Brain Swoop

Howdy folks,

It has been a long while since I updated you about the goings on at Catbird Craft. It's been a year of rollercoaster proportions but I think that this has been true of the world and not just round our little neck of the woods.

One of the reasons it has been so quiet of late is the cat and the bird have been preparing for their very first exhibition! Friends of the cat own and run The Long White Cloud, a fantastically laid-back Kiwi haven within the sound of the Bow Bells. Shoreditch and Hoxton meet here and the cafe has a rolling rota of new and established artists of different disiplines exhibiting and performing there.

The idea for Catbird Craft's exhibition came from a condition the bird experienced, earlier this year the medications she was on were giving her this weird 'Brain Swoop'. In her words "To me, it's that feeling like your brain is physically falling inside your skull. It's not actually going anywhere but it feels like it's just dropped off its perch. It's not dizziness, it's way too fast a sensation for that." 

Birds in this household are of course very near and dear to all the residents. Mental health is also important to us all too. The bringing of these together was a natural process. Birds may represent freedom and imagination (Lynyrd Skynrd's Free Bird/flights of fancy) or pests (Magpies ate my baby!). The two want to celebrate the many impossibly beautiful parts of mental illness along with the grotesque and the despair. There are predators and prey; the colourful and the faded, all within the walls of the patchwork urban jungle that is testing it's many inhabitants to their limits. 
 

The exhibition runs from the 1-15 August. If you in Hoxton on the 2nd August please drop in to say hello to the cat and bird at the private view from 6.30pm. Long White Cloud is also a cafe and open until 6pm every day. I can testify that they make fabulous food (incl gluten free) and coffee, plus kiwi treats for the homesick or the curious! There is even kiwi beer and wine available in the finally balmy English summer evenings (check their website for opening hours).


We are privileged to be part of the Shoreditch Fringe Festival and for having the amazing space at Long White Cloud to showcase our new works. Don't tell anyone but we are also proud to be part of the London Olympic cultural festival, although this is an unintentional honour as the cat did not realise when organising the dates that it would be smack-bang in the middle of it.

I look forward to bringing you photographs of the exhibition after the view next week! But for now, I have a large tumbler of brandy awaiting me and it's not going to drink itself.


My regards to you all,
Frank
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