Eyestorm
Britart Gallery, 18 Maddox Street, London W1S 1PL
13th June
– 2nd July 2005
nearest
tube: Oxford Circus
open:
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 11am-5pm
tel:
020 7659 0860
site:
www.britart.com
In celebration
of HRH The Queen’s birthday the eyestorm britart gallery presents
works from Jamie Reid, the man that put a safety pin through Her Majesty’s
lower lip.
The show
will feature the original collage of the Sex Pistol's 'God Save The
Queen' image - on display for the first time ever in London and also
the first time the original work has been for sale anywhere, ever.
Artist,
Situationist, druid, activist, Jamie Reid is the man responsible for
the Sex Pistols legendary 'Never Mind the Bollocks' artwork and the
man who ‘cut and pasted’ the Punk movement of the late 70’s.
Loved and
loathed, he visually epitomised the D.I.Y punk ethic with his own form
of visual anarchy. Reid's unique re-mixing of 1960's imagery with 1970's
Punk ethic creates an unsurpassed anarchistic feel. Royalty and screen
icons are defaced without regard for the consequences, mocking both
authority and sexuality. The result is a resounding swipe at the institutions
which threatened to swallow the few ounces of creativity Britain still
contained.
The exhibition
features print work in his famous pop-art style which Reid actually
developed for a self-published 'zine ‘Suburban Press’. He
had to produce 'really fast, quick imagery' on a tiny budget. This resulted
in cutting out letters from newspapers and, as the underground movement
began to grow, Punk's unofficial godfather, Malcolm McLaren summoned
Reid to create the images presented in the exhibition. The cut-ups,
cut-outs and collages dating from the Suburban Press era were turned
into the radical, arrogant artworks which defined the Sex Pistols, Punk
and 1977.
