On once more with the herding and the sorting of the details, the careful selection of artists for whom it means something….

“Your warehouse space is quite ugly” said one uninvited artist in a rather negative way…

How could anyone not be excited by those beautiful walls? Look at those scars, the dirt, the faults, what a gloriously ugly space

“Your warehouse space is quite ugly, I was really only interested in working around some of my friends again in London. That was the attraction, not your space or the area it is in”.

What a glorious area this is (was) who wouldn’t be excited by this area, these people, these walls? Those real walls in those real streets, a last stand as the gentrification chases out communities, pulls lives apart, and as far as we’re concerned, as gentrification and redevelopment closes down every creative space left save for the sanitized white cubes where only the chosen ones can play. We love the walls of this “ugly warehouse”, we love this “area it is in”. These walls and spaces are where the reality is. Art that is not in touch with reality, that hides within pristine white walls and keeps itself to itself is not where we want to be, take us to the “ugly” places, the open door spaces, the art that engages with everyone, the art that want to be part of a community, not the art that looks down at it and says this ugly area is not for me.. We don’t want the artists who think these “ugly” walls beneath them, we want the artists excited and honoured by these walls.

“Your warehouse space is quite ugly” – it is indeed, beautiful ugly, gloriously so, these ugly streets are where beautiful people once made boots, where beautiful people lived lives, where lives once evolved in beautifully ugly ways, where brutally messy buildings pulled people together. This is where everyone can play, we don’t put on these things for you hang out with your artist friends, we put on these things in these places to engage with everyone, to create in the beautiful ugliness, to share with people of “the ares it is in”, we don’t want the artists who think themselves above it all, who think the walls are too ugly for their art, and only want to hang out with their friends .

“Your warehouse space is quite ugly I was really only interested in working around some of my friends again in London. That was the attraction, not your space or the area it is in”.

this ugly warehouse and the area that it stands in excites me, I want my art to be seen here before it all goes, what a gloriously ugly space it is, I can’t wait…

A little more than just hanging out with… (sw)

LONDON FIELDS: FURTHER READING