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Event Review: Bench’s #lovemyhood Exhibition Launch Celebration
Other | Monday 24th November 2014 | Izaradz
On Thursday 20th November, the well-established British clothing brand Bench, introduced their first ‘avant-garde’ exhibition of illustration and photography by Andrew Kosravani, Dominic Marley, Rebel Yuth and Stew Capper. The pieces displayed are the artists’ interpretations of some of the UK’s most influential style bloggers wearing Bench hoodies, under the direction of #lovemyhood. The bloggers featured in the exhibition include The Unisexmode, Snoochie Shy, Pause Magazine, Talk Casuals, Buckets & Spades, Portrait of a Dreamer, Hi Fashion, Diary of a Clothes Horse, Maria Pizzeria, I Am NRC and Apparently Magazine.
Bench clothing boasts a tradition of purpose-built clothing with functional designs, whilst at the same time embracing urban and progressive style. This vision was fantastically emulated not only by the vibrant artwork displayed, but also by the atmosphere created by a thumping hip-hop infused soundtrack. The canvases were showcased perfectly with concentrated spotlights and a white walled framing.
Rebel Yuth (@rebelyuth) a Sussex-based illustrator added a modern, graffiti-like edge to a traditional portrait. Contrasting bold colours with a linear attention to detail, he subtly personalises the individual features of each blogger. This is Rebel Yuth’s first exhibition of this nature, but he also boasts a collection of t-shirt designs. He also enjoys sketching musicians such as Morrissey and Skepta, given that music plays a big part in his artistic lifestyle. He told us that after a long day at work, he likes to listen to a range of soundtracks, from rock to the fluid piano of Ludovico Einaudi.
The second illustrator who took on the #lovemyhood challenge was Andrew Khosravani. Andrew’s past clients include Dazed & Confused, and Slam City Skates, having also exhibited his work at the Wu Tang exhibition back in March, before being approached by the Bench project. He aspired to highlight the ‘hood’ as much as possible, contrasting luminous colours with the monochrome graphic of the bloggers. One particular illustration caught our eye, depicting a blogger whose face seemed to be exploding out of the hooded jacket he was wearing. Andrew explained that here, he tried to show the durability of the clothing, so tough, that it could even withstand an explosion! Each piece took between eight and nine hours to complete, and his love of drawing tribal designs is noticeable in the stencil like treatment of the portraits.
By profession and preference, our third artist, Dominic Marley is usually a sports and lifestyle photographer who’s past clients include Nike, Redbull and Carhartt. Like Andrew, not only did he have very little time with the bloggers, but it was also pouring with rain at the time of the photo shoot, making the vibrancy of the end result even more impressive. In a way, perhaps the not so favourable weather was in fact complimentary of the theme, fully putting ‘hood love’ into practice.
Finally, we have Stew Capper (@StewCapper), a portrait photographer from London who has been snapping away for just over ten years. He has contributed to various magazines including NME, Vice and Article. His images were much more centralised on the bloggers’ faces, giving them a special kind of intimacy. His idea to make them interact with their ‘hoods’ was also clear and topical, exploiting the theme of the exhibit to the full.
After talking to the artists, it seems that they had very little criteria to work with, allowing them an almost absolute freedom of interpretation. The exhibition itself may not have been big in size, but by 9pm the basement was filled with friends, bloggers and artists with prosecco and beer aplenty. The DJ was on hand to match the ascending volume of the excited crowd, turning the gallery into an arty party space with a warming community-like energy. We would like to thank Bench and the fantastic hosts of the exhibit, and the creator of the #lovemyhood platform that brought this exciting, contemporary collection into existence.
Iza Radwanska Zhang
