Warhol and Lye at Ikon Eastside
Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: 7 Inch Cinema, alex hughes, Andy Warhol, charlie brooker, Custard Factory, eternal happiness now, Here & Now & The Future, Len Lye, ligerati, liginng, n or nw, the eternal now
It’s been a busy week for the Ikon Eastside gallery. Thursday saw the launch of their exhibition of Andy Warhol films The Eternal Now. Empire, eight hours of footage of the Empire State Building, was popular but of course the most intriguing for me was Blow Job, showing the head and shoulders of De Veren Bookwalter thrown back in apparent ecstasy. I couldn’t help but watch thinking, ‘is he, or isn’t he…?’
The event was full of what Custard Factory-based cartoonist Alex Hughes calls ‘liggerati’. You know the type – the gang of same old faces that attend the opening of an envelope, get wasted on the free wine and live on a strict diet of canapes. Alex is building a cartoon strip made up of these usual suspects and their lives of ‘ligging’. I’m rather ashamed to say I used to be one of these myself and when I told Alex of my experiences I think I managed to contribute to a new character. I can’t wait to see what cartoon form they’ll take.
Last night the Warhol exhibition made way for Individual Happiness Now, an evening of of films by Len Lye, presented in collaboration with 7 Inch Cinema. A lot of them were adverts he was commissioned to do, which made me lament the state of telly advertising today. Yes, we have some cool stuff like the Sony Bravia bunnies but we’ve also got DFS, which leaves my celebrity crush Charlie Brooker ’squirming…half to death with embarrassment by-proxy’ for the poor actors.’
And then there’s those bloody John Henshaw Post Office ads, which in my eyes are made all the worse by the fact that the GPO used to commission Len Lye and advertise with the fantastic art films we saw last night. N or NW was by far my favourite.
Don’t forget your postcode, you’re not properly addressed without it.
The Andy Warhol exhibition is on until 19th October and will be followed by the black and white kooks’ ball Here & Now & The Future (Do you want to dance and blow your mind?) on the evening of 31st October.
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