She's a model and she's looking good

We were sad to see the going of Lloyd Johnson: The Modern Outfitter but, true to form, Lloyd cheered us all up by taking down the roof of his VW and driving off with his shop mannequins all seatbelted in and ready to go.

Toy Boy - Lloyd Johnson and The Mannequins

It looked as though he was driving an oversized toy and he tells us it was a bit like the old days, drawing looks and comments as he drove down the Kings Road in Chelsea. We will miss Lloyd’s regular Wednesday visits to CHELSEA space.

We are now in full swing preparing for our next show Neue Slowenische Kunst 1984-1992, looking at the radical Slovenian collective later known as NSK and widely considered the last true avant-garde of the twentieth century.

The show consists of archive material from Laibach, IRWIN, New Collectivism, and the Theatre of the Sisters of Scipion Nasice in Ljubljana, and David Gothard in London with an emphasis on the collective’s activity in the UK during the 1980′s. This exhibition is one element of a three-part presentation organised in co-operation with Calvert 22 and TATE Modern including Monumental Retro-avant-garde - a concert by Laibach for the Turbine Hall at 22.30 on Saturday 14th April (tickets available through TATE).

Meanwhile over at the Science Museum Suzanne Treister is presenting her new exhibition HEXEN 2.0The Hexen project is an ongoing series of works originally started in 1995 and includes Hexen 2039 held at CHELSEA space in November 2006.

Hexen is a highly detailed world of dillussional time travellers, dodgy politicians, military personnel, society figures, conspiracy theorists and occultists and was described by Art in America as ” one of the most sustained fantasy trips of Contemporary art” - Miss this latest installment at your peril!

And speaking of next installments, Mick Jones’ Rock & Roll Public Library has hit the road again, this time appearing at Gordon McHarg’s excellent Subway Gallery in the pedestrian underpass at Edgeware Road/Harrow Road, London W2 1DX. The show runs from March 9th until March 31st. Gordon is once again working on Mick’s “stuff” with our good friend the artist/chef Chrispin Chetwynd who co-curated the Rock & Roll Public Library with CHELSEA space Director Donald Smith for the Norwich Gallery in 2010, and who was included in our exhibition ideal home in 2011.

The very first Rock & Roll Public Library exhibition was held at CHELSEA space in 2009 and since then it has appeared in a variety of galleries and temporary venues, sometimes on quite different scales such as the version for Sir Peter Blake’s Art Bus at Vintage Goodwood. The ultimate ambition is to find a permanent home for Mick Jones’ collection of popular culture ephemera, but more temporary shows are being discussed and in the meantime it is fitting that it should come to Subway Gallery and to Gordon McHarg who has done much to promote Mick Jones’ project and who renamed the Edgeware Road/Harrow Road pedestrian underpass Joe Strummer Subway.