Inside The Irdialani Gallery

Upstairs: the Exhibition

This is HENRY/HENRIETTA: Shaufensterpuppen. She/He was ‘Transformed’ by a person that was commissioned by the gallery owners to demonstrate what the ‘Transformation’ cards were all about. It seems that there are people providing the service of training men in the art of wearing makeup, dresses wigs and stockings. These cards appear all over London; the number of cards advertising these ‘kinky’ services far outnumbering those offering ‘executive services for bussiness gentlemen’.

This is a card that reads ‘1/2hr Of HELL’ . Sitting in a frame that is flanked by cherubs, the effect is ‘amusing’. It is the fact that most of the cards appearing in London are of the ‘fringe’ sex type that makes the London card phenominon so unusual. These cards target men only, and offer every kind of humiliation, degradation and damnation imaginable. Judging by the hundreds of thousands of cards that are printed and posted every month, there is more to the bowler hatted English commuter than metts the eye. This world stayed hidden for many years; only the advent of the cards has made it public property.

During the reign of Victoria, Art gallerys were compelled to cover paintings that showed the naked human form. In the above exhibit, a red curtain was employed to hide a disturbing and unusually explicit ‘watersports’ card. ‘Watersports’ cards usually portray a waterfall like Niagra Falls or the decorative fountains found in the great cities of the world. This one goes as far as it possibly could without revealing.....’too much’!

Downstairs: The Club

When the Gallery space was acquired, the deal was that the gallery occupied the upper part of the building for the allocated time of the exhibition. Unknown to the Irdialani staff when the deal was struck, was the fact that the basement of the building was the location of a working gentlemans club. How we laughed! The picture above shows the handkerchief dance floor that was at the back of the club. The whole atmosphere of the club was reminiscient of a 1960’s ‘swinging London’ movie; it was like walking into a time warp!

The theme that ran through all of the decorations was ‘Napoleon and Josephine’. There were portraits of the two everywhere, paintings of Napoleons great campaigns, busts of his head and many other pieces of Napoleon related objects. Anyone who has watched ‘The Twilight Zone’ would have been spooked upon entering this place.

This is one of the ‘private rooms’ situated at the back of the club behind the dance floor and a set of curtains. There was a smell in this part of the club. Below is another picture of a private room. Thanks to Hilaire Rimbaud for the photographs.

Read the Preface

Look inside the Irdialani Gallery

Read the Press Release

Read an Account of Book Launch

View on line Gallery of vice cards

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