Rob Buttrum Shows His Abstruse, Dark and Pleasing Art

This Saturday, a presentation of Rob Buttrum's mixed-media abstract paintings that has been in the works since early in the year will be held at the Meme Gallery — a small gallery space attached to Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios.

Four acts will play as part of the exhibit (though on the main stage, not in the gallery itself): Pinkish Black, Vulgar Fashion, Zavod and UR.

"It's mostly an art show, but I still kind of wanted to have the influence of the stuff that I like as far as the weird side of music," Buttrum says, "but I didn't want it to be an all-noise show because I didn't want it to be too much about that."

Fort Worth's Pinkish Black, which Buttrum says is one of his favorite bands, will represent the rock aspect of the bill, Denton's Vulgar Fashion was chosen by Buttrum for their danciness and relative accessibility, and Zavod, the solo project of Denton's Oleg Belogorsky, was included for its faithfulness to the old-school industrial sound.

The fourth act, UR, is an experimental new project by Shane Hutchinson, Heather Hall and Niles Landon that will play its first show Saturday.

"Shane's in two other bands of mine, and he had this project with a friend of his before that I liked, so they said they'd do something new," Buttrum says. "I don't know what it's going to be, but I trust the people doing it."

As for the art itself, Buttrum describes "organic flow, harsh textures, stark contrast and extension of altered consciousness," as being major themes in the works.

The work he has displayed online at flickr.com/photos/robbuttrum/ are very much in keeping with his musical taste, both in the projects of which he's a part and the kinds of acts he booked at House of Tinnitus and continues to book today.

"Abstruse, dark, strange and yet mysteriously pleasing works," — the description used for his art on the event page — is quite appropriate given the sparing use of color and his evocation of feelings of despair and nihilism using very few discernible figures or symbols.

Buttrum's multimedia pursuits also extend to his new label, Out-Of-Body Records, which to date has two tape releases, one of his own project, Filth, and another of a Norwegian harsh noise/tape collage project called Flesh Coffin.

He has two more tapes coming at the end of 2011 and plans to release a compilation by March or April 2012, with about 15 other tapes and seven VHS releases in the pipeline.