How These Two Young Entrepreneurs Are Unintentionally Enabling Shock Value Into The London Art Scene

Imagine viewing two artists painting nude models, while you wine and dine throughout the night, invoking all senses of the body.

By Frederick Henderson

London is known for having an extensive and eccentric art scene. Two London based artists are opening up their exhibition, Transparent Platform, that “captures something as complex a theme as gender dysphoria on canvas”. We interview the two young curators behind it all and get a better view of their vision, and whats in store.

Who:

Magdalena Moursy
Hugo Wheeler

Age:

M – 23
H – 22

GG: Where are you from?

M – London
H – London

What do you do?

M – Project Assistant at Secret Productions and Independent Art Curator

H – Recent Central Saint Martins Graduate and Independent Art Curator

Tell us a little about your last exhibition?

M – Transparent Platform hosted a live art dining soiree at L’Escargot Member’s Club in Soho. An Evening with Stephanie presented Eleanor Johnson and Venetia Berry, two emerging artists, both academically trained, who explore the human condition through the painted portrait. Both artists, in front of a live audience, had three hours to produce a piece based on our live transsexual model Stefannie posing nude.

Transparent Platform, together with L’Escargot, aims to generate a fully immersive and multi-sensory experience.  The three-hour evening seeks to deliver a heightened relationship between the audience and the artist; revealing an illuminating insight into different artistic processes and the transparency of each brushstroke.

Would you say you aimed to shock the audience or that there should be no shock at seeing this at this point?

H – Our curatorial process doesn’t intentionally aim to shock, however we do understand that this can potentially be seen as the outcome. With our shows we would like to see them as a natural progression bouncing and complimenting off each other. Our first show A Time and A Place… For Everything draws some reference to transgender culture within Soho, we have rendered that aspect of our last show to conceive the concept for our next show. If transgender as a taboo so happens to shock some people it shocks people, but shock is by no means our objective.  

M – We want to take the audience out of their comfort zones and immerse themselves into the process an artist has with their subject. Transgendered people rely on their expression through what they wear and how they act. By stripping Stephanie down to the nude, who hasn’t yet undergone surgery, we wanted to challenge the artists to reveal that innate feminine identity.

Are you going against the status quo?

M – We’ve had both been working in Soho and engaging closely in the local community. This was a topical conversation we wanted to explore. We’re not going against the status-quo, we’re wanting to explore the taboos left in contemporary society. It’s important for us to be able to have this opportunity to educate people from all backgrounds in subjects they have never faced before.

You started with Art battles, can you talk about these a little bit?
M – Art Battles started at artFix, a temporary project space Magdalena was managing on Walker’s Court in Soho last year. Two artist had half an hour to paint the same point of reference in front of a live audience. It was a fun and light hearted engagement event which bought the audience closer to the artist. Hugo and Magdalena worked together on a number of art battles giving emerging artists, mainly students, the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and challenge them to work within the restrained time period.

How did you get from there to here?
M – We had also curated a photography exhibition A Time and A Place… For Everything which documented the community and essence of Soho through the three photographers who had all worked and lived within the area. After running successfully for a week at artFix which then closed, we decided to continue the exhibition at reached out to L’Escargot who agreed to exhibit for four months. After artFix closed we wanted to continue the art battle model and refine the concept. We had established a great relationship with L’Escargot and wanted to continue working with them. We then proposed to collaborate on a live art event and came up with the concept of Transparent Platform.

H – Our first show was interesting as we worked on the premise that Soho is a place that lives breathes and grows through its community, creating a sense of overwhelming dynamism to the area. This idea of community and dynamism has remained relevant in all of our curatorial work.

Would you say that you two are dependent on each other creatively?

M – We work really well together and our strengths compliment each other. We both gain our skills from different working experiences and education and apply it to our creative direction.

Would you say that you are the only ones doing this? Is the idea original?

H- Our concept does take reference from aspects of art history and curatorial developments that have gone before. For example C18 French Salon Culture, where people would come together to discuss work (a subversive move away from Salon culture paving the way for Impressionism and arguably being the start to Modernism).  Our projects can even be seen to take reference from the idea of the Artists Crit, a quintessential part of art school pedagogy whereby a heightened sense of learning about a work is induced due to its open symbiotic nature, where both the audience and the artists have chance to educate and share ideas about a work. Our transparency (seeing the artists create the work) also takes reference from Fluxus performance art movements in NYC in the 1970’s, where work was created in a performance then delivered as a final product.

All of those art historical concepts have influenced us, but we feel at the same time our practice in conjunction with the contemporary artists we use are unique to today’s market.

M – We’re fascinated in revealing the processes behind artists work and curating exhibitions which bring the audience closer to the works they see.  We haven’t yet seen many events amongst our contemporaries which engage in the same manner and work with relevant topical subject matters.

Did you curate the Food at L’Escargot?

M – We worked with L’Escargot to ensure the food contributed to the evening to provide a multi-sensory evening. We looked into the colours, smells and textures in deciding what to serve the guests. We also provided one meat and one fish option…

You did it at l’escargot, can you tell me a little bit about the venue why here?

M – L’Escargot is an amazing eccentric townhouse in the centre of Soho. It’s also the oldest French restaurant in London. We love working with the team and the venue has been the perfect setting for the 18th century style salon evening. With our previous exhibition it was perfectly described by Clive Jenning’s as ‘like ancestral portraits in an alternative Soho Stately Home. For the duration of the exhibition L’Escargot becomes a metaphor for all Soho.’

H – So far Soho has played an integral part to our concepts and themes of our shows, and the community we have grown to love and become a part of is in Soho, So to use a venue with such rich historic groundings in Soho seems to be a no brainer.

Would you say that your ties are rooted in Soho?

M – We’ve had a great time working in Soho and feel very attached to the community. It’s a very vibrant area with lots of amazing character and a sense of family amongst the locals.  Been immersed in the area has been the inspiration for all our exhibitions so far.

What is it about Soho that causes you so much interest?

M – Its diversity and unique culture in the centre of London. It has a long history and has for a long time preserved its own character which is very hard to do in London these days. Even though it is undergoing significant changes there is still a strong sense of community. It also the most creative square mile which brings in so much inspiration and opportunities to work with such interesting people.

H – As we mentioned earlier the idea of Soho living breathing and growing through its community in addition to Soho having this unique sense of overwhelming dynamism, we find incredibly interesting.

Would you move out of Soho? (London to somewhere like New York?)

M – Although still heavily attached to Soho and working together to curate shows there, we are interested in exploring other areas and art scenes. Your surroundings and community is an important part of the inspiration for an exhibition and we both feel that Soho.

H – We did for a while of an idea of bringing our show A Time and A Place… For Everything which captured Soho (London) in photography from 1973 up to the present day. To SoHo NYC unfortunalty that plan never materialized, due to our minimal knowledge of SoHo NYC, however we are still up for suggestions if any new Yorkers would like to help us out!

What can we expect next?

M – We are about to start planning our next Transparent Platform event.

H – Top Secret at the moment. But find us on FB and you will be the first to hear about it!

One last thing can you two open your address books and list five places in London that everyone must go to.

M – L’Escargot – You have to go and have a drink or dinner at L’Escargot. It’s a beautiful venue and a great place to take a date.

Farmopolis–(Magdalena is now working with Secret Productions who have partnered with Waysec, a landscapre, art and articture practice to create a multipurpose event space and floating garden with all flowers donated by the RHS Chelsea Flower Show A beautiful space set on a Jetty in Greenwich which has a restaurant and bar and programmes a series of different events each week.

H – Franks Peckham – is a very trendy rootop bar with the best views looking out over the whole of London, serves a very good White Russian!

Best galleries is a stick up between the Serpentine Gallery, which always have amazing shows on with amazing outdoor space situated in the middle of Hyde Park. Or the Zablodowzic Collection, a abandoned church taken over by some great collectors in North London, always have the most topical cutting edge shows.

The Victory Pub – Vyner Street, Bethnal Green – Best old school pub in London for by far. Owned by a crazy old east end Chinese couple, right on the canal but also with all the old school furnishings, complete with a leather seats and a real dukebox, not to be missed!

-FH