Fine Lines: The Art of Shantell Martin

By Jon Wilks

The lights dim and the musicians onstage whip up a tempest of atonal sound that scolds the crowd into fascinated silence. Welcome to Test Tone, Tokyo's experimental noise scene at its challenging best; certainly not to everyone's taste, but unquestionably at the forefront of the avant garde movement in this country, with improvisational performance at its prowling heart. The hooded saxophonist on stage, flanked by a cellist and a jazz guitarist, wails long and loud as a silver-clad humanoid battles the spindly lines strafing his head. The thin, black lines are why we're here this evening. They are the work of Shantell Martin, one of Test Tone's regular contributors and an artist who is demanding attention with every thought she sketches.

Educated in London, Martin admits that it took a move to Tokyo to discover the talent she now exhibits effortlessly. "I was quite reluctant - even shy - to show people my work," she explains, "but last year I had a mind shift. I found great determination to discover whole new worlds through the aid of my pen and to share them with any country they could wriggle and twist themselves into." That she's found her niche here in Japan is patent when you look at her hectic schedule, and pay heed to the high-profile accolades that keep coming her way. Already exhibited on the TV screens above the Harajuku and Shibuya crossing, Shantell crowned her 2007 with a top-ten position in DJ Mag's Worldwide VJ charts - an amazing achievement for an artist who only began honing her performance 2 years ago.

The artist's style is proudly lo-fi; she considers a 005 Pilot pen, a Moleskine sketch book and a collection of post-it notes her only real neccessities. Her themes are not pre-defined, choosing (in her own soundbite-friendly words) to, "start with one regular line, then simply follow it until it's finished." The images she pens are surrealist visions that put this writer in mind of some of the darker creations to have come out of Studio Ghibli; both playful and disturbing in the same instant, never short on manic detail. Martin has said the creations represent questions that she herself must answer. Seems like she's going to have her work cut out, such is her prolifacy.

During the past two years she's been the artist in residence for Beyond the Valley (London) and ENCADREURS (Tokyo), fashion designers that have featured her art prominantly on their clothing. However, her preferred arena is performance art of the nature we witnessed at Test Tone. Using her treasured notebooks and pens, Martin projects her art-in-progress onto large screens that illuminate the venue, responding to (and providing stimulus for) the musicians and dancers in the main room. She calls it her Pen Paper Projector style - PPP for short - and sees her role as, "connecting the audience with the musicians." It's an obvious hit with both audience and performers alike - the silvery humanoid can't seem to respond quick enough to the webs of ink that dance around him, and her devotees regularly snap tendons in their hurry to hurl the most flattering superlative. Inevitably, the PPP method influences her VJ style, bolstering her position on the frontline of Tokyo's clubbing scene, not to mention the international recognition it recently garnered in DJ Mag.

Ever the interactive adventurer, Martin has recently embarked on a project that might be best described as visual remixing. On the March is a new work in progress, in which the artist invites you to download one of her pictures and "remix" it as you see fit. The finished product should be mailed back to the Martin, who will choose her favorites to exhibit in a Tokyo installation sometime in the coming year." On The March gives artists, fans, anyone the chance to take one of my complete drawings and remix it in their own special way. It's a project that will grow and evolve by itself." As Martin favors the black-line-on-white-paper approach, On the March is a response to audience feedback, much of which focuses on the absence of color. So far, the artist is delighted with the reactions the experiment has provoked. New remixes are regularly featured on her website.

Shantell Martin's pleased with how things are going so far, though she's come to believe, in recent months, that true success can be nurtured much closer to home. "Ever since I was a child, the number 27 has fascinated me," she explains, expounding on the mystery of the ever-present number in her imagery. "At first, just the shape and the sound of it, and then later the idea of eventually becoming that number. I thought that something truly magical would come and zap me from space on my 27th birthday; maybe I would become famous or rich, or stupidly successful. In a way, all that did happen, but just not how I imagined. I got zapped with the realization that it is so important to have - and work on having - a strong, happy, healthy body and mind. True success is only a consequence of this, so that's my next big project."

In the meantime, you can catch Shantell in all her P.P.P. glory at Test Tone Vol. 30, on January 12th, 2008, "adding a little bit of 'London' to Tokyo".

www.shantellmartin.com

Test Tone

Featured in Japanzine early last year, Test Tone is, "a monthly experiment in opening up irregular art, music and performance for new audiences in Tokyo and beyond. Our aim is to provide a space for diverse and challenging artists to take their ideas to a larger creative community. With the spirit of improvisation and collaboration at the heart of Test Tone, we encourage the impossible, the bewildering and the exploration of all forms."

You can find Test Tone at B1F 3-1-25 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku, a stone's throw from Roppongi Hills. For more information, check the website at www.test-tone.com

 

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