Red, White and Blue: Pop | Punk | Politics | Place November 6, 2012

Private View: 6th November 2012, 6 – 8.30pm

Red, White and Blue explores the intertwining themes of pop, punk, politics and place at the end of 2012. Critically positioned in the context of the Jubilee and Olympic year, the exhibition also looks back to corresponding historical moments: the 1951 Festival of Britain, the birth of punk and the Silver Jubilee. The show looks again at re-emerging themes of austerity, legacy, and national identity that have resonated across the last half-century both in the UK and internationally.
The exhibition combines film, photography, graphics and contemporary art to explore and expand the relationship between pop and punk culture and politics and national identity. The Royal Jubilee of 1977 and the anarchy of Punk is evoked in the black and white photographs of Jon Savage and Syd Shelton, the super 8 films of Derek Jarman and the graphics of Pavel Buchler and the Clash. A more contemporary examination of pop and political graphics takes place in the vividly coloured works of artists Simon Periton, Neil Clements, Nicky Carvell and Daniel Sturgis.

An international perspective on the notion of national identity and place is provided by the work of the radical Slovenian group, Laibach, who look critically at the British projection of power and Pil and Galia Kollectiv use modernist avant-garde methods to critique contemporary society.

Red, White and Blue will include works by Peter Blake, Barney Bubbles, Pavel Buchler, Nicky Carvell, Neil Clements, Terence Cuneo, Richard Evans, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Jaime Gili, Derek Jarman, Laibach, Humphrey Ocean, Pil & Galia Kollectiv, Simon Periton, Mick Jones Rock & Roll Public Library, Jon Savage, Syd Shelton, Jon Smith, Richard Smith, Daniel Sturgis, Steve Thomas, Paul Tickell, Mark Titchner, Trio/Fabrika, Kirsten Weiner.

Exhibition curated by Donald Smith with Daniel Sturgis.