Over by Grand Union we spotted the Ikon Slowboat, it’s a great scheme I’m unfortunately just too old for! 16-19 year olds get a space on this boat to work and exhibit as they float down the canals, pretty idyllic and I’m rather jealous!
After Grand Union, we went over to Trove which now inhabit the old Curzon Street Station: a beautiful old building facing Millennium Point. I’ve lusted after that building for years, I can’t stand to see such amazing buildings wasted and this one is perfect as a gallery space.
The interior of this building is an art work in its own right: deserted ticket offices, station clocks, a mummified cat (more on that later)…all sorts of strange curiosities lurk within it.
One of my favourite pieces was Wayne Chisnall’s mahogany assemblage: The City. This mysterious object fitted in with the surroundings perfectly, each box or clockface contains some sort of weird and wonderful object – sinister but delicate. It’s a nostalgic piece and, although quite dark as a whole, there are moments of hope and humour within it. Definitely one of my recent favourites.
Chisnall’s piece sort of reminds me of just the phrase ‘morbid fascination’: it’s eerie and unfriendly looking, yet as a viewer you’re drawn in until you’re nose to nose with some sort of nightmarish creature.
One other nightmarish creature you could easily walk past is a permanent resident of Curzon Street Station: Lucky, the cat. The dead, mummified cat found under the floorboards! According to moggy’s little plaque, in the past it was ‘customary to entomb live cats within the floor of buildings for superstitious reasons’, not that I can find any evidence of this myth online. That’s certainly something I will be researching tonight as the perfect procrastination to avoid my dissertation…yaaaawn…mooching about Digbeth is far more fun, oh and it’s Saturday tomorrow: FLEA MARKET!
