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The Journey -02 October 2008 London UK

The day had arrived when we would get to see Alex’s work in the "flesh" so to speak and of course see Alex too – Excitement reigned in all our hearts as we all set off from our various locations, Dolphin flew in from Germany, I raced down from Yorkshire – well as much as a crawl for 7 hours on the M1 can be called raced – Katz and her Partner set off from their home and Lips came from her home too, in the company of Dolphin once she’d landed.

The venue was the Shoreditch Town Hall which is a remarkable old building. On arrival you became aware of a queue down the stairs to the side of the building. A queue – a good sign I thought. As I arrived I noticed two ladies leaving the queue, one had a really big camera and the thought crossed my mind that it might be Katz but as there were quite a lot of folks with cameras in view I didn’t ask the question.

Standing in the queue on the stairs I heard the bouncer man asking everyone at the front if they were on the guest list – WTF guest list, I didn’t even have a ticket! I made that comment to the folks standing behind me and said I hoped I could get in. They said they thought I would. Well the queue got shorter as they allowed one person in for one person out – the venue could only hold 150 people at a time and folks were apparently reluctant to leave. Near the front of the queue the bouncer man appeared again and asked if everyone had their wrist bands and/or were on the guest list – I swallowed hard and spoke to him as he went past saying I was told to speak to the sponsor lady if there were any problems with me getting in and he rumbled about if you aren’t on the list etc. Well I stayed put and just as I got to the door the nice man behind me held out a card and said "here take this invite it should get you in." Well I got in and said I was from Alex’s Fan site and had been told to ask for the sponsor lady about entering. The lady at the desk noticed the invite from the man and said "with that you are ok to come in"!! I thanked the man quietly and disappeared into the crowd of drink slurping folks who were stood around chatting.

The venue was the basement of the Shoreditch Town Hall which was dark and rough floored with masonry rough walls with dark little rooms with exhibits in. It was rather spooky in some places and I wandered round looking at the exhibits trying to find Alex’s pictures – not a sign of them – my inner voice was getting panicky – where are they, they must be here it began shouting lol, having seen all the other "art" I went for a quick personal break, why are the loos always up a flight of stairs! I went back down through the darkened rooms and corridors. I pushed my way through the chattering folks to the front desk and asked the question "Where is Alexandra Hedison’s exhibit". To be told it’s upstairs! Sheesh I’d just been up there!!

Pushing back through the crowd I grabbed a Red Bull from the free bar, it didn’t give me wings to get back up the stairs but the thought of seeing Alex’s art did.

On entering the gallery you were met by the most amazing picture that was all hazy and mystical – beautiful, I stood for a while just taking that one in then realised the rest of the pictures were around the walls of the room past this first wall. Luckily I turned the right way (the pictures were numbered in sequence) and wandered mesmerised around the room slowly, standing for some time in front of each picture to absorb the amazing sight. You were in a room with a forest, you wanted to step into each picture to wander through the tall trees with their amazing foliage and ethereal light drifting to earth with amazing shadows hidden amongst the trunks or push your way through the thick foliage of the green depths before you to see what is beyond. The depth of the pictures draws you in, you lose yourself in seeing what is before your eyes and wishing to go further to see what you can only imagine is just past that trunk or dense foliage. The trunks dripping with primeval moss that leads the imagination to places untouched and unseen by other human eyes for a long time if ever before Alex discovered them and captured them for us all to share.

You ponder how she got the shot, was there a step ladder involved or did she climb up on a stump to get the height to take the shot. How many hours did Alex and her companions wander in this treasure trove of nature to find the picture that she saw in her minds eye and captured to show the story of her journey. The other people there didn’t exist at first as I wandered through the amazing gallery of trees and flora, all the colours and shapes, shadow and light capture the eye and imagination you are lost in the journey of images.

You reach the end of the amazing pictures and sigh over the journey whilst you read an excerpt of the Ithaka poem, only to realise there is another room – Yes! Here the pictures are equally amazing but so different although the same in one aspect. They are, as Alex later described them to her friend, the x-ray of the images in the main room, the negative images of the forest, the light and shade transposed, truly awesome works of art and imagination. There are also some new images that are incredibly beautiful in their black and white complex simplicity. They draw the eye, you see so much in each one that you could lose yourself again for hours just in one picture.

Having spent some incredible time looking at the pictures I began to take notice of my surroundings other than the pictures, there were people here! There was the couple with the lady who had the big camera, hmmm ok I bit the bullet and asked if one of them was Katz and luckily the lady with the camera was – whew. We introduced ourselves and Dolphin introduced herself too. We were talking about the exhibit when Lips arrived with video camera in hand (thank you for taking the video Lips) we talked and wandered looking at the images that Alex had created, saying which we liked best and why and generally got to know each other a bit. We found out that Alex was due to be there soon from the lady doing the order taking who kindly told us that there might, just might mind be a limited edition catalogue of the pictures and if we were interested we should leave our details.

We were stood at various points of the gallery chatting to other Boardies or new folks we’d met when I just knew to turn round, and there was Alex at the entrance – Wow, the lady in question has incredible presence and the x-factor in bucket loads. We converged on each other a group of Boardies stood, me having finally got my jaw from its dropped position to some semblance of normality, to watch Alex greet some friends at the entrance.

Then, how she knew I don’t know, but Alex came over to our group and was greeted by Lips who explained we were from her Fanofalex fan site and Alex was lovely, she greeted us one by one, shook our hands and asked our names. We asked if it was alright to take pictures and she graciously said it was. Alex is more beautiful in person, not just in looks but in personality and the way she showed her interest in what was being said to her and her attention to the person speaking. Alex had on jeans, a dark grey long sleeved top with a large, silk I think, silvery scarf, her hair is slightly longer than it was the last time we saw her and she looked lovely. We were all taking pictures whilst Alex was talking to us all but we were very aware that she wouldn’t want a camera in her face the whole time.

Lips presented the card (designed by Dolphin) from the Board and Alex opened it there and then and was amazed at how many people had signed it. Alex asked if we had all gotten together to sign the card as there were people from the UK, America, Australia, Argentina and Europe. Lips explained that the board members had sent her the comments and signatures and Dolphin had prepared the card. Alex thanked Lips and all of us for the card and the lovely flowers that she had received earlier. Katz took some great pictures of Alex and the card and her chatting to us all. Alex was lovely she stood for pictures with Dolphin and was impressed she’d come all the way from Germany for the event and that we had all made the journey from our various homes to be there. Alex has very expressive eyes and talks a lot with her hands.

After spending some time with us Alex said that she would have to mingle with others but she would be back later to talk and sign the requested autographs. We stayed in the gallery and watched as Alex charmed those around her and took some more pictures of Alex and the pictures themselves creating a memory for you and ourselves of an amazing evening. Because Alex spoke to us there were several other folks who came over to talk to us all and they were very nice and chatting about Alex and her work and how come she spoke to us all to which we explained about the fan site. The only person to mar the evening was a young lass who had been drinking since 4.00 and was rather drunk and who tapped Alex on her shoulder when she was talking to our group and launched into asking Alex about one picture and what she had been thinking when she took the picture. Alex was incredibly nice to her despite being told by the young woman that she didn’t have a clue who Alex was!! Unfortunately later on whilst Alex was talking to her friends the girl yet again interrupted Alex, tapping her on her arm or shoulder and saying tell me about that picture. We were not a happy bunch as she was incredibly rude and we just hope that Alex doesn’t think that because she was stood with us when she arrived that this obnoxious person was one of the Boardies! Although we were in awe of having Alex there and spoke to her and took photos we did try and give her the space and respect she deserves.

We stayed for a long time just watching Alex converse with others and were lucky enough to hear her explaining the x-ray images of the main art in the other room and how one in particular was placed so that the original image was on one side of the wall of the gallery whilst its x-ray was on the other in the other room. Whilst Alex was explaining this I finally got my camera working again and was trying out the video on it and trying to stay in the background so as not to disturb her but being the observant person she is, must be the artist in her, Alex noticed and came towards the camera and saying she needed another drink, it’s water. (I missed the opportunity of whipping out the unopened bottle of spring water I had in my rucksack at that point to pour her a drink, only remembering the bottle when my brain got over its dazed OMG that is Alex haze when half way up the motorway).

Alex left the gallery and went into a back room with her friends and we all hung around hoping she would come out and chat with us a bit more but after a while the lady on the order desk told us that Alex had gone somewhere with her friends and we all said our goodbyes and headed off home with our respective memories and dreams.

Report by Silvercat777

Photographs of Alexandra Hedison by Katz