BELT & JONNIE

For 50p it would do the job. Jonnie bought this belt from a charity shop in Edinburgh. As a fifteen year old he wore it with turned-up jeans, steel toe-cap DMs and a cut-off raincoat. It saw him through art college, across South America, he wore it for every job, girlfriend and club night that came and went. After the best part of twenty five years it is perfectly Jonnie shaped, even taken off at night and flung on the floor it forms his shape. And in spite of the length of time that he’s had it Jonnie has never obsessed over the belt. He has never worn it for luck or panicked about losing it. This year saw a big anniversary of Scratch, the hip-hop club that Jonnie co-founded. He’d been working 36 hour stints to finish both his freelance work and produce the videos, slide shows and art for the exhibition Scratch Expo 17. With half an hour to go, no sleep, an anxious curator pacing behind him, laptops that wouldn’t synch, Jonnie bent over to fix the projector and his belt broke.

23 Dec 2012