Seana Gavin

Seana Gavin is an artist based in London, known for her dreamlike compositions, she overlays and combines images from old and vintage photographs to create scenes where the past and future exist together. Seana Gavin is also well known for her photographic work which documents the time she was involved in the rave scene during the 1990’s. 

The above image is an installation shot from the Somerset House, Londons Workings Art Centre, 'Mushrooms : The Art, Design and Future of Fungi'.

https://www.seanagavin.com/#/maritime/

“Seana Gavin. The cut and paste magician summoning a psychedelic universe with her collages” Wonderland Magazine” https://www.seanagavin.com/about 

Seana Gavin has recently published a book named 'SPIRALLED' in 2020. The book shows images of her time following the free party scene over 10 years from 1993 to 2003. The book has a combination of pictures she has taken with things such as leaflets for parties.

Whilst Seana Gavin was involved in the free party movement, she followed SP23 commonly referred to as the Spiral tribe, who are now an arts and music collective, they were a West London free party/festival sound system active in the 1990s and 2000s, organising raves and parties throughout Uk and Europe. In 1992 they organised the free festival Castlemoton Common Festival which is a very famous festival that contributed to the legislation of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act.

“Spiral Tribe, now an arts and music collective known as SP23, was a West London free party sound system active throughout Europe and the UK in the 1990s and 2000s as organizers of parties and raves – including the high-profile Castlemorton Common Festival back in 1992, which crystallized the scene in the public eye."

Seana Gavin was young when she began following the spiral tribe around Europe and got involved in the free party scene, she was known as a Spiral Baby. 

"The young people who left their lives at home to travel with the group had a name, too: Spiral Babies. Artist Seana Gavin was underage when she entered this world, following Spiral Tribe and their extended community caravan-style across Europe in friends’ RVs."

Back then it was harder to document the free party scene as technology was limited, it has become much more advanced. Seana Gavin documented the events using a disposable camera.

"Documentation of the underground was limited back then: cell phones were rare and camera-free, and the parties – and the drugs used there – illicit, hidden, fundamentally experienced in real time immersion. (Even if social media had existed in the late 1990s, these events were built to resist anything less than immediate.) Gavin, however, had a camera – sometimes disposable, always basic – which she used to preserve her memories of the scene and the formative years she spent within it."

 

Seana Gavin also collected flyers from the parties and kept a diary of her memories whilst travelling around Europe following the organisers Spiral Tribe.

"She also kept a diary and saved parties flyers, a personal archive of rave history that until recently remained unseen in her studio. Now, her images and collected ephemera are on public view for the first time at Paris’ galerie pcp, where the timely exhibition – and the times exhibited – prove resonant with the cultural realities of Europe today, 20 years later.”

https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/qj4jxm/seana-gavin-spiralled-90s-illegal-rave-photography

Seana Gavins book Spiralled was selected as 'Work of the Week' by Art Review on the 2nd of July 2020. Seana Gavin also had a solo show 'Spiral Baby' at Galerie PCP in 2019, the show included diary enteries, artefacts collected e.g flyers and leaflets and a series of images which documented the free party and rave scene in London and across Europe, over ten years from 1993-2003. A selection of Seana Gavins works were displayed in the Sweet Harmony Rave Today show at the Saatchi Gallery  in July 2019. https://www.seanagavin.com/#/weg/

                   (Installation shot of Seana Gavins work on display at the Saatchi Gallery)

The images above, the way they have been displayed, has inspired me to think about having large images on show in my own exhibition. As in my survey most people said that they would like to see framed images, perhaps I could have a few printed at a large scale like this.  

                        (Installation shots of Seana Gavins work displayed at Gallerie pcp) 

Again the images on the left are displayed at a large scale and I feel that they look very neat and professional I like the fact that they have white borders and I may even take that into consideration when it comes to my own practice at our end of year show, I could have my video playing on either a tele/computer or tablet and above I could have images displayed on the wall at a large scale. 

The images on the right are also set out in a way that is visually interesting. It is quite unusual to see a range of shapes and sizes all on one wall like the way it laid out there, I haven't seen that before, I consider myself a bit of a neat freak and I have a bit of OCD so when it comes to my own practice I wouldn't really consider using this style. 

Images sourced from: https://www.seanagavin.com/#/weg/