Alternative Gallery Space: Crypt Gallery

                                             Gallery Entrance

Crypt Gallery is a London based gallery located  in the Crypt at St Pancras Church. At Crypt Gallery visitors can conveniently enjoy contemporary art, with over a dozen different exhibits held year round, in the presence of the 557 corpses buried there since the 19th century. 

Originally "the Crypt of St Pancras Parish Church was designed and used for coffin burials from 1822, when the Church was opened, to 1854, when the crypts of all London churches were closed to burials".

Since then the crypt has remained inactive, until World War 2 when the crypt was used once again in the form of a bomb shelter, and once more in 2002 where the crypt under its director Claire Pinney became an art gallery.

Interior

Since opening, Crypt Gallery although an art gallery has remained loyal to keeping the crypt in its original state. Its interesting to note that the church were the crypt is located, is still very much active and encourages art that "provokes and questions, as well as art designed for contemplation". 

Untitled  by Lucia Rivero

Despite its name and location Crypt Gallery is far from limited in selecting works for exhibition,and in fact promotes a wide variety of artists both professional and student work from local universities. From performing arts, to photography, and mixed media, Crypt Gallery features all forms of media, dealing with various different topics for each exhibit. 

Floor Plan

Proposal

My proposal for an exhibit titled, The World Around Us deals with the deteriorating state of society, and the state of mind many of today’s youth and young adults hold in their beliefs.

The world has changed drastically over the century, but yet old themes remain the same. This is a world that has become deeply connected thanks to advances in technology, yet it has also grown far apart.

My photos are a satire aimed directly at the state society is currently in. My photos show a generation concerned with only themselves, a generation obsessed with money, and a generation that is that out of touch with reality, and is slowly drifting away and forgetting about its past.

The gallery space at Crypt Gallery would be perfect for such an exhibit, due its environment as a crypt where hundreds of bodies are buried. The presence of the dead act as memnto mori, creating an opportunity for visitors in the presence of the dead and among the artwork, to become aware of their behavior and realize that like the deceased they’re not immortal.

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Jonathan Marulanda

jonmarulanda@hotmail.com

The World Around Us


1. The Creation of Greed, 2012
8 x 10
Photo


2. "IN GOD MUNY WE TRUST", 2012
8 x10
Photo


3. Family Time, 2012
8 x10
Photo

4, Untitled
8 x 10
Photo

http://www.cryptgallery.org.uk