1994. I had a studio at 30 Underwood Street, Shoreditch, which had been set up by Martin Richman, now a lighting designer, and Simon Hedges (Sid), the charismatic gallery director, now of F-ISH. Things were happening here. We were joined by BANK, an influential artist group, who opened Mellow Birds (or was it called DOG?), an irreverant gallery showing some now well known artists. Mute Magazine also had a presence here.Hoxton and Shoreditch were pretty run-down and the only pub was the Bricklayers Arms which closed on weekends. But there was a tangible energy... loads of little galleries springing up, property was very cheap or free, everything was DIY, Factual Nonsense, Plummet (a gallery in a tower block), BANK, Curtain Road Arts, Gallerette etc. all of which was pretty well documented by Hans Ulrich Obrist in Life/Live. There is very little photography from this time, no digital cameras, very few computers, not much internet.
Jonathan Hatt and myself, Michael Croft, both had shows at Underwood Street, got talking at a Sebastain Boyle magazine launch at Underwood Street (something to do with Sarah Kent's pictures of dicks) and decided to get our own building to put on shows.
That building was 1 Hoxton Street owned by The London Borough of Hackney, abandoned and forgotten. Daniel Yamoah of the Property Division kindly allowed us to occupy it until sold (that was 2 years later). 1995 and Annexed was born. Built in the 1920's as the Electricity Showrooms, the building had the the motto 'More Light More Power' which was the title of the first exhibiton.
That building was 1 Hoxton Street owned by The London Borough of Hackney, abandoned and forgotten. Daniel Yamoah of the Property Division kindly allowed us to occupy it until sold (that was 2 years later). 1995 and Annexed was born. Built in the 1920's as the Electricity Showrooms, the building had the the motto 'More Light More Power' which was the title of the first exhibiton.
Money from Art?
Where were we to get money? We were poor. Luckily 1 Hoxton Street had become a dumping ground for Hackney Council. The basement was full of replaced aluminium road signs among other sellable junk. Scrap aluminium fetched a good price. Lots of things, like spotlights were scrounged off, I mean sponsored by, for instance Concord Lighting. Private views were sponsored by Bombay Sapphire and J&B Whiskey. So we put on a few shows, attracting the attention of magazines and newspapers. The Evening Standard's ES Magazine ran a 3 page feature, called Money from Art, by Luke Jennings, with full page photo ...
...and this one in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin 1998, photographed in the long gone Drysdale Street timber yard.
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