Evening Standard (London): There's nowt so queer or worth saving as folk culture

Folk Archive

Barbican Curve

PHOTOGRAPHS from the World Gurning Championships, images of decorated cakes, a customised motorcycle helmet, a floral memorial to a deceased smoker in the shape of a giant cigarette.

The Barbican's latest exhibition, Folk Archive, sounds whimsical, but it is the result of a deadly serious project, begun seven years ago by artists Alan Kane and Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller, to discover and record the essence of contemporary British folk art.

It pays tribute to the small, unassuming and organic passages of creativity in Britain.

Drawings by prisoners sit alongside mementos from traditional rural folk festivals, such as the Egremont Crab Fair in Cumbria, running since 1387 and proud host to the gurners and Ferret Roulette.

The subtext is that this represents a culture and attitude under threat.

Once all culture was like this, homemade and rooted in the local.

Now culture is only recognised as such if it is packaged and clearly labelled. So the idea that it is something produced only by professionals and marketed by companies becomes a widespread unconscious assumption.

Particularly poignant are the tradeunion banners included, which already look like relics of a bygone age. Let us hope that does not become true of the other exhibits.

. Until 24 July.

Information: 0845 1207550.