A couple of weeks ago the exhibition English Magic by Jeremy Dellar opened at Turner Contemporary in Margate. My friend Savinder had some of her own work on show that day, as part of the opening day of the exhibition. The gallery also hosted a steel band, choir, and a display of owls.

I haven’t seen anything so wonderful in a long time. The owls sat under a gazebo at the entrance were incredible in themselves. I’ve never seen an owl up close before. Their stare is so penetrating, so still. Upstairs the exhibition draws on many different references. One room featured photographs of David Bowie’s 1973 Ziggy Stardust tour, alongside images of protest and social unrest occurring in the UK during the tour.

Another featured woodblocks made by William Morris, the quintessentially English designer who’s work was nevertheless about revolutionary socialism, his beliefs a reaction against design that was only affordable by the rich. Another room showed a film of kids and adults bouncing joyfully on an inflatable Stonehenge to a looping steel band version of Man Who Sold The World, followed by a parade of professions from the Lord Mayor’s Show and a hawk in slow motion. Click the image below to watch it. Please.

The show, in short, was about England’s past, present and an imagined future, mixing old myths and creating new ones. It was amazingly uplifting. It’s the last showing of this amazing piece. Go, go.