Reflections on ... Full Leather Jackets by Sue Webster

 

Sue Webster achieved fame and success in the post-Young British Artist era with her then-husband Tim Noble. Following their separation in 2013, the 56-year-old Leicester-born multi-media conceptualist re-visited her teenage obsessions for fresh inspiration as a solo artist. One of those obsessions: hero worship for life-changing punk band Siouxsie and The Banshees. As Webster recently told the Evening Standard, it prompted a new direction for her art: “I based it on a theory that everything I’ve ever learnt in life was from listening to Siouxsie’s first four albums.” (Me too, Sue! Me, too!). 

During lockdown, Webster began daubing naïve outsider art-style portraits of spooky punk high priestess Siouxsie onto vintage black leather motorcycle jackets sourced from Spitalfields Market. (One of these efforts was prominently displayed in the first “Monster” room of the recent visionaryHorror Show exhibit at Somerset House). 

Webster’s current “Full Leather Jackets” exhibit in Hackney Wick collates all these works. I went yesterday with my friend Sam and was entranced! It felt like an afternoon of Siouxsie worship! Here are my pics. Alongside the customized biker jackets, the exhibit includes re-printed pages from Webster’s adolescent diary. My favourite entry begins something like “Dad confiscated my hair crimpers …” 

In the Evening Standard piece, Webster recalls the brain-scrambling impact of coming across a black-and-white photo of Siouxsie in the music press aged 11. That mirrors my experience exactly: it was seeing a grainy pic of Siouxsie in all her cadaverous glory in a magazine when I was in my early teens that planted the idea of moving to London. (All these decades later, I’m still unsure whether to be grateful to her or not!).

Further thoughts: 

One funny thing Webster noted: in the old days of the music press before the internet, you'd turn to the ads to mail order your punk and New Wave t-shirts, badges and accessories (especially if you didn’t live in London). She wanted to track down the old-school Siouxsie badges that were ubiquitous in the late seventies / early eighties. During lockdown she scoured eBay, and they simply seemingly haven't survived into the present-day. You can't source 'em anywhere. So, for the exhibit, Webster created her facsimiles.  

Finally: needless to say, I deliberately wore a Siouxsie t-shirt to the exhibit – and then forgot to ask Sam to take a photo of me standing in front of one of the jackets!

The “Full Leather Jackets” exhibit is at Project Space, Unit 14-15 Trafalgar Mews, Hackney Wick, E9 5JG. Wednesday - Saturday 12-6 pm, 28 June - 15 July 2023.