‘Murdered with Straight Lines: drawings of Bristol by Garth England’

Really delighted to announce that ‘Murdered with Straight Lines: drawings of Bristol by Garth England’ has been published.

The book is made up of drawings by Bristol local Garth England (1935 - 2014) and tells the poignant story of a childhood lived through a world war and its aftermath; the development of Britain’s Welfare State and social housing provision; vernacular architecture, indoor toilets and fitted kitchens.

I co-edited the book with curator Theresa Bergne - it’s part of the Future Perfect
programme of commissions Theresa and I have been working on in Bristol over the last three years.

Published by Redcliffe Press and designed by Polimekanos, copies of the book can be ordered here.

Read a Guardian article on the book here

Guardian piece

I wrote this piece about being a freakishly tall woman. Not strictly work-related, but gives you a sense of the person behind this website.

Pic: Me, aged 17, Edinburgh 1986

Creation from Catastrophe: how architecture rebuilds communities

Creation from Catastrophe opens at the RIBA next week.

The exhibition takes a look at the opportunities offered by natural disasters for architects to rethink the design of cities and communities.

It starts with Wren’s plan for London after the Great Fire of 1666 and concludes with 21st century examples in Chile, Nigeria, Pakistan and the USA.

Nice piece in the Evening Standard by Rob Bevan on the exhibition.

Image: Jules Guerin’s watercolour of Chicago’s lakeshore, developed after the fire of 1871, produced in Daniel Burnham’s Plan for Chicago (1907).

Call for proposals: Creation from Catastrophe

I’m curating an exhibition at the RIBA next year on cities + destruction - take part in the public programme!

More info: here

Commissioning: cultural institutions, artists and the community

Crafts Council & Norfolk Museums Service
Friday, 20 November 2015, 10:30 to 16:30
Norwich Castle Museum

This professional development day focuses on commissioning as a means for cultural institutions and artists to engage with local communities.
Curators, creative producers and artists will present their work, reflect on their practice and explore the dynamic relationship created between artists and cultural institutions when developing new work for and with the community.

Contributors include curator and writer Jes Fernie, curators of Build Your Own Clare Cumberlidge and Lauren Parker, Casco curator Sanne Oorthuizen and artists Linda Brothwell and Verity-Jane Keefe.

More info: here

Image: Punch Hammer, Acts of Care, Linda Brothwell. Park of Build Your Own Exhibition.
Photo: Mark Campbell

Art & the Home

I’m chairing a talk at The Cass (London Metropolitan University) on the subject of art and home.
It’s a collaborative initiative between Balin House Projects and Public Works.

6 October, 6.30pm
The Cass, 59-63 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7PF ROOM No: CE1-16

Speakers:
Prof Gill Perry, Art History, Open University
Torange Khonsari, The Cass - LMU, Public Works

RSVP: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

More info: here

Direct Urbanism: book review

I’ve written a book review of Direct Urbanism, Transparadiso: Barbara Holub and Paul Rajakovics. Published in Art & the Public Sphere, Vol 3, No 1, 2015.

As well as being a book review its also a call to arms for architects to assume civic responsibility in an age of greed and consumerism, and for planners to start using word like ‘ambivalence’, ‘disruption’ and ‘desire’ in their working day.

You can read the review here

Image: Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 1996, Transparadiso

History Rising book

My History Rising book has been published. It is the culmination of three years work and is made up of visual and written essays, a conversation with myself and Marjolijn Dijkman, and documentation of a series of installations by Marjolijn in museums and galleries in East Anglia, UK.

The book is designed by Salome Schmuki, an award winning graphic designer based in Belgium and Switzerland, and published by onomatopee , a production space and publisher based in the Netherlands. It will be officially launched in autumn 2015. More info soon!

We had a soft launch of the book at the ICA this week, part of Marjolijn’s Fig-2 programme of events and talks.

More info on History Rising, the project here

Pieces of Play installed

A patterned path designed by Nils Norman has been installed in Hengrove Park, south Bristol. The path is made of tiles that reference local people’s driveways and garden walls. It provides improved access for pedestrians, buggies and wheelchair users and prevents motorbike users from entering the site.

The project is one of three distinct elements of Norman’s commission for Hengrove: a curtain for the community hall, a series of play areas for children, and a public pathway, collectively entitled ‘Pieces of Play’.

The project was commissioned by myself and curator Theresa Bergne and is part of our Future Perfect commissioning programme.

What Lies Beneath

I’ll be chairing an event at the Wellcome Collection with literary critic Caroline Edwards and artist Tania Kovats on Saturday 2 May 2015.

We’ll be discussing the murky depths of the ocean deep, looking at utopian and dystopian tales, science fiction and the subconscious in art and literature.

The programme is organised by Invisible Dust.
More info here