poster girl: kate moss
Twenty years on since delayed, adolescent boys Jefferson Hack and John Rankin Waddell gave birth to the brain child that sparked a 90's hunger for hispster guidebooks, they claim to still be Dazed and Confused. Another, nonsensical claim is that they made it up as they went along (they so hipster) - the strap line to their Somerset House exhibition which accompanies a book of the same name. Making It Up As We Go Along is a reminiscent celebration, charting the twenty year lifespan of the first, go-to, 'heroin-chic' fanzine.
The original perpetrator that corrupted youth culture with his glamorising of drugs and glorifying of death (according to Clinton), documented on the pages of Dazed & Confused, Hack harvested that poignant first platform to young creatives across the art - Corrinne Day, music - Bjork and fashion - Kate Moss disciplines.
Forget the controversy, they kept it neo-real and the current exhibition remembers and pays tribute to the great talents that earnt Dazed its notorious, irreverent 'rep placing it at the epi-centre of new age, Brit press. I would hate to spoil it for you with streams of visuals but I'll give you at least a taster to persuade you to take a creeeep on down to SH. You're taken on a chronological journey through means of the strongest of visual images representing the iconic covers, legendary talents of the moment and beyond, the breakthrough artists, designers and photographers, compelling, alternative beauty.. and everything else Dazed stood and still does, stand for. It really does illustrate the lucrative, British creative scene at its best. And of course, the nonchalant casual 'tude of the hipster subculture eludes each piece and resonates in equal capacity, throughout the three rooms. I revelled in it.
To be dazed and confused twenty years later, I can think of worse d an c adjectives (and nouns) to be.
The exhibition ends on Monday, catch it before it goes. If you're a magazine fiend (definitely me) or a so called 'hipster' (definitely not me), its compulsory. Bidding the exhibition fairly well, Jefferson Hack and Jo-Ann Furniss (editor of the book) will be in (a sold out) conversation tomorrow night at Somerset House.
Unfortunately, its one of many things I shall be missing out on, in London, this weekend.
Send my love.
x
