I recently met Sue Krietzman, artist and curator of Flashier and Trashier, an exhibition opening this week in the crypt under St Pancras church. An unusual location for an art show, but then this is not the sort of artwork you’d expect to find in a conventional, prim, white-walled gallery space. Sue and her fellow artists step outside the box of mainstream art to celebrate everything ‘flashy and trashy’.
An exuberant celebration of kitsch paintings. and assemblage art made from salvaged and recycled materials.Marvel at the salvation and regeneration of lost and discarded objects, transformed into wild and wonderful objects of art.
Ponder the questions asked in the installations:
“What Should We Wear on the Way to the Afterlife??”
“What Hidden Powers Are Bestowed Upon Objects That – Like Souls Damaged – are Discarded, Abandoned, and Forgotten?”
Enjoy the thrills and chills of the St Pancras Crypt, deep beneath the streets of the city. Be amazed by our glimpse into the murky voyeuristic past of extravagant days gone by. The opening night is the 6th October from 6.30 to 9pm where you can enjoy reconstructions of Old Fashioned Circus Side Shows, including burlesque artist Amanda Mae Steele, dancer Thierry Alexandre and Catrin Osborne as Miss Havisham.(pictured below)
I visited Sue’s home recently which is a more intriguing space than most galleries could ever hope to be. Jewellery made out of everything from pencil stubbs to bottle tops, busts and statues, colourful clothes and mermaids galore adorn every wall, floor and ceiling. Here are a few exclusive pictures which give you a taster of the sort of Aladdin’s cave of wonders you can expect at the exhibition. And a few words from the Wild Old Women behind the show:
Don’t wear beige, it might kill you.
Dare to be vulgar.
Avoid minimalism like the plague.
Ignore the precepts of ghastly good taste.
Live and work outside the box.
Or – if you must live inside the box – decorate it with glitter, festoon it with furbelows, and fling profound gewgaws and fascinating discards into every corner.
We are Flashy…
We are Trashy…
And these are the mantras we live by:
Our assemblage work isn’t prissy or exquisitely made. Detritus – broken jewellery; pieces of discarded machines; battered obsolete toys; distressed doll parts; squashed tins; all manner of pavement treasure – are slapdashed together to tell new stories, to charm, to frighten, or to enlighten.
Our paintings are not subtle. We ladle colour and excitement onto wood, canvas and paper, so the images leap off the surface, and hit you squarely between the eyes.
You may emerge from this glorious festival of kitsch and spooky madness smiling – nay – laughing. You may find yourself trawling skips and pavements for detritus to regenerate into ART. And…it just might change your life.
‘Flashier & Trashier!!!: The Exhibition!’
Curator: Sue Kreitzman
Assistant Curator: Peter Herbert
Catalogue Editor: Julia Elmore
Official 3D Photographer: Shawm Kreitzman
Dates: 5th-24th October
11am-6pm
Closed Mondays
Admission Free
St Pancras Crypt
St Pancras Church Euston road
NW1 2BA
Categories ,flashier and trashier, ,sue krietzman
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