Secret 7" is Back and Wants You to Speak Your Mind

Taking place at The Jetty in London’s Greenwich Peninsula’s Summer Hub, Secret 7” is back from a one year hiatus. This year seven tracks from musicians The Clash, Eurythmics, Jeff Buckley, Jimi Hendrix, London Grammar, Manic Street Preachers and Primal Scream were selected to be pressed one-hundred times to a 7” vinyl resulting in 700 records. Individual sleeves are picked from painters, illustrators, designers, photographers, graffiti artists and sculptors from around the world, who submit their unique interpretations of one of the tracks. All 700 distinct sleeves are exhibited before being sold on a first come, first served basis, in the past people have camped overnight outside the show to ensure their opening place in line. Purchasers won't know who the sleeve is by or even what track it's for until they buy the £50 record. Past contributors included big names such as David Shrigley, Gilbert & George, Ai Weiwei, Sir Paul Smith, Sir Antony Gormley, Jeremy Deller, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Yoko Ono, Sir Peter Blake, Julian Opie, Martin Parr, Jenny Holzer, Harland Miller, and Gavin Turk. The sleeves styles range from hand-drawn illustrations, to digital work, to 3D interpretations.

The money raised from each record sale will be donated to Mind, a mental health charity. Mind is committed to creating a space where anyone with a mental health problem can find advice and support. Secret 7” has also partnered with Squarespace to launch Speak Your Mind. DIA Studio and Zach Lieberman partnered to create a web-based generative expressive type application for Speak Your Mind,  which allows the user to create unique posters that will be printed and displayed at the show. Each poster is based on one of the seven emotions featured in each one of the selected musical numbers. Once a user selects an emotion, the poster can be customized by color, speed, leading and scale, distorting the generative typographic artwork. Squarespace will donate £1 to Mind up to the amount of £4000 for each generative poster that is shared on social media. Overall, Secret 7” will be a fun and interactive exhibition where attendees can help raise money via their social media, artistry or plain-old cash. 

Words: Paola de Oliveira
Photos: Squarespace