Siren City

I hadn’t been to 39 A Canonbury Square since 2010.

It is the home, since 1994, of The Estorick Collection. “Eric Estorick (1913 – 1993) was an American art collector, art dealer and author, who lived in London and ran the Grosvenor Gallery. He and his wife Salome endowed the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in Canonbury.” (Wikipedia)

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I went to see an exhibition of black and white photographs of Naples by Johnnie Shand Kydd. You probably know why Naples is sometimes called The Siren City but I will remind you. It is because of the legend of Parthenope who, having failed to seduce Ulysses with the beauty of her song, threw herself into the sea and was washed ashore at Naples. So far as I am aware, not even the most powerful and attractive opera critic has persuaded an unsatisfactory soprano at a literol opera house to follow suit.

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I don’t remember the exhibition for the atmospheric Siren City snaps of washing hanging out to dry and handsome teenagers hanging out but for his photographs of femminielli. They are men who are not gay or trans-gender – they are both. Perhaps this will help you get your head around this concept.

It is a man celebrating the birth of a “baby’ (a doll) surrounded by supporters. Sometimes the man is wearing a wedding dress, surrounded by men dressed as nurses assisting in the birth.

Many traditions are commercialised but so far as I know this is celebrated privately and, if I ever knew, I have forgotten how JSK was a witness with his camera. It may be explained in his book of the exhibition: Siren City, Other Criteria, 2009.

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  (To be continued)