Is It Really So Strange? An exhibition of 36 new black and white photographs from an ongoing series by William Jones.
Is It Really So Strange?
GOLINKO KORDANSKY GALLERY
is pleased to announce Is It Really So Strange?, an exhibition of 36 new
black and white photographs from an ongoing series by William Jones. The
opening reception will be on Friday, February 27th from 6 to 9PM. The artist
will talk at the gallery on Saturday, April 3rd at 3PM.
My project began when I saw an advertisement for London Is Dead, a club
exclusively playing music by The Smiths and Morrissey once a month in Los
Angeles. I went to the event and found myself in the midst of a large crowd
of fans happily dancing and singing to music I first discovered twenty years
ago. The crowd couldn't have known of The Smiths¹ career first-hand (the
average age must have been 24); the event was emphatically not a corporate
promotion (Morrissey hasn¹t released a solo album since 1997); and somewhat
to my surprise, most of the people in the crowd were Latino. I was
witnessing a spontaneous expression of youth culture, and I was determined
to learn more about a scene that has not yet been adequately described. Is
It Really So Strange? consists of black and white photographs documenting
the new generation of Morrissey fans at events where they congregate
(tribute nights, performances of tribute band The Sweet and Tender
Hooligans, and the annual Smiths/Morrissey Convention in Hollywood), and
includes portraits of some of the fans I have befriended while exploring the
scene.
For the uninitiated: the four original members of The Smiths, sons of Irish
immigrants in Manchester, were propelled to pop stardom during the group¹s
brief existence (1982-87), and their cult still survives, most prominently
in Southern California. Steven Patrick Morrissey, the lead singer known by
his last name, has a career as a solo recording artist, and currently
resides in Los Angeles and Ireland.
-William Jones 2004
William Jones is a Los Angeles based filmmaker and photographer. His work
has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and at festivals including The
Whitney Biennial, The Wexner Center, The Getty Center, The Sundance Film
Festival, The Rotterdam International Film Festival, Filmforum, Artists
Space, The Project, and LACE. His work has also been exhibited widely in
Europe, The Americas, Asia and Australia. Jones has received a John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and a Los Angeles Film Critics
Association Award.
GOLINKO KORDANSKY GALLERY
510 Bernard Street
Los Angeles, CA. 90012
T. (323) 222-1482
F. (323) 227-7933