FREAK POWER
Poster House, New York City, March 4 - August 15, 2021
Co-curated by Daniel Joseph Watkins and Yuri Zupancic
Hunter S. Thompson came home from the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago disgusted yet motivated by what he’d seen: protests violently suppressed, riots, corrupt politicians, and abusive cops. Back in Aspen, he found more of the same. The local police and sheriff’s departments were targeting hippies, charging them with absurd crimes, harassing them on the streets, and trying to push them out of town. He knew something had to be done and he realized it had to be done by people like himself. The hippies, intellectuals, and freaks had remained silent long enough. The time had come to organize and seize political power.
Freak Power tells the story of Hunter’s plan to become Sheriff, take control of Aspen, and transform it from a conservative mining town into a mecca for artists, rebels, and activists. Through original print material from the campaign, photographs, and posters, Freak Power chronicles a little-known period in Hunter S. Thompson’s life—a period when he wrote prolifically about politics, the environment, drugs, and American values. As the conservatives and freaks battled it out, the campaign became fraught with violence, accusations, and moments of absurdity that bordered on fiction.
PRESS:
New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/arts/design/freak-power-poster-house-hunter-s-thompson.html
Flower Power x Fire Power
Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs
Gonzo Gallery, Aspen, July 2020
Curated by Yuri Zupancic
Gonzo Gallery presents an exhibition of visual art by Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs including drawings, photographs, paintings and gunshot art by the founding fathers of the Beat Generation. Dear friends for over 50 years, their cultural, artistic, and philosophical influence continues to be felt today.
Ginsberg invented the concept of "Flower Power" while organizing peaceful protests, while Burroughs said that "we live in a war universe." They contradicted and complimented each other, perhaps using this balance to go further out on their respective limbs. They pushed each other to question everything and innovate constantly. This dynamic dialogue paved the way for many breakthroughs.
The show features six of Ginsberg's drawings from the 1980's which showcase his signature blend of satire, spontaneity, and enlightenment. Ginsberg's 1961 photos from Tangiers show the artists and writers during an exotic and prolific sojourn. These never-before-seen photos were recently printed by the Ginsberg Trust.
Burroughs' own photos from Morocco are also on display, along with several paintings he created with gunshots, exploding paint cans to create unpredictable patterns. Burroughs also used file folders from his literary work as canvases on which he painted abstract calligraphic forms. Two of these works are featured in the show.
The show also includes rare and signed vintage posters, ephemera, and a recent portrait of Ginsberg by Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky, who will take part in the panel discussion on July 19 with Peter Hale of the Ginsberg Trust, Curator Yuri Zupancic, and Gallery Director Daniel J. Watkins.
Press:
BEAT GENERATION
Pompidou Center, Paris, 2016 / ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2017
Curated by Philippe-Alain Michaud & Jean-Jacques Lebel
Yuri Zupancic represented the William S. Burroughs Estate and served as curatorial consultant
Foreshadowing the youth culture and the cultural and sexual liberation of the 1960s, the emergence of the Beat Generation in the years following the Second World War, just as the Cold War was setting in, scandalised a puritan and Mc Carthyite America. Then seen as subversive rebels, the Beats appear today as the representatives of one of the most important cultural movements of the 20th century - a movement the Centre Pompidou's survey will examine in all its breadth and geographical amplitude, from New York to Los Angeles, from Paris to Tangier.
The Centre Pompidou's exhibition maps both the shifting geographical focus of the movement and its ever-shifting contours. For the artistic practices of the Beat Generation - readings, performances, concerts and films - testify to a breaking down of artistic boundaries and a desire for interdisciplinary collaboration that puts the singularity of the artist into question. Alongside
notable visual artists, mostly representative of the California scene (Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, George Herms, Jay DeFeo, Jess...), an important place is given to the literary dimension of the movement, to spoken poetry in its relationship to jazz, and more particularly to the Black American poetry (LeRoi Jones, Bob Kaufman...) that remains largely unknown in Europe, like the magazines in which it circulated (Beatitude, Umbra...). Photography was also an important medium, represented here by the productions of Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs - mostly portraits - and a substantial body of photographs by Robert Frank (Les Américains, From the Bus...), Fred McDarrah, and John Cohen, all taken during the shooting of Pull my Daisy, as well
as work by Harold Chapman, who chronicled the life of the Beat Hotel in Paris between 1958 and 1963. The same was true of the films (Christopher MacLaine, Bruce Baillie, Stan Brakhage, Ron Rice...) that would both reflect and document the history and development of the movement.
notable visual artists, mostly representative of the California scene (Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, George Herms, Jay DeFeo, Jess...), an important place is given to the literary dimension of the movement, to spoken poetry in its relationship to jazz, and more particularly to the Black American poetry (LeRoi Jones, Bob Kaufman...) that remains largely unknown in Europe, like the magazines in which it circulated (Beatitude, Umbra...). Photography was also an important medium, represented here by the productions of Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs - mostly portraits - and a substantial body of photographs by Robert Frank (Les Américains, From the Bus...), Fred McDarrah, and John Cohen, all taken during the shooting of Pull my Daisy, as well
as work by Harold Chapman, who chronicled the life of the Beat Hotel in Paris between 1958 and 1963. The same was true of the films (Christopher MacLaine, Bruce Baillie, Stan Brakhage, Ron Rice...) that would both reflect and document the history and development of the movement.
PRESS:
William S Burroughs • Animals in the Wall
London, Sept 2014
Co-curated by Yuri Zupancic & James Elphick
William Burroughs, the great progenitor of The Beat Generation, is best known for his anarchic, randomly montaged literary works that changed the direction of literature forever. However, he also applied his distinctive ‘cut up’ method-
introduced to him by friend and collaborator Brion Gysin- to a dynamic and prolific output in the realms of the visual arts.
introduced to him by friend and collaborator Brion Gysin- to a dynamic and prolific output in the realms of the visual arts.
Premiering in the creative hub of East London before embarking on a world tour, Animals In The Wall will feature 40 original William S Burroughs art works– including some never before shown– alongside responses from some of the city’s most exciting street artists and an engaging events programme.
Burroughs’ paintings and multimedia collaborations are only just being properly explored which, is perhaps apt since he was in a sense creating work for a future generation, famously stating:
“When you cut into the present, the future leaks out.”
His interest lay primarily in unforeseen connections and associations, as a means of dissent against the hegemony of socio-political systems of control. He therefore revelled in the act of painting as a process of ritual experimentation, which also reflected his obsession from an early age with unseen realms and magical universes.
Often starting as incantatory scrawlings, the paintings have graffiti-esque overtones in the use of spray paint aerosols, stencils, paste-up collages and letterforms. and, the layering of text and images into new forms, strongly resonates with the vibrant street art of contemporary East London.
Animals In The Wall will bring the two together for the first time, in order to trace the legacy of experimental art as a means of free thought, with Burroughs posited as a prophet for 21st Century rebellion.
Animals In The Wall
28th August – 7th September 2014
Londonewcastle Project Space, E2 7DP
28th August – 7th September 2014
Londonewcastle Project Space, E2 7DP
PRESS: