4:12pm Friday 12th September 2008
By Janet Wright
Why was I up at midnight last week, cutting out fake book covers into shapes that would never fit a book? I was working on “Pulped Fiction”, my contribution to the State of the Borough exhibition, on the E17 Art Trail.
Yes, it’s that time of year when photos appear on people’s hedges, sparkling artworks dangle from the trees and front windows display enticing signs of riches within.
Every year, the E17 Art Trail brings art to the whole community. Scores of Walthamstow artists put up exhibitions of their work in their own homes or local businesses, and invite the public in to look -- all free of charge. There’s something for all tastes and ages among the 138 events and exhibitions in 86 venues. It’s a celebration of life in our borough and many other things. And some exhibitions have a more serious side.
Walthamstow is a magnet for artists, writers and other creative people. But the present council comes out in a collective rash at the mention of anything cultural.
So, like most arts and entertainment in Waltham Forest, the E17 Art Trail is all organised by local people. Tired of waiting for the art centre that was promised 20 years ago, they set the whole thing up with no help from the council. In fact, all Art Trail leaflets were banned from libraries last year because one of the events criticised the present council. Yet another own goal for Waltham Forest council, which gained a reputation for attempted censorship.
This year, the State of the Borough exhibition, in Wood Street indoor market, takes a look at our home through the eyes of artists who love it. Alke Schmidt’s litter works create beauty from the detritus of our unswept streets. Martin Adams’s colourful toilet roll made from copies of the council’s propaganda sheet, WFM, is displayed under a blue plaque for the borough’s closed toilets, apparently put up by The Society for the Reintroduction of Cholera.
Not surprisingly, news that the council has lost or destroyed 239,000 library books in two years inspired several local artists. Dave Hall’s photos of St James Street Library Campaign show the area’s multicultural crowds calling for their library to be reopened. Paul Bommer’s “Fahrenheit E17” is a stark memorial to the numberless unmarked boxes of books sent to Edmonton incinerator.
Beside them is my “Pulped Fiction”: shelves of toilet rolls neatly wrapped in the jackets of the great classics. Not all the books sent to Edmonton incinerator were burnt. The council tried to wriggle out of the book-burning indictment by saying that many of them were pulped. And somehow turning books into toilet rolls seems like more of an insult even than burning them.
http://stjamesstlibrary.wordpress.com, www.keepourmuseumsopen.org.uk, www.antiscrap.co.uk
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