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The India Club is a site-specific visual arts project initiated
by Specular Assembly, and taking place at the Hotel Strand
Continental from 20–25 May 2015. Seven artists have created
work in response to this unusual building, its interiors and history.
The exhibition will inhabit the hotel’s public areas and aim to blend
in with their eclectic atmosphere.
Hotel Strand Continental sits between Somerset House and Waterloo Bridge. An unassuming door and staircase off The Strand leads to The India Club bar and restaurant, founded in 1946 by V.K. Krishna Menon, the first Indian High Commissioner to the UK. Other founding members included President Nehru and Lady Mountbatten, and the building was then a hub for political activity. Spread over the first two floors, the bar and Indian restaurant have changed little since opening, and the original furniture and fittings, now somewhat faded, create a time-capsule feeling in the space. The hotel occupies the upper three floors, and is popular with foreign tourists, attracted by the central location and mostly unaware of the building’s heritage. The exhibition’s overriding curatorial theme is ‘politics of space’, and the artists’ work will draw on historical, political, cultural and spatial questions arising from the building.
A series of talks and events will be held throughout the show: please checkwww.specularassembly.com for details.
Specular Assembly is a group of visual artists working predominantly with the medium of photography.
Ben Cave
Leon Chew
Christopher Down
Will Jennings
Katja Mayer
Lee Milne
Minna Pöllänen
143 Strand
London
United Kingdom
WC2R 1JA
