Inspired by the launch of our new community platform, we've selected five artists who have made work around notions of community, featuring: Townley and Bradby, Christopher Jarratt, Katy Beinart, nikkita morgan and Maxine Attard
FAN (Family Activist Network) COP 21, 2015
Since December 2014 we have been taking part in a discussion network instigated and co-ordinated by the Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home. The subject was climate change and family life in the lead up to COP21 in Paris. The discussion culminated in a group trip to Paris on the weekend of the end of the COP21 talks (12th/13th Dec 2015). The world’s leaders and neoliberal green capitalism cannot take the necessary action to step back from severe climate disruption, but COP21 is an opportunity to mobilize ourselves and others towards social and ecological justice. The red line was adopted by the demo organisers (Alternatibe and FoE International) as a symbol for warning and for the danger line of 1.5 oC global average warming.
Trade Routes, 2016 - 2017
This project re-activates this waterway as an act of memory and activism: the collective future of Sheffield depends upon all areas of the city to thrive. Over 3 months, 7 young people met every Saturday at the Manor Maker workshop with artist Christopher Jarratt, designer Paul Reardon (Peter & Paul) and carpenter Tom Collier to build their very own land and water-going vessel. On Saturday 10th December 2016, goods now produced on the manor (honey and wild-flower seeds) were hauled and ‘portaged’ by the team to their temporary home at Site Gallery, Sheffield. In January, the vessel will be handed back to the Manor community so that they can continue to use it for future journeys and adventures.
Brixton Conversations, 2015
10 Brixtonites meet each other for a conversation about home, belonging and what heritage means to Brixton past and present. The 5 conversations reveal different perceptions of place, and the personal and communal connections they have found through living in Brixton. Reflecting through each other, the conversationalists often find common ground even through very different experiences of coming to Brixton.
Community Workshop Brexit, 2019
This piece was created from one of my Brexit Respond workshops in county Fermanagh, where i taught the participants a range of hand embroidery techniques who then stitched their response to Brexit.
INHABIT - Public Commission for 'Pjazza Teatru Rjal', Valletta, Malta, 2016
INHABIT is an artwork that turns an outdoor public area into a space with a more specific function; a temporary habitable public area. INHABIT invites the public to enter inside a structure and occupy it by using it as a meeting point where to eat, relax or take shelter from the winter season. INHABIT emulates an indoor public garden and simulates why public gardens are important to a community. It offers the public a space where it can put the routine and alienation of everyday life on hold and take time to slow down.
The artwork was commissioned by 'Pjazza Teatru Rjal' and Norbert Francis Attard and funded by Arts Council Malta.
Published 9 February 2023
