Death Spray Custom

Images Michael Fordham/Influx

Last night saw the opening of Live For Myself Answer to Nobody, the Steve McQueen inspired show that focusses on the creative culture of cars and bikes.

The venue is stunningly appropriate, the top floor of the Brewer St car park in London’s Soho – and it’s the perfect space. There are original, rare prints from Barry Feinstein and Hunter Thompson collaborator Bill Ray; a couple of Bullitt tribute motors that set the jaw agape and some select contribs from the fruitful London custom bike scene in the form of photographs, artwork and full build custom bikes. We’ll be featuring the work of the other contribs (many of whom are mates and collabs of Influx) over the coming weeks so stay tuned.

For us the most high-impact element of the opening, rather than the ongoing McQueen fetishism, is the refreshingly subversive art shown by Death Spray Custom.

We particularly enjoyed the beautifully rendered series of custom-painted sports car hoods by London based artist DSC, complete with subtly twisted rewritings of autosport sloganeering you see here. The hoods are part of an ongoing project that plays with ideas of creation and destruction, indulgence and cynicism that strikes at the heart of the beautiful contradiction that is motorsport.

DSC is at the centre of the rapidly developing scene whereby car and bike culture is being re-imagined and made new. For a long time the automotive industry has sought to define the way we consume cars and bikes by throwing huge marketing spends at mediocre products. This whole scene is, for us, a backlash against this championing of the banal – and we love DSC’s work for its audacious iconoclasm.

Stay tuned for an in depth feature on all things DSC.