He built a 'fantasy world' in his apartment. It's now a historic site.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/18/england-art-apartment-historic-site/

He built a ‘fantasy world’ in his apartment. It’s now a historic site.

By Daniel Wu
April 18, 2024 at 2:00 a.m. EDT



Sculptures and murals decorating a room in Ron's Place, the former apartment of Ron Gittins in Birkenhead, England. (Alun Bull/Alun Bull, Historic England)

When Claire Jones stepped into the apartment of her husband’s late uncle for the first time, she discovered what looked like the trappings of a carnival.

A giant concrete sculpture of a roaring lion’s head stood in the living room, enveloping the fireplace. Looming in the next room was a giant Minotaur head. Papier-mâché sculptures littered the hallways and colorful murals adorned every wall and ceiling, even in the bathroom.

Jones and her family had known Ron Gittins as an eccentric and solitary artist. But they hadn’t realized until shortly after he died in 2019 at age 79 that he had carved, sculpted and painted his passion onto the walls of his rented apartment in Birkenhead, a riverside town in northwestern England where he lived alone.

It couldn’t stay, Gittins’s landlord had said. But Jones knew she wanted to preserve the scene.

[...]

[mopinko]

1. such a fine line btn art and madness.

was just talking about this the other day on fb. i used to say- when i make art, i just do what the voices tell me. i got shit for that, but it’s true.
it’s a fine line, but in my case, it was always a semi-permeable membrane.

[debm55]

3. Agree

[hunter]

2. Links:

Welcome to Ron’s Place, a house with an interior like no other.

In Birkenhead, across the river Mersey from Liverpool, stands a house with an interior like no other. Welcome to Ron’s Place, home of the late Ron Gittins, now owned by Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust. A complex and colourful character, to say the least, Ron’s obsession with ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and all things romantic led him to transform his rented flat into his very own highly ornate classical ‘villa’. Many people were intrigued by the extraordinary totemic sculpture at the entrance but very few knew of the astonishing fantasy world that lay within.

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https://ronsplace.co.uk/

Me and my siblings grew up as feral children among artists like Ron. Our parents were artists with day jobs. Two of my siblings are artists with day jobs.

My own art is a dark dangerous alley that has never been any kind of catharsis. No good comes of me riding the nightmares.

There were posts here on DU a few years ago about Ron's place when its future was uncertain. I'm glad it's still there. Most of the magical places I knew when I was young are long gone.

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4. Thanks, hunter. nt