Clash by the Fireplace

SHEILA ROCK (B. 1952)
Clash by the Fireplace
signed and numbered '2/5' in ink (reverse)
handcolored print
21 × 28 inches (53.3 × 71.1 cm)
this is number 2 from an edition of 5
this work is sold unframed and unmatted

Upstairs at Rehearsal Rehearsals, the Camden warehouse the Clash had taken over as their own, the four members gathered themselves around an ornate cast-iron Victorian fireplace. Sheila Rock photographed the band inside that room in 1977, the year of the self-titled debut album and the year Topper Headon joined on drums, catching the Clash at the exact moment they would reshape the first wave of British punk. Mick Jones stands at the left in white with a sash and a Red Army patch sewn to the front of his shirt; Joe Strummer anchors the frame in a trench coat, cigarette in hand; the wall behind them carries chalked graffiti reading "Sub-way Sect with guests," a flyer-in-progress from the shared gig circuit the band ran through that year. The red accents running through the composition — the sash, the sticker, the patch — are not captured in-camera but hand-painted directly onto the finished print by Rock herself, pulling isolated flashes of color through what is otherwise a sepia-washed interior and placing the piece inside the specific hand-finished category of her Clash archive. The room, the graffiti, the mantel, the tinted print surface — the whole frame is as much a document of the Clash's working environment as it is a portrait of the band.