FOLLOWING the success of Hell’s Half Acre in 2010 and Minotaur in 2011, Lazarides Gallery and The Old Vic Tunnels will join artistic forces for the third and final time coinciding with this year’s Frieze Art Fair – October 9 to October 21, 2012.
The exhibition goes against the grain of society to bring you Bedlam, a term coined from ‘Bethlam’ London’s Hospital for the mad. The infamous mental institute is the oldest in the country and came to epitomise the brutality long associated with lunatic asylums all over the country dating back to 1247.
The meeting of minds between Lazarides Gallery and London’s foremost artistic platform The Old Vic Tunnels will creatively explore the well-intended beginnings of this legendary institution, to its final disgrace and reform.
It will certainly leave you questioning your ‘compos mentis’, an experience that will demonstrate that the line between genius and madness has never been so thin.
Contributors include Vhils, Conor Harrington, Doug Foster, Ian Francis, Kelsey Brookes, Karim Zeriahen, Klaus Weiskopf, Lucy McLauchlan, Artists Anonymous, Michael Najjar, Till Rabus, Jonathan Yeo and Antony Micallef.
Steve Lazarides, Owner, Lazarides Gallery, said: “Bedlam over the years has become synonymous with madness, chaos and pandemonium, it seemed like the perfect theme for a world gone mad. Be afraid.”
Hamish Jenkinson, Director, The Old Vic Tunnels, added: “Most people that work in theatre are mad, everyone involved in the art world is crazy, Steve Lazarides is probably the craziest of them all, which is why Bedlam, the historic mental asylum, is the perfect backdrop for an art show, a stones throw from the original site.
“Built around the same time as The Old Vic Theatre it drew almost as many crowds; for a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the “show of Bethlehem” and laugh at their antics. I guess nothing changes….’
For more information visit www.lazinc.com/ or oldvictunnels.com/.
The Old Vic Tunnels, Station Approach Road , London, SE1 8SW