http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw1dj7tPvhcWatch the video for PJ Harvey's The Orange MonkeyShot by Seamus Murphy as the pair travelled through Afghanistan, here’s the latest and last in Harvey’s Hope Six Demolition Project series
The Guardian
PJ Harvey is an artist with many talents. Already an established singer, songwriter, guitarist, saxophonist, autoharp player and, err, bouzouki-ist, the musician recently added a new skill to her repertoire: reportage. Travelling to Afghanistan, Kosovo and areas of Washington DC with film-maker and photographer Seamus Murphy for The Hope Six Demolition Project, the interviews and observations from these field trips inspired not only her latest album, but also a book of poetry and photographs called The Hollow of the Hand, an installation in which the public were able to watch Harvey and her group create the album live in London’s Somerset House, a documentary film and a series of videos.
Following The Wheel and The Community of Hope, the final video from the series is The Orange Monkey. Directed by Murphy, the footage was shot in Afghanistan, as the pair travelled through Kabul, Parwan, Nangarhar and Helmand provinces on a geopolitical excavation of the country.
“I try to reflect the song’s tune and mood, which means tapping into emotion. I find emotion a truer compass than intellect when it comes to finding images and creating sequences for music,” says Murphy of the collaboration. “The Orange Monkey has warm, earthen colours with a pleasant, unrushed feel to it. There’s an underlying melancholy, which is leavened by the strength and energy of the Afghan people. We know there is tragedy but what we see is resilience.
“The country is different each time; different politics, different conditions, different dangers and then there’s the physical differences brought about by the change in seasons. Songs get drawn from many experiences and events in a writer’s life and some elements could equally fit other songs about other things. Films work in similar ways. Would the shot of the baker drinking his sabz chai [green tea] be any different had it been taken on an earlier or later trip? This film comes from work made over several recent trips but also from a reservoir of memories dating back to my first visit to Afghanistan in 1994.”
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/02/video-pj-harvey-the-orange-monkey#img-1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbq4G1TjKYghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlQlbJnAmg4Polly Jean Harvey, MBE (born 9 October 1969), known as PJ Harvey, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, writer, poet, and composer. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments.
Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined local band Automatic Dlamini as a vocalist, guitarist, and saxophone player. The band's frontman, John Parish, would become her long-term collaborator.[3] In 1991, she formed an eponymous trio and subsequently began her professional career. The trio released two studio albums, Dry (1992) and Rid of Me (1993) before disbanding, after which Harvey continued as a solo artist. Since 1995, she has released a further nine studio albums with collaborations from various musicians including John Parish, former bandmate Rob Ellis, Mick Harvey, and Eric Drew Feldman and has also worked extensively with record producer Flood.
Among the accolades she has received are the 2001 and 2011 Mercury Prize for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) and Let England Shake (2011) respectively—the only artist to have been awarded the prize twice—eight Brit Award nominations, six Grammy Award nominations and two further Mercury Prize nominations.
Rolling Stone awarded her 1992's Best New Artist and Best Singer Songwriter and 1995's Artist of the Year, and listed Rid of Me, To Bring You My Love (1995) and Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. In 2011, she was awarded for Outstanding Contribution To Music at the NME Awards. In June 2013, she was awarded an MBE for services to music.
Outside her better-known music career, Harvey is also an occasional artist and actress. In 1998 she appeared in Hal Hartley's film The Book of Life[118] as Magdalena — a modern-day character based on the Biblical Mary Magdalene — and had a cameo role as a Playboy Bunny in A Bunny Girl's Tale, a short film directed by Sarah Miles, in which she also performs "Nina in Ecstasy",[119] an outtake from Is This Desire? (1998). Harvey also collaborated with Miles on another film, Amaeru Fallout 1972, which includes Harvey performing a cover of "When Will I See You Again."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STxXS5lLunENon-musical endeavours
Harvey is also an accomplished sculptor who has had several pieces exhibited at the Lamont Gallery and the Bridport Arts Centre. In 2010, she was invited to be the guest designer for the summer issue of Francis Ford Coppola's literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story. The issue featured Harvey's paintings and drawings alongside short stories by Woody Allen. Speaking of her artistic contributions to the magazine in 2011, Harvey said: "the first opportunity I ever had to show any work was in this magazine. They were drawn while I was writing and recording the record (Let England Shake). It does relate to the record in the way the cycle keeps happening."
In December 2013, Harvey gave her debut public poetry reading at the British Library. On 2 January 2014 PJ Harvey guest-edited BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
In October 2015, PJ Harvey published her first collection of poetry, a collaboration with photographer Seamus Murphy, entitled The Hollow of The Hand. To create the book, PJ Harvey and Seamus Murphy made several journeys to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington DC. Seamus Murphy had previously worked with PJ Harvey to create 12 Short Films for Let England Shake.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PJ_Harveyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ReW0jJkag8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzwG3r9_L9oThe Abandoned Village
by PJ Harvey
I thought I saw a young girl
between two pock-marked walls.
I looked for her in the white house
that crumbled mud from its falling roof.
On a nail in the kitchen
a threadbare apron.
The husk of a corn doll
hung from the ceiling.
I asked the doll what it had seen
I asked the doll what it had seen
I looked for the girl upstairs. Found
a comb, dried flowers, a ball of red wool
unravelling. A plum tree grew through the window,
on the window ledge a photograph
in black and white, but her mouth is missing,
perished and flaked to a white nothing.
I asked the tree what it had seen
I asked the tree what it had seen
The Hollow of the Hand by PJ Harvey and Seamus Murphy review – an elusive journal
