Jimi Hendrix was an innovative musician and performer who had a profound influence on the music scene in the late 60’s. His reputation soon spread, and the rock elite, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, The Stones and Beatles amongst others, all flocked to see him perform in the London clubs and theatres. Hendrix was of mixed black and Cherokee Indian descent, an enigmatic, exotic figure whose musical origins were firmly rooted in the American blues tradition. For the young white musicians, he was the ‘real thing’.
I wanted this work to reflect different aspects of the man, the time and the place. I used found objects, contrasts of pattern, style, colour and texture to suggest these qualities.
The brick walls and dilapidated corrugated fences posted with flyers advertising concerts at the ‘Saville Theatre’, signs of a city undergoing development from a war that ended less than thirty years earlier are contrasted with the colour, energy and optimism of the so called ‘Summer of Love’.
A facsimile of the antique military jacket that I always associate with Hendrix is evident, as well as the opulent velvets, Liberty prints, rich textures and colours then currently fashionable.The bone breastplate alludes to his Cherokee blood.
The leopard print signifies the graceful, feline qualities evident in his performance, whilst the burnt fuel-can, matchbox and fragment of guitar refer to the few occasions when he immolated his guitar. The ‘Strat’ fragment was based on a model he burnt at the ‘Saville Theatre’, unusual in that it was a red-painted model, which he had partially sprayed white prior to decorating with psychedelic designs.
The richly decorated ‘Japanese lacquer’ headstock is ornamented with dancing figures based on the carved friezes that adorn the façade of the ‘Saville’, whilst the orange velvet ‘flames’ and scorched ‘Stars and Stripes’ allude to America’s involvement in Vietnam, and the civil unrest in Hendrix’s homeland.
The Georgian façade is of 23 Brook Street, London, a house where Hendrix lived, his only permanent English residence; the building has recently been marked with a blue plaque to commemorate his occupancy!
The small butterfly refers to the ‘Butterfly Effect’ theory. Hendrix had that effect, causing a ’storm’ in the music scene, the effects of which still influence musicians to this day, almost forty years after his premature death in 1970.