Happy Birthday To Adidas Originals and Here We Go Again
Last night we celebrated the 10th birthday of Adidas Originals store in SoHo in a very New York way.
To coincide with the bday Adida’s Originals SoHo (again, happy 10th, Adidas), the store held an exhibition called “HERE WE GO AGAIN” curated by Ben Solomon and Nick Atkins. Along with their own art, the show featured works that capture the way cooler aspects of New York history over the last three decades. from New York photographer Clayton Patterson, Mordechai Rubenstein (you already know his famous menswear site, Mister Mort), artist Kilo Kish, and a set by DJ Stretch Armstrong.
THE HISTORY:
You could say the city is dead or you could say it’s the best its ever been.—Ben Solomon
Clayton allowed us to access his archives, which are so vast. It’s 30 years of every single kind of sub-culture—drag queens, drug dealers, hardcore, nice people, everyone from the lower east side, every genre, and everything else that’s ever happened in NY—he has it all in boxes. He’s a real-deal historian. People think that this is just temporary culture, but when you look at it in 10 years, you realize it really was something and that it was something important. Going back and looking at Thompkins Square Park when it was full of homeless people that the police used to beat up, to Occupy Wall Street, to right now. There are similar waves that happen in NY and if you have your eye on them, you’re able to catch them like Clayton does.—Nick Atkins
Every generation of NY wishes they there from the decade before. In the ’70s everyone said they wish they were there in the ’60′s. In the ’80s everyone said that they wish they were there in the ’70s in the ’90s everyone said they wish they were there in the ’80s. Now it’s 2012 and everyone wishes it was 2000 again. Embrace what’s around you because you can’t go back in time. You can’t spend you time trying to recreate shit that’s already happened. Embrace the now and do what you can with it. —Ben Solomon
THE WORLD WIDE WEB:
The internet has made the world a lot smaller, so I have kids who I don’t know coming up to me during my show—thats a little weird to me, but at the same time if that can plant a seed or inspire them, I can show them something new, they can do the same for me. Blogger entitlement—that’s BS. There’s a difference between bloggers and writers. Two of the people we’ve included in our show are The Arab Parrot and Mister Mort, who people consider to be bloggers, but if you look at their work, they’re artists. They’re photographers. At the end of the day, it’s just hard work.—Ben Solomon
I’ve had people from other parts of the country saying “Hell yeah, thanks”, or I’ve inspired them and they show me their own videos. That’s cool. I think if you can offer inspiration to this world, you’ve done a lot. You’ve added something—you haven’t taken anything away and that’s important. With the internet you can share things and if they’re true to you then it’s important for you to share them. So yeah, any kid thats has a blog out there that’s shooting and really believing in it—go for it dude. I love it.—Nick Atkins
THE GENERATION GAP:
Older people are probably going to say we’re a bunch of lazy asses and younger kids are going to say we’re old. I see a bunch of younger kids that sit around, smoking weed and looking at the internet all day and I see a bunch of grumpy old people that sitting around complaining. So to me, our generation is the one doing it.—Ben Solomon
THE INSPIRE-ERS:
If five kids could leave this show and be like “Damn, I want to take photos!” or “Wow NY is still popping.” Just inspire people, that’s the goal. If 500 people showed up and drank all the booze and 10 of those people left and said “Wow, I really absorbed the message of that artwork and I’m happy with it and want to go create something.” then that’s a bigger reward then the checks and the free Jeremy Scott.—Ben Solomon
“From the start we had a concept to show what’s been going on in New York through Clayton’s documentation of 30 years, to new people that are doing it, to mid-school people form the ’90s, and make an amalgamation so that everyone can get a good slice of NY history and have a good time. I think Adidas was really amazing to let that go down. We aren’t the obvious people to choose, so I think they took a little bit of a risk and it payed off for them and for us because we’re having a good time and hopefully some kids are inspired.”—Nick Atkins
To learn more about these artists check out their sites, TVTVCHANNEL and King Solomon. To wish themselves a happy one Adidas is releasing some sneakers: the Rivalry Lo and the limited edition Melbourne watch. They only made 150 of each, so act quick to get your hands on that piece of New York history.
—RAY SIEGEL