Category Archives: culture

Gasworks Gallery. Or is it a Mirage?

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When we take a needed break from our subterranean office beneath Kennington Cross we like to inspect the offerings at the never boring Gasworks Gallery in Oval. Previous exhibits have seen the space transformed into a gay cruising area, and another featured a giant Styrofoam coffin. The current show is called ‘Mirage’ and was created by Indonesian artist and filmmaker Riar Rizaldi.

The exhibit is composed of two film reels, and the first is Mirage – Eigenstate. It weaves together analogous investigations into the nature of reality, positioning western science as just one of many worldviews. The film then explores different interpretations of reality, from Sufi mysticism through to theories of quantum mechanics. We frankly have no idea what any of this means but the film is certainly nice to look at, with lots of Arabic fonts and words spinning around. 

The second film is called Mirage – Metanoia which is set in a kind of 1970’s Hanna-Barbera retro cosmic animation, where astronauts survive rocket crashes and pixie/cricket creatures wax philosophical about the presence of god in atoms, as you do. Again the artist visits Sufi metaphysics by means of a lady crawling out of a crater. Both films are presented in an immersive setting which includes a lovely Persian tiled floor and a wall mural based on the teachings of a Persian mystic. 

If this sounds like your kind of thing, and we really have no reason why it wouldn’t,  Gasworks are putting on a symposium called ‘Strangelet’ over the weekend of 16 – 17 November and tickets are available on their website. The press release describes the symposium as ‘a weekend of presentations, talks, screenings and performances that are categorised as gharib which means ‘weird or strange’ in Sufism (no, we didn’t know that off the top of our heads).

They are also hosting a much less strange sounding breakfast exhibition tour on 27 November and tickets for that on are their website

Riar Rizaldi – Mirage is on now until 22 December and is totally free. And they have a lovely, popup giftshop as well. 

War and the Mind

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When you wake up on a lazy Saturday the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t ‘ooh I think I’ll pop out for a quick exhibit about psychological warfare’. So we might need to deploy a rather cunning sales job to convince you see the latest offering at the best museum we bet you’ve never been to, the Imperial War Museum.

We unfortunately live in a time of polarising political opinions where people constantly feel as if they have a moral high ground. Convincing a majority to engage in war therefore requires the use psychology in order to achieve a consensus. War and the Mind begins with what is referred to as ‘the fallacy of the righteous cause’ which can delude people into believing that war is something virtuous. This also works the other way, which brings to mind protests against the Iraq war in 2003. 

The exhibit gets more personal as it progresses and delves into how psychological warfare is used to frighten and therefore weaken a population. This can be achieved by drones (more on that later), propaganda, rumours, gassing people, spying and cutting of essential services. And not to forget the psychological warfare perpetrated against soldiers in the field to demoralise them in the midst of terrifying situations. 

On a lighter note, in a war zone danger and disorientation can confound the brain. So near the end of the exhibit theres a rather hilarious illustration of how mind altering drugs such as LSD are used as a means to determine how soldiers remain focused when they are, frankly, off their face. Don’t miss the film where soldiers are laughing so hard they can’t pick up their rifles. Now there’s a way to end armed conflict! 

While this exhibit might not possess the unbridled fun of as scarfing down a pizza by the seaside, War and the Mind is on now until 25 April and is totally free. And (nerd alert!) for those of you who can’t get enough of the topic, from 7 November IWM will have en exhibit about the psychology of drone warfare. 

Local Heroes of Kennington

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This Saturday (5 October) is London Guiding Day, and we’re here to guide you about a fascinating walking tour around Greater Kennington that will be undertaken throughout the day, brought to you by the good folks at Lambeth Tour Guides  

Local Heroes Kennington is our representation for Guiding Day, and reading from the press release ‘The Kennington tour will introduce you to suffragette art students, the son of a slave who rallied the working classes, a Black Prince and a little tramp, ending at Oval with some trailblazing cricketers’. The press release also encourages people to leave the area in order to ‘discover more tours around London’. We don’t encourage this. 

The tour will include notable and notorious denizens of Kennington including Jemina Durning Smith, Charlie Chaplin, the Black Price, and a whole bunch of ancient people on Instagram who we don’t recognise but who must have been very important. We’ve been notorious in Greater Kennington for over a decade now, so it’s curious that no one knocked on the door of our subterranean bunker to interview us. And we, unlike the lot above, even have the distinct advantage of still being alive. But we’ll get over it.  

There will be six identical tours running on the hour and they meet at Kennington Station and can be booked here.  They are free, but these people are professional tour guides and a tip (a fiver will do) will go a long way to expressing your satisfaction. 

Fun Event This Weekend at Bee Urban

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We might be taking the word ‘fun’ a bit far here but this event on Saturday certainly sounds bonkers so of course we’re interested. Of the information available by the QR code, the event ‘is grounded in spoken and written and spoken language’ with live performances including a jazz band. This is all sounding a bit New Agey to us, which begs the question of bees actually getting involved in the event. We’re thinking along the lines of synchronised stinging.

Multipolyscripttoscribble (?) takes place this Saturday at Bee Urban in Kennington Park

The Lambeth Fringe 2024

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Frequent readers are aware that we make recommendations to travel outside Greater Kennington very rarely and do so with a profound amount of caveats. However, we’ve recently stumbled upon something that is both entertaining, localish, and supports up and coming independent creative types. 

The Clapham Fringe has been running for eight years and, based on its success, earlier this year they made a decision to expand its borders and rebrand it as The Lambeth Fringe. The spiritual home of the Lambeth Fringe is the Bread and Roses Theatre pub in Clapham North. However, with the expansion to over 150 shows, the venues now include a church, a bookshop, and a film school, in addition to purpose built theatres in Waterloo, Clapham, Norwood, and other Lambeth areas. The one local venue is a series of shorts being shown at the best museum we bet you’ve never been to, the Cinema Museum.  

Some of the writing at the Fringe is new, some adapted from Edinburgh Fringe shows, and others making the tour of fringe festivals.   In the mix at Lambeth are traditional plays, standup, drag, storytelling and music. We challenge you to take a punt on a show or two and you might be pleasantly surprised. Of course you might walk out thinking ‘what the hell was THAT’, but that’s half the fun. Anyone care joining us for Guru Dave’s Cosmic Shamanic Tantric Ego Trip?

The Lambeth Fringe is on now until 20 October. Explore the programme, including Guru Dave,  here. And you better act quick, as those Runoff wannabies Time Out are on to it! 

The School of Historical Dress

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If you’ve never heard of the School of Historical Dress across from the Imperial War Museum then you’re in very good company. It’s very rarely open to the public but we were able to tour the building during London Open House weekend, and over the next few weeks they have a petite, pop up exhibit that will allow you to see a portion of it as well. 

The School is not for profit and operates as both a school and a resource for textile professionals to research how garments were made. They also publish books about the history, cut and construction of garments through the years and have a database of books (lots of them) and material/outfits accumulated over the years. We’ve also accumulated a huge amount of old outfits over the years, but this relates more to the fact that the management at the Runoff pay us in vapour and we can’t buy anything new. But we digress. 

Over the past few years the School has had small, one room exhibits dedicated to colour and until 13 October the exhibited colour is red. On display are vestments, undergarments, and small maquettes which at first we thought were dog outfits but are in fact studies for larger pieces. Included in this exhibit is Jude Law’s Henry VIII outfit which they created for the very current film Firebrand. If one of the volunteers is present they can detail how the fitting was undertaken and the research required to create the garment. 

The building that houses the School is as interesting as the edifice across the road from it. Built in 1841, it was originally the medical dispensary for the Royal Bethlem Psychiatric hospital (from where we get the name ‘Bedlam’), which is now the Imperial War Museum. Latterly it was utilised as a home for shell shocked men after WW1, a canteen for doctors, and until 2016 a residential facility for adolescents. Staff at the School are very proud of their digs, and on our tour proclaimed that the reason the building is a form of gray is that this is how all of the buildings of the time would have originally looked,  the ‘Dulux White’ colour of other homes in the terrace being a 20th century conceit. We have put this in the ‘who knew’ filing cabinet at Runoff towers.  

If you want to attend one of the periodic events held at the School, follow them on Instagram or join their mailing list at info@theschoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk. The little show is open Friday from 4pm to 8pm and Saturday/Sunday from 1pm to 5pm

Free Culture Week 3 – Open House London 2024

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It’s that time of year again and one of our favourite activities here at the Runoff…..sticking our noses where they don’t belong! From this weekend (14-15 September) to next weekend (21 and 22 September) is the Open House London Festival, celebrating London’s housing, architecture and neighbourhoods by flinging open doors and streets not usually open to the public. We have a few suggestion for you and they are all FREE, and we love free. 

Most Open House venues have friendly staff on hand to tell you more about what you’re seeing and there are often things to read. If you look on the website you’ll see some local bookable things, but we’re afraid you’ve missed the boat on those babies. The localish venues listed below are open to the public on specific dates, so look at opening times. However, if you possess the audacious gaul to travel out of Greater Kennington you might find there are hundreds more free things to stick your head into around the capital. But we couldn’t possibly encourage that kind of behaviour.

London Fire Brigade Memorial Hall Vauxhall (we’ve been, recommended)

St. Paul’s, Walworth Walworth (we’ve been, recommended, pic above)

Florence Nightingale Museum – Waterloo (usually not free but it is for Open House)

Anderson WW2 Bomb Shelter – Oval

The Beaufoy (Diamond Way Buddhist Centre) – Vauxhall (we’ve been, recommended, pic below)

St. Giles Parish Church – Camberwell

Southwark Heritage Centre and Library – Walworth (we’ve been, recommended)

Beaufoy Institute

Free Culture Week 2 – City & Guilds MA Show

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We’ve just donned our crimson berets and sunglasses and attended the opening of the MA show over at City and Guilds. For the unfamiliar, City and Guilds is our own world beating arts school in Kennington Park Road, and twice a year they fling open their painterly doors to allow us a glimpse into what their students get up to. And you can buy what you see, but buying is by no means obligatory. 

The MA show is a celebration of the work of current students as well as current work from fellows of the institution. It tends to be more circumscribed than the huge and quite zany BA show in the spring and concentrates its efforts primarily on painting. Themes often dominate these shows, and this year’s themes appear to focus on decadence and fornication. And there’s something about ducks, but we couldn’t exactly pin that one down. 

Along with the exhibits there are handy notes offering a bio of the artists and their approach to their craft. And if you don’t like what you’re looking at keep it to yourself, as the artist might be nearby – but very handy if you want to ask them anything. And if you have no idea what you’re looking at but what to look as if you do, take a long dramatic breath, look at your friend, and say ‘It’s about IDENTITY’. Then throw that crimson beret to the floor and march out of the room.  

The City and Guilds MA Show 2024 is on now until Saturday, 14 September. Hours are 11:00 to 18:00 and open until 20:00 on Friday. They often have a bar on a Friday which is great fun. And of course, it’s free. 

And if your little has left with you with unmitigated thrill, Durning Library in Kennington Cross is having an illustrated talk about the history of City & Guilds and current use a resource for artists. This talk is on Monday (16.9) at 18:45. Details can be found here.

Free Culture Week 1 – Covi-Mora and Greengrassi Galleries

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In the first instalment of our three part free culture crawl around Greater Kennington, we find ourselves in the highly acclaimed yet little known Covi-Mora and Greengrassi galleries,  located incongruously in a kind of alley behind the towers of the Hurley Estate. Commercial galleries can sometimes seems a daunting to normal folk such as us, but rest assured these galleries not only want you to visit but require it to stay afloat. And by looking at the many staff on hand scrolling through their DM’s, they welcome the diversion that your custom and mere presence offers. 

Covi-Mora is located on the second floor are currently showing work by American artist Myra Green.  The show is called A New Pattern, and she explores the way we perceive colour by the use of the ombre dye found in fabric. The results in these round works are captivating and create figures out of what look like random splashes.

Downstairs in Greengrassi we come across the work Irish born and London based artist Anne Ryan. On the right are ceramics which look at first like random pieces of discarded and painted pottery but on closer inspection morph into mass heaps of humanity. On the left are small canvases which look as if they were ripped out of larger, French genre paintings. Everything from a carriage and horses to strolling soldiers are depicted in her miniatures. 

The galleries also operate a pop up gallery called ‘NEITHER’ at 2 Wincott Parade in Kennington Road. It is currently showing works by artist Anika Roach. Access to this site is by arrangement but as it’s in a shop front you can just see the paintings on your way home from the pub. 

Covi-Mora and Greengassi galleries are located at at 1A Kempsford Road SE11 4NU. The entrance looks not unlike the doors to a prison or a sex dungeon (not that we’d know), but once buzzed through the staff are very merry and helpful folk. The three gallery spaces are showing the current exhibits until the first week of October. 

Unseen Vauxhall

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Lets be honest, we’ve all probably walked through Vauxhall and seen things that we wish we’d never seen, but we’ve just unearthed two fun walking tours that explore hidden elements of history that transpired there which we wished we had seen, but missed by a hundred years or so. 

Unseen Vauxhall – the Vanished and the Unseen is a two part, stand alone set of talks around Vauxhall and the Thames foreshore. The press release is tantalizingly short of detail, but states it will not be centred on the fabled Spring Gardens, which has been celebrated in books, Bridgerton and, most importantly, by us. These walks usually cover areas such as local discoveries, scandals, famous residents, notable architecture and political protests. 

Unseen Vauxhall is taking place on Tuesday, 3 September from 15:30 to 17:15. It is such a large topic that there is also an Unseen Vauxhall part 2 on Friday, 13 September from 13:30 – 15:30, so you’ll need to bunk off early from work. Tickets are on sale now for £12 but won’t be for long as the sale ends on 1 September. 

These two events are part of the larger Lambeth Heritage Festival taking place throughout September, many of which are free. We would happily send you over to the Lambeth but the links on their website *coughs and stares out window* aren’t working. We did unearth this .pdf, as we love you almost as much as you love us.