A Tale of Two Southwarks has moved to 55 East Street, Southwark, SE17 2DJ

Join us at 55 East Studio & Café for an evening of art, photography & talks that celebrate community, culture and people of Southwark.

Enjoy a welcome drink & refreshments reception and meet the 55 East team to learn about South London's new community & enterprise hub. Followed by insightful talks from artists Suchi Chidambaram & John Pheasant to explore Southwark's diversity, contrasts and challenges through their works and the inspiration and stories behind their exhibition, A Tale of Two Southwarks (at 55 East until end August). 

'Southwark is a product both of its rich history and a modern makeover.’ In forging its future, exclusion and isolation are seen as dangers, whilst ‘those most likely to feel a high sense of satisfaction are those who feel they belong to their neighbourhood’.

Suchi, an oil painter, and John, a photographer, set out to capture the two Southwarks visually to encourage visitors to engage with its challenges and, hopefully, to be part of the solution offering support to the young entrepreneurs helped by Hatch Enterprise and promoted by 55 East.

A Tale of Two Southwarks is an exhibition of oil paintings, photographs and mixed media works by Suchi Chidambaram and John Pheasant.

Southwark’s ‘two cities’ - its glittering redevelopments with their thriving business sector on the one hand and the pockets of poverty and deprivation on the other - are well documented_.  The inspiration for the exhibition is the incisive report, ‘A Tale of Two Southwarks, A needs analysis of the London Borough of Southwark[1], to which Roast’s Founder, Iqbal Wahhab, referred Suchi early in 2017.

Southwark ‘is a product both of its rich history and a modern makeover.’  In forging its future, exclusion and isolation are seen as dangers, whilst ‘those most likely to feel a high sense of satisfaction are those who feel they belong to their neighbourhood’.

Inspired by the borough’s diversity, contrasts and challenges, Suchi, an oil painter, and John, a photographer, set out to capture the two Southwark's visually for an exhibition specifically designed for the space in Roast in Borough Market.  Their ambition is to encourage visitors to Roast to reflect on the borough’s diversity and contrasts, to engage with its challenges and, hopefully, to be part of the solution and to offer support to Southwark Giving.

The exhibition comprises oil paintings on canvas, photographs printed on aluminium and mixed media, jointly produced works which combine photography and oil painting to create images which draw attention to the diversity and contrasts which make the two Southwarks.

In selecting content for the exhibition, Suchi and John have sought to depict a number of the contrasts which underlie the Two Southwarks, including:

  — iconic old and new architecture

  — modern business areas and affluence juxtaposed with homelessness

  — demolition and regeneration

  — ethnic and cultural diversity

  — the vibrance of, and enthusiastic local support given to, community events

  — the historic and continuing traditions of art and entertainment

  — youth and age

  — Borough and East Street markets

[1] A Tale of Two Southwarks, A needs analysis of the London Borough of Southwark, researched and written by: The Researchery (Dr Catherine Walker) October 2016

Challenging Perspectives

An Exhibition of Oil paintings, Photographs and Mixed Media

Suchi Chidambaram and John Pheasant

The Nehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street

23 - 27 October 2017

The exhibition presents oils paintings by Suchi Chidambaram, photographs by John Pheasant and jointly produced mixed media works which combine photography and oil painting to create a single image.  The exhibited works, both figurative and abstract, are of India, London and Italy, places to which Suchi and John both have strong attachments.

Suchi is a painter who was born and raised in southern India and now lives and works in London. Fascinated by perspective and initially self-taught, Suchi’s interpretations of urban landscapes are typically not painted in situ but from memory: fragments of visual data mingling with subjective, emotional responses.  Suchi’s urban landscape series, both figurative and abstract, narrates her experiences of places and people.

John is a photographer with a particular interest in land- and cityscapes and portraits. John relishes the technical and artistic challenge of using only natural light, often in testing conditions (for example in rural Rajasthan where he works with a local NGO, Seva Mandir), to capture his experiences of the places he visits and the people he meets.

Mixed media (Suchi and John work with a variety of surfaces: fine art paper, canvas, metallic bases like aluminium and dibond) creates exciting opportunities to combine contrasting approaches and styles: traditionally, the approaches of photographer and painter are very different as are their techniques for capturing light. The blending together of these approaches and techniques creates a new dynamic which draws the viewer into the image and challenges the imagination.

www.suchis.com   

www.johnpheasant.photography

Information:

Monday 23 October:

Inauguration at 18:15

Tuesday 24, Wednesday 25,Thursday, 26 October:

Exhibition open 10:00 – 19:30 with wine, soft drinks and nibbles from 18:00

Friday 27 October:

Exhibition open 10:00 – 14:00