#200words | Moving Targets | Arnolfini
Saturday 30 July 2016 to Sunday 11 September 2016
Punk, adopted by the mainstream media on day two of its forty-year journey, represents the antithesis of authority, so one treats with suspicion its celebration by an established art gallery.
Phoebe Davies and UWE BA Graphic Design students have collaborated to produce Apathy’s a Drag; a staged outdoor flyposting which tellingly states ‘I SEE YOUR SUBTLE SIGN OF REBELLION’. Rarely was a movement so heavily signified as Punk, but one must never forget that however contrived Punk’s visual presence may be, its driving sentiments of rebellion and creativity are true, as evinced by the vast array of zines created by visitors to Rachael House’s all-ages drop-in workshop. While parents and old punks reminisce over pins and stickers lined up behind glass, a new generation is introduced to ideas of communal creativity, collaboration, and appropriation. Flicking through the collection it is clear that the Punk attitude is alive and well in 2016’s post-everything Britain.
Zines formed an integral part of Punk’s early life, but the digital age has made publishers and broadcasters of us all, without the need for a photocopier. Forty years on from its birth, perhaps social media will enable Punk to achieve its purest form yet.
Trevor H. Smith
EXHIBITION: MOVING TARGETS
ARTIST: RACHAEL HOUSE
ARTIST: PHOEBE DAVIES