Private view: Tuesday, July 10th, 2007, 6:00 to 8:30 PM

The opening will be followed by SUPERM’s White Cubicle exhibition at the George and Dragon’s Toilet Gallery with special surprise performances
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007, 9:00 to 11:00 PM, 2 Hackney Road, London E2

The exhibition will remain open until August 10th, 2007
Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 AM to 6 PM

View work

Blow de la Barra is proud to announce BUT HER MAJESTY’S ROASTBEEF CURTAINS WOULDN’T OPEN FOR HIM, the first London exhibition by New York based art team SUPERM: Brian Kenny and Slava Mogutin.

Coming from completely different backgrounds – Siberian born Mogutin was exiled from Russia at the age of 21 for his queer writings and activism; and Kenny was born in the American military base of Heidelberg (Germany), growing up in a traditional all-American, military, catholic family, Slava and Brian joined their creative forces in 2005. In their work, they use all available media and source material, ranging from reclaimed furniture and street art to personal fetish gear, hair and body fluids. They have been responsible for site-specific, multi-media shows in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Moscow, Oslo, and León, Spain. One of their most recent installations in the toilet of PowerHouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn, was featured in The New York Times.

For their first exhibition in London, SUPERM will present a series of bondage sportswear fetish chair sculptures and large drawings and collages on vintage American police shooting targets. These were produced over the past few months in New York and Berlin in collaboration with other artists including Bruce LaBruce, Gio Black Peter, Marcelo Krasilcic, Jason Farrer, Bearded Cunt of assume vivid astro focus, Desi Santiago, Dominic Johnson and Marko Brozic.

Slava Mogutin will not be able to attend the exhibition at Blow de la Barra as his entry to the UK was denied first by the British Consulate in New York, and then by the Immigration Service in London. Invited to perform at Revisions of Excess festival in Birmingham, Mogutin was detained at London’s Luton airport based on the technicalities of his paperwork. Separated from Kenny, he was forced to spend the night in a holding cell behind a one-way mirror glass, photographed, fingerprinted and interrogated like a criminal. On the following day, Mogutin was deported back to Berlin; as a result, he is banned from re-applying for his UK visa until September 2007.

Transgressive, political and personal, SUPERM work is a response to the world of shameless war propaganda, media brainwashing, corporate censorship, state-induced paranoia, and shrinking personal freedoms under which we live in; a world where natives of countries outside the European Union and the USA are treated as second-class citizens and artists as criminals.

Brian Kenny (1982, Heidelberg, Germany). While growing up, Kenny traveled extensively throughout the US with his Army family. As a teenager, he was a competitive gymnast. After high school, he went to Oberlin Conservatory to pursue a degree in voice, but eventually left school to produce his own music, which combines elements of hip hop and ambient. In 2004, Kenny moved to New York where he began collaborating with Slava Mogutin under the team name of SUPERM. Kenny works across drawing, graffiti, text, sound and video.

Slava Mogutin (1974, Kemerovo, Siberia). At the age of 21 Mogutin was exiled from Russia for his queer writings and activism. He was granted political asylum in the US with the support of Amnesty International and American PEN. He is the author of seven volumes of poetry, fiction and journalism published in Russian and a hardcover monograph of photography Lost Boys (PowerHouse, 2006). Mogutin’s photography has been exhibited internationally and featured in a wide range of publications including The New York Times, Village Voice, i-D, Visionaire, and L’Uomo Vogue. He is currently working on his second book of photography, NYC Go-Go, and his directorial debut, Food Chain, both scheduled for release in 2008.