Margaret Street Free Arts Council (MSFAC) is a punk art collective currently based at the Edge, Cheapside. Since its formation at Margaret Street School of Art, it has been gaining strength and ferocity in its attack on political and social evils. MSFAC promotes free art that involves the grass root level disillusioned with 'Democracy'. Amongst their many creative outputs is the newspaper Distrakshun Press, as well as free head shaving, printmaking, ukulele-making workshops in solidarity with punk and anarchist movements.
For the Digbeth gallery late opening on 17 May, MSFAC launched their new exhibition in collaboration with Dan Salisbury. In their signature hand-made fashion, hand-painted wall texts and placards made sarcastic remarks on Captialist Realism, quoting the likes of Frederic Jameson and Mark Fisher. On the ceiling hung the cardboard piñatas depicting the word 'POMO', next to them were a set of bats, tempting the audience to take charge and destroy 'Postmodernism'. By the end of the exhibition, the piñatas were shredded to pieces, achieving the artists' purpose to remove the demarcation between 'art' and 'protest'.
Having talked to Amy, Niall and Matt, founders of MSFAC, I can't help but to admire their genuine commitment, their insight into thetheoretical and practical implication of their activities. As they have declared on their blog, MSFAC is a rebellious 'council of working artists' that aims to one day overthrow the 'market obsessed government art council'.
Tessa Mo, Project Volunteer
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