From memories of meeting Andy Warhol to the visuals of Chats Palace and Lenthall Road Printshops, See Red Women’s Workshop and Rock Against Racism movement, the film explores the influence of screen-printing on the Community Arts Movement in Hackney and beyond. The film was commissioned for the 2017 British Museum Partnership exhibition ‘Warhol to Walker: American prints from pop art to today’ and screened at the 2018 East End Film Festival.
Hackney, offering diverse communities to engage and be inspired by, became a vibrant hub for the movement from the 1970s. Community organisations adopted the silkscreen printing techniques popularised by artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, to promote their events and campaigns. Chats Palace and Lenthall Road Printshops supported local groups to create posters as a tool for communication, radical activism and focus for community gathering.
The film features interviews with Alan May, Jess Baines, Ingrid Pollard, Neil Martinson, Rene Rice, Red Saunders, Rebecca Wilson, as well as footage of silk-screen process from the film ‘Somewhere in Hackney’ (1980).
