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Kingsland Road, London, E2 8EA; Tel: 020 7739 9893
Myrtle Hay, Clapton and Mavis Jackson, Lower Clapton
This small display of photographs by freelance photographer Sophie Verhagen is a moving portrayal of a selection of Hackney’s older residents in their gardens. The subjects reflect the great social and cultural diversity of Hackney’s population.
These private spaces provide a sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of urban living; tending them often gives their owners a sense of pride, well-being and autonomy at a time in their lives when they may be struggling to maintain their independence and remain in their homes. All of the participants in this project take pride in the appearance of their garden.
Verhagen met these people whilst volunteering for Anchor Staying Put’s gardening project, which helps older people in Hackney to maintain their gardens, sometimes by adapting them so that they are lower maintenance, sometimes by just cutting the lawn or doing some pruning. She says, “The project has introduced many people into my life that I would not have known otherwise, who in turn have enriched my life through their stories, good humour and stoicism. I would like to share this experience through my photos with others”.
One of the subjects reflects, “I came here in 1954 to finish off my nursing training. I’ve lived in Hackney for thirty-five years and brought up my children here. I used to take care of the garden and grew a lot of vegetables – lettuce, tomato, cucumber, potato – and I fed my family with them. Anchor is a big help to me because I love my garden and I can’t manage it anymore”.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1) For images, or to arrange an interview with either Sophie Verhagen or any of the participants in the project, please contact Nancy Loader, Press Officer, on 020 7739 9893 or nloader@geffrye-museum.org.uk.
2) Sophie Verhagen was born in 1966 and is of Dutch nationality. She has worked as a freelancer photojournalist since 1998 and was a volunteer gardener with Anchor’s Staying Put project between 2003 and 2005.
3) Home and Garden: Domestic Spaces in Paintings from 1960 to the Present Day
16 October 2007 – 4 February 2008
This major exhibition, the final in a four-part series, will conclude the Geffrye Museum’s fascinating exploration of paintings of English urban domestic interiors and gardens from 1675 to the present day. This study has provided compelling and intimate glimpses into private worlds not often on display. It will include works by Carel Weight, Jean Cooke, Howard Hodgkin, Eric Rimmington, Julian Bell, John Pearce and Victoria Crowe.
4) The Geffrye's specialist area of research involves an ongoing study of interiors and gardens through surviving houses and architectural fittings, furniture, furnishings and domestic items, documentary evidence in the form of inventories, diaries and letters, trade catalogues and pattern books, garden designs and plans, as well as the pictorial record. The main galleries at the Geffrye are arranged as a chronological sequence of period rooms, showing English urban middle-class interiors from 1600 to the present day. The museum is set in the former almshouses of the Ironmongers' Company, elegant 18th century buildings surrounded by tranquil gardens, in Shoreditch, East London.
5) Admission: FREE
Address: 136 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London E2 8EA
Tel No: 020 7739 9893 Email: info@geffrye-museum.org.uk
Web Address: www.geffrye-museum.org.uk
Opening Hours: Tue - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun and Bank Holiday Mons 12 - 5pm
Travel: Buses: 67, 149, 242, 243 or 394
Tube: Liverpool Street, Bishopsgate Exit, then bus 149 or 242
Old Street, Exit 2, then bus 243 or 15 minute walk
18 September 2007
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