Wall And Jones, on the very busy Hackney Road, an old tailor’s shop on a street corner (just over the street from delightful fragrances of the Hackney City Farm and a stone’s throw from the flower pushers of Colombia Road). The two floors of the unassuming old shop has been the home, gallery and work studio to a small group of rather strong creators and designers for the last three or four years now. The place always looks good, you don’t get much of a clue from the outside, from the outside it looks like any other slightly upmarket East London shop, look in through the usually open door though and the space is immediately alive with colour, with Victorian treasure, with vintage textiles cleverly fashioned – wonderfully fashioned – alive with handmade jewelry, with dressmaking, with wall hangings, giant flags and all kinds of found pieces of, well there is no other word than treasure, the two floors are alive with treasure.

Emma Harvey at Wall and Jones

We’ve been wanting to get in here and do something for ages, Emma Harvey and myself that is, Harvey and Worrall at Wall and Jones is on this weekend, two (mostly) painters, two artisrs, Emma Harvey and Sean Worrall in there with all the treasure for a weekend, in there with the work of the in-house designers, in there in the space, artwork spread over the two floors. There’s four in house designers right now, brilliantly creative dressmaker Ali Jones (she uses her found fabric so gloriously well), and exquisite jewelry makers Halo Jones, Odette and Rosita Bonita (the three of them, indeed the tour of them, compliment each other, as well as the space so deliciously well), the four of them in a brilliant “old tailor’s shop that has been transformed into a cabinet of curiosities, housing the two designers’ latest collections in an aesthetic of Victorian tatter”.

Harvey and I had been wanting to get in here and do something from the moment curiosity dragged us both through the inviting open door, and this weekend we got to. They did offer to clear some space, but no that would defeat the object of the exercise, what we wanted to do was almost hide our pieces of canvas and such in there to be discovered in with the almost forgotten objects and the vintage artifacts, the textures, the postcards with the old messages on, and the textiles, the colours and the feathers and the old suitcases with the 1920’s stickers on and the distressed frames and faded hats reborn and the furniture and flags and flowers and the wonderful jewels…

The show was to happen over a weekend, a Friday opening followed by a Saturday and a Sunday, a collection of recent artworks, mostly paintings, some needlework, from the two of us, artworks hidden over the two floors in the cabinet of curiosities that is so so alive already. Harvey’s circles, be them paintings, old 78 records in freshly painted sleeves, red-stitch embroidery, my thorns and leaves and recent layers of growth. We’re half way through the weekend right now and loving the reactions of people coming in for the first time and exploring the space, coming in and finding all kinds of treasure (and some of the art). The exhibition ends at 6pm on Sunday, May 29th, do let curiosity allow you in should you be passing, curiosity never did kill the cat and the three designers in here are creating some very beautiful things… (sw)

Click on an image to enlarge and run the slide show, I’m sure you can work out which pieces are Harvey’s, which pieces Worrall and indeed which pieces were there already…