The Auction House: What was I thinking?, Naomi Frears

This exhibition ends on the 2nd May 2026.

I really enjoyed this exhibition, it was small but mighty.  I could definitely relate to the thoughts it contained but I had not really taken those thoughts and clarified them in to their own little bundle before this show.  Beyond that, it made me laugh...

Walking in, you are greeted with a film.  It's split into scenes.  I actually came in to the last one which was about thoughts on a train, which felt very appropriate as I came to the exhibition by train.  Central to the exhibition was thoughts on clothing.  How we try and settle on an outfit, trying things on.  Some things we thought great in the changing room just don't fit in to our lives when we bring them home.  We want to express ourselves and be comfortable and we judge our outfits way to hard.  She reminds herself that no one cares what we wear and if they have seen us wear it before.  Naomi realised this process was similar to her work process of deciding when a piece of art was finished and good enough to leave the studio.

Some outfits are a shorthand that we develop, we know this outfit suits us and is comfortable.  It becomes a shorthand where we can skip this whole process of deciding.

Beyond this though, outfits are a way we can access alter-ego's.  We change the person we portray, experiment with being someone slightly different, who lives a different life.  Clothes have a context too, it just isn't going to feel right to slouch around at home in a cocktail dress.

There is a quote from John Brody, Head of Fashion and Textiles at Falmouth University that really brings these ideas together.  It's a great piece of writing that I would reproduce but I am not sure about permissions!  It draws together the ideas on wardrobe as being something unstable, full of choices that can make us comfortable or uncomfortable.

As a woman, I absolutely understand this difficulty of choice.  Clothing has so many choices.  We decide what's appropriate for an occasion, to express us, to feel comfortable, for the weather, for the activity.  I know I often get it wrong.  The other day I was going out and I actually got outside, stood on the front door step, before I was absolutely certain I had to change my clothes.  I didn't like how my top was moving on my body, how it was going to fit as the evening went on, what would potentially be exposed.  

As a larger lady of fluctuating weight I find this really hard, what is comfortable and appropriate on one day, is not the next.  I have a huge collection of clothes and more than half of it is for some other time, when I am a little thinner, or a lot thinner.  

I also find temperature management very tricky, and I spend a lot of time trying to work out how to be warm enough or how not to get too hot.  I have my uniform for sure, my comfortable choices, some of which I absolutely don't want to be seen out of the house in.  At home, it's leggings, then a t-shirt, maybe layered t-shirts and maybe a jumper on top.  The extra long camo t-shirt with the sleeves and neck torn out, it does not look great at all, but I like how I feel in it.  For going out it's long dresses that are multiple sizes as they are adjustable.  I put t-shirts, tights, leggings, chub rub shorts and jumpers with them depending on the weather.  I like the colours and comfort.  I don't have to think.  Going out socially requires so much more thought though.

There was a rail of clothing and I imagine many people don't bother to look through.  Some of the items had tapes sewn in saying, what was I thinking? and there was another message in some, I don't remember exactly what, maybe, not as slinky as I thought or some such.  SO a split message between bad fashion choices and bad choices for what suited body type.  Different items had tags on with peoples names and numbers.  I was not quite sure what these referred to, did these people contribute clothing for the exhibition?  Their own interesting clothes choices they came to feel  uncomfortable with?

There was a shelf with shoes on.  All beautiful but...  I relate much less to shoes.  I would love to wear beautiful shoes but as a woman with short but very wide feet and a high instep, I often find myself wearing badly fitting shoes.  I have often brought men's shoes instead.  I find size 9 women's shoes just often get too long for my feet.  Things have improved, there is more choice now, but these beautiful pieces of shoe art have never been for me.  I have often envied those who get to wear nice fun shoes.

The art on the walls was interesting but makes more sense when I had read what Naomi had to say.  She used to be fascinated by ancient Greek sculpture, which is naked.  As she started to become more fascinated by clothes, because they represent an edge to a figure, she started drawing them more and more.  She redoes them over and over again, in the same way as she chooses an outfit for herself.

I enjoy exhibitions like this.  It doesn't matter that at first glance, everything looks a little random and disconnected.  As you explore, everything fits together to give a viewpoint, a practice, an exploration.  And in exploring it, you don't just learn something about the artist but reflect on yourself, and maybe even beyond that.  

It may seem a tiny thing, a little shift with regards to how i think about clothes, outfit choices, wardrobe.  It doesn't matter, it was fun and it is a shift.  I will carry a little piece of this exhibition around with me, long after I have forgotten the exhibition itself.  It is unfortunately, pretty inevitable I will forget, it's one of the reasons I write these blog posts.