Steve Hines

'Cockney Rejects'

Part 1

During the last few years Steve Hines visited charity shops around Central London and purchased items that he felt would have been considered as art by the previous owner, and which would have been desired and valued. The resulting collection comprised of original oil and watercolour paintings, prints, reproductions and two small sculptures.

Hines strove to be objective in his choices and he endeavoured to curate a range of artworks. 'Cockney Rejects: Part 1' constituted a conventional-style exhibition with the works hung and displayed in the white-wall gallery space. Each work was titled and its source indicated: the name of the charity shop, its location and the artist, (where known). This allowed visitors to make possible connections, and the exhibition raised other questions around class and community make-up for example. Was an artwork purchased in Hampstead very different from the one purchased in Whitechapel?

At this point in the project there was no artwork on show that had been physically created by Steve Hines and so the exhibition was concerned with popular art tastes, the status of the works on display and with the work of other artists.

Part 2

After one week the exhibition changed. The gallery was closed whilst all the artwork on display was destroyed by the artist in a private performance, witnessed only by a video camera. The resulting installation and new video artwork then constituted 'Cockney Rejects: Part 2'. This new exhibition was then presented for public viewing and it allowed visitors who had not seen 'Cockney Rejects: Part 1' to view the before, middle and after elements of the show.