They're big and they mean business. Michael Glickman and Allan Brown have recently released a set of large graphical posters depicting famous crop circle designs from the past. Renowned geometer and 'Wooden Books' publisher JOHN MARTINEAU comes out of crop circle retirement to review them...
Crop circles are the most aesthetically pleasing artefacts the human race has had the good luck to behold for a very long time. The fact that the modern art establishment ignores them is testament enough to their beauty, profundity and inspired execution.
It is very hard to compass exactly what it is that a crop circle actually does to you when you look at one, for each formation bestows a total personal experience, with the entire phenomenon then acting upon each one of us in a different way. In my youthful croppiedom I covered my entire office with accurate silhouettes of every crop circle that had ever been documented. As pure forms they seemed to radiate something I have never been able to describe. I have never been the same since.
The new set of six colour posters designed by Michael Glickman and Allan Brown should therefore come with a warning. These are not just the most beautifully conceived and well designed croppie wall hangings ever, they could seriously and permanently alter your vibrations. As I sit writing this I have broken out in a light fever as I try to work out where I am going to hang my review copies, and what changes I am certain to invoke in my life as a result.
A phenomenal attention to detail is present in Glickman's surveys. He lives with meticulously accurate silhouettes plastered all over his house, he does not sleep, he tirelessly and joyfully measures, scales, compares and redraws these extraordinary forms; he knows only too well that a badly measured crop circle can spoil your whole wall. Again, we are in quite deep water here - only initiates need fill in the application form.
On a sliding scale from £16.00 each to £62.00 for all six (which includes postage), these posters are not cheap. They measure 18" by 27" and are printed with lightfast inks onto strong art paper. The complete series shows a total of 70 formations in white silhouette against a background
which varies from poster to poster. The first, called 'Crop Circle Classics', shows ten of the most famous formations up to 1996, while the other five each show twelve formations for each year, from 1997 to 2001. Each poster works exquisitely on its own and the set works beautifully as a whole. I have no doubt more will follow.
Michael Glickman's extensive background in design makes itself manifestly clear in these graphics, and it strengthens my conviction that between the circlemakers and Glickman there exists a particularly fond and happy relationship. He and Allan Brown are to be congratulated. These posters will find their way into offices, restaurants, radical basements and raves. The word is spread.
Crop Circle Posters can be ordered online at:
www.temporarytemples.co.uk/shop/
Or for a postal ordering form, write to: Crop Circle Reality!, PO Box 1188, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 3WF