The Gone Tomorrow Gallery is opening an exhibition of new work from leading artist David Stewart on Friday 9th Feb. Stewart’ exhibition Hi Life features a series of large-scale woodblock prints, which reproduce the flyers and handouts that are discarded in the streets and found the morning after nights out in East London, some of which can be found in and around the streets around the gallery (based in Bethnal Green).
Stewart is fascinated by the East End, which is one of the most culturally diverse areas in Europe and evidence of this is notable in the rich mix of languages, markets, produce and social life advertised on posters, leaflets, junk-mail etc. Despite frequently being characterised by poverty, housing problems and crime, East London is an area of regeneration whose multi-cultural traditions are evolving with the rising population of migrant workers from all over the world, extending redevelopment even further east.
Work, aspirations, relationships, quality of life are all represented and pandered to with a constant supply of cheaply produced but colourful and eye-catching leaflets, cards and flyers distributed freely and as quickly discarded. These nightclub, takeaway fast food, discount overseas phone rate adverts are all featured in Stewarts prints, combining the contemporary demands of modern communications with a traditional method of pushing working class hopes, needs and desires.
The woodblock print is the earliest medium of mass produced communication using the simplest, cheapest material and technology available for the equivalents of hand-outs or flyers. Instead of Photoshop the images here are drawn from the originals by hand, cut out of plywood, printed on newsprint and aim to connect older processes, with the same ends in mind, to newer generations.
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