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Art

London,

Sid Vicious: No One Is Innocent

Description: Never-before-seen images of the punk icon, including close friend Eileen Polk's personal photos, in association with Pioneer KURO.



Rating: 3 out of 5 Sue Steward's rating
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Proud Camden The Horse Hospital, Chalk Farm Road, Camden, NW1 8AH

Phone: 0207482 3867

Website: www.proudcamden.com

Extra info: Pub

Transport: Tube: Camden Town Transport for London

Random Pistol shots at Sid Vicious display

Sid Vicious
Short-lived: Sid Vicious died aged 21

By Sue Steward
9 Jun 2008


This exhibition, documenting fragments from the life of Sid Vicious, has a special pull for me, as I used to work for the Sex Pistols. But this only makes its inconsistencies more frustrating. The title questions Sid’s innocence and resurrects issues around his death from heroin, aged 21, in 1979.

Several contemporary photographers, including Janette Beckman and Adrian Boot, saw innocence in his clear-skinned face, knock-kneed goofing and unconvincing snarls in early 1977 — but within a year, others reveal the effects of drugs and body-cutting.

Disappointingly, the show’s random chronology offers no sense of this tragedy unfolding, and the caption information is erratic. Previously unseen images by two American photographers share one caption each for all their images. Richard E Aaron’s final Sex Pistols tour shots (1978) include the iconic photograph of Sid’s “Gimme a fix” chest-carving and a tight-lipped Johnny Rotten on what is possibly the night he walked out on the band.

Elaine Polk’s close-ups of Sid and girlfriend Nancy Spungen backstage at CBGB’s evoke Nan Goldin’s early works and include the pallid, smackedout Sid and sociable Nancy with punk star friends, on what might be her last night alive. On bail for her murder, and utterly vacant with his new girlfriend, Michelle Robinson, Sid himself may be hours from the fatal overdose.

Such paucity of information is amateurish; let’s hope the faults in this inaugural show for a new London gallery representing rock history won’t become a habit.

Until 11 August. Information: 020 7839 4942, www.proud.co.uk

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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