Category Updates
GLASTONBURY
Glastonbury was pretty damn great. Thanks to everyone who made it great. Including special thanks to my mushroom juice (see below) which was definitely a great idea.Also has to be said Block 9 stole the entire festival with the IICON giant head stage. Such genius.If anyone wants a print or a badge of my It Has To Get Worse poster, they’re in the shop
NEWCASTLE
My solo exhibition at The Cluny in Newcastle opened on Thursday and runs until the 27th May. Thanks to everyone who made it down, and thanks to Ettrick Scott for curating the show and playing live with the excellent Jazz Riot. Thanks also to Joel Thomson for designing the invites and posters, Steven Brown for hanging the work, John M Hayward for driving to London and back to pick it up, Ross Lewis for sound engineering the gig and giving us all a lift home after, and of course to The Cluny itself, a venue I’d last visited 12 years ago with my old band Shitdisco, (noisy video below.)
GREAT WAR
Very happy to say my ‘Great War’ print has been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum for their poster collection. They have the original 1915 poster already so it should make for a good companion piece. It appeared in bus stops last year as part of a project in collaboration with Veterans For Peace UK marking 100 years since the end of the senseless slaughter of WWI. I’ve made a very limited run of 30 of these prints available on my website: https://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/product-page/great-war-limited-edition-giclee-print You can support my work on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/spellingmistakescostlives
2018
2018 has mostly been a year in which I fraudulently impersonated corporations and governments. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who made it happen and who supported, bought, and shared my work. I really fucking appreciate it. Here’s some of my favourite bits. SHELL / HELL After taking part in an anti-Shell greenwashing subvertising campaign, organised by Brandalism, Shell sent me a cease and desist regarding some Hell branded merch in my online shop. Without the necessary means to fight them in court I used the one legal tool at my disposal: sarcasm. For some reason it worked. (see below) In the end they stopped replying and left me to it. Since then I started selling a black version of the t-shirt with all profits going to anti-fracking organisations in the UK. There are still some left here. Here’s an article I wrote for the New Internationalist about Shell’s greenwashing festival ‘Make the Future’, our subvertising response to it and Shell’s legal threats against me. I later found out Shell had added me to a list of anti-Shell artists (thanks guys). THE SUN While on residency with RRU News I attempted to sabotage The Sun’s advertising revenue with a fake leaflet sent to over 200 people working in the marketing department’s of The Sun’s advertisers. The card sets out a new pricing system for advertisers, in which they can pay more to have their advert placed directly next to the most attention grabbing terror stories. You can read the full leaflet here. MINI DAILY MAIL As part of the RRU residency I hand drew a Mini Daily Mail and gave it out on the streets of Liverpool. I then did a Kickstarter to fund a reprint, added more pages, and sold almost 1500 copies. You can read […]
NAUGHTY LIST
It’s nice to know that an evil corporation has to take at least some time out of its busy schedule to deal with my bullshit. Check out my Shell greenwashing work here.
MINI DAILY MAIL LAUNCH PARTY
Launch party/exhibition of my mini Daily Mail at my gallery/studio WAR in south east London. All welcome. Facebook event. LAUNCH PARTY 7TH DEC Opening night 6:30pm-late Exhibition runs until 11/2/19 WAR Gallery 16 Eltham Road London SE12 8TF 10 min on 321 or 178 bus from Lewisham. 10 min walk from Lee station, 15 min walk from Blackheath, Hither Green stations. From East London get Overground to New Cross Gate then 321 to Lee Green/ Old Tiger’s Head.
EMPIRE AIR @ INSIDE INTEL
I’m exhibiting work from my Empire Air installation at CIJ Logan Symposium Exhibition: Inside Intel this week, part of the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ)’s ‘Conspiracy’ symposium, an international event on subterfuge, propaganda & power. Symposium details: https://tcij.org/conspiracy Exhibition open 16th-20th Oct, free entry, at the St James Hatcham building, Goldsmiths.
300% BACKED
My mini Daily Mail is now 300% backed on Kickstarter, raising over £8000 for a reprinted edition with 8 new pages (and a few fixed typos). Thanks so much to everyone who has backed it so far. The crowdfunding campaign ends on Sunday evening. I was also very happy for the project to have received the backing of Pat Mills, founder of 2000AD, writer of Charley’s War, and co-creator of Judge Dredd. It’s been a good day! #DailyMail
160% FUNDED ON KICKSTARTER
Very happy to say the Mini Daily Mail reprint Kickstarter was fully funded within 4 days and is now has 160% of what I needed to do a new print run. I’m adding new stretch goals today in order to add more pages to the final newspaper. I have to add four pages at a time so as things stand I’ll be adding 4 pages, if it hits £8000 I’ll add 8 pages, £12000 I’ll add 12 pages etc. You can back the paper here: minidailymail.co.uk #DailyMail #News
NOPE TO ARMS
The artists & designers who pulled their work from the Design Museum last month in protest of the museum’s hosting an arms dealer party are putting on a show starting this Saturday and I’ve been asked to exhibit alongside them. The launch is Saturday from 6pm at Brixton Recreation Centre. Show is free and runs until 23rd Sept. More details: nopetoarms.org Facebook Event: From Nope to Hope: Art vs Arms, Oil and Injustice. Excellent poster image by the excellent Peter Kennard. #ArmsTrade
KICKSTARTING THE DAILY MAIL
If you missed the miniature Daily Mail giveaway I did with RRU News in Liverpool last week, I’m now doing a Kickstarter to have it reprinted. If I hit my fundraising targets I’m also planning on adding more pages that I didn’t have time to do for the Liverpool version. So please back the project and share with your friends/enemies! Thank you. Kickstarter. (Photo by Laura Naylor)
LIVERPOOL
Started my artist residency at RRU News in Liverpool yesterday. Going to be on the top floor of St Johns Shopping Centre for two weeks getting angry about the news, one of my favourite activities. #News #Advertising
CEASE AND DESIST
I’ve received a cease-and-desist letter from Shell demanding I remove these apocalypse-related products from my website within 7 days. This seems like pretty clear retaliation for the recent Shell greenwashing subvertising campaign my work was in, organised by Brandalism. I’m lucky enough to have free legal support from The Satanic Temple, London & UK so I’m going to see if I can fight it but I’m not optimistic. So I reckon you have a week to buy these up before they disappear from my website forever💀👍. All funds raised will go towards utterly pissing off Shell forever.
DISCARD AFTER SINGLE-USE
Here’s a surfboard I painted for Project 0‘s art auction to raise money for mangrove restoration in the Caribbean. You can bid here. Unfortunately I had to pull out of the launch exhibition for the auction as I only found out last minute the show was sponsored by Sky TV. I’m against all attempts at corporate greenwashing because it promotes the idea that consuming one brand over another can save the planet and that corporations care about these issues when they don’t. But its the involvement of Sky in particular which is really galling as the company is part-owned (and soon to be fully-owned) by Rupert Murdoch, who uses his TV channels and newspapers to push climate-change denial and anti-renewable energy propaganda worldwide.
LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES – I have work in a group exhibition inside you next month opening May 12th including my Golf Cart One sculpture and a few different prints. It’s a great line-up and very happy to be in a show with my old friends Wasp Elder and Helen Bur. Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/245672349333767/ #StreetArt
MUNICH
My new exhibition opens in Munich next Thursday. Facebook event.
EMPIRE AIR
I’ve been invited back to Germany by Positive Propaganda to open a travel agents outside the National Theatre in Munich later this month. 19th – 29th April. I’ve started an Instagram for the project you can follow at @empireair. More details on the project as they arise will be posted on the project page. You can find the Facebook event here.
PATREON PATCHES
Here, if you back me on Patreon for $2 or more I’m gonna send you one of these patches that aren’t available anywhere else. 100% exclusive to my Patreon supporters who r the best.
FINLAND
The Action Man: Battlefield Casualties toys and film (as well as my Thomas the Tank and Blood Soakers toys) are part of an exhibition in Finland at Vantaan taidemuseo Artsi about childhood, war and peace, open now. Thomas the Tank Blood Soakers #ActionMan
NUCLEAR MUSEUM
I was quoted in this article about two of my anti-Trident posters being featured in the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s new permanent exhibition about nuclear weapons. Read it here. “Museums are an important record of the peaks and troughs of human civilisation. I hope this exhibition is housed deep enough to survive the Royal Navy’s plan to destroy civilisation entirely if Britain loses a war.” “Nuclear bombs are suicide bombs – it is impossible to use these weapons without also killing ourselves. They are an expression of a genocidal and suicidal, not to mention very expensive, form of national insanity.” Here’s the two posters that are in the collection:
THANK YOU
Giant thanks to everyone who supported my work this year, esp this #toriesout election poster project, but also if you bought any of my work or backed me on Patreon etc – it meant I could keep making stuff & plan ahead to make more. That means everything to me, thank u you lovely bastards. More thanks of course to Special Patrol Group for putting up so many of these and other poster designs I done. And everyone else who chipped in, helped distribute, and put up the posters and leaflets. It was a very fucking exciting and humbling thing to have been a part of. Onwards! XDarren Photo by: Thomas Dekeyser
UPCOMING SHOWS
Got a few imminent group shows coming up! This Thursday in West London: Brexmas @ The Crows Nest Gallery. This Saturday in Bruton: Shangrilart @ Bruton Art Factory. Next Friday in Newington Green, London: Tomorrow’s World @ Atom Gallery.
LONDON EXHIBITION
Photos from my solo exhibition at my gallery/studio WAR in south east London. Thanks to Tom Straughan for his very generous assistance installing the show. No way I’d have been able to display the Shell ‘Emissions Reduction Technology’ installation without his help. The show ends Sunday 3rd Dec, open every day 11am-7pm. If you’re interested in buying any of the work in the show, you can contact me here.
SHANGRILART @ THE OTHER ART FAIR
Last weekend I hammered a lot of my work onto the walls of The Other Art Fair as part of the ShangriART area, (a new outsider-art print off-shoot of Shangrila, Glastonbury). Enormous thanks to Justin Carroll and Hannah Logic for helping so much with the set up and tear down, and thanks too to ShangriART crew and The Other Art Fair for getting me involved. I was also able to finish a sculpture I’d been working on for the last month or so, Golf Cart One. I’ll have some better photos of it up soon, once I finish adding a few more details. More photos after the jump.
THE WORLD TRANSFORMED 2017
I made this installation for The World Transformed 2017, a politics and arts festival/conference held by Momentum and related groups at the same time as the Labour party conference. This year it is in Brighton and ends on Tuesday. More photos after the jump! After finishing the installation I ran into this guy in the street. I also had some of my other anti-Tory election work on display at Fabrica. This one I drew while on the Positive Propaganda artist residency. All these are still available to download from toriesout.co.uk
ART THE ARMS FAIR
I’ve new work in The Opening Night of Art the Arms Fair group show on Monday. Cassetteboy is playing too. Tickets are available from artthearmsfair.com or the event page above. All proceeds go to Campaign Against Arms Trade . This Thomas the Tank sculpture will be on sale as well as a bunch of prints, comics & postcards to raise enough money to really #stopDSEI next time. We’ve also just heard that some stands setting up at the DSEI arms fair are up to 4 days behind schedule thanks to the actions of everyone who have been helping Stop The Arms Fair. Anyone who has put on any kind of exhibition before knows that being even one day behind schedule is a nightmare. I’m so happy.
SHELL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS ROADSHOW
Shell’s Climate Solutions Roadshow at Glastonbury, showcasing all the ways oil & gas companies can save the world from oil & companies. Using the past to #burnthefuture. Click here for photos/video of inside.
GLASTONBURY 2017
Very happy to say I’m doing a new installation at Glastonbury this year. I finally cracked and built a corporate showroom for Shell oil. If you’re going, come down to Shangri-La and have a look.
THE OTHER ART FAIR
Had a great time at The Other Art Fair last week. Massive thanks to the organisers for getting me involved, especially Sophie, Gina, Ryan and Jessica and for the life-saving and ridiculously generous help from Justin Carroll, Alison Johnson and Hannah Logic, and also hello to all the amazing people I met (including the brilliant Pandemonia, see below) and all the advertisers I tried to convince to quit their jobs. #PocketMoneyLoans
LONDON
I’m bringing Pocket Money Loans to The Other Art Fair this month. #PocketMoneyLoans
HIDDEN CIVIL WAR – NEWCASTLE
I’m going to be bringing Pocket Money Loans to Newcastle on the 14th/15th of October as part of The Newbridge Project’s Hidden Civil War arts festival. #PocketMoneyLoans
LIVERPOOL EXHIBITION – THE WORLD TRANSFORMED 24/09/16
I’m going to be exhibiting work at The World Transformed festival organised by Momentum and taking place in Liverpool during the Labour Party conference. #TWT2016 – Four Days of Politics, Art, Music & Culture. “#TWT2016 is about practising the new politics. We believe in a positive, future oriented approach to changing society. We believe in amplifying unheard, grassroots voices. We believe in broadening the definition of politics to include art, music and spoken word. We believe that politics isabout more than just PMQs and Westminster.” – Facebook event
POCKET MONEY LOANS @ GLASTONBURY
Many thanks to everyone who came to the Pocket Money Loans store at Shangri-La, Glastonbury 2016. Also massive thanks to everyone on the Shangri-La crew, especially Simon Vaughan, Kaye Dunnings, Moses, Willy, and the utterly brilliant Spider. Met some absolutely superb human beings and had an impossibly great time amid the mud and the misery. And of course gigantic super-thanks to everyone on the Pocket Money Loans staff who saved my life and my sanity on several occasions, David Jones, Hannah Logic and Justin Carroll. Smashed it. MORE PHOTOS
SAFARI FESTIVAL
I’ll be doing a stall of my wares at Breakdown Press‘s excellent Safari Festival in east London later this month.
ROSKILDE FESTIVAL, DENMARK
Just two days after Glastonbury, Pocket Money Loans opened a new store at Roskilde Festival, Denmark, which has also unfortunately just had to close due to lack of child-customers interested in mindlessly expensive financial products. That said, it was a fantastic festival in a brilliant country. I can’t tell if I’m more tired from work, booze or laughing. Massive thanks to everyone who visited and especially those who helped run the shop and kept me on the verge of sanity especially David Matthew Jones, Gary Barber and Kirstie Fleck off of Is Tropical and her brother Tom Fleck. MORE PHOTOS #PocketMoneyLoans #Exhibitions
