We’re very proud to end 2012 with a column from one of our favourite contemporary musicians/artists/occultists, Spencer Clark of The Skaters/Vodka Soap/Monopoly Child Star Searchers et al. Spencer’s practice has become increasingly influenced by artist/occultists like Kenneth Grant and Austin Osman Spare so we asked him to talk a little about the turbulent dream visions that have inspired his work in 2012, as well as the development of his own personal symbolic subconscious. We also asked him how Pinhead was getting on. Fine, he said, but he’s up to his old tricks again, for sure.
MEETING PINHEAD
Attention EARTHLINGS, the new album on Underwater Peoples is the "Bee's Knees", really, the thing folds out and there is art inside, no joke. This might be the last Monopoly Child for a while, so enjoy it. I hope the listener will invite themselves to see the transformation of a symbol that I wished to be projected amongst the stars. I wanted to talk about my next work here, and like the last time Heather and David asked me to write something, I had to again speak of an encounter with the OTHERSIDE….
This last summer, during a momentous change in my life, I had a DREAMWEEK; where for about seven days straight I had a continuous dream of downloaded input. These dreams were of a new realm of dreamtime, they were endless sermons night after night, within the same setting, and they were regarding the FUTURE…
Before we get into this I want to speak about what got me into nightmare dreams in the first place. When I was 8 years old I got chased around by Freddy a lot. Like every night , Freddy stabbin' and slashin'. He really has done as much for dreams as Jung. One night I was at my friend's house watching the making of Nightmare On Elm Street 3(DREAMWARRIORS). We went to bed, and I began to have my usual Freddy chase scene. This time he caught up to me and slashed me right across the face, and it hurt, like for real, as it did sometimes. But this time I woke up, I was on the floor, and above me on my friends bed was his cat (TONY), who jumped down upon me and scratched me just where FREDDY did. I still have this DREAMSCAR, as it is a reminder of work accomplished. Now back to the current affair.
I awoke in front of an alter in a immense room of golden brick, with pots of pouring liquid metals-smoke blowing from out of the ground. A place of supreme concentration, but for sure under the EARTH. The walls were gold with strips of stone that had HR GIGER ALIEN WALLPAPER. A golden small nut, like nuts and bolts, that levitated and moved around the room, was a pod that seemed to collect thoughts and vibes from me while it travelled. It would stop and float in place, right in front of my vision and simultaneously PINHEAD'S voice would begin to speak and tell me of the FUTURE. He was attempting to induct me into this realm. "YOU SHALL KNOW THE FUTURE OF MAN, WHICH IS WITHOUT FLESH". He always spoke to me in the same tone of voice that he uses when he says, "WE HAVE SO MANY WONDERFUL THINGS TO SHOW YOU". PINHEAD loves the work he does, he's like a guidance councilor for flesh.
After he was done speaking the golden nut would speed around the room and read my reactions. The whole time I felt in a graceful and intense submission, like there was work that needed to be endured.
Without divulging most of PINHEAD'S actual rap notes, it is easy to relay that he believed a NEW DAWN was coming and that I was not ready for it. He wanted me to know that the symbol for human beings is changing. It's not going to be the same anymore. HE means there will be less material reality, no doubt.
At the time, and still, I have been reading this OUTSIDE THE CIRCLES OF TIME, by Kenneth Grant, that has at many points directed me to understanding this dream. Pinhead is the OTHERSIDE'S manifestation of a messenger. Monsters appear as messengers in your dreams, because they want the person to really wish to hear the message, to get past the difficulty of being so frightened. In CONTACT when Jodie Foster arrives in the Alien world, they create a scene for her that she is comfortable with, a painting that she made of the FLORIDA KEYS; the ALIEN that came to speak with her was her dad. The OTHERSIDE needs representation that this world will respond too.
PINHEAD represents pure thought, as he is about erasing the flesh. Modern Technology seems to be about the same thing. The ridding of physical material. I began to be more excited about being apart of the future. I decided to get a computer and record a new album on it (psyche!). No really, the dreams were frightening, so I decided that I had to incorporate this advent into my life.
I started making music for PINHEAD, giving it to him, sending it mentally to a hidden place within my dreams (the place is a landmark in San Diego, its a place where I go to find Objects of desire). In return he sent me a gift (pictured in the second photo), which I think was him sort of trying to be like, I like your style and I get your vibe. He manifested that boogeyboard with his portrait on it (the first time someone tried to take a picture of it, their camera broke, I am not joking). He is sending me three more bogeyboards, which I realize look a whole lot like African Spiritboards. So we had a correspondence. The dreams stopped and I have invited him into the studio. He's actually spending Christmass with us. Dude, when he opened his first Hanukah (DRAIDLE 12) gift, he started to do that Pandora's box shit and rip it open with rusty chains and giant fish hooks, I was like "PINHEAD, NO!" Our collaboration will be entitled "A NEW IMAGE OF MAN" and the reality check is to continue to embrace this frightening world and to correspond with it.