[title]
Today, Soho may be mostly offices, boutiques, tanning salons and upscale restaurants, but its name is still synonymous with sleaze. For 200 years, the area was the heart of London’s sex industry, and in its heyday in the 1960s, it was home to nearly a hundred strip clubs and all sorts of other disreputable establishments.
Here in the present day, street artist Shuby has created a series of artworks that pay homage to this bygone era of sauciness, which are going on display at New Compton Street’s Lawrence Alkin Gallery. Shuby's garish, Warhol-esque silkscreen canvases feature blown-up imagery taken from Soho’s sordid past: calling cards, cheeky ads and adult film posters. Ooh-er missus!
© Shuby
© Shuby
Not that Shuby is celebrating this insalubrious chapter of London history. As she says: ‘I’m not attempting to enter into the politics of the sex industry. The show is more an appreciation of the history and humorous graphics from a bygone era.’ And it’s hard not to get a little nostalgic about what, in many ways, seems a far more innocent age of nudge-wink, slap-’n’-tickle cheekiness. As the tide of commercial development threatens to sweep all of old Soho from existence, this exhibition will provide a warm-hearted trip into its past. With the best nipples in town, apparently. According to this, at least:
© Shuby
'This Is The Spot!' runs from Jan 20 to Feb 18 at Lawrence Alkin Gallery, 42 New Compton St WC2H 8DA. www.lawrencealkingallery.com.
Remember when a sex shop made entirely from felt popped up in Soho?