CULT OF THE CONCRETE

CULT OF THE CONCRETE 

30 January - 7 March 2015
// The Cult Of RAMM:ELL:ZEE: Alexis Milne, Tex Royale, Lu Ma Oi, Eve Fainke, Chooc Ly Tan, Nuke Eden and Petro
// Zavier Ellis
// Cedar Lewisohn
Curated by Alexis Milne

PRIVATE VIEW > 30 January 2015
17.00h – 20.00h // JOEY RAMONE, Josephstraat 166 - 168
20.30h – 21.30h // WORM, Boomgaardstraat 71

With a shared exhibition, JOEY RAMONE and ROODCAPJE Radicals will present Cult Of The Concrete, an exhibition curated by Alexis Milne. Part one of this shared exhibition will be presented at JOEY RAMONE and will open on January 30th. The second part of this exhibition will be presented at the ROODCAPJE Radicals festival in April.

We are very proud to welcome you to the opening on the 30th of January, which also inaugurates JOEY RAMONE's new project space. The exhibition Cult Of The Concrete occupies both gallery and project spaces. From there we will all walk to WORM, where The Cult Of RAMM:ELL:ZEE will perform a ritual from 20.30h to 21.30h.

Cult Of The Concrete is an exhibition of artists responding to the overbuilt metropolis and its barrage of semantic disorder. Heavily influenced by decaying and layered street surfaces, graffiti drenched walls and psychogeographic theory the artists construct a primal collage from their urban surroundings.

// The performance collective The Cult Of RAMM:ELL:ZEE is driven by Alexis Milne, Tex Royale, Lu Ma Oi, Eve Fainke, Chooc Ly Tan, Nuke Eden and Petro. The Cult will present video documentation of their performances alongside The Book of Bitumen, a transcribed and mapped collection of past rituals (from 2011 till 2014) on densely layered kitchen lino used in roving performances through industrial ruins, an abandoned spy station, brutalist public housing such as The Heygate Estate, and squats in London, Sweden and Berlin.

The Cult utilize the Gothic Futurist teachings of the late 1970's rapper and graffiti philosopher RAMM:ELL:ZEE to carry out large scale group rituals of trans-letter liberation, by channelling elements of graffiti sub culture into new manifestations such as break-spraying and express preying on cut up sections of kitchen lino (a surface reconfigured for headspinning in the 1980's). These forms of breakdancing and devotional body movements are combined with dynamic spray painting to achieve a trance like fervour to a hynoptic electronica soundscape punctuated with freestyle rap flows and spoken word.

Hip Hop phrases are broken down and chanted, pointing to an obsessional affiliation with branded sportswear ("My Adidas!, My Air Jordanz!"). Adidas becomes the remixed god 'Zi-Dada' and Robert Moses — master architect of the Cross Bronx Expressway (the road partly responsible for the dystopian backdrop of 1970's South Bronx where Hip Hop began) — becomes the god 'Mozizizm'.

These elements are also echoed in the outfits and objects of the Cult. Discarded branded trainers are cut up (the soles removed) and used as talismans, futuristic shinguards and bulky sports padding are reconfigured into post-apocalyptic cult armour — reverberations of the exoskeletal samurai suits of the RAMM:ELL:ZEE.

// Zavier Ellis combines the use of text with painterly, collage, assemblage and photographic techniques that respond directly to the urban environment. Language is employed to obfuscate and open new possibilities. Street signs, misspelt graffiti, literature, coded language and obsessed over words are referenced by etching, collaging or painting. Narrative is implied and the audience is invited into a confused, fragmented dialogue with artist and artwork where the broken, derelict, incomplete and mistaken are embraced. Under the title 'The Arrow of Time', the content of Ellis' work draws on various personal, intellectual and historical interests, either fleeting or ongoing. Monumental historical events and themes including nationalism; revolutionary politics; myth & magic; art history; religion; and insanity are all research pursuits that develop into subjects in his work.

// Cedar Lewisohn samples the city through drawings, large scale wood printing and spray painted works. For the Cult Of The Concrete exhibition, Lewisohn will present new work made whilst spending a year at The Jan Van Eyck Accademie, Maastricht. This body of work uses imagery and symbolism the artist has encountered while in the Netherlands. The images range from art historical to public signage and are juxtaposed with fragments from seemly discordant narratives, such as African tribal rituals and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

// The Cult of RAMM:ELL:ZEE have exhibited and performed at the Saatchi Gallery, Modern Art Oxford, The Barbican, New Art Gallery Walsall, The Gasworks and International Film Festival Rotterdam.

// Zavier Ellis is a London based artist, curator and gallerist. He read History of Modern Art at Manchester University before undertaking a Masters in Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School. Zavier has exhibited in recent years at Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, Torrance Art Museum in California and Paul Stolper Gallery in London. His work is featured in many private collections including the Peter Nobel Collection in Zurich.
Zavier is the founder and director of CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, a contemporary art gallery in Shoreditch. He has curated exhibitions internationally including in Berlin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Klaipeda, London, Los Angeles, Naples and Rome. Zavier is also co-founder and co-curator of the annual museum scale show THE FUTURE CAN WAIT, which in recent years has been organised in partnership with Saatchi's New Sensations. THE FUTURE CAN WAIT is the largest exhibition of its kind globally.
Most recently Zavier has published his first iArtBook 100 London Artists with renowned art critic and historian Edward Lucie-Smith.

// Cedar Lewisohn is an artist, writer and curator. He has recently been working on The Canals Project, a series of public art works for the waterways of East London. In 2013 he organised The Hecklers, a large scale group exhibition for The New Art Gallery Walsall. Between 2005 and 2011 he worked for Tate where he curated a number of large and small scale exhibitions and projects. He has published two books and is currently working on a new project for the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht.