Martina Gonano in Venice with Elvis Costello's Armed Forces LP packaging brilliantly designed by Barney Bubbles

Almost exactly a year since former CHELSEA space assistant Martina Gonano was working on our exhibition Process: The Working Practices of Barney Bubbles (brilliantly curated by Paul Gorman) she sent us an email to say that her boyfriend had just come home to their Venetian apartment with a copy of the Bubbles designed Armed Forces by Elvis Costello. This innovative packaging solution was one of many unusual Barney … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

Avalanche 1970 - 1976 curated by Lisa Le Feuvre. invitation card

Director Donald Smith has designed the exhibition programme so that it would be divided between the shows that he curates and those by invited curators working on new projects made especially for CHELSEA space. This invitation to particular curators is an exploration of curatorial practice, to examine different approaches and to encourage guest curators to be experimental and explicitly describe their process through the exhibition itself.

[caption id=”attachment_1080″ align=”alignnone” width=”366″ caption=”CHELSEA … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

box lid for the Rock Against Racism archive of Syd Shelton and Ruth Gregory

Curator and writer Carol Tulloch and CHELSEA space’s Donald Smith were invited to talk on 16. 03.11 as part of the ‘Graduate Encounters’ series chaired by Prof. Hayley Newman at Chelsea College of Art and Design. The two chose the form of a ‘show and tell’ using selected artefacts from their personal archives with the intention of giving insights into their individual approaches to research and curating. The title,’ The Raw and the Cooked’, was … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

Rabble Rouser - Mick Jones with Subway Gallery's Gordon McHarg and Jane Ashley protest against the threatened closure of Kensal Rise Library

People across the UK gathered this weekend to protest against the potential closure of public libraries and in west London, musician and cultural icon Mick Jones evoked his Rock & Roll Public Library to add weight to the protests to save Kensal Rise Library and highlight the plight of libraries generally.

[caption id=”attachment_605″ align=”alignnone” width=”500″ caption=”Question Time - Mick Jones encourages a gathering crowd to support … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

Scholars in Pimlico have been debating the complex issue of which way up the Barney Bubbles ‘M!SS!NG L!NK tattoo design was meant to go.

Professor Stephen Farthing RA, Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Drawing, University of the Arts London, demonstrates the correct way to wear a M!SS!NG L!NK T-shirt

The tattoo design was made for former Damned drummer Rat Scabies and, looked at in the orientation the drawing was installed at CHELSEA space, the links of the chain in the design appear to make a cartoon rat’s face with ears and … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

CHELSEA space Assistant Gyeyeon Park models a Barney Bubbles 'M!SS!NG L!NK' T-shirt

The CHELSEA space team enjoyed seeing the images of CHELSEA space Assistants, artist Mike Iveson, and curator Gyeyeon Park, on the barneybubbles.com blog wearing T-shirts featuring the M!SS!NG L!NK tattoo design that the late Barney Bubbles created for former drummer of The Damned, Rat Scabies.

Barney Bubbles' M!SS!NG L!NK design (bottom right) in an installation shot at CHELSEA space

In Paul Gorman’s … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

Pink Plinth and Mirror Ball by CHELSEA space

CHELSEA space would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and we hope you like our Pink Plinth and Mirror Ball Christmas Window bringing together elements used in Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Process: The Working Practices of Barney Bubbles, and Neal White: Fieldworks From The Museum of the Void.

However, we would also like to remind you of the hard times to come for education and the public sector and to salute teachers and students who … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

Burro fashion shoot archive

Fashion designers Su and Olaf Parker have launched a new website at www.burro.co.uk. Burro was the subject of CHELSEA space #18, Burro: I Feel Alright, curated by Donald Smith in collaboration with the designers in January 2008.

The site is packed with visual information including comprehensive views of the collections, videos of catwalk shows, a “museum” of images and an archive of projects including the CHELSEA space exhibition.

In fact, … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

Mick Jones plays 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' at CHELSEA space

Paul Gorman in conversation with Mick Jones at Tate Britain

After helping CHELSEA space at the opening for Shelagh Cluett: Sculpture 1977-1980, Ade Sabini will now be looking forward to getting back to Mick Jones who will be performing with the Gorillaz at London’s O2 on 14th and 16th November as part of a world tour which … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here

CHELSEA space's Martina Gonano and Barbara Elting working on the Barney Bubbles de-install

As the de-install of the Barney Bubbles show got underway the good news for Barney fans was that the second edition of Paul Gorman’s book, ‘Reasons To be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles’ had arrived in the UK. For the many visitors to the exhibition who were asking for the book, www.barneybubbles.com/blog are exclusively offering signed copies. The book is excellent and CHELSEA space wishes Paul Gorman every success with … More To Follow: Read The Full Text Here