Beaconsfield Commissions 2007
Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September
Opening hours 1-5pm
http://www.londonopenhouse.org/
For Open House London 2007, there will be two co-existing performances within the Beaconsfield venue at 22 Newport Street. Each activity will reflect the respective characters of two linked sites: the remaining wing of a Victorian school building and its adjacent double railway arch.
The Former Lambeth Ragged School, Girls’ Wing
Luis Carvajal and Annie Davey: Puss and Mew London Dry Gin
Puss and Mew is an inter-disciplinary project by Luis Carvajal and Annie Davey who have collaborated since 2004, exploring the relation of gin to English social history through the recreation and reinvention of cultural artefacts and phenomena.
The artists speculate that the Lambeth Ragged School (opened by the Beaufoys in 1851) was perhaps built as an act of philanthropic guilt, by a family that had made its fortune distilling. It is said that they made gin until one of their members saw a copy of Hogarth’s Gin Lane and resolved to have no more to do with this ‘destructive force’.
A Puss and Mew London Dry Gin bar will be in operation in the former girls’ wing over Open House weekend.
The Arch space
15mm Films: The Way In
In the adjacent space, a semi-fictional film set in a railway arch squat develops. A disability-led collective rehearse scenes inspired by 1970’s terror factions, contemporary reality TV and lo-fi spontaneous performance art, for a disability terrorist film they seem to be about to make.
15mm Films work collaboratively on a project basis and are linked by a willingness to describe themselves as “disabled”.
Artists: Katherine Araniello, Chloe Edwards, Charlie Fennell, Laurence Harvey, Simon Raven, Juliet Robson, and Aaron Williamson.
The Former Lambeth Ragged Schoolroom, Girls’ Wing
Beaconsfield’s Upper space and former schoolroom is open for architectural and historic interest. There will be no performances here.
We regret that the Upper space is not accessible to wheelchair users. Please contact Beaconsfield for specific access queries on t: 020 7582 6465 e: info@beaconsfield.p-2.biz
Beaconsfield, 22 Newport Street, London, SE11 6AY