Selfridges: Museum of Everything and The Shoe Galleries

The Museum of Everything forces you to confront questions that History of Art students have been pondering for a 100s of years: ‘What is art and who decides? And, Who is qualified to make art and what is it for?’  The space is laid out like a dilapidated old house, with peeling wallpaper and the walls crowded with work, the exact opposite of the open white gallery walls we usually view art on and the opposite of the shiny retail heaven that it sits within.

Many of the ‘outsider’ artists work is often (not here) displayed next to contemporary artists, this blurs the line between ‘outsider’ artists and regular artists challenges the viewer to make a distinction when both are displayed as equals, in the same context, the same space.

Entrance to the Museum of Everything at Selfridges

Ruby Bradford Print, £80, Selfridges

Tom Wagener Print, £80, Selfridges

Jean-Jacques Oost Print, £80, Selfridges

The same could be said of shoes (stay with me here) I left the Museum of Everything in a thoughtful mood, which invaded my shopping orientated brain. I started thinking about setting, how the context of objects affects how we judge them, the value we assign to them. The revamped Selfridges shoe galleries, which celebrates it 1^st birthday this week, brings all its shoes, high street and designer, together in one fabulous place and in so doing makes it difficult to tell one from the other.

The biggest shock was River Island shoes- normally the reserve of 17 year old party girls- every pair in Selfridges seemed grown up, chic and very desirable. If it wasn’t for the neon sign, I would have put a 4 in front of the number on the price tag and might have mistaken some for Rupert Sanderson or Charlotte Olympia.  It was amazing- I wanted almost every pair and I don’t think I would if I’d seen them in a River Island store. My picks are shown below…but they might have lost some of their Selfridges magic online. 

Black Glitter Peep Toe Wedges, £70 River Island

Colour Block Sling Backs, £60, River Island

Dark Red Patent Brogues, £25, River Island

Dolly Platform Shoes, £590, Charlotte Olympia at Selfridges

Diana Patent Brogues, £430, Viktor and Rolf at Selfridges

And finally...CAT FACE WEDGES, £625, Charlotte Olympia at Selfridges 

If you would like to know more about outsider art or shoes you can visit the Museum of Everything Website or the Selfridges website 

Wall of Sound

I popped along to the Central Saint Martins degree show a few days ago with a friend. A regular at the pub she works in had just completed an MA in Fine Art, she mentioned to me he used to do something in fashion. It was only Robert Cary-Williams for goodness sake! After negotiating the maze that is CSM we finally found his work, and the man himself hovering close by. He greeted us, and, after a quick chat invited us to go in and have a look before saying "it looks like a bloody pop video" and disappearing.

The press release says "viewers enter an echo chamber, a darkened space interrupted by dysfunctional florescent tubes" The image above was the shadow cast on the wall by the scaffold like structure. This and the flickering old TV set were the only lights in the room and I found both eerily mesmerizing. Another viewer said she found it calming, as if you could watch it for hours and not realise where the time had gone.

It is, perhaps characteristically of Cary-Williams, very industrial and quite sharp. There was only a small space to stand and view the piece even though it filled the room. It is not interactive, you cannot walk around it or touch it, a physical barrier is created between the instillation and the viewer. As for it being like 'a pop video', I did think it could be used to beautiful effect for a fashion shoot... but then it would be a mere fashion prop rather than a piece of fine art. And I don't think Cary-Williams would want his art to play second fiddle to his fashion.

Picture: 'Wall of Sound 223.5 x 254 x 215.9. Within a room 6m x 4m (darkness)