I.
I'm pleased to say that I've been invited to an event in London next week [3] featuring a new work by English artist and self-styled creative vandal Nick Egan [4].
The piece, named after an Oasis song released back in the mid-1990s, explores questions around mortality and memory and why it is that certain figures retain their place in the pop cultural imagination, becoming both iconic and immortal.
Sadly, I can't afford to buy the original piece - and I'm not sure I'll even be coughing up the readies for one of the limited edition signed prints being sold on the night - but there is something undeniably compelling about the way Egan acts as a visual archivist for punk and Britpop, capturing the specific energy of these different eras.
And it's always good to see Sid Vicious memorialised alongside Elvis and various other pop cultural icons, including Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Marc Bolan and, erm, Bobby Moore.
II.
However - and in this life it seems as if there's always a conjunctive adverb on the horizon - I do have problems with the title of the painting and the philosophy which it seems to endorse. And, if push comes to shove, then I'm still going to privilege Jamie Reid's Fuck Forever over Egan's Live Forever.
For while Egan beautifully captures our obsession with cultural immortality and remembering the past, my own sensibilities still gravitate towards the nihilistic innocence of Jamie Reid’s work originally produced for The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980).
The two artworks thus sit in fascinating tension and represent opposing impulses: Egan reminds us how icons endure and he seems to suggest (somewhat optimistically) that the creative spirit never dies; Reid, meanwhile, reminds us of the fleeting beauty of the present - the very nowness of the moment, and his Fuck Forever image is ultimately a heroic refusal to care about tomorrow.
You pays your money ... and you takes your choice: memorialise the past; or forget the future.
Notes
[1] Live Forever is a contemporary painting and exhibition piece created by Nick Egan. The work takes its title and inspiration from the Oasis single 'Live Forever' (1994), for which Egan directed one of the two official videos produced (the US version). As well as the original painting, Egan is issuing a limited number of individually signed and numbered A3 prints. The work is being shown at an event in London next week (see note 3 below).
[2] Jamie Reid: Fuck Forever - this vintage folded screen print was one of a limited number produced for a 1986 exhibition at Hamiltons Gallery (London).
[3] The event - Sartorial Correctness - takes place at the Karma Sanctum Hotel, in Soho, on the 12th and 13th of October, curated and hosted by Catalina Guirado. The evening includes a screening of an extended cut of the award-winning documentary Creative Vandal (dir. Peter Pahor, 2024), followed by Egan in conversation with Catalina Guirado, an audience Q&A, drinks, and an exhibition viewing.
The first night is strictly by invitation only and, unfortunately, I don't have VIP status. Nevertheless, my name is on the guest list for the second (and final) night, so at least I've avoided the humiliation of having to buy a ticket on Eventbrite.
[4] The last time I saw Nick was over forty years ago, during the Duck Rock period, when he helped me land a job in the Charisma Records press office. I'm primarily attending the event to renew an old acquaintance and to express my gratitude to him (that - and the free drinks).
