Replay: la sphère punk

04.06.2006 - 03.09.2006

Le Magasin/CNAC, Grenoble / France

This show at Le Magasin features three installations, all being seen in France for the first time. This exhibition is an indirect homage to the visual identity forged by the English and North American punk scenes in the 1970s and 80s, whose considerable influence on the visual arts has been mediated by a number of figures, Mike Kelley being the best known of these.

1. Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) & Jutta Koether
Reverse Karaoke, 2005
Mixed media: canvas, plaster, sequins, velvet, acrylic fur, various musical instruments, recording and video equipment....
Courtesy Electra Productions, London.

Description of the installation: a tent painted by the two artists. Inside: lo-tech rehearsal equipment.
Visitors are invited to make their own recordings around the pre-recorded voice of Kim Gordon, which they can accompany on the instruments set out for them (guitar, drums, percussion, etc.). Their song will be recorded live and two copies of the CD burned next to the tent. One of these CDs will become an integral part of the work, the other will be given to the visitor, who will also find materials to make their own cover.

2. Mike Kelley, Cary Loren & Jim Shaw (Destroy All Monsters)
Strange Früt : Rock Apocrypha, 2000-2001
Collective installation, 4 acrylics on canvas, 2 videos.
Artists’ collection, Courtesy Patrick Painter Gallery, Santa Monica.

This collective installation is a homage to Detroit, where Mike Kelley, Cary Loren, Jim Shaw and Niagara founded the punk group Destroy all Monsters in the early 1970s. According to Mike Kelley, the paintings he and Jim Shaw made are “historical in that they take an interest in figures from the Detroit area subculture of the late 1960s and early 70s.” The two smallest paintings represent the founding members of the group and the legendary producer John Sinclair.
Cary Loren’s video features archive films, TV excerpts and interviews documenting the Detroit music scene.
“This local culture, which used to be marginalised and highly eccentric, has now become perfectly respectable, and even dominant,” observes Kelley. “We decided to make some large-scale history paintings about small-scale local history.”

Amazing Freaks of the Motor City, 2000
Acrylic on canvas, 304 x 518 cm
Courtesy of the artists

Grow Live Monsters, 1995
Video, colour, sound, 60’
Courtesy of the artists

The Heart of Detroit by Moonlight, 2000
Acrylic on canvas, 291 x 550 cm
Courtesy of the artists

Strange Früt : Rock Apocrypha, 2000
Video, colour, sound, 60’
Courtesy of the artists

Mall Culture, 2000
Acrylic on canvas, 243 x 352 cm
Courtesy of the artists

Greetings from Detroit, 2000
Acrylic on canvas, 242 x 348 cm
Courtesy of the artists

3. Linder (Morrissey, Buzzcocks)
Graphics, photography and film by musician and artist Linder Sterling.

Linder
Born 1954 in Liverpool. Lives and works near Morecambe, Lancashire.
Known for her photographic collaborations with Morrissey as well as for her musical performances and photomontages, Linder Sterling played a major part in shaping the visual identity of the punk era in Britain. The biographer of the Sex Pistols, Jon savage, describes her as “the first radical feminist punk”. In 1977 she designed the cover of the Buzzcocks album Orgasm Addict and the following year, set up her own group, Ludus, with Ian Devine. Before they split up in 1983, Ludus produced six albums and played some memorable gigs at Manchester’s Hacienda Club, during which pornographic images were projected while Sterling appeared in a dress made of meat and the bar served “menstrual” cocktails called “Bloody Linders”.
Since the early 1990s, a great deal of her work has been with Morrissey: she photographs his tours and produces images for his albums and videos. Morrissey invited her to give two performances at the Royal Festival Hall when he curated the 2004 Meltdown Festival.

(Pressetext)