Hackney WickED 2011

Hackney WickED 2011

02 August, 2011
by: Jumanah

Jumanah Younis samples the music, booze and barbecues of the Hackney Wick art festival.

Four years after its initial launch, this summer Hackney WickED Art Festival seems to have come of age. Marrying the work of contemporary artists with music, booze and barbecues, the festival is in a genre of its own somewhere between a street party and market day. Made up of over 30  galleries (some permanent residents of the Wick, others popping up specially for the occasion) and open studios, there's a plethora of art on show; and the style and location of the spaces used to exhibit the work often enhance the experience of viewing the art itself. One cycling shop with bike tyres stacked on racks is transformed into a shabby-chic studio space (and makeshift bar) with the addition a few paintings mounted on the wall and a couple of bottles of liquor on the counter.

With so much going on, you can wander through the windy residential streets of Hackney Wick for the best part of a day without seeing half of the work you were planning to find. This is an arts event you shouldn’t take too seriously – it’s not the easiest place to navigate and exhibitions are of varying quality, but the mix of events and the sheer bulk of music, art and food on offer means that whatever you stumble across, you’re likely to see some interesting pieces. The Found Art Collective is one of the more refreshing and fun groups involved. The collective, which has emerged from a collaboration between seven different artists, involves work made from lost and found waste material. For the Hackney WickED exhibition the artists foraged for unassuming gems in the streets of Hackney and incorporated them into art pieces. When an exhibition is over, their works are  usually dismantled, given away or exchanged.

Another striking artist is Coco Hewitt. Coco’s work, exhibited in the pre-World War I warehouse space at Mother Studios, is a rich textural experience which blurs the line between dream and reality. The dark, isolated quality of the landscapes she depicts and her play on light and shadow work well in the cavernous environment of the exhibition space. Aside from traditional art forms included in the festival, interactive pieces add to the light-hearted festival environment – a piece of cloth on the side of a building invites festival-goers to “write me ten lines”, hung inconspicuously on a wall somewhere in the suburban labyrinth.  

Alongside the art, music is another key element of the festival. The line-up of the two main stages is complemented by countless smaller venues, from rooftop parties to a DJ and soundsystem under the railway bridge (someone might think to cancel the 276 bus that runs along that road next time) and even a band-in-a-van. With the main stages playing mainly electronic/techno sounds, alternative venues provide everything from drum and bass to Latin and hard rock. The sunshine, dancing in the street and pavements lined with people melt together to create a summertime atmosphere worthy of a well-established festival. From ‘Tubby’s Kebab Shop’ to experimental open studios, there’s a little bit of everything at Hackney WickED. 


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Jumanah