Magic Window Studios is a concept for a new London art gallery that I’ve been working hard to put together over the last year as anyone who follows this blog will know.
Due to interference and a campaign of intimidation, (related in my previous post) it has not seen the light of day.
I have also encountered other adverse reactions that I have not recorded here.
My intentions were not to make a pot of cash, (though a humble living would have been nice for myself and the other artists).
Instead my dreams were of an aesthetic aspiration, giving exposure to ignored, untrained visionaries and first generation London graffiti pioneers from the roots of our rich urban culture; exploring typography, symbolism, social commentary and archetypes, free from the restrictions of graffiti but freed by it’s energy to explore new dimensions.
I have made a reluctant decision to cancel forthcoming events.
I apologise to those who were to be involved in this project, including artists who have been preparing work and individuals and agencies I had engaged to help. I find it hard to believe that we have faced this level of opposition to something so authentic, and of such interest but this has unfortunately been the case.
……………….
“For better it is to do mighty things, to dream of glorious triumph, even though checked by defeats, than to take part with those poor souls who neither do much, nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory or defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt- January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945
It is with this wisdom in mind and in a spirit of peace that I relate this news.
We kick off part two of this post with the golden age train writer Cazbee 53 from DSS Crew Da Sure Shots, from Ladbroke Grove piecing the outer wall of the MuTate Britain mechanical zoo….Many of Cazbees pieces rolled past this spot on trains,or were under the Westway itself.
Now he’s back 20 years later, along with oldskool steel writers Fuel, Skore, Mear, Crok, Don myself and a few of London’s more new skool to take the vibe back to the raw, enabling a potent and complementary mix of the hardcore underground vibes and tribes….
and back inside for another shot of me and Vibes….
……and onto the wild, diverse art within, here’s Jimmy South of War Boutique
Lyle Doghead, LRRY and friend
Elate, Obey
Anarchist Crockery by Carrie Reichart
In Dog We Trust by Jolly Good, made with real dollar bills…
Vera Bong
Dotmaster
The toilets…
New Arrivals…
What I have posted is a fraction of what is there, you really have to get down to this 12,000 foot space and experience the most revolutionary art happening London, probably even the world has ever seen.
Here’s some more pictures from the MuTate Britain Winter Show. I’m going to be adding a whole load more as a separate post at the weekend at some point as I need to rephotograph stuff to a half decent standard.
This has to be one of the best art exhibitions anywhere ever in my humble opinion and I’m very glad to have had a hand in it….If you like your surrealism apocalyptic your graffiti groundbreaking your grime genuine and your people straight up this is the place for you…..We kick of with Rubbish Fairy and House of Doll
Mear
Skore TRC
Crok
Achy
Towns
Fuel
Joe Rush
Elate Vibes Lyle Doghead and LRRY and Pakka
Lyle Doghead and LRRY and Pakka with plane by Sam Haggerty and Dotmasters
Teddy Baden
Joe Rush
Wreckage International
Joe Rush and others
Sam Haggerty
War Boutique
Joe Rush
Sam Haggerty and Joe Rush
Obey Giant
Wolf and PXL
Andy Seize
Elate Vibes
Dotmasters aka Bagsy
Sam Hagarty and Dotmasters
Liam Cordy
Joe Rush
Mutoid Dave and others…
Elate Cazbee
Pure Indulgence
Families are welcome to this multisensory extravaganza!.
Full dates and opening times below. We look forwarding to seeing you!
Opening times:
Opens December 4th to December 20th – FRI / SAT / SUN
Fri – 2pm -10pm Sat-1pm – 10pm Sun – 12pm-9pm
We are also open 2 Wednesdays for the Portobello Winter Festival on the 9th & 16th December – 6pm -10pm
For those that haven’t heard, the exhibition One Foot in the Grove by Mutate Britain is currently on under the Westway, Ladbroke Grove, West London; each weekend until November the 1st 2009, 12-10pm.
The Westway is where the UK graffiti scene started in earnest when the Clash bought Futura 2000 there to paint in 1982.
The Mutoid Waste Company are a travelling band of punk-squatter mechanic artists led by Joe Rush that infected the acid house party movement with their dark and surreal bio-mechanoid humour, building scrap metal wastelands and delirious mindscapes in a shock juxtaposition of realities guaranteed to give any trip a hair raising edge.
Think Heironymous Bosch versus Tron and you’re getting somewhere…
Inspired by the desolation of the 80s to escape into a parallel post apocalyptic universe they inspired a generation to create, myself included.
Some of the best acid parties I attended in the late Eighties and early Nineties had input from the Mutoid Waste Crew or their many splinter groups Circus Irritant, Circus Warp, Splattered Fantasy etc, these plunged my young, impressionable and highly expanded consciousness into a Bermuda Triangle of anamorphic archetypes, cyborg spectres and grotesque apparitions in parody of human and machine form, fractured and echoed by laser and strobe, syncopated and shaken with deafening electronic bass.
The vibe was always intensely surreal, the most outrageously attired and hideously painted forms appeared from the flickering fog in theatrical convulsions, the music was the most twisted repetitive acid, deep and tribal, which stripped the senses gradually to total derangement, beat after pounding beat, until finally at one with the music the chaotic environment and your inner world became one.
Now twenty years later the Mutoids are under the Westway, and it’s not a squat, the police are not outside, the pounding house and techno has been replaced by an eclectic mix including ragga, reggae, punk, soca and rockabilly and the sweating, swaying trance-dancers have grown into bespectacled media professionals pushing buggys.
They still roll out the 303 acid sound when the fire-breathing machines get loose though…
Their amazing signature art, friendly warm family atmosphere and tongue-in-cheek vibe is however present in abundance, accessible and inspirational to the whole family, exhibited together with an array of street and graffiti art, so when I was asked to come and paint a wall I was honoured to oblige, being able to give something back to the community that gave so much inspiration to me in the mad days of the late eighties and early nineties!
It was very short notice so I improvised with some graffiti letters with a twist ….
There is no doubt in my mind from the captivated expressions on the faces of their visitors that their inspiration will grow into new and exciting ideas in years to come.
Below you will find details of how to get there and when it’s open. It’s one of London’s biggest underground art events ever. So don’t just hear about it, watch the video, read the info, explore the blog and get down to the show! We promise to look after you with our fully licensed bar, delicious food and inclusive festival atmosphere. There honestly, really and truly is no better way to enjoy art.
The London Handstyles book is out now featuring tags by a selection of London graffiti writers from the mid eighties to the present, many who were considerably more prolific than myself. The launch party was on Friday in Rarekind Gallery below Chrome and Black graffiti art supplies shop on Bethnal Green Road by Brick Lane.
It was great to meet certain influential oldskool legends for the first time and to hook up with old friends.
The book is for anyone who wants to know more about the roots of the movement, reminisce about the mad old days or learn how to bomb their name effectively. Here’s a few shots from the party- I’ve posted pics of the handstyles rather than the heads who write ‘em.
Hats off to old school graffiti writer Petro for putting on a smashing opening night. His exhibition is just off Brick Lane at The Old Rag Factory on Heneage Street.
Petro is showing lots of affordable paintings and prints based on the letter-form alongside more quirky and conceptual stuff.
It makes a refreshing change to see artists who are actually passionate and animated by showing their work, that is what it is all about in my book anyway and gave the evening a brilliant atmosphere.
To rock graffiti letters on panels and make it work is hard but Petro pulls it off with awesome style, check the pictures….
Petro’s show is only on this weekend 25th and 26th July 12-7 pm so I would make every effort to get down there if you can possibly manage it. There is a map further down the page, nearest tube Aldgate East,Whitechapel or Liverpool Street.
Andy Seize has been painting graffiti since the eighties now he’s taken pop art to a stunning new level as only an old school graffiti writer could. His show is on until Monday 13th July 2009 from 12 to 4pm
