Been working with CYAC (Croydon Youth Arts Collective) on a project responding to the Windrush Exhibition at the Museum of Croydon (now finished) & now I’m supporting them on their Youth Takeover event happening this Saturday Nov 2nd at Fairfield Halls, where i’ll be providing ‘Open House Vibes’ A Pinteractive activity responding to the current exhibition ‘Windrush: Portrait Of A Generation’ by photographer Jim Grover (on til Jan 2020).…
So imagine…my show done, then Banksy turns up in the Endz…
I popped over to the space opposite Surrey St Market one night where Banksy had a full on installation titled ‘Gross Domestc Product’ – it’s raining, it’s mucky, but then you really want to digest the artworks on show, but this bloomin’ rain, it’s kinda crowded still, people aint rampin’, eff the rain, I take some pics, then this happens STORAGE FULL, I delete some pics to take new pics, then this happens STORAGE FULL, I delete more pics, to take new pics, AGAIN STORAGE FULL…it’s raining, this is long…CRISIS AS USUAL…I leave, I soaked up some of the work at least…*Shout out to a guy named Stuart whom I got to take the shot of me on my phone with the STORAGE FULL sign when the idea hit me…
I came back the next day and took more pictures, but the whole thing was more of a vibe at night tbh…hope you managed to catch it, such a sick concept, and to think I literally cancelled my gym membership at the Pure Gym above only 3 months ago, and saw that space derelict beneath from way back…Big up Banksy!…
My first ever designed polyester wallpaper, printed on the largest sheets ever, was actually inspired by the print on Abigail Owuo’s (Stormzy’s mum) dress she wore in the portrait of them two (shot by Olivia Rose after Stormzy gave a talk at Oxford Uni) – Big up wallpaper wizard Colin for helping me realise my vision of a wallpaper / space representing a mother’s wall to wall love…
This year marks 100 years since the Housing Act, which in 1919 gave rise to widespread building of council housing across the UK and including the London Borough of Croydon. So since visiting my Stormzy / Coming Home installation currently on at the Museum of Croydon, the Croydon Housing team got in touch, felt the ‘bricks’ vibe and wanted an interactive element to their ‘100 Years Of Council Housing’ exhibition which they were putting on, along with archival bits from the Museum itself.…