2010 is the year that the legendary Glastonbury festival came out. As a way of celebrating their 40th year they created Block 9 a whole field of gay party nonsense. It housed club installations The NYC Downlow and London Underground, both by radical set designers Gideon Berger and Stephen Gallagher of Block 9. The weather and moods of the revelers were stunning. A perfect English summer, no rain, no mud. The festival had a great sense of warmth, energy and love about itself. At night Horse Meat Disco rocked it in the NYC Downlow tent. GutterSlut and Hot Boy Dancing Spot heated up the Vogue Fabrics tent. Horny trannies, performance artists, club kids, bears, geeks and freaks of all sexual perversions mixed and matched and partied! Some dropped like flies in the morning heat, a field of ‘trannies unplugged’ was a unique sight I never witnessed but wish I had. 
Lovebox Festival in London was equally special. It has become a must do event on the bristling summer calendar. Set in Victoria Park, London’s oldest public park (and one of its most beautiful, too), it felt like back at Block 9 in Glastonbury, this time ‘London edition’. The Festival was extended by an extra day, the first time since its interception seven years ago. Sunday was ‘gay day’, and just like in Glastonbury’s Block 9, the crowd was a mix of all of the above. 
For all of our friends in London, here’s a group show that promises to be really good. Most of the artists you may know about from the pages of EVB - Ignacio Lozano, Florent Routoulp, Ryan Pfluger, Stuart Sandford and Jeff Hahn - and some have yet to find their way to us - Eiki Mori, Sakiko Nomura and Daniel Karlsson. So if you’re around, get over to Brick Lane (skip the curry) and check them out.
From the press release: Boy BANG Boy is a provocative exhibition celebrating the image of the boy. The exhibition brings together selected artists, from around the world, who work predominantly with the photographic image. The artworks presented are prevalent, whether intentional or not, of narcissism, egoism, voyeurism and the romanticism found or achieved in everyday life.
In both artistic and commercial photography there is a well established genre of the image of the boy; a fashion magazine’s staged snapshot of a lean young man - he is Narcissus, the unobtainable beauty. Whether the artist strives for reality or has created an alternative world of fantasy, photography’s ability to deceive is one of its most intrinsic values and the medium’s inherent voyeuristic nature cannot be denied.
The internet age allows an entire generation to willingly broadcast its most personal moments to the world. Gone are the manufactured idols of Saturday morning television the broadcasted images of selected perfection - where the cool kid is the most lusted after. Today, anyone can be the star of the show. The short clips of overtly sexualized posturing or the half-naked bathroom snap shots are a dominant form of self-expression. The rise in access to all areas of what was once someone’s private life can be compared to the works in this exhibition - self portraiture, found image and the set piece snapshot. Quiet moments made suddenly very loud with the attitude and opinion of what it means to be a young male in an impossibly diverse world.
Boy BANG Boy is co-curated by artists Stuart Sandford and Sichi
and is presented by EASTGALLERY, 214 Brick Lane, London E1 6SA.
The exhibition launches on Thursday August 5th 2010 with a preview evening from 7pm.
Open until August 18th, Tuesday - Sunday, 1pm - 7pm.
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