About

The inaugural exhibition at Crystal Kabninett by Nicholas Hopkins that takes inspiration from the history of the surrounding area. The former Crystal Palace was a grand exhibition hall that was moved from Hyde Park to Penge, South London, after its opening in 1851.

Reminiscent of many buildings in the area, the Kabinett’s facade has been painted to resemble Tudor, its roof fitted with a triangular cap and mock thatch. It is the most architecturally ambitious intervention to the Kabinett yet.

The name Moot Hall elevates the modest Kabinett structure, suggesting a level of grandeur irrespective to its meagre size, but also relates to a communal meeting place where local issues and ideas can be discussed.

Artworks:

The internal exhibition on the Kabinett’s door and windows is an examination by Hopkins of time as decay and memory. Rundown machines and a dead squirrel speak to faded memories and the intangibility of the past.

Whilst these tokens may have been modern at a point in time, their ubiquity and relevance has evaporated, become antiquated — much like the Kabinett structure itself.

The squirrel is unable to witness its own corpse or memories of other squirrels that knew it.

The Time Travellers, Elizabethens in their ruffs, act as icons for the notion of time travel; possible only in popular culture such as books and films.

However, any time we look into the night sky, we travel back in time. In this way, an enormous telescope on a planet 500 light years away may be able to observe the original Tudors today.

Opening 10 September

6pm at Crystal Kabinett

Crystal Palace Parade, SE19 1UD