Dirty Windows
by Merry Alpern
Organised by TRAMPS and Magma

One evening in 1993, Merry Alpern visited a friend living in Manhattan’s Wall Street district. At the back of the loft, she discovered a window overlooking the bathroom of an illegal strip club. Night after night, she watched a parade of suited traders and dancers in sequins exchanging kisses, cash, and drugs—in a clandestine choreography of desire and illicit transactions. For six months, Alpern assembled a body of work as powerful as it is unsettling. Dirty Windows is no mere expression of voyeuristic curiosity. It is a striking vision of the human condition—wretched and sorrowful even in its most sordid pleasures. When first shown in 1994, the series sparked scandal. The National Endowment for the Arts withdrew the artist’s grant, but the act of censorship only accelerated her rise to prominence. Cult for some, provocative to others, Merry Alpern’s work offers a two-way vertigo of being both watcher and watched.

Dirty Windows by Merry Alpern
Organised by TRAMPS and MAGMA

On view Oct 13 — Dec 15, 2025

McGlynn's Staff Accommodation
1-5 Whidborne Street
London WC1H 8ET
Floor 2