The Extricate Blog Spot: September 2020

Wednesday, 30 September 2020

Quotes from four artists taking part in the John Lennon Is Not Dead exhibition at The Stash Gallery.

John Lennon Is Not Dead is an exhibition taking place at The Stash Gallery inside Vout-O-Reenee's. The exhibition features contributions from 80 esteemed artists who have either made a new work or unearthed something special to celebrate the 80th anniversary of John Lennon's birth. Four of the artists said a few words about what they're contributing...

(Above): James Unsworth: "When you start at Calderstones School (or at least when I started at Calderstones School in 1991) someone in the year above will tell you about how when John Lennon was a pupil there he climbed onto the roof and scratched his name into one of the slates. Your job from then on was to work out how to get onto the roof of Quarry House and find the slate."

(Above):Jo Mama: "I've always loved the cover of the L.P. With The Beatles when the Fab Four were young and beautiful. Yoko Ono said in an interview sometime in the mid 80's that sometimes when she was looking at clouds or at raindrops or at flowers she would suddenly feel that John was there with her. I liked the idea of his face appearing in a Sunflower."

(Above)Fabienne Jacquet:"I wanted to use some of Lennon's lyrics , rather than his image, as inspiration. The line 'I didn't mean to hurt you, I am sorry that I made you cry' from Jealous Guy became the starting point and it gave the painting its moody feel. It became about love, loss, honesty and being fallible."

(Above) Liz Purchase: "Here's my painting of John Lennon visiting Strawberry Fields memorial garden in Central Park in 2020, from the spirit realm. He's disappointed to see that visitors are so interested in taking selfies and checking their phones. He's also fed up that the dream of the 60s and the Beatles (the rainbow pool drying up at his feet) is fading. Inspired by my visit there in March just before lock down."

John Lennon’s Not Dead will feature; drawings, paintings, photography, and collage. There will also be some specially made music and animation and some surprise performances. Because of social distancing there will be 4 Fab gatherings (some of which will be filmed and then shared on You Tube) rather than one big opening party. The Stash Gallery is inside Vout-O-Reenee's, The Crypt, 30 Prescot St, E1 8BB. Please note this celebration of John Winston Ono Lennon is unauthorized and 100 % unofficial. Vout-O-Reenee's is a private members club and pre booking is essential. http://vout-o-reenees.com/events/john-lennon-is-not-dead-hes-80/ Buy your tickets: HERE

The show opens on Friday 2nd Oct and closes on Wednesday 28th Oct. Vout-O-Reene's is open Tues -Sat 5pm till 10pm

Tuesday, 29 September 2020

Four of the Eighty Artists Featured in John Lennon Is Not Dead at The Stash Gallery

John Lennon Is Not Dead is an exhibition taking place at The Stash Gallery inside Vout-O-Reenee's. The exhibition features contributions from 80 esteemed artists who have either made a new work or unearthed something special to celebrate the 80th anniversary of John Lennon's birth. Four of the artists said a few words about what they're contributing...

Above: INSTANT KARMA by Bula Chakravarty Agbo BEM

"We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun"

Bula: "Half a century has passed yet these lyrics are as painfully relevant today in 2020 as it was in 1970. Aged five when he was handed over by his parents to his uncle George and aunt Mimi to be looked after, his life became marked with challenges until the ultimate tragedy when he was fatally shot in 1980. No challenge was too great for John, he felt the pain and took to his creation. An untethered spirit, he epitomised the bohemian artist, writer, freedom fighter and lover. To this free spirit I celebrate a man who shines on as stardust from above. The blueprint of our creation is held within the flower of life, from the single atom to the planets and everything in-between, reminding us of our unity, and the Merkabah being our light body spirit, with which we transcend into the afterlife.John Lennon’s works continue to ignite a love of humankind that all brothers and sisters are called upon to stop and listen to. Karma is instant, now is all that you have. We are all one. Namaste!"

Above: Self Portrait as Working Class Hero - a Tribute to John Lennon by Liesel Thomas (Oil on panel 20.8cm x 29.6cm)

Liesel: "The song Imagine was number 1 in the charts when I was born, shortly after John Lennon's death. Like most Brits around my age, his music and that of the Beatles echoed throughout my childhood and teens, and he's one of the few artists I come back to time and again. His songs are still so relevant, and I was reminded of the lyrics to his political song Working Class Hero from the album Plastic Ono Band as the nation applauded our key workers and the NHS during lockdown, all the while they continued to be underpaid and underfunded by the Government. This painting depicts me as a John Lennon fan, wearing a replica of a T-shirt Lennon himself had been photographed wearing, on the wall in the background is the cover for the Plastic Ono Band album."

Above: Agnieszka Zapala: "John Lennon was in fact a crazy cat lady! Cats remained a big part of his life even after the huge success of the Beatles. This is how I connect with John. One needs a cat to truly understand life."

Above: Mark McGowan: "I once ate a small corgi dog, a co performer Meiko Takanami performed as John Lennon widow Yoko Ono, the press said it was Yoko Ono and she ate the small corgi dog.. lawyers were called and the press had to retract everything, she provided an alibi said she was in Moscow, it was in all the papers."

The show opens on Friday 2nd Oct and closes on Wednesday 28th Oct. Vout-O-Reene's is open Tues -Sat 5pm till 10pm.

Sunday, 27 September 2020

Four More Reasons to come and visit John Lennon Is Not Dead at The Stash Gallery

(Above) Max Reeves: “In the Spring of 2015 my Great Friend and Beatles fan Charles and I went to Liverpool to do the Beatles run. I was never a particular Beatles person but Strawberry Fields has always resonated with me and as we ticked off the sites it was the Iconic Red Gates that I particularly responded to. It's 'unofficialness'. I love the democratic spontaneity of the graffiti that turns this portal into a living shrine as well. The song too is a portal into a hazy dream world where nothing makes sense. Nothing is real. As I write this Charles lays dying of an unclear combination of Corona virus and cancer. He may have a week. I think, er, no, I mean, er, yes. But it's all wrong.”

(Above) Josie McCoy:"I painted this photo of John Lennon as a teddy boy because it reminds me of a Polaroid of my dad that we have in an old family photo album. I grew up listening to the Beatles and my all time favourite song is ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ which my dad’s rock and roll band used to cover."

(Above) Kyle Hawkins: "I always loved the indoor scenes filmed for Imagine and the ethereal feeling it creates. Yoko slowly walks around the room opening the shutters, removing darkness by letting the light in. The greens from outside filter through, bringing in colour,set against an achromatic interior."

(Above)Chalkie Davies: "John Lennon was a big fan of the NME and had it sent by Airmail to the Dakota Building each week. He also wrote in to the letters page under the pseudonym Dr Winston O’Boogie. So in 1979 I went to the Dakota to simply take a photo of the entrance to his building for the paper. I had no idea that the following year he would be gunned down in cold blood at this very spot.

The show opens on Friday 2nd Oct and closes on the 28th Oct. Vout-O-Reene's is open Tues -Sat 3pm till 10pm.

Wednesday, 23 September 2020

4 Works from the John Lennon Is Not Dead show at The Stash Gallery

Above: Emma Coleman: Here’s John Lennon visiting David Bowie and Iggy Pop when they lived in Berlin in the ‘70’s. Their apartment probably didn’t really look like this but I like to think of them on the sofa talking about music and shooting the breeze. Iggy Pop apparently ate all of David Bowie’s food so eventually David Bowie asked Iggy POP to move out and he did - to the apartment next door with his girlfriend. I don’t know when he uttered it - probably a bit later on than this scenario but John Lennon said “Glam Rock is just rock n’ roll with lipstick”. It’s nice to think of an ethereal genius creature like David Bowie eating food, shopping for food, maybe browsing the posh department store KaDeWe and hosting a Beatle. The poster behind them is of a nightclub they liked - it was Berlin’s answer to Studio 54. In the apartment they used to watch a children’s TV programme with a presenter called Uncle Floyd."

Above: Raksha Patel: "Cosmic Guru is based on the time the Beatles spent with Maharishi in Rishikesh. The painting is from a photograph

of Lennon playing the flute by the River Ganges. The image particularly struck me because it reminded me of paintings

I've seen of Krishna playing the flute, the pose is exactly the same and the landscape with the tree very similar. I'm sure

that the Beatles would be aware of this well known image and whether Lennon was imitating the pose, nevertheless its

beautiful and peaceful. The hippy flowers are from a 70's poster of Maharishi and reference all those magical states of

mind through meditation as well as taking LSD."

Above: Chris Tosic: "Give Peace a Chance was a great tune with a very earthy production, full of mayhem and chaos but somehow it all glued together. The message was very clear, everybody needs to come together to make something like Peace happen. For me, that's what Lennon was about. I don't know whether he was good or a bad man, but he understood conflict is a lose / lose position. Badge of Peace is just a simple sign that I hope carries that gesture."

Above: Duglas T. Stewart: "I remember George Martin saying the story of The Beatles was one of the greatest twentieth century love stories and he meant the love story of John and Paul. I wanted to do a picture inspired by and about their love. It changed the world and had such an incredible legacy. So I wanted to celebrate that.

A memory I have is being at Bellshill station on the morning the news of John's death broke and two old guys were talking

"I hear that Jack Lemmon has been shot"

"Oh no, the one from The Odd Couple?"

"No, the one from The Beatles"

"What was the other one called again?"

"McCartney?"

"No, Walter Matthau. It'll be hard for him". I thought John might have appreciated the absurd humour of this conversation."

The show opens on Friday 2nd Oct and closes on Wednesday 28th Oct. Vout-O-Reene's is open Tues -Sat 5pm till Late.

Four More from the John Lennon Is Not Dead exhibition

Above: John Moore (artist, musician, writer. Former member of The Jesus & Mary Chain and Black Box Recorder) says that his work is called, "Fun, fun, fun on the Reeperbahn” and adds: "my contribution to the show is a tribute to the beautiful, anarchic black leather days in Hamburg, where John Lennon once played with a toilet seat around his neck. This was my favourite period of The Beatles. By the time they were smiling on TV, they had already done the bad stuff...as every rock and roll band should!”

Marguerite Horner (artist and winner of the British Women Artist Award 2018 and MS Amlin Prize 2017 ) states that her practice is concerned with notions of ‘transience, intimacy, loss and hope’ and says of her contribution to the show ‘Ol’ Brown Eyes’: “I was thinking about what we leave behind when we are gone, and how part of our DNA fuses with part of someone else’s DNA at conception to become a separate human being with its own unique DNA - a zygote- so although Lennon had two boys with different mothers, his brown eyes were passed on to them both and they also looked very like him at a certain age. The title ‘Ol’ Brown eyes’ refers to another singer - Frank Sinatra, who was sometimes known as ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’.”

Kirsty Buchanan:"I wanted to capture the luxuriant, splendor of the Hilton hotel bed that they were sleeping in. I couldn’t stop thinking about how comfortable their clothes and the sheets look in the film."

(Above: Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds by

John Turnbull and Sandra Turnbull:

John Turnbull: "I was writing down what John (Lennon) said that night at the Speakeasy.”Can ya help me find me glasses” he was scrabbling around under our table and scratched me on the knee and said that, so I got down and helped him look , then a girl from his table said "Got them " he looked up and said Thanks mate. End of story. So normal and down to earth if a little bit tipsy, as we all were at 2am in the morning."

Sandra Turnbull: "My pal John Turnbull taught me music saves your life. Lucy, Love you , call me .. his words in our collab paint the picture. John Lennon couldn't save his own life , but he saved mine."

The show opens on Friday 2nd Oct and closes on Wednesday 28th Oct. Vout-O-Reene's is open Tues -Sat 5pm till Late.

Sunday, 20 September 2020

John Lennon is Not Dead Exhibition - Quotes from Four Artists

Sadie Hennessy (multi-disciplinary artist): John Lennon Metronome

"This small assemblage is about the fragility of life, with the metronome providing a heartbeat, and a countdown to death . In John Lennon's case, this was a famously premature death, at the hands of a murderous fan, who shot him in the back after seeking his autograph, earlier in the day. My work often tends to be iconoclastic, but in this instance, it is quite reverential, with the ivory casing of the metronome calling to mind a classical funeral obelisk. The metronome symbolizes Lennon's musical career too and calls to mind the white piano he played in the Imagine video."

Bonnie Wong: "'Imagine there's no heaven, no countries, no religion...' John Lennon's Utopian vision seems impossible to be achieved. A world without divisions, borders, ownership, conflicts, greed does sound more and more like dream. This map is created to commemorate John Lennon's optimism, and his effort to make that "dream a reality.

Clare Price: "My photo was made in homage to John and Yoko. The title (Yes) references the story of when John and Yoko met when he climbed up the ladder to see the yes in her artwork."

Ben Dickinson: "My work is called Lemon and Yolko, the wordplay title relates to the banter The Beatles famously used to enhance their fame during early interviews... The pair are painted as religious icons, as Jesus and Mary Magdalene..."

The show opens on Friday 2nd Oct and closes on Wednesday 28th Oct. Vout-O-Reene's is open Tues -Sat 5pm till Late.

Tuesday, 15 September 2020

Four Artists from the John Lennon's Not Dead exhibition at The Stash Gallery

Twinkle Troughton: “My paintings encompass reality and myth, and often feature houses. Houses contain stories, both stories which are true and stories we imagine in our minds. My painting of John Lennon's house, known as Mendips, holds many stories about him, including significant moments in his life and career. He lived there with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George after his parents divorced. He wrote Please Please Me in his bedroom there. His mum, Julia, was tragically killed in a road accident outside this house. The house still has the same creaky floorboards which led to John's bedroom, which he knew how to avoid when sneaking out at night. It was Yoko Ono who asked for these floorboards to stay as they were, after donating the house to the National Trust”.

Natasha Vassiliou: “He hated the dark. He gave Yoko flowers. When I hear him speak I feel the peace and the love. He gives me hope. Hope at a difficult and uncertain time. He inspires me to believe again. Inspires me to use colour. Inspires me to dream again.”

Nat Foreman: “We actually don’t want war to be over, we still want possessions, jealous guys don’t apologise, we don’t give peace a chance, and all we really need is love. This is why John Lennon is not dead.”

Loretta Wall: “All we are saying.......is give peace a chance. Sitting down one afternoon with my grandma at the age of 13 I popped a cassette version of "give peace a chance" on by John Lennon.....she LOVED it! both the sentiment and the song. We sang along to it together,the best we could.....several times! Happy days, thank you John. XXX”

The show opens on Friday 2nd Oct and closes on Wednesday 28th Oct. Vout-O-Reene's is open Tues -Sat 5pm till Late.