The art of revisiting the Swinging SixtiesBy Nick Hackworth, Evening Standard 22.11.06
Riflemaker becomes Indica: Sixties to the present
Riflemaker becomes Indica is an intelligent and entertaining show in which a young gallery in Soho pays homage to a legendary West End gallery of the Sixties. Indica pioneered experimental art in Britain and was one of London's Swinging Sixties hotspots. It was here that John Lennon met Yoko Ono and hip aristos hung out with assorted Beatles and Stones.
Asking whether the open-minded Sixties approach could be revived today, Riflemaker invited Indica's founders to curate a show, displaying art from their original exhibitions next to the work of young artists today.
The dialogue between the generations is fascinating. Conrad Shawcross's kinetic machine seems at home with the older blinking lights of Greek artist Takis's installation. Yoko Ono's conceptual work, comprising of an apple on a Perspex plinth with a label "Apple", looks rather more contemporary than young Aishleen Lester's forest of tall, elegant sculptures, which have a distinctly Sixties feel with their plastic-surfaces and pseudo-futuristic forms.
Pleasingly, neither old nor new triumphs here - it's all part of a similar and ongoing project. Every generation believes they invented sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and, it seems, paradigm-shattering art.
But best of all, the exhibition highlights the value of a real engagement with the past, placing the idea of progress in much-needed perspective. If you have the cultural memory of a goldfish, then everything seems new, even if it's the same thing you were sold last year in slightly different packaging.
Riflemaker becomes Indica: Sixties to the present
Riflemaker becomes Indica is an intelligent and entertaining show in which a young gallery in Soho pays homage to a legendary West End gallery of the Sixties. Indica pioneered experimental art in Britain and was one of London's Swinging Sixties hotspots. It was here that John Lennon met Yoko Ono and hip aristos hung out with assorted Beatles and Stones.
Asking whether the open-minded Sixties approach could be revived today, Riflemaker invited Indica's founders to curate a show, displaying art from their original exhibitions next to the work of young artists today.
The dialogue between the generations is fascinating. Conrad Shawcross's kinetic machine seems at home with the older blinking lights of Greek artist Takis's installation. Yoko Ono's conceptual work, comprising of an apple on a Perspex plinth with a label "Apple", looks rather more contemporary than young Aishleen Lester's forest of tall, elegant sculptures, which have a distinctly Sixties feel with their plastic-surfaces and pseudo-futuristic forms.
Pleasingly, neither old nor new triumphs here - it's all part of a similar and ongoing project. Every generation believes they invented sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and, it seems, paradigm-shattering art.
But best of all, the exhibition highlights the value of a real engagement with the past, placing the idea of progress in much-needed perspective. If you have the cultural memory of a goldfish, then everything seems new, even if it's the same thing you were sold last year in slightly different packaging.
Saw this and found stuff when spring clearing
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