That is an unusual exhibition for an unusual man, brought together by German tattooer Dr Notch at Fort Notch, in the german city of Marl. 165 artists from all corners of the world paid tribute to the regretted rock’n’roll british legend and ex-frontman of the band Motörhead: Lemmy. To be seen until February.
What response did you receive to this idea of a tribute to the music legend ?
There are180 submissions by 165 Artists from countries like: France, Italy, Romania, Spain, Croatia, Serbia, Switzerland, Greece, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Belarus, England, Scotland, Brazil, USA, Canada, South Africa, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia and Germany.160 of the participating artists are tattooers, there is 5 participants from different Art disciplines, like cartoonists and painters, that joined the event. The enthusiasm about this topic might be explained with the intergenerational effect of the musical life of Mr. Ian Fraser Kilmister, aka as Lemmy.
You’re talking about intergenerational effect, was the feedback you received from both the older and the new generation ?
I was quite surprised that a lot of the younger artists that were invited to participate in this project, came up with some amazing pictorial homages, honouring Lemmys life.
Why was Lemmy so fascinating do you think? Because of its toughness and aggressive music?
I personally don’t see a whole lot of toughness or aggression in the music that Lemmy played in his life. I grew up in a harsher musical environment than Motörhead, but Lemmy’s music of course always touched me, as being as straight forward as can be. There always has been a lot of wisdom and street credibility in his lyrics as well. His style of playing Bass has always impressed and influenced me as a young HC Punk musician.
How did you choose the tattooers?
I chose the tattooers of my personal list of friends I met throughout my countless journeys all over the planet. In 34 years of Tattooing, I spent 8 years travelling, I had over 60 different artists from all over the world guest spotting at Top Notch Tattooing in the past three decades. In January 2019 I sent out 400 invitation cards all with a personal note written on them, amongst the tattooing community known to me.
Lemmy had tattoos. Did you contact the tattooers who tattooed him?
I contacted Henk (Schiffmacher from Amsterdam), but he didn’t reply. Kat von D I don’t know. No reason for me to contact her… I am part of the generation of Tattooers from before it was known on Television…
What kind of artworks did you receive?
The variation of works that we received here at Fort Notch is unseen I believe. It is hard to tell which one is the weirdest, loudest, largest or most scandalous one. During the process of receiving and unpacking them, I often felt like a little child unpacking Christmas Gifts. There are classic paintings, done in known techniques used by tattooers, like ink and acrylic watercolour paintings on thick paper, Sculptures, three-Dimensional wood cuttings, classical acrylic and oil paintings, there is a multilayer painting in epoxy, there is hardly anything this exhibition doesn’t have!
Are there specific artworks that really surprised you?
A lot of the submissions that were sent in by female participants of this project really blew my mind. I was touched how much love Artists like Camilla Croft from Australia or Astrid Köpfler from Germany put into their contributions. The submission of Würzburg based Artist Marode, a multilayer painting worked into liquid epoxy is absolutely stunning and clever!
What are the stories behind all these drawings, paintings, etc.?
Martin Radtke an Artist from Lindau in Germany submitted a mind-blowing Oil Painting to this project. During the Vernissage on December 7 th Martin was here and he told me that he had seen Motörhead 42 times as a young man. He partied with Lemmy various times, spent many hours with the man, was taken on their tour bus, that took a different route to drop him of in Frankfurt… Martin told many personal stories he had with Lemmy, I was truly impressed by his humble way of telling his personal ties to the man we dedicated this exhibition to. The stories behind the artwork shown in this tribute could fill pages!
Which Lemmy do the people liked the most, according to the artworks ?
This is hard to tell… there is one mixed media on wood panel painting, called “No voices in the sky” by Hans Sures, a painter from London, that seems to be a true womanizer! All female visitors of our exhibition immediately fall in love with it.
What's your favorite album and why?
I like Motörhead’s first couple of Albums with Phil and Eddie the best. They were super tight playing as a trio. No sleep till Hammersmith, played very loud is still an unmatched piece of coolness and a wall of sound.
The place where you’re having the exhibition is not usual.
The exhibition takes place in my living room. I live in an old coal minors building in the former very industrial area of Germany, the Ruhr District. I bought this house 28 years ago, it is located in my hometown Marl, where I opened my Studio “Top Notch Tattooing” in 1989. In 2013 I moved my Studio into a new building in the backyard of my property. The total space of “Fort Notch” is about 1000 square meters, it contains various buildings, workshops, my Tattoo Studio and a Living Room Gallery. You can visit the exhibition until February 2 nd 2020 at Fort Notch, Heyerhoffstr.11a, 45770 Marl in Germany. https://www.top-notch.org https://www.instagram.com/fortnotch/
