Museletter June/ July 219

Edition II June/July 2019 Damian Rayne

Editors Gosia Malawska

FEATURED ARTISTS

The Muse was established in 2003 as an artist-run gallery and studio with a programme centred around a residency program for recent graduates.`Artists are supported beyond their sixIsis Amlak James Murray month residency at The Muse through group and solo shows Corinne Charton Josephine Cottrell along side established artists featured throughout the year. The Chris Dawes Ian Robinson programme in 2019, curated alongside the residency, places an Ian Hawgood Samantha Y. Amit Rai Sharma emphasis on photography and its many iterations. The series Huang Stijn Hüwels Yambe Tam features four photographers, with very different and individual Ian Jeffreys Henryk ‘Hank’ Targowski approaches to capturing images; ranging from, early photograYuichiro Kikuma Mark Tamer phy techniques, experiments with vintage materials and techPiers Thompson nology, to current digital processes. The shows cover a wide The Museletter is a bi-monthly tabloid, curated by The Muse range of themes; representational and abstract, portraits, architecture – posed and incidental.

Gallery.

The objectives of the periodical are to spotlight life, arts and the counter-culture of West London; along side limited edition hard www.themuseat269.com/whats-on copy artworks, interviews, articles, and community insights.

The MUSE Gallery (UK Charity for the arts No. 1662300) 269, Portobello Rd. London W11 1LR www.themuseat269.com info@themuseat269.com Twitter: Muse_Gallery Instagram: Muse_at_269

MARK TAMER This is it For nothing can be sole or whole That has not been rent.

W.B. Yeats, Crazy Jane Talks With the Bishop

Mark is an experimental photographer working with both analogue and digital mediums. Through his work he is looking to find a balance between chance and control, and between; construction and destruction, signal and noise and ultimately, life and death. He embraces the accidents and errors as they not Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real. only remind us how vulnerable and delicate we are, they can ofCormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses ten show us something new. It is at the point of breakdown that the medium begins to reveal itself. Through glitches and misLook out honey, cause I’m using technology! takes we get to see the base elements, the very construction of Ain’t got time to make no apology the material that creates those illusions of reality, the apparatus Solar radiation in the dead of night of photography itself.

Love in the middle of a fire fight Iggy and the Stooges, Search and Destroy www.marktamer.co.uk Front cover: Mark Tamer, Yellow Ring Collage, Original Polaroid film mounted in frame. 1/1, 37cm x 37cm

ES E T. T 2003

MARK TAMER Colour Polaroid 041

“1 out of 100: an exploration of the artist through value based cognitive models”

by Amit Rai Sharma Imagine, you put on a solo exhibition and invite a hundred people.

Ninety-nine people are indifferent; although, they didn’t tell you outright that they didn’t like your work, you sense it – it hurts. You begin to get anxious thinking about just how much time and money has effectively gone to waste in this pursuit of being an artist. But then, one last person comes along and tells you how much your work touched them; that, despite what other people think, you must “never give up”.

You feel invigorated, vindicated even! With that one comment, you feel reassured that you’re doing the right thing. Why does this end up being the case for creative people? The following article will point to existing research and explore the idea that creative individuals may well (unintentionally) be victim to their own creativity.

Setting the scene, We fall in love with our creativity. And like love, we’re able to hate it as passionately as cherish it. We slowly begin to prioritize our creativity above other things; love that develops into a dedication and focus, sharpening the tools of our practice. It becomes obsession and through obsession, we begin to cultivate mastery. However, mastery doesn’t happen over-night – it takes time. And during this ‘time’ we inevitably expose ourselves and our work to public critique.

The effects, So then, what are the implications of this?

Well, investment starts early. Perhaps in school, or before, and the main investment is time. As we study more rigorously and begin to develop our careers, we invest financially; we buy materials, equipment and software. We pay for education, we rent studios, enter competitions, attend courses, art shows, museums, etc.

In our practice the outside-world can melt away. Our work gives us immediate feedback. We learn more about who we are each time, and so we allow ourselves more time to enjoy it and explore it. And if that happens enough times, we consider trying to make a career of it. In almost every case, once we’ve decided on pursuing a career in the arts, we’ve already made a value / identity assessment of ourselves and invested into it. In many ways, though it goes unsaid, we’re artists now – for better or worse.

drawing Amit Rai Sharma

The research, Daniel Rubenson and Mark Runco, in their ’92 paper; ‘A Psychoeconomic Approach To Creativity’, proposed the idea that personal investment of both money and time increases the value of our creative pursuits to us.

In his work on ‘flow’, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi outlined the phenomenology of enjoyment as having eight components: 1 - realistic possibility for completion of task 2 - concentration on task 3 - clear goals 4 - immediate feedback 5 - awareness of ‘outside world’ removed through deep, effortless, involvement in task 6 - a sense of control over actions 7 - self is ‘lost’ in task, only to re-emerge with a stronger identity after task 8 - time vacuum

From this point onwards, we are more likely to pursue art-adjacent opportunities, because we’ll value them higher on ‘Attainment’, ‘Interest’, and ‘Utility’ levels. However, it’s common for artists to ignore ‘Cost’ value. Why is this? Is it because we are driven so heavily to justify (and perhaps capitalise) on our initial investment as Rubeson and Runco suggest? Or is it because it’s partly balanced by the enjoyment and ‘flow’ achieved through our own practice? Viewing the creative pursuit through these lenses of value based cognitive assessment, brings to the forefront the heavy tax that comes to our judgements and decision making abilities. We, as humans, are constantly assessing and re-assessing all life choices in light of our ever-changing immediate positions. And these assessments are heavily swayed by the importance of our practice in our lives at that time.

Not all components are necessary to achieve flow, but only ONE is required to increase enjoyment.

It may be the reason why that one person is not just saying something nice, they’re in fact the viewpoint that aligns strongest with our identity; our sense of self-worth, and our sense of usefulness in this world.

That viewpoint allows us to ultimately continue doing what brings us the most joy in the world.

Further reading:

In the ‘80s, Jacqueline Eccles’ research was to do with how we value tasks. Her Subjective-Task Value (STV) model posits that our choices have 4 dimensions; - Attainment value; how close the choice will be to the sense of oneself - Interest value; how enjoyable the choice will be - Utility value; the perceived usefulness of the choice (especially how it fits with future plans) - Cost; to time & effort, finance, mental well-being, etc.

Runco, M. A. (2007). Motivation, competence, and creativity AND Eccles, J. S. (2007). Subjective task value and the Eccles etal. Model of achievement- related choices, both appear in A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation. New York: London: Guilford.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York: London: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Corinne Charton www.corinnecharton.com

1.

2.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

What is the best place to have a morning coffee locally?

My home Where is a good spot to meet folks, anywhere?

On many adult education courses and uni.

Where do you go for a walk, if you do?

In Central London, sometimes I walk from home. If I take the tube or bus in it happens that I walk back home Where do you go for a lunch, if you do?

Cibo Restaurant, Russell Gardens. The best Italian in London Is there anywhere you’d avoid after 7.00pm?

If it is very cold or wet… I’ll avoid most places before and after 7.00pm. Otherwise… no.

How would you describe smell of Notting Hill?

I wouldn’t If Portobello Road was a flower…?

Well it isn’t Where would you take a kid for a few hours in the area (ideally yours).

Holland Park Where are the best places to see art in the Portobello Area?

The Muse Gallery If Portobello was a song, what would it be?

I don’t know? However the movie Mary Poppins and its associated tune come to mind.

Do you think there is hope?

For what?

What would you recommend doing before you die?

Live!

Do you live locally?

Kind of Why did you move here?

Fluke Why do you stay here?

No other options at the moment.

What do you do?

Things related to living and more boring stuff like making a living.

Why do you do it?

The First, because I like it and it is a privilege the other because I have to eat and pay my bills.

Any good books to recommend?

Camilla Grebe’s “After She’s Gone” Excellent “Scandi Noir” Gabriel García Márquez - 100 years of solitude.

Primo Levi, if not now when?. Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu.

Germaine Greer - The Obstacle Race. Svetlana Boym - The Future Of Nostalgia and Naomi Wolf’s - The Beauty Myth

18. What book is your favourite?

I don’t have a favourite book.

19. If you were Queen, what would you change in the area?

She has no powers to change anything, has she….?

20. If you left Notting Hill what would you take with you?

My belongings and a few memories 21. Living in Notting Hill is like...? a little meh to be honest…. too much of a giant suburb for my liking. I prefer the center of London and other cities.

22. What film(s) influenced you the most?

Kelly Heroes. Scum. Rosemary’s Baby. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

La combe, Lucien and Äppelkriget to name a few..

23. If you were God (or for the atheists, the Universe), what would you say to humanity?

For the love of Me (as God) get your shit together and stop electing dumbasses with the moral integrity the depth of a gnat’s bidet and brains the size of an earwigs haemorrhoid 24. What makes you laugh?

Old Harrys Game (see above paraphrase) and Olivia Colman as Minka in Hutt 33. She’s absolutely hilarious!

WHAGWAAN?

7th July, 12.00 - 9.00pm The Tavistock London Arts Festival will be hosted on the 7th July from 12-9pm on Portobello Road, opposite Tavistock Square (W11 1LR). www.thetavistockfestival.london There is an abundance of talent in West London; throughout all our schools and wards. The plan is to support a platform that offers the chance to perform in public and provide a destination to showcase your work to industry and enthusiasts.

This year we are working with London organisations devoted to music in schools (Restore the Music UK and The Rhythm Studio) to chart a route from the classroom to performing on stage.

Established in 2004, we’ve staged five festivals so far and look to continue in 2019 with a more ambitious and memorable format, covering a pedestrianised portion of the Portobello, from Lancaster road to the Westway bridge; and all broadcast on Bluetooth headsets (A silent festival).

-The day will begin with Flamenco dance and The Portobello Dance Foundation from 12:00 - 1:00pm.

- The winners of the Restore the Music UK battle of the band alongside The Rhythm Studio from 1-3:00. _From 3:00 – 6:00, live music from local artists and professionals, ending with our headline acts; two established artists dedicated to supporting young talent and ready to blow the roof off London.

- For the evening, starting at 6:00pm, Portobello Film Festival will be hosting short films from local and international film makers; a preview of the forthcoming festival in September.

For more information, please go to: www.thetavistockfestival.london

Ian Robinson, Cookbooks, (Ashelf from Mark Hix Kitchen Library), 40x30cm, oil on panel, 2018

Ruth Ozeki A Tale for the Time Being

James Murray - Killing Ghosts (Home Normal, 2018) Artwork by Malgorzata Lapsa-Malawska

“A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”

James Murray is a composer specialising in minimal electronic and electroacoustic music. His recordings have been issued by respected labels worldwide since 2004 and often have strong conceptual themes inviting personal or emotional reflection. His compositions are unified by a light touch and a signature sonic palette frequently involving treated acoustic sources and processed electronics.

Murray is known for his solo and production work, collaborations, remixes and the curation of his Slowcraft Records label, an imprint established in 2011 and dedicated to exceptional, unclassifiable music presented in carefully handcrafted limited editions. www.jamesmurray.info

In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace — and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox —possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

White Kenya Hara

White is not a book about colors. It is rather Kenya Haras attempt to explore the essence of White, which he sees as being closely related to the origin of Japanese aesthetics – symbolising simplicity and subtlety. The central concepts discussed by Kenya Hara in this publication are emptiness and the absolute void. Kenya Hara also sees his work as a designer as a form of communication. Good communication has the distinction of being able to listen to each other, rather than to press one’s opinion onto the opponent. Kenya Hara compares this form of communication with an “empty container”. In visual communication, there are equally signals whose signification is limited, as well as signals or symbols such as the cross or the red circle on the Japanese flag, which – like an “empty container” – permit every signification and do not limit imagination. Not alone the fact that the Japanese character for white forms a radical of the character for emptiness has prompted him the closely associate the color white with emptiness.

Good Me Bad Me Ali Land Good Me Bad Me is dark, compelling, voice-driven psychological suspense by debut author Ali Land.

How far does the apple really fall from the tree?

Milly’s mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school.

But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother’s trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all.

Piers, what’s on

your mind?

PT well of course, you and I are part of something that is an attempt to bring together parts of our borough and to…to a certain extent different parts of London together. The Kensington Chelsea Art Weekend (www.kcaw.co.uk) who, which is hoping to bring together North Kensington with community art with kind of high art…high culture of exhibition road…the…I’m not sure what the culture of King’s Road is… and the culture of world’s end which we hope reflects the same culture as us.

DR Yes. It’s all a step in the right direction and a small steps towards The London Beannlle. Which I think is a great idea.

PT You don’t think we are just art-washing a….

DR What a sinister agenda of…

PT Gentrification.

DR …of just wanting to go out on a Sunday.

PT I miss… I miss the agenda where all you want to do is go out.

DR I don’t think its gentrification to get people together.

PT No, definitely not.

DR I think that’s the answer, irrespective of where you’re from.

DR Piers, what’s on your mind PT Hi Damian. Uhhm. I’ll tell you what’s on my mind at the moment. I spent the last ten days hanging out with the extinction rebellion people…and it was really nice to be amongst people who are really nice, but also really serious. And it got me to thinking about the people around here, and how we are really nice and we are really serious, but sometimes we’re really nice enough to eachother.

DR That’s very true?

PT I mean…its alright for you Damian, you world in the world of art; which is all about emotions empathy frugality and humility…

DR But it’s full of introspection so people don’t necessarily connect that well.

PT they don’t and what’s quite interesting is, as this isn’t coming out for a couple of weeks I can tell you… extinction rebellion have been here in the last few days talking to our activist about a number of things…aaaaand it’s been a very interesting, not clash of cultures, but uhhh…cross-fertilisation of cultures, because the extinction rebellion people are very used to inspiring slightly naïve formerly apathetic middle class people. Nothing wrong with being middle class. They’ve come here and found a diverse hard struggling fighting community and I think they’ve been really juiced by it…

We of course have the 14th of June coming up, the second anniversary of the fire and do we have a monnet to… tooooo, wonder whether enough has been done? Not enough has been done, not enough has been done uhmm.

DR What needs to be done PT well what needs to be done, is we need to have truth reconciliation and justice.

DR Is there any one person to blame.

PT well as you know I am a big fan of blaming Rock Fielding Mellen the former deputy leader who was a man whose plan was to knock my home down and who we blame for signing off the cheap cladding on Grenfell. But… one of the things about extinction rebellion that’s quite charming is that maybe we can move beyond blame, maybe we can move on to make it better.

I don’t know the answer to that one.

DR I think, like you said, uhm being nice to each other, being part of a community, feeling free to speak your mind and uh come and do interviews on Portobello Radio.

PT I go back to uh… my best art experience of last year. My best unexpected art experience of last year was, returning from west London print school, where I had been told how naughty my daughter was, I came across a screen in Lyric square at the Lyric, showing Don Giovani, coming live from Covent garden, literally the highest culture you can get…. And I stood there with a load of blokes in high vis in Weather spoons watching Don Giovani having a pint.

DR That’s fantastic.

PT Do you think we can achieve that here.

DR I think we can achieve that here.

PT First step Tavistock?

DR I think it’s a lovely idea. We’ve got dance this year, we’ve got spoken word, thanks to Isis, and may even have actors doing readings on stage through Bluetooth headsets. I think it’s going to be a very interesting day.

PT can other people get involved Damian.

DR With The Tavistock Festival absolutely, all you have to do is write in with your ideas to thetavistockfestival@gmail.com and we’ll get back to you.

PT I think I might do that.

DR You do that Piers. Thank you very much.

YUICHIRO KIKUMA Working in a new studio is always exciting. A studio space for me is a space that is completely isolated from the daily life, psychologically and physically, where I can focus and think differently. My work is not site specific but it often develops differently in response to the studio space I work in. I have worked in a few different studios in London over the last 10 years all of which were located in old warehouse buildings. The experience I am having through working at the Muse Gallery studio is very different. It is a part of the gallery space and therefore is clean and neutral. I normally come to the studio in the evening when the gallery is shut. The tranquillity of the space gives me time and space to think freely from the clutter of daily life which I often easily get distracted by. Also, working in the gallery space, where we are going to have the end of residency show, helps me to develop ideas with a clearer picture of how my work can be presented and interact with the gallery environment.

Currently I am developing a series of pattern painting. In recent years I have been developing a systematic and repetitive method using black ink, spray bottles and a hair dryer. I am fascinated by the irregularity and errors that often happen through the repetitive process. Pattern is the accumulation of repetitive activity and it reveals the uniqueness of certain actions. I associate this with music which is an important part of my life. Music is a repetition of small units. When you hear small fragments of music it doesn’t mean much and it can be boring but when you hear hundreds of them put together it starts to reveal the uniqueness of each component. I make the pattern paintings using various spray bottles and a hand-built device to make consistent horizontal marks like a type writer. The process is more like weaving than painting. I use common spray bottles, such as those used for gardening and cosmetics, to create marks. Since I found out that every single nozzle makes different marks, even those from the same manufacture, I started exploring different types of nozzles. I am now at the stage of producing the final work and am excited about the outcome. www.yuichirokikuma.com

YUICHIRO KIKUMA

Slowcraft Presents An evening of minimal ambient music.

On Saturday 6th July 2019 The Muse Gallery will host an evening of curated live music featuring performances from critically celebrated minimal producers Stijn Hüwels and Ian Hawgood.

Slowcraft Records is a small London-based label on which I’ve been offering handcrafted editions of “exceptional, unclassifiable” cross-genre music since 2011. Last year I opened the doors to new artists with the Slowcraft Presents series and this year marks our first ever live event.

Stijn Hüwels is a Belgian musician with a fascination for minimalism and a flair for collaboration, his recent album Tomodachi for the Dauw label having been produced in partnership with no less than ten different composers. In his solo work he employs processed guitar, loops, electronics and field recordings to achieve flowing, long-form music with a remarkable atmospheric quality and unmistakable openness in terms of both harmony and cadence. Together we have produced two Silent Ian Hawgood at Festival Spectaculare, Prague, 2018 Vigils albums for Home Normal, both featuring cover art by The (#01) by Alzbeta Kopecká Muse’s own Malgorzata (Gosia) Lapsa-Malawska.

Ian Hawgood is a composer, sound engineer, curator and educator. He is also a reel-to-reel and vintage synthesizer wizard, producing his latest album Impermanence entirely without the use of computers. His solo work balances high levels of textural detail with remarkable tonal restraint, often honouring the imperfection and unpredictability of his chosen media as highly as any stated intentions. He has overseen the significant discography of Home Normal and its sister labels, among which can be found two of my solo albums and a slew of upcoming works

by Stijn Hüwels including a collaboration album with Hawgood himself.

The £10 admission fee includes a glass of wine and a handcrafted CD edition of music composed by the performers especially for this event. Both sets will be accompanied by live surround visuals from Damian Rayne and discounted merchandise will be available from Slowcraft Records, Home Normal, Dauw and Hüwels’ own Slaapwel label. Performances begin at 8pm. Due Ian Hawgood - Portrait by Sam Liu to limited capacity advance booking is highly recommended.

James Murray Tickets: slowcraft.info/presents slowcraft.info folkreels.com stijnhuwels.bandcamp.com

Ian Hawgood - Impermanence (Slowcraft) Artwork by Stijn Hüwels

Silent Vigils - Lost Rites Artwork by Gosia Malawska

Stijn Hüwels -Tomodachi (Dauw) Artwork by Femke

Stijn Hüwels at One Drone Festival, Barcelona, 2018

WE RECOMMEND

Hito Steyerl: Power Plants Serpentine Sackler Gallery 11 Apr 2019 to 6 May 2019 Serpentine Sackler Gallery West Carriage Drive London W2 2AR

Itch!

Robin Mason with Gabriel Gbadamosi, Anne Petters and Debra Allman Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop Exhibtion Dates: 10 May – 7 June 2019 1 Bard Road London W10 6TP

Edvard Munch love and angst 11 April – 21 July 2019 British Museum Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG

At The Muse Gallery END OF RESIDENCY 2019 GROUP SHOW 27 JUNE - 14TH JULY OPENING NIGHT 27TH JUNE, 6.30-9.00PM

DAISY COWLEY YUICHIRO KIKUMA YAMBE TAM

Yambe Tam, Harmonic Resonance, 2019, oil on panel, 10 x 10 cm

JOSEPHINE COTTRELL - QUIDDITY 15.05-2.06.2019

www.josephinecottrell.com

RESIDENCY COMPETITION SUMMER SHOW 2019 25.07 - 4.08 OPENING NIGHT 25.07.2019, 6.30-9.00PM

IMA

“Bringing IMAgination to Life” ​IMA Studio was founded by fine art graduate and artist Samantha Y Huang, during the last year of her MFA. Today, IMA is supported by advisors from three sectors: creatives arts, business, and technology. ​ The idea began as a simple but curious question: what if an artist had a magical studio that could assist them in ways that would enable their individual creative practices and careers to flourish? What would that studio be like?

What kind of magical help would artists ask for, and how could an artists life be different because of it? So the name given to this imaginary studio was...IMA Studio. ​ A major issue we see is a lack of career development support and career resources provided by arts eduction.

Every year artists graduate from Universities with little idea how they should even begin to go about building their art careers. We see a broken link between the education system and the working world. ​ At the heart of IMA; we work to develop alternative solutions to the issues we see within the arts, and we do this by working directly with artists and creative individuals. Together, we cultivate the creative thinking and approaches that artists employ, and we distill that knowhow into a current and modern methodology for artists. ​ Building upon our direct working experience with art students, recent graduates, working artists and professionals in the arts, we design workshops and programmes to deliver practical knowledge for early stage practicing artists. Additionally, we provide bespoke support and assistance to working artists who are seeking extra hands to help progress their creative career. ​ Our mission is to redefine the understanding of what it means to be a working artist so we can have more and more artists working as self-sustainable creative individuals. To achieve this we deliver innovative solutions to serve artists and the wider community.

Thank you for spending your time with us and reading about our passion for the creative arts.

If you love what we do and how we work to support creative individuals, please get in touch with us or spread the love and assist us in building a strong community full of creative minds.

Unlimited Creative Vibes, IMA Studio | Samantha Y Huang May 2019

photography Kevin McCollum

Celebrating the history of Dissent in North Kensington Our environment is shaped by our history and the culture and heritage of the local people. North Kensington’s local social history is rich in controversy, diversity and dissent; it has been the home to an array of notable characters as well the place from which social movements and protests emanated. However, when we think of North Kensington want comes to mind? Arguably many people aren’t even aware that North Kensington exists, unlike the more affluent areas of the borough: South and West Kensington both marked by tube stations bearing their names. Instead many equate the North Kensington footprint with Notting Hill. Unfortunately, thanks to the whitewashed, Curtis inspired, fairytale that was that 1999 film (Notting Hill), life has ever increasing mirrored art.

North Kensington is an enigmatic, energetic, eclectic environment, a place like no other with an enthralling history of diversity and dissent.

The area has been characterised by movements of people including Gypsy and European Jewish communities, Irish, Cypriot, Maltesuhyyye, Caribbean, Spanish and Moroccan, more recently from Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somali. Since its humble beginnings, as the Kensington Gravel Pits, to its earliest failed attempt at gentrification, the Ladbroke Estate, in the 1700s the area has been characterised by social deprivation and dissent.

The Notting Dale area, where Grenfell Tower is situated, was once a notorious slum known as the “Potteries and the Piggeries” because it was home to clay fields, family run brickworks and pig farmers during the mid-19th century. It’s notoriety was brought to the attention of Londoners with the building of the Hippodrome in 1837 and later in 1850 when Charles Dickens described the area as “a plague spot scarcely equalled for its insalubrity by any other in London”; Today Pottery Lane is one of London’s most expensive neighbourhoods.

In the 1830 when John Whyte, heir of a Jamaican plantation owner who received nearly £1billion (current estimated amount) in compensation for the freedom of enslaved people, decided to build the Hippodrome to attract the wealthy to the area he was met with fierce protests from the locals. His decision to build the racecourse on “the slopes of Notting Hill and the meadows west of Westbourne Grove” through a public footpath leading to Kensal Green that the impoverished inhabitants of the Kensington gravel pits relied on, without consultation, led to a campaign against him. He was met with opposition from its opening in May 1837 and following month locals marched on the racecourse with pitchforks and dug it up. A court hearing followed and the locals eventually won the right to access, his venture failed and closed five years later.

Protests once again left its mark on the area when in 1958 disaffected white youths, many of whom were Teddy Boys, vented their frustration on the African Caribbean migrant community who famously fought back culminating in what is known as the “Notting Hill Riots”. Claudia Jones who brought the spirit of Carnival to London through her 1959 Mardi- Gras celebrations, held at St Pancras Town Hall and which laid the foundations of the Notting Hill Carnival some years later. Jones was also instrumental in the campaign around the murder of local resident Kelso Cochrane who was murdered by racists, in very similar circumstances to Stephen Lawrence 34 years later, on Southam Street on 17 May 1959. The history of the area is steeped in overcrowded, unsanitary living conditions, yet the locals formed close-knit communities in response to those poor social conditions, poverty and de-industrialisation.

The late 1960s saw the demolition of a whole swathe of housing belonging to the working class and Afrikan Caribbean community to build the Westway motorway which once again led to protests by a community fearing the life threatening pollution that has marred the area ever since. North Kensington’s social history has seen amongst its residents activists, socio political campaigners, poets, writers and musicians. It has been the location of many a seminal film set and even a squatters movement. Frestonia declared independence from the rest of the UK, an attempt by activists and locals to highlight the neglect of their neighbourhood, earning it a special place in the UK’s history of dissent. A housing coop established at the time still exits today.

The Mangrove Restaurant, patronised by the in crowd during the 70s and 80s, established by Trinidadian Frank Crichlow, was situated on All Saint Road. It became a symbol of the Caribbean community’s fight back against racist police harassment on West London’s “frontline”.

Noteworthy residents include George Orwell, Amy Ashwood Garvey (wife of Marcus Moasiah Garvey), Michael X, Peter Rachman, Reverend Bruce Kenrick (founder of the Notting Hill Housing Trust), Damon Albarn, Colin MacInnes and Lucky Gordon, a British-based Jamaican jazz singer who came to public attention during the Profumo Affair because of his relationship with Christine Keeler. The famous and infamous walked the street of North Kensington including Bob Marley, Mohammed Ali, Jimi Hendrix and Enoch Powel, who organised with the British Union of Fascists bases at 47 Kensington Park Road.

In celebrating North Kensington’s international reputation as a cultural innovator and a hub of creativity, literally littered with art galleries and artists. We must acknowledge that this home of public art, including a Banksy, the famous Portobello Road Market and some of London’s most expensive shops was borne out of conflict and dissent. It is vital to preserve the unique characteristics of North Kensington’s social history for future generations to celebrate its roots.

Isis Amlak (I Sis Poet)

Ceramica Blue 10 Blenheim Crescent, London, W11 1NN

PEDLARS GENERAL STORE + CAFÉ Pedlars offers offer a curated, considered and beautifully designed range of homewares, stationery and gifts. Our brand new café menu includes a variety of top-notch sandwiches and cakes made fresh every day, as well as homemade cold and hot drinks, amazing Allpress coffee + good music, fast Wi-Fi and comfy chairs.

128 Talbot Road, London W11 1JA

Rococco News and Magazines 12 Elgin Cres, London W11 2HX

Lee Harris with First Edition of the Museletter

Liberté Chérie - zero waste grocery store 291 Portobello Rd, London W10 5TD

THE GALLERIES ASSOCIATION

After Nyne Gallery 10 Portland Road Holland Park London W11 4LA afternynegallery.com

Daniel Benjamin Gallery 120 Kensington Park Road London W11 2PW db-gallery.com

www.thegalleriesassociation.co.uk

The Galleries Association was established to celebrate visual arts in London through collaborative free monthly events. We offer an open invitation to all enthusiasts to come and visit a list of galleries and meet the abundance of talent behind them. So please check our events for up and coming experiences found deep in the Art of London’s contemporary culture and counter-culture.

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 elephant.art/west Frestonian Gallery 2 Olaf Street W11 4BE London frestoniangallery.com Graffik Gallery 284 Portobello Road W10 5TE London graffikgallery.co.uk 50 Golborne Road London W10 5PR 50golborne-artdesign.com Japan House 101-111 Kensington High St London W8 5SA japanhouselondon.uk The Muse Gallery 269 Portobello Road W11 1LR London themuseat269.com

Next West London Galleries Bus Tour 29th and 30th June 2019 Please go to our site for a route map and tour information and check gallery websites for show information: www.thegalleriesassociation.co.uk To check bus location follow us on www.onthebus69.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 Westbank Arts 3-5 Thorpe Close London, W10 5Xl londonwestbank.com Whitewall Galleries Central 100 Westbourne Grove London W2 5RU whitewallgalleries.com

We celebrate the rich cultural diversity that is the Portobello Road and serve as a hub of the community, streaming its events, offers, news, views and developments. We offer air time to all communities, a regular Latin American show, a Spanish hour, Moroccan, African, Caribbean, Irish & more join the Portobello Radio Melting Pot. By giving airtime to all of Portobello’s varied residents we wish to bring the community together, entertain, inform and enthuse. www.portobelloradio.com

Elzbieta Smolenska - Simplicity of Brexit | Edition April/May 2019 |

Samon Ster - Identify the Original Dots | Edition April/May 2019 |

MAKE YOUR MARK

Lucja | Edition April/May 2019 |

Connect the dots or just use the space creatively and send us a photo of your work.

If it’s good, we will publish it in the next edition. Send us a name and photographed images to info@themuseat269.com

LOCAL LEGEND

Henryk ‘Hank’ Targowski 31.05.1947-29.01.2017

Henry Targowski, known to all as ‘Hank’ or ‘Henk’, was one of my best friends for over 40 years. We first met in the mid 1970’s at the Melkweg (Milky Way) in Amsterdam, where he was working and I was playing with my band G.T. Moore and The Reggae Guitars.

Hank and I hit it off straight away. We both loved discussion and debate and had similarly wide ranging radical ideas. Through Hank I got to know the community of artists, performers and administrators centred on the Melkweg, which was then the biggest club in Holland. At that time Amsterdam was a centre of activity and creativity. It felt like people were drawn in from all over the world, with most making their way to the Melkweg and/or the Paradiso. The mood was optimistic and international and I think it’s fair to say Hank was in his element. Despite it being difficult for foreigners to get work Hank had managed to sort something out at the Bakery in the Melkweg which was run by Fox, a red haired Bavarian who gave work and support to performers and friends. Hank was getting 50 guilders a night selling fruit drinks, sweets, space-cake and space-balls and was involved in all sorts of cultural activities - music, poetry, theatre, film, recording and journalism. He and Fox were already close friends when I arrived in Amsterdam both living on boats near the Rembrandt plein.

At the time reggae was known only to West Indians, yet Hank was a devotee with a record collection bigger and better than anyone else. We spent months on his boat listening to hundreds of reggae records. He loved influencing me and I was happy to be educated. Then he started his label ‘Black Star Liner’ and got more deeply involved, promoting and importing reggae music to Europe. He released some of my own music on vinyl and got me an audition with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. So I went off to Jamaica with musician friends James Lascelles and Bud Beadle to play with ‘Scratch’ on his album ‘The Return of Pipecock Jackson’ at Black Ark Studios, Kingston.

Hank was solitary but at the same time very friendly. Later in the 1970’s he became a family man with Roz and his step-daughter Freya, living in the Angeliersstraat in the Jordaan. They were very hospitable and I often slept on the floor of their tiny flat sometimes with the whole band. Hank was a kind of Nomad who had developed a pattern of finding the coolest place where the coolest people were, and hung out there. I think first it was Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, then Marin county, then Amsterdam and the Jordaan and lastly it was London and Portobello Road.

Hank was a proud and significant member of the youth movement of the 1960’s. Young people had begun to develop a unity of opposition to the status quo. This played out differently in each country. In Paris students organised riots against the police. Not so in swinging London or in Amsterdam. In Holland young people besieged the Parliament smoking joints and the Parliament passed laws to say this was ok. In America students demonstrating against the war in Vietnam were shot dead by the National Guard. Hank like many young Americans had become politically radicalised. He talked about San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury as a beautiful place that changed when everyone from everywhere decided to converge on the city and move in. I think it was in Haight-Ashbury that he joined the Weather Underground, the revolutionary group referred to in Bob Dylan’s song Subterranean Homesick Blues “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”. Wanted by the authorities Hank had to go into hiding in a network of Weatherman safe houses, not staying in any one place for long. Living in a country politically polarised and at war, hunted and in hiding it’s easy to see how Amsterdam became desirable.

In the mid 1980’s I got a job building and running the Mangrove Studios in All Saints Road and I asked Hank to come over from Amsterdam to help me. He kept his flat in Amsterdam for a time, crashing where he could but eventually he moved to London. Hank was well liked by people at the Mangrove and when the studio closed he remained in touch for many years, having moved a couple of streets over to Alchemy in Portobello Road.

Perhaps it stems from this time as a Weatherman but Hank loved to obscure his identity, as if he was undercover? In Holland some people called him ‘Henk’, a Dutch name. Others would say. “Is your name Henk or Hank?” “Are you Dutch or American?” He would say “some people call me Henk some people call me Hank”. And. “Well, I was born in England” (to laughter). Hank was born in Nottingham in 1947 to Polish parents who had fled the Nazis and (in his mother’s case) the Russians too. A remarkable story Henk never knew all the details of.

One of the first things I noticed and liked about Hank was his belief in the power of words and ideas. He loved to resolve disputes and arguments and had an alter ego called ‘Doc Mediator’. His attitude was “if there’s a dispute I can resolve it”. I once asked Hank to produce some of my songs in a studio in Brussels. The session was to start at 11am but at around 8:30 we awoke to the police banging on our door. Hank leaned out of the top window and asked them what they wanted. They were trying to get in. He said “the door is open, just come in.” They came in with people from the village. They wanted to drive us to Oostende and put us on a boat. Immediately Hank alias ‘Doc Mediator’ set to work to diffuse the situation in a masterful way. The reasons the police were there were complicated. One of the guys in the band was having an affair with a lady in the village. She was notorious in the village and had some kind of control over the deputy chief of police. She was also slowly poisoning her husband, who was going mad. He was a big, violent guy who had already threatened me with a knife. The whole village including the police were frightened of him. Hank knew the story and took control. The police had burst in with the lady and her husband and some of the other villagers. Hank asked them what they were doing and what did they want? They said we were bad people who had brought nothing but trouble to the village and they would solve that by taking us to the border. Hank said straight to their faces. “These singers and musicians aren’t bad, they haven’t hurt anyone”. Then, pointing at the husband he said. “The bad guy is this guy.

He’s dangerous”. Everyone in the room knew he was right. Still, some of the police wanted to drive us to Ostende but Hank was eloquent and principled. It took him about half an hour but eventually they all saw he was right and they duly left. And we went off to the recording studio.

Hank was one of my best friends, I knew him for over 40 years. He certainly knew the difference between right and wrong and will missed a lot and by many .

Gerald (GT) Moore

photo by Chris Dawes