Opening next week in one of Glass Magazine’s favourite Soho haunts, the exquisite French patisserie Maison Bertaux, all-female art collective HYSTERIA show their latest collection of work alongside that of international dj and artist Jeffrey Disaster at the gallery/cafe for a special exhibition of what they intriguingly describe as “mayhem and delight”.
Hysteria at Maison Bertaux studio process shot
The collective comprising of members; Collagism, Aida Wilde and Shuby – all highly skilled artists and designers in their own right – have a unique approach to popular culture imagery which is visually very exciting. Work included in the show features Technicolor one-off artworks emblazoned with the collective’s trademark imagery of eggs, legs, bananas, bunnies and bold iconography.
The HYSTERIA collective pictured at The Vestibule, Hysteria Installation on
Redchurch Street, London, October 2013. Photograph: Will Edgecom
The UK-based collective will be bringing their collage, screenprinting and installation talents together to in this exhibition which includes Hysteria’s latest joint panel works, collages and prints exploring their relationship between food, sex, gender and symbolism. Their interpretation of celebrity subversion devours pop culture while endeavouring to serve it up as an “explosive dish of delectable proportions”. Highly appropriate for a show in a cafe.
HYSTERIA at Maison Bertaux studio process shot
The show which takes over the two upper floors of the cafe “promises riotous visual misconduct and infamous bad behaviour” while subverting mainstream, historical and religious imagery. Glass asked the collective why they chose Maison Bertaux for their show, “Our mutual love of Maison Bertaux, cakes and all things Soho … plus a chance conversation between The Hooligan Art Dealer, Tania Wade and the next thing we’re sitting at dinner in Redchurch St bubbling ideas for our HYSTERIA and DISASTER shows,” they explain. The place is particularly close to Jeffrey Disaster’s heart, one it is the first places he visited when he arrived in England in the 1980s where he hung out with figures such as Alexander McQueen, Derek Jarman and the Soho set. Jeffrey Disaster even went on to name his son after the place– his middle name being Bertaux.
“I’ve been going there since 1988 for same thing – slightly burned almond croissants and tea,” Jeffrey tells Glass. “I don’t think there is a better tearoom in world but it’s also a theatre at times: an art gallery, a poets’ corner, timeless – really – as if the clock is stopped and no-one cared to fix it. It is a corner of Soho which is one of the last outposts of a truly golden age.”
For HYSTERIA, the show follows their installation at the Vestibule gallery in Shoreditch and offers them an ideal space to get “truly and unruly and utterly HYSTERICAL.. mayhem and delight guaranteed!”
HYSTERIA at Maison Bertaux studio process shots
During the exhibition the artists are holding a series of workshops as well as a very special high tea which will offer an insight into their collaborative workings.
by Caroline Simpson
Maison Bertaux, 28 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 5DQ
The private view takes place on Wednesday, March 12, 6-9pm. The show is open to public from March – June 15, 2014
The show is presented by Hooligan Art Dealer, Tania Wade
Find HYSTERIA on Twitter @hysteriaart @aidaprints @collagism @shubyartand @disastronaut