![]() ![]() We can be different.”įor greater insight into the ways we have changed and might change, order a copy of A History of the World in Dingbats here.Īs featured in The New York Times, T Magazine, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon The way things were, the way we made things, it turns out, none of it was inevitable-none of it is the way things have to be. A society that exists for all of us is imagined as a real possibility. “The dogma of economic austerity has been left behind. “In the new world the rules have changed-or at least there is the possibility of change,” he goes on. Sometimes I laughed, other times I thought, ‘This person is talking to the old world. Likewise, anything scary-are you kidding?) I watched all of it, there they were, live in person, somewhere, once upon a time. (I couldn’t watch dramas we were living in one. I watched their performances on a laptop, connected to a Bluetooth speaker. “I watched every stand-up comedy streaming show for a year,” he writes in the epilogue. While many of the images can be interpreted in different ways, Byrne holds back on sharing his own, personal journey until the very end of the book. Hints of stasis, introspection, self-determination and hope can all be found in among these pictures and accompanying words (the artist composed a series of texts to head up each of the book’s chapters).ĭavid Byrne, like many people, enjoys drawing. Of course the book doesn’t cover all world history instead these idiosyncratic drawings of trees, houses, trains, cities, people and landscapes (among other subjects) seem to capture a series of the social and psychological changes many of us experienced. The editors didn’t seem to mind, and, once open, the faucet flowed.”Īfter lockdown restrictions eased, Bryne exhibited these drawings at Pace gallery in Manhattan, and has now assembled them for the new book. they immediately assumed a life of their own. However, as he writes in his new book, A History of the World (in Dingbats), “as I began to draw I got carried away. A ‘Dingbat’, in Byrne’s usage, refers to an incidental, ornamental glyph typesetters and printers once added to the page, to give a little breathing space for the reader in among the columns of text.Īs old-style, pre-digital printing fell from favour, so dingbats evolved into enigmatic drawings that publications such as the New Yorker still reproduce today on the printed page.īack during the darker days of 2020, Byrne spent his time indoors drawing a series of dingbats, intending to use them in an online magazine he was producing. How did you cope with lockdown? David Byrne turned to dingbats. The singer, songwriter and fine artist charts a course for post-Covid life via his inimitable drawings David Byrne’s Dingbats and the art of collective change If his thrilling Electric Picnic appearance with St Vincent or unforgettable shows in the National Concert Hall and Belfast's Waterfront are anything to go by, the return of the Byrne could be the hottest ticket of the year. Sources indicate that an Irish date is very much on the cards, so hopefully we'll get a chance to lose ourselves in Byrne's live utopia. When Trump made his infamous "shithole countries" outburst last January, Byrne beautifully responded by posting a "beautiful shitholes" playlist.Īnother reason to be cheerful is that Byrne will be touring American Utopia with his most ambitious live production since Stop Making Sense. ![]() The Scottish-born Byrne voted in his first US presidential election in 2016, and we know all too well how that ended up in much weeping and gnashing of teeth. When Trump made his infamous 'shithole countries' outburst last January, Byrne beautifully responded byĪmerican Utopia is part of a wider multimedia project entitled Reasons to be Cheerful, named after the classic Ian Dury song, which does exactly what it says in the tin. We look around and we ask ourselves, well, does it have to be like this? Is there another way?" "Many of us, I suspect, are not satisfied with that world – the world we have made for ourselves. "These songs don't describe an imaginary or possibly impossible place but rather attempt to depict the world we live in now," Byrne explains. The canine theme is further extrapolated on Dog's Mind, where Byrne likens human civilization to dogs in a theme park – although you'd almost be seduced by the literal logic of George Orwell's "four legs good, two legs bad" maxim from Animal Farm after recent shenanigans in the US. ![]()
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