The ballad of RAY + JULIE
Alan Dunn & Brigitte Jurack
The story of Liverpool’s mythical public artwork.
Named by The Guardian as one of Britain’s top ten secret public artworks, the RAY + JULIE sculpture was created by artists Alan Dunn and Brigitte Jurack in November 1995.
Millions have seen RAY + JULIE – two metal chairs facing each other – since they first appeared on London Road, yet the sculpture was only meant to last six months until the new tram system arrived. Commissioned by Visionfest and the Furniture Resource Centre, and named after a romantic piece of graffiti on the back wall of the derelict plot, nobody knows who the original RAY + JULIE were.
Now sitting within the Fabric District regeneration zone, RAY + JULIE have inspired a series of poems, songs, CD covers, theatre plays, short stories, films, recordings and photographs. This exhibition contains photographs from 1995 and the 96 page book with 82 colour illustrations tells the story of RAY + JULIE with essays from Jeff Young and Andrew Taylor and 23 years worth of photographs that trace some of the extraordinary mythology – the New Order and Dogs Trust murals, eviction notices, St Georges Hall ghosts, lost cinemas, Roxy Music, billboards, halos, barbers, Everyman Theatre plays, spaghetti hoops and Bob Dylan.
The 96 page book, including 82 colour illustrations and essays by Jeff Young and Andrew Taylor, and Published by erbacce-press, a small publishing-house based in Liverpool UK working as a writers’ co-operative, is available for £20.00 from: www.erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk
Also available, the RAY + JULIE 7” single: www.alandunn67.co.uk/londonroad.html
