The Museum of Everything #3 -fairground and outsider art

I went to the Museum of Everything #3 in Chalk Farm this week. It is an exhibition, mostly, of the artist Peter Blake’s collection of fairground, circus and outsider art.
       
The exhibition carries the idea of magic and  fairytale transformation. The dolls, puppets, costumes and fairground paraphernalia felt uncomfortable symbols of magic, made more so by their being out of their original time and place. I had a sense of the artist-craftsmen striving to create magic  and the cumulative effect was evidence of  the singularity and passion that fairground, folk and outsider art possesses.
   
Above are some examples of my interaction with fairground art - still a strong influence on what I do.

Remembrance Sunday

I recall today a family member who died at Mericourt L'Abbe, France on October 1916 at the age of 26. Philip Smith took great pleasure in his life as an artist. I wrote and illustrated a story for children (now out of print) imagining a life for him that he was unable to have.

Whitechapel

From my archive of black & white London photographs.

Where I live

Morning Lane, Hackney.