Mostly Movies exists to make little-known ideas intelligible and enjoyable for a wide audience.
The story of a remarkable woman, Chili Hawes, director of the October
Gallery, and of how, with a team of artists and friends, she rescued a derelict
building in London and turned it into a world renowned, pioneering gallery of
contemporary cutting edge work of extraordinary artists from around the globe.
Chili Hawes was born in Grand Junction Colorado. Unusually for a mountain girl, she studied medieval French literature. While at the Sorbonne in France she ‘discovered’ art in the museums and galleries of Paris.
Chili Hawes 
photo by Gonsalo Arcila
In the 1960’s back in the States Chili helped build adobe mud houses, a geodesic dome and later, a ferro-cement ship which was to bring her back to Europe. She renovated a derelict Victorian schoolhouse near the British Museum in London. This became her home and ‘her’ gallery.
The October Gallery with a Kenji Yoshida exhibition
The October Gallery opened in 1978 with western avant-garde art and was the first to show the visual art of writer William Burroughs. But Chili decided to feature artists from the ‘non-western’ avant-garde. Aubrey Williams from Guyana was followed into the gallery by artists from Africa, Mexico, the Amazon rainforest, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Aborigine Australia.
Chili with art from Fiji 
The Red Wave Collective
Chili travelled the
world, experienced shamanistic rites and, for a time, became a cattle rancher
in the extreme outback of Australia.
At 48 she said to herself that that was enough of the ‘wild’ life and
she focused on raising the gallery’s standards.
Chili and her artistic director, Elisabeth Lalouschek put on 8 shows a year. They have represented over 80 countries including Japan, China, Mongolia, Tibet and, especially, West Africa.
Elisabeth Lalouschek with an El Anatsui cloth 
Chili learnt Arabic and went with Algerian artist Rachid Koraichi to Temacine deep in the Sahara desert. One decision was that the artists themselves would always be present and they usually stayed in the gallery. To meet the artists was a unique feature that always impressed gallery visitors and potential buyers.
Rachid Koraichi in the October Gallery
Romuald Hazoume 
By 2005, their efforts began to be
recognized internationally. The exceptional installations of Romuald Hazoume
from Benin won the main prize at Documenta in Germany and his ‘slave ship’ of
oil drum ‘faces` was featured at the British Museum. The huge colorful cloths made of metal bottle-tops by El
Anatsui from Ghana are now hanging in the Metropolitan in New York – and
elsewhere across the USA. This
year a young artist from Northern Queensland is arriving and hopes are high
that she will sell well.
Samantha Hobson
The film is bright with these
artists, their art and their stories. It offers some
insight into the hard work, determination and sheer guts that goes into
bringing relatively unknown artists into the London art scene and in creating a
much admired and frankly unique Gallery.
Mostly Movies 2008 
The Gal and her Gallery
This 60 minute documentary film has already won an award for best International Documentary at the South Africa International Film Festival and will be screened at the Waterford Film Festival, Ireland in November.
DVDs are available from the October Gallery or from Mostly Movies Ltd.
A Gal and Her Gallery – featured artists in order of appearance
El Anatsui – renowned West African sculptor, Professor of Sculpture at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka. His first one-man show outside Africa was at the October Gallery in 1995. He has since gone to exhibit around the world. In 2007 he earned a prestigious place in the International Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and sold his magnificent metal clothes to major museums and collectors including the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Aubrey Williams – the first Caribbean artist to make his name in Britain, championed by the October Gallery even after his death in 1990. His extraordinary Shostakovich series was bought by the Royal Festival Hall, his Olmec-Maya series featured in a recent show at Tate Britain who also held a one-day seminar on his work.
Kenji Yoshida – Japanese painter living in Paris. Born in 1924 he studied art under the great Hayashi Kiyoshi but with the onset of World War 2 was selected for training as a Kami-kaze pilot. He survived the war by a lucky fluke and dedicated his life to art. His search for purity of form have led to an elemental series of circles in silver and gold leaf. Meditative works all of which have the title “Life”.
Rachid Koraichi – born in Algeria in 1947 raised in the Sufi mystical tradition and for many years lived and works in Paris. Now a leading Arab artist – his works have been collected by major institutions including the British Museum and the Smithsonian.
The Red Wave Collective, Fiji – a group of artists from the Pacific islands who paint the stories and myths of their ancestors to articulate current concerns, political and personal. This was the first of a series of exhibitions from the Oceanic arts scene.
The Lockhart River Art Gang – especially Rosella Namok, Fiona Omeenyo and Samantha Hobson. Young Australian artists from the rainforest region of northern Queensland. They have developed their own forms of expression very different from older indigenous artists of desert Australia. They were rapidly taken up by the big metropolitan museums in Australia and had a sell-out show at the October Gallery.
Fiona Foley – artist, activist, curator and writer. Founder of the Boomali Aboriginal Artists Co-operative in Sydney, she is well known in Australia. Her first solo show in London was at the October Gallery in 2006. Her work is multi-media, using photographs, installation. It is surprising, sometimes shocking, always humorous.
Romuald Hazoume – born in 1962 in Porto Novo, Republic of Benin where he lives and works. His sculptural experiments with plastic jerry cans, used to transport fuel around Benin and to smuggle fuel from neighbouring Nigeria received international acclaim. His installations have featured in the Musee Quai Branly, Paris, the Menil Collection, Texas, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and most recently at Documenta in Kassel, Germany where he received the top prize for sculpture in 2007.
And there are also images of William Burroughs, Gerald Wilde, Aubrey Williams and art from Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Peru and China.
For further information, please contact: scj@mostlymovies.co.uk
