The art book “Stefanos Rokos: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ No More Shall We Part, 14 paintings 17 years later” is available in a deluxe edition of 1,200 copies and includes, among others, photographs of the works, the lyrics of the songs, an introductory note by Nick Cave and an essay by Jim Sclavunos. The collector’s edition is available in 300 copies, accompanied by the “Bless His Ever Loving Heart” silkscreen, is numbered and has a different cover.
It was extraordinary to stand in the studio and see the paintings for real – the grandeur of them, with all their congested details and terrifying blank spaces. I feel connected to the essence of them. I feel they are very close to the way I write lyrics – intense bursts of memory, ecstatic detail, sudden erotics, esoteric imagery; the forging of frozen narratives that hover about like dreams, haunted and strange and life-affirming.
Nick Cave
Having helped Stefanos mediate the go-ahead for this project –a project he had first broached to me way back in 2014– this was a key moment for us all; and now that the big reveal was finally happening, it was very interesting to observe up close the graceful etiquette and dynamic interplay between the two artists. It was akin to watching the unfolding of highly intellectualized sirtos, the pair initially circling each other, mutually respectful and complaisant, but also a bit wary, then slowly and gradually coming together, a bit warmer, a bit less guarded, pointing out details to each other, and by the end, the two side by side, hovering over the paintings, sharing ideas, completing each other’s sentences.
Jim Sclavunos
A long time after my first hearing of «No More Shall We Part», I knew that the images that formed inside me when I first heard the songs of that album were still with me. And so, in 2015, more mature artistically, I decided that, for as long as it took, I would commit myself fully to the materialisation of an idea I had been developing for years: my aim was to attempt an entirely personal visual approach of «No More Shall We Part», creating fourteen paintings inspired by the fourteen tracks of the album – the original twelve songs and the two b-sides that were included in the limited edition release. Subsequently, I would very carefully transplant them into an art book, which I would edit myself for publication. This project also comprises my own personal proposition for the potential development of a dialectical relation between two art forms which have always formed the core of my artistic and creative expression.
Stefanos Rokos
