The exhibition view. All photography by SCRMN

UNTIL 29 JULY

SUBBACULTCHA!
Da Costakade 150, Open Tues-Fri 11.00 – 17.00 

There is an undeniable connection between art and music that has inspired and motivated the status quo for generations. In some cases, so much so that it really becomes impossible to think of one without the other. Look no further than Factory Records‘ innovative (and prohibitively expensive) sleeve designs, The Clash’s home-painted clothes and sculpted image in general, and of course Warhol and the Velvet Underground and the Factory’s endless menagerie of musicians, designers, artists and hangers-on. For the month of July, local music platform Subbacultcha! host a fantastic show in their subterranean gallery space that exemplifies their mandate of bringing music, art, culture and community together.

The boards up close.

Marking the launch of a book featuring drawings, collage, paintings and text from the duo of Anders ‘SCRMN’ Meisner and Mical Noelson, the usually cosy room has been transformed into a surreal playground-come-garage-pit area with their black and white comic musings and ramblings filling large blackboards that are balanced intriguingly on motorcycle tires, separated from the viewer by industrial dashed white lines painted on the floor. The effect upon entering the space is immediate. The white scribbles and text filling the black boards slowly emerge from their collective state and present themselves as the tiny individual stories, characters and manifestos that they are. Some seem angry, others comical, while others appear to remain completely non-sensical in their wonderful stream-of-consciousness nod to the disjointed daydreams of the Beat writers and artists of the 1950s. Perhaps that is a large part of the charm of this show: it draws some very tangible parallels into very visually strong past decades. The distinct illustrative style of the underground comics of the ’60s and ’70s, the iconic rebel greaser-and-ducktail eras of the ’40s and ’50s with the motorcycle and white-line references and then, quietly yet swiftly, we’re brought full circle back into 2011 with a very contemporary, strikingly simple yet in-your-face presentation.

The exhibition runs until 29 July and also offers limited edition prints, black & white paintings and video. The book ‘SCRMN vs. Noelson’ can be bought at the gallery and viewed here.