Crouch End Tiger Hidden Banana

About

The title – part-obvious/part-absurd - comes from a pun on Ang Lee’s film title Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The ‘banana’ of the title represents the fact that all members of the North London Art Dialogue are, or have been, members of Turps Banana’s correspondence course.

A proportion of this group have exhibited before, recently at Thames-Side Studios Gallery with In formation and In response at The Nunnery in 2021.

The opportunity to be part of the Crouch End festival came suddenly and out of the blue one month ago. The group has hit the ground running to get this Tiger climbing up the clock tower. If there is a sense of DIY to this project, that is because that is exactly what it is. 

The Crouch End Festival is a blend of music, theatre, magic, comedy, lectures, exhibitions and markets, reflecting the exciting span of styles the artists of North London Art Dialogue bring to this celebration of creativity. To sum up the work of the artists in a word is impossible, even a sentence would be tricky.  Approaches vary; however, it is the passionate endeavour of each artist’s practice that binds this group together. Dreamscape-landscapes spar with images of animalistic-spiritualism and portraits - represented in the form of cluttered desks - engage with sensual portrayals of Indian Gods. Figurative story-telling interplays with energised abstractions whilst edgelander canvas-weave converses with urban landscapes.

What at first appears to be a disparate collection of works belies underlying themes of place, geography, soul and spirit that tie and connect them together. The exhibition purposefully and exuberantly jumps and bumps from painting to painting allowing unique narratives to emerge as each visitor negotiates their individual trajectory around the Original Gallery space.

Artists exhibiting - Nicky Amin, Bone-Waller, Linda Breeds, Maddy Buttling, Gabrielle Eber, Leslie Farago, Andy Metcalf, Helen Pavli, Helen Scalway, Matthew Swift and Emma Withers.