Potential Architecture at Ambika P3
This handsome fold-out poster is for the exhibition Potential Architecture, which opens at London’s Ambika P3 on March 11.
Author: Paul Gorman
I Can’t Breathe: Pussy Riot with Richard Hell, Shahzad Ismaily (The Ceramic Dog), Scofferlane, Jack Wood, Andrew Wyatt + Nick Zinner
I received a message from Richard Hell: “Check out this wildness.” So I did. It’s I Can’t Breathe, Pussy Riot’s first English-language release, about the furore surrounding the death last year of Eric Garner. Hell recites Garner’s final words on the track. “It felt weird to speak the words of a black man killed by […]
Pastiche, parody + plain forgery: How original McLaren/Westwood punk graphics have spawned a weird, twilit sub-strata of bad outsider design
//Banal content: More examples of previously non-existent designs marketed as McLaren/Westwood originals – complete with Seditionaries-style labels – from a Chinese retailer’s site last year. Note the design at bottom left has a fake label whereas the one at the top of this post does not// //Above: A selection of more of the crude new […]
Funky but chic: Roxy in Kensington Church Street + the Ken Todd connection
I’ve been aware of the existence of the Kensington boutique Roxy for some time, particularly since the store name was used as the title of the feature on London street fashion in a 1972 edition of Japanese magazine An An. But my curiosity was pricked recently while browsing that same issue of An An which […]
A pop culture treasure trove: Freddie Hornik’s Granny Takes A Trip scrapbook
I have just filed a piece for GQ about Granny Takes A Trip and the branches of the King’s Road boutique which opened in the 70s in Manhattan and Hollywood under the stewardship of the late Freddie Hornik. The feature also scrutinises the scrapbook Hornik maintained from the mid-60s, when he worked at the rival […]
A Strong Sweet Smell Of Incense: Derek Boshier at the Robert Fraser show
Derek Boshier’s 1966 work Sam Spade is given prominence in A Strong Sweet Smell Of Incense, the exhibition dedicated to the connoisseurship of the late art dealer Robert Fraser. Boshier was a client until he foreswore painting for a decade or more in 1968. This was a particularly difficult period for Fraser, who was jailed […]
Tender + tough: Jean-Francois Carly’s Surrender After portraits
Surrender After is the title of photographer/director Jean-Francois Carly’s show of nudes opening at Forge & Co in east London next week.
Roberta Bayley x Richard Hell x Jake Riviera + 1 Cadillac Eldorado = Road Trip USA in the new GQ
“I’m forever grateful for Jake for giving us the opportunity. It was magical that he wanted to encourage Roberta and me to use our abilities in a new way. Just another example of his beautiful style.” Richard Hell The new issue of GQ UK contains my piece about the quixotic 1980 US road trip undertaken […]
Started in 1986, recently completed portrait of Thea Porter celebrates show at London’s Fashion & Textile Museum
There’s a nice story behind this portrait of the late fashion designer Thea Porter, whose talents are celebrated at the just-opened exhibition at London’s Fashion & Textiles Museum. During preparations for the exhibition and the accompanying book, the curator and fashion historian Laura McLaws Helms visited British artist Penny Slinger, who had made feathered masks […]
Talking Interiors with The Photo Kid tonight: International Orange – When Attitudes Become Form
Looking forward to this evening’s lecture by designer Ben Kelly at his alma mater, the Royal College Of Art.