Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen | Two Temple Place
The works in this exhibition stand in ironic contrast to their lavish surroundings. Two Temple Place was the Astor family’s base in Victorian London, and its interior architecture is testament to some of the era’s wildest excesses. Downstairs it’s heavy mahogany and marble. Upstairs, there’s a gilded frieze and some large stained glass windows, neo-gothic style.
These days, Two Temple Place is run by a charitable foundation and opens its doors for a free show every year. Primed by all the expensive ornamentation, my eye kept seeking out the different interiors depicted in the paintings and photographs on show. These interiors tended to be a bit beaten-up: this year’s conceit is that all the exhibition’s artists come from working-class backgrounds, though I don’t know how the curators could possibly have confirmed that for everyone.
The quality of the work on show was pretty variable, and a lot of the crowd focused most of their attention on the spectacular space. Me too. But anyway, I loved Hetain Patel’s Baa’s House, from 2015 and pictured above. The artist’s smiling grandma faces the camera - and us - radiating contentment. Her grandson crouches by her in a Spiderman costume: apparently a recurring motif in Patel’s work.
I’m sure she’s smiling just because her grandson is there with her. Behind her, the white painted wall is covered in photographs, and there are some more on the flimsy-looking shelving unit over her left shoulder. They all seem to be family photos. In this moment, she wouldn’t have much need for marble and mahogany and stained glass. What’s beside her makes her happy.
Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen is at Two Temple Place (London). 25 January - 20 April 2025