Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Apparently. But actually one word will break me, that’s housewife. Now I’m in danger of alienating readers and offending friends so I STRESS the word only hurts when directed at ME. It sends me into a spiral of self-analysis and total breakdown. Again, MY issue, and not because the description when directed at anyone else is in anyway derogatory.
Charlotte Colbert’s Dining Room
When I first heard whispers of Charlotte Colbert’s photographic exhibition, I knew it would be right up my street. Firstly because I love iconic black and whites. Secondly because Charlotte pushes boundaries without being ridulously melodramatic in her artistic endeavours. And thirdly because I had a feeling that A Day At Home would perfectly reflect my own working/domestic life, which, of course, is in the home.
a doll’s hand on a typewriter… in Charlotte’s Interior Study (A Day At Home)
So the first day Gazelli Art House declared Charlotte’s collection hung, a snap-loving friend and I zipped along to Dover Street.
snap-happy friend at Gazelli Art House
Charlotte’s protagonist (she is a screenwriter after all) is a semi-hyserical 1950s housewife who feels trapped. As a writer, this relatively new feeling of isolation (Charlotte married The Rodnik Band’s Philip Colbert earlier this year) is heightened as she works alone at home.
previous inhabitants – depicted by Colbert
The house itself is one which Charlotte and her new husband have just bought in Bethnal Green. In need of some serious renovation, there lies a perfect setting for her shoots which focus on loss, confusion and a crumbling world. Stripping back the wallpaper and discovering newspapers from the 60s, Charlotte is also intrigued by the previous inhabitants of this home, the families and their relationships witnessed between these four walls.
The photography is out there but only a little dark, illustrated with a certain amount of humour.
While I can empathise with Charlotte’s housewife identity crisis, I don’t feel ANY feeling of isolation as a writer at home. In fact, I savour the isolation while our home is empty and crave it again once it’s invaded after school pick-up.
lunch at Rose Bakery
ginger and honey tea
cakes at Rose Bakery
Snap-loving friend and I headed to the top of Dover Street Market for some lunch afterwards. I’ve been dying to visit Rose Bakery for a while now. We snapped the rooftops, the food and a festive New Bond Street on the way back home.
Gazelli Art House and Rose Bakery are both located on Dover Street, W1
