After its acclaimed run in Dublin, the self-titled LCD Soundsystem exhibition dedicated to the seminal electro-punk band is heading to the UK.
From October 3, LCD fans van view 23 one-off images of James Murphy and co at SWG3 by photographer Ruvan Wijesooriya, accompanied by a series of paintings by Scottish artist Joe Henry – re-creating LCD Pop Artworks in his own artistic language.
“LCD Soundsystem are a bold, brilliant and generation-defining band and we look forward to celebrating them with this fascinating collection of photographs and paintings,” said Meryl Gilbert of SWG3.
Henry added: “Ruvan is the official photographer for LCD and has the best collection of the band I have ever seen. His access and friendship with LCD is something rare in the commercialized and controlled music industry of today, and this close relationship can be seen in the rapport between photographer and subject.
“He shot the two covers for This is Happening and Bye Bye Bayou; His work is purely documentary style, living with the band in LA and NYC and documenting them in the studio, on the road and live. We both discussed collaborating on this exhibition and me doing remixes of his original photography, putting my own pop art spin on top of his photos.”
LCD photographer Ruvan Wijesooriya added; “Joe had this dream to make something happen and he got in touch. He did an Amy Winehouse and Andy Warhol exhibition and was thinking about what he wanted to do next and he got in touch with LCD Soundsystem and James said ‘call Ruvan, he has all of the pictures’.”
“James and the band and everyone think of my work as my work and they help me make that work but they consider it separate from the music they make. Whereas other bands consider their image and artwork to be almost one and the same. LCD is very much not that way.”
Visit here for tickets and more information and check out some exclusive images below.
1Disco Ball hands in NYC
Ruvan: “When I moved to NYC I was doing a lot of things and ended up being a music journalist and basically I heard ‘Losing My Edge’ and I just couldn’t believe that that was a song and when I tried to see them live they had already played. And then I ended up going to a party they threw. I was taking pictures there and got a hold of them and said ‘Hey I’ve got this cool picture from your party’ and they said ‘yeah you’re right, that’s amazing let’s use it as a poster’. So that’s how it started.”
2This Is Happening
Ruvan’s photography also featured on the cover of the band’s album ‘This is Happening’ and on a number of singles.
3All My Friends
Ruvan’s collection is accompanied by a series of paintings from the Scottish artist Joe Henry, who has recreated his own pop art-style versions of the band. Including this piece All My Friends.
4Tokyo/Berling
Joe Henry: “This black and white artwork is using some of the lyrics from Losing my edge, with a little nod to Basquiat childlike handrawn lyrics and drawings.”
5All The Young Dudes
Ruvan: “This one is our tribute to David Bowie”
6Drunk Girls!
Ruvan: “No one quite got the story right in all of the journalistic things that came out. From the outside it looks like I was on tour with them but in fact it was just these very synergistic moments when I would be in London doing pictures for a fashion shoot and would run into them. We were friends and we just happened to be at the same place, the same time, total serendipity, whether it was in Miami, London, Gothenburg, and several other places. They are a ‘not wanting to be photographed’ kind of a band. You’ll notice from the book there are no pictures of them as a full band. It’s kind of bizarre but it is really because they are not into press or don’t consider themselves models, even though I’m sure some of them would like to be.”