Ton

Ton - Issue 02

I’m beyond excited to introduce the second issue of TON. I think it might be our best one yet, which isn’t particularly hard considering it’s only our second issue, but apparently it’s all about the second issue, or so I’m told. The second issue is supposed to prove you’re not just a flash in the pan and cement what you’re trying to say and do. So no pressure then … But just like our first issue, TON’s mission remains unchanged: to champion the unsung, to present truly extraordinary, never-before-seen interiors and, above all, to inspire.

For this issue we’ve been thinking a lot about community and the spaces in which people come together: from gay saunas (my favourite), with an essay by the infallibly sordid Huw Lemmey and a few cheeky pictures by yours truly; to places of worship with words by our own in-house angel-in-waiting editorial director Ted Stansfield. We’ve travelled far and wide to bring you the most exciting stories from the global community, from Olana Janfa’s Melbourne garden shed that doubles as a studio, to Elise Gettliffe’s former tile showroom-turned-potter’s place in Alsace, France. Elsewhere, interior decorator Gavin Houghton gives us a guided tour of his beloved Tangier community and we peruse around a penthouse Milano apartment. Oh, and did I mention that we’ve got John Stefanidis’ London townhouse in this issue?

For our cover story, Madam Adam—the performance artist Adam Christensen— opens up his artists’ commune home and studio, or as I fondly know it, three-day-bender party central. And from south Bermondsey we travel over to southern Ireland’s County Carlow, to the enigmatic Huntington Castle, home of the international community of the Fellowship of Isis.

But of course communities come in all shapes and sizes. A little closer to home, here in London, Daniel Slowik and Benedict Foley have created a shared space that combines their idiosyncratic tastes and frankly out of control collecting habits; while my great friend and comrade-in-arms Kate Boxer’s farm in West Sussex—known to me as my favourite place on earth—has her family’s, friends’ and animals’ spirits embedded into the house’s brightly coloured, thank-God-they-can’t-talk walls.

I suppose I like to think of TON as a small but evergrowing community of people, too—united not by taste or means but by attitude: a do-it-yourself, no-fucks-given, bold, brash, ballsiness that results in a diverse but very real kind of beauty. I hope this issue encourages you to grab the bull by the horns or even just a paint brush and go for it. But most importantly, I hope it inspires you and takes you somewhere you haven’t been before—have fun!

JERMAINE GALLACHER

UK cover price: £20