An in conversation chaired by the prominent cultural commentator Peter York, featuring contributions from the Print! Tearing It Up exhibition co-curator Paul Gorman, exhibitor Bertie Brandes of MUSHPIT magazine and fashion author and educator Professor Iain R Webb former editor and leading light of the 80s lifestyle publication Blitz, now mentor to the next generation at CSM, RCA and Kingston School of Art and Design.
Each bring their industry expertise and opinions to question and identify how British Independent magazines are changing the world. Whilst Paul also unpicks his wider research behind the show’s contributors, collaborators and ‘the sound not the echo’ that each create through original content rather than received wisdom, a viewpoint conceived by Tina Brown when defining what constitutes a great magazine.
Bios:
Paul Gorman is a writer and curator who has contributed to many of the world’s leading publications, including GQ, Apartamento, Vanity Fair and Vice. His books include The Story Of The Face: The Magazine That Changed Culture, Straight With Boy George, Nine Lives With Goldie and Derek Boshier: Rethink/Re-entry. His exhibition subjects include David Bowie, The Face, the late cultural iconoclast Malcolm McLaren and the graphic designer Barney Bubbles. Gorman’s current projects include Malcolm McLaren: The Biography, to be published in 2019 by Constable & Robinson, and a revised, updated and illustrated edition of his music press history In Their Own Write.
Peter York is one of Britain’s pre-eminent social commentators, a prolific broadcaster and writer. He first came to public attention as the co-author of the best-selling ‘The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook’ in 1982. He has presented many TV and radio programmes, including BBC2’s ‘Peter York’s Eighties’ and ‘The Rise and Fall of the Ad Man’. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts London and former Trustee of the Tate Members’ Council.
Peter’s latest book, ‘Authenticity Is A Con’, was published in2015. He performed his one-man show, ‘How To Become A Nicer Type Of Person’, at the Edinburgh Fringe and London’s Soho Theatre in 2015. His latest BBC documentary “Peter York’s Hipster Handbook” was shown on BBC4 in October 2016. He writes on social trends and design for a variety of magazines and newspapers and is working on a new TV documentary about Power. He is currently writing an account of recent British Broadcasting history to be published next Spring and a collection of his essays Ancient and Modern. He is President of The Media Society.”
Iain R Webb is a writer, curator and academic. He originally studied fashion design at St Martin’s School of Art, graduating in 1980. He is Professor of Fashion & Design at Kingston School of Art and associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art. During his career he has been fashion editor of BLITZ, The Evening Standard, Harpers & Queen, The Times and Elle, while contributing to various publications including New Musical Express, New York Times and Vogue. He is the author of several books including Bill Gibb - Fashion and Fantasy; Postcards From the Edge of the Catwalk, As Seen in BLITZ - Fashioning 80’s Style and Vogue Colouring Book. Curatorial projects include We’re Not Here To Sell Clothes at the ICA, You’re Ugly And Your Mother Dresses You Funny at Paul Smith, Mayfair and Invitation Strictly Personal at Somerset House. He is currently Fashion Features Editor-at-Large of Ponystep magazine.
Mushpit magazine was founded in 2012 by Charlotte Roberts and Bertie Brandes. Living together in Dalston the duo felt alienated by fashion, politics, art, design you name it they thought they could do it better. So they did, but not at first. Issue one was an A5 explosion of bad fonts, low resolution stolen images and madly fictional monologues based on the people they were surrounded by. Wayne at Essex Print will certainly never forget the state of their inDesign files. Growing over time the pair came to find a comfortable A4 format, and by issue 10 released in December of 2017 have come to be globally distributed and in their own words ‘disappointingly legit’. Yet both are incredibly proud to have had some truly inspiring contributors; photographers, artists and writers who will no doubt come to define the generation they're growing in to. Also – they note ‘we really love our readers and never mean to upset or disgruntle them... It just happens’.
