Mode 2: Mode 2: A Time to Dance

Urban Spree Galerie presents "A Time to Dance", an exclusive presentation of hand-painted original & unique prints by Mode 2. The exhibition will open on Friday, September 30th from 18:00 to 22:00 and run until October, 30th, 2022. 

Having started to produce the regular 7-color "Jazztronik" and "Rude Movements" screen prints (60 x 80 cm, Edition of 47 each) in-house in November 2020 together with Mode, came along the extravagant idea to create large unique 1-layer prints (130 x 95 cm) which would then be fully hand-painted. Using the same 2 motives, the intuitive process started with creating the background with large colored brushstrokes, then the outlines of the motives would be screen printed before Mode started to actually paint into the characters, adding many highlights, shadows and gradients, giving a lot of life and diversity into each of them. The painting sessions were interspersed over the course of 2 months, with the final brushstroke before Christmas 2020. 

In total, 19 prints have been painted. In the later stage of the process, all prints have been mounted on Alu Dibond and then a custom white frame has been added. 

Mode 2: "A Time to Dance"

Urban Spree Galerie

Revaler Str. 99

10245 Berlin

Info & Catalogue: pascal@urbanspree.com

Artist Statement (as posted on Instagram): 

1°
"I remember the singing classes with Mrs Short, at Hither Green Primary School from 1976 to 1979, where a few songs were from the sixties, and 🎵”Turn! Turn! Turn!"🎶 from The Byrds was one of these songs. I recently asked my mother how my brother and I ended up at this school, and she explained that the person who sold my father and her our home had pointed it out to them. Sheer luck then, brought us to the school with the best music and singing classes in the whole borough of Lewisham!
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When wondering how radically the world has changed these past few years, the words “A time to dance, a time to mourn” come to mind. With so much negativity inflicted on us collectively and personally, a pervasive sentiment of powerlessness; I needed to remind myself how we would come together through music and dance, so as to heal and uplift us through these sombre times.
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How do we define the role played by the arts in our society, our existence even? Of what use IS music, dance, literature, or the visual art that we produce? What do WE provide to society, and how do we place a value on it? As I was asking my “old” friend @boris_tellegen a few days ago; are we here to provide some form of therapy to those in society touched by what we do?
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I have been drawing since I was a child, the same way that others may have been driven to express themselves in their chosen field. Through what I do, I try to somehow ask questions that I feel should be asked, regarding our own existence, especially in these trying times... but I also try to provide positive and uplifting vibes, to face our day-to-day hardships.
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I approach going out and looking for good music to dance to, and friends or complete strangers to get down with, through this same quest for upliftment and empowerment; “food for the soul”; as essential as food for the body.
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Through Covid restrictions AND the duties of parenthood, I haven't been out in SO long, and missed out on SO much; but I WILL find a time to dance again..."

2°

The idea to do these “individualised” prints came from Pascal at @urban_spree , while working on the Jazztronik and Rude Movements prints in early November 2020. There were these large leftover sheets of card, the maximum size for the silkscreen table, which just sitting there on racks with colour tests on; so instead of throwing them away, we decided to make these large format prints.
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We really had no idea what we were stepping into, but what we DID know was that I would slap a background of colour on each, have one pass with the final outlines of either of the two designs, paint the volume and light on, make a second pass of the outlines, then highlight again.
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This made each “print” a unique piece, even though each had one of the two drawings used as the base for them.
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Though I'm not a fan of green, I tried quite a few different colour-ways over this series of nineteen pieces, one with spray-paint; just for the sake of experimenting with colour.
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Borders were spray-painted on some prints where necessary, before Pascal got them mounted on DIBOND® aluminium sheets summer 2021. They were then put into storage for MONTHS, as the gallery's show-schedule had been disrupted by Covid.
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It's only since this past summer that we actually agreed on a show date, and we then decided to also release three customised vintage prints from the Pictures On Walls days, ALSO on a dance and music theme; to accompany these originals. There will be print-runs of about 30 on these.
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I'm working on a slide-show of my own club photos, projected on a canvas of sketches, representing the backdrop to my work that people rarely get to see; while there'll be some tunes spinning in the background, many of which are closely linked to these pieces and photos.
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It's not an ACTUAL club of course, but it will be as close an experience as possible to the kind of atmosphere that I always loved sharing with friends and strangers.
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The tunes accompanying each visual here are a foretaste of this;

3°

I have taken photos on the scene since Covent Garden days, feeling an instinctive need to record what we were living; as NO other culture was as enriching or revolutionary as what some would call “Hip Hop”. I seldom used photos as reference for my drawing; the chronological memory of what we collectively lived on them being MORE enriching..
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The majority of the music I listen to today ALSO grew out of this scene where we invented and defended a particular approach to culture. Through a DIY ethos to just about everything, we improvise with what we have at hand, celebrating music, art, poetry and dance that the 20th century consumed and maybe forgot; while we also innovated and produced NEW material reflecting the times we live in, or anticipating and arming ourselves against what may come.
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The rhythmic common denominator would probably take us back to African roots, but hey! Where do YOU feel the dance..?
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Whether it was Jive and Lindy-Hop, Rock'n'Roll, Psychedelia, Soul, Funk, Disco, then Hip Hop itself; the music industry commodified ALL cultures, bleeding each one dry before moving on to the next, while the state system neutralised or destroyed anything bringing people together, undoing the “divide and rule” that they imposed from above.
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Through segregation, denial of airplay, being cherry-picked, packaged and pitched as consumer product, demonised in the media, OR being destroyed through heroin or crack; ANY movement perceived as a threat WOULD be dealt with.
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And yet, people STILL go out to dance, as it is one of the oldest socialising rituals binding any group, or bringing people TOGETHER; reinventing rhythms to reflect, confront or overcome a multitude of crises over these last decades.
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In an unprecedented age of surveillance, insecurity and oppression, more insidious than EVER before; the technology offers but also takes away from us; so I ask myself what are WE looking for when we go out? Who do WE go to for the music that helps US to survive?