Jarvis Cocker Presents ’20 Golden Greats’ Exhibition

 
Art & Culture

Gold Records, amongst the music industry, are the holy grails of commercial success. They represent success in terms of numbers and profit, but to Jarvis Cocker frontman of Pulp, they are nothing more than an empty symbol that's void of any real meaning. This year, Cocker is able to explore this concept with Red Bull Space Paris as he is their current artist in residence. Joining him in creating a sountrack to go with his exhibition is English harpist Serafina Steer. The soundtrack has been edited to 1000 vinyl copies and will be available for free at the gallery during the exhibition.

Cocker's first inklings of this exhibition started after his tour with Pulp. He was asked, on multiple occasions, what he was going to do now that the tour was over and if he would release another record. Not knowing how to answer this, and feeling embarrassed about not having an answer, Cocker began to hand craft vinyls. When labeling these vinyls, Cocker had the freedom to be signed to any record label imaginable; and so he was. From Motown to Island of the 70s, Cocker single-handedly dominated his imaginary music industry. Feeling powerful and unstoppable, Cocker went further to making all his records golden records. He became the greatest musical virtuoso in every genre. Kind of. Cocker says that this sense of fantasy was important to him at a time in his life when he wasn't even sure whether he'd carry on making music and releasing records.

Cocker's aim for his exhibition, 20 Golden Greats, is to challenge people into viewing the concept of a golden record as nothing more than a human construct, made to validate success in terms of cold numbers. Cocker wants people to see success, particularly in music, as the ability to engage with human emotions. To him, success is "an energy to be shared, that draws people together, that encourages ineractions via the act of listening and dancing."


20 Golden Greats will be open from June 17th to August 28th. The opening reception is on Wednesday 17th June, 6pm to 9pm. For more information click here.