House Call

The story of art/design gallery and interiors studio 8 Holland Street is intertwined with 18th-century architecture. First, there was the Georgian townhouse of its namesake address in Kensington; then, a 1770s house in Bath; and after that, a handsome Queen Anne townhouse off St James’s Park.

When the latter closed, the gallery was left looking for somewhere to show its upcoming exhibition of work by artist duo Forest + Found: handily, waiting in the wings was another temporarily available Georgian gem – a place so big that the goalposts shifted and the idea for a show of multiple makers and ideas was born.

South of the River is the result. Occupying two Grade-II listed houses that together make up an empty, on-the-market office building on Kennington Lane, this month-long show made its debut at London Craft Week but will continue to open over long weekends until mid June. Climb the house’s stripped-pine staircases to find six diverse exhibitions: there’s a loose theme of “the home, domestic objects and their occupants”, but a diversity of materials, scale and thought within these walls, and much to explore.

Forest + Found are the Somerset-based Max Bainbridge and Abigail Booth, both artists whose work is materially driven. Their show, titled The House is Full of Ghosts, shows Bainbridge’s turned bowls and hollowed-out sculptural tree trunks next to Booth’s memory-laced pieces made from found objects, from antique clay pipes to soot.

Booth’s work hints at the everyday lives and long-gone rituals that would have once played out in this house; Bainbridge’s looks beyond the brick walls to more rural preoccupations. His enormous ash trunk, Corpus, sits in the house’s rounded bay window, only revealing its secret – a delicately carved-out interior that gives you the unique sensation of being inside a tree – when you walk around the back of it.

The entrance hall and attic floor are reserved for a show of 8 Holland Street’s art and design stock, and with it comes the proof that there’s literally nothing that doesn’t work well against the backdrop of a Georgian interior. A 1960s Joe Colombo chair for Kartell sits beside the window in the hall, watched over by a tall torpedo-shaped copper bird, a work from 1990 by US sculptor Jonathan Bonner.

In the attic comes an explosion of colour with Sottsass Olivetti typewriters, a bright red plastic and chrome 1970s desk by Molteni and a 1980s folding screen by Giacomo Balla. Work from Palefire Studio, Rowena Morgan-Cox’s boutique brand of sculptural lighting made from paper pulp, provides additional dabs of colour around the room.

Elsewhere at South of the River, art collective Wondering People has taken over a room with Lovers’ Court, a show of work made by creative couples brought together on a six-week residency. They include interior designer Hollie Bowden and artist Byron Pritchard’s furniture – a zig-zagging cherrywood coffee table, and faux-fur-topped cherry stools – and felted-wool, naturally dyed wall hangings by Ana Naskidashvili and Frederik Poisquet, who work under the name Morevi.

Other highlights include Frances Pinnock’s intimate and carefully balanced arrangements – Piebald, a skein of horsehair balancing below a brass disc, is mounted inside a doorless cupboard – and ceramicist Nicola Tassie’s totem of stoneware pieces, accompanied by more lined up on the floor, as if waiting their turn to be added to the top of the tower. Liorah Tchiprout’s etchings and monoprints are quiet personal narratives: look closer and you’ll see that her not-quite-human subjects are in fact her hand-made dolls.

The signature blend of art, contemporary craft and 20th-century design at South of The River is 8 Holland Street’s sweet spot. It reinforces the conviction that historic interiors are not just passive backdrops but can add another layer of meaning, too. In the beautiful light from an arched sash window, or next to a perfectly proportioned marble fireplace, or in the airy space of a high-ceilinged room – everything seems to make sense.

South of the River is on until 13 June at 243/245 Kennington Lane, London SE11. Open Thursday to Saturday, 10am – 6pm and Sunday 11am – 4pm