ICA London Announces Artists For A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s To Now

The ICA have announced the full list of artists and designers taking part in a major new off-site project at The Old Selfridges Hotel in London entitled A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now. Gilbert & George, House of Beauty & Culture, Tom Dixon, Jeffrey Hinton, Bodymap, St John, Alexander McQueen, Martino Gamper, Julie Verhoeven, Giles Deacon, Charlie Porter, Chisenhale Gallery, Lucky PDF, Vogue Fabrics Nightclub, Sibling, J W Anderson, Bethan Laura Wood, Matthew Darbyshire and Louise Gray are amongst the 60 influential figures from London’s creative scene involved in the project.
 
An exciting series of free weekly talks and events will take place over the course of the six-week duration and partners and speakers include award winning SHOWstudio, renowned designer Tom Dixon and the Warhol Museum.         
 
The project will occupy the vast first floor of The Old Selfridges Hotel, a cavernous industrial raw space, situated on Orchard Street directly above the Selfridges Food Hall. The project entrance is situasted next to the Selfridges Food Hall.  A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now seeks to make connections between London’s creative past and the present day using photographs of members of ‘The House of Beauty and Culture’ mudlarking on the banks of the River Thames as a starting point. For example, was early YBA, in fact, an extension of 80s DIY culture?  Is there a connection between Alexander McQueen and performance artist Leigh Bowery and from Bowery to his contemporary Trojan, to artist/poet David Robilliard and finally to Gilbert & Georg e? In de sign terms, was Ron Arad’s ‘Concrete Sound’ hi-fi equipment connected to the salvage work of Andy The Furniture Maker, and from there might we connect to Martino Gamper’s reassembled chairs or the designs of Bethan Laura Wood? Can we extend the social influence of former nightclubs to artist collective LuckyPDF, or bars and venues like Vogue Fabrics and Cafe OTO?
 
Deploying over fifty vitrines, alongside video works, installations and billboard-sized images, the project brings together a wide range of multi-disciplinary practice including art, fashion, graphics, craft and design, highlighting the idea that distinct and differing art forms can exist in the same space at the same time. The timeline set by this project spans the moment when 80s counterculture would arguably enter the mainstream and the London underground scene, ravaged by AIDS, would eventually be co-opted by a rising tide of commercialisation. In illustrating the path taken by London’s alternative scene, the project explores counterculture today and what emerging artists have in common with their countercultural forebears.
 
ICA Off-Site: The Old Selfridges Hotel A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now
Events Programme
 
SHOWstudio Sat 14 September, 2pm To coincide with London Fashion Week, SHOWstudio, the award winning fashion website, organises an event discussing the season’s key trends.
 
Tom Dixon: Nightclubs, Bass Guitars and Welding Torches Sat 21 September, 2pm
Simon Mills hosts a conversation with designer Tom Dixon discussing the 1987 Crafts Council exhibition, The New Spirit in Craft & Design. Tom Dixon founded Creative Salvage, and has remained outside the mainstream since, while producing work of a consistent quality and variety. Programmed by our media partner Wallpaper, this talk coincides with London Design Festival.
 
Out of the Box: Live Warhol Time Capsule opening  Sat 21 September, 7pm
ICA links up with the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, USA, to exclusively live stream the opening of one of Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules by the project cataloguing team. Warhol’s serial work spans a thirty-year period from the early 1960s to his death in 1987, and consists of 612 containers (mainly standard-sized cardboard boxes), which Warhol, beginning in 1974, filled, sealed and sent to storage. Warhol used these boxes to manage the bewildering quantity of material that routinely passed through his life.  This unique event gives audiences an incredible insight into Warhol’s daily life through objects yet to be revealed. Introduced by Gregor Muir, Executive Director ICA.

Fliers: The Facebook of the Pre-Internet Age Sat 28 September, 2pm
What were the equivalents to social media in the 1980s? A panel co-hosted by Princess Julia and Charlie Porter looks at how people connected and shared prior to the Internet – namely club fliers, listings, magazines, and from hanging out in shops and hairdressers. The conversation will explore how social media today simply makes more efficient and universal the links and connections that have always existed.
 
Club Culture: Evolution of the London Scene Sat 5 October, 2pm
How has London club culture developed over the past three decades? Evolving from the basements of Soho to the super-clubs of 1990s they became brands in their own right and subsequently the alternative scenes of East London that meld the worlds of art, fashion and music. Hosted by music journalist and critic Joe Muggs.

Accumulate, Appropriate Sat 12 October, 2pm
Following the threads of past movements such as Creative Salvage, which similarly repurpose and reuse discarded or defunct materials, this talk will focus on the character of accumulation and appropriation in contemporary artistic practices. Beyond examining each individual practice, the discussion will explain working processes, consider the wealth of collections – from the film archive to the scrap heap – and explore the resulting experiential effect on the viewer. Speakers include Bonnie Camplin.
 
Collecting Art in the Age of Digital Technology Sat 19 October, 12.30pm
This talk explores collecting digital art with those from the digital sector involved and takes a look at the shifting landscape, speculating how it will continue to change and evolve. Hosted by art advisors Lisa Schiff and Sabrina Buell.
 
Bright Young Things Sat 19 October, 2pm
A selection of Selfridges up-and-coming Bright Young Things – including designers, artists, animators – present their practices, ending the series of talks with a glimpse into the future. Bright Young Things is a project organised by Selfridges to seek out the most exciting young creators in the UK.

The ICA supports radical art and culture. Through a vibrant programme of exhibitions, films, events, talks and debates, the ICA challenges perceived notions and stimulates debate, experimentation, creativity and exchange with visitors. Founded in 1946 by a group of artists and critics including Roland Penrose, Peter Watson and Herbert Read, the ICA continues to support artists in showing and exploring their work, often as it emerges and before others. The ICA has been at the forefront of cultural experimentation since its formation and has presented important debut solo shows by artists including Damien Hirst, Steve McQueen, Richard Prince and Luc Tuymans. More recently Pablo Bronstein, Lis Rhodes, Bjarne Melgaard and Juergen Teller have all staged key solo exhibitions, whilst a new generation of artists, including Luke Fowler, Lucky PDF, Hannah Sawtell and Factory Floor have taken part in exhibitions and residencies. The ICA was one of the first venues to present The Clash a nd The S miths, as well as bands such as Throbbing Gristle. The inaugural ICA / LUX Biennial of Moving Images was launched in 2012, and the ICA Cinema continues to screen rare artists’ film, support independent releases and partner with leading film festivals. The ICA has recently developed an ambitious Off-Site programme starting with a display of BMW Art Cars in a multi-storey car park as part of the London 2012 Festival. Thereafter, the ICA supported presentations at Glastonbury Festival and Latitude, as well as an outdoor film season ‘Cinema on The Steps: Contemporary Middle Eastern Film’. Taking place at The Old Selfridges Hotel, ‘A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now’ will be followed by a collaboration with Art on the Underground and its Canary Wharf Screen. The ICA welcomes over 400,000 visitors a year to its home on The Mall in the heart of London. The Director of the ICA is writer and curator Gregor Muir, author of Lucky Kunst. www.ica.org.uk
 
The exhibition is organised in partnership with Selfridges & Co and supported by the Arts Council, Omni and Crane TV.

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