“Partners in the Game of Life: The Sinistry” – at Canal Place, Hackney, London E8 – Yeah, I know, we’ve been way way (way) too slow in terms of covering art since the lockdown started to lift and the sun came out, our own art does come first, dancing around other people’s architecture does come second, and I will confess I had forgotten about this pop up show on Sheep Lane just off Broadway here in (very sunny) Hackney.  We has spied that the empty space and the then forthcoming show that happened over the weekend in a new build set of fancy (no doubt unaffordable) flats, was going to be used as an art space for just one weekend before something more corporate and probably involving coffee moves in’ I had forgotten about the show, it was nothing more than a run to the art shop for more pink paint and spying the artists outside in their striking red suits that made me stop. I can’t pass an art show, and who could resist something with a name like The Sinistry – it sounded exciting, it looked big, the space is big and those red jump suits did look good in the sunshine.

A two person show, the second confession is that I know nothing about either artists, “The Sinistry is a contemporary art collaboration between artists Bert Gilbert and Izzer Ers“. It looks intriguing, it looks exciting, a show that feels ambitious, bold, confident, it seems like there’s artistic substance here “Partners in the Game Of Life. It is immediately obvious (thankfully in a not too obvious way) that there’s some kind of set of rituals, a game, games maybe? More than one game? Some kind of ritualistic game, blurred lines somewhere near the boundaries of art and fashion, somewhere near myth? Altered states? What is clear is that the Liberation Suits hanging at the back of the gallery are beautiful, attention demanding, almost impossible not to touch,  to want. Elsewhere there are texts, hints of boardgames or just games, of happenings, yes, rituals. Referencing Indian or Egyptian masks, snakes, ladders, mind-games, the pieces play with each other, with you the viewer, the gamer, mind games. The Sinistry is a bold show, a beautiful show, an exciting show, the relationship between the pieces and indeed the artists is intriguing, those Liberation Suits are delicious, they’d be nothing if they could interact with the texts and the gameboards and the manifestos, it is a shame this show has such a short run, better gets some words up… (sw)     

There an excellent website as well – www.thesinistry.co.uk or an Instagram

The show runs until Monday June 7th at Canal Place, the big new build at the canal end of Sheep Lane (just be New Art Projects, by the canal alongside Broadwat Market in Hackney… the review was rushed in the hope you’d read it before the show closed…

Do click on an image to enlargwe or t orun the slade show