Something I really want to go and take a peep at in a weekend or two is the Red Light District installation at the National Gallery.
Hoerengracht (Dutch for Whore's Canal) shines some historical perspective on the NG's 17th century Dutch paintings of scenes depicting love for money juxtaposed with a mid 1980s European Red Light District. Alongside 'Whore's Canal', a select few from the Dutch permanent collection, including Schalcken's 'A Man Offering Gold and Coins to a Girl' and de Hoochs's 'Musical Party in a Courtyard' will be displayed.
The dimly lit scantily clad mannequins are installed at grimy windows of claustrophobic streets where viewers are forced to walk and peep like a typical client, whilst other mannequins are poised in provocative poses inviting men to come inside. The artists Ed and Nancy Keinholz are hell-bent on recreating the RLD; with seedy music playing in the background, dustbins strewn about, neon signs glaring and client's bicycles neglected in the streets - as they say: in for a penny in for a 'pound'.
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