I am so excited to announce that the art and artists who created the images on the textile tickets are finally getting the art world and art history recognition they deserve. Thousands of the Indian tickets from my collection will be preserved and available for online research in the culture they were created for.
To take a digital preview tour of the permanent textile ticket section of Bangalore’s new Museum of Art & Photography, please click the above image or this link
I recently purchased two rare books which were a record of the stamps held by merchants or fabric finishers. The stamps would be stored in shelves and each had a number on the side. Using this book, the stamps could easily be identified and pulled off the shelf to print the front of cloth pieces to attract buyers in markets across the world. The River Etherow Bleaching book is in the foreground, which is an amazing stroke of luck as it goes with other items I have from there. The other is from Buckley and Brennand Ltd., bringing my collection of these amazing items to 8 stamp books, containing thousands of original designs. sample pages from the Buckley and Brennand book showing the full faceplait designs sample pages from the Buckley and Brennand book showing the full faceplait designs The River Etherow Bleaching book has hundreds of prints from their long gone stamps used for their customer’s markets around the world The River Etherow Bleaching book has hundreds of prints from their long gone stamps used for their customer’s markets around the world examples of multi colour stamp designsA J King Ingersley Vale Bleach Works stamp book A J King Ingersley Vale Bleach Works stamp book Sun Bleaching stamp book no. 2early R K Roberts Stamp Book R K Roberts Stamp Book Spruce Manufacturing Stamp Book Spruce Manufacturing Stamp Book Early Mersey Mills Stamp BookMelland & Coward stamp folio
Anyone who came to the Inutilious Retailer was told they could have anything for free on two conditions:
1.They had to replace whatever they took with a new piece of art.
2. They had to be photographed holding what they made in their right hand and what they took in their left hand.
There were 14 garments on display so the 300 people who made art ended up in one of 14 long connected chains. As I have all the artist’s email addresses, anyone can get in touch with the person next to them in the chain
Click here or the ebook below to see those chains of Inutilious Retailer artists.
This short film on the unique free NYC store/gallery/art workshop, The Inutilious Retailer, was created by Jordan Horowitz and Jack Wilson and succinctly captures the experience of those who visited the 2015 International Store Of The Year winner
Thanks so much for Heather for being such a perfect “customer”
The Inutilious Retailer was designed as a community place for everyone to create art. As someone who created and had friends in the street art world, I had always planned on utilizing the store facade as a legal spot for different artists.
The front of the store was a prime Lower East Side spot and it was quickly embellished, including the first yarn bombed gate by London Kaye, the side panel by Wheatpastewoman/Phoebe and a doorway piece by Pyramid Oracle
The side panel was always a multi layer, free for all…
The idea to use the entrance for the basement as a kind of Street Art Advent Calendar was hatched and changed every couple of weeks
When Frank Ape added his piece, he combined it with a shirt inside which could be won if the slot machine was pulled and three of the characters he added to the blank reels lined up!
Street artists also used the store as a base from where they could put together art they were putting in the neighborhood
The Graffiti Garden
What I didn’t realize when I rented the store, was that included a huge back yard that was devoid of any graffiti except for this late 70’s or early 80’s piece that nobody had seen before or knew who created it.
I invited artists to add whatever they wanted to all the walls, with the condition that nobody went over the vintage piece.
One wall went from this
to this…
to this…
This wall started off just saying “where’s my bike?”
and ended up like this
Here’s some of the people responsible for transforming the space into a street art gallery Artists who were young
artists who had done graffiti for 40 years
or artists who tried it for the first time
but in the end, the garden became a place where even the floor was covered in art, where anyone and everyone could come, create, relax…
The public part of the store is designed to be a “curiosity filter”.
Some people walk past and do not see it. Some look in the window and carry on down Ludlow Street.
but hundreds of people are curious enough to come into the store, talk to a random voice and then decide to go through the secret door into the workshop and make a garment to replace the one they took – like these two…
At the end of the process, everyone was photographed holding what they made and what they took, emailed the photo and so ended up connected in a chain of random curious people.
6pm, September 1st at 151 Ludlow Street, NYC the doors of The Inutilious Retailer opened.
6 months to plan, 2 weeks to build and the guests of honor were all those who either came to the Art Sundays or helped create the store. These were the only people who were allowed to see the whole store without being customers.
It had gone from an empty shell to a complete store, lounge and art workshop in just 2 weeks and the renovation came in under budget at $2,300!
Photos were banned behind the secret wall of the store and I am so appreciative that nobody in the whole time it opened ruined the surprise of the secret back area by taking any sneaky photos. There was media interest from the media, such as New York magazine but I refused to let images of the back part be published.
And social media interest too but all respected my desire to keep the back area secret
But now, all can be revealed…
The Store
The Interior
Lit only by the giant barcode, it had consumerism’s “costs” on the left side and “values” on the right side
Clothing is hanging on umbrellas, still with price tags from the Salvation Army and if you showed an interest in anything, there was no salesperson (the door was always open too but nothing was stolen) but a voice came from nowhere, then the wall mirror flipped forward and at last, the customer knew there was more to this minimalist store than met the eye….
A person asks you to pull the slot machine to prove you have an imagination
and if you come up with your own idea of what might be on the reels of the blank slot machine, you have just proved you have an imagination and are told you have won the garment you like for free – with one condition.
You have to come through the hidden door into the secret back area and make something to replace it.
Then you enter the wonderland where you sit down, relax with a coffee or glass of wine, pick a new piece of clothing off the rack to paint on and then start planning what you are going to create for the next random person who comes into the store. Taking as much time as you need and doing whatever art you want, without judgements….
During ArtBasel Miami, one garment was bought at Gap, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Guess, American Apparel, Superdry and two other stores and altered using the stamps
If someone found all 8 of them, they spelled out the word A-R-T-B-A-S-E-L
If someone found all 8 of them, they spelled out the word A-R-T-B-A-S-E-L
All the research and images on this website are from the personal collection of Adrian Wilson, a photographer based in New York.
All images have been registered for copyright and unauthorized use of them, or quoting from the text, without permission is forbidden.
I am the only one with these images, so if you use them, they came from me.
Please contact Adrian Wilson via email below