An illustrated diary of Shoreditch
If there’s any London area rich for satirising, it’s surely got to be Shoreditch.
And while he’s certainly not the first to do so, illustrator Adam Dant’s latest body of work provides a playful jibe at E1 – a postcode that’s hipster by day, booze Britain at night; where the haircuts are angular, the bread is artisan and the beards are plentiful.
A new show opening at Eleven Spitalfields Gallery this week will present 125 new drawings by Dant, each showcasing an aspect of the hustle and bustle that surrounds his Shoreditch studio.
The Giles cartoon-esque gentle mockery is clearly borne out of affection for the area, taking a particular E1 scene as its starting point, and delineating a hilarious snippet of overheard conversations.
Veering from the inane to the profane, to the ludicrous, they’re entirely believable, recognisable moments – and yet sweetly charming.
Each drawing is documented in Dant’s new 128-page paperback, Soerditch: Diary of a Neighbourhood, which takes its name from the area’s original moniker. Soerditch’s etymology is traced back to the local ‘sour ditch that issued into the Thames’.
We’ll let you insert your own joke about the area’s weekend revellers here
Soerditch: Diary of a Neighbourhood runs from 8 March – 26 April at Eleven Spitalfield Gallery, 11 Princelet Street, Spitalfields, London E1
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