The Art of the Treatment Rooms Collective

The Treatment Rooms is a collective based in West London. Unofficially centered around the home of Carrie Reichardt. The house is itself a dramatic piece of urban art. All of Carrie’s home is covered is mosaic, quite a sight on a suburban street in Chiswick. A number of artists have come and gone as part of the collective over the years. Primarily though we have so far covered the work of Carrie Reichardt, ATM and Karen Francesca as three of the artists forming the nucleus of the group.

We’ve featured their work for a good few years now. So, with that in mind we thought we’d bring them all together in one place. The articles of the Treatment Rooms!

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Carrie Reichardt’s Mosaic House

Carrie Reichardt’s home is a remarkable place. From head to toe, front and back it is covered with mosaic. It’s been a labour of love for the past twenty years and has been worked on a various intervals. Inspiring City has written two articles on Carrie’s home. One, looking at the artists involved in the development of the art during a last ditch attempt to finish it. The other, looking at the art itself and exploring some of the secret symbols contained within.

30 Hidden Secrets of Carrie Reichardt’s extraordinary mosaic house in Chiswick

Carrie Reichardt’s West London house is covered from head to foot in mosaic by artists from around the World

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Craftivism

Craftivism is a term you’ll here often when speaking to Carrie Reichardt about her art. A long time campaigner for people unjustly placed on death row in America, she has long used her craft in order to raise awareness of injustice. Although pretty much everything Carrie does will have Craftivism at its heart. We picked two articles which help to sum up just how she uses her art to draw attention to a cause or an issue.

Artists turn London black cab into travelling mosaic to raise awareness of the plight of Kenny ‘Zulu’ Whitmore

Carrie Reichardt creates Suffragette Spirit murals at the Nuart Aberdeen festival

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ATM and his Campaign for Endangered Birds

ATM’s birds can be seen all over the country. Painted large on the side of buildings he was a very different kind of street artist when he first burst onto the scene. His giant birds are painted as he would paint a canvas. Using brushes and paint, they take days, not hours. Over the years we’ve covered his work and seen just how much it seems to have caught the imagination. Each piece tells a story, linked as they usually are to the bio-diversity of the area. We’ve featured his work of course and we’ve also interviewed him. Here are some of the main features looking at his work.

Ten of the Best Nature Murals by Street Artist ATM

Interview with Street Artist ATM talking Birds, Acton and a Show at the Ben Oakley Gallery

ATM talks about his giant bird mural on Coppermill Lane in Walthamstow

REQ and ATM paint murals in Hastings as part of the 2018 Coastal Currents Festival

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Guerilla Gardening

Karen Francesca’s little gardens are meant to bring a little bit of nature back into the urban environment. Her gardens sometimes get adopted and survive whilst on other occasions they might get lost to the city. Often accompanied by circular mosaics, they are themselves intended to inspire a thought or two. Her intention is that they all blend in, to become part of the fabric of the urban space. We interviewed Karen in Aberdeen where she doing a bit of her guerilla gardening.

Karen Francesca, the Craftivist Artist Guerilla Gardening on the Streets of Aberdeen

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Cash is King

One of the most talked about projects of 2018 was the collaborative ‘Cash is King‘ book. Organised by Reichardt with Bob Osborne. The book brought together artists from across the globe who contributed by providing their own versions of defaced banknotes. The concept of money being the ultimate symbol of authority being transformed by art was at the heart of the publication. A kind of taking back of control of something with continues to control the lives of most people.

Cash is King the exhibition from Carrie Reichardt and Bob Osborne at the Saatchi Gallery

Cash is King the Art of the Defaced Banknote Book Review