The exhibition is going to be called Resistance in Residence! We agreed it will be a group show featuring Winnie Herbstein, Lucas Priest, Joey Simons and Keira McLean.
Lucas will present a new site-specific guided walk about studentifications – commissioned by the University Art Collection- part of his broader project ‘The School of Pedestrian Culture’ (SoPC): a walking classroom aimed at reimagining cityscapes and urban histories. The SoPC and the walk are going to be represented in the exhibition through copies of SoPC manifesto and the facilitators’ notes used by Lucas during the walk.
Joey and Keira have been selected based on their previous work at Life Support and Platform reviving archival materials and engaging with Living Archives.
The next big step for the exhibition has been commissioning Joey and Keira a new wall montage and a zine.
The commissioning of a new artwork creates a unique learning experience for a curator. Adding onto the skills developed around curating the existing artworks owned by the CRC; through this commission, we have been learning how to brief artists, and to mediate between their initial responses and our goals.
This was our initial brief:
Talking with Joey and Keira, the zine developed into a workbook that will include archive materials- also featured in the wall montage- creative activities to support visitors in imagining alternatives to the current housing system, and additional resources.
To develop the wall montage we divided among us the different locations TG will visit. I began researching the histories of housing in Wester Hailes and Edinburgh working specifically on the website From There… To Here , and the archive of the Autonomous Centre Edinburgh (ACE). This process has allowed me to develop thorough research skills working with a variety of materials (newspapers, photos, flyers…), acquire a better knowledge of community-led archives around Edinburgh and build an invaluable network of contacts for future and further research about housing and community-led actions
