Roxana Halls and Tingle Tangle

Tingle Tangle (in reference to a type of cabaret popular in early 20th century Germany) is the title of London based artist Roxana Halls‘ exhibition, on until the end of May at the National Theatre on the South Bank. The show depicts characters in an imaginary perpetual cabaret and included in the range of ‘acts’ are a female magician and her two cross-dressing assistants, Cecilia the Astonishing and her lovely assistants Masculinum/Femininum (pictured below) as well as a number of other themes that anyone familiar with the history of magic, vaudeville, cabaret or music hall will immediately recognise, despite the characters all being original creations.

Image © Roxana Halls 2009

Roxana’s studio is in a disused theatre (now a bingo hall) where she inhabits one of the old bars, and the interior of this building features in much of her work.  Earlier works, whilst not necessarily having specific themes linked to magic (although one of my favourite pieces is Levitating, from the Suspended Women series), have that essence of theatricality that is so much part of the magic world – not to mention the fact that the artist builds her own props – often using improvised materials – and stages the scenes before painting them, herself creating illusions.