Spike ePaper (Issue 57): The 80's

“There is no such thing as society,” Margaret Thatcher said in 1987, ushering in a dismantling of the welfare state, careerism, selfishness and lobby renovations. A rabid free-for-all for those with something; a big betrayal for those who would be left with nothing. But there was also a growing sense of community. In England workers took to the streets, in New York there were protests against the cynicism of the government’s response to the AIDS crisis. And for part of the art world, political collective engagement was more important than the market. With Dean Kissick on i-D, Natasha Stagg on 80s style, gallerist Helene Winer on the New York art scene,  a conversation with Gran Fury, and Fiona Duncan on Pippa Garner, our writers bring us a universe with no fixed beginning and more ends for ever night.