Words – SCOOCHERY Photgraphy and mixed media art by John Griffin

Words

A collection of thoughts, writings, poems and essays that, depending on on age, contain ideas that the artist may or may not still subscribe to.

The Changing Climate of Art

Hey, have you heard the news? I just found out, apparently, the way we are living our lives is bad for the environment and if we don’t change our ways we’re all going to die.

The human race is over unless we change our ways.

I’ve been putting my plastics in the bad bin and my paper in the good bin for years and we still haven’t solved the problem?

I don’t want to be responsible for the end of of humanity.

I am an artist, my artistic purpose is to create something for other humans to engage with that will make them respond to an idea or a feeling.

Facts Continue to Change Their Shape

Music has always served as testament to changes in society with a lineage traceable across history. Our relationship to music is inherent to our species, tied to our heartbeats, music has existed before the invention of written language, the first written music; the ‘Hurrian’ Hymn To Nikkal dates back to 1400 BC.

Essay published in conjunction with ‘Transformers’, part of the ‘Deptford X’ festival. October 2019

KANUGO

HUD THE FUCK UP

KANUGO; A word game for people older than the internet! November 2018

Sufficiently Pickled

I went down to a party on a Saturday night

And I woke up on a Sunday feeling alright

I was sufficiently pickled

And now my liver is tickled

One of many ‘Alcholiarist’ confessions, October 2018

To the Victor Go The Chores

Turns out I was the best

Turns out I was the idiot

I believed what I said

The Faith Gap

It has been more than a few years now since I sussed out the whole ‘Father Christmas’ scam and, at the time, I suppose I was meant to keep quiet for a couple more years until until my little brother cottoned on but, you know, screw that, I was probably the first person to tell him. All kids are blabbermouths.

Ten Haiku’s of Words I Should Have Known Before

If you don’t know what

hegemony really means,

well, you don’t have to

Good Decisions Bad Decisions

The running commentary that is controlling my hand right now, the articulate voice in my head, still has to run every decision by the silent alarm system of few words but is in full control of things like breathing, my heart rate and my, very nervous, nervous systems. It can compel me to act despite any and all of the upstairs brain protests. The downstairs brain can veto common sense at any given moment.

A small acknowledgement of the power of my lizard brain. January 2018

Beat the Devil Home

It’s no use now

You can’t put the bullet back in the gun

Nothing else to do but beat the devil home

You’ve got to have a dream, even if it’s a bad one…December 2017

The Man in the Mirror

We’re all as mad as each other

Said the man in the mirror

A fleeting reflection. July 2017

Howl Fire at the Moon

Howl fire at the moon

Call foul it’s intention

Desecrate it’s notion

A brief frustration mantra. July 2017

The Brave New World Will Not be Free Entry

You will be able to stay at home, brother

You will be able to plug in, turn off and cop out

You will be able to lose yourself on skag

A modern wondering on Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. May 2017

What You Reading For?

Just out of interest

Why are you reading this?

It’s a valid question, I have no idea why you’re reading this. May 2017

Condemic

You are a victim of esoteric terrorism

You are not paranoid

they are after you

Probably best not to read this if you’re having a bad life right now. May 2017

Pixies Dropsies

Round and round you go

Play the dizzying game

A brief poem on the childish game of life and death. May 2017

The Wrong Trap

This essay was right at publication

Its truth is finite and degrades upon reading

Are you a loser? Have you thought about why you are a loser. Click here for incredibly flawed advice. April 2017

Pour Whiskey Over Scorn

Been tendin’ bar

In this old town

Hard times for an old barman in the ‘Wild West’. March 2017

On the Inside

I look hard on the outside

But I’m soft on the inside

Finally, the alternative metal song I was supposed to write 30 years ago! February 2017

Code of the Road

Flash your headlights and be judged!

At night; justice is blinding

The struggling psyche of of the poor white van man, stuck in Autumn’s evening rainy rush hour traffic on the Cromwell Rd. January 2017

Interview

INT. INTERVIEW ROOM – TWILIGHT

Man is shown into room where man is sitting at a desk

Interview with Mr Kahn. December 2016

Don’t Call Me

So, if you’ve got a problem, baby,

Don’t call me!

Don’t call me!

Lyrics to a ‘Doo-Wop’ song in need of a tune. December 2016

Constantine

Or, a viral gone postal. A clickbait.

“I am king of all lies before!”

Did this king, ‘Constantine’ decree:

A reworking of ‘Kubla Khan’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, lamenting the confusion of being sold paradise by a, would be, social media monarchy. December 2016

Work Began

It was inevitable now, through the machinations of a quite insane Colonel Jack T. Ripper and the unlikeliest of absurdities, President Mervin Muffly was coming to terms with the fact that it would be under his presidency that everyone was going to die.

Work Began is the contextual essay that accompanied my 2011 Ma Photography course at the London College of Communication. It explores the value of collaborative social art in an ‘end of the world’ scenario. It imagines how events would play out after the conclusion of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove (1964). First published January 2012