ha.lf and Bow Arts collaborated on a unique, mixed-medium exhibition, taking over the skeletal remains of the abandoned office space at 125 Shaftesbury Avenue. The exhibition opened in early October, positioned in Central London until November 3rd. The premise? Each individual piece was a unique take on seating arrangements. The duo which forms either side of the curatorial project, Flora Bradwell and Haydn Albrow present a perspective-melting show which features a whopping 47 individual artists and designers.
The project was a “year and a bit” in the making and developed after attending a show, after which they shared a similar sentiment. The exhibition featured a film element, which necessitated sitting down to engage. This element inspired the pair to create an event which dissects the art world’s affinity for pedestals and elitism. Not only this, but its purpose being… to directly contest one of the cardinal sins of fine art consumption… to not only touch, but to sit on the artworks.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Sophie Hill, the Director of Arts and Events at Bow Arts, as well as a plethora of participating artists and the founders of ha.lf. Read more to learn about each artist’s creative inspiration and how the collaboration between ha.lf and Bow Arts represents continued efforts toward getting creatives on the stage, and helping assist them in their artistic journeys.
Sophie Hill: Director of Arts and Events at Bow Arts
When it comes to Bow Arts and the impact you’re trying to have on the community, what does this kind of curated event do for the organisation?
This was a massive opportunity for us. We’ve never had a space outside of East or South East London. We’re based in Bow and have been there for nearly 30 years. We’re all about creating opportunities for artists especially during Frieze week, for the 47 artists in this exhibition.
For any readers that aren’t familiar with bow arts and what you do, can you tell our readers about what you do and why it’s important?
Bow arts establishes affordable studios for artists at our HQ which is where The Nunnery Gallery is on Bow road. I think what we do is important because it’s still really hard to get affordable studio space, in fact I think it’s harder now than it was 30 years ago.
Not only do we provide studios, we also provide arts and events. We ran an East London art prize, we have a big learning department, working with over 100 schools in East London. We support artists to work creatively and constructively. Opportunity keeps artists as artists, getting them paid work, keeping rent down… it’s a circular economy.
Flora Bradwell and Haydn Albrow: of ha.lf
How are you both feeling about the night so far?
Flora: Fantastic we are currently in a spice girls themed office space with an oversized watch, drinking warm Prosecco.
Tell me more about your working relationship as co-curators, what has this process looked like?
Hayden: we met at the Slade (School of Fine Art) in 2018, we sat next to each other in orientation.
F: Yes, probably.
H: Flora was in painting, I was in sculpture but it was one of those where you think oh this was nice but I probably won’t see you again because we aren’t in the same subject areas
F: …or building.
H: We kept gravitating toward each other. Then we were graduating and COVID happened and we both lived in Walthamstow. During the lockdown we would go for walks: “we don’t know what’s happening with our graduation, but it’s nice to be with someone who doesn’t know what’s happening”.
Then we ended up getting a studio.
F: Yeah, near Liverpool street.
H: It was fine, but it wasn’t right and so we moved to Bow studios. Then we were just like, “Oh it’s really nice working together” because “your work sings to mine and mine sings to yours” even though they’re really different.
We were never copying each other but we would see elements of each other’s work like…
F: Teeth!
H: “Oh there’s this in your work” and “there’s a window” and “I just did a window here”…
F: But I also think I was drawn to Haydn because she was part of this project called Desperate Artist Seeking. You know when you see someone who’s always doing something, always hustling and doing things, always organised. I find that attractive because that’s what I do and in the art world there’s a lot of navel gazing and waiting for things to happen… I like it when people make things happen for themselves, I’ve always been part of the DIY movement, just out of necessity really.
So seeing that in Haydn made me really excited…
H: I don’t think I’d really seen it in someone else, I thought I was on my own and I wasn’t in the right crowd…
F: We taught each other, we’ve learned from each other, we both have different skill sets. Haydn’s been bossing the admin like so so hard…
H: I get Flora to be a bit more bossy, “you need to do that”.
Regarding Take A Seat specifically… how does it feel to see it all put together also knowing it’s part of Frieze week?
H: It feels mad.
F: It feels gorgeous.
H: Mad in a gorgeous way… gorgeously mad.
Where did you find the inspiration for an exhibition like this?
F: We went to this show and we wanted to touch the work but you couldn’t…
H: That there was this film element, we both kind of turned to each other and said, “this is not my kind of work but I’m so happy to sit down like this” “how can we make a show that’s enjoyable like we find sitting down right now enjoyable?”…
F: …and touch the work. I’ve done stuff with Bad Art, which has been about touching the work. Art on a pedestal as this glorified pricy object that you can’t touch or you can’t comprehend without elitist sensibilities .. is for me, off-putting.
I think this show works on so many levels. It’s instantly instagram-able. You have a monster hand or a spider. At the same time we’ve got works in here that talk about immigrant experience and identity. You’ve got a work in here about someone’s deceased father, about grief and loss. The artists appreciate that you can access their work on so many levels.
Have you worked together on exhibitions before?
F: We’ve curated shows together but this is our first iteration as ha.lf…but we’re just two girls.
H: …Now we’re two halves of a half…
F: Making it official is really nice, we’ve done stuff with full velour with our show “Fit to Bursting” we’ve done stuff in the Crypt Gallery, it’s all quite bodily…
H: Creepy… I think a lot of our shows have been very sensual. You want to touch them but we haven’t quite known how to bridge that gap. That kind of oozing of “I want so badly to touch this but I can’t”…
For this one we wanted the opposite. The space is weird… It’s an ex-office. I feel kind of strange in the space, but I want to touch all the things in the space. We kind of flipped it, less about “how do we make this space…
H: …Immersive…
Another bridge that is design as well. There are a couple of participants in the show that would say, “No I’m a designer, not an artist”… We were trying to have a nice mix of really bizarre conceptual chairs, obvious chairs…
F: …And then Tom Coates’ kind of brick egg which you can climb upon…
H: We were looking for chairs that were like; “this is a chair, this is a stool, a beanbag” and making sure we covered all the areas.
F: …And “this is a story”… It’s also important to mention that it’s been so gorgeous to be supported by Bow Arts and to be able to have twelve artists in residency in the space itself, the work is also responsive to the site. The previous tenant left all their old chairs here, so we’ve repurposed all this abandoned office furniture that was left.
H: It felt really exciting to animate this dead space and all of a sudden, it was all just happening. And we’ve been sitting on this idea…
F: Oh! Stop it!
H: …For like a year and a bit and we just couldn’t find the right place, it feels special.
F: It’s gorgeous synergy.
Over the course of the evening I made a point to speak with a few of the staggering 47 different artists. Read below to learn more about their specific works. The works ranged from interactive pieces where attendees were encouraged to add yarn to the mix, a miniature stool which was composed of cured bread, a gigantic manicured hand, to “chairs” that interrogated the audience’s perspective on seating altogether.
Srabani Ghosh: Exhibiting Artist
Give us a little insight behind the inspiration behind your pieces?
I come from a specific part of India where we are all storytellers. We literally worship clay, anything we make we just kind of imbue it with this life. The arm chairs are actually made with chairs we found in this building that were left behind.
The white blocks look rectangular like pieces of time but every one is different, and they’re bound by red wool signifying the repetition of everyday. You always yearn for “what if”: What if I was someone else, or did something else or was free somewhere else? So it’s about that kind of yearning to be elsewhere.
The other piece is part of a pair, two ceramic topped stools. This is about what happens when an artist takes a mass produced existing piece of furniture and splices it with their own creativity. It becomes a story, so the round top has a little bird on it. I’m always yearning for freedom, you can also see tally marks and that’s like the marking of time. When you repeat a mark long enough, it has movement and motion and variation in it and I think that’s what makes it beautiful. It becomes its own story.
If you could give your younger self advice after what you know now, what would it be?
You’re good, you’re very good.
Danny Young: Exhibiting Artist
Can you tell us a little about your work?
Yeah, so I’ve got two pieces of work at the show. I’ve got my Whoopee cushions which were made in 2021. I’ve also got a new piece of work called “Pest” which is a dandelion chair… the first one in the exhibition.
Tell us about the inspiration for the dandelion chair?
The chair is very much looking at the contrast and complexities associated with the dandelion. They’re a flower and I think they are really beautiful but they’re also considered a weed and a pest. It’s a bit of that complexity and that relationship between rough aesthetic and beauty. So kind of looking at both and linking them to my working class background. It’s about how I feel, as a dandelion, trying to take up space. Looking at that contrast of rough beauty, taking up space where its not necessarily wanted.
If you could go back in time before you knew what was coming, what would you tell your younger self?
Enjoy the bumpy wave, don’t get stressed out about it – even if it’s not easy, just enjoy it. It’s very much about working out what the fuck I’m actually doing. There is no right way. It’s riding with the work that you want to make, and then opportunities just come one after the other.
Tom Coates: Exhibiting Artist
Tell us about the inspiration for your work?
A lot of this show has come together very much propelled by the fact that we’re in this weird abandoned office space. I was thinking a lot about how so many corporations have this intense desire to be “not a normal office”. How they want to foster a “fluid” non-work-y environment which is admirable in its own way, but it’s a hotbed of weird issues.
It’s interesting to me, the way everyone’s vision for a working space like that is defined by soft curved edges, bean bags and bubble meeting rooms. It all seems to revolve around softness and curves. The funny thing about it is that so many of these spaces, especially in Central London, are encased in these hard rigid buildings which often have very hostile architecture around them. That contrast is very interesting to me
Hard and soft. Something that interrogates our ideas about what’s inviting/ uninviting and the ways we utilise them.
Every artist/ creative goes through their own journey – but as you are now, what would you say to your younger self?
Try and separate the process of making from the process of critiquing. If you find something that feels right for whatever reason, do not worry if you get to the end of a rabbit hole and it doesn’t give you something you end up liking.
Don’t analyse whilst you’re making something. Trust yourself to come out of the creative process with an inkling of what you’d like to make because it’s a long journey and finding your voice does take time. If you enjoy the process, it won’t feel like work.
Be persistent.
The exhibition spanned across the near-cavernous, repurposed office space at Shaftesbury avenue, and boy did it not disappoint. Artworks in the exhibition implored attendees to examine their relationship to grief whilst a conjoined pair of dogs were seen participating in what one could only politely call “an act of nature”. Seating which emulated what I could only consider medieval torture devices were also on display. Variety was this shows’ bread and butter, quite literally. Solidified by a sandwich chair which featured two speakers, engulfing sitters in an interactive soundscape.
The collaboration between ha.lf and Bow Arts is an incredible testament to the direction of independent artists. Not only this, but what it means to contest the snobbery that could otherwise prevent creative expansion. The event showcased one of the many efforts occurring across the city of London. Many are working to not only platform up and coming creatives, but keep them afloat.
Pursuing the vast number of works, it was clear that serious themes perfectly buffeted against jovial elements. All of which made for a gorgeous viewing and sitting experience. I’ll be keeping a keen eye on the curatorial project, I can’t wait to see what they pull together next. Will it have four legs? Feature tongues? Exist in the bounds of another alienesque, hollowed out office space? … I guess we will have to wait and see.
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Words: Lauren Bulla