Edition XVI
January 2022
Editors Damian Rayne Gosia Malawska
Whats on 3-4......................................................................Alex Baker 5..................................................................Cecilia di Paolo 6-7.............................................................. Richenda Court 8-9..............................................The Artists Support Centre 10................................................................. Naira Mushtaq 11................................................................Camilla Hanney 12..............................................................Jose Garcia Oliva 13......................................................... Catriona Robertson 14-15.....................................................Hugh Wedderburn 16-18................................................................Juheon Cho 19.................................................The Galleries Association 20.............................................................Portobello Dance 21...............................................Piers, what’s on your mind? 22...........................................Theatre at The Muse -‘NoExit’ 23............’Looky here with Amir’ - Dematerialisation of value 24................................................Panic in corperate Babylon
About...
In our online version, we focus on partner organisations, guest artists and residents to bring you a preview of ‘what is’, and ‘what’s to be expected’. We also have links to a wealth of online content this month, including: sound art files for music producers, virtual tours and interviews with our partner organisation (The Galleries Association), and a cross-section of counter-culture to be found in West London The Muse was established in 2003 as an artist-led organisation, supporting both gallery and studio elements. Our gallery is situated in the heart of North Kensington, amongst the Georgian houses of Portobello Market. We host an annual residency programme with subsidised studio space and further show opportunities for recent graduates. We open our doors to artists throughout the year, curating the space to present a balance of emerging and established professionals. In 2020 we were proud to support three new residents and a diverse list of national and international artists. We hope you enjoy a collection of work in this periodical; hopefully, collectable images, whether online or printed — accessible art for our readership.
2022 continued... OFFICIAL ACCESS TO THE MUSE IN January Opening hours Thursday/Friday / Saturday/Sunday 12-6pm Please check our website for up to date information
The MUSE Gallery (UK Charity for the arts No.1162300) 269, Portobello Rd. London W11 1LR www.themuseat269.com info@themuseat269.com Twitter: Muse_Gallery 2
Cover - ‘Icon of an era’ (Portrait of Catriona Robertson by Damian Rayne)
This is Motherhood - Alex Baker
The personal project ‘This is Motherhood’ is a series of portraits of mothers feeding their children by British photographer Alex Baker. The images explore the themes of invisibility and judgement that some women feel after giving birth, particularly in relation to breastfeeding in public and extended breastfeeding of older children. Inspired by Magritte’s painting The Lovers, whose own mother commit-ted suicide, the series also touches on the subject of postpartum depression and the lack of public resources available. The images have been shown as part of the Spilt Milk exhibition in Edinburgh, Scotland in, September 2019, formed part of an exhibition in Porto Photo Fest 2019, and Dirty Pink Collective Exhibition in Valencia, 2021. The series has been featured by publications El Mundo and The Daily Mail following several high profile news articles of women being told to stop breastfeeding their children on international flights. The collection of images plus quotes from the women photographed about their experi- ences can be found on the instagram account www.instagram.com/_thisismotherhood. www.alexbakerimages.com www.instagram.com/alexbakerimages www.instagram.com/_thisismotherhood I use photography as a means for self- expression and exploration. I am influenced by personal experiences and self-reflection, and the world around me: politics and popular culture as much as visual artists from bygone times. I explore art as a social commentary. Championing subjects and themes that have been viewed as inferior or unimportant. Through representing the under-represented I can help inspire conversation and dialogue. I fully embrace the digital age and use traditional lighting techniques with contemporary image manipulation to create a painterly effect that echoes the great masters of the art world. Quotes: Carissa: “Quite often friends and family ask with that look of perplexity how long I plan on breast- feeding for. I have found that it is so common for people in our society today to find the thought of allowing a child to wean naturally uncomfortable, as if taking away the breast is a battle to be won and a lesson to be taught.” Eilidh: “I’ve had cracked broken nipples and then severe mastitis requiring antibiotics. It’s been a difficult journey but I refuse to give up because I know it will give the best start for my baby. I refuse to sit in a dirty bathroom stall to feed my baby when
Marta: “Breastfeeding is one of the most beautiful and committed acts a human being can do” Rebeca: “it appalls me that anyone has the right to ask a mother to stop something that is not only so natural but that is her way, sometimes her only way, to feed her baby. To think that you can be asked to leave your baby hungry so nobody can see your breast makes my blood boil. I find it incredibly insulting that some people feel the need to censor a breast because it implies there’s something sexual about the act of breastfeeding, which shows how twisted the mind of the observer is and has nothing to do with the mother feeding her child” Zoe: “Everyone I know has been supportive of myself and my son, and I think my biggest “critic” has been me! I’m worried about being seen as creating a “Robyn Arryn” (Game of Thrones reference) situation, even though no one has actually said anything about it, nor even looked at me funny (as far as I’ve noticed). Thankfully the city we live in is very child friendly, although I haven’t breastfed in public for about a year, or more” Geraldine: “I want to normalise breastfeeding. It’s about more than feeding, it’s so important for the baby and the connection you develop with your child is so beautiful that I wouldn’t want anyone to miss that. I believe it’s an important topic to talk about for awareness as lots of breastfeeding mums are criticised or judged and it is already not always an easy journey for them that it’s just make it worse and lots of mums just quit. They need sup- port.” Aria: “Breastfeeding is both beautiful and a natural part of life. I hope that with time as a soci- ety we can become less judgmental and more supportive of mothers.” Katy: “Nursing my two sons has been one of the most challenging, beautiful, and rewarding experiences of my life. I’ve been banished and supported by those near to me. I want women who have a difficult experience nursing, to know they can do it. I would like the public to be more informed, compassionate, and supportive of mothers doing their best for their babies regardless of how and where they choose to feed them.” Kat: “a family member gave me a weird apron that I didn’t get. She told me it was for covering the baby/boob while feeding. I never used it as I felt that it implied shame.” Janett: “I have suffered from postpartum depression and anxiety, and too often have felt lonely and forgotten by the rest of the world during these struggles. When I initially became a mom and found myself spending all day, everyday for months feeling like I’m constantly giving and receiving little in return, I felt like I lost my identity and became a shell of a person.. that my sole purpose was to feed, bathe, play, change, and rock to sleep on repeat. I eventually learned that self care and self love, which are all too easy to ne- glect, were essential to becoming a happier mother.” Sam: “We started very easy and grew into a bit of pain in months 2-3. Eventually she grew back into her latch but it was stressful. Any issues - weight, eating solid foods, sleeping - all gets blamed on nursing.” Igsiga: “I breastfeed my child wherever and whenever she needs it. Sometimes people make comments about how big she is or how I should buy a dummy for her because she is using me like one. I have learnt that a baby is never going to ask for something they don’t need - there is no age limit for love or to cover your child’s needs.” Francesca: “The birth of a child is basically a trauma for a woman’s body, but there is a tendency to overlook this aspect, and a sort of resigned acceptance that the joy of motherhood comes in a package with exhaustion, health nuisances of various degrees, sore nipples, hormonal imbalances and possibly post-natal blues. All the attention is focused on the new life, but not enough attention is given to those who generated it. They say, if they knew what they were going to go through, no woman would have a baby! I feel that this is such a wrong and unfair mindset. Women should be more informed of what is coming, and should also be more physically, mentally and emotionally supported; not only by their families but by society as a whole. There are often too many demands and pressures put on a woman that just turned into a mother, and very little con- sideration of the fact that being a mother is a full time job, with hardly any time spent on caring for one-self in the first year of a baby’s life.” 3
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This is Motherhood - Alex Baker www.alexbakerimages.com
Cecilia Di Paolo. To the guys I’ve dated www.cecedipaolo.com 5
Richenda Court www.richendacourt.co.uk 6
Richenda Court www.richendacourt.co.uk 7
crit
for artists
Have you noticed how kind and positive feedback isn't actually that helpful? Sometimes you want constructive feedback, but it is hard to find. You ask a friend but... ... it is easier for them to say something supportive and nice! Are you looking to get critical feedback on your art practice?
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So who could you ask for honest and constructive feedback? Well, who better than your peers - other artists who are managing the same set of challenges that you are, that understand where you are coming from and what it is you need most. The Artist Support Centre gives you access to peer support through our crits. Having a crit is a great way to see where you are with your art practice and you get to hear valuable perspectives on the development of your practice.
silent crit
3-tiered crit
get constructive feedback from your peer group
a valuable opportunity for you to step away from your work and observe the dialogue that the work itself generates within the group. you will gain new perspectives and thoughts for your practice by observing how others engage with your work without your explanation.
our unique, 3-tiered comprehensive format designed by The Artist Support Centre. Helping you to examine how you and your art communicates to the world. you will discover how others engage with your artwork, how they respond to your artist statement, and finally how they respond to you - the artist.
join our artist crits gain new perspectives on your work visit The Artist Support Centre www.theartistsupportcentre.com
sign up at www.theartistsupportcentre.com/crit 9
Naira Mushtaq www.nairamushtaq.squarespace.com 10
Camilla Hanney www.camillahanney.wixsite.com 11
Jose Garcia Oliva www.josegarciaoliva.com 12
Catriona Robertson www.catrionarobertson.co.uk
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Hugh Wedderburn
Izit? and the ‘inner city, indoor hedge, the in-version of suburbia’, trees to replenish resources for future generations to carve Dear Gosia, Thank you for asking me to contribute to The Museletter; I am humbled to be asked by you. I live and work in Tabard Street with the sculptor Danuta Solowiej and our mathematician daughter, Józia. We care for Izit? a cat who continues to live with us as long as we provide for her. As a woodcarver trained in period styles, working traditionally with hand tools, finding myself accompanied with Muse Gallery Artists might initially seem strange, but I am pretty comfortable. I see no philosophical or artistic distinction. Art is the art of stimulating thought. That my work is easily accessible does not make it superficial. Once engaged, the underlying ideas are to be sought out, recognised and contemplated. At the most fundamental level, the materials are natural. The making is slow, and in tune with nature; founded on sustainability and the knowledge that a living tree is already an object of beauty, the wood it provides has grace before it is touched by chisel. The Master Carvers’ Association, of which I am a member, are central to the Grinling Gibbons Tercentenary National Festival. To this end, we have been showing our work, living legacy, as an exhibition titled Art & Ornament. Our activity has been paused for the moment as, when planning, we were unsure of what restrictions Covid variants might cause. We hope to reemerge in the spring with a programme of events to see us through to the end of the tercentenary in August, listed on our dedicated website www.grinlinggibbons.uk Many thanks for your interest. Keep well, bye for now, Hugh. 14
Hugh Wedderburn, Abundant Harvest, Julia Brodie Collection
Hugh Wedderburn, Pan Music Stand, Temple Newsam Collection www.simonkiddfurniture.com/collaborations 15
Memories; Obersee - Juheon Cho’s latest practice
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Memories; Obersee, Juheon Cho’s latest practice, explores the memories of places, peoples and events that are left behind. The feeling of leaving places behind as we move from city to city, country to country, is shared amongst an entire generation where moving has become the norm. As the future marches ever onwards, we have memories of these places and an ever-expanding repository of memories that we place online, which leave us with a sense of loss when looking back on them. We may recall memories from a long time ago, but they are incomplete and lack richness. When our social media shocks us with a memory of a long-ago visited place or time, we are struck with a moment of joy as we relive the moment, which quickly fades away once we realise it is a ghost from the past, the exhausted (“L’Epuise) version of peoples and places that have been used up that we can’t go back to. We look at them fondly, but they are flat, shallow versions of a different reality that doesn’t exist anymore. Juheon uses her experiences of her time over the last three years living next to the Obersee during the pandemic to explore memories that have formed from the physical experience of being here in conjunction with the combined experience of the internet. With places being posted on social media repeatedly, she examined the physical Obersee and the virtual Obersee, seeing the differences and similarities in her experiences and the experiences of other people. One day she will leave Obersee, and the sensations she experiences will only be memories and images on the internet and exploring what that means is important as it speaks to the textures of the things that make us who we are. The hard reality that is confirmed via our senses, what we experience at the moment and the virtuality that we share through our memories and the internet coexist in us. As we build on our experiences, they settle within us, from reality to our purely mental state, in a continuous and seamless flow every second. When we recall these memories, they are changed and slightly different each time due to our state of mind and perception at the time. To aid us to anchor these fragments of memory, we draw upon the internet to provide us with images of places we’ve been or recordings of past experiences to use them to support the framework of memories that we have. They are incomplete experiences lacking the spark of reality. Like Dr Frankenstein, we try to bring to life the lifeless images to re-awaken the complete experience we once had but always fall short. This is the nature of the virtuality and of reality that Juheon displays through the creation of her Obersee memory artefacts. She aims to draw upon the virtuality and memories of Obersee and bring them back into reality to experience the memories again and restore them. When considering the location for bringing these memories to reality, it was not an accident that Juheon Cho selected Villa Heike. As Juheon’s work explores reminiscing within reality, the restoration of Villa Heike is connected to her work and the reason it’s been chosen as the location for her exhibition. She stumbled across Villa Heike and its history during a local art tour (Lange Nacht der Bilder 2019). Initially constructed in 1910, Richard Heike owned this Prussian 3 story villa. Built-in a Prussian style meant that it was drawing on styles and the history of Prussia, which harked back to the kingdom’s founding in 1525 up until its official end in 1947. When Soviet soldiers arrived in Berlin, they seized the villa from the family and killed Richard Heike in 1945. The surrounding area became a detention camp (Speziallager Nr.3) until it was handed over to the GDR in 1951, which continued to operate the area as a prison as well as making it home to the “Operative-Technische Sektor”. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the building was abandoned until the camp was finally restored. The building is a physical memory of the rich history of Prussia, and its restoration is the recollection of the beautiful memory of Prussia before the events that took place. This concept intrinsically links to the works and ideas that Juheon has been exploring. Juheon’s methodology and painting style also express and restore historical practices. The technique that she utilises to paint is a deep colour painting method and is a very traditional technique in Korea. It is a method of adding several layers of paint, creating a matte effect. Combined with another style of conventional painting found in Korea called Ideological landscape painting it has existed within Korea since 918 CE. It is the painting of ideological landscapes instead of an exact attempt to replicate what the artist sees. This landscape can represent anything the artist can envision, including dreams, ideas or memories. Memories; Obersee combines all the elements of memories, places, techniques. The considerations of the past that Juheon is summoning are done through many layers and lenses. Through the exhibition location, the subject matter, the method used and the practices employed all come together to create Memories; Obersee. When enjoying the exhibition, is it possible that you may be making memories that you will try to recall in the future and, looking back, will ask questions once more about our relationship with memories, the past and our attempts to trap our experience in the amber of the internet and digital photos? (Juheon Cho) www.jo-joo.com/
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Memories; Obersee - Juheon Cho’s latest practice 18
THE GALLERIES ASSOCIATION
www.thegalleriesassociation.co.uk
Galleries on the Tour David Hill Gallery 345 Ladbroke Grove, London W10 6HA davidhillgallery.net Design Museum 224-238 Kensington High St London W8 6AG designmuseum.org Elephant West 62 Wood Lane London W12 7RH elephantwest.art/ Frestonian Gallery 2 Olaf Street W11 4BE London frestoniangallery.com Graffik Gallery 284 Portobello Road W10 5TE London graffikgallery.co.uk
Japan House 101-111 Kensington High St London W8 5SA japanhouselondon.uk The Muse Gallery 269 Portobello Road W11 1LR London themuseat269.com Serena Morton Gallery 343 Ladbroke Grove London W10 6HA serenamorton.com Unit One Gallery|Workshop 1 Bard Rd, London W10 6TP unit1gallery-workshop.com Whitewall Galleries Central 100 Westbourne Grove London W2 5RU whitewallgalleries.com
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PORTOBELLO DANCE
www.portobellodance.org.uk www.kcaw.co.uk
Welcome to Our World of Dance Portobello Dance is a community initiative on the international stage. Through dance education and events, our established organisation runs and participates in various activities – locally, nationally and beyond. Based in North Kensington’s diverse Notting Hill, Portobello Dance School is a popular weekend destination offering children from 3yrs to adults training in Classical Ballet, Tap and Street. With our open doors policy, over 150 budding dancers pass-through for classes each week. The school’s high achievers often move on to further training or auditioning for the commercial dance world. Our professional dance trainers and visiting tutors encourage appropriate exams, such as the British Ballet Organisation’s (BBO) curriculum – for which the passing record is exceptional. Annual school performances allow families, the local community, sponsors and patrons to experience our work, whilst a variety of local and national events showcase the school through its Student Performance Group. Widening our mission, the school Outreach programme takes our training and mission to other schools around the Boroughs of London. We encourage students to visit inspiring dance events, including ‘Classically British’ (part of Black History Season), which highlights the overwhelming talent of the UK’s multicultural choreographers and dancers, often featuring upcoming talent from the school. Our vision is to provide access to excellence, so whether you’re interested in our school or how we promote dance beyond it, simply step in! 20
PIERS, what’s on your mind?
Hi Piers, what’s on your mind? (The sound of music is heard) Oh, ok, everything is… it’s not going very well. No, it’s chaos Damian which I don’t associate with you You know my level of professionalism Piers Well, the biggest thing on my mind at the moment is covid, because I’ve finally got it. Have you, congratulations, how are you feeling? I am completely asymptomatic. I briefly had a headache on Sunday evening and then tested positive on Monday Morning. I spent all of last week socially distancing myself from my own family because two members of my family had covid. So even on my wedding anniversary, which was last Thursday. Happy wedding anniversary Even on my wedding anniversary, I had to socially distance myself from my wife, after twenty-seven years uhmmm… I actually, funnily enough, I think I finally got it at a football match which is a place I have always been very confident that I wouldn’t get the virus because it’s outside. And there were lots of people who I had never seen before, and guess what I got covid, uhmmm. What covid has allowed me to do actually, funnily enough, I am sitting at home in bed, completely asymptomatic, there’s one member of my family or should I say household who hasn’t had covid recently. So I am having to keep myself to myself, so I’ve been sitting at home in bed filling our grant applications. Great…so that’s for Portobello Hive? (www.portobellopavilion.london) Thats for Portobello Radio. Ok And what’s on the agenda for 2022? What’s the vision for Portobello Radio? What’s the vision for Portobello Radio, that’s a good question. Uhmm… one of these grant applications that I’ve just written, kind of says that we are running on this air and weened to get some finances to expand, the kind of services we are giving our community. We have already expanded a little bit so far as we are working with the Irish cultural centre in Hammersmith. And Im not sure if I am giving away any trade secrets, they actually give us a tiny bit of money every time we do a show with them. This works perfectly for us because it pays our basic expenses; I think I have told you before that we, shame on us, but we are not pirates, as we are fully legal. But that costs us a bit, so that’s umm, so our new relationship, The Irish Cultural Centre (www.irishculturalcentre. co.uk/), has allowed us to stay on an even keel. Without wanting to sound like a complete bread head, we are definitely looking at ways that we can make ourselves more sustainable financially; one of those ways we are looking at in fat is to sell NFT’s like kind of a crowdfunding exercise. You buy some dysfunctional digital library that you would get to own on the blockchain forever and ever; unfortunately, that’s running into problems cause I hadn’t realised until two days ago that the minting of a Non Fungible Token bit of Crypto art seems to take up as much energy. Its carbon footprint is as big as an EU family house footprint for two months. Well, how about that!!!
www.portobelloradio.com
Live, hosted by Isis Amlak, Greg Wier and Piers Thompson, is a vibrant 120 minutes of current affairs, community banter and local music. This Youtube live stream boasts a symposium of human rights, philosophy and chaos; all supporting human rights, the planet and of course an abundance of local talent, representing a counter-culture of north Kensington – the birth place of some of the best of British culture and armchair revolutionaries. Watch every Friday between 16:00 – 18:00 at: https://bit.ly/37TmmML or check socials at www.portobelloradio.com for live links, playlists and trivia.
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‘Looky here with Amir’ A forensic look at the Volksgeist
The Dematerialization of value by Amir Dehghan
“Bored Ape” series (NFT) by Seneca
“Everydays: first 5000 days” (NFT) by Beeple
To break down what an “NFT” is, we must understand its abbreviation, “Non-Fungible Token”. “Non-fungible” more or less, means that it (artwork) is unique and irreproducible. It is like owning Pollocks “No17”, rather than buying an edition of prints, there are multiples of the print but only one “No17”, an NFT is like a digital “No17”. This is a one-of-a-kind digital file that can be a JPEG, MP4s, GIFs, etc, that is digitally exchanged between artist and collector; its authenticity is certified via a blockchain record that encodes its provenance, a smart contract that defines the conditions of its transfer. NFT’s have been the most disruptive art movement we have seen in decades, but how do we determine what is and is not art? What does and does not hold value? The topic of NFT’s is hugely polarized, and the debate is always about ‘value’, with the most expensive NFT being Beeple’s “Everydays: first 5000 days”, selling for $69.3m. In a 1957 paper, “The Stated Act”, Duchamp rebutted the elitist exclusion of “bad” art. The same snobbery is trying to reject NFT’s into the inner sanctum of the art world, ‘art may be bad, good or indifferent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way that a bad emotion is still an emotion.’ We can arguably see the value of NFT’s inclusion within the art world from this position. Duchamp also disagrees with the idea of equity “in artistic value: “Millions of artists create; only a few thousands are discussed or accepted by the spectator and many less again are consecrated by posterity”. It has passed the approval of the spectators (buyers) by garnering such high bids, and only posterity will determine its ultimate aesthetic value; nowhere Duchamp does not mention professional critics. Therefore, value is in the buyer’s eyes, not the critics trying to cancel NFT’s out of the art world; to quote one of many, Jonathon Jones from the Guardian stated, “NFT craze is all about ego and money, not art” to Mashable’s Amanda Yeo – “Think Crypto is bad? NFTs are even worse.” However, we could argue that such critics - those that occupy an elitist art club and believe themselves to be in a position to define what is and isn’t art – simply cannot keep up with the pace of the post-internet artists. In the age of visual reproduction, anyone can view the same image as the artwork’s owner photographed in a book or magazine by the twentieth century. Ownership brought access to the original, the bearer of the mysterious, pseudoscience ‘aura’ described by Walter Benjamin. In our post-digital age of pixelated proof, digital fraud and mass copyright infringement, the ‘aura’ is even more vital to the value of the work. Only now in our NFT age can the financial value be defined by the individual sitting behind their computer bidding for the JPEG of a pixelated monkey with a nose piercing. What NFT artists have formed is a post-internet, postcritique art world that is void of physical expectations. The practices of artists for who, unlike those of previous generations, the Web is just another medium - like painting or sculpture - create artworks that move fluidly between spaces—sometimes appearing on a screen, other times in a gallery. This infinitely malleable form of internet culture cannot be defined and positions it within a larger arena of criticism, taking it from the hands of an elitist few. As we’ve seen, critics tend towards a denial of post-internet modernism. It seems they cannot keep up with the tide. Even before the wave of NFTs, when going to an art gallery, we would expect to view a digital video or a digitally printed image, therefore why are the sales of JPEGs and MP4 under the umbrella term of NFTs caused so much outrage in the art world? They neither adhere to previous systems nor do they require their spaces which have caused the critics, who are set in their traditional ways, to erupt—leaving the previously platform-less digital artists to form their own eco-system that is unrestricted and public. NFTs have increased the capacity of the arena whilst also introducing safe spaces for both opposing teams to exist in. NFTs are born off the back of an age in which material prosperity and security for most people have dissolved – through a system that, unable to meet people’s needs, has dematerialized value.
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Panic in corperate babylon by Amir Dehghan
As Lee Scratch Perry would say in his 2004 track “Panic in Babylon”, “I am di upsetter”, Jonny Tanna takes the role of “di upsetter”, disrupting London’s corporate Babylon. His empire of pop-up galleries and studios in disused commercial/corporate spaces - a nomadic model that is a marriage of property management and the visual arts, has created an answer to the post-covid commercial property disaster by making the most of property rates relief. Tanna has come from a background of setting up his own syndicated shows back in 2015; since then, Tanna has unearthed a new niche of underground Art, underground spaces and voices that reverberate through the gaps in London’s streets. Tanna’s model utilises the rental rates relief, he provides a proven example of how to create a web of cultural hubs of the back of the post-covid property disaster, turning disused spaces across London into studios, galleries, music venues and workshops. Tanna’s project is aimed at addressing the increasing cost of studio spaces, exhibition spaces, music venues and other cultural spaces across London by providing an alternative model which benefits both landlords and artists, though relying on public, private and charity sector support. Harlesden High street acts as proof that galleries, artists, collectives and curators can syndicate space and attempt to put their stamp in London’s art scene with a minimal initial investment. The use of rates relief enables the running of art spaces by individuals who would otherwise wouldn’t be able to have access to their own spaces due to their financial situation. This proven model has enabled over 50 artists and curators to exist, learn, create and exhibit due to Tanna taking no or minimum rates from the artists and curators. Harlesden High street’s model is a template of a bounce board that fits into a niche that makes the most of our work-from-home age of empty office spaces. What is Harlesden High Street? Harlesden high street’s heartbeat is in the same tune as the late 70s punk movement, full of vital energy for social and political change, an ideology and an aesthetic. This raises the question of how Tanna’s approach fits within the art world? “I don’t; that’s why I built my own thing. We realise art folk aren’t as ‘woke’ as they make out to be and mostly hypocritical, classist and inherently racist. We’ll work with organisations and galleries that align with our moral compass and don’t bring that pious attitude with them. We’re happy to take opportunities, but we’re also aware, these aren’t our people.” – JT. Tanna is creating a nomadic place(s) of spirituality, where like-minded collectives of individuals can congregate to encourage new conversations and access new forms of stimulation – Harlesden High Street is the essence of a contemporary Artspace. It’s adjacent to London’s Art scene; it focuses on only POC, the under-represented, and does not align with traditional forms and models of galleries. Harlesden High Street is very much alive and moving, making the most of the work-from-home age we’re living in, making the most out of the post-pandemic commercial property crises by filling this city with artists. Since 2015, Tanna has formed a collective of “upsetters”, artists, curators and technicians that are entrusted with disrupting central London’s corporate focus by the transformation of Tanna’s spaces. All of these “upsetters” have the same “collective will” that philosopher Michel Foucault describes, “the collective will is like god, like the soul” Tanna has created a form of cultural spirituality that empowers people of colour that are fueled by action, in alignment with Tanna’s idea of activism – “not sitting at home shouting at the world from your phone”. Community is at the centre of Harlesden High Street; Tanna directly feeds from giving back to the people, “providing opportunities to those who work with us and helping them develop, learning off one another as we grow” Harlesden High street acts as a temple for artistic growth and progressive artistic discourse, a temple that the Dalai Lama would inevitably be a part of if he had an MA from Goldsmiths. A refreshing project that proves that all you need is a vision, a will, a strict philosophy and a small initial injection of money to start your own artistic temple. Harlesden High Street’s rates relief model is the spirit of contemporary, youthful. The nature of Harlesden High Street is nomadic and therefore adaptive to the changing climate, and Tanna is going into 2022 “learning from our past mistakes and keeping our heads down”. Harlesden High Street acts like lychem, occupying the spaces between the gaps of London Babylon, forming a homogenous super-power that is responsive and adaptive to the harsh surroundings it finds itself in.
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