Pure Evil Brighton Solo Show

Ink-d Gallery, Brighton
4 Jul - 2 Aug 08


Un-diluted, 100% concentrated, fully refined malevolence filled the sea air surrounding the Ink-d Gallery in Brighton. This phenomenon has a sweet herbal scent and it manifests in the form of Pure Evil. The master of the double bluff shields his evil bunny alter-ego behind a veneer of decency which deceived a national press "used-to-think-street-art-was-shite-but-now-its-value-has-rocketed-I-get-it" art ponce who saw only the “sweet and smiley bloke, greying at the temples...”; all the better for clandestine manic outbursts of aerosol tourettes and paste-up madness on the streets.

 
Evil Bunny is a very real freeform wicked Oryctolagus cuniculus, its piercing eyes and sharp fangs threaten disorder, malice and sinister fun from many a wall.






So long as there is an evil bunny on a wall in Shoreditch, anarchistic artisans will find the Pure Evil gallery in Leonard Street a lighting rod for situationist fun, general chaos and the occasional bottle of Vedett beer. Prosecution has never struggled with lack of evidence of Pure Evil’s street credentials.




Pure Evil's Pearly Kings and Queens admire Swoon filigree. Jef Aerosol and The Krah lurk with intent



Pure Evil testifies for East London’s mandatory euthanasia program
 

And the Leonard Street Gallery doesn’t exactly softly whisper “Pure Evil” in grey micro lettering on a small white card.



 
Deep in the slimy dark vaults where Pure Evil fabricates his latest apocalyptic vision, the machinery has been busy exploring fresh craft techniques to propagate the message, honing the cutting edge sharpness of the artwork and improving quality control!

In autumn last year the evil bunny morphed into a neon light on canvas. Prospects for world domination increased dramatically when the neon evil bunny was put into a reflecting Perspex box, now the latest version of the infinite neon bunny comes brighter, in various colours and thankfully, better manufactured - distracting electric cables are banished to a hidden recess within the box which also improves the hanging.




That pretty awful last photo fails to capture an interesting feature of two of the show’s infinite neon bunnies; due to slight concavity of the outer surface of the box (or was it convexity of the back surface) the multiple reflections get bigger and bigger as the images recede into the distance, the earlier versions had bunnies which got smaller.

The Evil Bunny has chosen to spread its caustic influence by annexing the supposedly harmless motif of a butterflies stencilled on canvas, lending it the acidic fluorescent light outline while Pure Evil is subliminally cut into the mottled variegations on the butterfly wings.


 

This Pure Evil collection provides a first outing for images stencilled or silkscreen printed onto glass which is then painted behind to give a glossy fluorescent coloured or silver background, the stencilled image just leap off the pop art colours. Its like the images are stencilled onto ultra smooth polished coloured plastic and looks awesome.
 


 
Pure Evil hooked up with London’s pearly Kings and Queens earlier this year to produce a series of street paste ups and canvasses, emblazoned with Live East Die Young. Rather than repeat the simple stencil seen at Banksy’s Cans Festival a couple of months ago, Pure Evil has slapped the gorblimmeyluv kings and queens onto a glass with lurid pink background.




Pure Evil Bunny mission to add a bit of colour to walls the world over has been captured by blasting the CGI silver surfer off his board and carving a stencilled path through a canvas New York, spraying slogans and swear words down into the metroplolis as he goes.



Fresh from the Pure Evil crypt is the stencil on glass goya-esque apocalyptic vision of the Wild Thing leaving the war scene, winsomely titled “May God Have Mercy On My Enemies... Because I Won’t”.





Evil Bunny can’t even leave its friends in the Pure Evil show alone, well someone must be blamed for the Wild Thing on glass that appears to have an unfortunate case of spray paint diarrhoea.



Pure Evil’s cross-fertilises his work to produce bastard offspring of earlier pieces, such as the latex bunny woman, in a gimp mask natch, who now has silver buttons nicked from the pearly Kings and Queens.



Panda-ing (boom boom) to the edtioned print market, Pure Evil has produced the silk screened “Tagger Scum”.


"Tagger Scum"

Pure Evil can at times give the impression of having too many ideas rushed onto gallery walls but this show, notwithstanding the loose bowelled Wild Thing, has a polish to both content and product which would surprise anyone who hadn’t seen much Pure Evil beyond the Pictures On Walls panda prints.

Pure Evil’s show is too strong to be contained within the mere physical confines of gallery walls, psychadelic glows flood out under the doors, through the windows and quite possibly up the chimnies too. This show is a feast for the eyes and but beware, it may strike terror into your soul.

These and more pictures from the show can be seen here

www.ink-d.co.uk