To Studio Voltaire!
…over in Wankerville on Saturday lunchtime. I say Wankerville with some underhand genuine affection for the mean streets of Clap’ham and surrounds.
These are the pavements I have pounded for over three decades as I make my way back and forth between Sunny Stockwell and the Common. Once you reach the Common I maintain it’s a magical place.
It’s just that stretch which starts pretty much past Clap’ham North and then over to Clap’ham South, where the Bright Young Things of SW4 like to go about their ME ME ME lifestyle, can be a little testing.
It’s all about me, innit.
Of course I was adding to this hyper gentrification by choosing to spend my leisure time on a Saturday lunchtime at an art gallery, rather than tucking into a sausage bap at one of the few remaining greasy spoons in the area.
Disturb the comfortable. Comfort the disturbed, etc.
And yep, Katherine Hubbard’s Green Room over at Studio Voltaire was indeed a little disturbed.
I’ve not been to the lovely gallery space in over a year. My last visit was roughly twelve months ago, at the exact same time, on a Saturday lunchtime.
The place was buzzing with the Bright Young Things of SW4. Art wasn’t on the agenda, but tucking in the cafe with some croissants and coffee most certainly was part of the Wankerville lifestyle.
Not so today. The gallery was empty. We had the whole space to ourselves.
It seems that the fairly pricey - but certainly not unaffordable - cafe has now become a fine dining restaurant, or perhaps even a venue for private events.
This meant that the space had one table where a group of four were waiting on their fine dining experience.
Nothing to see here.
There was more to see over in the main exhibition space with Katherine Hubbard’s The Green Room.
Woh, where to start with this? The basic idea is a series of black and white photos depicting the relationship between Katherine and her elderly mother. It’s very intimate, sharing some precious times with her Mum.
You’re never entirely sure though as to how much of this is natural time or something of a staged experience for the camera, given that someone had to be there to press the shutter button. I suspect the latter.
The layout within the space was more enjoyable than the photographs themselves. There was plenty of carpentry depicting the structure of a wooden house.
The moodiness of the black and white photos mixed in really well with the light and airy space of Studio Voltaire. It’s a magnificent gallery and one that deserves many more visitors than were present on Saturday lunchtime.
Some of the photos had plenty of female nudity on show. There’s nothing wrong with that - or even male nudity. It seems that each time I visit Studio Voltaire I’m presented with nudity bordering on the pornographic.
I spared my blushes and headed into the smaller and more compact gallery space to see Christine Hazell’s Different Faces.
These are the sketches from an 89 year old artist who takes photos of well known people and celebrities and then provides a portrait.
We’re talking Prince Charles, Kate Middleton, and erm, Mark E. Smith. I’m not sure how he strayed into the conversation.
I need to be polite here. At first I thought it was a piss take. They looked like some of the self portraits I was familiar with whilst working in primary schools. But apparently not.
Art is a serious business even if these sketches are far from deep and meaningful. It was very playful and some of the portraits did raise a smile.
A very strange Saturday lunchtime gallery experience all round.
