Is Jack White's music career as an art project as his interior decorating work?

Obviously, once the white stripes become a secret that Detroit and ordinary American underground organizations can no longer contain, they are unique and special. Captain Jack White, holding a red plastic Airline guitar from the 60s, seemed to be particularly moved by genius. Amidst "sister" (actually ex-wife) Meg's simple drumbeat, he set off a vague torrent of original songs such as "Fall in Love with a Girl" and "Seven Nation Army", regaining their glory In the 1960s, garage punk entered the Billboard Hot 100. The best-selling records he produced also re-established the link between Led Zeppelin's rock and blues that shocked the stadium. They made the former interior decorator from Detroit and his ex-bride famous and very, very wealthy.

Since the release of the breakthrough album White Blood Cells 20 years and 25 days, a new website has been launched. Jack White Art and Design went live on July 28, highlighting most of the previously unknown dimensions of his work. Even a cursory glance at the wealth presented on the website should stimulate rethinking of White's identity: let us now consider White as an "interdisciplinary artist," as the website calls it. Music and songwriting are just two of his mediums, and so far the only medium he has chosen to show us.

Or have they been there? White has been providing us with prying eyes. He designed the cover of every album he released, back to the white stripes. The site provides a series of flyers he produced to promote their early programs, which were quickly completed on Xerox and Letraset. All the graphics are very interesting. Then think about the first white stripe article you read after "Hotel Yorba".

He often talks about how he bases the band and their overall aesthetic on the number three. Jack and Meg wore three colors-red, white and black. All their equipment is in those colors. The same is true for album covers and single sets. He said that his song creation is based on three elements-melody, rhythm and storytelling. Then there is the band itself, centered on his voice, guitar and Meg’s drums. He often says that he likes to add a governor to himself, just to see how creative he can play under these constraints. He called it "limiting his own liberation."

Now consider the title of the second White Stripes album De Stijl. It is named after the Dutch art and architecture movement in the early 20th century, which is known as the local term "style". This style is reductive: by strictly observing colors and forms, insisting on vertical and horizontal, and using only black, white and primary colors, pure abstraction and universality are achieved.

One of the main promoters of De Stijl, architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld, along with American modernist industrial designers Henry Dreyfuss and George Nelson, and pulp magazine/comic book cover painter Norman, is the "influence of Jack White Art & Design Sanders, one of the characters highlighted in the section. People began to notice the clean lines and tough, modern, industrial appearances of everything that White touched, from the 45-sleeve to the interior of his various third-person actions, just look at these influential works.

On the cover of that album, Jack and Meg are dressed in white, standing in a De Stijl style environment with red, white and black rectangles. The back sleeve depicts Peppermint Triple Tremolo, which is an independent mechanical guitar effects unit composed of three Leslie rotary speaker boxes designed and manufactured by White himself. A window shows an oversized starburst mint, mounted on a rotating speaker baffle. This unit is displayed in the "Musical Instruments and Hardware" section of the website, as well as various custom guitars and effect pedals he designed.

"Working with Jack White, watching him work on anything...is to witness the artist's thinking about exploring and solving problems," his nephew Ben Blackwell wrote in a statement in the "About" section. Blackwell is White's right-hand man in all of his businesses, which can be traced back to the establishment of the Third Person Interior Decoration Company in 1996.

"Beauty comes from construction, construction comes from purpose" website is announced when the homepage loads. It’s easy to see what this motto does when you read the different parts of the website carefully. You will especially see his positive aesthetics in "industry" and "interior design", which mainly involves White's various third-person commercial enterprises-the interior decoration shop of Pioneer Building at 2679 E. Grand Blvd Avenue in Detroit. It named all other parts of his empire, recording/photo/mastering studios, stamping factories, various record shops. There are even unprecedented photos of the two Third Man Records headquarters in Detroit and Nashville, all with his unique design imprint. Blackwell wrote that his uncle's brainstorming process was "both inspiring and maddening."

"There is no reason for a building to need soundproof bricks, tin ceilings or shiny yellow floors," Blackwell continued. "But this is not the point. The point is to create beautiful things." He added that White's goal is to "occupies an empty space and imagine what you want, not only visually, but also in space, structure, and experience. And design according to this vision, occasionally turning left, so that architects and contractors and people like me must be alert, they must find a friendly way to say, "No, Jack, I think the fog machine is good for stamping It’s not a good idea for the factory. "

"Then listen to him explain that there is a viewing window, the public is watching, each individual record player is concentrated in the spotlight, saying that he wants to highlight the beauty and film quality in this situation...big Most of the time I find myself saying,'When you say this, it sounds really impressive.'"

There is a series of White's interior decoration works, including his renovation of a sofa owned by Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, which was commissioned by the family of a rock record pioneer. Almost all are modern designs from the mid-century, re-decorated in three different bright colors, redesigned squares and rectangles.

The "Sculpture" area highlights fully functional works, such as a pair of whimsical dog houses built for friends and an industrial cooling device built in 1997, called "Machine Gun Fan", which he continues to keep in Nashville Used in residential upholstery shops.

"Vinyl Concepts" focuses on various unusual records released by Third Man Records, including liquid-filled LPs; three-layer records with transparent vinyl 12-inch discs with 10 inches inside and standard 7 inches inside; and A record with a playable groove on the label.

"Musical Instruments and Hardware" highlights the various guitar and effect pedals he has built for countless music projects, including Gretsch with copper roof and copper hardware, and three-function digital octave pedals with telegraph key triggering. "Film and Director" collected the promotional videos he shot for "Dead Weather" and various industrial-style films made for various third-party companies. When you read about "photography", White's various Polaroid experiments and digital photo series, you start to think, "Of course he can take pictures! What does he not do?"

There is a lot of content. People can spend a few hours immersed in the visual enjoyment inherent in Jack White's art and design, and is struck by the cohesive vision and coherent aesthetics he applies to everything he touches. It is now obvious that he has designed his entire life. Every aspect of his existence is some form of art.

This is reflected in his music: his last band—White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather, and even his personal work—is a complete combination, including graphic design, musical instruments, and clothes worn by all musicians. , And even clothes worn by road workers. Everything he comes into contact with is another medium of work, including all his businesses, the buildings they are in, the internal environment, and even the uniforms worn by his employees. White's life is a work of art. Now we can all appreciate the breadth and depth of online work.

In the latest cover appearance of TØP, the duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun told Maria Sherman what they had done from their early years to the present.