IN ALL OUR DECADENCE PEOPLE DIE: Crass related art at Boo Hooray

 

IN ALL OUR DECADENCE PEOPLE DIE - AN EXHIBITION OF FANZINES PRESENTED
TO CRASS BETWEEN 1976 AND 1984 PLUS ORIGINAL CRASS-ERA ARTWORK BY GEE VAUCHER
AND A NEW AUDIO INSTALLATION BY PENNY RIMBAUD. CURATED BY JOHAN KUGELBERG.

Sept 30th - Oct 20th, 2011
EXHIBIT OPEN EVERY DAY 11AM-6PM

Boo-Hooray
265 Canal St. #601
New York, NY 10013
www.Boo-Hooray.com

The Boo-Hooray exhibit space is happy to present an exhibition of fanzines and ephemera collected at Dial House, home to the English anarchist punk band Crass, active from 1977-1984. The public and private political stance of Crass was without peer or compromise. Their influence on the lives of misfits, belongers, winners, losers, straights and visionaries across the globe reverberates to this day.

Dial House has been running as a creative centre since the late 1960's and was instigated by the poet, philosopher and Crass drummer/lyricist, Penny Rimbaud. The Crass/Dial House fanzine archive, saved by Gee Vaucher, consists of approximately 3000 fanzines, broadsides, pamphlets and flyers, as well as posters, manuscript and original artwork. The materials were sent or given to the anarcho-punk group Crass during the years 1977 to 1984 from all over the world. The archive also includes later publications mailed to Dial House during the 1980's and 1990's. The show illustrates and demonstrates the immediacy and potency of these grassroots activist punk artworks from an era which was pre-computer and, in some cases, pre-xerox. In addition, related original artworks by Gee from her ground-breaking "nihilist newspaper for the living," International Anthem, are also included.

"A short history of the Fanzines and their presence amongst us: Unlike Mr Penny Rimbaud, I dislike throwing anything away. Placed in a cupboard at Dial House where no one ever looked, the fanzines survived Guy Fawkes night for nearly 30 years, taking a short break in a friends attic when the cupboard was, for some reason, requisitioned for party hats, old suitcases and toys. Finally brought home again, they went back into the cupboard, away from the attention of Rimbaud and his persistent chanting of "let's just bung it all on the fire." Now, having finally left home for good, the collection parades itself brazenly and proudly before you and in very safe hands." - Gee Vaucher

The show's curator, Johan Kugelberg, will be hosting a 4pm talk with Gee Vaucher on Saturday, October 1st. They will discuss International Anthem, her more recent publications and the ongoing activities of her newly-reformed Exitstencil Press. This will be followed by a screening of Semi Detached: the Films of Gee Vaucher 1978-1984. Semi-Detached will also be screened throughout the exhibition.

The exhibit will also include a new audio installation of Penny Rimbaud's work.

An exhibit catalogue is published by Boo-Hooray in an edition of 250 copies. A 7” record by Penny Rimbaud and Louise Elliott, with cover art by Gee Vaucher, is published jointly by Boo-Hooray and Exitstencil Press in an edition of 500 copies.

Books and prints by Gee Vaucher and Penny Rimbaud will also be available.

Boo-Hooray is room-mates with 6 Decades, an antiquarian bookshop specializing in rare artists’ books, ephemera and other material related to the avant-garde and countercultural movements of the 1960s through the present. Hours etc. can be found on the website: www.6DecadesBooks.com