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Tipu Sultan on ceramic plates in London’s Mayfair

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ADEELA SULEMAN IS an artist based in Karachi (Pakistan). She was born in 1970 and educated at the University of Karachi. In an exhibition at London’s Grosvenor Gallery, a collection of her works relating to the life of Tipu Sultan (the ‘Tiger of Mysore’: 1751-1799) is on display until the 25th of October 2024.

For those who are unaware of his fame, Tipu Sultan (son of Hyder Ali) ruled the independent kingdom of Mysore, and defended it against the attacks of the British. However, in the end, he was killed while defending his fortress at Srirangapatna. Before his demise, he was forced to deliver two of his sons to be held by the British as hostages. This happened in 1792. His death 7 years later was due to treachery within his court.

Adeela Suleyman has painted exquisite scenes depicting stages in Tipu’s life. The paintings have been created on vintage ceramic plates (platters). Each plate is surrounded by an elaborately carved timber picture frame. The paintings are rich in detail, and reminded me of Persian or Mughal miniatures. They portray episodes of Tipu’s story colourfully and vividly. Each of the images is a delight to see. What the artist has created is an attractive and respectful memorial to a great man. According to the gallery’s catalogue, the images can be sold separately, but it would be a shame to have this collection dispersed; it would be better to keep it intact.

In addition to the painted plates, there are some sculptural items (relating to Tipu) created by the artist. although they are eye-catching, it is the painted plates that appealed to me much more.

Antiques in the aisles within a church in Norwich

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THE CITY OF NORWICH used to have about 100 churches. Today, there are about 73 churches in use as places of worship. That is approximately one church for every 1900 people. Many of Norwich’s churches are no longer used for worship, but being of historic and architectural value, they are kept standing. One of these redundant churches is St Gregory’s in the heart of the city. It was constructed in the 14th century, and has been designated a Grade 1 Listed Building. Closed in 1971, it is looked after by the Norwich Historic Churches Trust.

On entering St Gregory’s, you are confronted by models of deer with antlers standing in the porch alongside all manner of ‘junk’. Beyond this, there is a glass fronted refrigerator containing cans of carbonated drinks. On entering the body of the church, the visitor is confronted by all manner of used goods (including antiques) arranged picturesquely in the aisles, the chancel, and other parts of the church. When the initial surprising impact of the church is over, one notices features of the original church that still remain: the stone font; the royal coat of arms; stained glass windows; funerary sculptures; the organ; and a fine wall painting of St George and the dragon. Towering above the sea of goods, there is beautiful gothic vaulting.

Since 2011, the church has been used as an antiques centre (actually, it is more like an indoor flea market). The variety of goods on sale is huge. Beneath the organ, where the choir stalls must have been, there is a second-hand book seller. Despite the somewhat Bohemian look about this stall, the books are not moderately priced.

Whether or not one has any interest in purchasing antiques, St Gregory’s is well worth a visit because what has been created within it is much better than many immersive installations created by professional artists.

A garden of funkiness in London’s Kensington

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THE SERPENTINE GALLERY rarely puts on exhibitions that can be described as ‘mundane’. It is the most exciting and adventurous public art gallery in London. True to form, its current show (in the South gallery) is both weird and unexpected – actually, quite funky. Called “Emajendat” (i.e., ‘imagine that’), it is on until the 2nd of March 2025. The exhibition or art installations were created by Lauren Halsey, who was born in 1987 in Los Angeles (USA), where she lives and works.

Ms Halsey has created a series of fantasy landscapes that reflect the backyard culture of the part of Los Angeles – South Central – where was brought up and still lives. The exhibition’s leaflet explained that she:

“… has developed a distinct visual language deeply rooted in South Central Los Angeles where her family has lived for generations. Through objects and installations, Halsey archives and remixes the changing signs and symbols of her environment, gathering physical and graphic material from her neighbourhood. In her work Halsey merges past, present and future via her interest in iconography connected to the African diaspora, Black and queer icons and architecture. Halsey cites the collective sonic and visual layering associated with funk music as the blueprint for her approach to making, traversing time and drawing on a wide range of sources.”

 The extraordinary environments she has created in the various spaces within the Serpentine have a humorous dreamlike quality, and at the same time contain her comments on the social culture of Los Angeles. These comments and her message as described in the gallery’s leaflet were lost on me, but I enjoyed the visual impact and creativity of what I saw. From a purely aesthetic point of view, this extraordinary exhibition is like the proverbial ‘breath of fresh air’.

Country and eastern in the heart of Norwich

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DURING THE 1970s, Philip and Jeannie Millward began collecting folk art and other artefacts in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. Over the years, these intrepid travellers have been collecting folkloric and other objects from all over south Asia: from Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and so on. At first, they stored their growing collection in a warehouse in Norwich. The Millwards’ collection grew and grew and included things bought from auctions and dealers in the UK. Today, a part of what they have amassed is beautifully displayed in a building with an interesting history.

The Millwards’ South Asia Collection is housed in a huge building, which opened in 1876. It was designed to be an indoor roller-skating rink. However, by 1877, this enterprise failed, and the building became used for Vaudeville theatre. Five years later, it became a Salvation Army ‘citadel’, and then in 1898, it became a builders’ merchant’s storehouse. In 1993, the edifice was purchased by the Millwards, who converted it to become a museum to display items from their collection.

The museum’s exhibits are beautifully laid out, and clearly labelled. Many of the objects on display are very fine examples of their type. I have seen only few museums in India that come up to the high standard of this museum in Norwich. Many of the fine pieces that the Millwards have brought from the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere in the past might not now be allowed to leave their countries of origin. But luckily, they have come to Norwich where they are being expertly cared for.  The museum is not simply a display place. It works with academic institutions such as CEPT University in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) to carry out research projects that help put objects in the collection into their true context.

Although the museum is the main attraction of the place, the former roller-skating rink also houses a shop where finely crafted, high quality folkloric goods, sourced in India and other places, can be bought. What is on sale has been purchased directly from the craftspeople who made them, rather than from middlemen. And the prices attached to them are very reasonable – not much greater than one would expect to pay in good handicraft shops in India.

Norwich is filled with attractions for the visitor. Less well-known than the castle, the cathedral, and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the Millward’s South Asia Collection in Bethel Street should become one of the first places a visitor heads for.

Fondue memories and a charming glockenspiel in central London

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IN THE 1970S, I used to love eating at the now demolished Swiss Centre on the northwest corner of Leicester Square. Its restaurant was pricey, but served great cheese fondue and steak tartare. Sadly, the Swiss Centre is no more, but there is a lovely souvenir still standing. It is a glockenspiel with bells and animated models of animals and Swiss farmers, which rotate whilst the bells are chiming. It is a bit kitsch but completely charming.

The original glockenspiel was installed in 1985, then removed in 2008. It was reconstructed in about 2011. It has 27 bells, 2 clocks, and 11 moving figures. The show can be watched once every few hours during daytime. A timetable is attached to the lovely apparatus. Compared to much else that now happens in Leicester Square, the glockenspiel has real class.

Towering above Norwich Market

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This is the tower of the 15th century St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, Norfolk. Situated next to the market place, this is the city’s parish church. It is the centre of civic worship, whereas the magnificent cathedral is the ecclesiastical centre of the city’s worship. Both this church and the cathedral make a visit to Norwich worthwhile. The city has other magnificent attractions, which I will write about soon.

Images of urban life in India

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BORN IN PUNE (Maharashtra, India) in 1949, Sudhir Patwardhan qualified as a medical doctor in 1972. He worked as a radiologist in Thane (Bombay) between 1975 and 2005. Then, he moved from medicine to become a full-time artist. Until the 19th of October 2024, there is an exhibition of his paintings at number 3 Cork Street in London’s Mayfair.

The exhibition is called “Cities: built, broken”. As its name suggests, the show is filled with Patwardhan’s paintings, each of which depicts scenes of urban life. His beautifully executed, colourful paintings evoke daily life in Thane and Bombay (Mumbai). As the gallery’s website (www.frieze.com/no9-cork-street/vahdera-art-gallery-sudhir-patwardhan) explained:

“As a man of medicine, Patwardhan displays a profound understanding of the human figure, including its mental distortions and physical vagaries, with early inspiration from Cézanne and Picasso refining his intent. In this recent body of work, Patwardhan’s well-regarded visceral realism explores various dialectics and asymmetries, including class struggles, tensions between the material and spiritual and the emotional theatre of community. The shifting deportment of his figures across a series of charged slice-of-life scenes offers a moving portrait of the bustling annals of cities, where capitalist consumption, gentrification and the erosion of natural spaces are but few of the contested arguments about what constitutes as urban progress. He brings us a visual meditation on the geometric correspondences between various kinds of structures growing out of anarchic infrastructural development – often referred to colloquially in India as jugaad, or a kind of organized chaos.”

I could not have put this better. It describes the subject matter of the paintings beautifully. However, rather than just reading about it, I suggest that you see these wonderful paintings before the exhibition ends.

Chairs, coronations, and royalty

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BASILDON PARK IS an 18th century neo-classical mansion not far from Reading. From 1949, the house was owned and restored by the 2nd Baron and Lady Iliffe. They lived in it for 25 years. In one room on the ground floor, which contains the fascinating sketches made by the artist Graham Sutherland for his tapestry in Coventry Cathedral, there are four chairs. Two of them have the insignia of King George VI embroidered on their covers, and the other two are embroidered with the insignia of Queen Elizabeth II.

A National Trust volunteer guide working in the house explained that the 2nd Baron and his wife had attended the coronations of both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. The chairs were those they had sat on during these ceremonies. After the coronations, so the guide told us, the Iliffes bought the chairs they were sitting on to keep as souvenirs. The proceeds of sales such as this helped to pay for the coronation events.

Seeing these chairs reminded me of another chair, which I saw in a cousin’s house in Cape Town, South Africa. It was in this chair that Queen Mary (wife of King George V) had sat for a few minutes when she paid a brief visit to the Mayor’s house in King Williams Town (now called ‘Qonce’) in South Africa in 1946. The Mayor was my mother’s uncle. His grandson, my cousin, has kept this souvenir of the royal visit. I saw it when I visited him in Cape Town. Unlike the chairs at Basildon Park, there is no royal insignia on it.