History Rising at CCS Bard, NY

Work by Marjolijn Dijkman, made for our History Rising project, is currently on display at the Hessel Museum of Art, NY, as part of the exhibition ‘We are the Center for Curatorial Studies’.

The Museum of Dark Places

I curated an evening of night prowling in hidden spaces around the Museum of London on 2 Nov involving mythical creatures, experimental choirs, a talk on apocalyptic literature, a thought experiment on night walking, a tour of night sounds, and a performance called ‘In the darkness they swing their manes like pendulums’.

Hundreds of people came; we drank night-themed cocktails, wore blue visors and sung a score by candle-light in an 18th c. church.

View a short film of the night here.

Photo: Musarc, performance in the delivery bay, Museum of London, Nov 2016.
© Yiannis Katsaris

The Night Museum book

I was invited by Lauren Parker, Curator at the Museum of London, to edit a booklet for the Night Museum programme (Oct - Nov 2016).

It’s designed by Polimekanos and includes brilliant texts on LOSS, DARKNESS and ENDINGS from Joanna Walsh, Frances Morgan and Matthew Beaumont, as well as drawings by Nicky Deeley. Interspersed throughout the booklet is a series of objects that form part of the Museum of London’s vast and truly fantastic collection.

Palace Ruin by James Beckett, talk at TAAK, the Netherlands, 30 Sept 2016

I’m really looking forward to taking part in James Beckett’s programme of talks and events in Amserdam. ‘Palace Ruin’ is a reconstruction of a fragment of the Paleis door Volksvlijt (1864) in the city which burned down in 1929. His installation serves as a stage for lectures and concerts.

The project links to my on-going interest in destruction.

More info on Palace Ruin here

My home is your home

I’m happy to have contributed a text to this gorgeous book ‘My Home Is Your Home’ - houses as sites for artistic production.

Edited by Peter Carl, Torange Khonsari, Hugh Pearman, Olivia Sheringham, Jane Rendell, published by public works publishing 2016.

‘Murdered with Straight Lines’ in the press

We’ve had the most amazing response to our book ‘Murdered with Straight Lines: drawings of Bristol by Garth England’, a lot of which came out of this fantastic piece by Tim Burrows in the Guardian. It’s also been covered in New York by Hyperallergic and more locally by the Bristol Post, Bristol Life and BBC Radio Bristol.

I’m most proud of the fact that the book is selling like hotcakes at the local newsagent in Hengrove and is on sale at the Arnolfini, Tourist Information Centre (Bristol), the AA bookshop and RIBA bookshop (London). A wonderfully eclectic range of audiences.

Flood House

VERY excited to be working with Matthew Butcher and Focal Point Gallery on this project.

Flood House is a prototype structure that is both a practical and poetic investigation into the living conditions of a seasonally flooded landscape. It will function as part projected future dwelling and part practical laboratory, monitoring the very particular tidal conditions of the Thames Estuary.

Artists Ruth Ewan, photographer Frank Watson, and writer Joanna Quinn have been commissioned to make work in response to the structure, which will be roaming the estuary through April and May this year.

See Flood House website for details of mooring points, commissions and events.

Image: Flood House at Wakering Boatyard, April 2016. © Brotherton-Lock

‘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).