The Chamber of Pop Culture Is Proud To Present:'Instead of wives, they shall have toads' An exhibition by Stephen Fowler Exhibition Saturday 5th July - Saturday 26th July, 12-6pm Mon-Sat Private View Friday 4th July, 6.30pm till late The artist will be in residence on Thursday, Friday & Saturday of each week. Stephen Fowler is a Folk Artist of extraordinary complexity, who over the past 5 years has created a vast body of work illustrating a deep emotional journey of personal identity. Discovering Fowler's work is literally like leafing through the pages of a giant eclectic scrapbook, which at first glance could have been created half a century ago, for Fowler's multifarious practice embraces many traditional crafts, forgotten techniques and skills that belong to bygone age, drawing freely from the worlds of Dada, Surrealism, Constructivism, Abstract Expressionism, Outsider Art and Steam Punk to create his own diverse aesthetic. From naïve paintings of remote architecture, places of worship and hospitals, to moving portraits of troubled individuals, plant life and shell fish, Fowler presents us with a plethora of assorted drawings, paintings, prints, posters, intricate handmade bookworks, leaflets, flyers, badges, sculptures, found objects and ephemera which reflect his various obsessions for graphics, poetry, old records, photographs, film. "Instead of wives, they shall have toads" reveals a feast of delights and allows us to glimpse inside the complex mind of this sensitive artist. Fowler is well known for his creative collaboration with: The Murri Folk Club, Tapestry Music Festival, Tatty Devine, Zeel, Mark Pawson, Rob Ryan & Rocky Alvarez. To accompany the exhibition there will be a programme of film and live music events. Curated by the artist. FILM NIGHTS Wednesday 9th July, 7.30pm £5-£4 mems/concs We Have No Art 1967 26 minutes + Mary's Day 1964 12 minutes Two documentaries on the Artist, Teacher, Nun; Sister Corita. + Danielson: A Family Movie (or, Make a Joyful Noise HERE) 2006 105 minutes Starring Danielson Famile & Sufjan Stevens with cameos from Steve Albini, Rick Moody, David Garland and DANIEL JOHNSTON. Tuesday 15th July 7:30pm £5-£4 mems/concs Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum Directed by Lynn Shores 1940 B/W 66 minutes Wax figures, hidden rooms, secret passage ways and pelting rain. Sidney Toler stars as Charlie Chan in this claustrophobic museum setting. + The Bat Whispers Directed by Roland West B/W 83 minutes 1930 An old dark house melodrama. Friday 25th July 7:30pm £7/£5 members & concessions Home Made Record Sleeve Performance (D.Js Nervous Stephen and Rocky play records from 'Home made records sleeves volumes 1 and 2' books, as corresponding record sleeves are projected). + William Fowler Band (Post Barrett Space Folk) Monogram (Old Timey tunes) The Country Teasers (The Fall meets The Carter Family)

FILM NIGHTS Wednesday 9th July, 7.30pm £5-£4 mems/concs We Have No Art 1967 26 minutes (Filmed at Immaculate Heart College,Los Angeles) From Marshall McLuhan,Corita quotes the Balinese saying,"We have no art, we do everything as well as we can". She comments,"I think that should be our motto for the art department...You see, you don't have art off in a special category" she says ,"Ideas can come from anywhere". Her Pop Art serigraphs famously use advertising slogans and imagery, as well as words from literature and the news. Her 'happenings' heighten awareness for a classroom or an auditorium of 500. Her drawing class visit a car wash for an exercise in looking. Mary's Day 1964 12 minutes (Filmed at Immaculate Heart College, Los Angles) This Documentary records an experiment in making a traditional celebration contemporary with Pop Art. Admired by Charles and Ray Eames, Buckminster Fuller and Saul Bass, Sister Corita Kent was one of the most innovative and unusual pop artists of the 1960s, battling the political and religious establishments, revolutionising graphic design and encouraging the creativity and practising as a Catholic nun in California. Mixing advertising slogans and poetry in her prints and commandeering nuns and students to help make ambitious installations, processions and banners, Sister Corita's work is now recognised as some of the most striking - and joyful - American art of the 60s - Julie Ault. Danielson: A Family Movie (or, Make a Joyful Noise HERE) 2006 105 minutes Starring Danielson Famile & Sufjan Stevens with cameos from Steve Albini, Rick Moody, David Garland and DANIEL JOHNSTON. Creativity vs. accessibility Christian faith vs. popular culture Family vs. individuality This intimate and eloquent documentary traces the unorthodox path of Daniel Smith - eccentric musician,visual artist and devout Christian - as he creates a musical phenomenon with siblings and friends under the name Danielson Famile, eventually struggling to realise his own identity as an artist once the family members begin their own adult lives. Along the way he mentors an unknown singer-songwriter named Sufian Stevens whose subsequent success stands in contrast to the music world's uneasy reception of Danielson just a few years earlier. Combining hybrid story telling, essential live performances, animated sequences and danielson archives, director J.L Aronson offers a provocative yet subtle look at life outside the mainstream. Tuesday 15th July 7:30pm £5-£4 mems/concs Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum Directed by Lynn Shores 1940 B/W 66 minutes Wax figures, hidden rooms, secret passage ways and pelting rain. Sidney Toler stars as Charlie Chan in this claustrophobic museum setting. Boasting a group of intricately interrelated suspects, the picture opened with the escape gangster Marc Lawrence, whom Chan had helped convict for murder. Vowing vengeance, Lawrence hid out at the wax museum of discredited doctor C.Henry Gordon,famous for his plastic surgery on the faces of wanted criminals. After Gordan operated on Lawrence, Lawrence convinced Gordon to invite Chan to a weekly radio broadcast emanating from the museum. His plan: to kill Charlie Chan. Chan accepted. He was joined there by several characters, including his meddling number two son; reporter Marguerite Chapman; Criminologist Michael Visaroff; and Hilda Vaughn, peculiar widow of Lawrence's executed associate, a presumed dead murderer now known to be alive and (disguised by plastic surgery) somewhere in their midst. Other suspects congregated on this stormy night were dotty old watchman Charles Wagenhiem and doctor's blonde assistant. - Doug McCelland, The Golden Age of B Movies. The Bat Whispers Directed by Roland West B/W 83 minutes 1930 An old dark house melodrama. "Like a bat, he chose the night for his work" from the script of the film, Mary Roberts Rinehart "one of the most oppressive films ever made...the distorted sets, odd angles and restless camera make it West's most Germanic work...this claustrophobic little nightmare would be fully at home in a retrospective of the American avant-guarde film. Elliot Stein, Cinema: a Critical History - The Major Film Makers. Friday 25th July 7:30pm £7/£5 members & concessions Home Made Record Sleeve Performance (D.Js Nervous Stephen and Rocky play records from 'Home made records sleeves volumes 1 and 2' books, as corresponding record sleeves are projected). + William Fowler Band (Post Barrett Space Folk) Monogram (Old Timey tunes) The Country Teasers (The Fall meets The Carter Family)