In the mid- to late 1980s rave culture developed. It
influenced music, design, art, drugs, fashion, language
and even the law. Emerging in the USA, it was refined in
the UK by people who wanted to dance, party and express
themselves in terms of art, music and culture.
Originating in small, sweaty clubs and growing into
enormous Raves with tens of thousands of people, 'house'
music and ecstasy were the driving forces behind what
turned into a global phenomenon. Events that started as
secretive nights in underground clubs, with
word-of-mouth advertising grew from one-off take-overs
of unusual venues into huge open land-based events.
Pager and telephonic communication became the medium of
message-passing, and flyers were key to it all:
informing the right people about the right place at the
right time. Chelsea Berlin was there from the beginning,
attending many of the now legendary events, from Club
Shoom to Energy and beyond. In Rave Art, the whole
exciting movement is documented through the flyers that
were handed out freely (or sometimes privately) to
inform partygoers of the next venue. Flyer design became
an artform, and this book contains hundreds of the most
significant and rare examples from Chelsea's huge
collection. Rave Art paints a vivid picture of what is
probably the last significant youth culture movement of
modern times. |
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