Here’s a clip of me being interviewed about PRINT! Tearing It Up, which is free to visitors to Somerset House in central London until August 22:
Malcolm McLaren introducing scratching to the UK, November 1982
Jun 27th, 2018
“It’s like reconstructing the debris of old pop paraphernalia… what’s exciting about it is that you no longer need to buy guitars. You can choose a friend up the road, put your decks together with a beatbox and make your own records, demoralising [sic] the pop myth and beginning to find a way of using material yourself .”
On November 19 1982, the UK’s national weekly youth music programme The Tube included a segment marking the occasion when the terms (and concepts of) “scratching”, “break-dancing” and “hip-hop” were introduced to a mass British audience for the first time.
Relation of Aesthetic Choice to Life Activity (Function) of the Subject: Billy Apple’s act of appropriation from ARK 33
Jun 26th, 2018
//Relation of Aesthetic Choice to Life Activity (Function) of the Subject, Billy Apple, 1961-2. From Tate Britain//
I’m indebted to Tate Liverpool curator Darren Pih for the connection between a photograph which appeared in ARK 33 – the edition of the Royal College Of Art magazine which was the subject of my last post – and a contemporaneous work by the artist Billy Apple.
‘A somewhat oblique exposée of the Young Ones’: How Ark 33 hit the moment in the turbo-charging of 60s youth culture
Jun 20th, 2018
//Wild youth: Scenes of abandon from Twist Drunk/Drunk Twist in Ark 33. Photos: Keith Branscombe//
//Cover, Ark 33, Autumn 1962. Photography: Keith Branscombe//
The publication of issue 33 of the Royal College of Art’s magazine ARK in the autumn of 1962 hit the moment in terms of the turbo-charging of contemporary youth culture.
Voices of independence: PRINT! films go live
Jun 18th, 2018
Two short films representing the voices of independence in the Somerset House show PRINT! Tearing Up are available online and for visitors to the exhibition.
PRINT! podcasts: Independent magazine pioneers and contemporary movers + shakers
Jun 15th, 2018
As well as the Newsstand (see last post), PRINT! Tearing It Up features three listening booths where visitors to the exhibition can hear podcasts featuring some of the greats of British independent magazine publishing.
PRINT! celebrates the power of the newsstand with a rendition of the Sloane Square kiosk
Jun 15th, 2018
//Visitors to the show browse Newsstand magazines this week. Photo: Somerset House Trust//
//The kiosk on which our Newsstand is based was built for the news vendor at Sloane Square station 30-odd years ago//
Traditional newsstands figure among my favourite examples of London street vernacular architecture (if indeed they qualify as architecture – I’m no expert).
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‘Commercial considerations are secondary to the expression of ideas’: The Drum takes a trip around PRINT!
Jun 14th, 2018
Fluoro DIY: PRINT! booklet with introduction by Claire Catterall, essay by me, design by Scott King + mind map fold-out poster designed by Rhys Atkinson
Jun 13th, 2018
The booklet we have produced to accompany new Somerset House exhibition PRINT! Tearing It Up is in keeping with the show’s fluoro punk aesthetic and DIY theme.
PRINT! Tearing It Up opens at Somerset House
Jun 13th, 2018
//PRINT! is staged in Somerset House’s Terrace Rooms; the exhibition’s graphic identity was created by Scott King. His distinctive fluoro pink logo is on the lightbox at the far end of room 1. Photo: Doug Peters//
//With my wife and PRINT! contributor Caz Facey, rock legend Jimmy Page and poet Scarlett Sabet at the private view this week//
//Each room has wall grids divided into subjects – this, the main wall in room 1, presents magazines expressing dissent and protest. Photo: Doug Peters//
//In the courtyard at Somerset House; socks courtesy Pavement Licker//
//Private view attendees Duggie Fields and Jarvis Cocker. Photo: Martin Green//
PRINT! Tearing It Up – the exhibition at central London’s Somerset House I have organised with the SH Trust’s senior curator Claire Catterall – is now open.
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