Jonny Zerox & the Velvet Chapel
The Velvet Chapel
“Home of The Velvet Underground”
So what has a small Welsh town in Carmarthenshire got to do with New York, the development of modern music and the world’s most famous Pop artist Any Warhol?
Well, world-renowned musician John Cale was born and lived in Garnant. As a young man Cale left for America on a musical scholarship and after being introduced to musician Lou Reed and Andy Warhol they co-founded the experimental rock band “The Velvet Underground”. At the time Andy Warhol opened his studio, "The Factory" in New York, and gathered about him a wide range of artists, writers, musicians, and underground celebrities. It became a hive of creativity and produced and inspired some incredible talent, art, film and music.
Jonny Zerox who describes his art as neo classical postmodern schizophrenia claims that a spiritual revelation drew him to purchase the building after John Cale appeared to him in a dream instructing him to, 'Go forth and multiply!' This he seems to have taken quite literally and with no sign of slowing down.
Acquired the building with the intention of establishing a home / Art gallery, and recreating the atmosphere of Andy Warhol’s Factory Zerox is poised to launch his creative lifestyle brand L.S.D., short for Life Saving Distraction’s, an assortment of popart, original paintings, sculptures, furniture and lifestyle products all of which he assures me are completely unnecessary yet essential items for modern day survival.
Jonny Zerox & the Remix Society
The league of unscrupulous Citizens.
Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery; the idea behind the proverb has been around for several centuries. Charles Caleb Colton was the first to use it in print when it appeared in his Lacon: Many things in few words, published in 1820: Oscar Wilde however is most associated with the phrase when he wrote, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” George Bernard Shaw went on to add “it is the sincerest form of learning.”
‘The Remix Society’, is a culture that encourages derivative works by combining or modifying existing media, a world in which it seems acceptable for one to re-sample others music, re-edit videos and re-formulate art. Personally in my own mediocritic existence I claim that one imitates someone else because one admires that person or values what that person has done.
I have therefore no shame and in fact take pleasure in plagiarizing, lifting and re-sampling images of others. I embrace and thank the Gods for my moments of creativity if they only are short inspired bouts of madness. We do after all live in the pop ideal Karaoke society in which, as prophesied by Any Warhol, “Everybody will enjoy his or her 15 minutes of fame.”
Best Wishes,
Zerox