Project Description
40 GREEK STREET SOHO HOUSE
Permanent Installation, Soho London
The original Soho House reopened after an expansion and redevelopment 23 years after it first opened it’s doors and started the Soho House brand. The existing art collection was re-installed in the dining rooms, a comforting reminder of the site’s long history. Alongside these monochrome pieces sits a much-expanded site specific series of collections which all have their own focus, narrative and inspiration.
A key body of work is Walk the Line, a homage to Paul Klee who famously said that ‘a line is a dot that went for a walk.’ I invited some of the most established artists working today to play a surrealist game whereby the should create a continuous single line drawing. It was as much about who broke the rules and how they broke as much as who stayed true to the discipline of line. Artists in Walk the Line: Tracey Emin, Yinka Shonibare, Elmgreen and Dragset, George Shaw, Jonathan Monk, Idrs Khan, Joseph Kosuth, Hilary Lloyd, Alexander de Cunha, Tacita Dean, Langands and Bell, Jonathan Yeo, Maggi Hambling, Charming Baker, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Conrad Shawcross, Bharti Kher and Helen Marten.
A focal point of the house is the new circle bar which hosts a platform for young artists: 40,40,40 (40 artists under the age of 40 at 40 Greek Street). The house also includes major sculptural work for the first time from Kevin Francis Gray, Polly Morgan and others, as well as a large site specific tapestry by Annie Morris. One room celebrates the history of Soho with site specific photo frecoes by Walter and Zoniel and obituary paintings of notorious Soho figures by Hugh Mendes.