Meanwhile on the other side of town..
East London didn’t have the monopoly on our interest this week. A visit to JGContemporary in Acton was long overdue, so a rainy afternoon trip to West London resulted in the planned purchase of a Findac piece and an unplanned chat with the man himself, who happened to be using the gallery as a base while completing a mural at a nearby hospital in association with the One Community London mental health initiative. Run in collaboration with the Nightingale project, the mission is to create more healing spaces across NHS sites through their adornment by participating artists. The mural itself won’t be accessible to the public as it is in a secured, private area, but the inclement weather meant that Finn was unable to progress at his usual rate as his default weapon of choice, the spray can, had been substituted for pot paints for this project, and these don’t respond well to incessant rainwater exposure. While we’re certain Finn would much rather have been out on the scaffold cracking on with the mural he was generous with his time, showing us the progress he had made that morning via pictures on his phone, in addition to letting us see some beautiful new prints, some to be sold via raffle (the intent being to give people the chance to own some of his work for the small flat rate price of a ticket), and some allocated for sale to support his friends in Cambodia who run a charity for educating disadvantaged children. We got the sense that Finn is a man who is not used to treading water, even though the abundance of it falling from the skies that day over London meant there were few alternatives.. watch this space, and find out more about the Nightingale and One Community London projects.
