to the the seaside...!

As mentioned in my last post, we had a trip down to Brighton! 

While we were there we had a visit to Brighton Museum & Art Gallery to see the Biba and Beyond exhibition that is currently taking place. Its ending on the 14th of April 2013 so if you would like to go, you have plenty of time left to take a trip down!

The exhibition was interesting, but considering you had to pay to get in, I think I am correct in saying that we all felt a little but under-satisfied by the whole experience. 

The space was of standard size, and I expected to see some more interesting clothes and more original illustrations (If you have not seen much of Barbara Hulanicki's sketches & illustrations, they are awesome!).

The exhibition had a lot of garments on show from Biba's Topshop collection which was launched as far as I can remember in 2009? I remember picking up a flyer in Topshop and looking at the garments myself, so frankly it isn't something I am that interesting in paying to go and see in an exhibition.

 There was also a number of other exhibitions happening including one called Fashion & The Flag, it was free and I actually found the items being exhibited more interesting than the Biba exhibition. 

Basically the whole room featured fashions that featured the Union Jack as a fabric or as a design inspiration.

Yes. There was some Vivienne Westwood. And Alexander McQueen.

As well as both of these there was also an exhibition showing the works of Jeff Keen, 

' A career-long retrospective of artist and film-maker Jeff Keen (1923-2012), who was one of the great figures of the British post-war avant-garde. Keen's work reveals a wild spirit of anarchic play, a fascination with surrealism, and a love of popular culture. His life-long commitment to Brighton & Hove will be celebrated in this display featuring a selection of his films alongside his paintings, drawings, poetry and assemblages.

Keen, who worked for Parks and Gardens for several years, spent most of his artistic career in Brighton and used the city as a major inspiration for his work. He ignored the hierarchies of the London arts scene and the wider world of avant-garde cinema in favour of a radical commitment to locality and intimate community. Keen’s work focuses lovingly on a close-knit circle of real and imaginary friends at work and at play in and around Brighton & Hove. '

http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/WhatsOn/Pages/BMAGShoottheWrxjeffkeen27octto24feb13.aspx

I really enjoyed looking at his body of work, and I found it all incredibly inspiring.

It was so textural, violent, strange and pretty confusing. Which I like.  

There were loads of his work on show and many sketchbooks, and I could have looked at it all for ages!