David Powell - Lost in Music

NOVEMBER 2022 – JANUARY 2023

The exhibition “Lost in Music” at Sabine Wachters Fine Arts, Knokke, Belgium,brings together a selection of works made between 2018 and 2022 about the British,European and American alternative music scenes from the mid 1970’s to the present day.

Many of these bands were given a platform on the renowned alternative late night BBC radio show hosted by British DJ John Peel. I would tape the shows and write down all the names of the bands who did sessions on the programme before going to school the next morning. As soon as these bands started getting too famous, John Peelwould usually stop playing them. After all, it was about giving exposure to unknown new forms of music at the margins of the mainstream.

My emotional connection with these bands began in my teens, when I started hanging around with gangs comprising punks and skinheads who were a bit older than me. I became fascinated with their energy and how they shaped their own identities via music with an urgent sense of DIY fashion. I would listen to their records and make drawings for them as well as customise their clothes with the names of their favourite bands.

I quickly made a habit of visiting the small number of independent record shops in town, often spending hours flicking through the numerous boxes of vinyl available. It was my first realisation that I was ‘collecting’ something that escalated into an obsession with the whole subculture of the independent music scene. This was at a time when my only goals in life were to go to art school and see as many gigs as possible.

These experiences shaped my core identity and coded the visual language of the paintings and drawings in this exhibition. David Powell 2022

WANT TO SEE MORE AND VISIT?

NOVEMBER 2022 – DECEMBER 2022
KNOKKE – BELGIUM