The exceptional Lars Sundestrand
When I was but a young fanzine editor in the mid 1980s I had two concrete sources of inspiration. One was Jonas Almquist’s Anarki & Kaos, and the other was Lars Sundestrand’s Funtime. They both influenced my own fanzine endeavor Lollipop, albeit in different ways.
As I was also a die-hard Leather Nun fan, I befriended Jonas. At times I almost felt like a Leather Nun mascot, as I travelled around to see as many of their amazing concerts as possible. Lars was situated in Gothenburg, and although I spent a fair bit of time there we never really met until much later. Some thirty years later. But then we really got along well together, and to the extent that I wanted to make a documentary film about Lars and his work.
This became the film Jag är som flugan på väggen – En film om Lars Sundestrand (2020). I am very pleased with this film, as it not only shows a lot of his excellent work, but also gives an insight into the man himself. You can watch it for free on YouTube – alas, only in Swedish!
Slightly before this, we also worked on a book together called To Become Who You Are – Funtime interviews, documents, photos and more with Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and Monte Cazzaza (2019). It was a lavish art book containing material from Funtime, as well as Lars’ fantastic photos, and personal correspondence with Genesis from both TG and PTV eras. Amazing stuff! Industrial Music Excitables!
As the film was released, we also made editions of some of his lovely photos, and some are actually still available from the Trapart site. Have a look:
Genesis P-Orridge, London 1979.
Genesis P-Orridge, London, 1980
Genesis P-Orridge, London, 1982
Joe Strummer, Mont de Marsan 1977
As you can see when you roam around the Trapart site, we have a lot of nice photos and editions, as well as many original artworks for sale. But as I have recently been on a Lars Sundestrand “kick,” I just wanted to let you know that copies of these amazing images are still available… How about that?
Vade Ultra!
Carl
P.S. The portrait of Lars was taken by me when we were shooting the film in the summer of 2018.