We popped down to Jealous Gallery in Shoreditch to check out the the wonderfully bright Hayden Kays ‘This Is Not a Brillo Box’ solo show.
Jealous, itself, is comprised of two galleries, one in Shoreditch and the other Crouch End, and its own Screen Print Studio also based in Shoreditch. The exhibition has been created in collaboration with Cob Gallery and of course Kays himself. It follows the collaboration between the two galleries and the artist last year, which saw special editions of Kays' Warhol-inspired Brillo Boxes launched.
Hayden Kays a London born and based artist who works as a printer, painter and sculptor exploring ideas around the capitalist culture. Inspired by 1950’s pop art and the works of Banksy, he finds himself creating work which sits somewhere between both the more traditional and urban art.
The link between Hayden and Warhol’s work goes beyond aesthetic similarities, Kays has been a huge fan of Warhol, both in his values and his methods, since before university. Kays and his work have been acquaintances of Gallery Director, Louise, since university who remarks his [Kays] works have always been “provocative and humorous”.
The exhibition is inspired by Kays' own Brillo boxes from 2015, which were an evolution of his original large stacked versions from his university days, into a more “refined, grown up” series.
The boxes themselves are now specific to the dimensions of Andy Warhol’s original 1964 ‘Brillo box (soap pads)’, but Kays’ find themselves encased in a Perspex layer and a silver sticker detail on the bottom of each declaring its identity. Churned out with speed, in true Warhol fashion, there are imperfections all adding to the individuality within the uniformity.
[Image curtesy of http://www.jealousgallery.com/artists/hayden-kays/this-is-not-a-brillo-box]
The prints themselves created in a rainbow of colours, also take inspiration of the Warhol school of creating brand power – mass production. Reprinting the same image, over and over and over and over and over again, manipulating the colours to reinforce artistic identity.
Kays takes this one step further adding a range of sparkly, glittery, instantly engrossing mediums atop the printed layers. Amongst them we find diamond dust, evoking for me a childish glee at the sparkly bright colours. A select few are sprinkled with a mix of Gunpowder and iron filings, which really didn’t look like what I’d imagined gunpowder to look like – not that I really knew what Gunpowder would look like, but remarkable nonetheless.
On a more topical note you find two prints layered with shredded money, one entirely of dollar bills. The use of the shredded cash gives the prints a fluffier quality and at the same time a coarse scratchy impression – not unlike the green Brillo pads I used to scrub dishes at university.
Kays attention to detail and the fluid way he embodies Warhol’s aesthetic gives him the edge. It’s so easy when taking inspiration from World renowned artists, to end up having created mere copies. But there’s something truly joyful about the way Kays has taken the spirit and danced into the glittery sunset with it.
HAYDEN KAYS – ‘THIS IS NOT A BRILLO BOX’, OPENS NOW JEALOUS GALLERY 24-27TH NOVEMBER. www.jealousgallery.com/exhibitions/hayden-kays-solo-show
REVIEW by HANNAH SMITH
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