Book Launch
February 14, 2010, 7pm
Michael Bracewell discussed his book Re-Make/Re-Model: Becoming Roxy Music, examining the formative art school years of "Roxy." His presentation included a screening of Roxette (31 mins. Manchester Polytechnic, UK, 1977), and a discussion with Mark Lancaster followed.
Written with the co-operation of Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, and many of their friends and colleagues, Michael Bracewell's Re-Make/Re-Model: Becoming Roxy Music was first published in 2006, and cited in The Sunday Times "Books of the Year" as being the first major examination of the relationship between art education and rock music in the UK.
Bracewell's presentation for Artists Space surveys themes discussed in his book, in relation to a rare film made in 1977 by students at Manchester School of Art Design, who devoted themselves to the creation of a glamour fixated, retro-chic, "art directed lifestyle" – the inspiration for which they found in the music of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. Capturing a rare pre-punk moment, this film (33 mins) is a little known document of the conversion of sub-cultural lifestyle into both art pop and Pop art.
Michael Bracewell is the most adroitly gifted writer of his generation.
– Morrissey
Re-Make/Re-Model: Becoming Roxy Music is published by Da Capo Press/Faber & Faber.
Michael Bracewell is an English novelist and cultural historian who writes widely on modern and contemporary art and is a regular contributor to Frieze magazine.
Mark Lancaster is a British artist and set designer, and assisted such luminary artists as Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. He held the position of Artistic Advisor to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and has taught at the University of Newcastle and the Bath Academy of Art.