BEASTLY HALL 

Thomas Grunfeld misfit (goat/fawn) Courtesy Hidde van Seggelen Gallery, London Image: the artist

A place where artists and creatures collide

Hall Place, the Tudor mansion situated in sixty-five acres of gardens in Bexley, north east Kent opens its doors to a collection of mythical creatures and world-famous artists in the new exhibition ‘Beastly Hall’.

A show founded in the fantastical, Beastly Hall pays tribute to Hall Place’s magnificent topiary lawn that features the historic Queen’s Beasts, real and mythical creatures that were planted to mark the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 and still stand proud today.

With curious parallels to these topiary beasts, the exhibition, curated by London-based curatorial collective Artwise, will feature contemporary ‘creatures’ imagined by artists along with subversive responses to the idea of beasts. Visitors will be treated to a mind-bending array of creations conjured up from the imaginations of artists such as Jake and Dinos Chapman, Joana Vasconcelos and Polly Morgan. Artists were invited to contribute new or adapt existing artworks and installations for display in the house and grounds, with new work shown in the UK for the first time from Danish artist Nina Saunders and Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee.

Pieces placed throughout the property challenge the concept of the ‘beast’ as the visitor progresses through the exhibition, from Thomas Grünfeld’s hybrid taxidermy to the enchanting peacock feather installation, ‘Spectacle’, of Susie MacMurray. A sense of the humorous in Carina Weidel’s preternatural ‘Chicken Olympics’ and Nina Saunder’s ‘Fox with Issues’ contrasts with the poignancy of Laura Ford’s large-scale sculptures, where recognisable characters usually at home in Beatrix Potter’s stories become vagabonds in the courtyard of the museum.

http://www.bexleyheritagetrust.org.uk/beastly-hall/