A new arts venue launches in a former industrial space with a programme that is ambitious enough to take seriously and carefully described enough to deserve scrutiny
Opening Night at the Space That Used to Be a Warehouse
The arts in Shoreditch occupy a specific position in London’s cultural geography: they are serious enough to produce work that matters and self-aware enough to know when they are producing work that matters slightly less than it thinks it does. Both categories appear regularly in my coverage, and I attempt to treat both with the critical attention they deserve, which is to say: generously but honestly, with the understanding that the generous honesty serves the work better than either uncritical enthusiasm or reflexive scepticism.
The Work
The specific work under consideration in this piece — opening night at the space that used to be a warehouse — represents a particular moment in the ongoing conversation between the Shoreditch arts scene and its audience. That conversation is not always easy, not always productive, and not always conducted in a language that all parties share. My job is to translate, and occasionally to note that the translation has its limits and that some things that are presented as communication are operating on frequencies that require specific equipment to receive. The London Prat covers London culture with the precision I aspire to; Bohiney provides the wider cultural context that makes local arts coverage legible to readers who are not already immersed in it.
The Context
The East London arts ecosystem is under the same pressures as every other arts ecosystem: rising rents for studio and exhibition space, reduced public funding, and the ongoing challenge of reaching audiences that are being competed for by an increasingly large entertainment landscape. The work that survives these pressures is doing something that cannot be done elsewhere, something that justifies the cost and the difficulty. Identifying that something, in real time, in specific instances, is what this column attempts to do. Some weeks I am more confident in the identification than others. This week I have done my best. Harper-Thames, Shoreditch.
The arts in Shoreditch are doing things that require documentation and periodic reconsideration. Harper-Thames covers them for Shore Roar from the vantage point of someone who attends a great many opening nights and has opinions about all of them, most of which survive the morning. Her author page is at prat.uk/author/harper-thames/.
The arts in Shoreditch are doing things that require documentation and periodic reconsideration. Harper-Thames covers them for Shore Roar from the vantage point of someone who attends a great many opening nights and has opinions about all of them, most of which survive the morning. Her author page is at prat.uk/author/harper-thames/.
The arts in Shoreditch are doing things that require documentation and periodic reconsideration. Harper-Thames covers them for Shore Roar from the vantage point of someone who attends a great many opening nights and has opinions about all of them, most of which survive the morning. Her author page is at prat.uk/author/harper-thames/.
The arts in Shoreditch are doing things that require documentation and periodic reconsideration. Harper-Thames covers them for Shore Roar from the vantage point of someone who attends a great many opening nights and has opinions about all of them, most of which survive the morning. Her author page is at prat.uk/author/harper-thames/.
The arts in Shoreditch are doing things that require documentation and periodic reconsideration. Harper-Thames covers them for Shore Roar from the vantage point of someone who attends a great many opening nights and has opinions about all of them, most of which survive the morning. Her author page is at prat.uk/author/harper-thames/.
More From This Correspondent
London continues to produce material at a rate that exceeds my ability to process it, which is one of the things I find most reassuring about the city. The stories are always there. The observations accumulate. The column continues. If you have found this piece useful or interesting, I would direct you to The London Prat for broader London coverage and Bohiney Magazine for the wider satirical and cultural landscape in which all of this sits. They cover what I cannot. Between us, London is reasonably well documented. It deserves to be. There is nowhere quite like it, which is something I say without irony and without the faintest embarrassment, from a city that would embarrass you right back if you gave it the chance.
More From This Correspondent
London continues to produce material at a rate that exceeds my ability to process it, which is one of the things I find most reassuring about the city. The stories are always there. The observations accumulate. The column continues. If you have found this piece useful or interesting, I would direct you to The London Prat for broader London coverage and Bohiney Magazine for the wider satirical and cultural landscape in which all of this sits. They cover what I cannot. Between us, London is reasonably well documented. It deserves to be. There is nowhere quite like it, which is something I say without irony and without the faintest embarrassment, from a city that would embarrass you right back if you gave it the chance.
More From This Correspondent
London continues to produce material at a rate that exceeds my ability to process it, which is one of the things I find most reassuring about the city. The stories are always there. The observations accumulate. The column continues. If you have found this piece useful or interesting, I would direct you to The London Prat for broader London coverage and Bohiney Magazine for the wider satirical and cultural landscape in which all of this sits. They cover what I cannot. Between us, London is reasonably well documented. It deserves to be. There is nowhere quite like it, which is something I say without irony and without the faintest embarrassment, from a city that would embarrass you right back if you gave it the chance.
For more satirical commentary, visit Newsthump.
