​ROGER ROTHSTEIN

 

 

Back in the 70s, I remember when I was just old enough to be released on my own for an hour at our local mall while my mom shopped at Macy's. Immediately, I would make a quick beeline for a tiny shop known as Spencer's. I found or lost myself in a world of burning incense, disco balls, a seemingly endless show of Lava Lamps, cheap plug-in op-art, the counter showcase of switchblade knives, roach clips with long feathers, rock-and-roll jean jacket patches and enamel pins, elaborate bongs and the obligatory rack of fuzzy, black-light-reactive, 24" x 36" boy's dorm room posters. The band AC/DC's Highway to Hell album image was popular on flocked velvet, as were the many zodiac and Kama Sutra diagrams, melting faces, and naked characters with giant afros lounging with big cats. 

 

At some point after the late 80s, a small gallery and print shop in the West Village called the Psychedelic Solution unfortunately shut its doors. This made my sourcing of the actual old first-run velvet posters and the original Fillmore East prints much more difficult. The saturated fluorescent look of the old, non-matrix, seven-color printed style is now gone, along with its lost ethos. Over the last decade, in my attempts to re-create the feelings and power of that special time, I have augmented my collage on black velvet palette with swatches of flocked, color-your-own velvet posters from toy stores.

 

- Roger Rothstein 

 

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