Sixties’ psychodelia at Shoreditch’s Idea Generation Gallery
A major retrospective of the sixties work of Nigel Waymouth, including works created with Michael English as part of legendary British design duo Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, is on at Shoreditch’s Idea Generation Gallery.
Hapshash, one of the most famous British design collectives of the 20th Century, are best known for their psychedelic posters created for the biggest underground music venue of its time, the legendary UFO Club.
The club made for a memorable venue for performances by Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Jeff Beck, The Move and The Incredible String Band and the bands’ free-spirited culture visually manifested in the Hapshash posters.
Eloise Rowley, Gallery Manager at Idea Generation Gallery commented on the exhibition: “Hapshash were at the heart of the 60s counter cultural revolution, their now iconic psychedelic artwork a central part of the visual style of this revolutionary era.
“Presenting some of the most influential work created by the Hapshash duo alongside Waymouth’s lesser known personal work, and associated ephemera; this exhibition will give an unprecedented insight into this radical scene.”
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Nigel Waymouth was first introduced to Michael English in 1966, when he was designing the shop front for his radical new vintage boutique on the Kings Road, Granny Takes a Trip.
The new duo’s first collaborative work was a promotional poster for the radical underground UFO Club.
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The result was a subversive mixture of avant-garde and art nouveau, a signature style that would come to be the visual definition of psychedelia forevermore. Huge silk-screened reproductions of their iconic posters will fill the entirety of one of the Gallery’s 20 foot walls.
Joe Boyd, co-founder of UFO explains: “They’d never met each other and we basically locked them in a room and said ‘Come out with a poster!’ and they came up with the best thing they ever did.”
As well as the mind-bending Hapshash posters, the exhibition will feature original acetates, drawings and iconic album covers as well as an extensive collection of photographs and mementos.
Nigel Waymouth’s Personal Archive Waymouth’s own archive plays a major part in the retrospective. Kept privately for decades and rarely seen since their first creation in the late 60s, it features works made as part of Hapshash, designs for Granny Takes a Trip and his own album covers, photographs, press clippings and magazines.
During the exhibition Idea Generation Gallery will host a series of psychedelic inspired events, including poetry performances, light shows, DJ sets and live music.
Replicating how the original Hapshash posters were taken by collectors from the walls where they were fly posted, a special closing event will see visitors invited to take a reproduction print from the gallery wall.
Hapshash Takes a Trip: the sixties work of Nigel Waymouth runs until October 2 at Idea Generation Gallery, Chance Street. For more information visit www.ideageneration.co.uk
