This new exhibition gives visitors a view outside an art world closely linked to educational institutions, awards, money and fashion.
Those on show, collectively outsiders — but individually unique, are from all over the world. They share little, only the compulsion to be creative and the will to produce their work. Among them are obsessives, loners, those with mental illnesses, the secretive and the persecuted.
Founder James Brett describes the venue as a ‘public museum showing extraordinary works of privacy’ – you certainly get the sense of being a voyeur. Ironically, the venue is in London’s affluent Primrose Hill. Perhaps more fittingly, its laid out in a confusing labyrinth of small corridors, niches and rooms in a building that was once a dairy and more recently a recording studio.
For once, the captions (provided by David Byrne, Ed Ruscha, Peter Blake, Jarvis Cocker and others), inform rather than confuse.
The Museum of Everything is sad, delightful, uncomfortable, scary and over quite soon, so you’ll need to visit quickly.