Louanne Mah |
The dynamic
duo, Irma Soltonovich and Efren Quiroz, plus Martin Bachelor, have done it
again. This time it’s psychedelia, symbol of the Sixties. A time of great
promise or mass hallucination.
Things
happened fast in that decade. Beatniks morphed into Hippies at lightning speed
helped along by rock music and the sudden availability of drugs. From San
Francisco to London young people were turning on, tuning in, and dropping out. Love
and Peace was the mantra of the moment and LSD was the key to the universe
opening visions of Shangri La. Nothing was real.
LSD was
first made by Albert Hofmann in Switzerland in 1938 from ergot and found to
have possibilities as psychiatric medication. The exact mechanism is still not
fully understood but it is thought to cause glutamate release in the cerebral
cortex i.e. your brain lights up like a pinball machine. The CIA thought it
might be useful for mind control and they tested it in the 50s on servicemen
and students without their knowledge. Native American mystics had known about
peyote for a long time. Aldous Huxley did some mescaline in 1954 and wrote ‘The
Doors Of Perception’ based on his experience but it wasn’t until the 1960s that LSD
somehow found its way into the counterculture where it proved immensely popular.
Tripping had
a spiritual dimension in the beginning. There was an innocence to it. Trips
could be good or bad depending on the mental state of the tripper and the
quality of the product (stay away from the brown acid). It opened the doors to
another world. Some of us thought we could fly. Owsley Stanley, who made the
first big batch of acid, was a man on a mission. Timothy Leary, a psychology professor
at Harvard, was a big influence. President Nixon called him ‘the most dangerous
man in America’. Did the Love Generation
represent a sea change or was it just media hype? We still aren’t sure. It certainly broke down a lot of barriers.
Philip Wiley |
San
Francisco had Flower Power which was partly a reaction to the Vietnam War. In
London it took off mainly in the form of fashion thanks to boutiques and a
proliferation of young designers like Ossie Clark.Image became important. As
the underground got absorbed into the mainstream Mick Jagger and Marianne
Faithfull became the new pop royalty. Beautiful people were everywhere.
It only
lasted a few years. There was the Summer of Love, Haight Ashbury, the Sergeant
Pepper album in June of 67 all culminating for many with Woodstock in 69. There
was also Altamont (something very funny happens when we start that number),
Manson,hard drugs, kids, jobs, mortgages.
Sixties turned into Seventies. The Rutles put the lid on it with ‘All
You Need Is Cash’. But the memories linger and there seems to be nostalgia for
the period whether you were there or not.
Nowadays
it’s seen as a period of non-stop sex, drugs and rock and roll and it’s starting
to fade into myth like Camelot. Those who actually lived through it, as a few
of us older folks did, all have our own memories and perspectives, often quite blurry.
For some it was a social revolution for others it was unbridled hedonism. Maybe
it was a bit of both.
Psychedelic
art took several forms. It first appeared as kaleidoscopic mandalas designed for
looking at while stoned. Or you could just watch your own hands pulsating. There
were album sleeves and head comics (who can forget Robert Crumb’s Mr. Natural
and Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers?) but it’s the posters that
stick in the mind. These were made up of brightly coloured shapes and letters that
emulated the visual effects of LSD, often advertising happenings or events. They
have become icons of the Sixties and they have obviously inspired a lot of
participants in ‘Psychedelia’.
Barry Herring |
75 artists
submitted work to the show so there’s a wide variety of responses and a lot to
take in. Some are obviously into the music, some like the art and some clearly
enjoy the hallucinogens. So maybe times haven’t changed that much.Who knows…. perhaps
some of the participants were being happily conceived around that time and what
we’re seeing are the aftereffects? So if you haven’t tripped out lately groove on
down to Martin Bachelor Gallery and get your mind blown.
Martin Batchelor gallery
July 29th–Aug. 17th. 2017
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