Take to the Stormy Sees this month in London |
Written by Matt | |
Sunday, 15 June 2014 | |
This week saw the official launch of a new exhibition at London's Olympus-Rockarchive Image Space Gallery, celebrating the work of one of the world's greatest album sleeve designers. With Jill Furmanovsky and long-term StormStudios lynchpin Rupert Truman in attendance for a Q&A after a screening of Roddy Bogawa's wonderful Taken By Storm documentary, the gallery was packed for an absorbing evening (see their Twitter feed for a couple of pictures from the night). Stormy Sees provides a journey through some of the more iconic images created by the late, great Storm Thorgerson and his team. Some of the images on display until Sunday, June 29th, give fresh insights into the detail of the work - Muse's Absolution, and Pink Floyd's The Division Bell cover, for example, are shown in very large format versions. Other prime examples of Floyd on display include a Liquid Dark Side, the PULSE cover, and Storm's wire frame cow recreation of the Atom Heart Mother cover - his creation to mark the album's 40th anniversary in reaction to this milestone not being officially recognised. Elsewhere in the gallery, you can also enjoy works such as Jill Furmanovsky's wonderfully atmospheric shot of David Gilmour atop the wall, playing Comfortably Numb, during the original Wall shows at the start of the 1980s. As the graphic notes, Storm and his teams over the years (in Hipgnosis, and later, Storm Studios) were responsible for the designs of most of many people's album collections, and seeing them properly printed in very high quality, in larger formats than the record cover (or indeed, the CD cover) gives them new life, new vibrancy. If you are in, or visiting, central London, the Image Space Gallery is definitely worth a wander around. It is found at 199 Bishopsgate, which is just along from Liverpool Street Station (so, served by the Underground and local buses), and entry is free. It is open Tuesdays to Saturdays between 10:30am - 6:30pm, and Sundays from 12 noon - 5pm. |