FASHION
ZIP - THE ART OF JOEY D
Merz Gallery, Edinburgh, Mon 2—Sat 21 Aug
Handbags and Gladrags
‘lt’s a funny idea having this show, I know, because Joey isn’t really seen as an artist. He's a creator, it’s amazing how he just rams this stuff out there. I guess the Merz is trying to do what it has always tried to do which is question the whole idea of that crossover between art, fashion and, of course, pop art at its most inspiring.’ Calum Buchanan, Merz gallery owner, is talking about his Festival exhibition. It’s a brave, some would say foolhardy, choice to ask a local, reasonably well known clothes designer to dig through his bulging old crates for the remnants of a life lived on the outré side
of clubbing and street fashion.
Joey D, the man and the shop, has a strange place of affection in the hearts of Edinburgh’s more adventurous Shopaholics. His shop sprung up on Broughton Street in the late 90$ - a time when the area was better known for its ramshackle sex bars and nightwalkers than it was for the genteel gaydar zone it now is. Offering a variety of his own S&M/bondage/re-stitch/recycle punk clothing, Joey D himself set out reassembling the influences he had gained from ten odd years in the business. “To be honest, I really can’t pinpoint any single great fashion designer influence on my work, the people that have always left their mark on me were the manufacturers I’ve met, the people in the
factories who do the graft.’
A youthfully bubbly but casually mannered man in his late 305 Joey D (not his real name but a pseudonym nicked from a once popular British children TV show) comes across as both self effacing and incredibly proud of his considerable achievements. ‘To be honest, I haven’t had a lot to do with the show, I’ve just dug out as much as I could for Calum and he will be curating it, so there’s old photos from 1996, old campaign images, loads of diverse stuff and of course my favourite piece ever - the Maolin clog’ (an ornate open topped clog with a suicidally high wedge).
Calum Buchanan is in no doubt that the time is now right for a retrospective exhibition of Joey D’s work. ‘You know all we want to do is get away from what is straight forward. We’ve done shows with Fred Deacon (Lemon Jelly) and Laura Lees (Selfridges) so Joey, the most prolific and interesting designer I know, seemed like the next obvious step.’ (Paul Dale)
PRINTS GAVIN TURK: FACES, DIAMOND DUST
VOLUME 1
Edinburgh Printmakers, Until Sat 18 Sep 000
This show's accompanying notes make a mesmensrng case for the political thinking behind the processes involved. Referring to the diamond dusting method which characterises almost every print. they pomt out its reflection in everyday 2ist century life - so enamoured are we by the pretty gleam of the surface substance. we fail to concentrate fully on the shape and rationale of the image beneath it. In turn, each representation may be reproduced over and over in a different hue. each shade blinding us to the fact that they're all essentially exactly the same.
Such thinking expands upon that of Andy Warhol, who first appropriated the technique in the late 703. As does the work of Gavm Turk, who takes things one step
In Memory of Silver Beuys
further still. Not only does he reproduce Warhol's commodification of Joseph Beuys and the ClaSSlC shot of Che Guevara (an image never appropriated by Warhol). but he removes them from their origins yet further by playing each figure himself. it's an astute comment on the potential arrogance of
advertisers who manipulate such iconic images for their own ends. as well as a headfuck for the audience. At first. we don't realise we're looking at Turk himself - and when we do. we know the artifice has conned us too.
Elsewhere in the Diamond Oust Vo/ume 7 ponfolio lie similarly- treated works. wrth some more intent on deifying glamorous celebrity objects — Linder's Mon Coeur ne bat que pow Momssey (My Heart only beats for Morrrsseyi. for example. or Peter Blake's Love Me Do and Love Me Tender ithe Beatles and ElvrS. respectively). Also featured are non diamond- dusted prints by Factory Records Peter Savrlle. which fit in well as smoother, cleaned-up versions of Old HaCienda posters and the cover of Joy Dir/ision's Unknown P/ea3ures.
Again. it's abOut repackaging past artists as a present commodity. the present being a day when sacred and still-healthy cows are being Shot anyway. iDavrd Potlock.
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THE JERWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2003
Stills, Edinburgh, until Sun 19 Sep 0... The 'tPh‘t here :1 Sili‘il‘i'. 'ext‘eiient‘e and Origir‘airtv and these fine photographers. selected trom smite 88-1 porttoiios it" the first exei Jon-med
Photography Awards 7 in association with Don‘t» o h‘agaxhe — rewai ooth qualities. though not alums Szii‘tiltaitetxisi‘.
v.9 moot got to 300, mirth of the withers work, hut these are enough to what the appetite. Odom Tioac‘. gehomtes a Watt qrey hire owr his studies. injecting a degree of irr.ster\ and suggestion it's grim, tyros rubbish and ('ietirttis— hut ends up looking him it hoods gt illi‘ glowo with .‘i not (‘loih to how an, real impact Equally (ts t‘oritriteti hirt 0(l(l|\ corr‘pellrog are Edgar Martin's landscapes. ihm look like they (‘Otlld ho brilliant nit‘tiiris of digital iiggoiy poker“): expanses of scorrihorl earth wrth black holes; or fire injected in their heart tor siiiimi effect.
The close iii studies of hooks by Veronica Baion are from the library of £1r<1ii|i(?(ii Errio Golttfrngor.
From On Physics series by Naglaa Walker
Regardless of where these books came from, the photographs are teasrng and intriguing, invoking that feeling of delight in the limitless potential of an unread book. We don't know the stOry. we don't even see the words. but the DOSSlblllileS are endless. Links between soence and life are made a little more ObVIOUS as Naglaa Walker ruxtaposes mathematical equations which effect even/day lives wrth evocativer shot scenes from everyday lives. A simple, but hugely effective tactic. As is that employed by Polly Braden, who brings a vrvrdly human element to the compartmentalised IiVing we assooate wrth modern day China. People in cerise and grey uniforms scurry, insect-like across a recreation ground or line up in front of sevring machines that go on into infinity and prowde one of several highlights of a strong show. iMark Robertson)
32-“ 9 Aug 2304 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 17