fistas

In an era in which the avant-garde is well and truly part of the gallery establishment, when the outrageous fails to shock because it has become common place and when hermeticism reigns supreme, the first show of the Shopping Trolley Art Gallery was unusual and refreshing.

The artwork that covered the sides of the trolley was of consistent high standard and on the whole frankly accessible. The artists who produced this work do not wish to be isolated, preferring to enter into open debate with their public. These are the true rebels of today.

Sixty-one artists representing twelve countries responded to the invitation. Of these a third chose to comment on the activity of shopping although the theme had been left free. A wide variety of media was employed, from stamp art to computer graphics, passing through watercolours, photography, printmaking, constructions and collages with images balancing experimental poems.

The Not At All Private View took place on the 21st of December 1996 in Bromley Town Centre, South London. The shopping mall was at its busiest with last minute Christmas shoppers and the exhibition was seen by an estimated 20.000 people in the two hours it was on show.

During January and February 1997 the trolley-gallery went around Beckenham High Street, in its normal role of carrying the weekly shopping. In London the 1st ISTAS was parked in the forecourt of the Royal Academy of Arts and visited, without previous appointment, the Institute of Contemporary Arts where it was temporarily confiscated. It was also wheeled up and down Cork Street, near Picadilly, in front of some of the most exclusive galleries in town.

At the end of February the 1st ISTAS visited Barnet College during a workshop on Mail Art given by David Dellafiora , this time by invitation,. It was also invited by Cooltan Arts to appear in their International Mail Art Show at Brixton Tate Library and other venues in South London.

Martha Aitchison Artist - Curator, December 1997