PRIVATE VIEW MAY 14th 6.30 – midnight
Exhibition: May 15th – June 14th 2008
RHYTHM FACTORY 16-18 WHITECHAPEL ROAD, LONDON E1 1EW
Hello. My name is RUSSELL HERRON and I am an artist.
Or maybe it’s all in my mind.
Well, let’s see. Back in the 90s I used to work with a woman and we did some work under the name SR, or sometimes SR London. We did lots of media based stuff using her image. Among other things we put a flyer in Art Monthly with an image of her saying Young British Artist. We did full page adverts in magazines like Dazed and Confused and i-D with her posing like a model. We did stickers with her saying I Am Everywhere which got put up all over the world and we made a small magazine called SR’s I AM EVERYWHERE magazine.
Then, not long after that she lost the plot a bit. We split. I didn’t do art for about three years because art for me was about her madness and I didn’t want to be mad. So I worked in a job for a bit, nothing to do with art…
Then eventually I started doing stuff again (when I realised I wasn’t mad) and I wrote an online blog for about a year in 2006, about going round private views, meeting people, looking at art and drinking heavily. It was written in a slightly camp, funny style and lots of people read it and some really liked it and some really hated it. It’s still up there now: http://russellherron.blogspot.com . I didn’t think of the blog as writing or as myself as a writer, I thought of it as a work – about history and place and identity and, well, lots of things.
Around that time, I also started a sort of unofficial guide to private views with a newsletter called RUSSELL HERRON that I emailed to people. It still goes out now to about 2000 people every couple of weeks or so. I think of this as a work too.
And I co-curated a show at the ICA for the staff and made it so that the work had to be shown in non-public areas of the ICA. Sort of a show about art institutions and the people in them – a show that was not being shown. I put my name, in very large letters, on the office wall of the artistic director’s office.
And recently I’ve been putting adverts in magazines again, an image of some girls with my name across it. A bit like I was in the 90s. I guess it never really changes what you do. I’ve also been sending some girls to private views wearing T shirts with my name on. I call them THE RUSSELLETTES. They’re just great. You can see them online here: www.myspace.com/therussellettes And I keep producing a series of free editioned branded works – collectables if you like – such as disposable lighters, thimbles, badges, balloons. This latest show has a new cotton bag.
For the past four years I’ve been showing a series of magazine covers at the Rhythm Factory under the title A Short History of Looking and Being Looked At. Each year, 69 magazines covers of a different female celebrity. The first year, Jordan, then Jayne Mansfield, then Geri Halliwell, then Martine McCutcheon. And this year it was supposed to be Catherine Zeta Jones. I had described this complete work as an epic, and like most epics I just got a bit bored with it.
So this year I’ve painted my name, RUSSELL HERRON, on the bar wall of the Rhythm Factory.
There are all sorts of references you can make from it. It’s a bit 70s and conceptual and I’m obviously quoting work by Keith Arnatt (Trouser -Word Piece (1972-1989), specifically) and Laurence Weiner a bit, maybe there’s even a touch of Ed Ruscha about it too (hey, I love you guys!). There’s also a contemporary resonance to do with graffiti and tagging. And you might say there’s clearly some Mustafa Hulusi in there too, because if you work with your own name that’s what most people think. I’m sure you remember those posters he did with his name on? There’s an old one, all ripped up, on a wall just down from the Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel, where I am having my show.
And, like a hidden track on the end of a CD, there will be a subtle intervention to the signage on the front of the Rhythm Factory which will change the name of the venue to…RUSSELL HERRON.
So there you go. My name is RUSSELL HERRON and I am an artist.
RUSSELL HERRON IS A REAL ARTIST
PRIVATE VIEW: Wednesday May 14th 6.30pm-midnight with limited edition RUSSELL HERRON LONDON cotton bag, available FREE EXCLUSIVELY plus special appearance by THE RUSSELLETTES!
VENUE: Rhythm Factory, 16-18 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1EW
SHOW: May 15th – June 14th open: Mon-Fri 11am- late, Sat: 9pm- late
More information: Russell Herron 07799065556 or russell@russellherron.com
LINKS:
www.myspace.com/russell_herron
www.myspace.com/therussellettes
www.russellherron.com
www.rhythmfactory.co.uk
