The Conformist: A vibrant, eccentric, chaotic delight – miss out at your peril!
//Leporello for The Conformist featuring (far left), David Parkinson’s unusual entry in his 1970 photography degree show at London’s Regent Street Poly//
//Paul Kindersley at last night’s exhibition opening//
The Conformist – artist Paul Kindersley’s counter intuitively-titled group show about non-conformity of expression from Emma, Lady Hamilton and Aubrey Beardsley to Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Julie Verhoeven – opened with a bang last night with a private view at Mayfair’s art and jewellery space Belmacz.
//Me with artist John Frankland and cabaret star Eve Ferret with puppets made by Marvin Gaye Chetwynd for the 2014 film Vision Verticale//
//A selection of Rose Wylie’s works//
//One of Leigh Bowery’s kirby grip jackets hovers over the PV crowd and (left) a screen showing Kindersley’s Lady Hamilton’s Attitudes (2014)//
//At one stage there was a boot off between (clockwise from top): Kindersley, me, Caz Facey and Julia Muggenburg//
//A view of the David Parkinson wall from the stairs//
Belmacz’s Julia Muggenburg and Kindersley roped me in on certain aspects of the exhibition including a wall dedicated to the late fashion photographer David Parkinson and the inclusion of a work from the Malcolm McLaren Estate archive: a first-run I Groaned With Pain t-shirt made with Vivienne Westwood in the summer of 1974 for sale in their shop Sex.
//10 Parkinson works provide a backdrop for two framed photographs and the guitar mirror from Let It Rock which featured in spread for a 1973 issue of Club International//
//Kindersley with Valerie Allam//
One of Malcolm McLaren’s own I Groaned With Pain t-shirts//
I also hooked them up with one of our greatest living non-conformists, Jah Wobble, who has supplied a soundtrack for the show which includes his masterly musical take on William Blake’s poem Tyger, Tyger. Wobble will also take part in a panel discussion I am hosting on March 24.
//Both sides of the leporello//
Belmacz has cleverly produced a leporello with examples of works on one side and a must-read overview by James Cahill on the other.
With pieces by the late Leigh Bowery, milliner Stephen Jones and stylist extraordinaire Judy Blame, revelatory art by the 89-year-old Rose Wylie and much, much more, The Conformist is a vibrant, eccentric, chaotic delight. Miss out at your peril.
//Selfridges’ verdict: “A serious study in eccentric style”//
The Conformist runs until April 16 at Belmacz, 45 Davies Street, Mayfair, London. More details here.