Mosaic

Sandra and I sped down the Holloway Road. We were on our way to the Charlie Dutton Gallery – formerly Mosaic Workshop – for a meeting with Charlie about a show in October.

‘Normally you come in and he gets you in a headlock and all that’ a young woman said to her friend as we walked past. Her friend smiled and nodded knowingly. Sandra and I agreed it was a strange form of normality. And what about the ‘all that’? Were the consequences really so casual?

After our meeting we went on to Woolwich. We were visiting Gary Drostle, ex-President of BAMM, and King of the Reverse Method (not a fertility rite, but the means by which mosaic can be adhered to a substrate.) Gary is about to install some work at the University of Iowa, and he’d invited us to have a look before it left the country.

‘Let’s get the bus’ said Tessa. ‘We can take it to Bank and get the DLR.’ Sandra and I agreed, and two hours later, we arrived at Warspite Road.

‘Yes’ said Gary ‘the Open Studios have been successful.’

‘It’s the River of Life’ he said, describing his new work. ‘The River flows through brighter and less bright areas – the yellows symbolise health and happiness and the darker areas stand for trials and tribulations.’

‘Talking of tribulations, did you see that piece downstairs about multiple ways to commit suicide?’ asked Sarah Zirkel.

‘Some of these people need help’ said Maria.

‘I needed help’ said Gary.  ‘There was a fire in the studio, and the extinguishers went off. The whole of that’ – he indicated another workbench with a figurative mosaic of impressive size – ‘was ruined. The tiles floated off the paper. Clare had to stick it all back, piece by piece.’

‘Well it’s a real achievement Gary. Well done.’

We took the tube home. The lead story in the paper was the antics of artists — a front page photo of Tracey Emin with a black eye. She was hugging Sue Webster. Sue’s fist had connected when they had a play fight the night before. ‘They’d had a couple of drinks’ the story said.

Posted under: Mosaic by Emma Biggs