Waiting for Instruction

Waiting for Instruction marks 30 years since Kid Acne first adopted the name in 1996. Rather than presenting a career-spanning retrospective, the book returns to the formative period that set everything in motion. Kid Acne's practice was shaped in the overlap between rave and hip-hop culture, independent music, hand-made fanzines, DIY ethos and graffiti. This was a moment of experimentation and self-organisation, before 'Street Art' existed as a recognised category. Through drawings, sketchbooks, early zines, record sleeves, posters and archival material, Waiting for Instruction traces the development of a visual language that continues to evolve today. The book returns to this period not to monumentalise the past, but to examine the conditions that made the work possible. It situates Kid Acne's early practice within a constellation of music, image and underground exchange, revealing how those formative energies continue to inform the present.