Space36 is an experiment in opening up a private domestic space to artists and visitors for thinking and art making in a collaborative and convivial setting to see what sort of art and what sort of conversations emerge. Ahmed Farooqui periodically invites a group of artists to engage with the space over a period of many months to research, experiment and produce art works on a theme that respond to the space, its history and environment. In 2020 and 2021, due to Covid restrictions, it wasn't possible to organise a group residency. Instead Space36 experimented with other forms of social art practice: large scale installations in front of the house which can be enjoyed by passerbys from the street plus a book launch in August 2021.
105 Artists' Hands
In August 2021, Space36 hosted the launch of Cally Trench's book "105 artists' hands", published by Pecliarity Press, on Sunday 1st August. It was an afternoon of public readings, performances and workshops by 18 artists with relaxing breaks with the audience in the garden. More here
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Reinventing Beauty
Buffeted by unreason, anxiety and bubbling hate, we need to build safe spaces where what is beautiful in being human can be explored. In 2019 Space36 invited nine artists to construct beauty in the performance of their art practice, to discover or invent a jagged notion of beauty that is appropriate for our times. The aim was to open up the idea of beauty- going beyond traditional notions of ideal form and good taste, or the avantgarde’s suspicion of beauty as ideologically complicit with political power, to even more ancient ideas of the beautiful as an ethical way of being human. More here. |
the truth detectives
For the 2018 residency and exhibition at Space36, six artists were invited to turn their artistic gaze on themselves . The challenge for each artist was to reflect on their own self, be as objective as possible while inevitably being fully immersed in the subject of their investigation.
More here |
Waiting to Exhale
Between February and June 2017 the residents of Space36 invited seven artists to develop site responsive artworks over a four month period exploring how their idea of home and belonging has been affected by Brexit. Some of the artists originated in the UK while others were from EU countries but were resident in the UK.
The focus of the exhibition was on the personal rather than the political. Starting with their gut reaction to Brexit the artists explored different psychological aspects of Brexit and the feeling of dislocation and being unhomed. They took apart some of the unconscious associations that we have with the idea of “home”, such as security, comfort and conviviality, to create psychological unease and make the audience look afresh at familiar objects, relationships and spaces. More here |
The Secret Life of no:36
In January 2016, the residents of Space36 invited six artists to spend several months rummaging through the space, its history and the lives of its past and present inhabitants to fill the space with their “take” on anything they find. The results were shown over the weekends of 11/12 and 18/19 June in an exhibition called The Secret Life of no:36 as part of the Crouch End Festival.
For the inhabitants of Space36 it was a suspenseful and scary prospect, giving up notions of privacy and personal space and allowing outsiders into their domestic lives. For artists and hosts like, it was an unique opportunity to explore the boundaries of what private really means - a minefield of implied permissions, really personal spaces, forgotten histories, implicit tastes and beliefs. More here |