Boys in Bed
, aespecially young or young place for sleeping (2)relatively : close association :(3): a room for sleeping in
In bed with.. Joshua West.
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With thanks to Corey Donovan Huw Griffiths Dylan Glasby Ashley Tse Joshua West
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editors letter
There’s something about using the words ‘boys in bed’ that made a lot of people question my ideas for this zine. No, this is not a zine filled with half naked guys in between sheets, or a zine that looks anything like the images that appear when ‘boys in bed’ is typed into google. This zine is about celebrating boys for being.. boys. Boy seen in their most intimate space, their ‘get away’ from the outside world, the space that they live, sleep, write, create, dream and you know the rest. It can almost be guarenteed that there are no two boys with the exact same posessions. Seeing someone where they are most comfortable, where they let loose all emotions and dream at night, can bring a whole new side to somebody that you may have never seen before. When I met the boys in this zine, it was clear to see that their bedrooms relfected their personalities, acheievements and passions. It enhanced the story that they were telling and they told it well.
Molly Edge
the moment
Small town boy Corey Donovan is a social documentary photographer exploring the stories of his young friends in his ongoing series He sits in a loose plain white tee and skinny jeans, in his room which just about fits his double bed in, and adjusts his vinyl player to his favourite Beach House song.
In the background his younger brothers and sisters are screaming, dogs barking. It’s clear to see that this tiny bedroom is Corey’s escape from the busyness of his families lives. ‘I grew up with a lot of close friends, you know our typical friday night was spent getting pissed in the park with a barrel of frosty jacks, like most teens i guess. I just started taking photos of them, my friends and family. Since then I started to document other people I met along the way.’
Corey’s Work..
Living in a one club town, Corey often travels to Manchester to capture club scenes or visits long distant friends in Bristol, seeking to capture the notion of what it’s like to be young. His work is intimate, it shows the typical life of most teenagers as they’re growing up and killing time together. ‘I guess it’s showing the fun, and in some ways innocent side to us. It’s the truth, a real story away from all that fake bullshit in a Kardashian world’. It’s been proven that social media has had a huge impact on the way people show their fake lives as being real. Recently a fashion blogger Essena O’Neill quit all of her social media accounts due to being tired of acting fake, to make her life more admirable. Jaden Smith was also one of the recent celeberities to delete his twitter account, and the World mourned for the loss of his mysterious tweets like, ‘When I Die, Then You Will Realise.’ which has since been made into numerous memes. Deleting all social media accounts to spend more time on your own life instead of gazing at other people’s seems like a healthy, care-free life. But if you’re anything like the rest of the us, it isn’t long before you’re hungry for more instagram posts due to FOMO. (Fear of missing out). Corey’s work is refreshing to see, no one is photoshopped, looks glam and no one is posing to make their bodies look different or sucking in their cheekbones. Yet it is still beautfiful and admiring to look at. Raw is one of the first words that comes to mind when looking through Corey’s work. Candid moments of his friends show the fun, and not so, times through the lens of his point and shoot.
‘It fits my aesthetic’ he says talking of his film camera. ‘I’m thinking less about getting a perfect shot in terms of composition and more about getting that perfect moment and portraying that moment in the moment. Does that make sense?’ he laughs. Seeing ‘that moment’ makes you want to be there and hang out with the subjects within his photos, to let go and experience life. There’s no jealousy in the sense of ‘Why don’t I have that body’ or ‘I need that’, but a good jealousy that makes you want to get up and have fun, to take your eyes off your phone for a night. As of 2015, Instagram has over 400million users. 400 million people and companies sharing their lives and products almost makes privacy seem a lot more desirable. Instagam became such a huge success so quickly, that it is now obvious to see why some people have started posting less and deactivating accounts. The reason being to have a more social life outside of the internet and to be more aware of what is being posted. People are also being more conscious about their digital footprint, we all know that one person that can’t help but to air their dirty laundry all over Facebook.
Just like the mood to his work, Corey is open and laid back. Lying on his creased white sheets, below a Lana del Rey poster that hangs lopsided on his wall. ‘I just love capturing emotions as well, those photos of your friends laughing, real happy times.’ His images have a nostalgic feel to them. Almost as though you were there or you’ve experienced a night just like that. For someone who has such a chilled out presence, it’s easy to see that Corey cares a lot about his work and the subjects within it. With most of Corey’s work being shot without the subjects realisation, tells a truer story than an instagram shot that’s been styled and set up to gain more likes and to show a ‘perfect’ life.
‘When I get my photos back from being developed, it’s like I’m viewing someone else’s life for a brief moment with a now sober mind. Sometimes I’m like shit! when did this even happen? It’s fun.’ Club scenes and youth culture is not the only work that Corey focuses on. ‘I have a few on going projects, one of them being take-out, it’s just capturing how food and alcohol fits into our social lives and brings us all together. I guess you could say that a lot of my work is linked’.
Although Instagram and Twitter may seem like they fill everyone with anxiety and jealousy, social media however, can also be a useful tool. Many creative people use accounts to show work, promote themselves and even contact people they would never have been able to contact before. For example, if it wasn’t for Instagram I wouldn’t have met some of the boys I shot for this zine. Corey also admits that he has gained many friendships which started off with a simple click of a follow button. Overall, social media isn’t the worst thing in the World, but isn’t the greatest when used all hours of the day.
By using social media less, going out more and speaking to our friends rather than texting them, we an declutter our minds, erase the jealousy and live a real, less fake life that we’re proud to tell our grandkids.
Collage by Atse
Mad About The Boy Exhibiton Curated by show studio’s editor, Lou Stoppard, Mad about the Boy pulls apart the idea of the ‘boy’ within fashion into eight different sections. From ravers to school boys to gender fluidity and sexual exploration, Lou’s exhibition tells a story about boys within fashion. ‘Mad about the boy explores fashions obsession with the young male, focusing on the way ideas of the teenage boy are constructed through specific collections and images.’ reads the first paragraph of the DIY exhibition guide that you fit together as you walk through each different section. The idea behind the show is not to show how boys necessarily dress or act, but how fashion grabs the idea of youth and the young boy, and the ways this is portrayed. One of the best things about this exhibition is that it is not all focused on one designer or one photographer, but involves many different ranges of clothes, photography and film that have been carefully chosen from the past and more recently. From Kim Jones early work to Raf Simons SS16, Mad about the boy sparks conversation about the way in which artists from a variety of mediums take inspiration from the young boy.
In His Space The first part of the exhibition you see, called, ‘In His Space’ shows a set in the style of a boys bedroom. But not just any boys bedroom, a bedroom based on the set of Meadham Kirchhoff’s SS13 presentation, restaged by Tony Hornecker, who designed the whole exhibition. From graffiti sprayed onto the walls and florescent pink paint splattered around the room to roses sprawled across the bed, this set shows the bedroom as a place where freedom can be expressed, a space special to the boy, full of dreams and passions.
Meadham Kirchhoff SS13
In The Street Nasir Mazhar, Kim Jones and of course Gosha Rubchinskiy looks all feature in this section of the exhibition. The inclusion of Gosha Rubchinskiy in incredibly fitting due to his own obsession with youth, who once actually said during a SHOWstudio interview in 2015 ‘I don’t think I’m a fashion designer, I’m interested in youth, not fashion’. Photographer Jason Evans also has work on display, it’s the work of these artists that bring casual culture and anti fashion into fashion. All of whom take inspiration from the boy and youth culture.
Gosha Rubchinskiy - Youth Hotel
Mark Lecky Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore In The Club One of the main features within this section, is Mark Leckey’s ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ film from 1999. Alongside this is a look from Raf Simons SS16, where Raf actually took inspiration from Mark Leckey’s film for his collection. Work from Jason Evans’ is also featured, from his documentation of the style of UK clubbers during the 90s. This section proves that many designers, photographers, artists take a lot of inspiration from teen hangouts, and their night-time adventures.
Both images by Brett Lloyd Between Genders It’s 2016 and Androgyny and dressing genderless is hot right now. Many artists such as photographer Brett Lloyd and designer, J.W Anderson have been creating work that explore the ideas of gender fluidity. Both of whose work is shown in this area of the exhibition. Since Alessandro Michele became the creative director of Gucci in 2015, collections have been filled with floral and lace, which is usually only seen at womenswear shows. This also pulls back to the idea of freedom that the youth have. Free to create, express and transform themselves into the person they are to become.
Mad About The Boy January 8– April 2, 2016 at Fashion Space Gallery, London College of Fashion, 20 John Prince’s Street, London, W1G 0BJ.
Pyjama Party
Photography Molly Edge In bed with Dylan Glasby
The History of Posters Psychedelic rock posters have been around since the 50s. Picture bright purple and orange Jimi Hendrix posters, with swirly fonts and vibrating patterns that spin off the paper. With a new music form arising, poster artwork came with it. Music informed posters, they promoted events and gigs that bands were playing and represented the aesthetics of the band. As well as being used to advertise events, posters were put up all over the streets as a silent protest to the oppression in the 50s, covered in peace signs and white doves. Musicians were everything, in a time with no phones or Facebook, gigs and events were what brought people with the same tastes together. It reminded people that music, art and poetry were what life was about. The art of the poster represented the mood of the coming night, they represented the band and culture of that time more than any photograph alone could represent. When people started to see crazy psychedelic posters scattered around town, they were torn down and kept as souvenirs, people wallpapered their bedrooms with the art.
Venues even used this to their own advantage, offering free posters to the first 500 people out of the venue to encourage people to leave the building straight after a show. What was once given out free as an incentive to leave, are now worth hundreds to collectors. The young kids of the 50s became the long haired screaming hippies of the 70s. Rick Griffin was the it-poster guy during the 60s and 70s, he is seen as one of the most influential artists within posters, with some calling him ‘the Michael Angelo of poster art’. He Griffin started out as an underground cartoonist, he stepped outside of everyday experience and channelled cosmic forces with ideas of God and Jesus. He gave people an unrealistic experience through his art, something that nobody could imagine with a sober mind.
Another great poster artist is Victor Moscoso. His bold colours and ‘trippy’ patterns evoked another state of mind. Moscoso broke the rules of poster art. Clashing colours and designing fonts that seemed impossible to read straight, he believed that time should be spent looking at posters. Posters shouldn’t give information away quickly. Imagine a telephone pole pasted with tens of posters, his work needed to stand out. And it did just that. Victor accidentally created a poster that moved under certain light. A printed angel, with different colour wings. When his friend put up flashing christmas lights against his poster wall, he realised that the wings were moving. What started as an accident quickly became a design and the beginning of some of Victor Moscoso’s most famous work. The Grande Ballroom was the heart of psychedelic rock events. It gave out flyers for every show, and with a no alcohol rule, high school kids obsessed over the posters and events. LSD became huge and then came the rise of heroin abuse.
By 1971, the poster industry was collapsing. Rock was the hottest thing in town, bands were selling out huge stadiums and the poster industry couldn’t compete. From this evolved the punk population, DIY flyer art was everywhere, but this time black and white. It represented the music scene of the time, people were rebelling against corrupt governments and music corporations like MTV. Punks wanted something to call their own, against these huge sell out gigs. By the 80s, posters were heading back in time, with a slight twist on the earlier 60s designs. Still pre-internet, posters were used to speak to each other, to meet new people. Making posters became a lot more accessible. Every day skaters and high school kids were influenced by the earlier poster art. Libraries stored photocopiers where kids could take cut outs and collages to make their own posters and zines, to spread their passions and create art. For as little as £1 people could print hundreds of flyers and spread them around town. Kids would paste posters and flyers on telephone poles and pray for no rain that night. In fact so many people were spreading posters that America banned the use of them on telephone poles in public places due to damage when the rain did fall, turning a pile of posters into paper mache. Even arresting people for ‘MISSING CAT’ posters.
Posters are cultural artefacts. They show the bands and subcultures of the time in a different way to photographs and newspaper cuttings. They were made for the people by the people. Along came the 90s and along came Frank Kozik. Kozik was omnipresent, he was one of the first artists to break out of his region and become worldwide. Using existing cartoons and illustrations, his post modern art posters gave a dark twist on once innocent drawings. Kids rabbit characters were drawn taking drugs, and cartoon boys with acid tabs on their tongues. It was a visual language that kids of the time could understand and love, a new era of poster art. The goal for posters soon became far from there original use. They were no longer being used to promote events or even bands. Artists started asking bands to use there name for free in return for a poster of such good quality they could never afford. In exchange for the artist selling the posters to people that were collecting art. It got to the point where bands were becoming famous, due to the popularity of the original poster art. Poster artist Lindsey Kuin who worked alongside Frank Kozik, admitted in the American Artifact documentary, that people would search his bins in order to find poster rejects to keep and collect. One of the most influential posters by Kozik was the ‘Green Girl’ poster. It was erotic and organic, it suited the music scene of the time and according to the artist himself in American Artifact, ‘took 30 minutes to make’.
In Bed With.. Joshua West
It’s safe to say that music posters have evolved A LOT since the psychedelic rock posters of the 50s and 60s. Magazines include pull out posters to stick on walls, and kids even use magazine covers to decorate their bedrooms with. Josh West is one of many teens that pulls out posters and photos to stick on his bedroom wall, to bring his inspirations and passions into his personal space. We spoke to Josh about his posters and what an artist must mean to him before being stuck onto the ‘wall of fame’. ‘I think the general reason behind the posters on my wall are they’re of major importance to me and it’s my way of paying homage, as well as kinda painting the walls with a part of me.’ Josh’s walls are covered in posters from David Bowie to Matty Healy.
‘Bowie is easily the most important person to me in regards to music and fashion, by pretty much combining and binding my two favourite things together. So it was a given that I’d fall in love with him and his persona’s eventually. But I feel like he’s so much more than that, you almost have a personal connection with him and I think everyone has their own take on that relationship. So you feel united in the masses of his fans, yet still have this personal connection. I admire the way he bent useless concepts like gender, sexuality and normality too. He’s just one of those people whose art will transcend death’.
‘Nobody has helped me feel less alone, more alive and totally inspired.’ As well as having posters of people that clearly mean a lot to him, Josh also has photos he’s taken himself, newspaper cuttings and tickets for gigs.
Unlike back in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Bands rarely release posters to promote specific events or tours. By posting an image on Facebook with dates, locations and photos on, sparks another debate about whether a poster that hasn’t actually been printed, is even a poster at all, or just another online image. This means that unless you were to physically print social media promotions yourself, tickets to events are the only ‘free’ souvenir to take from your favourite shows. Josh continued, ‘I go to at least one or two [gigs] every two weeks. They’re extremely important to me. Usually I go with my dad, it’s similar to a father and sons relationship with football.
It’s our way of bonding, music is our football. It’s sometimes the only way of socialising out of an educational environment. I have met so many great people through it. I’m only in a bedroom band at the moment, ideally I’d want to gig myself. I have a romanticised version of fame’. Relating back to the original uses of a poster, music is what brings people together. It gives people of the same style and interest to bond and meet up. Now with the help of social media it is a lot easier to meet people outside of events as well. However, there’s something sentimental and exciting about the idea of running to your local library to photocopy zines and posters, to collect all of the art and meet people there without knowing if anybody else would turn up. But then again, looking through rose tinted glasses at the past can almost romanticise anything.
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It ain’t what you think what they hide under their bed, No lads mags, pornos or that weird blow up head. Sometimes it’s the things no one looks for, Not just the person they snuck in the back door. These things are related to how they might feel, Not just fallen down the side from that ‘Netflix and Chill’. Their room is their shell, their bed is the oyster, Like I said before, not somewhere to hoist her. They feel one with the world with these little things, Maybe even stuck between all those heart strings. What’s under their bed we might never ever know, Could of been brought, stolen or maybe they don’t want to show. What’s under their bed might not be on their shelf, Cus it takes them to that place where they can just be theirself.
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