Saturday 8 August 2009

Sat 8th August: ICONIC: Screened Memories with Jeffrey Hinton

 


If I hadn't been born with a debilitating curse of shyness, this would be a really fascinating entry.  As it is, I can hardly get eye contact with myself in the mirror, let alone anyone else when I meet them.  This poses a predicament when it comes to taking people's portrait for this blog.  I am regularly kicking myself from missed opportunities and last evening was one of the most enraging and  excruciating experiences.
Tim Dimoline tipped me off about his friends film screening at the NPG in association with the new "Gay Icons" exhibition.  Jeffrey Hinton showed 90 mins of selected footage from his archives of 80's London nightlife which captured moments from the small creative circle of collaborators.  It ranged from scenes of Taboo, Alternative Miss World, Bodymap runway shows, Michael Clark performances, Leigh Bowery makeup profile, dressing room dragging up..................
Most of the faces in the films turned up for the event and the resplendent attendance included............Andrew Logan, Mr.Pearl, Stevie Stewart, David Holah, Les Child, Kate Garner, Michael Kostiff, Judy Blame, Wolfgang Tillmans, Princess Julia...............
As we looked on at the large projection of candid shots it seemed inappropriate to get papping old friends reuniting to muse over memories.  
As I understand it there were only a very few nights on in a month and this is how the personalities found each other and connected originally.  It would be something like on the first Thursday of the month or something else on the Fourth Friday..............so the select few visionaries in town would congregate on the same dates to find solice in each others souls.  How fantastic that Jeffrey was there with a camera.  However, he was actually in quite a bit of the action so Tim recalled that he may well have been responsible for some of the cinematography.............but can't quite remember............or remember where they were or what they were doing...........symptomatic of the times..........CLASSIC.........LOVE IT!  
I really hope that Jeffrey can contribute these film canisters to a festival or museum some day.  I would love to watch them again and I bet many others would too............... 

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