And so the Five Points Yard gathering happened last Sunday in a very very sunny Hackney, heads got burnt, beer was drunk, pizza was eaten, people gathered in actual real life, art was installed, art was talked, people came, art was sold. Miss Roberts read drunken Tarot, Emma Harvey built a giant cocoon out of brightly coloured ribbon under the railway arch, Julia Maddison hung her jumble of unsellable clothes (that weren’t for sale) on her line (many people wanted to buy them), Jane Smith drew it all, Quiet British Accent handled the money, Lidia Lidia hung on the wall, Suzie Pindar (AKA The Naked Artist) brought her suitcase of slightly mixed up words, Lennie Lee added his bright colour (both his art and his shirt), Bert and Izzet from The Sinistry came along with their games, Vinay Hathi brought his bags and well, I think it went rather well didn’t it? Some local legal objection put a stop to the live music, and Geisha Davis was taken ill and didn’t make it so the performance thing didn’t really happen either (get well soon Geisha). I think we can say it went well, a splendid day in the sunshine. East London is a changed beast, a far more polite animal than it might have been ten years ago (or even two years ago), we might be a million miles away from a Fate Worse Than Death  now or even the earlier more anarchic less formal days of the Art Car Boot Fair, art might take more of a backseat in East London these days, most of the artists might have fled the cost of surviving next to all the coffee and over priced cake, studios and spaces might not exist like they once did, things might be a lot more fractured now, what little bit of unity there once may have been shattered, but hey, things like this can just about still happen in Hackney in 2022, a local brewery and a whole load of artists can come together any make things happen, thanks Five Points, thanks to all who came along and joined in, I think we got away with it, I think we had a good time, shall we do it again? (sw)       

Do as always, click on an image to to enlarge or to run slide show…