BINGE & PURGE IS THE PROUD HOME OF ARTISTS BOTH LOCAL AND OUT OF STATE! Here is a list of of artists we house at B&P!
DILUENT/WASTE - Mixed-media prints of the grotesque, magnets depicting memories of childhood and abuse, specimens in jars, beaten baby dolls and plenty of roadkill!
RICHARD SAENZ - Houston, TX based fashion designer delving into unconventional clothing (de)construction techniques including shredding, burning, asymmetry & fraying! (www.richardsaenz.com)
MICHAEL STAZNE - Beautiful origami resin flower hair pieces and necklaces from STL collector of the strange and local dance crazed sexpot!
BEQI CLOTHING - Accessories and clothing that mix both vintage and vintage-inspired pieces. Beautifully constructed clothing and over 40 pieces of fine jewelry including necklaces, rings, bracelets, hair pins and more! Good clothes for bad girls!(www.begiclothing.com)
ERIC PENNISTON - St. Louis leather daddy has brought us a collection including a 2010 calendar of GIRLS WITH GUNS, Lobster barbies, leather skull masks and a large collection of amazingly constructed bondage collars in all of their chained, studded and ringed glory.
TWISTED - Telephone and data wire jewelry including bracelets, earrings and necklaces made by local vintage addict Courtney Chelsey! (www.twistedhandmade.com)
LAUREN B. - This badass local babe has brought us items both vintage and hand-made. Self diagnosed purveyor of cool, old shit. Items include crafted rings made using vintage hair barrettes, miniature toys, 80's magnets and more, as well as ART JOURNALS made from 100% recycled art school reject paper and genuine vintage ephemera. This just among the many other groovy goodies. (www.madebylaurenb.com)
THE SIREN'S TWITCH - Our new friend Heidi from Texas has sent us lovely pendants/necklaces made with images of 20's & 30's "steam-punk" flappers in a transparent - square resin shell. They are quite stunning. Where some glamour around your neck!
DAVID LANGLEY - David did two mixed-media on wooden box frame pieces for a Naughty Gras show and decided they were aesthetic mates with our humble abode. There is nudity involved & they are glorious.
David is one of Ashley's favorite local artists. Here's a quote from an article about him in DON'T Magazine out of London : "Langley leaves us to form our own questions and find our own answers. His collaged and gel transferred images and motifs are pieces of a freeform puzzle that he assembles to create an impression of a future that we can only see through a glass darkly." (myspace.com/artoflangley)
DOUBLE FELIX - Two ladies with a knack for making cutesy, fun and functional wallets and coin purses using fine fabrics and mixing screen-printing and felt detail for the perfect amount of flare!
JENNIFER WEIGEL - Fine creator of the deer hoof doorknocker on the counter that everyone is always so curious about! Jennifer also has two humorous pocketbooks on The Seven Holy Virtues & The Seven Deadly Sins written in modern haiku.
WE ALSO HAVE ITEMS FROM LOCAL PREACHERS BIG MUDDY RECORDS, GET BORN & JIM SWILL. ALL RIGHT HERE IN THE BLEEDING STOMACH OF OUR CITY, CHEROKEE ST! CURIOUS ARTS, VINTAGE GARB, MODERN WONDERS & TREASURES FROM THE PAST! STOP IN & GET WITH IT!
Our obsession with the forgotten is obvious, seeing as we have an entire store based around discarded treasures, but amongst all of found curiosities and wonders pouring over in our neon layer, the photographs are the favorite. Hands of all kinds rummage through the red 60's suitcase in hopes of finding the most charming or bizarre image someone has left behind. Faces and places unknown to the next potential owner, but it's what is on the little black & white 4X6 image that is striking with it's still story to tell. Personally collecting for some time, I've found some amazing images hiding in the basement of an estate sale or in the back corner of a thrift store, including a pie eating contest at a carnival in the 1930's, a photo of a group of men in drag at a college party in the 40's and a wedding shot of Little Tom Thumb and his second wife, which is the prize of the collection.
I've been looking through our box of about 200 or so images today, and there are some strange, interesting and beautiful shots. One of an outhouse in the country that has an illustration of a spider web and a little poem that reads, "Here the spiders spun their web, to catch the buzzing flies, that flitted to and from the house, where Ma was baking pies." A weird on indeed. A group of 1930's college girls sunbathing, a still life of 1950's household items, teenage dance parties, weddings, summer vacation, crying children, stern husbands, primed wives, cocktail parties, drunks on the beach, some with notes on the back but most are left up to you to decide it's story. Come take a look back at a one of a kind past. All images found in random locations across the greater St. Louis area. Take someone else's memories home with you! .50 EACH!
