DISPLACEMENT

From what we can understand, One Little Girl and a Can of Gasoline (the name of a steel fabrication workshop in a railway arch on Clare Street (Bethnal Green, London E2), a workshop that sometimes doubles as a gallery space) invited the London artist known as Skeleton Cardboard to run an art show

And so Displacement happens in July.  A show curated by Skeleton Cardboard, “a long term resident of Bethnal Green and one of London’s regular names in the Urban Art scene”.

Skeleton Cardboard invited artists known to Clare St and who had painted, hung or pasted up art on the soon to be gentrified street to participate in this one off “unique group show in the ever changing cultural landscape at the heart of East London’s individual history”. The show opens this coming Thursday evening July 7th

“Over the past 18 months” so said Skeleton Cardboard, “artists have established Urban Art at the heart of Bethnal Green. Steeped in history, a part of East London that was destroyed in WWII long before the days of coffee shops and restaurants, Clare St became a hub for the companies that make our city tick and play an integral part of society along with other professional services and businesses.  Clare Street’s businesses consist of small industrial units, car and bike garages, steel and wood workshops. Having become friends with the owners through my daily passing, I found the businesses more supportive of Urban Art than a typical high street shop and more open minded to the concept of art.  In the last 18 months artists have painted Clare St with us from the USA, Columbia, France, New Zealand, Sweden, Argentina and of course mostly from the UK. The business owners are rightly frustrated at being asked to leave the arches where soon national and international corporations will take over.  They will pay the higher rents, leaving the current businesses tasked with the difficulty of finding new locations and rebuilding their local client group”

Clare Street, March 2016

Displacement – dɪsˈpleɪsm(ə)nt/ (There Goes the Neighbourhood).  Opens on (First Thurs) July 7th and runs until July 14th.  One Little Girl And a Can Of Gasoline is at 299 Clare St, Bethnal Green, E2 9HD. “The last show in a steel fabrication workshop/gallery before it becomes yet another coffeeshop, tattoo emporium, cocktail bar, organic foodstore, Tesco Metro or another trendy barbers”.

Clare Street, May 2016

The Neighbourhood, line up of artists includes: 616, Ali Hamish, Airborne Mark, Attai, Bill Daggs, Bill Thorpe,  Charlie McFarley, Donk, Fanakapan, Frankie Strand, Himbad, Hugo & Sholto Id-iom, Lost Souls: (aka Captain Kris, Si Mitchell, Squirl, Sp Zero 76), Lilly Lou,  My Dog Sighs, Noriaki, Pang, Sean Worrall, Seeds One, Skeleton Cardboard, This One, Tony Riff and Vanesa Longchamp.

Some shots of the colour of Claire Street, click on an image to enlarge or run the slide show