JADE JAGGER On rocks and rock’n’roll

22 23
art
It’s taken a while for Chris Bracey to acknowledge that what he
does is art. Bracey has been making neon signs for over 30 years,
but it’s only relatively recently that he’s been selling through
auctioneers and galleries. “About three years ago, Phillips de Pury,
the auctioneers, approached me about selling some [works] – I put
three in the auction and they went for £15,000 each,” he says,
evidently still excited by the fact. “The day after that, Guy Hepner
called me from Los Angeles. He’s got an art gallery, he does, like,
Warhol, Lichtenstein, Banksy, you know, Mr Brainwash and all that,
and then he started selling my stuff. So I was falling in line behind
Warhol, Lichtenstein and Banksy. I didn’t mind being in fourth
position – it’s alright to be behind those guys.”
This month marks Bracey’s first UK solo exhibition, at Mayfair’s
Scream gallery. Entitled I’ve Looked Up to Heaven and Been Down
to Hell, it’s a dazzling collection of neon signage and sculpture that
references everything from pop lyrics, tattoo culture and the sex
industry to religion and existentialism. Neon, with its seedy
connotations, is used to great effect juxtaposed with the figure of
Christ or an angel, or emphasising the hollowness of promises of
“paradise” or “utopia” (in fact, it’s surprising how sinister such a
bright, colourful medium can be if you put your mind to it).
In sophistication and intent, the works are a far cry from the
creations of Bracey’s father and grandfather, who were neon signmakers
for fairgrounds and amusement arcades. But Bracey clearly
remains keenly aware of the debt he owes them and the proud
tradition he comes from. “I’ve grown up with it – I’ve got neon
flowing in my blood, you know, and neon – it’s 101 years old. It’s not
a mainstream product made by General Electric or in a factory. It’s a
bunch of guys like me that work in small studios, nearly all taught by
their fathers, and their fathers were taught by their grandfathers,
doing the same process.”
It took a while, however, for Bracey to see that neon could be art
with a capital A. “I didn’t consider it an artform,” he admits. “I
considered it an industrial product.”
To begin with, it was the sex industry that benefited from his
talents. He was largely responsible, he says, for setting Soho aglow
with bright-pink signage in the Seventies.
“I was the first one to use ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ in Soho,” he says.
“I used to make neons for the Raymond Revue Bar, and all that. But
I was kind of public enemy at that point. I was the Banksy of sex,
because I didn’t ever apply for planning consent or anything, I just
used to go in under cover of darkness, and turn a business
overnight into a sex business. I used to make all the names up, use
all the colours and just put whatever I wanted, you know: ‘Dreaming
Lips’, ‘Rude Encounter’, ‘Find Love Upstairs’. I just did whatever I
wanted to do.”
Bracey was up a ladder plying his craft one day when a
frustrated art director came his way. Chris Townsend, who was
working on the film Mona Lisa, starring Michael Caine and Bob
Hoskins, had been having trouble talking the club owners into letting
him shoot scenes in the area. “I said, ‘Oh, it’s because you’re not
connected – you don’t know the right people,’” says Bracey. “I said,
‘Well I’ll get you in, if you give me the job of making all the signs for
the front of these places, where you want to change them.’ By this
point I was sick of doing sex signs in Soho because it was murder
getting the money.”
With his foot in the door of the film industry, Bracey quickly
found his niche specialism much in demand with everyone from
Stanley Kubrick (on Eyes Wide Shut) to Tim Burton (Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory). The art and fashion worlds were quick to follow,
with Bracey commissioned by David LaChapelle, Martin Creed,
Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood.
Moving from creating neons for other artists to creating his own
standalone works of art, some made from scratch, others fashioned
from reclaimed bits of film sets or vintage advertising hoardings,
Bracey’s collectors now include Kate Moss, Jude Law, Elton John
and Lady Gaga. “Gordon Ramsay’s got one, and Jamie Oliver’s got
one,” he says. “I seem to be quite popular with chefs for some
reason. If you’re very driven, you seem to be attracted to neon.”
And what about his own enduring love affair with the medium?
“There are loads of different forms of light source, but for me, neon’s
got a spirit, it’s got a life, you know?” he says. “Neon, when it’s
switched off, is dead. When you put the electricity on, it’s almost like
being Professor Frankenstein.”
Chris Bracey: I’ve Looked Up to Heaven and Been Down to Hell is at
Scream gallery from April 12. Tel: 020 7268 9857.
The light fantastic
CHRIS BRACEY WAS TAUGHT
THE ART OF NEON SIGN-MAKING
BY HIS FATHER, WHO WORKED
FOR FAIRGROUNDS AND
AMUSEMENT ARCADES. BUT
BRACEY TOOK A DIFFERENT
CAREER PATH, FIRST LIGHTING
UP SOHO’S SEX INDUSTRY AND
NOW DAZZLING THE ART WORLD
ABOVE: NO PLACE
LIKE UTOPIA
LEFT: SHINE A LIGHT
IN THE DARKNESS OF
YOUR SOUL
OPPOSITE: HANDS
OF GOD
© CHRIS BRACEY,
COURTESY OF
SCREAM GALLERY
ART: Nuala Calvi
nuala@pubbiz.com