Tag Archives: spitalfields

dennis severs is at home (2)

parlour at christmas
thanks to roelof bakker for this image of the parlor decked out for holidays.

the dennis severs house is rich and layered, a great fat cake of visual detail, of dense narrative, decades in the making, overwhelming by design. david hockney called the experience of it ‘one of the world’s great operas’. for concentrated passion and sensory intensity, for high rococo-cuckoo, operatic seems about right.

the house is jam-packed, not only with objects, but also with object lessons. naming and claiming those lessons, in the face of such ‘too-much-ness’, is a tall order. luckily, i know how to tackle a cake: let’s take just one slice, and learn from dennis severs as host.

Continue reading dennis severs is at home (2)

minding the gap (lessons from 18 folgate street)

dennis-sever-house1
18 folgate in holiday drag. thanks to beachbums.com for the image.

dennis severs: what have you done there on folgate street? your sublime, unsettling creation now survives you by some sixteen years.

dennis severs: you built a haunted house, peopled it with fictional ghosts, then found a way to cheat death and join them. is this trick unparalleled or is it the essence of art?

dennis severs: not only do i not know how to quit you, i hardly know where to begin. let’s start with bare facts:

Continue reading minding the gap (lessons from 18 folgate street)