rike and henny are having a great time

(all footage by rike and henny. editing by rike. no animal was harmed in the making of this film, i hope...) (plus: they both jump a lot higher by now, they told me...)

on the radio...

sheer poetry

can there possibly be a more poetic view of deptford than jason mcniff's song 'shadow ships of deptford' which i stumbled upon at transpontine's blog, a place that already in the past has been the source of much joy and enlightenment. 

but isn't it just grotesque to imagine i'd listened to this beautiful tune in what must pass these days as my hometown, hanover, and dreamt up a place like the creek? in my very first years in london, deptford seemed to be a haunted place - the more i tried to get away from it, physically by living in hampstead and highgate instead of greenwich, the more it caught me, first by working in a theatre production where all of a sudden rehearsals were scheduled to the albany and then i was asked to find props and costumes on deptford market, and where i was not only unable to understand a word spoken, but also terrified by everything and everybody. i remember when a pair of shoes for our main character had an asking price of one £ and i volonteered a fiver just to not be hussled. not good for the company, as they soon realised...

but it wasn't until i put on my own production that involved a study of peter the great and his ship building tuition in the deptford docks that i started to embrace what was so worlds apart. certainly i could imagine peter testing the great british dentistry on his own men in the docks, and the rubbish and dirt were just consequences, shadows, indeed shadow ships...

first solo

very proud to announce the opening of the first (!) solo show of one of our favourite artists, and friend and neighbour, paul de monchaux, at the piper gallery in fitzrovia, from tuesday onwards. paul's studio is five houses down the road from ours and many times have we peaked through the doors of his basement studio, until he opened a big new space in the back of the garden, which is just the place were we could spend the rest of our lives. paul's sculptures are intriguingly smooth, with sleek surfaces that make you want to hug the cold stone, and of genuine beauty. every time we walk around his creations we secretely pray that one day we will be rich enough to be able to afford a piece, SILENCE (above, from 2007), a slave worker memorial at the jersey war tunnels, would do nicely for starters. Click here for an article in the guardian.

where we are now...

click here for the story...