The Arts

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

The great archaeological swindle?

By: Alison Gillmor

Posted: 12/10/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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John Lydon’s drawing of Malcolm McLaren

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John Lydon: a self-portrait

What Is It?: Graffiti, mostly done by the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten (a.k.a. John Lydon), on the wall of a central London flat where the iconic punk band lived and worked in the 1970s. The drawings -- caricatures of band members, impresario Malcolm McLaren and Rotten himself -- are being studied by University of York archaeologists. Team leader Dr. John Schofield views them as valuable historical artifacts and part of Britain's "anti-heritage."

What Does It Mean?: Street art and graffiti have long since made it into the postmodern canon. (Banksy, that masked and anonymous stencil genius, is one of the most interesting and inventive artists working in the U.K. today.) And Lydon's doodles do possess a rude, raucous, anarchic energy that's totally punk.

But drawing is maybe not Mr. Rotten's best medium. Getting all hepped on his scrawled wall sketches is sort of like fixating on an audio recording of Banksy singing in the shower. These drawings could be an interesting sidelight for hardcore Sex Pistols fans, but I don't think they're going to prompt an earth-shattering reconsideration of 1970s Britain.

They have managed to spark a little U.K. culture war, however, with right-wing commentators lamenting the degeneration of culture and denouncing the anything-is-art brigade. (The fogies have found unexpected allies in some unreconstructed '70s punks, who have repudiated the middle-aged Lydon ever since 2008, when he did a television commercial for Old Country Butter.)

Why It Matters: Schofield is probably "taking the piss," as the Brits like to say -- and trying to make archaeology sexy and relevant -- with his claim that the Rotten wall drawings are the cultural equivalent of the Palaeolithic cave paintings at Lascaux. ("We feel justified in sticking our tongues out at the heritage establishment," says Schofield, in a neo-Punk gesture.)

But he's also making the serious point that ideas about historical preservation need to move past the Victorians. People will probably want to visit the grotty flat where Johnny and Sid recorded their first demos the same way previous generations made pilgrimages to Beatrix Potter's cottage. Never mind the bollocks, give them a historical site.

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca

In this new biweekly column, art historian Alison Gillmor looks beneath the surface of newsworthy art.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 10, 2011 G6

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