...But Is It Art?
Yayyyyyyy the summer is back with a vengence! I wandered down to Porotbello to meet my old mate Ray 'Roughler' Jones for a coffee and a catch up today. We've been mates for over 20 years, tho in recent times I haven't seen a lot of him. He's great fun and a top bloke so time to remedy that starting with today.
He was bubbling with enthusiasm about his forthcoming exhibition to be staged at a gallery in Portobello Road. Over the years he's been a dab hand with the camera and has snapped most of Ladbroke Grove's "celebrities" at various stages in their lives. There's pictures of a little Lily Allen performing in the Tabernacle Christmas Panto, Joe Strummer performing a gig years ago in the Warwick Castle pub back when it was still a real pub, plus a wide assortment of local characters...I saw the contacts today and my god, it was a helluva trip down memory lane!
Strolling down the road in the gorgeous sunshine, we visited the gallery which was going to hold the show and the club where they're gonna do a special Roughler night as part of the Portobello Film Festival in the summer. The Roughler was a magazine Ray used to write and run chronicling the comings and goings of the Grove back in the 80's. Yours truly used to write for it too!
We bumped into a couple of old faces - old as in I haven't seen them for a long time, not old as in ancient - Pete who is one of the owners of Rough Trade who is still as cute as ever, and my old drinking buddy Aaron. We dragged him along to the Bankrobber Gallery in Lonsdale Road to see the new exhibition of 'paintings' by model shagger and fat junkie (surely a contradiciton in terms) Pete Doherty. I was more excited about seeing the Banksy piece they had that's valued at £240 grand, but that had been put in cold storage to make way for this show.
The USP of this show is that supposedly Doherty painted them in his own blood...hmmmmmm. Well it looked like blood, and it was a bloody mess. One piece has his spoon and syringe stuck on it, all looking suitably junkified and well used. There was a Notting Hill 'Yummy Mummy" asking serious questions about the work, making sure that it was Doherty's blood that had been used and not just some random druggie/loser. Sadly I didn't hear the prices these creations were going for, but really anything over a tenner would be too much. It's all about owning a piece of Doherty's soul, but there is no soul in these works, it looks like some stuff he knocked out to pay for a fix.
Obviously if he dies anytime soon they'll turn into a great investment, but I just found the whole show ghoulish beyond belief. Gimme Banksy anyday!
He was bubbling with enthusiasm about his forthcoming exhibition to be staged at a gallery in Portobello Road. Over the years he's been a dab hand with the camera and has snapped most of Ladbroke Grove's "celebrities" at various stages in their lives. There's pictures of a little Lily Allen performing in the Tabernacle Christmas Panto, Joe Strummer performing a gig years ago in the Warwick Castle pub back when it was still a real pub, plus a wide assortment of local characters...I saw the contacts today and my god, it was a helluva trip down memory lane!
Strolling down the road in the gorgeous sunshine, we visited the gallery which was going to hold the show and the club where they're gonna do a special Roughler night as part of the Portobello Film Festival in the summer. The Roughler was a magazine Ray used to write and run chronicling the comings and goings of the Grove back in the 80's. Yours truly used to write for it too!
We bumped into a couple of old faces - old as in I haven't seen them for a long time, not old as in ancient - Pete who is one of the owners of Rough Trade who is still as cute as ever, and my old drinking buddy Aaron. We dragged him along to the Bankrobber Gallery in Lonsdale Road to see the new exhibition of 'paintings' by model shagger and fat junkie (surely a contradiciton in terms) Pete Doherty. I was more excited about seeing the Banksy piece they had that's valued at £240 grand, but that had been put in cold storage to make way for this show.
The USP of this show is that supposedly Doherty painted them in his own blood...hmmmmmm. Well it looked like blood, and it was a bloody mess. One piece has his spoon and syringe stuck on it, all looking suitably junkified and well used. There was a Notting Hill 'Yummy Mummy" asking serious questions about the work, making sure that it was Doherty's blood that had been used and not just some random druggie/loser. Sadly I didn't hear the prices these creations were going for, but really anything over a tenner would be too much. It's all about owning a piece of Doherty's soul, but there is no soul in these works, it looks like some stuff he knocked out to pay for a fix.
Obviously if he dies anytime soon they'll turn into a great investment, but I just found the whole show ghoulish beyond belief. Gimme Banksy anyday!
Labels: Misc and TV
posted by JoJo Smith at Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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