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Published together for the first time, Electricity And Ghosts features the collected artworks of John Foxx. Beginning with his early art college artworks, the creation of Ultravox! and debut solo album Metamatic, this full colour, 224-page monograph includes reproductions of the many and varied artistic media John has worked in, including drawing, photography, painting, graphic art, sculpture, and collage.



'Foxx’s work is always modern, human and subversive.' Jonathan Barnbrook

Created in collaboration with acclaimed graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook, this beautifully designed book presents his collected art and a unique first-person narrative. Electricity And Ghosts will be available in two versions, one of which is a special, signed edition in a slipcase with a one-off Foxx art print. They can be viewed only at johnfoxxbook.com where subscribing offers a discount when the book goes to pre-order, plus the opportunity of having your name included in the publication.



Foxx's visual language ranges from the reappearing introspective figure of The Quiet Man and the overgrown ruins of Cathedral Oceans to '70s cyber-punk experiments with cut-up imagery. There are also many never-seen-before drawings. 'For me, drawing is a means of understanding,' explains Foxx. ‘It has been the foundation of almost everything I’ve done - including music.'

His book cover illustrations for the likes of Salman Rushdie, Jeanette Winterson and Anthony Burgess have also been collated for the first time, along with photographs of sculptures which Foxx began working on just over ten years ago. 'As digital technologies developed, their uses increased, until almost all the work I was doing - recordings photography, music, art, writing - employed a computer. I came to realise that everything I was working on was locked away behind a glass screen. There was nothing you could touch directly. I decided to try a sculpture week in a stone quarry... Immediately I cut into the stone, a torrent of sensations took me by surprise. I was pitched back into the real world, yet instantly felt connected to thousands of years of human endeavour.’

'Art school was where I first experienced something inexplicable,' says Foxx as he discusses the inspiration for the book’s title and some of the strangely beautiful imagery within it. 'I was staying at a flat on Avenham Colonnade with a girlfriend. We were on the point of breaking up, so things were a little tense. At dawn, we were awakened by a loud crackle of electricity in the corner of the room. Then it happened again, so I went over to where I’d glimpsed a flash of light, supposing some sort of damaged electrical connection. All I found was a slightly damp place on the carpet. No trace of any electrical connection nearby. I remember it felt as though all the unresolved tension in the room had somehow manifested itself in that spot.

'This is only one small example of something indefinable which also feels significant in some way,' he adds. 'Since then, in common with almost everyone else I know, I've had more of these experiences. They keep me gratefully alert to those edges of our lives where things become inexplicable and mysterious...'





Electricity And Ghosts will be published on the 21st of June 2024 by Rocket 88.

For more information please point your browser at the johnfoxxbook.com website...

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Rob

Another instant purchase!

Great news!!

Below is Part One of an interview with John Foxx and Jonathan Barnbrook about the forthcoming Electricity And Ghosts book...