Pick 'n' Mix

For four extended weekends between June 27 and July 19, Leytonstone town centre will host one of the largest collective showings of East End based Artists ever to be shown in a single venue, the recently vacated premises of the 75 year old Woolworths.

Within this historic and once grandiose purpose built 1930s emporium, now lovingly faded but still abundantly atmospheric, resplendent with its original store fittings, art deco architectural stylings and other more human traces of its former occupation, over 60 Artists each with a direct connection to its location have been invited to respond to, re-interpret and revitalize the empty shell of this vast space.

The wonder of Woollies may now have been relegated to a footnote in the annals of British social history and an affectionate place in our collective nostalgia but the wonder of art is still trading healthily here. For many of the Artists involved the former Woolworths venue has triggered a clear set of memories and associations; the purchase of their first record, the discovery of that otherwise unobtainable gadget or nick nack, the thrill and shame of an adolescent shoplifting spree or more profoundly the loss of a loved relative.

Narrative threads and shared concerns surrounding notions of memory, history and nostalgia weave their way through this show. For some, issues and ideas connecting to taste, consumption and appetite have emerged and throughout an interest in community, locality, space and place permeates the Artists' thinking, frequently manifesting in both site responsive and site reflective propositions.

The diversity and range of the art works selected deliberately and defiantly act as a pluralistic conceptual echo quoting the unique and eclectic Woolworths retailing style. The collision of hardware and homeware, CDs and kiddies clothes, toilet seats, toys, trinkets and trash have been replaced by a similarly unlikely and brash combination of painting, video, drawing, installation, sculpture, ceramics and prints. The resulting experience, part exhibition and part event, is appropriately a visual Pick 'n' Mix, a potpourri of styles, languages, approaches and attitudes that aims to create extended creative dialogues whilst blurring the boundaries between fine art, applied art, design and fashion based practices. In its inclusion of amateur, emerging and established professional Artists it taps into the wealth and breadth of local talent within the various arts communities populating the East End of London (an area long considered to the largest concentrated community of Artists in the whole of Europe).

Pick 'n' Mix is an experience at the centre of this year's Leytonstone Arts Trail Festival. The Woolworths building has been kindly donated by its owners Waltham Forest Borough Council who are generously supporting this Artist-run initiative.