Nicola Tyson, Bishops and Gardens, 1984.
Nicola Tyson: Super 8s from the 80s presents a selection of both documentary and narrative short films directed by artist Nicola Tyson. The films prominently feature Tyson and her longtime collaborator Bertie Marshall, known then as ‘Berlin,’ who had been a member of the seminal punk Bromley Contingent (1976-77), which spawned Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin and Billy Idol. Tyson and Marshall began collaborating artistically in 1980. Operating outside of the club scene of the time, they explored self-representation with gentle irony, salvaging found themes and clothes in intimate portraits of their London underground scene in the early 1980s.
Nicola Tyson, Pascal, 1984.
Tyson’s Super 8s from the 80s revel in self-expression, absurdist experimentation, and unbridled deviance from mass-culture norms, carving out gender-queered, avant-garde Edens in friend’s flats, gardens, and even the streets of Paris. Part-documentary, part-reverie, Tyson’s films present a snapshot of London’s 80’s subcultures, sharing an attitude as committed to counter-aesthetics to alternative ways of being and making.
Nicola Tyson, Tissue, 1984.