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55employees aren’t bored any more.

They’re too busy doing stuff. Loads of stuff!!

They were stressed about getting this issue out. Until they did!

55pages_ An expanding community of creative’s producing works (Mainly for themselves to keep insanity at bay) and working with 55factory.

55factory_ Publishing this body of work in collaboration with creatives on the fringes of society.

Being on the fringes of society_ A GREAT place to be...

55employees.

55pages

55factory61b Jamestown Road

Camden NW1 7DB

Tel: +44 203 286 8558

Creative DirectorChristopher George

Editor Nick Thompson

Art EditorAmie Retallick

Fashion DirectorSara Darling

Contributing WriterJordan Grant

Art ContributorTony Taglianetti

Technical consultant Demier Sayiner

Publishing DirectorChristopher George

Publishing ManagerNick Thompson

Digital PublisherJoe Barbour

MarketingLois Waller

55TV EditorKieron Allender

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n i g h t w o r k e r sw o m e n ’ s f a s h i o ns . c . u . mp a n d e m o n i ao l e kp o l a r o i d sw y n w o o d w a l l sL a c h a p e l l em e n ’ s f a s h i o ny i p - y i pM A R K O M A E T A M Md i f f e r e n t c l a s sl o m o k i n om a l a r k e ys t o c k i s t s

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Nightworkers, Brighton based

band, came down to the

55factory FLoor to have a chat

to 55employees about their

latest recording, infLuences,

cramped living arrangements

and penchant for eating out of bins

55: You did your latest recording in your living room, why was this? Johnny: That would be financial reasons basically, ‘cos we’re all struggling musicians. It’s cosy, it’s nice, we get to work in our own time. But the main reason is because we cant pay off loads of money to get into a big studio, so we thought we’d do it ourselves. 55: Tell us about your influences. Jack: Erm, U.N.K.L.E. from the electronic sort of side, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and elements of Primal Scream are in there as well. U.N.K.L.E. are an electronic collective that we’ve taken [an inspiration from] the electronic side of things, the dancey aspect of us lot. Their way of writing, they’ve got peo-ple coming and going all the time, whereas we’re a six piece that’s fixed. But the way we write is the collective way of doing things as well which makes it a bit more original and there’s not one sole song writer. 55: How do you live? Rowan: Actively. Hopefully actively. It can be raw at times, there was a lot of us at one house these last few months, the window got broken and the rain was coming in and we were shoplifting a lot, but it’s just fun though. Stereotypically rock and roll, which, you know, sounds great in hindsight but is shit at the time. 55: Would you rather be in a penthouse suite on your own?Rowan: I’d get too lonely, personally. Jamey: Sounds like heaven!

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55factory found themselves on a mission to get S.C.U.M. for the next issue. Why? Well they are the hottest sound coming out of London at the moment! After much perseverance during their European tour we caught up during rehearsal.

55: We’ve heard your sound described as lots of different things including art rock and post punk. How would you describe it, or is it too hard to categorise? Tom: I don’t find it too hard to categorise it but when someone says describe your music, I never really think about genres that much. I don’t think we make genre defying music but its just when someone says describe it I always think like, kind of how it sounds and kind of how I wanted it to sound. I always wanted something quite cinematic about it and quite vast and euphoric, which I’m happy that we achieved.

55: When you say cinematic, where are you also drawing influences from on a visual level or timescale? Is there other places that you pull inspiration from? T: Yeah of course, when I say cinematic I think in cinema, they use music or soundtrack to enhance or even give away what’s going to happen next. So I think about it a lot more in a sense of it furthering something.

55: I think you definitely get that sense of vastness from the album. How was the process of writing the album?T: It was a real pleasure. It was an accumulation of about four years of being in a band and being quite young and most of the record came together when we were recording it there.

55: Where did you record it? T: Nowhere that special, just a bit of English countryside really. But I think just

the fact that we were outside of London, outside of our usual surrounding was automatically far more inspiring. We totally cut ourselves off from people and everything really. I don’t really like writing in London, I don’t think people are in the right headspace to actually do something that is amazing, for us I mean. I don’t think people are in the right head space to something that they want to do I just think they do what comes to them because they go home and do whatever and come from wherever and get the bus, you know. If you cut yourself off that goes away and it becomes much more natural and a lot better.

55: Would you say that as a band you are city based or are you just in the city because this is where the gigs are and work is? T: No we are city based, we all grew up in London and I think that a lot of musicians and bands are centred around cities and that’s what they find the most creative and the most viable, meeting the most people and get the most inspiration but for us it’s not like that. It’s the opposite. 55: The Signals series that you did is a really interesting idea and was city based. How did that come about? T: [Laughs] That’s kind of contradictory to what I last said. I hate working in cities like London but I do a city-based project. That came about, again, trying to get the most from the opportunities that you get given, being in a band. Places you get to be. It started in Warsaw kind of unknowingly and it became something after that. We’re just about to do one in Russia actually, at the weekend. It’s just about immersing yourself in everything in that city and really getting as much from it as you can and then doing a piece of music.

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55: I suppose doing that process for that project you were doing you were really aware that you had to grab some emotional concept out of this, in that short period of time and write some music. How was that? Was it difficult because you were panicking thinking you had a deadline or did it just flow really easily? T: No, it’s always been really easy actually, surprisingly. I think especially Paris; it was probably the easiest song we’ve ever written and the easiest situation to do it. I think it was in October and just getting cold. Hopefully Russia will be like that as well. You don’t really have to try and infiltrate these places when you go as a band because you kind of play in the most interesting part of town and then you also get to see the centre of the city as well.

55: You’ve just come back from playing some European shows and also the NME Radar Tour. How did they compare to each other in regards to people’s reactions to the album?T: It’s a totally different experience obviously because England’s where you know, where you grew up and you’re familiar with everywhere and people and

cultures. But we played in Portugal and they were the biggest crowds we played to with everyone who loved the band and it was weird because you kind of pick up on where you’re doing well but that was totally out of the blue. It’s really nice. It’s kind of nice playing everywhere really, that kind of element of unknown that we still have, even though the record’s out. Not really knowing what’s going to happen when you play a gig, I quite like. 55: What is the bands writing process like for writing new material? Do you all collaborate together at the same time or do certain people take a stronger lead on the writing process? T: It all stems from all over the place really. I think depending on what you really want the outcome to be, there are so many methods of writing the song; we never really follow a set of rules so to speak. With “Again Into Eyes”, half of it was actually written there, some of it was live and some of it was written in the studio. All different really.

55: In the past people have referred to you as pretentious, why do you think this is? T: I think that came from a made up

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award. I just think that it’s kind of a British press thing but I mean, I don’t care really.

55: Do you think pretention is something that just works within a creative scenario? You get depressives, you get pretentious people, you get egos. Don’t you think that it’s part of the process? T: Yeah I think so definitely, I think its part of the creative process in that you’re not really involving yourself too much in popular culture so the perception of that can be seen as pretentious sometimes. I think all of the greatest people that I can think of and all of the best magazines and anything that I find that stimulating would probably be labelled as pretentious.

55: I suppose it’s quite a good term to be classed as pretentious isn’t it? T: Yeah! I mean imagine living in fear of being labelled as pretentious. There’s so many things that you wouldn’t be able to do! So I mean, I don’t really mind…

55: How was it working on your new video for “Whitechapel” with Tim Noble and Sue Webster?T: We’ve kind of worked with them before doing various other things. But I love

Tim and I love Sue as well. You know it was behind a screen. Tim would be by the side of us pulling faces and he’s so energetic all the time. It’s great. 55: What had you worked with them on before? T: We’ve done a show at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, which is where the idea for the song actually stemmed from. Then they took us to the Venice Biennale in 2009, which was really great. We played in a courtyard and we got to get a boat in from the airport with Tim and Sue. Venice is great. What’s the longest time you’ve been there for?

55: When you’re working on these collaborations on your video with these guys do you have a creative input or do you let them lead your way? T: You kind of choose to work with them because you know that they’ll do something amazing and you really do trust them so you just try and let yourself go. 55

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As we sat in 55factory prior to our photo

shoot, Pandemonia admitted it was always

a bit difficult remembering things after a few

glasses of Champagne as

“the bubbles go to my head every time”.

We totally understood,

so opened a bottle there and then!

Photographer Christopher Sims

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55: We’re kind of in awe of you Pandamonia. What made you want to create this alter ego. Or if it’s not an alter ego then what is it?

P: I am a fine artist creating work about our times. My Art has something for everybody. You can interpret it on many levels. Some see it as purely spectacle, others see it as a mirror of culture at large.

55: Would you say you were on the edges of society growing up?

P: Depends on where you define the centre.

55: Did you work on the idea of Pandemonia for a while or was it a bolt of lightning idea? What was the first stage of the creation?

P: Pandemonia is the amalgamation of several ideas coming together. Wanting to mirror the world around me, make something that would translate through modern technology. The first idea was to create a person that embodied modern ideals. A kit of parts using all the best bits.

55: When did you realise that Pandemonia had landed?

P: Landed? I think she’s still rising! Being in OK! Magazine is great, but being the cover star of 55pages is even better!

55: If we could arrange to have one female and one male to escort you to a really glamorous doo who would they be, dead or alive and why?

P: Liz Taylor and Karl Lagerfeld. Glamour and sophistication, it always helps to be seen in the right company.

55: Away from your public life, what projects are you working on at the moment, and what fills your time on a day to day basis?

P: I am working on several projects. Firstly a fine art print show followed by a sculpture show.

55: How do you feel about celebrity, and I’m talking about the mainstream pulp that’s fed to us?

P: I get a lot of inspiration from it. Celebrity is a shared experience. It’s something that affects everyone. Whether you are the celebrity unable to go anywhere or an anonymous member of the public, fame is something that affects everyone’s life. I created P in the celebrity mould. Pandemonia is a shared experience.

55: Do you think there’s happiness in this kind of fame or just a bottomless pit of despair?

P: Celebrity is business. It’s about building a brand and creating brand awareness.

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55: What music tastes do you have when you’re alone?

P: All the classics like “Diamonds are a girls best friend”

55: Creative influences, tell me who excites and interests you at the moment, again, dead or alive.

P: My influences change all the time. A few weeks back I went to the Leonardo exhibition. He was also interested in beauty and the perfect form. The idea that conforming the body to the forms of pure geometry creates a beauty higher than nature. That’s an idea which is still current today.

55: Why is London your home town?

P: The whole world is here. London is the stepping-stone to the world.

55: What other city would you like to live in for the creative experience?

P: All of them! I always fancied going to New York. Last year the Museum of Modern Art, Athens, invited me to the opening of “Monsters in fashion”. They put on a guided tour of the sites for me. It’s truly an amazing place.

55: You’ve said things are as difficult as you want them to be. Do you think a certain amount of struggle and disappointment is good, and do you think we sometimes make things hard for a reason?

P: It really depends on your aspirations. If you wish to settle for second best that’s fine but obstacles make you more inventive.

55: How is being behind the exterior, do you still relate to people?

P: Relating to people is really important, I always try and talk to everyone who comes up to me. Everyone hides behind some kind of exterior whether its attitude, bravado or even make up. People are often unusually open with me.

55: In your opinion are the rich and famous interesting, or are they just rich and famous?

P: Being rich doesn’t necessary make you more interesting, it can give you more time to do what you really want to do and that can make you more interesting.

55: Can you tell us who makes your beautifully created outfits?

P: I create all my own work.

55: Collaboration, is this important for you? Please tell us.

P: Yes! I would like to do a collaboration with a sponsor. Possibly a hair product, like “L’Oreal” or a cosmetic company or maybe even a customised perfume. Imagine pure Pandemonium! 55

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55: You started doing this purely as an artistic piece, what brought you to this point and where did you get you influence?O: Someone said: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. When I was a kid in Poland there was nothing in the damn stores. To make art, I collected everything even the tin foil milk bottle caps.Crochet came to me as a result of being totally broke. I had to make a costume in NYC and I had no cash for a sewing machine. I used any materials I could possiblly find… I even cut my sheets into strips to make pieces. Being resourceful is in my blood as you can see. Crochet is for poor people… that’s why you can find it in almost any culture across the globe. I am just a tiny spider.55: What would be the largest item you would like to do and what do you think the largest piece could be?O: I dream every day. I dream when I close my eyes and lay down on pile of crochet. I dream when I wake up. My projects are like dreams. And if you want them to come true, you have to keep them as secrets.55: What was the art scene like for

you back in Poland, and how was it when you hit NY as an artist?O: I have no knowledge about the art scene in Poland… I have never entered it. NYC made me an artist. It hit me, not the other way around.55: What is the idea behind the Gimp? O: Dude… you really called it a Gimp? If you want to know, ask me to put it on you.55: You quoted “Life and Art are inseparable”. What do you mean by this? O: I really do not do anything besides making art. The whole month before the show at Tony’s gallery I have been actually sleeping inside the gallery. So when I say - come to see my show which is not just another apartment installation; it is the reflection of life, love, trust and lust in current times; It is the progression of my life as a woman, as a female artist, put together through text messages, emails and personal objects and experiences... Blood, sweat and tears and cum camouflaged with the sparkle of my colourful cheeky humour, as we all do when carrying on with our lives – it is really the truth. 55

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JeanSanta BarberaPhotographer – Nick Thompson

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Jean and TomSanta BarberaPhotographer – Nick Thompson

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Unknown manMiamiPhotographer – Christopher Sims

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MartinSingaporePhotographer – Madison Rose Brooks

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Wynwood Walls, a district around ten miles from south beach, around two square miles and expanding and a step straight into the future with a slight 80’s feel. What was a black ghetto from the turn of the 1900’s and more recently, full of crack heads and gangsters, basically no place for the likes of the faint hearted or middle classes. For ten years it has been under the wing of Tony Goldman, who has redeveloped it into the Wynwood Walls Project, a living, breathing set of open aired galleries. To understand it you have to see it, but to give you some insight, it’s an old industrial area on an American grid system of crossroads. All the buildings are low-level warehouses with flat roofs, walls with no windows. Pretty much a canvas for anything as there was no architectural interest until now.

What is unimaginable to us Europeans is the sense of space America has with an enormous attitude!

Wynwood Walls hosts around 10,000 visitors a month, a multitude of galleries around the walls and during the five days of Art Basel week, probably around 100,000 punters turning Miami not only into the capital of street art, but (and I don’t say this lightly) the capital of the art scene. Art Basel and several other events come for the project including Pulse, Nada, Fountain and Underbelly, but the Wynwood walls artworks are created during the four weeks coming up to Art Basel and continue throughout and after the event.

The list of artists we were with is too large to mention. Wynwood is not only the centre of a street art scene but also for emerging galleries showing a cross over of street and contemporary art along with established artists including Ron English and Peter Tulley to mention a few.

From the old fading glamour of the 1920s and a slight renaissance during the 1970s, Miami has now switched the neon lights on to full glare for the Art Basel during this week long period of December.

Why in London one of the most vibrant and exciting art capitals we haven’t as yet yielded to this I have no idea. With Viner St east London being a similar space to Wynwood on the exterior, or even crazier the Heygate estate behind the Elephant and Castle having not been transformed into a street art gallery AND contemporary venue for possibly the most important event in London’s recent history since the birth of 55factory, the London Olympics. I’m absolutely bemused. Is it only 55employees who have good ideas?

55employes shot an experimental FIlm on Wynwood walls, See it at 55factory.net

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These pictures are from the series which I call “Earth Laughs in Flowers”. They are vanitas in the tradition of the old master paintings which depicted the four seasons. Every object in the paintings was symbolic of something, it told a narrative to the viewer. I took that idea but wanted to do a photographic version in which I mixed modern objects with objects of antiquity or symbolic objects.

I used slow shutter speed with some defusion to make the images look like paintings. I also played with the scale of objects a little bit to give a slight uneasiness when looking at them.

I called the series “Earth Laughs in Flowers” from the lines of an Emerson poem. The poem speaks of the idea that man lives on the planet, builds big careers, big houses, fortresses and thinks he owns the earth, but then he dies and is buried in the earth, and the earth laughs back at him in flowers, so the line of the poem is “Earth laughs in flowers”. I am not very good with words so I often turn to poetry to come up with titles. I think titles are very important, in that they help viewers to understand what a piece is about.

David LaChapelleWhen we were informed LaChapelle was showing in London around the time of 55pages second issue launch we were determined to do a piece on his latest works.

Earth Laughs in Flowers: From 14 February 2012 ROBILANT+VOENA Gallery, 38 Dover Street, London W1S 4NL

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yip-yip

Orlando glitch pop synth band Yip-Yip started when two friends, Brian Esser and Jason Temple, started making music by experimenting with toy keyboards and circuit bent instruments. After 10 years together they chat to 55employees about their costumes, music and influences from pizza and ska.

Photographer: Jenna Shumate

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Where does the inspiration for your costumes come from? Brian: We’ve always liked it when bands wear matching costumes, so we are always wearing the same thing with each of our costumes. Most of the time it’s whatever we can get our hands on and modify to be something interesting. Our first costumes were made out of white fuzzy parts of a bunch of Santa Claus costumes we stole from work.Jason: These costumes in particular are inspired by pizza and ska. Our favourite costumes we’ve ever had are the head-to-toe checkered jumpsuits we made about six years ago. We wanted to go back to all checkers, but in a more interesting way.Do you find that these costumes influence your live performances?B: Yes, they help me with stage fright. They also just help me loosen up. Usually when I’m wearing a costume I really feel like it’s not me. I already feel hardly like myself being up on stage, super freaked out and nervous, so the costumes help complete that alter ego.J: Being behind a mask makes you invincible. I’m not responsible for the actions of Yip 1. That idea usually helps me get loose. But these costumes in particular make it physically hard to move freely.B: Yeah, we knock over things, get stuck in door frames, and stab people in the side with the corners of these new costumes. What’s your life like outside of Yip-Yip?B: Pretty boring, but in a good way. I’m off work nights and weekends, and Yip-Yip has always been the thing I like to work on the most. I try to work on it as much as I can, but I’m easily distracted

by synthesizer websites and eBay. I also like to go to antique malls & thrift stores and play pinball.J: Pretty awesome. I work full time, including some nights and all weekends, and go to school full time for electrical engineering. I like reading, cooking, riding my bicycle, working on my moped, going to new places and trying new things.You’re pretty obscure as a music duo in respect to information about you, where did you form?J: We became friends around age 16 in high school. Brian and I were both in other bands right after high school. Brian’s was more serious even though they didn’t really have a name. I played theremin with them on their first and only show. Shortly after that, his band broke up and we started Yip-Yip together. B: We went to Lake Mary High School, and I guess Yip-Yip formed in Longwood, Florida, mostly at Jason’s house. Then for the next 10 years we mostly lived in the same houses or apartments. This past year has been the first time where we are really working mostly separate and having to get together more like a normal band that could only get together once every week or two.You have been going now for 10 years, and Bone Up is the first album with vocals on. Why add vocals on this new album?B: We just felt like it was the next level. We did a Nirvana cover that we tried doing vocals on and it was really fun and so we decided to try to do a whole album like that.J: It seemed like the next logical step. All the songs we were working on seemed to be missing something.

Free download http://yip-yip.bandcamp.com/

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What is this fascination you have with murdering your family?I am interested in the notion of family as a particular form of existing, and how society manipulates this form of existing through economy, consumerism and certain standards of life standards such as education etc, etc. The family is usually considered as something reliable, established and safe from an outside perspective. If one is looking in from the inside, there are many controversies to be found within a family unit as a life form. Living together in a relatively small territory can generate different kinds of errors between people and these errors are exactly what my works are about. But I think I only have one or two works about murdering my family!

We have seen one of your shows that was dominated with this subject, and sex. Although extremely disturbing, it had a comical sense to it. Are you producing this in mind with it being amusing or purely serious?I never think of the comical aspects when I work, it somehow generates itself. And I

am very happy about this because then I have more time to think of other qualities in the work. I think these comical aspects are very useful to achieve a better contact with the viewer, especially when it comes to the more serious and disturbing topics.

What is it about your family that makes you want to slay them? In comparison to some other families my family is just easier to work with. They are my everyday life, I know them and they know me. But my ambition is not to expose personal stories about my personal life but to talk about things that happen in our society. My family is just a “micro-society” within the larger society. Things that happen in the larger society reflect also in this “micro-society” and vice versa. The other thing is that I really value personal experience in my artistic practice. The presence of the author makes the work more trustful and exciting. It gives it some sort of credibility.

Maetamm is an Estonian born artist working in print, illustration, installation, f ilm, photo, drawing and painting

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What is your family’s reaction when they see this work, or do you keep it from any of them?I discuss all my works with my wife, she is a very good advisor. And I must be able to explain my works to my kids. If I am not able to do this then I would avoid doing these works.

At what point did you turn to this method of expression, or was there a similar style towards your parents as a child?It was about 8 or 9 years ago when I had to make a decision about how to continue as an artist. I had accepted a full time administrative job at the Estonian Academy of Arts purely due to financial reasons – to be a reliable client at the bank to get a bank loan. We had a little baby and we still lived at my wife`s parents` flat completely penny-less, so it was the only way to get out of this. So, soon I found myself in a situation where I didn`t have time to go to the studio and all I was able to think about was how to manage with all the different problems and things at work and at home. But I didn`t want to give up as an artist, so instead, I decided to put my personal struggle into my art practice. Shortly after I represented

Estonia at the Venice Biennale with my so called family stories and I realized that it was something I wanted to go on with.

How do your family feel about these obsessive thoughts? I can imagine they sleep very lightly at night, and avoid pissing you off.They sleep very well. My wife has a special safety box where she locks up all sharp items before she goes to bed. And they all know perfectly well how much I am afraid of blood!

Some of the content in the documentary filming you’ve done, particularly “Love” is very antagonising. I’m surprised your wife didn’t stab you during it. Are you looking for a reaction like that from your her during these pieces?I am not looking to get stabbed by my wife of course but you`re right – some of the videos are disturbing for her. It is never part of the plan, it just happens. Most of my so called home videos are very spontaneous and this is probably the only way to do them. If you start planning these things in advance you realize how stupid it is and you would decide not to do it… 55

THE WORKING CLASS

author JORDON GRANTphotography nick thompson

THE RENAMING OF

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The miner’s strike, the winter of discontent, the Clydeside Shipbuilders’ work-in (where workers in Scotland refused to walk out) were momentous historical events, that sadly seem to be remembered by few. If a Socialist Union movement is remembered at all, it is more for its sheepskins coats, fixation with Woodbine fags and dodgy barnets- than its political ideologies. That said though, you’d be hard pushed to find a young person on the street able to identify a comb-over let alone Arthur Scargill. How have such movements and their leaders’ fallen so far from the collective consciousness; is it that the social strata which they once purported to be the voice of- the voice of working classes’- has ceased to exist? If the general media and politicians are to be believed than the answers is: yes. It was in the mid-nineties that that murdering bastard Tony Blair (TMBTB from this point on) proudly declared that: “we’re all middle class now”. Since then political pundits have been keen to run with this way of thinking as it shows capitalist progression- we all live in a meritocracy, which preaches the ability enable prosperity through individual efforts. To them the working class is nothing more than an antediluvian concept from ‘them day going back’, now preserved in aspic and trotted out on the box- that’s no longer a box, but is flat-screened and wall mounted- along with black and white footage and endless talk of no central heating and shared bath water in order to remind us just how far we have truly come. But is this loss of a working class a reality or are we all buying into an illusion which fulfils the rampant, self-serving individualism of the elite? Although TMBTB would have us believe that the working class has gone the way of the Dodo, according to a BBC report a whopping 57% still identify as proudly

belonging to the working class. For starters then let’s get a working definition of what it means to be working class in todays’ modern world- a definition which really hits the nails on the head can be found in Owen Jones’ book Chavs (pukka read). The working class refers to the class of people who work for others in order to earn a crust and get by and who, ‘lack autonomy or control over their labour’. Very few people these days ‘labour’ at their place of work and it is this that deniers of the working class proffer as evidence for its decline. They feel that the working condition has improved: not many are going down the mines or toiling in factories and there are more home owners than ever- you can’t own property and belong to the salt of the earth. Yet, these views are misleading; you could argue that that is the reason for their very dissemination. Don’t be disillusioned fellow workers- just because you’re not scratching a living scraping a coal seam underground doesn’t mean that you can’t participate in the workers’ revolution. People in retail, cleaners, those clocking up ten hour days in call-centres- who don’t even have the freedom of word choice; are forced to, “stick to the script, don’t deviate from the script”- all lack autonomy- the ability to choose how they spend their working day. And as growing numbers of these people, employed in these low-status unskilled jobs, switch to part-time, flexi-time and agency work in an effort beat redundancy- they further weaken their position within the labour market and lose many of the legal rights afforded to their fulltime contemporaries. We’re not all middle class now- what we have become is a labour force which is working-class unable to identify as working class, which lacks legal rights and job security. We are forced to take jobs

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which are devoid of status or run the risk being labelled a member of the underclass. A shipbuilder was probably a shipbuilder’s son, it took training for him to be able carry out his work, only him and those like him could do it- it was skilled- he couldn’t be sacked and replaced with any Tom or Dick; it meant that he had a place in the community and respect. Now it seems impossible to find work that enables you to take pride in it. Menial work does not carry any kudos in our society; people that undertake these jobs, which are essential, are seen as failures, who have failed to make something of their lives. The second myth, drip-fed to us, is that: you can’t own property and be a member of the working class- surely someone who bought their council flat has moved comfortably into middle class and therefore must adopt their values’- don’t be disillusioned fellow workers! Thatcher’s right to by policy muddied the water for many- it was nothing more than mere tokenism, a form of boosterism employed to satiate the masses- and has for many proved a millstone.

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Yes, we own our own houses- who care that we have sleepless night figuring out how we’re going to be able to pay the mortgage or whether we are able to keep the roof- which when rented from the council, for subsidised rent, was ours for life- over our heads. Just to spell it out- If we’re gonna get all Marxist on our classification of the working class- then a worker is able to own a house, as it is viewed by Marx as personal property. Sigh of relief you’re still a worker and fingers up to Thatcher for making us feel that we were neither this nor that just because we part owned, along with the bank, a poxy two up two down in a Peckham high-rise. As working class people we are constantly being sold a middle class ideology, by a predominantly middle class media, protecting middle class interests’: that you can better yourself through your own efforts. The indoctrination starts at school: kids are told that if they work hard, stay out of trouble that they can do whatever they want and dodge the dread of being retail fodder. Society seems to care little for the unfeasibility of this, or how to young kids, that have to go back to some squalid flat and see their parent who have failed to capitalised on this equal opportunity ethos that is pumped out, that it makes little sense; school leavers now languishing on the dole queue must see it as blatant lie. When we hear on the news politician telling us, in this time of financial crisis, that we all need to pull together and work hard- what they means is for the working class to work harder than they are already working and if you refuse to put your back into it you are relegated to the underclass and seen in a parasitical light. This ideology is based closely upon Sociologist Merton’s strain theory- it was him that coined the term ‘The American dream’- that success is

achieved through the institutions of society, the schools, the courts, the government. In strain theory when people fail to capitalised on these circumstances they blamed themselves, determined to work harder and importantly don’t blame the institutions or an unequal society. This kind of thinking has grown to suit Britain perfectly- we don’t have to examine a broken system, which is heavily biased towards the middle classes. This way of thinking allows those in the higher echelons of society, perfect justification in demonising those lower down the pecking order- poverty is seen as a choice and if they choose to live in poverty and squalor then they are feckless and worthy of scorn. They prefer to see this underclass as a group that is presumably, as self-made as themselves. As oppose to having been created through thirty years of poor policy making: the dismantling of industry and the communities that went with it and the colossal failing of those in power to put anything in its place. Rampant individualism has essentially been the death of the collective voice. People have chosen to forego the safety and empowerment of Unions in favour of personal prosperity; with this lack of a Union movement comes a lack of political awareness. Check out the documentary on youtube about the Kirby rent strike in the 70’s! The people in Kirby are so politically aware and eloquent about their situation, they don’t need to rely on media, which was far more inclusive of people from all background than it is now, for social commentary in order for them to ascertain where they were and where they were going. There’s no way that they could be duped into denying their own existence. As a working class we need to wake-up and realise that we do exist and that it’s only together, in a unionised movement, that we can improve the working condition. 55

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lomokino

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lomokino

Take a look at the Film shot on lomokino by 55employees in LA and Miami at 55factory.net

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When 55factory were offered the chance of being given the new Lomokino to test out and cover their trip to America with we jumped at the chance. Having completely sold out worldwide within 12 hours of its launch, we were intrigued as to what this new little analogue masterpiece could achieve! The Lomokino can shoot 144 frames on a single 35mm film at 3-5 frames a second and a roll of film can do 30 to 50 seconds of film. Depending on whether you have a 24 or 36 exposure roll. All a bit technical for you? Don’t worry it was for 55employees. What we found was to firstly just shoot stuff. Lots of stuff! Testing out the huge range of film stock Lomography produce was brilliant. If there was one certain choice for us at 55 it was shooting with the color films and the colour slide, the vibrancy and quality can be quite strange, we like strange!It takes a bit of getting used to, not knowing what result you’re going to get as we’re so conditioned these days to check every frame we’re shooting, just to make sure… we weren’t sure! Having no control over what’s being shot is a bit tough to deal with at first. This is generally until you’ve had your first few rolls processed and get the chance to view your epic production. With all the cranking of the handle,

shaking and shuffling around with the movement of the camera, and the uncertainty of what is actually coming out or what you’re shooting, we were really surprised at the quality of this tiny, simple box that’s as far removed from digital as you can possibly get. One of the funniest parts of using it is the reaction you get from the general public, as you bob up and down moving around like a 1920’s film director creating your masterpiece. People just don’t know what to make of it all. Out on the street during the day with a mix of light was the most successful environment for the Lomokino that we found. Life looks strangely nostalgic even counting the youth of 55employees! It’s the stuff your grandparents would have shot. The colours that were naturally produced without photo manipulation, the kind of effect where even the mundane can look stunning. This wasn’t about the location of LA and Miami we shot the Lomokino material in, although it was a different place to experiment shooting. What we have discovered is a different way to experiment with motion and once we had our first film produced we then had a scope of where we could go.You will be seeing more 55factory and Lomokino collaboration to come! 55

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Now that Malarky has been banned for two years from Espagne for so-called “vandalismo”, he’s now spending a lot more time in el sunny Costa Del Londres. Painting joyful pieces very much defined by the exuberance and festive fever brought over from the Catalan region.

Brightening up the dreary London East End streets at the moment with creatures such as foxes, cats, bats and robots punctuate and jump out of this urban landscape. Malarky’s foxes in particular relate back to the notion of painting on shutters as well as street artists and the way that these animals, similarly to shutters and street artists, hide away during the day to reappear at night time.

Malarky’s most recent London mural on Redchurch Street entitled “Malarkistani Riots” refers back to the riots of this summer – this fifty foot long frieze portrays a parade of the artist’s most characteristic characters with big carnival heads and their little stripy legs visible, running along underneath.

55employees have tried on several occasions to get some words with Malarky for this piece. Not that we don’t know who he is, looks like or where he hangs out, but he has either been too busy, or “laid back” to bother.

Generally with him shifting around in his yellow jacket (was that last season?) acting very urban middle class, we kind of gave up so made this piece up ourselves as you can probably tell by the tone. We do like some contact with our articles.

Saying this, we LOVE Malarky’s distinctive, total respraying of cars even down to their tyres. They’re bold, fun, obscure and we think this, as a body of work would make an amazing show. Imagine a car show room full of them! Theres an idea mate.

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