TON: Dave Baby’s Temple of Desire
The new interiors magazine TON – the first issue is out now – has two pieces by me on very different but equally extraordinary homes.
TON’s founder and editor-in-chief Jermaine Gallacher – who works with art director Rory Gleeson and editorial director Ted Stansfield – commissioned me to write about Dave Baby’s apartment close to where we both live, in south London’s Stockwell.
As I write, ‘this otherworldly space represents a bewitching realm of desires, sexuality and esoterica with Dave at the maelstrom’s centre, a still figure dispensing wily wit and charm’.
As well as being an accumulation of Dave’s experiences, from being an integral member of the art/fashion collective House of Beauty & Culture along with his late friends Judy Blame, Christopher Nemeth and others to appearing in films by Derek Jarman, Mark Lebon and John Maybury, Dave’s home is a centre for his creativity which spans metal and woodwork, clothing, print-making, sculpture, painting, illustration and set design.
We understood the sensitivities around representing Dave’s home and his suggestion of his friend Roxy Lee as photographer proved spot-on. As you can see Roxy has produced sterling visual documentation of this remarkable abode.
It has been a great pleasure to get to know Dave better over the months and I’m very happy with the piece apart from one aspect where I overplayed his associations with Hell’s Angels down the years – he was never a member, and has asked me to make that clear.
//One-off fold-out Dave Baby poster only available with issue one of TON//
There is of course a lot more in first issue of TON – from Celeste’s north London home to Luchino Visconti’s villa in Ischia – so I recommend you chase down a copy, since it it is published in a limited run of 1,000 copies and available here as well as from Claire de Rouen and Reference Point.
Follow Dave’s Instagram feed @therealdavebaby and TON’s @ton.magazine. Roxy Lee is @roxy_lee.