No One is Innocent, the exhibition of little seen Sid Vicious photographs showing at the Proud Gallery until August (and previously noted by 3:AM), is reviewed by Sue Steward:
This exhibition, documenting fragments from the life of Sid Vicious, has a special pull for me, as I used to work for the Sex Pistols. But this only makes its inconsistencies more frustrating. The title questions Sid’s innocence and resurrects issues around his death from heroin, aged 21, in 1979.
Several contemporary photographers, including Janette Beckman and Adrian Boot, saw innocence in his clear-skinned face, knock-kneed goofing and unconvincing snarls in early 1977 — but within a year, others reveal the effects of drugs and body-cutting.
Disappointingly, the show’s random chronology offers no sense of this tragedy unfolding, and the caption information is erratic. Previously unseen images by two American photographers share one caption each for all their images. Richard E Aaron’s final Sex Pistols tour shots (1978) include the iconic photograph of Sid’s “Gimme a fix” chest-carving and a tight-lipped Johnny Rotten on what is possibly the night he walked out on the band.
The Independent catch up with Eileen Polk, contributor to the exhibition and one of the last people to see Sid alive:
Eileen Polk was working as a photographer in New York at the time, and had become friends with many of the leading lights of the music scene. She knew Debbie Harry and Frank Zappa and had dated Dee Dee Ramone and the New York Dolls‘ Arthur “Killer” Kane. She took her camera with her wherever she went, and had gained the trust of those she photographed.
“You met people and then started photographing them rather than jumping straight in there like a paparazzo,” she recalls. “I wasn’t making much money out of it but I knew I was documenting something that wouldn’t be around for long. I knew that one day these pictures would be very important to people.”
Polk first met Nancy on the underground scene in New York in 1975. “She worked as a topless dancer and hung about with bands,” Polk remembers. “She was pretty honest about what she was doing. She was a groupie and had drugs to offer them. But it didn’t take long for her to wear out her welcome.”
The following year, Nancy went to London where she started her relationship with Sid and introduced him to heroin. When the Sex Pistols split, the pair relocated to New York and Polk was welcomed into the fold. She remembers Sid as “being weak when it came to drugs but fearless when it came to performing and being an icon. He wasn’t afraid to wear those clothes and stand up to those who criticised him. But he also had severe mood swings, even before Nancy died. He could be really funny, making obscene gestures and generally goofing off. The drugs probably induced some sort of depression, but I think he had problems even without that. Nancy definitely had some sort of mental illness and you’re attracted to people like you. Whatever Sid had, I wouldn’t want to give it a name.”
Also forming part of the exhibition are clips from Alan G Parker’s forthcoming film, Who Killed Nancy?
Sid Vicious: No One is Innocent, Proud Gallery, 4 June - 12 August 2008
First posted: Thursday, July 3rd, 2008.
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