We launched a new heritage trail for Somers Town.
The launch of a new heritage trail ‘Art in everyday life’ took place on Thursday 18th September, with a walk and panel discussion explaining about the project to reimagine artworks on estates of St Pancras Housing.
We also hosted a walk and art workshop that Saturday with artist Camilla Bliss.
Here are photos of the events.
The artworks in the public realm are a contemporary reimagining of missing unique working class heritage, giving prominence to unheard stories of diverse working class people in an area facing destabilizing change.
Hanging the stories Exhibition
Hanging the stories is a current exhibition of all the work towards the project, including drawings, co-design and consultation.
It shows our thinking and process, throughout the development
of the heritage trail, including work by architects editcollective, artist Camilla Bliss and CSM.
Walk
Visitors enjoyed a guided walk taking in the new artworks and portions of St Pancras Housing’s Sidney Street estate, which Bayes created his original finial sculptures for.
Our resident expert, Steve McCarthy, pointed out some of the treasures of the estate, and Diana Foster and Esther Leslie explained the heritage trail project, and how we had arrived at the designs for the three new finials.
Talk
Following the walk we heard from Marianna Janowicz of female architecture collective Edit, Thomas Allison, who handled much of the digital aspects of the project, and Adam Thorpe of CSM. They took us through the complicated process of digital rendering and creating a virtual trail, as well as the design and creation of the physical aspects of the trail. RCA Sculptor Dr. Melanie Jackson also told us about her project to recreate Bayes’ devil finial.
Workshop
On Saturday, we had a repeat of the guided walk, this time followed by a special workshop by artist Camilla Bliss, who actually created the three new finial sculptures now on Phoenix Road. Camilla taught us how we could make a mould for a tile out of clay, which we then cast in Plaster of Paris. These casts can then be used to create all sorts of art pieces, including the fibreglass finial reproductions visible on some of the St Pancras Housing Estates.
Save our art! campaign
A Space for us People’s Museum restituted 2 pieces as the CNJ reported on our ‘saving art’ but over 160 pieces are still missing.
For any queries, please contact diana@aspaceforus.club
A Space for us People’s Museum
With thanks for the further support of T-Factor/EU and Digital Makers Collective of CSM; Camden Council, Origin Housing, the Greater London Authority, and Local Globe to help bring this
project to life.
BIOS
Camilla Bliss
Camilla Bliss (b.1989, London) regularly draws on motifs found in historical craftsmanship, myth and folklore to communicate ideas about the modern world. She utilises a wide range of materials, placing an importance on the handmade and the sculptural, yet at the same time referencing our relationship to digital technology.
Recent selected shows include Hawks in Her Hair at Alice Black Gallery, London (2021); Final, Not Over – Again, Unit 1 gallery, London (2021); Fertile Laziness, Platform Southwark, Pending at San Mei Gallery, London (2021); Window Project, Gazelli Art House, London (2019); Dirty Hands & Revelations at Standpoint Gallery, London (2019); We See You, We Hear You at Hospital Club, London (2018), Summer Exhibition at Royal Academy, London (2018) and Threads Salon at Turner Contemporary, Margate (2018), Closed Curtain (solo) at Barbican Arts Group Trust, London (2017).
Editcollective
Edit is a feminist architecture collective working on design and research projects, interested in the enduring biases and hierarchies embedded in the built environment and we have designed projects spanning from objects and film to exhibition design and public spaces. Architects, project managers, set designers, tutors and researchers, they have combined experience across projects of all scales and stages.
Their work has been exhibited at the 2019 Oslo Architecture Triennale, MAXXI in Rome, the Design Museum, Akademie der Kunste and during the London Design Festival, among others. Our clients include the Barbican Centre, Science Gallery London, Camden Council, Farrell Centre and A Space for us People’s Museum Somers Town.
Melanie Jackson (UK)
Melanie Jackson (UK) is an artist and educator who works with modes of non-fiction storytelling through assemblages of sculpture, writing and moving image. She lives and works in London and teaches at the Royal College of Art.She stages different tactics of representation: mimicry, documentary, myth fabrication, science, performance, humour, animation, political commentary, music, installation, craft and the cultivation of aesthetic delight.
Selected solo exhibitions include:
Aspex, Chapter, San Mei Gallery Block 336, Grand Union, Primary, Banner Repeater, the Drawing Room, Flat Time House, John Hansard Gallery and Matt’s Gallery.
She has exhibited internationally including at the Wellcome Collection, eva+, (Ireland), DRF Biennale, (Osaka, Japan), ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, (Karlsruhe, Germany).