Sleepover Psychedelia

Curated by Samantha Culp and Adrian Wong
Installation by Adrian Wong
Artists: Brian Chippendale, Thomas Galloway, Matt Lock, Devon Varmega, Brent Wadden

April 1- May 5, 2006
Opening Saturday April 1, 7pm
Kapok Gallery Space, 9 Dragon Road, Tin Hau, Hong Kong

Not so long ago, a new aesthetic began bubbling up through the bedrooms and basements of suburban America. In hand-made fanzines, indie album covers and personal blogs, the same symbols and set of concerns kept appearing-- unicorns and space-ships, pyramids and laser-beams, neon colors and graphing paper. Influenced equally by childhood fantasy and DIY ethics, 80’s pop-culture detritus and 60’s mind-expansion, this visual vernacular seems to express something crucial about the sub-conscious hopes and anxieties of young America today– and it also happens to look really, really cool.

This genre has yet to be named, but for our purposes, we’ll call it Sleepover Psychedelia.
This April, HK-based artists and curators Samantha Culp and Adrian Wong bring you a show featuring five young American artists whose work taps into this same aesthetic of secret clubhouses and tie-dyed insanity. Though they are all a part of the “Sleepover Psychedelia” extended family, each brings a distinct personal vision to the exploration of these shared themes and imagery. They range in age and experience from a well-known elder statesman of this movement, to a 17-year-old high school student who has never been exhibited before, but all are working on the fringes of the American art mainstream.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Thomas Galloway makes his gallery debut with his flattened “Gang Dudes” and ice-cream cities… Livejournal sensation Matt Lock (a.k.a. “Puff&Magic”) scrawls ancient videogames in magic marker… seasoned silkscreener Devon Varmega (a.k.a. “Hair Party”) marks the place where Junior High geometry class meets epic mythology… Brent Wadden renders a world of sad robots and graffiti etchings… And Brian Chippendale, co-founder of the legendary Fort Thunder art collective, drummer of influential noise-band Lightning Bolt, and one of the pioneers of this aesthetic territory, contributes hysteric doodles and puzzle-piece paraphernalia.
Expect eye-popping works on paper, cardboard, stapled-booklets, pieces of wood, plastic masks, t-shirts, Cds, and everything in between— all to be framed by an installation by co-curator and artist Adrian Wong. The interactive “magic castle” will allow viewers to physically enter the “Sleepover Psychedelia” universe, and bring all these wildly unique works into a unified whole.
Truly underground American art is rarely (never?) exhibited in Hong Kong, so this will be a special chance for the HK public to experience some of the innovative style and feverish energy bursting out of this sub-cultural movement. Sleepover Psychedelia lies somewhere beyond punk rock and new age, geek and freak, and is a much-needed electro-shock to the mainstream Western art-world.

On April 1 at the new Kapok Gallery Space in Tin Hau, come turn on, tune in, and psych yourself out.

Thanks to   Hoegaarden and Stella Artois, sponsors of the opening party.

                                                                                                                               

Sleepover Psychedelia
館長_    Samantha Culp, Adrian Wong
裝置_    Adrian Wong
藝術家_    Brian Chippendale, Thomas Galloway, Matt Lock, Devon Varmega, Brent Wadden
展出日期_二零零六年四月一日至五月五日
開幕時間_四月一日晚上七時
展覽地點_香港天后皇龍道九號 Kapok Gallery Space

不遠前，於美國近郊的不同角落迅速爆發一新生美學──無論是手製的雜誌刊物、獨立唱片的封面造像、個人部落格的介面設計，同樣別出心裁別樹一幟，卻又不約而同地出現「獨角獸和太空船」、「金字塔跟激光束」、「螢光色彩與繪圖草紙」等與別不同的鮮明記號，且均以孩童們的幻想世界、DIY 自製美學標準、八零年代流行文化熱以及六十年代的勃發思潮做為創作的路標指引，深刻呈現出今日年輕美國藝術家潛藏之慾望。

即使類型尚未命名，負責是次展覽的兩位館長 Samantha Culp 及 Adrian Wong，卻嘗試以Sleepover Psychedelia作為暫借的路牌，讓參觀者得睹五位年輕美國藝術家的創作好風光。縱然來自同一家族，每位成員均懷有獨特的目光去思索共同的主題，卻又展示出不一樣的創作。從年僅十七歲首次進行展覽的高中同學，到擁有豐富經驗的資深藝術工作者，彼此無分你我，卻又獨當一面，同樣以無限熱誠在美國的主流藝術圈子裡發熱發亮_Thomas Galloway 的冰淇淋城市、Matt Lock（a.k.a. 涑Puff&Magic荂^的古代電子遊戲塗鴉、Devon Varmega（a.k.a. 浶air Party荂^之三角幾何遇上史詩神話、Brent Wadden 的傷感機械人、Brian Chippendale 的歇斯底里與如謎拼圖……在 Adrian 的精心佈置下，當參觀者進入其「神秘的山洞」就彷彿置身Sleepover Psychedelica內的宇宙，從普通紙張、硬咭紙、訂裝小冊子、木塊、塑膠面飾、T-恤及唱片的掛裝，一概能營造出這樣一個既統一又多變的藝術世界。

美國地下藝術工作者在香港舉行展覽的機會想必極為罕有。是次於四月一日在 Kapok Gallery Space 的珍貴展覽，實在叫參觀者真切感受到圈子內澎湃的活力與創新的氣氛。請勿錯過 。

（Chinese translation by Eunice Tang for Kapok）