The photograph is the focal point of the show - Charleston’s first public exhibition – at the Loading Bay in Brick Lane, the hottest venue for contemporary art in East London.
“It is inevitable”, she says of the area that is just half a mile away from Liverpool Street’s skyscrapers. "This place is fast becoming the place for London’s artists’ to exhibit their work."
Out of the Truman Brewery
Today, the Asian shops and warehouses of Brick Lane – rechristened New King’s Road – are making way for trendy art galleries, shops and indie culture. And it all began with the closure of the Truman Brewery in the late 80s.
Once the massive warehouses were ‘freed’, artists like Tracey Emin and others from the BritArt movement – the poor, young and nameless artists - settled in creating an artistic buzz that drew creative people together.
A walk down the streets takes visitors past independent fashion and music stores, funky hair salons, artists’ studios and galleries.
The Loading Bay is one of the dozens of galleries that go on in the Dray Walk, a corner street right in the heart of the converted Brewery.
And Charleston and others like her are using the area’s reputation as London’s mostfashionable art district to make it big.
“I only sold one piece, but I made a lot of connections. That is the most important thing,” she says.
Weekend madness
It might be an artists’ haven from Monday to Friday, but come Saturday and the place is flooded with bargain hunters.
“The streets change as the week progresses,” says 24-year-old Ludovic Wilson, who works at a clothes store. “It starts rather quietly, but as the weekend approaches it becomes vibrant and busy.”
And Sundays are always hectic. Stalls are set up by as early as 5am. Later in the day, they are besieged with people wanting to sample the flavours of East London.
“They are Brick Lane’s future,” foretells Marcus Sweene, a film director, who owns a studio around in the area.
“And unfortunately, as the place becomes famous, the rent will shoot up, and the areas original residents will slowly be driven away.”
“The place will lose its character. It won’t be Brick Lane anymore,” he says.
