Scrawled: PROFOUND LORE SXSW SHOWCASE 2011

Profound Lore is a label I respect greatly and to my mind is one of the best examples of what constitutes a truly contemporary "extreme" music label. Featuring a diverse roster of artists, PL is defined less by a specific sound but rather by its attitude; a refusal to bow to trends and sense of exploration is key here.

When the opportunity to work on this poster arose I was initially excited and then daunted. Instead of advertising a headlining band, or creating visuals with an existing singular aesthetic to use as a starting point I was charged with the task of creating imagery that could represent the diversity of sounds at this event - or at least avoid grounding the imagery too deeply in one particular genre.

In contrast to my usual approach to poster design in which I derive the core idea from the bands existing work, I approached this very much as an "art print with type". Whilst I initially toyed with the idea of drawing from Norse myth for the core concept (the venue is called Valhalla), I quickly realised that this might steer it too much in what could be perceived as a strictly "Black Metal" direction. Thematically I felt that I needed an open ended, malleable concept...one that was subject to interpretation. Over the last couple of years I keep being finding myself being drawn to certain recurring concepts, often involving various primal goddess archetypes. Even when reading up for other seemingly unrelated projects the names of both Lilith and Medusa kept cropping up, so I decided to take the hint and explore this.

(i) Sketch development. Once I had done my reading and kicked the idea about for a couple of days, I made a start on the actual design. First I did a series of very rough thumbnail sketches, choosing one of these (top left) to use as a guide for the composition. The 3-panel layout and text placement was inspired by the design work of Vienna Secessionist artists - Klimt in particular - but in breaking the panel borders and spilling the illustration across the lines it perhaps has more in common with modern comic book layouts.

The figures of Lilith and Medusa share many traits, and in an effort to be concise I'll skim over these and leave it up to interested parties to explore this in more detail themselves. Both are Cthonic (underworld) deities. Both have two sisters. Serpent imagery is common to both, as is the presence of wings (these being on the brow in the case of later depictions of Medusa). Both are strongly associated with the "demon star" called Algol. Perhaps more important to my own brief was the mutability of these ancient presences; both Lilith and Medusa seem to perform different functions throughout history. On one hand they are the focus of our darkest fears, whereas other modern observers see them as agents of initiation and even liberation. In this latter sense, Lilith/Medusa becomes almost akin to the Tarot figure of The High Priestess (this connection in turn helped dictate some of the other imagery here, the side panels becoming symbolic of the twin pillars Boaz and Jachin).

(ii) H.Niger. Black hellebore, lyons fote, pedelyon, Christmas rose

"Eastern Alps, but widely naturalized. Used by mankind since neolithic times, and probably as a garden plant since Roman days. Prehistoric burials sometimes contain seeds and capsules, but usage may have been as an arrow poison (it was still used by the Gauls), or for religous, medical or magical purposes. Some of these survived until recently; it was a cure for madness, melancholy and hypochondria well into the seventeenth century, and was planted into modern times by cottage doors as a protection from spells." Excerpt from Plants from the Past : Old flowers for new gardens. David Stuart and James Sutherland.