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96.
ALCHEMICAL WEDDING.
Original poster announcing the 'Alchemical Wedding', a fundraiser for the Arts Lab and BIT organised by Jim Haynes and Jack Henry Moore at the Royal Albert Hall, December 18, 1968. Printed offset litho by The Word in chocolate brown ink on golden yellow paper. 76.5x51.5cm. Designed by Jack Henry Moore and Bill Levy. Illustrated with a woodcut from Johann Dryander's work on brain dissection, 'Anatomiae pars prior' (1537), with an added index finger placed perpendicular to the lips indicating the sign to be quiet (the image was widely appropriated and used everywhere from head shops, clubs, and books to rolling papers and T-shirts).
The event recalled the International Poetry Incarnation of June 1965 and featured various musicians and poets, an early screening of Nik Douglas's 'Tantra' film (co-produced by Mick Jagger and Robert Fraser), and most notably, John Lennon and Yoko Ono performing 'Bag Piece' together for the first time. In his review of the event, published in IT #47, David Mairowitz described how "they came out in black robes and disappeared under a white-cloth sacking. Nothing happened", then "emerged after about half an hour". Jim Haynes later recalled that "it meant a lot because it placed John and Yoko among us; it was as though they were with us. I think they enjoyed that feeling, and everyone there felt it's us, it's a community." (Thanks for Coming!, p.160).
Jack Henry Moore videotaped the entire evening using newly purchased equipment after the video recorder originally given to the Beatles by Capitol Records and subsequently donated to him by John Lennon had been lost. David Curtis remembers that footage from the event was sold to Dutch TV, and the new equipment's purchase cost, hire of the Hall and performers' fees were just about covered by the ticket sales (London's Arts Labs and the 60s Avant-Garde, p.84).
Slightly nicked and edge-worn, o/w Very Good.
Together with:
i) original mimeographed flyer announcing the event. 33x20.4cm. Reproduces the image from the poster. Old central horizontal fold, o/w Very Good plus;
ii) original sticker reproducing the image from the poster. Printed in brown on yellow gummed paper. 9cm. sq. Slightly creased. Probably intended for pasting up around town, including on the London Underground.
Provenance: Bill Levy.
