From November 2009 to May 2011 we ran a monthly clubnight and exhibition space at Corsica Studios in Elephant & Castle. After 23 events we’ve put on about fifty bands, over a hundred dj sets, exhibited numerous artists. Resident DJs Nasty McQuaid and Tomfoolery.

Artists to have graced the stage include; Becoming Real, Kwes, Connan Mockasin, Vondelpark, Theophilus London, Egyptian Hip Hop, Dels, Sampha, Bo Ningen, Is Tropical, D/R/U/G/S, Jam City, Hounds of Hate, Fiction, The Vaccines, Lovvers, Crystal Fighters, Paul B Davis, Gyratory System, SCUM, Friendship, Radiant Dragon, Bradley Zero, Chik Budo, KURTZ, Plugs, Acres Acres, The MORE

An archive of images taken over the years from various events we’ve hosted.

Outside of the clubnights at Corsica Studios, we’ve run irregular nights across the capital, featuring artists like Sic Alps, Deep Sht, Cold Pumas, L-Vis 1990, Bok Bok, Girl Unit, Jam City, Deep Teknologi, Lil Silva, Kingdom, Greenmoney, Tomb Crew, Tippa Irie, Actress, SBTRKT and a host of others.

In the summer of 2009 we held a week long showcase of art and music in East London. We worked with Kruger Magazine, Backyard Records, Night Slugs, Holy Roar Records, Too Pure Singles Club, No Pain in Pop and Fact magazine, curating music events at The Old Blue Last, Barden’s Boudoir and Vibe Bar.

A week long exhibition was also curated by Off Modern and Friendly Street Gallery, featuring the work of South London based artists, ran in the gallery room at Vibe Bar, and featured work from Bradford Bahamas, Aaron A. Angell, Mitchell Bridges, Yuri Pattison, MORE

Over the year’s of running our clubnight at Corsica Studios, we commissioned our friend James Kirkup to produce a series of posters for our events. The are all quite beautiful, and can be purchased here.

Coalition was a special one off event in a hastily assembled club in the Woodmill Gallery and Studio Complex. A collaboration between the band KURTZ and art group Bradford Bahamas, who together presented a special, one-off, half hour long audio/visual performance.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

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For No Pain In Pop’s Nail The Cross Festival in 2010, we were commissioned to provide art for Take Courage Gallery, instead we decided to decorate the streets of New Cross. We choose to get some posters made up with fun slogans like ‘Beware, Be Prepared and Be Armed’ and fly postered them around.

The Off Modern Journal was a publishing project we did in 2010, in association with The Tate and with support from the ICA.

The Journal contains a mixture of art writing, fiction, theory, illustration, collage and photography representing the work Off Modern and our immediate circle of collaborators. The work ranges from the ‘Second OM Manifesto’ and ‘No New Avant Gardes’, by Off Modern, laying out the ideas of the group. Will Shutes details his vision of a future literature in “A Note On Newness’ and the photography collective Holy Ghost present an illuminating report on the Temporary MORE

In November 2009 we heard on the grapevine that some friends of ours had managed to break into an empty strip club in Mayfair. We drove down The Mall in a white van with a load of speakers in the back. When we opened it got really busy, Fiction played live, Tomfoolery dj’d, it was so much fun that the police turned up but we didn’t let them in because they didn’t have guestlist.

For our first ever club night we made a small zine. Dazed and Confused described it as having ‘one foot staunchly rooted in the humble aesthetic of bedroom zines and the other one in art school corridors’, which sums it up very well. It sold out a long time ago, so it’s bound to end up some sort of collector’s item in decades to come.

In May 2009, in collaboration with Corsica Studios, we took over an empty unit of the Elephant & Castle Shopping Center to host an exhibition for a week. Hundreds of people poured through the arcades to view new work by Bradley Zero Philip, Guy Gormley, Will Jarvis, Ben Freeman, Sam Craven, Tom Harrad, Bradford Bahamas, Johnny Pinchard, Yuri Pattison, Mitchell Bridges, Charlesworth Lewandowski and Mann, Claire Baily and Harry Beer.

Seven people. Seven disposable cameras. One document of a night at Off Modern.

In November 2011 we were commissioned to curate a special, one-off event taking place throughout the Foyers, Art Gallery, and labyrinthine corridors and public spaces of The Barbican Centre. Featuring visual and performance artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians engaging in the deconstruction of the spatial experience and architecture of the Barbican, and mapping futuristic scenarios.

Art Was Provided By

Maelstrom by James Bulley and Daniel Jones A sonic sculpture that sources sound fragments uploaded to the internet to create a score of infinite chord variations from the collected data.

Live From Distant Shores by Lewis Teague Wright MORE

Installation. November 2009. Images by Ted Wiliams.

For one night only we transformed Son gallery into a fully functioning club, comissioning artists Lepke B, Daniel Swan, Henry Mackay-Bull and Nevine Mahmoud to produce work for the event. Koudlam and Hounds of Hate played live and dj sets came from Bullion, Hackman, Dark Sky and Paul B. Davis. VBS covered the project and Tiger gave us a load of free beer.

On July 28th we descended on the banks of the Seine along with Corsica Studios, to throw a party on Le Batofar, Paris’ premier floating nightclub. We commissioned four flags from artists Philipp Von Frankenberg, Daniel Swan, Tasha Cox and Tom Harrad, and hung them about the boat as if it’d been captured by arts graduate pirates. Rumbling Dj sets deep in the underwater belly of the ship came from Space Dimension Controller, Will Saul, Tom Boogaloo, Mr Solid Gold and Hesseltime while we took care of the silent disco on the deck. It was fun.

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We’ve been running a monthly show on Dalston’s premier online radio station NTS since it’s inception back in July. Guests have included Variable 4, Paul Purgas, Gabriel Bruce and Leith WaterWorld, all chatting about their various musical projects. Sometimes we don’t have guests and just talk idly amongst ourselves, mindlessly chattering and playing an hour or so of beautiful, strange, weird and new music.

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In 2009 we ran a stage as part of Stag and Dagger, running an exhibition and club with our buddies Top Nice.

Top Off. Not the most creative portmanteau you’ll ever hear, but their combined eclecticism more than made up for it – Our stage at The Book Club featured “Gameboy dancehall DJs” Hyper Black Bass, but also upcoming producer Sampha, Berlin-based pop artist Molly Nilsson, and a live photo-stream by Ivo Gormley & Gery Georgieva. Also featuring residents from Off Modern and Top Nice; Tomfoolery, Nasty McQuaid, Enchante and more.