//Stills from unedited interview with Malcolm McLaren by Ariel Van Straten, London 1996//

The establishment still aren’t quite able to understand interactive; it’s the street which understands it and is able to use it in a simplistic but very real way. They will be the people who break through; they will make it the most sexy. It won’t be as cerebral as the likes of Peter Gabriel or Eno and that lot.

[Handed underground dance CD]: See look, they’re already emailing, connected to the web, and that’s where it’s all happening.

Web TV, downloading music, graphics and so on is definitely the future, definitely where it is going to go. These guys are on the verge of suggesting in the years to come you won’t purchase your music from shops. Your cultural information is going to come through the Net.

Now it’s about buying the technology so that you can broadcast from your goddamn bedroom across the planet. I think the reason why the industry is holding back is because they know that it is only a question of the technology being affordable and that’s when it will happen.

Malcolm McLaren, London 1996

In the mid-90s photographer Ariel Van Straten interviewed Malcolm McLaren for a film about graffiti art. Entitled Getting Your Name Up, the short was made for a video-only issue of Don’t Tell It magazine, to raise awareness of the plight of Simon Sunderland, who had been jailed for five years for committing criminal damage on the rail network in South Yorkshire using the tag ‘Fista’.

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Tags: Ariel Van Straten, Brian Eno, Don't Tell It, Fista, Jossie Avrats, Nick Clark, Peter Gabriel, Simon Sunderland

//Derek in his element signing books with the blow up of his Bowie silhouette sketch for Lodger reflected behind him. Photo (c) Sarah Lee//

Last night’s book launch and private view for the Derek Boshier monograph and new exhibition at Flowers Gallery in Cork Street, central London, was a great success.

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Tags: Daisy de Villeneuve, David Hockney, Dylan Jones, Flowers Gallery, Jan de Villeneuve, Ops & Ops, Pippa Brooks, Sarah Lee, Steph Jones, Teri Olins

//Framed sketches for CLASH 2nd Songbook with copies of the published work//

//Specially designed by Boshier for the show, Art ‘Til You Drop tote bags and badges will be available along with copies of the monograph Rethink/Re-entry//

The installation of Rethink/Re-entry, the exhibition at central London gallery Flowers showcasing important works by Derek Boshier from the 1970s as well as collages and films made in the last year, is all-but complete.

These shots were taken yesterday as co-curator Guy Brett and I worked with the Flowers team on sequencing and final selection for the show, which opens tomorrow (October 7).

//Three sketches for sleeve of David Bowie’s 1979 LP Lodger//

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Tags: 16 Situations, Clash 2nd Songbook, Daily Mail - Poem Of Hate, David Bowie, Flowers Gallery, Guy Brett, Lodger, Thames & Hudson, The Clash, The Stun

//From Poster, 1977. Note Ford signed the front of the shirt//

I am indebted to IG pal and fan of this blog Kjell Magnusson for this 1977 magazine photo of The Runaways’ guitarist Lita Ford presenting her I Groaned With Pain t-shirt for a raffle in Swedish teen title Poster.

//The Runaways on the cover of Poster No 8, 1977//

//The panel offering the raffle prizes for Poster readers//

In the light of the revelations about the abusive nature of the group’s relationship with the late, unwholesome manager Kim Fowley, Ford’s choice of item for the Poster magazine raffle was less seamy than those made for vocalist Cherie Currie and bass-player Jackie Fox, whose knickers were donated (guitarist Joan Jett sensibly chose a bracelet and drummer Sandy West a miniature drumstick).

//T-shirt with central tear on mint jersey with exterior seaming, unlabelled, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, 1974. 380mm x 365mm. © Malcolm McLaren Estate. Photo: Adrian Hunt//

//I Groaned With Pain t-shirt on pink with twin ball-and-chain chest zip inserts. © Malcolm McLaren Estate//

The I Groaned shirt is one of the series with zips designed by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood and sold through their outlet Sex at 430 King’s Road between 1974 and 1976. The shirt was favoured by female performers of the period, including Viv Albertine, Little Nell Campbell and Chrissie Hynde.

There are two variants of the design in the current exhibition Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges at Southampton’s John Hansard Gallery. One is a very early deliberately ripped example produced in mid-1974 when 430 King’s Road was between names (the decision had been taken to abandon the previous title Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die).

This is why it doesn’t have a label. McLaren had yet to design the distinctive “SEX Original’ woven blue-on-pink tag, which was manufactured under his instructions by a supplier in Portugal.

The other shirt is the same type as Ford’s and does have a label.

I wrote about the genesis and realisation of I Groaned With Pain here.

Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges: Joining The Dots From The Situationist International To Malcolm McLaren is at John Hansard Gallery until November 14. Find out more here.

Tags: Adrian hunt, Cherie Currie, Chrissie Hynde, Jackie Fox, Joan Jett, John Hansard Gallery, Kim Fowley, Kjell Magnusson, Lia Ford, Little Nell, Poster, Poster magazine, Sandy West, SEX, Situationist International, The Runaways, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Viv Albertine

The publication of Derek Boshier: Rethink/Re-entry and the opening of the companion exhibition next week are marked by an interview with the artist in the the UK’s Sunday Times.

Pointing out that recognition for Boshier’s achievements is long overdue, writer Dan Cairns’ piece covers the 60s Pop years, Boshier’s work with The Clash and David Bowie and his continuing and energetic immersion in all aspects of art and multimedia.

“Nearing 80, Boshier is still engaged, making films on his iPad, collecting ideas, grappling with the world around him,” writes Cairns.

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Tags: Christopher Logue, Culture, Dan Cairns, Flowers Central, Gear, Rob Tufnell, Sunday Times, Tom Salter

//Derek Boshier with his work The Dinner Party. Photo: Marissa Roth//

Next Thursday (October 8) I will be in conversation with artist Derek Boshier at Flowers Gallery in Cork Street in London’s Mayfair.

This marks the publication of Rethink/Re-entry, the Boshier monograph I have edited, as well as the exhibition of the same name I am curating at Flowers with the writer/curator Guy Brett.

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Tags: Cork Street, David Bowie, Flowers Gallery, The Clash

//Viewing exhibits in Gallery 2 at John Hansard Gallery. Pic JHG//

The opening of new exhibition Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges: Joining The Dots From The Situationist International To Malcolm McLaren at the weekend was a great success.

//Visitors Nick Abrahams + Suze Malyon with their dog Mrs Shufflewick//

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Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Asger Jorn, Barry Martin, Cath Slessor, David Thorp, Derek Harris, Guy Debord, Jean Francois Carly, John Hansard Gallery, King Mob, Mrs Shufflewick, Nick Abrahams, Richard Cabut, Saaya Nohara, Stephen Foster, Suze Malyon, Tony Drayton, William Burroughs

To celebrate today’s opening of the exhibition Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges: Joining The Dots From The Situationist International To Malcolm McLaren, this rare footage of McLaren talking about the genesis of the bondage trousers design has been issued by the Malcolm McLaren Estate through Dazed Digital.

The film is entitled Subversive Trousers and is from Being Malcolm, which was written and performed by McLaren and produced with Première Heure for Canal Jimmy. The series won a prestigious French TV award.

//From today’s Guardian Guide//

Among the many rare items in the exhibition are materials related to McLaren’s collaboration with graphic artist Jamie Reid, as demonstrated by the exhibits below.

// Sex Pistols -Fuck Forever. Design by Jamie Reid for Great Rock N Swindle, 1979, produced as t-shirt by Reid 1987, with source of image, front cover of Picturegoer, January 1959, and original copy of Leaving The 20th Century, Christopher Gray’s collection of Situationist texts designed by Reid, 1974//

Read Dazed Digital on the show is here .

The Guardian Guide’s preview here.

Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges opens today (September 26) and runs until November 14.

Find out more here.

Tags: Being Malcolm, Canal JImmy, Christopher Gray, Great Rock N Swindle, Jamie Reid, John Hansard Gallery, Leaving The 20th Century, Picturegoer, Sex Pistols Fuck Forever

The exhibition guide for Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges – which opens this Saturday (26th) at Southampton’s John Hansard Gallery – is in the style of a map, as a riff on the psychogeographic tendencies of the Situationists (maps produced by their figurehead Guy Debord are among our exhibits).

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Tags: Adrian hunt, Contre le cinéma, Fred Vermorel, Guy Debord, John Hansard Gallery, Paris Capital of the XXIst Century, The Naked City

DÉTOURNÉD PAINTING

Intended for the public. Easy reading

Collectors and museums,
be modern
If you have old paintings,
do not despair.
Keep your memories
But detourne them
So they correspond to your time
Why reject the old [paintings]
If one can modernize them?
With a few brushstrokes
Modernize your old culture
Be up to date
and distinguished at the same time
Painting is over
Better give it the final blow
Detourne
Long live painting

Asger Jorn, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Rive Gauche, Paris, May 1959. Translation: Young Kim.

Among the pertinent exhibits of our forthcoming show Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges is the statement disavowing traditional approaches to artistic creation made by the Danish artist and writer Asger Jorn in the late 50s.

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Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Asger Jorn, Fin de Copenhague, Gallery International, Guy Brett, Internationale Lettriste, John McCready Archive, Let It Rock, Mémoires, New Musical Express, Parade, Peel + Lift, Ten Gauge City, Vivienne Westwood, William Burroughs, Worlds End