Cork Street Attack: Grey Organisation
On 21st May 1985 the windows of The Mayor Gallery and those of the other art dealers on Cork Street, were covered with buckets of grey paint during a night-time act of artistic anti-establishment protest by a group called the Grey Organisation. Now, almost 37 years later, this Cork Street Attack is the subject of an exhibition at The Mayor Gallery.
Curated by William Ling, Cork Street Attack will showcase new prints created from photographic evidence that recorded the immediate aftermath of the event alongside related artwork, ephemera and documents taken from the Grey Organisation archive kept by artist Toby Mott, the group’s spokesperson and central protagonist.
The works span the breadth and depth of the group’s output, including drawings for the Labour Party’s 1985 election campaign, hand prints, calling cards, preparatory studies for De La Soul’s album cover ‘3 Feet High and Rising’, and photographs of a performance outside the ICA.
The Grey Organisation (GO) was a post-punk art collective that emerged from East London and Soho in the early 1980s, folding in 1991.
Precursory to the advent of the YBAs (Young British Artists) and the arrival of big money in the artworld, the collective embraced anonymity and rejected the hero artist identity. With its blend of corporate yuppie culture and Soviet monoculture, it embodied a reflection of the status quo of the Cold War and Thatcher’s Britain in the 1980’s.
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GREY ORGANISATION, Bedford Hill Gallery, 1986
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack map, 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, ICA London, 1984
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack (The Mayor Gallery), 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack, 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack (Robert Fraser), 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack (The Mayor Gallery #2), 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack, 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack, 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack (Waddington #2), 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cabbage Heads, 1986
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Grey, 2022
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GREY ORGANISATION, Pot of Paint, 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Set of photographic prints, 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Cork Street Attack (The Mayor Gallery), 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Out, Burn-out, 1986
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GREY ORGANISATION, Peace For Our Time art action, 1986
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GREY ORGANISATION, Now Shout Labour, 1985
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GREY ORGANISATION, Rocky, 1986
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GREY ORGANISATION, J.S.G Boggs signed photograph (Press photo), 1986
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GREY ORGANISATION, De La Soul 3 Feet High And Rising Grey Organisation preparatory study, 1989
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GREY ORGANISATION, Grey Organisation, 1989
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GREY ORGANISATION, Grey Organisation content of studio bin, 1989
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GREY ORGANISATION, The Hospital White Gate Cubitt St. Kings Cross Event, 1984
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GREY ORGANISATION, Handprints, 1989
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GREY ORGANISATION, Heineken Lager, 1989
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GREY ORGANISATION, Grand Street Floor N.Y.C, 1990
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GREY ORGANISATION, Death, 1984
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GREY ORGANISATION, Alive Awake and Under Attack GO Grey Organisation, 185