A father-and-son art project may sound like something that ends up on the fridge, but for Grow Up, who base their work on graphic art, typography, stencils, mixed media, screen print ‘and profanity’, it’s something that has ended up travelling from the domestic setting of 2020’s lockdown to freely downloadable, global protest material.
That journey sits at the heart of Paste Present Future, a city-wide exhibition created by Grow Up in collaboration with Big Issue and UNCLE to mark Big Issue’s 35th anniversary. Founded on London’s streets, Big Issue has become one of Britain’s most recognisable social enterprises, giving people affected by poverty a way to earn their own income while campaigning against the very conditions that create it. The project will place protest art across UNCLE’s street-level sites, alongside an exhibition at Laundry Studios, with 25% of sales supporting Big Issue.
Grow Up began in 2019 as a collaboration between BLAM and his son Jack. Both of BLAM’s sons are creative: his youngest, Harry, works across music, graphic design and film, while Jack focused closely on painting from a young age. Jack struggled with depression and anxiety at school, where the art room became his sanctuary. At 14, he was offered work experience at Jealous Gallery. Although Covid prevented it from going ahead, he was invited to show his work on the gallery’s stall at the Christmas Art Car Boot Fair shortly before lockdown.
The time at home that followed gave father and son space to make things and experiment together. Jack came up with the name Grow Up, borrowing something his teachers regularly said to him – despite, according to BLAM, being the more grown-up of the pair. Jack has since moved towards his own fine-art practice and is preparing to study at the Florence Academy of Art, while “BLAM senior is still refusing to grow up”.
Long before Grow Up, BLAM helped create the instantly recognisable poster campaign for Trainspotting. Whether you were walking the streets of the UK in 1996 or not, you would have seen the stripped-back portraits, bold typography and limited colour palette cut that represent an iconic motion picture in static form. The experience reinforced BLAM’s belief in simple, direct communication – and in the power a poster can gather when it occupies public space.
That history was turned back on itself in 2025 with The Turd Reich, Grow Up’s anti-fascist parody of the Trainspotting campaign that shows global leaders in Nazi uniforms. With Jack travelling through Asia, BLAM produced the work and made it freely available to download. It subsequently appeared at anti-Trump, Tesla Takedown and No Kings protests across the United States, accumulating more than 100,000 downloads and coverage from The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Guardian.
Paste Present Future develops that same belief in art that can circulate beyond galleries and reach people who have not chosen to seek it out. The exhibition brings together 35 artists, including Anthony Burrill, Jamie Reid, Kennardphillipps, Jeremy Deller, Sarah Maple, Chris Packham, Modern Toss and Everyone Hates Elon. Taking in the history of protest art alongside new work responding to the present, it asks what street art has done, what it can still do and what it must never lose.
For BLAM, the answer begins with two simple principles: “Silence is compliance” and “C***S need telling.”
That journey sits at the heart of Paste Present Future, a city-wide exhibition created by Grow Up in collaboration with Big Issue and UNCLE to mark Big Issue’s 35th anniversary. Founded on London’s streets, Big Issue has become one of Britain’s most recognisable social enterprises, giving people affected by poverty a way to earn their own income while campaigning against the very conditions that create it. The project will place protest art across UNCLE’s street-level sites, alongside an exhibition at Laundry Studios, with 25% of sales supporting Big Issue.
Grow Up began in 2019 as a collaboration between BLAM and his son Jack. Both of BLAM’s sons are creative: his youngest, Harry, works across music, graphic design and film, while Jack focused closely on painting from a young age. Jack struggled with depression and anxiety at school, where the art room became his sanctuary. At 14, he was offered work experience at Jealous Gallery. Although Covid prevented it from going ahead, he was invited to show his work on the gallery’s stall at the Christmas Art Car Boot Fair shortly before lockdown.
The time at home that followed gave father and son space to make things and experiment together. Jack came up with the name Grow Up, borrowing something his teachers regularly said to him – despite, according to BLAM, being the more grown-up of the pair. Jack has since moved towards his own fine-art practice and is preparing to study at the Florence Academy of Art, while “BLAM senior is still refusing to grow up”.
Long before Grow Up, BLAM helped create the instantly recognisable poster campaign for Trainspotting. Whether you were walking the streets of the UK in 1996 or not, you would have seen the stripped-back portraits, bold typography and limited colour palette cut that represent an iconic motion picture in static form. The experience reinforced BLAM’s belief in simple, direct communication – and in the power a poster can gather when it occupies public space.
That history was turned back on itself in 2025 with The Turd Reich, Grow Up’s anti-fascist parody of the Trainspotting campaign that shows global leaders in Nazi uniforms. With Jack travelling through Asia, BLAM produced the work and made it freely available to download. It subsequently appeared at anti-Trump, Tesla Takedown and No Kings protests across the United States, accumulating more than 100,000 downloads and coverage from The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Guardian.
Paste Present Future develops that same belief in art that can circulate beyond galleries and reach people who have not chosen to seek it out. The exhibition brings together 35 artists, including Anthony Burrill, Jamie Reid, Kennardphillipps, Jeremy Deller, Sarah Maple, Chris Packham, Modern Toss and Everyone Hates Elon. Taking in the history of protest art alongside new work responding to the present, it asks what street art has done, what it can still do and what it must never lose.
For BLAM, the answer begins with two simple principles: “Silence is compliance” and “C***S need telling.”
TO SET THE SCENE A TOUCH: BEFORE GROW UP, YOU HELPED CREATE ONE OF BRITAIN’S MOST RECOGNISABLE POSTER CAMPAIGNS FOR TRAINSPOTTING. WHAT DID THAT EXPERIENCE TEACH YOU ABOUT MAKING AN IMAGE COMMUNICATE IN SECONDS?
A simpler, minimal design communicates a message in a much simpler format – a less-is-more approach. In the 90s, poster design had become over-worked and messy, busy Photoshop comps of actors’ heads and poorly laid-out type. The campaigns were mostly made by marketing companies who didn’t really care about graphic design, branding or strong visual communication to convey a message that you get from approaching a design agency. So having strong ties to design and being a fan of Modernism Swiss design was the approach I applied to my design work. The imagery and branding cut through and stood out from the crowd in a cluttered and busy advertising space. I have also always loved collecting posters, so it’s steeped heavily into my DNA. Keep it simple is the best approach and the best campaigns do this, simply and effectively.
The other helpful thing about the Trainspotting poster campaign is that I was very lucky that Polygram film spent over £3 million marketing the film across the UK, so it was on every bus shelter, poster site, student bedroom and billboard – you couldn’t turn your head without seeing it. I think that was a strong part of why everyone remembers it. Also the great actors, amazing writing, directing and soundtrack – it was the perfect storm really that I am grateful to have been a small part of it all becoming so big and fondly remembered today.
WORKS SUCH AS THE TURD REICH, SHOW FASCISTS THE DOOR AND EAT MORE BILLIONAIRES ARE COMPLETELY EXPLICIT ABOUT WHAT THEY OPPOSE. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT THE VIEWER ISN’T LEFT GUESSING?
That’s a really lovely observation, thank you. I’ve never really analysed it like that, it’s just what I do.
I always say, ‘It’s like telling a joke – if it needs an explanation it’s not funny.’
If people come up to me when we are selling our work and say, ‘But what does it mean?’ I won’t explain the point to them as it’s up to them to work it out. If they don’t get it instantly then explaining it won’t help – it’s just not for them.
I spend a lot of time writing down slogans and daft ideas. Some are awful, but some stick around or just pop into my head immediately and I know it’s a good one. And I think that’s our unique signature voice of having broken filters – it has to be sweary or funny or sarcastic and based on a strong idea.
I’ve also got a bunch of trusted friends and associates I show things to when they are nearing completion. If they don’t spit their drink out laughing at what we’ve made or give a similar funny reaction, then I know it isn’t going to work or it’s not finished and needs more work, so the idea goes back in the oven.
A simpler, minimal design communicates a message in a much simpler format – a less-is-more approach. In the 90s, poster design had become over-worked and messy, busy Photoshop comps of actors’ heads and poorly laid-out type. The campaigns were mostly made by marketing companies who didn’t really care about graphic design, branding or strong visual communication to convey a message that you get from approaching a design agency. So having strong ties to design and being a fan of Modernism Swiss design was the approach I applied to my design work. The imagery and branding cut through and stood out from the crowd in a cluttered and busy advertising space. I have also always loved collecting posters, so it’s steeped heavily into my DNA. Keep it simple is the best approach and the best campaigns do this, simply and effectively.
The other helpful thing about the Trainspotting poster campaign is that I was very lucky that Polygram film spent over £3 million marketing the film across the UK, so it was on every bus shelter, poster site, student bedroom and billboard – you couldn’t turn your head without seeing it. I think that was a strong part of why everyone remembers it. Also the great actors, amazing writing, directing and soundtrack – it was the perfect storm really that I am grateful to have been a small part of it all becoming so big and fondly remembered today.
WORKS SUCH AS THE TURD REICH, SHOW FASCISTS THE DOOR AND EAT MORE BILLIONAIRES ARE COMPLETELY EXPLICIT ABOUT WHAT THEY OPPOSE. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT THE VIEWER ISN’T LEFT GUESSING?
That’s a really lovely observation, thank you. I’ve never really analysed it like that, it’s just what I do.
I always say, ‘It’s like telling a joke – if it needs an explanation it’s not funny.’
If people come up to me when we are selling our work and say, ‘But what does it mean?’ I won’t explain the point to them as it’s up to them to work it out. If they don’t get it instantly then explaining it won’t help – it’s just not for them.
I spend a lot of time writing down slogans and daft ideas. Some are awful, but some stick around or just pop into my head immediately and I know it’s a good one. And I think that’s our unique signature voice of having broken filters – it has to be sweary or funny or sarcastic and based on a strong idea.
I’ve also got a bunch of trusted friends and associates I show things to when they are nearing completion. If they don’t spit their drink out laughing at what we’ve made or give a similar funny reaction, then I know it isn’t going to work or it’s not finished and needs more work, so the idea goes back in the oven.
THE WORK CAN BE ANGRY, BUT IT IS ALSO RUDE, FUNNY AND KNOWINGLY RIDICULOUS. WHAT CAN SATIRE COMMUNICATE THAT A MORE POLITE POLITICAL MESSAGE CANNOT?
I think it always starts out with me being angry about something, like Trump sitting down with Netanyahu as his first visitor. This was my spark and inspiration that started the Turd Reich process. I’ve found that anger is an energy that just gets me started, making things that are authentic and people can relate to, once I’ve processed it into our naturally sarcastic voice.
I listened to an interview with Sarah Pascoe ages ago during lockdown, where she said her humour was quite preachy and direct when she first started testing out her comedy, and it fell flat with the audience and didn’t land. When she introduced sarcasm and wit, people just got it. This resonated with what we were making at the time. However, I hadn’t realised why it did or didn’t work until she explained this. And I think it was an epiphany: I need to retain the DNA of this philosophy in our work.
If it doesn’t make you smile, then it’s a big turn-off, especially when you are talking about politics. Superstanski recently took on Laurence Fox on social media and totally shut him down with her brilliant sense of humour. Her explanation was ‘The Fash’ don’t have a sense of humour or any joy in their lives and they don’t know how to deal with being outsmarted with humour. Joyless Gammons is what I call Farage and his brigade of Tory Bin Juice rejects. They just go around the country saying it’s broken and blaming it on other people. It’s just such a miserable viewpoint to take. Devoid of any humour or Joy. It’s like Trump – you never see him smiling or celebrating anyone else’s accomplishments, it’s just despair and narcissism. There is no ability for fun or laughter in them, so it’s easy to poke them with the satirical stick.
My favourite feedback I get from our work is ‘thank you for making us smile’. It’s why I love Count Binface standing in Clacton. Satire and humour are the only way to deal with these fuckers. It’s the best reward to know you’ve added a bit of Joy in a time of despair.
YOU MADE THE TURD REICH POSTERS FREELY DOWNLOADABLE, ALLOWING THEM TO BE PRINTED, PASTED AND CARRIED INTO PROTESTS WITHOUT YOUR INVOLVEMENT. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT THAT POLITICAL ARTWORK CAN TRAVEL BEYOND THE ARTIST’S CONTROL?
Very important if you want it to be seen by a wider audience. Although I only realised in hindsight. We had seen Shepard Fairey do it successfully with his Andre the Giant Obey sticker, giving it away and it popping up in places across the globe by other people slapping it up in multiple places he couldn’t visit. So it wasn’t an original idea and one we gladly borrowed – sorry Shep’. We just thought it made sense to give it away. It also felt weird, given the Nazi iconography and fascistic imagery, albeit corrupted with a humorous twist, that anyone would want to buy it or for us to make money out of selling it. So our thoughts were, we can kill the wave of this going anywhere by trying to make money out of it and trying to sell it – it just made sense to share it.
Carl Stimpson, who helped us paste them up at the time, said something that stuck with us – 2 things actually: 1. ‘This thing is bigger than all of us.’ He dropped what he was doing on his own paste-up work to help us put it out there. He saw something in it. I didn’t really know what he meant at the time, but he was right. And also, ‘What’s the point of making art that nobody sees?’ So his enthusiasm and support for our idea helped turn it into what it became. It just turned up in places we couldn’t have believed or made happen. I got so many messages saying, ‘Come to Boston and paste it up’, and my response was, ‘I’m not getting on a plane to the US till the moron in charge has gone and it’s also free to download and do it yourself.’
STREET ART REACHES PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T CHOSEN TO ENTER AN ART SPACE. WHAT CHANGES WHEN SOMEBODY ENCOUNTERS A PIECE ON A WALL DURING THEIR ORDINARY DAY RATHER THAN INSIDE A GALLERY?
I think most people find art galleries intimidating. Even when we sell art to the public at less formal open-air art fairs, you can see customers will stand a foot away from your print browser, staring at it, afraid to touch or pick up the artwork. I find it weird that they are intimidated by it.
We spend our lives going to shows and private views, exhibitions; even on holiday I will find a detour to take in some art. To many people, though, they aren’t interested in art at all. I think when you take art out of the gallery and put it in the streets, it interrupts this disconnection of going into the clean white walls of a gallery space and forces the viewer to engage with it by taking it to them. It becomes public and democratic and you also don’t have someone trying to sell it to you or explain what it means. People’s interpretations are far more interesting.
We found that when we pasted up the Turd Reich for the first time, it was a really pleasant experience. It became like a kinda PT Barnum / Harry Houdini performance where we stopped all the passers-by in the street to watch, waiting to see who we were putting up next out of the 6 paste-ups we made. It was a real happy accident of changing the way we do things and making our art more democratic and about real things that matter and affect people. We don’t do pretty paintings of flowers or portraits of your dog. We do sell work in some galleries that we enjoy working with and they have a more fun approach to the work, but most of the time we sell direct from our website shop.
I think it always starts out with me being angry about something, like Trump sitting down with Netanyahu as his first visitor. This was my spark and inspiration that started the Turd Reich process. I’ve found that anger is an energy that just gets me started, making things that are authentic and people can relate to, once I’ve processed it into our naturally sarcastic voice.
I listened to an interview with Sarah Pascoe ages ago during lockdown, where she said her humour was quite preachy and direct when she first started testing out her comedy, and it fell flat with the audience and didn’t land. When she introduced sarcasm and wit, people just got it. This resonated with what we were making at the time. However, I hadn’t realised why it did or didn’t work until she explained this. And I think it was an epiphany: I need to retain the DNA of this philosophy in our work.
If it doesn’t make you smile, then it’s a big turn-off, especially when you are talking about politics. Superstanski recently took on Laurence Fox on social media and totally shut him down with her brilliant sense of humour. Her explanation was ‘The Fash’ don’t have a sense of humour or any joy in their lives and they don’t know how to deal with being outsmarted with humour. Joyless Gammons is what I call Farage and his brigade of Tory Bin Juice rejects. They just go around the country saying it’s broken and blaming it on other people. It’s just such a miserable viewpoint to take. Devoid of any humour or Joy. It’s like Trump – you never see him smiling or celebrating anyone else’s accomplishments, it’s just despair and narcissism. There is no ability for fun or laughter in them, so it’s easy to poke them with the satirical stick.
My favourite feedback I get from our work is ‘thank you for making us smile’. It’s why I love Count Binface standing in Clacton. Satire and humour are the only way to deal with these fuckers. It’s the best reward to know you’ve added a bit of Joy in a time of despair.
YOU MADE THE TURD REICH POSTERS FREELY DOWNLOADABLE, ALLOWING THEM TO BE PRINTED, PASTED AND CARRIED INTO PROTESTS WITHOUT YOUR INVOLVEMENT. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT THAT POLITICAL ARTWORK CAN TRAVEL BEYOND THE ARTIST’S CONTROL?
Very important if you want it to be seen by a wider audience. Although I only realised in hindsight. We had seen Shepard Fairey do it successfully with his Andre the Giant Obey sticker, giving it away and it popping up in places across the globe by other people slapping it up in multiple places he couldn’t visit. So it wasn’t an original idea and one we gladly borrowed – sorry Shep’. We just thought it made sense to give it away. It also felt weird, given the Nazi iconography and fascistic imagery, albeit corrupted with a humorous twist, that anyone would want to buy it or for us to make money out of selling it. So our thoughts were, we can kill the wave of this going anywhere by trying to make money out of it and trying to sell it – it just made sense to share it.
Carl Stimpson, who helped us paste them up at the time, said something that stuck with us – 2 things actually: 1. ‘This thing is bigger than all of us.’ He dropped what he was doing on his own paste-up work to help us put it out there. He saw something in it. I didn’t really know what he meant at the time, but he was right. And also, ‘What’s the point of making art that nobody sees?’ So his enthusiasm and support for our idea helped turn it into what it became. It just turned up in places we couldn’t have believed or made happen. I got so many messages saying, ‘Come to Boston and paste it up’, and my response was, ‘I’m not getting on a plane to the US till the moron in charge has gone and it’s also free to download and do it yourself.’
STREET ART REACHES PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T CHOSEN TO ENTER AN ART SPACE. WHAT CHANGES WHEN SOMEBODY ENCOUNTERS A PIECE ON A WALL DURING THEIR ORDINARY DAY RATHER THAN INSIDE A GALLERY?
I think most people find art galleries intimidating. Even when we sell art to the public at less formal open-air art fairs, you can see customers will stand a foot away from your print browser, staring at it, afraid to touch or pick up the artwork. I find it weird that they are intimidated by it.
We spend our lives going to shows and private views, exhibitions; even on holiday I will find a detour to take in some art. To many people, though, they aren’t interested in art at all. I think when you take art out of the gallery and put it in the streets, it interrupts this disconnection of going into the clean white walls of a gallery space and forces the viewer to engage with it by taking it to them. It becomes public and democratic and you also don’t have someone trying to sell it to you or explain what it means. People’s interpretations are far more interesting.
We found that when we pasted up the Turd Reich for the first time, it was a really pleasant experience. It became like a kinda PT Barnum / Harry Houdini performance where we stopped all the passers-by in the street to watch, waiting to see who we were putting up next out of the 6 paste-ups we made. It was a real happy accident of changing the way we do things and making our art more democratic and about real things that matter and affect people. We don’t do pretty paintings of flowers or portraits of your dog. We do sell work in some galleries that we enjoy working with and they have a more fun approach to the work, but most of the time we sell direct from our website shop.
BIG ISSUE WAS FOUNDED ON LONDON’S STREETS AND CREATED A WAY FOR PEOPLE TO EARN RATHER THAN PASSIVELY RECEIVE CHARITY. WHAT MADE ITS 35TH ANNIVERSARY FEEL LIKE THE RIGHT PARTNERSHIP FOR GROW UP?
We were asked by them to do an artist takeover earlier this year after the success of the Trainspotters show we did with Atom and Big Issue. And I was blown away that it coincided with their anniversary issue, so it felt like we had to raise the bar a little to do something extra for it.
Working with Big Issue on any project is always a big thing for us. It’s the right partnership and just great to be involved with them.
We are no longer comfortable sitting in a gallery format as an artist where they take 50% of the sale price from your art. Operating alongside Big Issue and UNCLE is a much more fun, outside-of-the-box way of making something and making it more fun and independent of the gallery format. Also, to help out those struggling with mental health, recovering from addiction, struggling with poverty is something we have always contributed to via our work. Inviting 35 other amazing artists to join us in doing the same feels like a great way to amplify the message to a wider audience.
THE TITLE PASTE PRESENT FUTURE TURNS THE PHYSICAL ACT OF PUTTING UP A POSTER INTO A WAY OF THINKING ACROSS THOSE 35 YEARS. WHAT DOES THAT TITLE MEAN TO YOU?
The title for the show began as a joke throwaway comment when I was talking to another artist. It might even have been a slip of the tongue when it came out as Paste Present and Future and we both laughed at the time, and I just stopped and instantly went, ‘That’s a great idea for a show. I need to make it happen,’ as it just resonated with what we do.
When we padded out the show later on and added in the idea of the history of protest art and we researched it on a much deeper level, all the wonderful and powerful acts of protest over the years, it became a more interesting, much broader idea. It’s very often that an idea starts as a pun in my own head that makes me laugh internally and then it becomes an actual thing. The weirdo voices in my head are sometimes worth listening to.
THE EXHIBITION BRINGS TOGETHER EVERYONE FROM ANTHONY BURRILL, JAMIE REID AND KENNARDPHILLIPPS TO JEREMY DELLER, SARAH MAPLE, CHRIS PACKHAM, MODERN TOSS AND EVERYONE HATES ELON. WHAT WAS THE COMMON QUALITY YOU LOOKED FOR WHEN ASSEMBLING THAT GROUP?
The common quality is that I admire their work and how they have a radical voice and approach to art. I’ve always curated shows and worked with other people, but it has to be fun – it takes so long to put these things together, it has to be an enjoyable, fulfilling process. Also, a strong aspect of it is: ‘Do I like their work?’ Will they bring something different? One of our philosophies is, ‘Jump off a mountain and work out how to put your parachute on on the way down’, and you will always land somewhere fun. We’ve only ever hit the ground once with a massive thud.
About 50% of the artists I’ve worked with before, but with the other half, I didn’t know them before curating the show. I think it has to be a learning exercise of working with new people, learning new things and being pushed into new and fun experiences. I also try to raise the bar every time I put something big on like this. So it was great to get such a strong list of talent.
THE WORK WILL EXIST BOTH AS A CITY-WIDE PASTE-UP GALLERY WITH UNCLE AND AS AN EXHIBITION AT LAUNDRY STUDIOS, WITH 25% OF SALES SUPPORTING BIG ISSUE. BEYOND MONEY RAISED OR PEOPLE THROUGH THE DOOR, WHAT WOULD MAKE THE PROJECT FEEL SUCCESSFUL TO YOU?
I suppose it would be the I AM SPARTACUS moment; if it inspires one person to pick up a paste brush and a printout and take to the streets to make their art in a public space, or make a comment or a protest placard and go and defend somebody else’s rights at a demonstration, to use their privilege to support someone else, that would be hugely satisfying. I hope enough people combine together to stop AI data centres, to overturn unfair sentences for terrorism for protesting genocide, or put an end to Greed by taxing billionaires and corporations fairly, and to end rough sleeping / homelessness. Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto reappropriated by Burnham recently, to just create a small enough ripple in a pond that could create a bigger tsunami effect. Just to inspire a few people to shout out, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.’
LOOKING AHEAD, WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE FUTURE OF STREET ART LOOKS LIKE – AND WHAT MUST IT NEVER LOSE?
My brain won’t allow me to think about what’s around the corner at the moment; it’s too stuck in how we get through the current darkness of the here and now and get things back into a healthier balance in this current timeline, to just bring the fun back.
However, art, street art and protest must never lose their sense of humour and it should always poke ‘the man’ with a stick… or a giant stick of dynamite.
We were asked by them to do an artist takeover earlier this year after the success of the Trainspotters show we did with Atom and Big Issue. And I was blown away that it coincided with their anniversary issue, so it felt like we had to raise the bar a little to do something extra for it.
Working with Big Issue on any project is always a big thing for us. It’s the right partnership and just great to be involved with them.
We are no longer comfortable sitting in a gallery format as an artist where they take 50% of the sale price from your art. Operating alongside Big Issue and UNCLE is a much more fun, outside-of-the-box way of making something and making it more fun and independent of the gallery format. Also, to help out those struggling with mental health, recovering from addiction, struggling with poverty is something we have always contributed to via our work. Inviting 35 other amazing artists to join us in doing the same feels like a great way to amplify the message to a wider audience.
THE TITLE PASTE PRESENT FUTURE TURNS THE PHYSICAL ACT OF PUTTING UP A POSTER INTO A WAY OF THINKING ACROSS THOSE 35 YEARS. WHAT DOES THAT TITLE MEAN TO YOU?
The title for the show began as a joke throwaway comment when I was talking to another artist. It might even have been a slip of the tongue when it came out as Paste Present and Future and we both laughed at the time, and I just stopped and instantly went, ‘That’s a great idea for a show. I need to make it happen,’ as it just resonated with what we do.
When we padded out the show later on and added in the idea of the history of protest art and we researched it on a much deeper level, all the wonderful and powerful acts of protest over the years, it became a more interesting, much broader idea. It’s very often that an idea starts as a pun in my own head that makes me laugh internally and then it becomes an actual thing. The weirdo voices in my head are sometimes worth listening to.
THE EXHIBITION BRINGS TOGETHER EVERYONE FROM ANTHONY BURRILL, JAMIE REID AND KENNARDPHILLIPPS TO JEREMY DELLER, SARAH MAPLE, CHRIS PACKHAM, MODERN TOSS AND EVERYONE HATES ELON. WHAT WAS THE COMMON QUALITY YOU LOOKED FOR WHEN ASSEMBLING THAT GROUP?
The common quality is that I admire their work and how they have a radical voice and approach to art. I’ve always curated shows and worked with other people, but it has to be fun – it takes so long to put these things together, it has to be an enjoyable, fulfilling process. Also, a strong aspect of it is: ‘Do I like their work?’ Will they bring something different? One of our philosophies is, ‘Jump off a mountain and work out how to put your parachute on on the way down’, and you will always land somewhere fun. We’ve only ever hit the ground once with a massive thud.
About 50% of the artists I’ve worked with before, but with the other half, I didn’t know them before curating the show. I think it has to be a learning exercise of working with new people, learning new things and being pushed into new and fun experiences. I also try to raise the bar every time I put something big on like this. So it was great to get such a strong list of talent.
THE WORK WILL EXIST BOTH AS A CITY-WIDE PASTE-UP GALLERY WITH UNCLE AND AS AN EXHIBITION AT LAUNDRY STUDIOS, WITH 25% OF SALES SUPPORTING BIG ISSUE. BEYOND MONEY RAISED OR PEOPLE THROUGH THE DOOR, WHAT WOULD MAKE THE PROJECT FEEL SUCCESSFUL TO YOU?
I suppose it would be the I AM SPARTACUS moment; if it inspires one person to pick up a paste brush and a printout and take to the streets to make their art in a public space, or make a comment or a protest placard and go and defend somebody else’s rights at a demonstration, to use their privilege to support someone else, that would be hugely satisfying. I hope enough people combine together to stop AI data centres, to overturn unfair sentences for terrorism for protesting genocide, or put an end to Greed by taxing billionaires and corporations fairly, and to end rough sleeping / homelessness. Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto reappropriated by Burnham recently, to just create a small enough ripple in a pond that could create a bigger tsunami effect. Just to inspire a few people to shout out, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.’
LOOKING AHEAD, WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE FUTURE OF STREET ART LOOKS LIKE – AND WHAT MUST IT NEVER LOSE?
My brain won’t allow me to think about what’s around the corner at the moment; it’s too stuck in how we get through the current darkness of the here and now and get things back into a healthier balance in this current timeline, to just bring the fun back.
However, art, street art and protest must never lose their sense of humour and it should always poke ‘the man’ with a stick… or a giant stick of dynamite.
