Bold Tendencies Is A Cultural Hub in London That Exemplifies the Dream of Urban Adaptability

text by Lara Monro

Bold Tendencies is a cultural community hub located within the rooftop spaces of a multi-story car park in the heart of Peckham. Established in 2007 by contemporary art gallerist Hannah Barry, the not-for-profit organization has rooted itself within the bones of the local community and is recognized for taking culture and civic values seriously through a mix of standalone education and community initiatives. 

What was initially a bold arts project has turned an unlikely structure into one of the city’s most exciting public spaces. With breathtaking panoramic views of London and an accompanying (and very popular) bar, Frank’s, Bold Tendencies exemplifies the dream of urban adaptability. Sitting somewhere between pop-up and permanence it has harnessed a thriving cultural presence in a once dead, dark space. 

Sharon Eyal and L-E-V perform OCD LOVE at Bold Tendencies in 2019. © Susan Bingham

Over the past sixteen years, the hub’s cultural program has attracted 2 million+ visitors. It has commissioned 128 artworks to date, including Richard Wentworth’s silvery curved floor painting, Agora (which comes from the Greek term for a gathering place) as well as the gaping ghoulish fairground-style painted mouth of artist Matt Copson. Bold Tendencies also boasts award-winning live programs of music, dance, opera and readings, including performances by the internationally-renowned choreographer Sharon Eyal. And, let’s not forget to mention the car park’s bubblegum-pink, Instagram sensation, stairwell; an artwork in itself by Simon Whybray. 

Bold Tendencies’ 2023 Summer program, Crisis, includes artworks by Emory Douglas, Jenny Holzer, Kahlil Robert Irving, Sandra Poulson, and Abbas Zahedi. The live program opened with the Philharmonia Orchestra performing The Planets by Gustav Holst, and after the success of the award-winning production, The Endz, The Multi-Story Orchestra’s Young Creatives performed Routes. Set in Peckham, Routes is inspired by the musicians’ personal experiences of growing up in the borough. It is directed by Abi Falase, with music led by singer-songwriter Frances Lobo and composer Kate Whitle. The Multi-Story Orchestra is made up of a group of exceptionally talented young musicians renowned for their innovative and boundary-pushing approach to music-making. 

Manchester Collective, known for their innovative and daring collaborations, presented a one-off, double program of German composer and conductor, Richard Strauss’ final masterpiece, Four Last Songs, paired with Metamorphosen, a haunting work of rhythmic and melodic complexity for string orchestra written towards the end of the Second World War in 1945. To accompany the mesmerizing scores leading soprano, Ruby Hughes, beautiful (and haunting) voice reverberated off the car park’s exposed concrete frame, leaving hairs standing on the back of necks. 

Most recently, Bold Tendencies welcomed Irish chorographer Oona Doherty to their public programme for the first time with Hope Hunt, an ode to strength and vulnerability, hitting and swerving at extreme stereotypes of cultural and social class. Based in Belfast, Oona studied at London School Of Contemporary Dance, University of Ulster and Trinity Laban (BA Honors and Postgraduate in Contemporary Dance Studies). Doherty’s distinctive, visceral, and intense performances highlight her rare ability to connect a gesture with the web of emotions that sustain it. She explains, “my work attempts to play with the barrier between the flesh and the soul, the audience and the stage; to share a kinetic experience. I’m motivated to explore states of pure metaphysical honesty. To bring the sex, the punk, the romance and the chi back into the body, the black box, the white cube, and Ireland.’’ 

Still to come, Caleb Femi will present Stone Seed, an immersive live performance that celebrates the power of Peckham to rebuild and reclaim what has been lost in a rapidly changing socioeconomic landscape. Finally, the 21-year-old Swedish-Norwegian violinist, Johan Dalene will perform four pieces—chosen specially for performance in the concrete space—alongside his regular performance partner, award-winning British pianist Nicola Eimer. With music by Arvo Pärt, Francis Poulenc, Sam Wu, Edvard Grieg, Dalene’s program explores the crises of our time with extreme virtuosity and sensitivity. 

Book tickets for all up coming events via the Bold Tendencies website.

Jenny Holzer Presents "A Little Knowledge" @ Hauser & Wirth In Gstaad, Switzerland

For more than forty years Jenny Holzer has presented text emblazoned on T-shirts, carved in stone, painted on canvas, scrolling on LED signs, and luminously projected onto buildings and landscapes. Beginning in the 1970s with posters wheat-pasted throughout New York City and continuing through recent light projections, her practice rivals ignorance with humour, and violence with kindness and courage. Holzer’s texts address oppression, gender, sexuality, power, and war, and by presenting them in media more commonly associated with advertising, news reports, and public information, she adeptly provokes reflection and challenges expectations and prejudices. A Little Knowledge is on view at Tarmak 22 in Gstaad-Saanen Airport, on view through 22 January. photographs courtesy of Hauser & Wirth

This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich & Many Other Artists @ Institute of Contemporary Art

This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich and Many Other Artists surveys an array of world-renowned artists and one indispensable assistant—the Los Angeles-based artist, sign painter, and fabricator Norm Laich. The exhibition will consist of paintings and graphic installations fabricated by Laich over the past three decades. Laich has been a key contributor to the production of many iconic works by a range of artists including Ed Ruscha, Paul McCarthy, Barbara Kruger, Allen Ruppersberg, and Jenny Holzer, among many others. The exhibition is on view through September 2 at Institute of Contemporary Art 717 East 7th Street Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Eau de Cologne, Group Show Featuring Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman and Rosemarie Trockel @ Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles

The group show Eau de Cologne at Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles features work from the late-1970s to 2016 by Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman and Rosemarie Trockel. The exhibition at Sprüth Magers’ recently-opened Los Angeles gallery is a follow-up to its predecessor in Berlin last year. It sheds light on key topics in these artists’ works, but also the specific history of the gallery and its connection to these important female figures of an art that subtly addresses women’s roles in very different ways. Eau de Cologne will be on view until August 20, 2016 @ Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles

'America Is Hard To See' Inaugural Exhibition @ The New Whitney Museum Location In New York

Drawn entirely from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s collection, America Is Hard to See takes the inauguration of the Museum’s new building as an opportunity to reexamine the history of art in the United States from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Comprising more than six hundred works, the exhibition elaborates the themes, ideas, beliefs, and passions that have galvanized American artists in their struggle to work within and against established conventions, often directly engaging their political and social contexts. Numerous pieces that have rarely, if ever, been shown appear alongside beloved icons in a conscious effort to unsettle assumptions about the American art canon. America Is Hard to See will be on view until September 2015 at the Whitney Museum, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York.