Category Archives: Art

Lambeth County Court Art Show

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If you’re a regular reader with a sharp brain you might recall that in 2019 we implored you to check out the temporarily opened Lambeth County Courthouse near Cleaver Square before it was handed over to property developers. Well, after 2 ½ years of being closed (with the exception of the unfortunate time that Lambeth accidently rented it to Extinction Rebellion and it was raided by police) it is again open very briefly to the public, but now probably for the final time.  

Without Horizon, Without Shore, is a group show of three female artists who are associated with City and Guilds and have a temporary studio in the Courthouse. The exhibit is somewhat site specific and spans two courtrooms and the corridors/stairwell. It explores themes of nostalgia and contemplation and when we visited,  two of the artists were on hand to explain their work and handy viewing notes were provided. The art is very thought provoking, but the real star here is the disused courthouse itself, which still has many remnants from it’s 95 year history and is quite evocative. In the past perhaps more than a few Greater Kenningtonians themselves contemplated their future in these rooms as they waited judge and jury to determine their fate. 

Developers are currently trying to obtain planning permission to gentrify the building into (you guessed it) luxury flats but this is being stridently opposed by local residents. Please don’t ask us for our opinion on planning permission,  as last time we weighed in we opened an almighty can of worms which we are still unsuccessfully trying to put back into the tin.  Inchalla…….

Without Horizon, Without Shore is open now until 26 Sept,  Thursday to Sunday 12-6. The Courthouse is in Cleaver St.

Open House London 2021

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If, like us, you can think of nothing more enjoyable than sticking your nose in other people’s business, then you’re in luck! It’s our favourite time of year again (we know we’ve said this five times in 2021) and it is Open House London. After taking a hiatus in 2020, Open House is back but as an understandably more circumscribed affair. There are a number of venues open to the public and others available online for viewing. As per usual, most of the buildings are staffed by friendly people who can tell you all you need to know about the place and what goes on or went on there. 

St. John’s Newington

For those of you not in the know, Open House London is an event which promotes the appreciation of architecture by flinging open the doors of otherwise closed spaces to the public, and is totally free. It is happening this weekend (4-5 September) and next weekend (11-12 September). What we have included below are local Open House venues where you do not need to book, but look carefully as not all venues are open both weekends. And if you possess the audacious gall to travel outside Greater Kennington you’ll find below other nearby bountiful buildings.

Greater Kennington 

Ken Art Space 

The Camera Club

Elephant Park

Amelia Street 

St. Paul’s, Newington 

Nearby

Lambeth Town Hall

Reliance Arcade, Brixton

Waterloo City Farm

Kaymet Tray and Biscuit Factory, Old Kent Road

Kirkaldy Testing Works, Borough

Lowline Walking Tour, Blackfriars

Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors at IWM

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The other day we visited our very own world class institution the Imperial War Museum to check out the thought provoking and quite moving show ‘Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors’. We discovered this show by seeing an interview with Kate Middleton , and as an amateur photographer she was involved in photographing two of the families. 

In partnership with the Royal Photographic society, what the IWM has created is an exhibit of people who experienced unbelievable trauma at various stages of their life. Some people in the exhibit came to the UK as infants to escape the Nazis, some as child refugees via Kindertransport and a few have direct experience of surviving life in a concentration or slave labour camps. What the exhibit focusses on is not so much their lives in occupied Europe, but instead about how they built families and careers in the UK. The most riveting takeaway from the show is how these larger families have incorporated what happened to their older family member into their daily lives. 

This show is not as depressing as it might appears, as what it leaves you with is a sense of how resilient we are as humans and our ability to put our lives back together in times of horrific adversity. It is also a celebration of the lives they have lived and the legacy that their younger family members will carry into the future. Generations runs at the Imperial War Museum until 9 January. It’s totally free and you don’t need to sign up online before you go. 

Swimming at White Bear

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Last night we hopped  over to the White Bear Theatre Pub to catch a play called ‘Swimming’ which is part of a season of new writing at our little local and oft overlooked local playhouse. White Bear Theatre is a very intimate and almost immersive experience. In fact, on our last outing the naked people onstage getting gouged with shards of glass seemed almost personal. 

Swimming is an altogether more accomplished play and involves a group of four friends as they explore issues of relationships, intimacy, timing, and honesty. Breaking up with friends and making friends is a key theme here, but the base is about gay and straight relationships forming, falling apart and then forming again. And believe it or not the play is rather funny. And if you’re not accustomed to theatre on this scale what makes it interesting is that the action happens only a few feet away from you. 

White Bear Theatre is totally independent and not associated with the White Bear Pub downstairs. Having said that, the pub is offering 10% off your total food bill if you book a ticket. Having said that, unless you like your dinner cooked by sous chef ‘Mike ro Wave’ we’d give dinner at Young’s pub owned White Bear a wide berth. Having said that, the ‘check us out we know our community so well’ Kennington paraphernalia festooning the walls are fun to peruse and are worth a gander and a drink before the show. 

Swimming is on until 21 August and is  75 minutes without an interval. So you can just swim home in the August daylight afterwards. Or walk if you prefer. The venue is well ventilated and your temperature is taken on entry. If this play doesn’t float your lilo then have a look at their website for other offerings. 

City & Guilds Degree Show

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Earlier this week we made the unholy decision to leave Greater Kennington in order to attend the City and Guilds Fine Art Graduates Show at the Oxo Tower. It had to move from the school in Kennington Park Rd. due to the sheer size of the show, but by the time you are reading this it will all be over. But fear not, we’re here to tell you about the upcoming Degree show at City and Guilds from 18 – 22 August. As with everything you need to book, and it is totally free. 

These graduate shows are the high point of the Kennington art world calendar, and a great way to poke around some lovely Georgian buildings that are usually closed to us non arty folk. The shows are slightly bonkers, often beautiful, and never boring. In 2019 we deduced the main themes to be – 1. Saving the planet   2. Nudity   3. Saving the planet through nudity  4. Rocks.  Top tip- if you’re ever questioned about the meaning of that swing set covered in fur, just  look the person square in the face and say ‘its about IDENTITY’. Or be bang on trend with ‘It’s about COVID, obviously’. In addition to swings with fur, they also have exhibits of wood carving, masonry, and conservation. On most days the students studying these crafts are on hand and happy to show you what they are working on and how they do it. And it’s pretty wonderful. 

City and Guilds London Art School has a very long and fascinating connection to Greater Kennington. Before being in its present location it was in Vauxhall, with one its early patrons being the Doulton Pottery factory who used their students to embellish their works. With a strong contingent of female students, it also has links to the Suffragette movement in the early 20th century. You can even but some of these works on Ebay!


I AM ERROR at Gasworks

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Today we attended the first day of the thought provoking exhibit I AM ERROR at Gasworks Gallery in Oval/Vauxhall by young artist Bassam Al-Sabah. Al-Sabah’s family were exiled from Baghdad to Dublin during the Persian Gulf War and this work, largely CGI and video based, explores themes of metamorphosis, change, adaptation, perseverance and reinvention.

The main gallery (there are only two) explores constructions of masculinity in what appear to be action adventure video games from the 90’s mixed in with a few papier mache heads and flies on the floor. The centrepiece is a 28 minute looped immersive film depicting a man being contorted by various forces out of his control, and this continues in the next room. The effect is strangely calming and introspective. The press release describes it as combining ‘fantasy erotica and body horror’. 

Recently we’ve all been exposed to change and transformation that has been out of our control, from the bulldozing and recreation of Elephant and Vauxhall to a virus that has altered our reality and lifestyles beyond recognition. And after eating takeaways for the past 18 months most of us have experienced a bit of ‘body horror’ ourselves, so we can all relate.

Gasworks is open Wednesday to Sunday from 12 to 6 and is totally free and air conditioned. And if you look on their website there are other free events to make you feel cultural and superior to your neighbours. 

Rebel Dykes in Kennington

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We’ve just checked out the intriguing ‘Rebel Dykes, Art and Archive’ exhibit at the rarely used Space Station Sixty-Five gallery in Central Kennington and we’re here to tell you what we unearthed. 

The London Rebel Dykes synthesised several feminist movements to pursue a fresh exploration of sex, art, writing and activism. The group informally came together during the all female protests at Greenham Common in 1982, and this grew organically through music, parties, the lesbian bar scene, by building families and in squats from Brixton up to Kennington. Rebel Dykes represented (and still do) a converging of communities of outsider lesbians such as punks, bikers, clubbers, protesters, kinksters and gender outlaws. 

The exhibition at Sixty-Five seeks to embrace and represent as many elements of the Rebel Dyke experience as possible and this is largely achieved in a multimedia manner. In the exhibit are photos, paintings, videos, testimonials, flyers, and a motorcycle engine revving  amongst black leather jackets. According to the organisers, they want to celebrate the work of groundbreaking rebel dykes in the past and connect them to a younger generation who continue to disrupt the world to this day. 

If you’ve ever wondered what transpires behind those foreboding steel gates branded ‘Kennington Film Studios’ well this is your chance, as the Space Station Sixty-Five Gallery is located in a studio inside the courtyard. We can only recall one other show being held in that great creative space, so if you’re reading this review Kennington Film Studios, if you put the shows on we’ll all come. 

Rebel Dykes Art and Archive Show is free and open from 12 to 6 Thursday to Sunday until 25 September. Another news event relating to underrepresented LGTBQI+ populations is this interesting piece in last weeks’ Guardian about the origins of UK Black Pride in Kennington Park. 

Cabinet, Beaconsfield and a Spot of Tea

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For a number of years we’ve been trying to ascertain the function of that strange building that popped up at the back of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens a few years ago. Resembling a posh persons’ house meets North Korean torture centre, it’s actually mostly dedicated to the very intriguing Cabinet Gallery. The current show somehow manages to make a connection between a horse drawn carriage and Oprah so it might be a bit of a stretch for some, but this place is definitely something for that pocket diary that we’ve been telling you get for years now. Check out the website for what’s on. 


As we were up in the lovely upper Vauxhall neck of the woods anyway, we checked out the critically acclaimed but rarely open Beaconsfield Galley. It’s open this Saturday (12th) and the next (19th) showing one large immersive work by Korean/Uk artist JinHan Lee called ‘Extended Realities’. The concept is an exploration of themes of virtual versus material art and how (or if) they complement one another. Very thought provoking and out questions the limits of how much we can take in without actually seeing it.


All that culture was proving exhausting to our lockdown addled  brains, so we popped into the wistfully eccentric Tea House Theatre for some tea and sandwiches. The sandwiches needed a bit of work (and if you’re reading this Tea House we’re wagging a coronation chicken stained finger at you) but the list of teas were endless and the cakes abundant. Check out their eclectic website for things that are going on there such as themed suppers, talks and kids stuff. When we visited they were even offering a course in….wait for it….picking locks! Another for that pocket diary that you’re on the very cusp of purchasing with your newly socially activated fingertips. 

Refugees and Al Weiwei at the Imperial War Museum

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Last week we visited our very own Imperial War Museum to see the extremely evocative and until recently long closed exhibit ‘Refugees: Forced to Flee’ and its related exhibit ‘A History of Bombs’. The latter was created by Chinese conceptual artist and dissident Al Weiwei, who himself was forced to flee China. A History of Bombs is a site specific illustration of the power of bombs and their impact on human lives. On the floor in the main gallery are illustrations and descriptions of bombs so small they can fit in your hand, and others so life shatteringly huge the snake up a staircase. It is a moving reminder of how the human race built up a mind boggling arsenal in the 20th century just to obliterate ourselves. The parallel between bombs and something else that has obliterated ourselves over the past 18 months can’t be overlooked. 

The brutal reality of bombs is one reason why people become refugees in the first place, and the intriguing Refugees exhibition delves into different global conflicts such as the German invasion of Belgium during WW1, ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War and the treacherous Mediterranean crossings of the present day. The exhibit begins by the societies that people departed from and often the brutal choices involved in leaving your culture behind for a place of safety where you may or may not be welcomed. 

The main section of this exhibit is dedicated to the journey that refugees take, both physically and mentally, and efforts of organisations like UNHCR which are there to help them. This includes camps where people set up a vibrant temporary community in a sometimes harsh and unforgiving surrounding. The final section explores the somewhat ambivalent attitudes of countries who accept refugees, and their efforts to help them assimilate and to preserve their culture. 

Included in the exhibit is a 360 degree immersive film installation created by CNN depicting life in a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece. 

While this exhibit might not be the most cheery way to spend a Bank Holiday, it certainly gets the grey matter jiggling after 16 months of watching ‘Homes Under the Hammer’. And it is open all next week during half term. Both shows are free but you must book in advance. Refugees runs until 13 June so get crackin’.

Damien Hirst at Newport St.

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We originally posted this in October 2020, and this thought provoking exhibit closed just a few days afterwards. Newport St. Gallery is opening on Wednesday of next week, again with little fanfare. Once Time Out (if they still exist) and others review this it will sell out very quickly and we cannot reccommend it enough. It is totally free and available for now, but not for long!  Book here.

Without a great deal of fanfare, on Wednesday Newport Street Gallery reopened with  a survey of Damien Hirst’s early work called ‘End of a Century’. The timing of this retrospective might be a coincidence or an intentional and very prescient observation of the world around us in 2020, as Hirst’s early work explored themes of death, healing, life saving medication, infection, and anatomy.  We checked out the show on it’s opening day. 

In the first gallery we were introduced to one of Hirst’s trademark dissected animals; this one being a baby shark in formaldehyde. Moving into the main galleries you might think you’d just wandered into aisle three at Iceland, as there were several freezers stuffed with frozen cow heads (we asked, and they are real). Also on show were Hirst’s trademark medication cabinets and a variety of medical implements. After an enormous anatomical model we’re left to ponder the slightly humorous ‘Shut Up and Eat Your Fucking Dinner’ (pictured at bottom) which was fashioned as a butcher shop window featuring a variety of meats encased in formaldehyde. Is meat murder? 

On the first floor we got to grips with several of Hirst’s spin and dot paintings, with one actually spinning in the room. Surprisingly, there were several cubist inspired collages of found materials which Hirst created before he was a student at Goldsmiths, even then showing his early interest in mortality and resurrection. The most arresting work upstairs was ‘A Hundred Years’, in which a bloody severed cow head is being eaten by maggots who turn into flies who then get executed by  an insect-ocutor. We’re not making this up. 

Some of these works are almost 30 years old and don’t have the shock value they once possessed. But if your artistic taste embraces decapitated cow heads, meat, pills, blood, dead flies, and medical implements then this show will be right up your street. Vegetarians might want to steer clear. And lest you don’t give your mortality much of a thought during the pandemic, this show is a reminder of the profound fragility of organic matter.