Bleak Pop / A three act exhibition / Introduction

What happens when an artificial paradise is abandoned? When the architecture of the economic boom all of a sudden are left to neglect, decay, poverty?

The bleakness fades the colors, the bright lights become sad, opaque reflections, the once busy streets have no hope and lead to nothing. This is the same space that years, maybe decades ago gave birth to projects and dreams, where deals and contacts where sealed, where existences were in full bloom. These are houses and villages, squares and monuments, lights and gardens, cars, buses, bicycles.

Those places have been slowly vacated, maybe for a sudden crisis, maybe because it was less a paradise than it appeared in the beginning and all of a sudden life leaves space to the desert, to the void, to a silent distressing sickness. Houses and streets are left empty but someone left behind a picture, a note with a telephone number, a book or a kitchen tool: small things that advise the fact that not a long time ago there was life in here.

Graffiti appear on the walls to leave a mark of the people who came after to lurk into other people's lives, small communities survive in the middle of nothing, all the rest is empty.

Bleak pop portraits a world of abandonment, traces of architecture left in far and sun dried places: landscapes framed between Illinois, California, New Mexico and Arizona from the artist and photographer that works under the moniker of A mad tea party during never ending bus and backpack rides along different corners of north America.

The Bleakness of the abandoned places is powered by the gloomy lure of memories and becomes the main character of a study in between artistic interest and anthropology. It becomes the mirror of a generation that leaves behind without many regrets all that is not needed right here, right now. The project of A mad tea party is graced by the collaboration with Geep 374, young street artist from Cagliari that reworks some of the photos with a mixed media of stencils and acrylic. The landscapes gain a new dimension with objects and details that bring the photos into a dimension that is even more dreamlike and surreal. The american dream, dusty and silent.

Francesca Mulas (journalist) 

Bleak Pop is brought to you by :

www.amadteapartyphoto.com

iacokitchen.blogspot.com/

geep374.tumblr.com/

Bleak Pop / Act one / The Exhibition

When our friends at www.studioumido.com came up with the idea of an actual exhibition we were thrilled by the possible final result. We had a few pictures that i submitted to Geep in the past months that he customized with his strong pop culture related colors and logos. It was just six photos but it was really enough to build the core of what bleak pops is:  an overview on forgotten and abandoned pop icons and ideas.

The most of the photos of the exhibition were shoot between California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and Illinois. The desert area south of Palm Springs in particular  really embodies the definition of bleak pop, the area that surrounds the Salton Sea with all the abandonment of what it was supposed to be the "new riviera" in the 50's offered a good start for the whole meaning of the three acts installation.

Geep touches over the photos are the perfect embodiment of that bleak pop feeling and idea. Pure desolation surrounded by loud and cheesy tones that perfectly define the sense of despair that those areas and the old and forgotten pop era has. Some people are devoted to rescue and restore the old american icons and bring them back to their initial beauty, we were more interested in discover the cemetery of those icons and analyze where they go to die.

The day of the exhibition almost everything went smooth (other than some minor electrical issues) and a lot of people visited us in the heat of the Italian summer. We unfortunately do not have photos of the actual opening day but we would like to present the six photos customized by Geep and the exhibition views in order to give you an idea of what it looked like.

Thanks again to the guys at Studio Umido for the help and the guys at Doomsday Society for the support.

www.studioumido.com / check their facebook page too

www.doomsdaysociety.com

http://geep374.tumblr.com/

http://iacokitchen.blogspot.com

www.amadteapartyphoto.com

These are the photos that Geep painted on using acrylic and stencils. I was personally stocked seeing the result since i didn't have a clue of what was in his mind until i have seen the final product. One good component of this collaboration was that we both trusted each other work and we were sure something good was coming out. 

these are some of the exhibition views in the incredible space of the guys at www.studioumido.com

great guys, great professionals and innovators. The space is just stunning and kind of in between a contemporary art gallery with an old italian heritage flavor, very very charming. 

We do not have unfortunately photos of the actual event but it was packed, you will have to trust us on that.

Bleak Pop / Act two / the book

Me and Iaco  (  http://iacokitchen.blogspot.com/  )  have been friends for a long time and collaborated in the past for some  limited edition prints that featured her work on my photos. When i thought about the exhibition it felt just natural to ask her to collaborate on a split book with her illustrations and my photos. In the beginning it was supposed to be a thing separated and with a life of his own but in the end we realized that it was growing together with the whole idea behind bleak pop and we released the first copies of the small book  the opening day of the exhibition.

The idea behind this small book titled  "South of heaven" is what we think is the highest representation of bleak pop : religion. We twisted the idea and mixed my photos of abandonment and Iaco's ironic vision on Satan's worshippers, sex and the simbology related.  We took some inspiration from old Slayer's albums and the classic design of  Holy Bibles that you can find in motels across America and we came up with what we consider a good design product first and a fun book to browse through second.

We don't really feel like spending too many words on the book itself, please find some sample pages here and drop a line at info@amadteapartyphoto.com to enquire about getting one copy, they are very limited in numbers. 

40 pages digital print, b&w. the most professional product that we could give considered the very low price that we are trying to keep.

http://iacokitchen.blogspot.com/

www.amadteapartyphoto.com

Bleak Pop / Act three / Bringing back the pop into the bleak

As a last act of the whole project we felt it was natural to bring back our vision of pop into the bleak that we took inspiration from. Therefore we found an abandoned villa and we decided to organize an installation for "Nobody" to attend. Is art still art without viewers? I don't believe there is a correct answer to the question but just surrogate ways to bring it to the view of an audience, this is an attempt to make it as less visible as possible.

The villa is virtually unaccessible and not well known, the idea that tickled us was to use one of the spaces that inspired the whole bleak pop exhibition and bring it back to life with something that nobody could be part of if not browsing through the pictures. We will not disclose the location of the villa, the installation is just for your online viewing pleasure unless you don't stumble upon it on your everyday urban exploration. 

It is our small tribute to the things that we love and helped us to bring you "Bleak Pop". This is something that we did just for our pleasure and fun. No people, no money, no glory, just our three different visions,  crafts and the places that inspired us.

Please find below some photos of the installation for your viewing pleasure.