PHOTOGRAPHY
CREDITS
DALSTON SÙPERNOVÆ
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
ALUN DAVIES
AND
DALSTON SUPERSTORE
Curator:
Saskia Wickins
Photographer:
Thomas Cooksey @Defacto Inc
Stylist:
Kim Howells @The Book Agency
Designer and art director:
Alun Davies @Ella Dror Pr
Hair Stylist:
Christos Kallaniotis @ Terrie Tanaka
using Babyliss PRO
Make-Up:
MU Yin Lee @Premier hair & makeup
using MAC cosmetics
Photographers Assistant:
Kiran Mane
Stylist Assistant:
Daisy Newman
Design Assistants:
Alex Clow, Tatiani Makrinova, Gia Mitchell, Chloe Wu,
Saskia Wickins
Photographer:
Thomas Cooksey @Defacto Inc
Stylist:
Kim Howells @The Book Agency
Designer and art director:
Alun Davies @Ella Dror Pr
Hair Stylist:
Christos Kallaniotis @ Terrie Tanaka
using Babyliss PRO
Make-Up:
MU Yin Lee @Premier hair & makeup
using MAC cosmetics
Photographers Assistant:
Kiran Mane
Stylist Assistant:
Daisy Newman
Design Assistants:
Alex Clow, Tatiani Makrinova, Gia Mitchell, Chloe Wu,
Victoria Siddle, Olivia Sanders, Annabel Dakin
Model:
Model:
Toby @ Select
Model:
Jamie @ FM
Film:
Elva Rodriguez
Performance:
Owen Parry,
Alex Clow, Lucy Fizz,
Leo Martinez
Poetry performance:
Sitron with Shy Charles
DJ's & MC
Precious Metal aka Piers Atkinson and Philip Dunn
And Thirsty Kirsty
Essay:
Eleanor Weber
Private View Photography:
Christa Holka
Fashion Illustration:
Alun Davies (Poster Image)
Clare Mallison
PRIVATE VIEW
Sitron
MC / DJ Thirsty Kirsty
Piers Atkinson and Philip Dunn
Owen Parry
Sue Dray & Olivia Sannders
Alex Clow
Lucy Fizz
Anna Trevelyan
Superstore Mellange
Alex Clow
Myself
Liz Fletcher and Princess Julia
Lyall Hakaraia
Myself and Saskia Wickins
Model:
Jamie @ FM
Film:
Elva Rodriguez
Performance:
Owen Parry,
Alex Clow, Lucy Fizz,
Leo Martinez
Poetry performance:
Sitron with Shy Charles
DJ's & MC
Precious Metal aka Piers Atkinson and Philip Dunn
And Thirsty Kirsty
Essay:
Eleanor Weber
Private View Photography:
Christa Holka
Fashion Illustration:
Alun Davies (Poster Image)
Clare Mallison
PRIVATE VIEW
Sitron 
MC / DJ Thirsty Kirsty 
Owen Parry 
Sue Dray & Olivia Sannders 
Alex Clow 
Lucy Fizz 
Anna Trevelyan 
Superstore Mellange 
Alex Clow 
Myself 
Liz Fletcher and Princess Julia 
Lyall Hakaraia
Myself and Saskia Wickins
ESSAY
Alun Davies Supernovae
by Eleanor Weber
When a star or stellar explodes its pieces are thrown outwards at up to 30,000 km/s, shining brighter than the sun, lighting up their galaxy, and potentially becoming new stars – new forms, new ideas, new ways of existence. These are called supernovae. Super because they are far more luminous than ordinary stars, nova because they are new.
Although I’ve never met anyone who can take as long to get ready to go out as Alun Davies, if something needs to happen he makes it happen; he never does anything in half measures. Nights are long and time is precious. Focus is his middle name (but, actually, it’s Alun). We’ve known each other for over five years, and in that time I have seen his care for the work he does in equal measures to his care for those close to him (often these overlap). Whether it is the decorations for 2009-10’s notorious New Years’ Eve party, costume pieces for Lady Gaga, sets for Vogue Italia, his own outfit for an event (any event!), his selection of films for a home movie session, a Dull Soulless Dance Music mix, or a full stage set for Peaches, Alun Davies executes things with a dedication and a perseverance that is nothing short of stellar.
For the first time in his career, Alun has brought together (with curator Saskia Wickins) the numerous facets of his practice to present them in one space, east London’s well-loved and well-trod Dalston Superstore. Although he is best known under the guise of ‘set designer’ or ‘art director’, for creating wonderful scenarios and props for fashion photographers, designers and stylists, there are other fragments to what Alun does that are less immediately classifiable or visible – but equally bright. Alun’s close relationship with and interest in performance art, music and film are cases in point. The Dalston Supernovæ exhibition and coinciding events reveal some of these other fragments, and serve as testament to an expansive practice that allows for potentially new ideas, forms, images to emerge by revealing the way seemingly disparate pursuits constantly inform each other.
For this reason, the exhibition naturally spans performance (including artist Owen Parry and poet Sitron Panopoulos), installation, film, photography, music, sculpture and large-scale mural (not to mention club culture) – each part in its own way reflecting light back on Alun’s explosive practice as a whole. For example, Alun’s trademark crystal-encrusted protective sportswear pieces appear not only on models in a photo-shoot (shot by Thomas Cooksey and styled by Kim Howells) and film (by Elva Rodriguez), but also in the performers’ costumes, installed around the bar itself in the form of futuristic techno-glam warriors, and of course on Alun himself – in a sense as an embodiment of the planes these spheres traverse.
It is not by chance that Dalston should be the location of this experiment, considering it has served as the hub of Alun’s creative activities for years. It is in this relatively small area and its environs that studio, work, party, love, life, home, school, friend, colleague, art, fashion, music, seem to collapse in a celebration of the supernovae occurring all around us constantly. These stellars aren’t just fading away but always exploding anew, reinventing, reconstructing themselves, trying things in different ways, and exploring the possible. They are not flashes in pans but rather long-term endeavours that evolve and take new forms as they move along, luminous as ever.
by Eleanor Weber
When a star or stellar explodes its pieces are thrown outwards at up to 30,000 km/s, shining brighter than the sun, lighting up their galaxy, and potentially becoming new stars – new forms, new ideas, new ways of existence. These are called supernovae. Super because they are far more luminous than ordinary stars, nova because they are new.
Although I’ve never met anyone who can take as long to get ready to go out as Alun Davies, if something needs to happen he makes it happen; he never does anything in half measures. Nights are long and time is precious. Focus is his middle name (but, actually, it’s Alun). We’ve known each other for over five years, and in that time I have seen his care for the work he does in equal measures to his care for those close to him (often these overlap). Whether it is the decorations for 2009-10’s notorious New Years’ Eve party, costume pieces for Lady Gaga, sets for Vogue Italia, his own outfit for an event (any event!), his selection of films for a home movie session, a Dull Soulless Dance Music mix, or a full stage set for Peaches, Alun Davies executes things with a dedication and a perseverance that is nothing short of stellar.
For the first time in his career, Alun has brought together (with curator Saskia Wickins) the numerous facets of his practice to present them in one space, east London’s well-loved and well-trod Dalston Superstore. Although he is best known under the guise of ‘set designer’ or ‘art director’, for creating wonderful scenarios and props for fashion photographers, designers and stylists, there are other fragments to what Alun does that are less immediately classifiable or visible – but equally bright. Alun’s close relationship with and interest in performance art, music and film are cases in point. The Dalston Supernovæ exhibition and coinciding events reveal some of these other fragments, and serve as testament to an expansive practice that allows for potentially new ideas, forms, images to emerge by revealing the way seemingly disparate pursuits constantly inform each other.
For this reason, the exhibition naturally spans performance (including artist Owen Parry and poet Sitron Panopoulos), installation, film, photography, music, sculpture and large-scale mural (not to mention club culture) – each part in its own way reflecting light back on Alun’s explosive practice as a whole. For example, Alun’s trademark crystal-encrusted protective sportswear pieces appear not only on models in a photo-shoot (shot by Thomas Cooksey and styled by Kim Howells) and film (by Elva Rodriguez), but also in the performers’ costumes, installed around the bar itself in the form of futuristic techno-glam warriors, and of course on Alun himself – in a sense as an embodiment of the planes these spheres traverse.
It is not by chance that Dalston should be the location of this experiment, considering it has served as the hub of Alun’s creative activities for years. It is in this relatively small area and its environs that studio, work, party, love, life, home, school, friend, colleague, art, fashion, music, seem to collapse in a celebration of the supernovae occurring all around us constantly. These stellars aren’t just fading away but always exploding anew, reinventing, reconstructing themselves, trying things in different ways, and exploring the possible. They are not flashes in pans but rather long-term endeavours that evolve and take new forms as they move along, luminous as ever.
POEM
Super Nova's
by Sitron
You will never be one of them kid,
you won’t fit in-
and though you long to belong
your path is different.
Your voice will not drop like theirs
your steps will not grow sturdy
for your thoughts cannot rest
on these misty streets
in these moist valleys,
under summer rain.
To father’s disappointment
you will not enter his world
where men with big hands
meet
for quite drinks
in afternoon pubs
and talk of nothing.
For you
a fleeting cosmos
lighted and ready,
foreign ports,
Parisian beds
and many friends
to press your heart against
For you
wall cities
to keep you safe,
Berlin winds
to soothe your thoughts
marble chests
to lay your head to rest.
For you
nuclear basements
to waste your youth,
lit doorways
your arc de triomphe.
Here
everything
falls into place
here
everything
falls apart
before it all
starts
again
Fear not
the endless autobahns
seemingly steering you away
fear not
the crystal mountains
that make you slip and sway
fear not
the fever
that drives out your dreams .
As all is accounted for
by the Gods
who only grow dark
when you stand fearful
and refuse to walk
the path you were assigned.
and though you long to belong
your path is different.
Your voice will not drop like theirs
your steps will not grow sturdy
for your thoughts cannot rest
on these misty streets
in these moist valleys,
under summer rain.
To father’s disappointment
you will not enter his world
where men with big hands
meet
for quite drinks
in afternoon pubs
and talk of nothing.
For you
a fleeting cosmos
lighted and ready,
foreign ports,
Parisian beds
and many friends
to press your heart against
For you
wall cities
to keep you safe,
Berlin winds
to soothe your thoughts
marble chests
to lay your head to rest.
For you
nuclear basements
to waste your youth,
lit doorways
your arc de triomphe.
Here
everything
falls into place
here
everything
falls apart
before it all
starts
again
Fear not
the endless autobahns
seemingly steering you away
fear not
the crystal mountains
that make you slip and sway
fear not
the fever
that drives out your dreams .
As all is accounted for
by the Gods
who only grow dark
when you stand fearful
and refuse to walk
the path you were assigned.
FASHION ILLUSTRATION
by Clare Mallison
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