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Vir Stultus Sum by Ruth Breckell |
Celebration in words and pictures
Dan Carrier reviews the 25th birthday show of the renowned Torriano Meeting House
THE Torriano Meeting House in Kentish Town has provided an outlet for a generation of writers and poets and to celebrate its 25th birthday this year they invited three artists to create works that sum up what the centre means to the people who go there.
The brainchild of journalist and emigré John Rety and his partner Susan Johns, the lock-up shop has offered a platform to both the published and unpublished. Many poets have found fame after appearing at the Meeting House. Publications have sprung from their popular Sunday sessions.
And as an arts venue, it is like no other in London. Its beauty is its simplicity. Now run without subsidies, and none of the other added “attractions” arts venues rely on such as a café.
Centre organisers John and Susan invited three artists to use the space to interpret visually what the written word at the Torriano means to them.
Each works in different mediums. Ruth Breckell used knitting and felts to produce wall hangings honouring John Rety’s work. Zuzana Piponi took some of the poetry read at and written for the Torriano and turned the words into 3-D, tangible objects.
Portrait artist Natasha Gomperts, who lives in Islington, drew poets who appear regularly on Sundays. Her work includes portraits of Bernard Kops, John Hegley, Bev Rowe and John Rety.
For Natasha, the deal was simple: she’d draw them if they read her a poem – and the result is a beautiful study of the faces that have earned the centre is reputation.
Natasha used poetry as a starting point for her pictures. One series, called “Single Poem Drawings”, were completed in the time it takes to read a poem.
She says she was drawn by the unique atmosphere – and was inspired by her grandmother’s story when she was studying her subjects.
Barbara Gomperts had travelled to Berlin in 1931 to study the violin but was forced home in 1934 and eventually taught English to people fleeing the war, many of whom became lifelong friends.
Their values, Natasha believes, can still be found among the regulars at the Torriano.
“Portraiture concerns a direct connection in which the artist conveys information from a live encounter with an individual which yields something of the depth of their humanity to the present,” she said.
“As a child, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and came to have a great affection for her friends, many of whom were artists who came to England as refugees in the war. I have a profound longing for her generation and it inspires me in much of my work.
“The elderly are now a more recent generation than hers but their lives are also shaped by similar forces: the war, political ideals, emancipation, a fairer world.
“Many have participated in the arts of the borough as mature students, following their passions in the enriching adult cultural classes.”
Even the way she created the works harks back and underlines the creative ideals of an earlier, idealistic generation.
“It is relatively unusual to draw from life in these digital days,” she concedes.
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