An Homage to Iggy Pop-Night of The Iguana

Please Join us for a memorable night of art and rocked roll 6 pm Fri 18 August

Night of the Iguana
Newsagency Gallery (Sydney) and The Cambodian Space Project proudly presents group show of artists and artworks inspired by the life and times of James Newell Osterberg, Jr., known professionally as Iggy Pop.

NOTI is an exhibition curated by Bess O’Malley (Newsagency Gallery) and Julien Poulson (The Cambodian Space Project) bringing together an array of visual artists responding in homage to the music and imagery of Iggy Pop – spanning his 70 years on planet earth. The show is an exploration into the wild, primal, guttural, instinctive emotions of a rock’n’roll subculture as defined by one of it’s greatest living exponents – James Newell Osterberg, Jr, known professionally as Iggy Pop who began his own incredible artistic journey as drummer and singer for the Iguanas back in Ann Arbor circa 1963.

The show is an idea conceived by Julien Poulson while curating a compilation of Cambodian bands covering Iggy Pop songs… this project kicked off in Phnom Penh on April 1 (foolsday). Within a week, the best and wildest of Cambodia’s new rock’n’roll underground had responded and recorded for the “Angkor Pop” call out. Nearing the end of a long week – live recordings in a seedy bar named Oscar’s – disaster struck! A cat burglar crawled into a top floor hotel room and robbed sound producer Jason Shaw, while he slept, of his lap top, sound gear and harddrives containing all the precious recordings. Later a reward of $1000 was posted on the streets of Phnom Penh’s seedy red light district and the hard drive was recovered. Poulson illustrated and wrote about the event and retitled Angkor Pop! more aptly as Night of The Iguana. Check out the full story here:

Night of the Iguana – inspired by Iggy and wild nights of rock’n’roll – whereever one may be – allows plenty of plenty of room for each artist to stray from straight-up Iggy to alluring notions of “all things Iguana” and in some cases – noirish imagery & themes right out of Tennessee Williams original stage play where “all of the characters in some way or another are at the end of their rope, like the iguana trapped out in the back of the hotel” and the “Love And Lust – Ruin And Redemption” of John Huston’s film adaptation.

Lust for Pop?
NIGHT OF THE IGUANA: AN HOMAGE TO IGGY POP
Opens at NewsAgency Gallery August 18.

[vimeo 233420436 w=640 h=360]
[vimeo 233420638 w=640 h=853]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZEpyZHvSk4&w=560&h=315]