Review of Urban Design

Kid Acne's exhibition at Sheffield Millennium Gallery wasn't what you might expect from a conventional exhibition. You would expect to see many different forms of art but not necessarily street art. Kid Acne is originally a street artist / graffiti artist and is now seen as Sheffield's foremost urban artist and his murals can be seen all over the city. His exhibition 'Kill Your Darlings' takes huge inspiration from the disposable nature of graffiti. 

   The exhibition is all about not being to precious about your art. Kid Acne said 'painting outdoors means the work doesn't last forever - it cant be bought or sold. This often makes the experience more enjoyable.' This message definitely resonates through the exhibition. Normally when you go to an art exhibition you only see the final pieces of work that the artist wants you to see, what made Kid Acne's exhibition more refreshing was that he showcased everything, perfect or not.Being able to see his sketchbooks that he's kept since he was 14 was also a novelty. Even if some of the ideas weren't finished he decided to still show them off, its all about not being to precious about art. One of my favourite  things about his sketchbooks is that you could see how he was trying to develop his style  "wanted to refine his style into chunky lines - felt this was too contrived, the natural gestures of his drawing gave the characters personality- embraced these quirks and drew with a single line" . I like that he has decided to show these subtle tests of style instead of only the finished product.

   Whilst walking through the rooms you could really see transition from street art to film making and more commercial screen prints and record sleeves. Even his commercial work still reflects his DIY attitude. I was particularly interested in his CD and record covers, his illustrations were so sketchy, they didn't have a glossy finished look like most media art you would see, this is mainly down to the way he works. He said he mainly works on the spur of the moment with the materials and equipment he has to hand. I like this about his work and I think it makes for better art when its not over thought and planned to much.
   Most of Kid Acne's work was very fun and almost like childrens cartoon illustrations. However I found some of his work quite dark and strange. His 'Stabby women' series was developed after seeing an exhibition by the fashion photographer Helmut Newman, the women are meant to enpower woman. The characters show mysterious warrior looking women mostly wearing masks and capes and brandishing weapons, a lot of them also have injuries and are wearing slings or on crutches. Although i can appreciate the artist flare in these characters, they are very good illustrations, its what the images show that is slightly controversial. Some of his canvas work showed the women dominating each other with whips, they're made to look very aggressive characters. Kid Acne said ' Ive become interested in what their [stabby women] belief system may be - took inspiration from witchcraft, freemasonry and paganism'. This is very visible in the outfits the characters wear. 
  Despite me not liking much of the 'stabby women' collection, my favourite work out of the entire exhibition was a set of 3 skateboards with a stabby woman graphic on the bottom of each one. It wasn't so much the illustrations I liked, It was more the idea behind it. the imagery on skateboards gets worn away and by putting your artwork onto the bottom of one this stops you being too precious about it. This is obviously the message he wanted everyone to take away from his exhibition and I think it is a good message to remember. I also like that even in his commercial work he still wanted to retain his own style and felt it was to contrived to force his work into a different style. I think I could see this influencing my work in the future.