Communal Knowledge 2014
Christian Nyampeta: How to Live Together: Prototypes
Werker 10: Community Darkroom
9 July–16 August 2014
Preview: 8 July, 6:30–8:30pm
Patrick Staff: Scaffold see Scaffold
September 2014
The Showroom
63 Penfold Street
London NW8 8PQ
The Showroom’s ongoing programme, Communal Knowledge, has developed a unique approach to forging long-term relationships with a wide range of local residents and groups through collaborations with artists and designers. Every summer, three new commissions aim to generate playful and experimental avenues for critical reflection on issues at stake in The Showroom’s neighbourhood.
This year’s commissions, although distinct, operate on common ground: they all ask how art can develop methods of collective working, and how it can inform and support social movements relating to labour and visibility.
During July and August the gallery space will be used to present two of the projects alongside each other: Werker‘s Community Darkroom and Christian Nyampeta’s How to Live Together: Prototypes. The third commission, Scaffold see Scaffold, a series of performances by Patrick Staff, will take place in the gallery in September.
For his commission Nyampeta continues his ongoing research into the question of ‘how to live together’ through working with local residents, school children and education services to rethink the design of everyday objects in order to produce new tools, settings and structures. The prototypes include teapots, sandals, soap and furniture, which have been developed through different forms of collective exchange including discussion and experimentation in their making. The project will be in process as a temporary workshop in the gallery space throughout the summer.
The tenth issue of Werker Magazine takes its name from the North Paddington Community Darkroom (NPCD), local to The Showroom, which played a key role in the community photography movement of the 1970s. Exploring the possibilities of social photography within a contemporary context, Werker have been collaborating with local groups to explore how photography can portray and analyse issues of invisible labour such as domestic or volunteer work. The outcomes of this will be presented in the gallery, where the project will continue to evolve throughout the summer as visitors are invited to select photographs, as part of an editing process, to be assembled for different outputs.
The third commission is with London-based artist Patrick Staff, who is working with Opening Doors London (which supports older generation lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people), DreamArts (a local youth performance group), and choreographer and performer Hamish MacPherson, to examine how the body is presented, produced, represented and assessed within a range of fields including performance, healthcare, technology and labour. This process will feed into a series of performances which will take place at The Showroom in September.
For information on the commissioned artists click here.
Communal Knowledge is generously supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s Charity, John Lyon’s Charity, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council England, Westminster Adult Education Service and The Showroom Supporters.
Werker 10: Community Darkroom has been additionally supported by Mondriaan Foundation Scheme.
The Showroom is a space for contemporary art that is focused on a collaborative and process-driven approach to production; be that artwork, exhibitions, discussions, publications, knowledge and relationships. For over 30 years, The Showroom has invested in artists to make their first solo show in London, including Jim Lambie, Eva Rothschild, Mona Hatoum, Simon Starling, Claire Barclay, The Otolith Group, Emily Wardill and Ciara Phillips.
