Limited Edition "Album Covers" by Paul Walde for Northern Symphony + Performance videos
Paul Walde: Album Covers $400 each
Background: In the music industry “covers” refer to two things, the LP dust jacket and the re-recording of popular songs by artists other than those who wrote or popularized the song. Paul Walde’s Album Covers exploits both meanings of the term by physically covering not only discarded popular record album sleeves, but also the records themselves. Walde’s only criteria in selecting the records was that they must be gatefolds — LP covers that open up to reveal additional pictures, credits and sometimes song lyrics. In order to reveal the identity of each record, Walde has only covered the exterior of the gatefold, leaving the interior as evidence of the source. Each 12” vintage gatefold and record is covered with woodcut printed vinyl wallpaper from Walde’s 2001 installation Northern Symphony. As part of Northern Symphony, Walde created a musical score intended for reinterpretation by DJs and experimental musicians. By extension, Album Covers uses the installation to literally "cover" the work of other artists.
The Edition: Album Covers is a series of 20 unique records and record covers. Each item is a 12” vintage gatefold record cover and record, covered with vinyl wallpaper from Paul Walde’s 2001 multi-component installation Northern Symphony. The wallpaper is an original woodcut print based on beaver gnawed patterning, carved by the artist, and hand printed with vinyl ink on commercial vinyl wallpaper. Each record and sleeve is hand-cut and burnished by hand. The source albums are unique as well as the coverings, and include: Venus and Mars (Wings), Hotel California (The Eagles), Dream Police (Cheap Trick) and Night Flight to Venus (Boney M). Each cover is signed, titled, numbered and dated by the artist on the interior of the gatefold.
Bio: Paul Walde is a multidisciplinary artist , musician, and curator. Walde’s eclectic body of work suggests unexpected interconnections between landscape, identity, and technology and includes painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation and audio. Most recently, his work was seen in No Melatonin at Nuit Blanche 2009, and currently at Malaspina Printmakers Gallery in conjunction with VIVO's Signal + Noise festival in Vancouver.
Walde is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario (BFA) and New York University (MA). He is the winner of The Prescott Fund Award from the National Arts Club in New York City, and has received awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. In addition to his studio practice, Walde is an active lecturer, curator, teacher and writer and has attended residencies at Pouch Cove, Newfoundland and the Banff Centre for the Arts.
As the Artistic Director and visual arts curator of LOLA, the London Ontario Live Arts festival, Walde has presented projects by such international artists as Brian Eno (UK), blackhole factory (DE), Rich Jacobs (US) and Taylor McKimens (US). Often blurring the lines between producer and curator he has also presented the work of such Canadian artists as: Michael Snow, Kelly Mark, Dave Dyment, Gordon Monahan, and Michelle Gay. He lives and works in London, Ontario where he teaches studio art at the University of Western Ontario, and is the artist in residence at the Biotron, Canada’s experimental climate change research centre. Walde is a founding member of Audio Lodge, a London-based experimental sound art collective.
Check out the videos of the Northern Symphony Performance on Malaspina's You Tube Channel. More videos to come soon.
www.youtube.com/user/MalaspinaPrintmakers