BOOKS & ARTS
Exhibitions
Canine connoisseurs
Camilla Swift
Dog Show
Southwark Park Galleries, until
8 September
Stepping into any art gallery, the last thing
you expect to be greeted by is a cacopho-
ny of barking and wet noses on your knee.
This, however, was the welcome I received
at the current exhibition at Southwark
Park Galleries.
Dog Show is, as the name suggests,
about dogs. Not just about dogs, though;
each of the works has been chosen by a
dog — or, as they put it, a canine cura-
tor. ‘We’ve never asked dogs about their
opinions on art, even though some dogs
see an awful lot of it,’ explains Judith
Carlton, director of Southwark Park Gal-
leries. Well yes; it’s most likely true that
no one has ever asked dogs for their
thoughts on art, but there’s probably
a reason for that. I’m not sure my dog has
ever paid any attention whatsoever to a
piece of art; perhaps a sculpture of a tennis
ball could be the one exception.
But the canine curators of this exhibi-
tion have done a very good job — much
better than my philistine dog could do.
It probably helps that these are all par-ticularly cultured dogs. One of them, Tess,
is a border terrier owned by art dealer
Karsten Schubert. Another, Olive, lives
with artist and curator Matthew Higgs.
‘I think Olive sees more exhibitions in
a week than I’ve been to in my life,’ com-
ments Carlton. Turning dogs into cura-
tors sounds like a pretty novel idea. But as
Philomena Epps writes in the exhibition
booklet: ‘One could quite easily rewritethe mainstream story of 20th-century art
through the eyes of dogs,’ whether that’s
Frida Kahlo’s hairless Mexican ixquintle, or
Lucian Freud’s whippets.
Either way, the curators have chosen
a fun and quirky selection of pieces. As you
walk into the Lake Gallery, the first thing
you notice is a number of dogs lying about
the place, looking as if they’re just having
a quick snooze. These are part of an installa-
tion called ‘Let Sleeping Dogs Lie’ by Amer-
ican artist Ryan Brown, who was inspired by
the street dogs of Lima. I have to say I was
fairly surprised that none of the visiting dogs
decide to ‘interact’ with the Peruvian street
dogs. But these cultured hounds are intelli-
gent enough to recognise that these impost-
ers are mere replicas.
There are plenty of familiar names here,
many of them well known for their love of
dogs. Photographer William Wegman, famed
for his work with his own weimeraners, has
two video pieces, chosen by cockapoo Sam-
son. Heather Phillipson, who will take over
Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth in 2020, has©^ L
UCIANFR
EUDCOUR
TESY^ KAR
STEN^ SCHUB
ERTPhotographer William Wegman has
two video pieces in the show, chosen
by cockapoo SamsonGoing to the dogs: ‘Pluto Aged 12’, 2000, by Lucian Freud