The Aqffin Gallery A Little Gem

As an art lover willing to go off the beaten track, how delighted I was to stumble upon the 'Aqffin Gallery' on Commercial Street just off Brick Lane reflecting a trend of London's bursting art world to squeeze art into every nook and cranny of the East End. At first when I saw people standing outside a small hairdressers with a bizarre Japanese style kitsch shop front, I thought the cigarette ban was really taking its toll, but on closer investigation, I realized whilst people were being coiffured upstairs in the basement something much more sinister was happening; there was a video projection of a man trapped on a train, and it suddenly felt like Sweeney Todd while they cut hair above; the debris and lesser seen secrets of life were being swept downstairs into the basement. Appropriately this little gem specializes in the lesser seen Japanese artists in London, a culture that has always comfortably combined the kitsch. the beautiful and the sinister, and 'cutting edge' art that takes a new look at the world with scientific cool and emotional application.

John Burgers