Give me a paddle waggle!
Every bid was greeted with applause, every sale with dancing girls leading the purchaser to a secret, smoky room from which they returned clutching flowers and smiling. Welcome to Bidders Bizarre, an art auction and performance produced by Marbles & Ware. In Hatch, Homerton, Bidders Bizarre combined a real auction of paintings, prints and objects with an entertaining immersive performance including actors circulating in character. At least I’m presuming art lunatics Leighton and Sebastian – who assured me that a work by graffiti artist Kooks was not just hung on the wall, it is the wall! – were acting. If not I apologise.
‘I struggle to get away from the mirror whilst wearing this hat,’ auctioneer Benjamin Giubarelli
Organised by Holly, Holly and Tash Bidders Bizarre was a bohemian evening of outlandish costumes, jewellery that lit up, women with roses in their hair and men in costumes Beau Brummel would envy. On arrival everyone received a scroll tied with a orange twine containing a poem by Nicki Williams, as well as a glass of Cava decorated with petals, a catalogue and a bidding paddle.
Thirty-eight works of art were up for sale, all on display with detailed artist’s statements and reserve prices from £20 to £1500. Up on a mezzanine above the gathered artists and collectors the auctioneers stood in their feathered top hats and leopard skin tights. Dear Ralphy took to the microphone to guide the audience in paddle etiquette, soon having the assembled throng performing an impressive paddle Mexican wave of a sort I’ve never seen at the other London auction houses.
The elegant Lady Alexandra showed me around the exhibits
Before the auction could begin the auctioneers needed their gavels. So we witnessed the ceremony of the Giving of the Gavel, whereby each auctioneer received the vital instrument of his trade on a crimson cushion. At last the auction could commence, with the auctioneers joking, cajoling and entertaining the crowd whilst selling the works of local artists. Highlights from the sale included Aaron Clein’s medium format photograph ‘Portal’ which more than quadrupled its reserve price and a stained-glass hand-made table by Shirley Naylor and Maria Huie which sold for £600.
Bidders Bizarre is a fun evening that promotes emerging artists with a lack of formality and a dollop of raffish charm. In total collectors bought works for over £4500 which is a useful injection into the artistic economy. Homerton is a bit of a walk from Montmartre but Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa would have loved the louche atmosphere. Coming next is a Moroccan bazaar around Christmas. I recommend dressing up.
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