The Last Tuesday Society is delighted to announce the opening of London’s first exhibition on the origins & rituals of absinthe. Curated by Allison Crawbuck, Director of The Last Tuesday Society & co-founder of Devil’s Botany Distillery, the exhibition is free to the public and is be on view in The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society 11 Mare Street E8 4RP from 10th July to 22nd September 2024.
Let me be mad! exhibits the botanical spirit’s magical and medicinal origins, with a unique look at London’s untold connections to its notorious past and the vital role that absinthe played in the city’s classic cocktail history. Beautiful 19th century absinthe spoons, glassware and other art nouveau-inspired paraphernalia captures the alluring rituals that once seduced absinthe drinkers in the Belle Époque.
Visitors to Let me be mad! are invited to explore the exhibition while sipping on a glass absinthe. Original artwork and paraphernalia from absinthe’s heyday celebrates the spirit’s rise as a liquid muse and explore what sparked its unruly fall.
The exhibition is a first of its kind and takes its name from Marie Corelli’s novel Wormwood: A Drama of Paris written in London in 1890: “Let me be mad, then, by all means! mad with the madness of Absinthe, the wildest, most luxurious madness in the world!”
Let me be mad! kicked off with a launch party on Wednesday 10th July at The Last Tuesday Society 6pm-9pm. The first 100 guests enjoyed a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe on arrival and special giveaways throughout the evening.
Bringing the spirit of this exhibition to life, The Absinthe Parlour also launched its new ‘Pataphysics’ cocktail menu on Wednesday 10th July inspired by devout absinthe drinker and father of the pataphysical pseudo science: Alfred Jarry.
Jarry was among the few mad enough to drink their absinthe neat, famously quoted saying: “Anti-alcoholics are unfortunates in the grip of water, that terrible poison, so corrosive that out of all substances it has been chosen for washing and scouring, and a drop of water added to a clear liquid like Absinthe, muddles it.”
Admission to the exhibition is FREE! Reservations are recommended for drinks in The Absinthe Parlour during the run of this exhibition via: https://thelasttuesdaysociety.org/absinthe-parlour
Absinthe — there is no spirit so notoriously favoured by the rebellious minds of art & literature. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec famously meandered the streets of Paris carrying a hallowed cane filled with a personal stash of the green spirit. Paul Verlaine & Arthur Rimbaud’s explosive affair was famously fuelled by a shared love for absinthe. An absinthe-induced vision of 19th century France is forever immortalised in Vincent Van Gogh’s jarring colour juxtapositions and, most famously, in the tale of his self-mutilated ear gifted by the artist to his favourite prostitute. Pataphysics founder, Alfred Jarry, was perhaps the only absintheur mad enough to drink his absinthe neat, being a devout alcoholic who considered water to be a terrible poison. Even the ‘Wickedest Man in the World,’ Aleister Crowley, wrote an ode to “The Green Goddess” while observing its lucid influence upon the patrons of The Old Absinthe House in New Orleans. Pablo Picasso, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Émile Zola —the list of famous absinthe drinkers would inspire anyone to pick up a glass of the tantalising elixir, but what is this “tongue-numbing, brain-warming, idea-changing, liquid alchemy” as described by fellow absintheur Ernest Hemingway? Visitors are invited to explore the exhibition while sipping on a glass absinthe. Transport the senses to an era of debauchery and decadence. Let me be mad! is presented by Allison Crawbuck & Rhys Everett, Directors of The Last Tuesday Society and co-founders of the UK’s first Absinthe Distillery: Devil’s Botany.
