SALON (LONDON) presents Not for Sale

SALON (LONDON) presents Not for Sale

28 March, 2011
by: Tom Jeffreys

Tom Jeffreys reviews Not for Sale, an exhibition and series of dinners taking place right here, in Spoonfed Towers.

There's a moment when all this begins to make sense to me. I'm sitting at dinner, next to an astrophysicist and the owner of an independent publishing company and we're talking about the often hierarchical boundaries that exist between disciplines – between art and design, between science and the arts, between academia and 'popular' writing – and, my pet hate this, the fact that continental philosophy is never actually studied in philosophy departments (here or in America); its intricate merits seemingly only appreciated in departments of literature. Then it hits me: this is precisely why we're all here.

Here, amusingly, is none other than Spoonfed HQ, and dinner is six incredible courses by the ever-brilliant Blanch & Shock. We're served eggs cooked for hours at 63 degrees, lemon cured mackerel, pig cheeks, desiccated this, slow cooked that. It's incredible – fun, exciting, delicious (obviously) and carried off with Blanch & Shock's unique combination of passion, flair, old-fashioned dedication, craft, new-fangled technology and a stark absence of silly foodspeak. This is about creativity, and a sense of child-like excitement.

Curator Dr Crystal Bennes is the director of SALON (LONDON) (and my much better half – which makes writing this piece a little tricky) and she rather enjoys putting on exhibitions in weird places. This one was supposed to be in her own flat, in a warehouse in Hackney Wick, but at the very last minute her flatmates decided they weren't so keen on the idea. She rang me and I suggested our office, in an old Georgian town house on City Road. So, after carrying paintings up stairs, fiddling about with light fittings, okaying things with my extremely understanding directors etc, here, at last, we are.

The exhibition – on the top floor, just above where I sit at my desk every day – is not really a 'conventional' art show. I mean, firstly it's in our office, which is pretty far from the usual white cube gallery set-up; and secondly, it comprises all manner of different works – there's poetry videos, design, architectural models and scientific photographs, as well as contemporary art by the likes of Tessa Farmer, Tessa Whitehead and Annie Cattrell.

Admittedly, this inter-disciplinary approach does happen quite a lot these days. But where lots of artists make a virtue of subsuming a variety of media under the term 'art' (cf Goshka Macuga et al), this is different. Even at places like the Wellcome Collection it's not quite the same. There, each piece (of art, scientific apparatus, historical artefact etc) is there because of what it contributes to the subject or theme of the exhibition. Each piece is present not (only) as itself, but as an example of itself – something appropriated and co-opted within an overarching theme, subject or narrative.

Here, in the aptly titled Not for Sale however, there is no such theme or strategy. Each piece is simply itself,  pure and unfettered (as far as that is possible). Yet, conversely, there's also no attempt to make a pointed juxtaposition, to establish a 'dialogue' (urgh) or to create tension or ironic contrast between the works – they're united solely by the fact that they've been selected by Crystal.

And what works they are: Ross Sutherland's poetry is genuinely funny and quietly, naggingly brilliant; Tessa Farmer's bell jar (featuring something called an owl fly) is as intricately delightful as ever; Grégoire Alix-Tabeling's design is witty and neat; Annie Cattrell's 3D laser cut glass pieces are procedurally complex but aesthetically crisp and clean; and Steve Wilson's images from the Zebrafish Research Unit at UCL are quite stunning. But perhaps the highlight for me is the architectural model and sketchbook by Thomas Hillier – delicate, imaginative, visionary, and refreshingly devoid of justificatory spiel, Hiller's painstakingly handmade design truly is a thing of beauty.

And so back to dinner, and the reason we're here. Crystal decided to eschew the conventional Private View in favour of a series of three invitation-only dinners. Again, the only thing linking these disparate groups of people – architecture critics, gallerists, neuroscientists, designers, independent publishers, astronomers, artists – is that they've been specially invited by Crystal because she's excited by the things they do. One idea I suppose is to foster understanding between traditionally disparate disciplines, but these are not networking events nor are they backslapping evenings for a bunch of people who already know each other. People are here because they are interesting, and interesting as people, not simply as opportunities, or examples of their profession. Just as no work in the show is for sale, nor are the guests. In a rather old-fashioned way, there is no point as such to any of this, and therein, I think, lies the beauty.

SALON (LONDON) presents Not for Sale is at Spoonfed Towers until 1st April 2011. Please note: visits are by appointment only. To book an appointment please email salonlondon@gmail.com

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Tom Jeffreys