Works involving communities and exploring conceptual ideas related to this. I wanted to create a strong base of reearch for this brief as I believe the best work will come from the best awareness of these community centres, their usage and their histories.
Peabody's Thamesmead campaign - Cuture, arts and heritage
Well-stocked libraries; community choirs; theatre groups and craft circles; great food; striking architecture and beautiful public art; a cinema around the corner; festivals to take part in... all of these help to create a place where people want to be and where they feel at home.Culture isn’t an optional extra. It creates jobs, allows people to come together as a community, and enhances the sense of civic pride and belonging.
In 2017 we published the first ever Thamesmead Culture Guide. Covering key places and spaces, local creative and businesses, groups and clubs, you'll get a real insight into the artistic offer in Thamesmead and the people behind it, including filmmakers, artists, designers, curators and poets, who all call Thamesmead their home.
- https://www.thamesmeadnow.org.uk/the-plan/culture-arts-and-heritage/
I really like the idea of creating a 'guide' for the community. To show work, information about people and the area is a great way to present what the people actually do and to give them a platform to show what they do. I believe this project is so much more about people and community than having slick, professional-looking branding.
Roger Hiorns - Seizure
In 2008 Roger Hiorns, commissioned by Artangel and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, transformed an empty council flat in Southwark, London, into a sparkling blue environment of copper sulphate crystals. Seizure was created using 75,000 litres of liquid copper sulphate, which was pumped into the former council flat to create a strangely beautiful and somewhat menacing crystalline growth on the walls, floor, ceiling and bath of the abandoned dwelling.
- https://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/sculpture-longside/seizure-roger-hiorns
Crystallising the interior of one of the flats is an odd thing to do of course, it’s negating a space which contained an experience which we have no idea about, no access to. These buildings suggest a life that is spent, they are at the end of something. - Roger Hiorns
The fact that this installation actually postponed the demolition of these flats shows how powerful an artwork, especially a popular artwork, can be to a community. I feel a similar way about approaching the redevelopment of these community centres as the quote above. I don't necessarily have any lived experience in these spaces, and you could say that students entering the space and changing anything plays a similar role to the crystals inside this Peckham flat. However by working alongside people and keeping the community at the centre of everything, I'd hope to create work with a similar impact/concept as Hiorns' work, but less temporary and perhaps more inclusive.
Food for Soul
Food is a powerful tool for change.
Food for Soul is a non-profit organisation founded by chef Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore to empower communities to fight food waste through social inclusion. In a world where one third of the food we produce is thrown away while over 800 million people are undernourished, we think of food wastage and food insecurity as two faces of the same problem. Food for Soul was founded in 2016 with the aim of encouraging public, private and non-profit organisations to create and sustain community kitchens around the world, as well as to engage professionals from different fields, including chefs, artists, designers, and food suppliers, to promote an alternative approach to building community projects.
Ilse Crawford/StudioIlse x Food for Soul
Redesign of the historic St Cuthberts community centre to create a functional and beautiful home for Refettorio Felix, a new community kitchen, dining hall and drop-in centre that aims to reduce food wastage by using the knowledge of top chefs to create healthy meals for those living in socially vulnerable conditions using surplus supermarket ingredients. The refreshed interior provides a warm and welcoming spaces to bring the community together, and restores a sense of dignity to the table. The project was conceived by Food for Soul.
Beauty and the act of sharing a meal bring dignity to these unfortunate situations
Ilse Crawford is an advocate for beauty in an environment being a way to make people feel comfortable and included. This project with food for soul shows how important having a beautiful space is to people who have next to nothing. Little things like giving people metal cutlery and ceramic plates - with a meal cooked from supermarket waste - make people feel as if the space is more permanent to them. I'd love to utilise some of these ideas for the Peabody community centres - using small tricks to help people feel as comfortable as possible in the space, and think first and foremost about the people who will be using the spaces.
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