Bastard Children of Pop

“The artists’ job is to be witness to his time in history.” — Robert Rauschenberg

Loser Art. Counter Culture. Subculture. Arte Povera. Street Art. DIY Art. Youth Art. Crap Art. Graffiti? Subversion, interruption and disruption: the Bastard Children of Pop. Illegitimate, below the radar, a bad taste in the mouth — the cracked mirror image of Pop and Neo-Pop, all that is shiny, bright and hollow. The witnesses.

As Neo-Pop emerged as the direct descendant of Pop Art, larger-than-life celebrity bling, wanton consumerism and hollow gestures filled galleries, magazines and festivals around the world. Golden statues of Michael Jackson and Bubbles, tiger sharks frozen in formaldehyde and life-size manga figures reflected the decade of excess. Popular culture had never seemed more perverse, and money was no object in the creation of its idols.

An alternative faction was forming within the Pop family. Subcultures had begun to emerge almost as soon as the term popular culture was coined. A desire to act contrary to it fuelled artists working outside and apparently against Pop. Repelled by Neo-Pop’s slickness, they used the leftovers and discarded materials of their wealthier relatives. Where Neo-Pop revered Marvel comics, the Bastard Children might reference internet pornography; where Neo-Pop used diamonds, they used bathroom tiles.

In an age of austerity, the exhibition brought together artists representative of this movement, even if they had not yet recognised it themselves: a disparate, desperate collection of detritus demanding to be acknowledged as a record of its time.

Artists: Doug Fishbone, Ed Templeton, Horn Head, Jesse Darling, Keh Ng, Pure Evil and Warren Garland.

The accompanying publication featured contributions from Doug Fishbone, Horn Head, Jesse Darling, Keh Ng, Pure Evil, Sam Stabler, Thibaut De Wolf and Warren Garland.