you drunken me
Richard Hell collaborates with Jim Lambie
in Glasgow, Scotland, April 17-23, 2012
STUDIO/CLUB & INTRO

This was a wild week. The entire agenda was only put in place in the preceding two months. First Jim invited Richard over to introduce the movie, Wise Blood, that Jim had chosen for Stephen Pastel's film series, the Monorail Film Club. Then Jim suggested that, as long as Richard was going to be in town he give a reading as well. Then Jim had the idea of doing an art show of collaborations with Richard too. So now what remained was finding venues for the show and reading. Jim decided to build them himself! So, in a period of six weeks, Jim designed and constructed both the gallery and the bar venue (Elephant Head Poetry Club). They were built in derelict spaces within abandoned elevated railway brick arches. Meanwhile Richard and Jim kicked around some ideas for artworks, but they could only discover what might really work in practice after Richard arrived in Glasgow and they could start fooling around in Jim's studio. The art show was mostly conceived and virtually entirely painted/constructed in the three days--April 17-19--Richard was in Glasgow before the show opened on April 20. Below are a few shots from Richard's first and third day in the studio, prior to the show opening on the fourth day. When Richard arrived the gallery was being painted, but the poetry club (with bar and dancefloor) was still a construction site. Amazingly, the club was fully completed for Richard's inaugural reading there on the night of the 20th. The pictures below of the venue were taken on the afternoon of that day, pre-opening...

The only artworks in the show that were created in advance are the seven portfolios of seven screenprints each. Each separate print in a portfolio is identical with the six others, except for a color variation in each of the seven prints (above are the black and the yellow examples).

Closer look. In case you're interested, that's Michel Houellebecq upside down in the screenprints.

One way of saying it. JL <~~> RH was another. Jim's studio April 19. The show opens tomorrow.

This is after dark, the night of the 19th before the show opens on the 20th. The major painting has just begun. You can see the finished painting at the GALLERY installation page.

That's faithful, brilliant aide and driver Jason Macphail with Jim. The logo painting has been moved up onto sawhorses for completion.

Two days ago this was a frantic construction site. It's late afternoon in the bar area of the Elephant Head Poetry Club before the official opening in the evening.

The bar itself is to the right of the bar area in the photo above this one.

You can see the low stage, where a man is standing, beyond the dance floor in the performance area past the bar's doorway of the Elephant Head Poetry Club.

The view of the club to the left from the stage.

The view of the club straight ahead from the stage.

The view of the club to the right from the stage.