Illumini

The first thing you notice as you go down the steps is the stuffy, mouldy, yet strangely inviting smell. An old, damp, decaying, woodiness mixing with the smoke of burning incense.

Your eyes have to adjust to the darkness as you move into the depths, following the deep, hollow "doof-doof, doof-doof" of a heartbeat booming through a sound system with a lot of bass somewhere further down.

This is the crypt under St. Pancras, one of London's famous old churches. Once a burial place, the past few days it has been the striking venue for a free art exhibition. Illumini is a collection of sculptures, paintings, photographs, installations and other creations by 15 artist with one thing in common: they all use light in their work, either as subject or as medium. With themes like man's relationship with technology, perception of space and reality and the properties of light itself represented with neon, laser and projected and glowing light, the contrasting dark crypt is the perfect backdrop for this fascinating display of light. For more info go to www.illuminievent.co.uk/


































My new computer, combined with the uninspiring weather, kept me indoors for most of last week. Even as I left for the exhibition on Saturday morning it was cool and cloudy and it took some self-persuasion to leave the house, but by the time I came out of the crypt it had changed into a cheerful autumn day and I was eager to get to the Thames Festival. Before heading back south of the river however, I wanted to explore the area a bit more. This is when I came across the Hobgoblin and - once again - couldn't leave without parting with money I didn't really have (no, The Hobgoblin is not a pub...). More about my latest purchase in my next post, which should be up soon.