Arty Farty

From ethereal wedding dresses in an old power station in Wapping I moved onto animalistic nakedness in an old Crypt in St Pancras for Totem Body at the Crypt Gallery. The main reason for checking out this exhibition was that my friend's boyfriend is one of the featured artists and, more importantly, it was a great opportunity to get up close and very personal to to the very much naked body of said friend!

Totem Body is a showcase of the work of 15 artists, all of which use a diverse range of media to explore the human body and its indigenous and tribal aspects. The gallery itself is a great space, with that familiar musty smell of decrepit underground chambers and still bearing remnants of broken tombstones to remind you of the fact you are actually in a crypt underneath St Pancras church. I'm pretty sure one of the rooms is actually still in use as a family tomb which is a little creepy, but adds to the effect I suppose. 

I really enjoyed the variety of styles on offer, ranging from the monograph prints of animals by John Simpson, to the tribal totems by Janet Waring. I particularly liked how she mixed typical tribalish objects such as feathers, shells and wood, with the odd household item, sometimes as utilitarian and banal as rubber gloves or a toenail brush! 

Janet Waring's Totem complete
with rubber gloves

A dashing monograph by John Simpson,
with the main subject being a good friend of mine! 

The highlight of the exhibition was of course the fact that my friend was hanging up (with it all hanging out...) on a wall in a crypt in her birthday suit. But I don't think it is due to this bias that John's prints were actually my favourite of the whole exhibition. It is more because the rustic simplicity of the wood effect prints really appealed to me, and the amazing likeness to life of his animals was really rather impressive.

My favourite of the prints.