited at some leading art and music institutions. Chuck has honed his craft to perfection, with 20 years of experience behind him — Kylie Dexter, Beautiful Bizarre
In Helikon, the words transport us, allowing us to see Sperry’s work through fresh, yet ancient, eyes. Importantly, they drive from our minds thoughts of the transitory — that Tethys was first introduced to the world as a Dave Matthews poster; that Artemis and Naiad made their debuts before fans of the Black Keys; that Olympia, Daphne, Semele, and Thalia were Panic ladies before they were Sperry’s muses. — Ben Marks, Wink Books
