from V&A MUSEUM
YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?
RECORDS AND REBELS
1966-1970
V&A MUSEUM
PARTNERSHIP : LEVI’S
SOUND : SENNHEISER
SUPPORT : GROW FENWICK SASSOON
CURATOR : VICTORIA BROACKES & GEOFFREY MARSH
“This major exhibition from the V&A will explore the era-defining significance and impact
of the late 1960s upon life today. From global civil rights, multiculturalism, environmentalism, consumerism, computing, communality to neoliberalist politics, the world we live in has been vitally influenced by five revolutionary years 1966 – 70. You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966 – 70 will investigate the upheaval, the explosive sense of freedom, and the legal changes that took place resulting in a fundamental shift in the mindset of the Western world.You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966 – 70 will explore the way that youth culture catalysed an optimistic idealism, motivating people to come together and question established power structures across every area of society. More than 350 objects encompassing photography, posters, literature, music, design, film, fashion, artefacts, and performance that defined the counterculture will illustrate the way that a whole generation shook off the confines of the past and their parents, radically revolutionising the way they lived their lives.
Highlights on display will show the creative, social and legal outputs of revolutionary new ways of living. They will include underground magazines from Oz to the International Times; a shopping list written behind barricades during the 1968 Paris student riots; a moon rock on loan from NASA alongside the space suit worn by William Anders, who took the defining ‘Earthrise’ photograph on the Apollo 8 mission; a rare Apple 1 computer; an Ossie Clark costume for Mick Jagger; original artworks by Richard Hamilton; shards from Jimi Hendrix’s guitar; the suits worn by John Lennon and George Harrison on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and handwritten lyrics for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles.
Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, says, “This ambitious framing of late 1960s counterculture shows the incredible importance of that revolutionary period to our lives today. This seminal exhibition will shed new light on the wide-reaching social, cultural and intellectual changes of the
late 1960s which followed the austerity of the post-war years, not just in the UK but throughout the Western world. Our collections at the V&A, unrivalled in their scope and diversity, make us uniquely placed to present this exhibition.”
Objects are drawn from the breadth of the V&A’s varied collections, alongside important loans to highlight connections between people, places, music and movements across the UK, Europe and the USA. The exhibition will focus on particular environments that defined the cultural and social vanguard of the period, including Carnaby Street in London, clubs and counterculture, the Paris protests of May 1968, World Fairs including Montreal and Osaka, the Woodstock Festival of 1969 and alternative communities on the West Coast of America. Ideological connections will be made to the world of 2016, from the election battle to appoint the new president of the most powerful nation on earth to the rights of individuals everywhere to make a difference.
The collection of the cult radio presenter and musical tastemaker John Peel will provide a musical odyssey through some of the greatest music and performance of the 20th century from Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come to The Who’s My Generation to Jimi Hendrix live at Woodstock. Music will be played through Sennheiser headsets using innovative audio guide technology which adapts the sound to the visitor’s position in the gallery. Sound will be integrated with video and moving image, including interviews with key figures from the period including Yoko Ono, Stewart Brand and Twiggy, psychedelic light shows and seminal films including Easy Rider and 2001: A Space Odyssey to create a fully immersive and dramatic audiovisual experience.”
“It is a look back, (but) what we wanted to do was look at how this period actually formed the era that we now live in.” -Victoria Broackes
As a part of the seminar, I had to visit at least one of the exhibitions on the list and find one or series of images to write about.
I visited V&A MUSEUM and there was an exhibition called ‘You Say You Want A Revolution? Records and Rebels’ going around.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take photos there, so I just wrote down some notes while I was enjoying the exhibition.
from ROCK SHOT
DEFINITION OF REVOLUTION
1. A forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system
-(in Marxism) the class struggle which is expected to lead to political change and the triumph of communism.
-A dramatic and wide-reaching change in conditions, attitudes, or operation.
2. An instance of revolving.
-The movement of an object in a circular or elliptical course around another or about an axis or centre
-A single orbit of one object around another or about an axis or centre.
from Oxford Dictionary
” Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream.” -The Beatles, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ (1996)
Examines the years 1966 to 1970 when youth culture drove an optimistic idealism, believing it could change the world exploring many issues that have roots in the sixties and still dominate contemporary discourse–environmentalism, globalisation. individualism and mass-communication–it asks, ‘where do we go from here’.
WHAT’S THE TRIP?
We’d all love to see the plan
Provides a chronological and psychogeographical trip through five extraordinary years, from 1866 to 1970, 1826 days, seven distinctive types of ‘REVOLUTION’.
SECTION 1 : Revolution In Identity
SECTION 2 : Revolution In Ideas
SECTION 3 : Revolution In the Street
SECTION 4 : Revolution In Consuming
SECTION 5 : Revolution In Living
SECTION 6 : Revolution in Communicating
SECTION 7 : An Ongoing Revolution
What does it mean for you today?
And why might it mean for tomorrow?
The exhibition begins with the LP collection of the late John Peel and some quotes from many artists.
The wall full of LPs looked like a large colourful patchwork, attractive enough to catch the visitors.
The definition of ‘Revolution’ and information about how will the exhibition be going helped me to plan my journey.
from www.billboard.com
from Nissen Richards Studio
“Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) –
Between the end of the “Chatterley” ban
And the Beatles’ first LP. ” -Philip Larkin, ‘Annus Mirabilis’“I must say it’s pretty dreary living in the American Age – unless you’re an American of course. Perhaps all our children will be Americans.” John Osborne, ‘Look Back In Anger’
IMAGING OTHER WORLDS
William Blake, ‘London’
Thomas More, ‘Utopia’
Tom Hayden and SDS Members, ‘Port Huron Statement’
Sigma Portfolio No.1
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.”-Magaret Mead
There were some paintings and books cover drug addiction, (homo)sexuality and how the heartless society of fifties America dealt with its troubled minds including :
Jack Kerouac, ‘On the Road’
Allen Ginsberg, ‘Howl’ and other poems (dedicated to psychiatric patient Carl Solomon)
It was interesting to see those two authors in this exhibition, because I am quite interested in the Beat Generation. I have seen the film called ‘Kill Your Darlings’, and then found it really fascinating. I have read the book called ‘And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks’ and the poem ‘Howl’ before. I think it was the period full of freedom and restrictions at the same time.
from www.creativereview.co.uk
from ROCK SHOT
from www.londonist.com
SWINGING LONDON 1866
We all want to change the world imagine arriving in London and reinventing yourself.
There was a movement called ‘youthquake’ at this time. The baby-boom intrigued opening of new destinations. The fashion of youthquake was fun, spirited and aimed at young people. Twiggy was one of the popular poster girls of the youthquakers. They were often on the cover of fashion magazines. Vidal Sassoon also contributed for this movement.
There were few artworks which captured my eyes :
Paul Christodoulou ‘Elliot Alice Boots’ (1966)
Mixes visual elements of ‘Aubery Beardsley’ with ‘Alice in Wonderland’, reminds of the hallucinogenic drug culture with permeated throughout this period.
A cut-like obsession with Lewis Carroll’s books took hold during the 1960s, particularly following Jonathan Miller’s TV adaptation ‘Alice in Wonderland’ shown at Christmas in 1006.
I really like fairy tales, and ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ is my favourite one. I liked how Paul Christodoulou illustrated Alice in different way, combining those features of swinging London period in black and white.
Michelangelo Antonioni ‘Blow-Up’
This film starts with a fashion photographer discovers he has unintentionally snapped a murder in one of his images. Revealing detail through making ever-larger blow-ups a dead body and gunman come into focus behind some bushes, the photographer is jolted from the glamorous monotony of models and parties.
It is one of the first films to portray the cool structures of swinging London.
The poster was made by Arthur Evans. ‘Shooting on the floor downwards, completely fluid, unhindered by tripods’ was ‘pure Lowan’.
When I was doing my FMP in the foundation course, I have seen this film for the research. Since my topic was seeing and being seen, the character in this film was quite interesting. He wanted to see more and more, making larger and larger blow-ups.
from www.zimbio.com
CLUBS AND COUNTERCULTURE
You better free your mind instead imaging everybody connecting and seeing the world differently. The importance of LSD in creating a ‘Revolution In the Head’ cannot be overestimated. It opens minds to new experiences, transforms ways of seeing.
Along with ‘Head Shops’ selling drug-related paraphernalia, places like Friday-Night UFO Club provides venues where music, ideas, radical publications and drug can be exchanged.
Spread of counterculture events is matched by the growth of the alternative press, like IT, Black Dwarf and Oz.
BBC caves in to demand and invites pirate radio DJs-John Peel to broadcast their own shows.
Kicking off what was to become the summer of life.
ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLES (BELIEF, OCCULT, DRUGS)
Counterculture’s heart lies a fervent anti-authoritarian stance and the belief in self-exploration or being a ‘cosmonaut of inner space’.
Politics focuses on civil rights the feminism and gay rights and the environmentalism. This all set against a backdrop of fierce opposition to the Vietnam War.
Distorted and surreal visuals, bright colours and animation evoke altered consciousness revealed by tripping on hallucinogenic drugs.
WHAT OTHER SECRET WORLDS COULD BE HIDDEN BY GOVERNMENTS, RELIGIONS, SCIENTISTS, PARENTS AND OTHER AUTHORITIES?
Wes Wilson, ‘The Trips Festival’
The Acid Tests were a series of parties held during the mid-1960s, centered entirely on the use of, and advocacy of, the LSD.
“This is the first gathering of it’s kind anywhere. the TRIP—or electronic performance—is a new medium of communication & entertainment. the general tone of things has moved on from the self- conscious happening to a more jubilant occasion where the audience participates because it’s more fun to do so than not. maybe this is the rock revolution. audience dancing is an assumed part of all the shows, & the audience is invited to wear ecstatic dress & bring their own gadgets.”
Trip was a new medium of communication and entertainment.
I think this is the most attractive part in the exhibition for me. This sections was full of vibrant colours and abstract images. It made such a deep impression on me.
However, the poster/flyer of the festival was printed in black&white, which made a huge contrast between it and other artworks of that period. Surprisingly, it still makes me infatuated with it.
The rest parts of exhibition were about wars, expos, festivals, and some consumption. Although they were quite nice, personally I found them less interesting than front parts. It was nice to see mirrors everywhere, which made me feel like I was part of the exhibition.
The exhibition ended with Jonh Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. This shifting period full of revolutions cannot be said without mentioning the Beatles, and they decorated the first and the last of the exhibition.
I think the most effective part of the exhibition might be the music. There was music all the way you enjoy the exhibition. It has set such a nice atmosphere in the gallery. I have seen lots of people just listing to the music, and having great time.
Overall, it was a really well balanced exhibition. There were photographs, posters, books, films, clothes and other designs as well.