The Contemporary Art Society and Sotheby's Auction House teamed up on March 10th to deliver a very interesting Gothic Art Auction of contemporary art inspired by the Gothic, part of the societies annual fundraising events. Over 30 artists including Damien Hirst, Rebecca Horn, and James Aldridge donated art work to the auction, which raised money for the Contemporary Art Society, whose mission is to "support contemporary artists through the promotion of individual and institutional collecting and to generate the funds to purchase contemporary art to gift to public collections in the UK."
Experimental Performance in Shunt Vaults
The main auction event took place in the Shunt Vaults (a series of old railway arches under London Bridge, which until this point was a wine storage). In the vaults was created a 'Gothic' environment full of dust, cobwebs, chalk drawing, broken glass and candles along the main archway of the chambers.
Guests Were Ushered Into the Vaults, where performers created striking still images of distressing calm. The performers created astonishingly convincing characters such as the voyeur, the preening woman, a bird man, ghoulish twins and haunted woman lined the halls to create an atmosphere of haunting realism. All of the performers seemed caught within a world which did not interact with the goings on of the auction, creating an illusion that ghosts were among the guests. The lighting and props helped to reinforces this false reality, and the performers used these tools to create striking images for the guest who were entering and exiting the building.
A cello trio provided Bach and Hadyn throughout the evening, which was almost lost in the din of the milling, bidding crowd but was luckily saved by passionate and sometimes tongue-in-cheek playing. All of the performers were made up as characters also, and played as if they were spectors conjured to entertain the guests.
Gothic Art Auction
Dinner Was Served before the auction took place, an elegant placing of beef and red wine. All the waiting staff were professional, well dressed, and easily managed the thronging crowd and performances without showing a sign of stress. After the main course, before the pudding, the auction commenced. Expectation of the money to be made from the auction were met and exceeded much to the delight of the members of the Contemporary Art Society present for the event.
Needless to say the event was a spectacular thing to behold, full of elegance and art. The Society holds many events throughout the year. To find out more about upcoming events with the Contemporary Art Society, visit their events page, which is updated regularly.
