The story of Bermondsey’s artistic community will be explored in a documentary screening at a local gallery next week.
Filmed over twelve months between 2004 and 2005, The Story of The Bermondsey Artists’ Group shows how a cohort of creatives spearheaded a cultural explosion in the area.
The group, which established the Cafe Gallery in Southwark Park, is credited with sparking a mural craze with their early street art in the Surrey Docks bus shelter – where jobbing dockers used to wait to get a day’s work.
The film, the work of documentary filmmaker and Southwark News Arts Editor Micky Holland, will be showcased at the Art of Isolation Gallery, inside the Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, on Thursday, April 4.
It’s the first time the documentary has been screened since it was filmed in 2005.
Micky, a born-and-bred Rotherhithe local, said: “When I first approached Ron Henocq [Bermondsey Artists’ Group Director] about making the documentary, his first words were: ‘Why would you want to make a film about us!?
“He, and the members, didn’t realise how big a part of Bermondsey they had become and wondered why anyone would be interested.”
But Micky was adamant they had a story to tell. “When did you start seeing street art on the manor?” he said.
“There was none before they arrived, now, after what some of those artists started with those early murals in Surrey Docks bus shelter and Swan Lane has mushroomed into murals everywhere.”
Inspired by Reap, a twelve-month project by Anne Bean, based in the group’s two galleries, Micky also decided to film the documentary over one year.
Micky explained: “They were initially a bit suspicious but after the third or fourth visit to film them working and to conduct interviews, they were fine.
“Getting to know the artists was great and hearing about the mad parties and events they had in the old Butler’s Wharf warehouse was eye-opening; becoming more informed about art is something that has stayed with me.”
Micky also created the Silwood Estate: Our History – Our Home documentary, a history of the Rotherhithe estate, from weathering Nazi bombs to its turn-of-the-century regeneration.
‘The Story of the Bermondsey Artists’ Group’ will be screened at the Art of Isolation, upstairs at the Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, at 6.30pm on Thursday, April 4. Turn up on the day or book ahead by emailing isolationart2020@gmail.com. Tickets cost £5.