Punish the Streets opening night at  New Art Projects, Hackney, East London, January 2019

Punish the Streets opening, New Art Projects, Hackney, East London, January 2019

The art year in off and running then, off with a touch of beautifully chaotic style with some art, some fashion, some club culture, some people watching at the rather packed opening last Thursday night at New Art Projects – Fred Mann’s place over by the canal and Broadway Market – the art year off to a good start over in Hackney with a rather exciting show called Punish The Streets – “an exhibition that celebrates a decade of vFd in Dalston and highlights the amazing influences that flow between club culture, art and fashion” – you see it really was as much about the people, the people watching, the clothing, the colour of the crowd, as it was about the art on the walls – it was about the conversations, the atmosphere, the event – yes it was very much in an art gallery and (mostly) white walls and there wasn’t any loud banging music and no it wasn’t about turning te sapce into a club, this is very much an art exhibition, but there was lots people and clothes or rails and boots and hair and noise and people and flyers and torn posters and photos from the nights and friends who hadn’t seen friends for ages, it felt like a really good way to use an art gallery, it felt like a really good art show

Punish the Streets opening, New Art Projects, Hackney, East London, January 2019

Who knows if it will feel as good beyond the opening night? Who knows if it will work as a formal gallery show that runs until the start of March? Who knows how interesting the art on the walls actually as it moves beyond the opening event? Will work beyond the opening? Is worth going again? Not everything on the walls is brillaint beu there are good things to be found in amongst the art of Travis Alabanza, Dave Baby, John Lee Bird, James Davis, Maryam Eiser, CHRISTEENE, Dr Noki. Ismail Erbil, In Flames, Karen Finley, Jamie Macleod, Stuart McKenzie and James Jeanette, Dusty O, Kembra Pfahler, Jonas Ranson, Holly Revell, Angel Rose, Sue Tilley, Julie Verhoven, Jenkin van Zyl and more but things certainly did buzz on the opening night. The title ‘Punish the Streets’ apparently refers to “transgressive bodies and cultures that challenge norms. It describes a process that vFd, in one way or another has inspired, nurtured and cultivated in the last 10 years. vFd is a collective, a plot, a movement, a subject and a culture”, it felt just right on the opening night, a damn fine start to the London art year.

Punish the Streets opening, New Art Projects, Hackney, East London, January 2019

Here’s a little more from the press release….

Club culture creates its own necessities. It is a free and perpetually drifting space, which is constantly changing. The exhibition will bring together a number of people who have long been at the centre of vFd’s history, some who have passed through and others who continue to shape it.

The participating artists have created new works for vFd10 that form an exciting and compelling exhibition including painting, drawing and installation.‘Punish the Street’ is also a celebration of vFd’s notorious and glorious times and also features film footage, music videos and original artwork from the club’s extensive archive. In this way it pieces together the way designers, artists, DJs, poets and performers have imagined vFd’s possibilities in the past and present.

Punish the Streets opening, New Art Projects, Hackney, East London, January 2019

The exhibition also includes works form the Vogue Fabrics Archive by: Ralf Obergfell, Kary Kwok, David Hoyle, Charles Jeffrey, Jack Appleyard, Victoria Sin, Judy Blame, Lavinia Co-Op, Piers Atkinson, Noel Stewart, Laura Bethan Wood, Maxi Moore, Idris Khan, Lorenzo Rossi, Samuel Collins, Christa Holka, Adrian Laurie, Kristina Gedris, Rebecca Thomas, Anal House Meltdown, Cockheart, Dirtbox, Hot Boys Dancing Spot, Tall Gay Agenda, Femmetopia, Loverboy, Sassitude, Straight Nasty, Spokenword, Naked Boys Reading, WERK, ICY gays, Vogue Goes Rogue, R N She, Howlers, Sunday Funday, while the Lost and Found Rail features Gareth Pugh, Idris Khan, David Hoyle, Craig Lawrence, Alexander McQueen , Piers Atkinson, Azzedine Alaia, Miss Hernia, Miu Miu, Mitch Walson, Kim Howells  (sw)

New Art Projects is at 6d Sheep Lane, Hackney, London, E8 4QS.  Just beside Broadway Market, not far from the Regents Canal and a stone’s throw from Beck Road and that faded door. Punish The Streets runs until march 2nd

Click on an image to enlarge or to run the fracture slide show and get a tiny bit of the badly photographed flavour…