The British Guide to Showing Off
£10 / £8 Concessions / £7 ICA Members
★★★★ "Makes Salvador Dali look like a painter decorator... It’s the cinematic event of the year, sweetie" Empire Magazine
★★★★ "Pure pleasurable anarchy... absolutely bloody marvellous" Little White Lies
David Hockney judged the first one, David Bowie couldn't get into the second, Derek Jarman won the third. British artist and living legend Andrew Logan takes us inside his anarchic costume pageant The Alternative Miss World Show. A magnet for the planet's most outrageously creative artists, pop stars, misfits and outsiders, Logan made a home for all that was distinctive and attracted the cream of international designers including Zandra Rhodes who designs Andrew's hostess costumes, Mary Quant, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Grayson Perry, Brain Eno, Madonna, Divine and John Waters.
Andrew has described the Show as his most important artwork - a fabulous living sculpture that spans 40 years of arts and culture reflecting the very soul of contemporary British arts and culture. Inspired by the austerity of the early 70s it served as a melting pot for ideas which crystalized into glam, punk and new romantic. It dazzled in Thatcher's recession, flaunted itself in the AIDS crisis, became darker in the corporate 90s and decidedly un-cool Britannia in 2004. Using live observational camera, archive and exuberant animation, this documentary charts the mounting of the 2008 Show, interwoven with its history - the rise, fall and rediscovery - of both the event and the artist at its centre.
Director Q&A
The 6:30pm screening on the opening night will be followed by a Q&A with Andrew Logan and the director Jes Benstock. They will also give a brief intro to the 8.45pm screening that evening.
Dir. Jes Benstock, UK, 2011, cert tbc, 98mins
Our cinema programme is frequently updated with new screenings, so please check our listings regularly.