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High anxiety: Collapse - Riverside Studios

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It’s a brave or maybe slightly provocative production to use Hammersmith Bridge on their artwork for a show called Collapse, which is about how everything collapses—poorly maintained bridges, relationships, and jobs. Nothing works. That’s probably too close to home for Hammersmith residents stuck with a magnificently listed and useless bridge on their front door. It gets even weirder when you realise the piece is staged in what looks like a meeting room with a bar. However, keeping things together in the most unlikely of circumstances is at the heart of Allison Moore's witty and engaging four-hander, which is currently having a limited engagement at Riverside Studios . The piece opens with Hannah (Emma Haines) about to get an injection from her husband (Keenan Heinzelmann). They’re struggling for a baby, and he’s struggling to get out of bed. But he managed to give her a shot of hormones before she started worrying about the rest of the day. She’s unsure she will keep her job with ...

Art and travel: Voyages

A short walk from Oxford Street into Fitzrovia (and near the famous Newman Street Post Office) is The Piper Gallery, and it is currently showing an exhibition of works by artist Francis West. Called Voyages, it is an opportunity to explore West’s voyages through the series of his works on display. Never mind if you find travel exhausting, each voyage reflects West’s experience of locations.

Figurative forms that are in different states of metamorphosis feature throughout, along with combining fragments, dreams and memories. The end result is quite fascinating to look at and admire.

Le Désert (2008)
West was born in 1936 in Scotland. After moving to London he studied at the Chelsea School of Art (1957-1959). His first solo show was in 1973, at the Hamet Gallery on Cork Street and in 1981 his work was included in the Arts Council’s Hayward Annual. Although grounded in reality, West’s concepts blur symbolic forms with fragments from poetry and historic painting.

 It is all on show in the lovely and seriously cool space of The Piper Gallery, which opened this summer. It is dedicated to showcasing artists who have had a career spanning at least forty years and the intention is to highlight their skills and experience to a new generation. Well worth a look. The exhibition runs through to 5 October.

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