Every month, we invite an interesting, talented, super-brilliant someone to select a stack of books for our ‘Curated by…’ section in the Library Lounge at The Standard, London.
For this latest edition, we’re thrilled to have not one but two brilliant minds doing the choosing: artist Annie Frost Nicholson and writer Lara Haworth.
Annie and Lara live together in their colourful, art-filled home in Peckham, South London. They’re full-time partners in life and (very) occasional creative collaborators.
Their joint reading list - titled Sister Europe at the Hotel Existence - is a thoughtful celebration of European female writers, with each title displayed in both its original language and in translation. The name itself is a poetic nod to travel, transience and the layered experience of reading, writing and art making across borders.
Utterly beguiled, we caught up with Annie and Lara over a round of palomas to talk translation, memory, motion, and the joy of a really good bookshop. Scroll down for more.
Your 'Curated by...' selection is so thoughtful and thought-provoking.
Annie: Lara and I wanted to focus on female artists and writers who have shaped our lives and our practices, on books that we both return to regularly.
Lara: It felt very instinctive to want to celebrate these artists and writers in their own languages and in translation. Annie and I talk about language constantly. And Europe, which is a part of us. When we were first getting together, Annie said I had a ‘strong dash of Euro realness’ and it was the highest compliment. The idea of the pairs of books was exciting to me as a kind of doubling project. Body doubles but with something a bit strange going on. Translation is a kind of magic, isn’t it?
Annie: There were some titles which we both agreed on from the start, Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos for one and Sophie Calle, who we both love. We have introduced each other to artists and writers that have really influenced our practice and, for me, Nathalie Du Pasquier is a personal favourite.
You both travel a lot, right? What are your favourite airport albums? Tell us about your selection criteria.
Lara: Travelling alone with music is so cinematic it almost feels like it should be rationed. The feelings get so big! I tend to go back to records from my past when I travel, and I’m still not sure why. Perhaps the forward motion balances the flood of the past. It will always be an album for me, not a playlist. Radiohead’s Kid A recently made a big comeback. And Iris DeMent, who my stepdad put on a tape for me for my first trip to Paris, in 1995. Like I said, I go back.
Annie: Ooo this is a lovely question. I am very site-specific about music. For example, I was listening to a lot of pretty cringey Australiana when I recently went there for a work trip. I like music to return me to a feeling or a time. There are people I’ve loved so deeply who aren’t in this world anymore, and music is a big part of how I stay connected to them. I’m often moving between these two worlds - the past and the present - through music. This feeds into my paintings, too.
If you could create a bricks and mortar 'Hotel Existence', what would it be like? Where would it be?
Annie: Oh this is tough because it’s hard to choose just one place! For me, it would be the salty air (and the seafood) of the South of Portugal combined with some age-old beloved faces from Sydney, a bit of Parisian insouciance (and some oysters) and a dose of Lant Street Wine (my favourite spot in London). There’d be some bold colour palettes, for sure. The hotel would look great in a Majorelle blue. Some 70s textures, some Memphis furniture, maybe even a chat in the lobby with Nathalie du Pasquier herself.
Lara: What a beautiful and impossible question! Part of me wants to say it would be in Brussels, because that is where I was born, and that seems to get at the question of existence in some fundamental way. But I would like some sea, too, and some mountains. And some dark, shadowy, ancient streets. The building itself would be mid-century, because that would take me back to my grandparents. Good, earthy materials, brick underfoot, and clear glass, and concrete.
Tell us about your go-to London bookshops.
Annie: I really love Review books in Peckham. Lara had her book launch there when Monumenta was published. I’ve also just discovered Lala Books in Camberwell and I love Reference Point Library on the Strand. I also adore The Library Lounge at The Standard in London. It’s the best.
Lara: Chener Books and Review Books are my favourites in our South London neighbourhood, and I’m lucky that they’ve been real champions of mine. Lala Books in Camberwell is new, and great! They’re doing some brilliant events with writers. Daunt in Marylebone and John Sandoe in Chelsea are stone-cold classics. I can’t not go in if I’m passing. Libreria in Brick Lane is beautiful, like a kind of chapel for books.
Iconic London venues to dance in?
Annie: I loved a dance at The End. And I know it’s long been The End of The End, but still. I wanted to recognise many a life changing night in there!
My nephew’s club Spanners in South London is the one though. It’s the family club.
Lara: Yeah, Spanners is truly iconic. The Rivoli Ballroom is also very special.
You're hosting a real-life workshop in the Library Lounge in London on the 22nd of July. Tell us about that.
Annie: The date actually marks 5 years of us being together (half a decade!) and this creative collaboration feels like a great way to celebrate it. We want to offer people a space to come together, to take some time out from the very weighty times we are in and to think about how special (and rare) it is to make a piece of art just for the sake of it.
Lara: We’re so excited about this. It’s a special day for us so it feels lovely to bring some of our preoccupations (OK, obsessions) into the hotel and share them with others. Past lives, doubled lives, lives not lived, hotels, transience, dreaming, Europe itself. We hope that people experience our time together as a small escape hatch, a place to think a little and go back a little, maybe imagine other realities a little. I think most of us probably need a break.
Sister Europe at the Hotel Existence is on display now in the Library Lounge at The Standard, London - a sharp, soulful little collection for anyone drawn to language, longing and the art of crossing borders. Come browse. Stay a while.
And on 22nd July, Annie and Lara are taking things offline with a one-night-only event in the Library Lounge. Expect stories, collage, vintage postcards, writing, and the time and space to just make some art for the sake of it. All welcome. BOOK HERE.
