Displacement? Words? Another show…. art…. blah blah… this… that… words? What’s words worth?…. there goes the neighbourhood…. beer…paint…. rust…. people…. words… friends…old friends, new friends…. foes, toes, stepping on toes, artists, egos… words…

I was on the way to the show yesterday  morning, off along the road, painting under arm, off to hang it in there with the paintings, all beautiful rust and the industrial marks and the hard graft, sweat and iron filings and the twists of the metalwork workshop on the old street of caves under the railway arches. London’s caves full of car mechanics and taxi repair spaces, (a street without an actual coffee shop!). Bumped in to an artist friend as I walked to the show painting under arm, a fellow artist who also ran one of the many do-it-yourself gallery spaces that added so much to the fabric of the wreckage around here for a good few years when no one else much cared.  His gallery has closed down now of course, pushed out a year or so ago so the space could be taken for another block of expensive unwelcoming not-for-the-likes-of-you flats that are only eleven minutes from Liverpool Street and a step away from ten types of coffee, the gym and some artisan bread.  His original gallery long gone and that very morning given two week’s notice to get out of his studio. They, whoever they are, can make more money out of it if they convert it to, who knows what?  Displacement? There goes the neighbourhood, he looked a little depressed… two weeks…. toes…. said he’d probably have to give up on London…

Clair Street has been well documented here on these Organ pages in the last few days, weeks and months , East London over the last few years (last twenty nine and bit years since the first Organ actually).  Last night an art show opened on Clare Street, a group show and a gathering in one of the under threat industrial spaces, a beautiful space for a show. A show curated by one of the artists who regularly paints and exhibits in the area, this time it was Skeleton Cardboard’s turn to pull together a show… Oh look, words words words….  Last night a week-long show opened, a whole load of art and artists came together, painters, street artists, you know the score, lots of people came along, a good time was had, colour abound in the industrial beauty and crashed Range Rovers and the rust and the welding gear….a big crowd gathered, people smiled, paint was sprayed, photos were posted, images were liked, art was sold, somebody on some cooler-than-us street art blog will probably describe it all as being “the bomb”, people were probably “smashing it”… Another show happened, tempting to say there’s always another show…. but is there? Is there another show? Vyner Street was ghostly last night when we walked passed on the way to Clare Street, it all died so quickly? First Thursday?  There goes the Neighbourhood? Displacement? Words? Caves? Artisan bread and only eleven minutes from Liverpool Street? Come and live around here, ten different types of coffee and a fancy loaf of bread?

So an energetic art show happened on a street who’s days are numbered, under the shadow of a new building imposed… words?  Energy? Reviews? What’s words worth? What’s Wordsworth? A whole load of artists came together, it was as much about the what happened outside on the street as what was on the walls inside… words?  Gere’s the photos, enjoy the photos…. the who needs words? What price coffee? See you at the next one? Is there a next one?  (SW)

Click on an image to enlarge or run the slide show and the art and the colour of the industry…….