Pure Has Nothing To Do With Clean, Paul Sakoilsky at Angus Hughes Gallery, October 2018

Shall we get this Organ thing back on the rails? Kind of fell off a couple of days in to Frieze week and the depression of all those other rather conservative art fairs and the predictability of Moniker and have they all had some kind of art-bypass? Maybe it really is all “just another business” as a very aptly named man from that semi skimmed operation said back there? So Organ kind of fell of rails with all the time consumed down at Shipton Street and the six week Cultivate Columbia Road takeover of that beautiful little ex-greengrocer’s shop of a gallery there, one massively time consuming month and a half that left little time for anything else. The Columbia Road thing ended last Sunday evening so yes, let’s at least try to get this Organ thing back on the rails. Must confess the thought of knocking it all on the head for good did cross minds, but then, as several artists, gallerists and people who like to explore art have pointed out in recent times, no one else is actually covering the art and the events covered here on these fractured Organ pages and that the damn thing has almost accidentally become a rather important historical document of things that have happened, things that simply aren’t documented anywhere else. Well it does have to be said, there is a lot of “churnalism” happening right now, long distance churnalism, London art scene not really ever properly covered by people who don’t actually ever bother going out to the shows, people content to just churn out the press releases and not actually get out there and offer some decent coverage. People argue they still need this evolved Organ thing, well in terms of the art coverage anyway, the music coverage is needed these days, not like it was back there in the really early days of Organ as a printed thing, people tell me we can’t stop in terms of the art coverage, that it must go on, I don’t know about any of that, I certainly know no one from the art media came anywhere near Shipton Street over the six weeks of the Cultivate residency and well, needed or not, let’s at least try to get this Organ thing back on the rails now the Columbia Road takeover has been and gone, let’s at least get somewhere near a Thing Of The Day everyday…

Pure Has Nothing To Do With Clean, Paul Sakoilsky at Angus Hughes Gallery, October 2018

Here’s some (more) photos and a further flavour or two from Paul Sakoilsky’s evolving show with Cedric Christy up at the Angus Hughes gallery on the borders where Hackney becomes Clapton. The opening night of the Pure Has Nothing To Do With Clean was kind of covered here a few days back, we went back for a second look last Thursday Mr Sakoilsky’s performance art alter-ego Kunst The Clown was threatening to be in the in the gallery for a performance. The line is kind of blurry at times, sometimes hard to know when we’re encountering the painter Paul Sakoilsky and when are we encountering Kunst? Who was giving us that look into the editorial decisions that go into the production of those Dark Times covers? Who was it reading the rather impressive George Barker poetry? Who was it checking that the machinery had not gone wrong? Or questioning when those who deserve little more than a severe whipping, wake up to a morning of pink champagne and strawberries – a performance artist covered in paint from the rather forceful painting of those latest Dark Times cover paintings that are now think with wet paint on the gallery floor, that and spilt wine and shaving cream and who was it reading George Barker’s Anno Domini? Six days in now and there’s more art on the walls, there’s several new paintings in production, Paul has his studio set up the gallery – although is it ever really possible to set up a proper working studio in a formal gallery? – there’s new paintings evolving, there’s more empty wine bottles, the table top keeps changing, there’s paint all over the table, you do kind of imagine this is a taste of the chaos that does evolve in his real studio Anyway, here’s some photos and a flavour or two from last Thursday at the Angus Hughes Gallery to keep you fed while we attempt to get this Organ thing back on the rails again… (sw)

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