Khadambi Asalache, Decorated interior

view from the street

Hidden behind a big tree, Asalache's house when seen from the outside is an ordinary house in an ordinary South London street. The inside, however, is a little gem of woodcarving.

the entrance

this picture and the next three courtesy of

Victor Keegan (Flickr)

Life and works

Khadambi Asalache (1935-2006) was born in Kaimesie, Kenya. Already as a youngster he showed great interest in literary and artistic aspects of life. So after his primary education he studied architecture in Nairobi and then -in the 1950s- he left for Europe, residing in Rome, Geneva and Vienna, where he studied fine arts.

In 1960 he settled in London, to live there for the rest of his life. 

In London Asalache earned his income by teaching Swahili and working for the BBC Africa service. He also did some architectural and landscaping projects, wrote poetry and worked on a book, that was published in 1967, entitled A Calabash of Life. 

In 1970 he got a masters of philosophy in the field of philosophy of mathematics and he was appointed as a civil servant at the Treasury, the UK department of finance, a job he would perform for many subsequent years.

In 1981 he bought the house on 575 Wandsworth Road in South London, an old house built in 1810, with five rooms, which had been squatted and needed repair. 

Asalache made some repairs with old floor boards, but was not happy with the heavy effect, so he decided to add some decorative ornaments. 

This triggered him in such a way that he decided to make a project of decorating the interior of his house. As is the case with many artists listed in this blog, it became a lifetime project, that Asalache continued for some twenty years, almost until his death in 2006.

Working in the evening and in his free weekends, he decorated all rooms with fretwork shelves, arches, architraves and friezes, using birds, dancers, flowers, leaves and geometric patterns as motifs.

Beside these decorations, he also embellished the interior with 19th century English pottery he had collected in the course of the years.

Asalache himself has said that he was inspired by the mosque in Cordoba, the Alhambra in Granada, doors of houses in Zanzibar, interiors in Damascus and wooden houses in Istanbul.

In his hands the old house has become a beautiful art environment.

The legacy is cared for by the National Trust

Asalache bequeathed his house to the National Trust, which accepted the bequest in 2010. Meanwhile a first part of maintenance work has taken place, but more funds are needed to complete the works.

The house can be visited on appointment, but the size of the house only allows groups of six at a time. 

Documentation

* Website of the National Trust

* Article (July 2012) on Patrick Baty's website

* Post on weblog Introducing new worlds with a shrug (April 2014), with a lot of pictures

Videos

*  Video by Stories of the World, London (YouTube, uploaded October 2011, 2´42"')

* Another video, this one by BBC London, as published on Facebook (January 2018)

Khadambi Asalache

Decorated interior

575 Wandsworth Road, South London UK

can be visited on appointment (see website National Trust)

take into account a waiting list

Erich Bödeker, Garten mit Skulpturen / Sculpture garden

picture: Bödeker-Gesellschaft für Naive Kunst

Life and works

Born in Recklinghausen, Germany, Erich Bödeker (1904-1971), after completing his primary education, at the age of around fourteen went to work in a coal mine, in these days an important industry in the German Ruhr area.

He would continue this job for over forty years, until in 1959, at age 54, he contracted silicosis and was declared unfit.

from the catalog of an exposition in 1964 in Maroc

(reprinted in weblog Animula Vagula 24-8-2014)

For Bödeker this was the moment to start a new life. 

Much to the astonishment of his family and friends he began making sculptures from all types of waste material such as old boxes, kitchenware, parts of machines...

After his first experiences with this kind of activity he continued making sculptures by mainly using wood and concrete, in particular with a focus upon depicting persons and animals. 

He covered his sculptures with rain-resistant brightly colored paint (The video listed in the documentation has pics in color; those of the garden, made in the 1960's, all are in B/W).

Bödeker displayed his creations in the garden around his house, which was located along a street in the outskirts of the town. In general the garden included some hundred items. 

In 1961, fairly soon after Bödeker had started as a naive artist, the director of the museum in Recklinghausen, by chance passed the location, saw the sculptures and contacted the sculptor. The meeting resulted in an exposition of Bödeker's sculptures in the local town hall. 

Thereafter Bödeker almost every year got expositions (click here for a complete list). In 1970 he participated in the first Triennial of Naive Art in Bratislava (INSITA) , where he won the first prize for sculptures.

Although his garden became a meeting point of people who were interested in his sculptures, as far as I know, in Germany the site as such never has been regarded or described as an art environment.

Probably Bödeker himself used the garden more as a storage area, rather than that he wanted to transform it into an artistic creation as such. But then, Bödeker also had to learn from others that he happened to be a naive artist... 

Indeed, recognizing and naming art work often depends upon the point of view and background of the observer. When in France in the 1960s interest in art environments arose (Ehrmann's Les inspirés et leur demeures, 1962; first research of Bernard Lassus), Germany did not have such a development, perhaps also because these phenomena are rare in that country.

Having been active as a naive artist for some eleven years, in 1971 Bödeker died in his garden in the midst of his sculptures. 

He had created over a thousand sculptures, many of which are included in private or museum collections. 

In all likelihood currently all sculptures have been removed from the garden.. 

Documentation
* The Bödeker-Gesellschaft für Naive Kunst deals in-depth with naive art and artists, and has inventarized all works by Bödeker.(march 2015)
* Gregor Spohr about Erich Bödeker on website Stadt.kunst. Hertener Initiative zur Förderung von Kunst im öffentlichen Raum

Erich Bödeker

Garten mit Skulpturen
Bockholter Straße 269

Recklinghausen, Westphalia Federal State, Germany

Joseph Meyer, Maison aux allures de château / Castle-like house

view from the street 

In my post of April 23, 2011 Visiting some environments in Northern France with Laurent Jacquy this castle-like house constructed by Joseph Meyer (1916-1989) has been briefly mentioned.

The following post has somewhat more information and it has pictures of the structures at the backside of the house which hitherto were not available on the internet.

constructions at the backside of the house 

this picture and the next ones (2013) 

courtesy of Rita and Pieter van den Boogaart

Life and works

Joseph Meyer was wounded when in military service during World War II. He lost a leg and a number of fingers.

He wanted to show that notwithstanding his disability he was able to carry out something big.

another view of the backside

So from around 1950 till around 1960 Meyer has been active in transforming his house -located in an ordinary suburb of a French seaside resort- into a castle-like structure, a building with two high rising towers, one at the streetside and one at the backside.

The staircase on above picture leads to a tower room of 27 m² (291 sq ft) that in summer can be rented as a holiday apartment.

detailed view of the decorations 

of the backside tower

On the frontside the house has another tower, this one slightly more modest than the one at the rear, but nicely decorated and equipped with a small watch tower at its flank. 

The inner court at the front side is separated from the street by a crenelated and decorated wall, that also has some niches.

inner court at the frontside 

with tower and part of the outside wall

As can be seen on the first picture the exterior wall has two gates. of which the left one has a pediment topped with a shield, which has an inscription that reads KIA MATE TOA, Live and die like a man, the motto of soldiers from Southland, New Zealand, who fought in Gallipoli in the First World War.

The house was sold in 2002. The new owners, Mrs Sylvain and her late husband, have kept Joseph Meyer's creations alive. They even have added a room where was only a walkway and worked the walls if necessary. 

So the new owners deserve praise for the good care taken of this art environment.

Documentation

* Article about the site by Sonia Terhzaz, reporting visits she paid in September 2020 and January 2023

* Article (March 2025) on website Tipeek Photos

Joseph Meyer
Maison aux allures de chateau
152 rue Émile Lavezzari
Berck-Plage, dept Pas de Calais, region Hauts-de-France, France
no visits, can be seen from the street