The Story of Eternal Youth

In the late Spring we opened a little pop-up gallery in Dalston for the Fountain of Youth. If you were ever travelling down the Kinglsand Road into town, chances are you may have seen it as you passed by. It’s just recently closed so we thought it’d be nice to look back over what happened there during the summer.

Eternal Youth was the brain-child of our wonderful UK partners Missy and Deano (more on them later) – the idea was storage for our cans with a gallery added on to show the creative work of their friends.

After just four months open our little shop had made its own place within the frenetic creative scene of East London. Not only that but perhaps more importantly, it fitted in harmoniously with the local people and neighbouring businesses around it; a place where anybody could pop in for a chat, see something interesting and grab a coconut water.

We got the keys in April and we gave the place a lick of paint and made us a sign. The opening event was the Outlaw Photoshow, a group photography exhibition showing work from Jack Bechtler, Sanna Charles, Danny Fox, Kingsley Ifill, Louie Jenkins, Alex Sainsbury, Emma Sheridan, Simon Wellington and Lewis Teague Wright.

Next up was Rhetoric by Byron Pritchard. Gilbert & George were spotted wondering around.

Then came Saturday Night, Wednesday Morning / Cheap Laughs from photographer Katie Bagley and illustrator Ferry Gouw (who did the great artwork for Major Lazer). They showed their work and put on a mini-zine fest.

Nina Manandhar followed with her show and book launch: Money On My Oyster which was a photographic journey around London. The Oyster in the title refers to the travelcard you use and charge with money to pass through the ticket machines on London transport.

After came Jade, a group show from three artists: Amelia Barratt, Gabriela Boyd and Zara Idelson, whose work focuses on painting.

Gary Card, a multi-talented set, prop, costume, and interior designer, came along after with Abandoned Amusement Park Attraction, a show populated with strange big-nosed, open-mouthed, goggle-eyed characters sculpted from wire and 300 rolls of masking tape.

Following on was You from The Photocopy Club and Tim and Barry. The Photocopy Club invites artists from around the world to submit photocopies of their work to be assembled into monthly group shows. Tim and Barry are photographers and film-makers, often focusing on London’s underground fashion and music scene, particularly Grime.

This lot of had loads of fun with their show. They had a photobooth, daily DJ’s and some freaky dancing.

The penultimate show was Kevin Morosky with A L L D A K I N G S R D E A D. Kevin is a London-based photographer and videographer with a passion for point & shoot and 35mm film. His core themes include reportage and documentary. The photos were beautiful, strong and sensitive.

Our final show was OR, a group show made up of Ruth Angel Edwards, Joshua Whitaker, Robert Kiff, Barclay Brennan and Amy Brooks. Amy even made us an awesome Michelberger Fountain!

We’d like to thank all the artists who came and showed their work and brought their love and energy and made the place so special. And of course, a shout-out to all the wonderful people who came by to take a look and have a drink. But most of all, the biggest thanks go to the amazing Deano and Missy whose hard work, commitment and vision made it all happen.

Deano and Missy (Or Meano and Dissy as they like to be called when they do their cross-dressing thing at the weekends) are our Fountain of Youth UK representatives. Apart from that, Deano also runs the impossibly cool Alibi bar in Dalston and they both run the completely famous Rita’s restaurant which, incidentally is re-opening in their very own space in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait for that!

And who knows? Maybe Eternal Youth will be back again next year…