Paul Gravett recommends ARTHOUSE1.
DEAR CHRISTINE: EXHIBITION & CATALOGUE
Here is a contribution by Natalie d'Arbeloff to this group show at ARTHOUSE1, London, looking afresh at Christine Keeler. Natalie writes in the catalogue: "I felt that the whole scandal was yet another historical example of how power corrupts and how corruption is always linked to power. The full truth about all the individuals, public and private, who were involved in the Profumo Affair will probably never be known but Christine Keeler was, in that story, simultaneously absolutely powerless and absolutely powerful. She was neither victim nor hero and could not protect herself from the manipulations of powerful men. On the other hand, the irresistible power of her beauty and of her unashamed sexuality turned the game around, making her the one who held the cards and held captive the men, the media and the public. This ambiguity, cruel as it is, is what I have tried to express in my two works for this exhibition." The exhibition comprises of paintings, ceramics, sculpture, music, film, photography, poetry, performance and artist talks at Arthouse1, 45 Grange Rd, London SE1 3BH
Private View: 1st February 6.30pm - 9pm
Symposium: 22nd February 11am - 7pm
Open to public: 2 - 29th February 2020
https://www.arthouse1.co.uk/dear-christine-v2.html
Here is a contribution by Natalie d'Arbeloff to this group show at ARTHOUSE1, London, looking afresh at Christine Keeler. Natalie writes in the catalogue: "I felt that the whole scandal was yet another historical example of how power corrupts and how corruption is always linked to power. The full truth about all the individuals, public and private, who were involved in the Profumo Affair will probably never be known but Christine Keeler was, in that story, simultaneously absolutely powerless and absolutely powerful. She was neither victim nor hero and could not protect herself from the manipulations of powerful men. On the other hand, the irresistible power of her beauty and of her unashamed sexuality turned the game around, making her the one who held the cards and held captive the men, the media and the public. This ambiguity, cruel as it is, is what I have tried to express in my two works for this exhibition." The exhibition comprises of paintings, ceramics, sculpture, music, film, photography, poetry, performance and artist talks at Arthouse1, 45 Grange Rd, London SE1 3BH
Private View: 1st February 6.30pm - 9pm
Symposium: 22nd February 11am - 7pm
Open to public: 2 - 29th February 2020
https://www.arthouse1.co.uk/dear-christine-v2.html
4 comments:
Thanks Natalie, this gave much food for thought and inspired my new post.
Thenks Vincent, will look at your post now.
The Profumo Affair occurred two years after I moved down to London, never again to work in the West Riding. At the time I had strong links with people who worked on national newspapers (especially The Times, The Daily Telegraph) and I found myself discussing each little twist and turn of the story in Fleet Street pubs. All part of of the excitement of living in London which, by contrast with Bradford, seemed like the centre of the universe.
The years slipped by but the Affair remained sharp in my mind. When I was well into my third "proper" novel, Blest Redeemer, (ie 2011 - 2012) I found myself needing to flesh out one of the subsidiary characters, the CEO of a London investment bank. His age fitted and I slipped in details about the way his career and that of Profumo overlapped. I wouldn't have dared do it at the time it all happened; now it seemed like a quick reference to the Bayeux Tapestry.
Even more so now. I wasn't tempted to watch the current teledrama. How could it possibly match what I had lived through? But what has changed - perhaps for you too - is the way Profumo has ceased to be tangential personal experience and become "history". Since 1961 people I've known have been born, got jobs and even died. Profumo is no longer a series of newspaper headlines but a thing encapsulated, the fly in amber, described, summarised, commented on and finally "finished". A "period" in fact like The Battle of Britain, or the Wars of the Roses. And I am not simply an old man but, via my admittedly tiny participation as a newspaper reader, a figure from and in history. This is only of interest to me of course but it subtly alters the view I have of myself, of being part of the flow instead of merely a static observer.
This is quite a difficult concept to get across but I wondered whether it meshed with your experiences of Britain nearly sixty years ago. Of course you may have been living elsewhere at the time.
Robbie, i wholly connect with what you're saying about this. Here's a quote from the beginning of my entry in the catalogue for this exhibition (the rest of it is quoted in the above post).
" In the winter of 1963 I moved to London from Rome. Before Italy I lived in Paraguay, before that Vancouver and before that Mexico, New York, Paris and...it's a long story. My impressions of the Profumo Affair, which was then headline news and constant gossip, were inevitably coloured by being a citizen of anywhere/nowhere and in tune with the 'alternative'spirit of the time: no barriers of class,country, gender, colour, status etc. and the media hysteria focused on "Scarlet Woman" Christine seemed to me to belong to the dark ages."
I should have added that of course those barriers existed and still do but I simply wssn't aware of them because the people I 'hung out' with were of a more liberal mentality.
The current TV series is very poor, doesn't give the real facts of the story and doesn't make any attempt to flesh out the complex characters involved. They've just turned into soap opera so you're not missing anything.
Very interesting that you were in the Fleet Street ambiance at the time. Maybe material for a short story?
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