Exhibitions – Thamesmead Texas

FLOOD – DROUGHT – FOOD – DREAMING

FLOOD – DROUGHT – FOOD – DREAMING
CURATED BY SCULLY & SCULLY

This exhibition brings together three uncompromising, energetic and wholly unique painters – Nola Rogers, Daisy Japulija and Sonia Kurarra – all senior Walmajarri women from the Fitzroy Crossing region of Western Australia. The Northwest is thought to be the earliest settled part of Australia, with the earliest humans arriving at least 65,000 years ago.

The exhibiting artists are all compelled to share their stories and the stories of their ancestors through the universal language of paint. What may strike the Western eye as abstract is to these artists representational. Each mark is a detailed code for a journey or a place to catch food; each colour is a memory, a feeling, a signifier of the seasons. These canvases and works on paper show three women with a deep understanding and love of country. We must take heed of this respect for nature and its cycles if we are to survive in a rapidly changing planet.

Flood and Drought are two polar extreme that is met upon the peoples of Fitzroy Crossing each year. Food and Dreaming is about reading the signs in order to survive these extremes. During the wet season the great Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) breaks her banks and during the dry season, months of drought ensues. It is the traditional owners of these lands that know how to seek opportunity and survive in these extremes; where to hunt, where to take shelter and how to catch food. All three painters are of a diminishing generation that know firsthand how to live off the land; this knowledge is then passed down to younger generations, through story, through dance, through song, or encrypted in their colourful abstractions.

Come visit us! Contact us for entry to fair and VIP preview evening.

LONDON ART FAIR 2024 ENCOUNTERS, STAND E13
17 – 21 JANUARY 2024

PV: TUESDAY 16TH JANUARY 2024, 17:00 – 21:00

BIO’S:

Nola Rogers (b: 1963): It is fair to say art making is in Nola Roger’s blood, Nola Roger’s mother Walka Molly Rogers was a significant Walmajarri artist and cultural keeper, as was her uncle Peter Skipper. Picking up the paintbrush relatively recently the past few years has seen Nola working unrestrained on hundreds of surfaces. Her style is expressive, bold and like her contemporaries Sonia Kurarra and Daisy Japulija, her colours are put together with panache and confidence. Language Group: Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia

Daisy Japulija (b. circa 1948) was born near Nookanbah under a Konkerberry tree and is the older sister of Sonia Kurarra. The work of Japulija, like that of her sister Sonia is about memories growing up by the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) and its sacred life-giving properties. Yet she also paints her parents Jilji (sand hill) country, communicating through paint the stories told of her mother and fathers’ country and the sacred Jila (waterholes) and Jumu (soak waters) in the great Sandy Desert. Her painting practice conceptualises the coming together of the desert and the river people, mapping the waterholes, rocks, plant and animals that once sustained life in the desert but transitioning at ease to the stories of growing up by the mighty Martuwarra. Language Group: Nyikina/Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia

Sonia Kurarra (b: 1951) is a Walmajarri woman born in Nookanbah on the banks of Martuwarra (Fitzroy River). Kurarra paints Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) and the billabongs that are created by the receding waters after the rainy season. Signifying the importance of this sacred river system, for more than 30 years, Kurarra has been unrestricted, layering thousands of surfaces with the story of her country. She paints gapi (fish), parrmarr (rocks) where the fish is cooked, ngurti (coolamon) and a karli (boomerang). She is known to work tirelessly without pause like the energy of the river itself flooding through her fingertips, pens, and brushes. Language: Walmajarri. Region: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia

BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED

A group exhibition of painting and sculpture featuring artists from the UK, Germany and Australia. Set in a dystopian future on the flood planes of Thamesmead, where lithium batteries have all run out of juice. What does this future look like with no power, a future where humanity must relearn how to hunt, fix, reuse, and reimagine.

Featuring work by: ALESSIA GAMMAROTA – BHAJAN HUNJAN – ALFONSO PUAUTJIMI – HERMANN JOSEF HACK – DAISY JAPULIJA – SONYA KURARRA – RORY MACBETH – MIKE NELSON – TOMMY MAY (NGARRALJA) – LYNLEY NARGOODAH – NOLA ROGERS – LIAM SCULLY – VANESSA SCULLY – DAVID SURMAN – GEORGE TUCKERBOX – DANIEL TURNER

Curated by Scully & Scully. Supported by Thamesmead Community Fund.

THAMESMEAD TEXAS
Unit 5, Starling Court, I Nest Way (Cygnet Square), Thamesmead, London, SE2 9FJ 1 – 23 December, 2023 EXTENDED UNTIL END OF JANUARY 2024 BY APPOINTMENT. Gallery open Fridays and Saturdays, 12 noon – 5pm, and by appointment.

For Summer-Autumn 2023 Thamesmead Texas takes up residence in Unit 5, 1 Nest Way, a vacant shop unit in Cygnet Square. The gallery is 8 minutes’ walk from Abbey Wood Underground station. Elizabeth Line trains run to Abbey Wood from central London approximately every 5 minutes (19 minutes’ journey time from Liverpool Street).

MATERIAL BASE

Paintings by Jon Ridge, Peter Suchin, and Chris Tosic

This exhibition presents the work of three artists for whom making abstract paintings is their primary concern. But despite this conscious commitment, the pieces by Peter Suchin and Jon Ridge included here skirt close to the edge of conventional depiction, while Chris Tosic’s geometric compositions – arguably the most abstract works on show – strangely mirror Thamesmead’s burgeoning Brutalist tower blocks and expansive concrete plazas. In a reversal of the conventional process of translating the natural and urban landscapes into abstract form, Material Base edges along the borderline between these two modes of address, encouraging the gallery’s Thamesmead location to be viewed as a kind of “interface” between two sharply-defined territories: the organic and the artificial, the traditional and the progressive, the ancient and the entirely new. In order to foreground these contrasts, Tosic’s uniformly-sized painted panels have been placed around the gallery in unorthodox arrangements of columns, “ladders” and grids. Further modest interventions may ensue.

Curated by Peter Suchin and Jon Ridge. Supported by Thamesmead Community Fund.

THAMESMEAD TEXAS
Unit 5, Starling Court, I Nest Way (Cygnet Square), Thamesmead, London, SE2 9FJ 1 – 23 December, 2023 Gallery open Fridays and Saturdays, 12 noon – 6pm, and by appointment.

Jon Ridge Prior to completing a BA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art in 2009, Jon Ridge worked as an advertising art director. He has contributed to numerous group shows and his paintings are held in many private collections, both in the UK and abroad. Among his recent exhibitions are Flirting with the Border Guards (Terrace, London, 2021, curated by JR), Time Being (Irving Contemporary, Oxford, 2021), and A Generous Space (Hastings Contemporary, 2021). In 2022 and 2023 Ridge also participated in two follow-up A Generous Space exhibitions, held at The New Gallery, Walsall and at Huddersfield Art Gallery respectively.

Peter Suchin is an artist, critic, lecturer, and curator. He has published over 350 reviews and essays in a wide range of publications and books, including Art & Design, Art Monthly, Art Press, Frieze and The Guardian, and his gallery texts include work for Annely Juda, Danielle Arnaud, Domo Baal, and Standpoint (all London). Solo exhibitions include Memory Objects (ETSU, Johnson City, USA, 2002), Compendiums and Palimpsests (T1+2 Artspace, London, 2003), and A Critical Contagion in the Quiet of the Night (& Model, Leeds, 2014). A survey of Suchin’s paintings will be held at Gaunston Studios, London, in November 2023.

Chris Tosic completed a postgraduate diploma in painting at the Slade School of Art in London in 1991. From 2000–2010, he was studio assistant to Dexter Dalwood, concurrently maintaining his own artistic practice and teaching part-time in various UK art schools in London and Leeds. Recent exhibitions to which he has contributed include Champs Noir (Terrace, London,2022), Painting in a Painting of Itself (Trace, Nottingham, 2022 – which he co-curated with Peter Suchin), Forces of the Small (Filet, London, 2023), and the Le Document Print Fair (Fitzrovia Gallery, London, 2023). Tosic also co-edits/designs Le Document, an online arts publication.

Horses, a Unicorn and a Donkey – David Surman

Thamesmead Texas is pleased to present: Horses, a Unicorn and a Donkey, a new solo exhibition of paintings and prints by British artist David Surman. For the first time we bring together a collection of work dedicated to Surman’s long obsession with the horse and its various guises.

When Scully and Scully set up Thamesmead Texas, the name for their project was born from their initial encounter with Thamesmead. “First, we saw the grey towers, then tethered to a tree against the green grass was a horse, there were many horses tethered to buildings, roundabouts and bridges around Thamesmead, a practice frowned upon by councils as fly grazing. We then walked some more and encountered the horses on Erith Marshes, with its cinematic skies and marshland Thamesmead felt very far away, very wild west, very Texas.”

Thamesmead Texas has always endeavoured to deliver exhibitions and events with a local relevance. Through our Thamesmead Travelling Cinema and roaming exhibition spaces, we have celebrated Romany Gypsy and Traveller culture on many occasions, as for hundreds of years before Thamesmead was conceived, it was the Romany Gypsy that lived and worked on this land, a culture under continuous threat from tabloid media and successive governments.

When first encountering Surman’s horse paintings, initially through Instagram, Liam Scully was instantly hooked by the vitality and freedom of the work and organised to visit the artists studio in Deptford, Southeast London. “I did not go to the studio with an exhibition in mind, as a painter myself I was more interested in seeing, in the flesh what looked to be like pretty good paintings”. It was only through this visit that Surman explained he is from Traveller descent, which perhaps made sense as to why he is such an extraordinary hand at painting these animals. Surman clearly knows his art history and his subject very well to be able to draw directly from his imagination, with a fluidity and freedom of a great painter. The very horses we see in his paintings are secured in the artists psyche from a rural British childhood, yet they are backed up by a lifelong commitment to art making.

Over several hours of chatting and looking through Surman’s work “it was quickly apparent that his work would have strong appeal with audiences across the spectrum back in Thamesmead, and quickly I wanted to secure his interest in doing something together”. Surman explained it is important for his painting to “connect with both art and non-art audiences”. At Thamesmead Texas we think accessibility is the key to opening up any debate, and living in Thamesmead we have a unique opportunity to introduce great art to those who may never have stepped foot in an art gallery before.

For Summer 2023 Thamesmead Texas takes up residence in Unit 5, 1 Nest Way, a vacant shop unit in Cygnet Square. The first in a series of exhibitions, David Surman directly intervenes in the commercial shop unit, mapping the space with a yellow ochre line drawing. This mural creates the setting for Horses, A Unicorn and a Donkey, where a collection of paintings spanning several years adorns the walls.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Supported by Thamesmead Community Fund.

DAVID SURMAN (b. 1981) is an artist based in London. He studied animation film at Newport Film
School (2002) and film studies at the University of Warwick (2004). Working primarily in painting and drawing, he has established an international reputation for his figurative works that feature striking kinetic compositions of animal, plant and human forms. Surman’s work celebrates the vitality of its subjects and painting as a medium. Recent solo exhibitions include: Portraits of a Wild Family, SENS Gallery, Hong Kong (2022), Carousel, Tinimini Room, Dordrecht (2022), Fairy Painting, Sim Smith, London (2021).

Bits and Pieces Odds and Sods – Scully and Scully

Thamesmead Texas is proud to present ‘Bits and Pieces – Odds and Sods’, a multi-media exhibition of art, film, oral histories, archives, photography, and installation. The exhibition is an accumulation of research made by artists Scully and Scully for their Thamesmead Community Archive residency.

The impossibility of Thamesmead as a single narrative lead to the idea of the town being a marketplace of ideas. After 18 months of meeting people, and asking the question “How did you come to Thamesmead?” it was clear that there is no single, linier story to be told about Thamesmead.

“The encounters all happened quite organically” said Liam, of Scully and Scully. “It helped that we also live in Thamesmead. We would be outside walking the dog or taking photos and people would stop and strike up a conversation about the breed of our dog, or the type of camera we were using”. The multiple encounters resulted in the making of genuine friendships across different cultures in Thamesmead. “We found ourselves getting to know people by experiencing their cultures” said Vanessa, of Scully and Scully. “We attended a car boot sale, a Christmas church service and even a Nollywood film premiere! We met people’s friends and family, together we cooked and ate, and above all shared hopes and aspirations”.

Between interviews Scully and Scully have been filming bits and pieces of Thamesmead, from the ancient Abbey Woodland up to the Thames pathway. They have used various cameras from Go Pros to digital camcorders and analogue equipment to collect unique perspectives of Thamesmead, sometimes from unseen vantage points. These bits and pieces will form the basis of a new film which Scully and Scully will be working on during the entirety of the exhibition.

A final question to all interviewees from Scully and Scully asks, “what are your hopes for Thamesmead?”. This hypothetical question is explored further throughout the exhibition, with the shop front being shared with local people. It acts as a place to imagine and collaborate. Expect a TV shop set up displaying Nollywood films, a Nepalese Food Market and a Traveller’s trading space.

When Scully and Scully asked local Traveller Chris Trimmings what he was selling at the Birchmere park car boot sale, his jovial response “Bits and Pieces, Odds and Sods” inspired the title of the exhibition. “The title intends to invite viewers to browse the former Beaumont Beds Shop and contemplate the fragments of information and multiple points of view on offer.” says Scully and Scully.

Thamesmead Texas’s archive residency has been funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and Peabody, and extracts from their stories and finding will be presented on the archive website

Bits and Pieces Odds and Sods – Alessia Gammarota

ALESSIA GAMMAROTA shows a series of photographs selected from an 18-month period spent with Scully and Scully in Thamesmead. These pictures are uniform in their human absence, a person has either recently left or yet to arrive. Gammarota allows dynamic composition and texture to take precedence as she peers through the gaps and contemplates open spaces.

Beneath the mounted photo series Scully and Scully have wheat pasted posters to the wall, these bring together the larger body of work from Alessia Gammarota’s period in Thamesmead, as she encountered the faces and activities during the Thamesmead Community Archive residency.

Bits and Pieces – Odds and Sods is the culmination of Scully and Scully’s extensive research and work with locals from the Southmere Estate, and Traveller, Nigerian and Nepalese communities across Thamesmead. Building close relationships with key community leaders and members has led to this multi-media display and network of stories and memories shared in one space. Over the 10-week run of the exhibition, Scully and Scully will be continuing their engagement with the local community by inviting key people to join and share their exhibition space to highlight their individual stories. Work by Alessia Gammarota, Asmita Shrish, and Daniel Turner, who have collaborated with Scully and Scully throughout the residency will also be on display. ALSO INCLUDES SPECIAL GUESTS: Little Nollywood (Victoria Inyama, Uche Odoputa, Nelli Kings, Ruke Amata, Comfort Adeneye, Debo Adegoke) Alex Tuckwood & Chris Trimmings.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and Peabody.

Bits and Pieces Odds and Sods – Little Nollywood

Thamesmead Texas presents ‘Little Nollywood’ an installation of box monitors displaying Nollywood movies by our local Thamesmead talent. Over the past 18 months artists Scully and Scully have been meeting their neighbours, and gathering stories working for Thamesmead Community Archive. On that journey Scully and Scully had a chance encounter with two Nigerian gentlemen and immediately a dialogue opened up about film, cinema, and Nollywood. Nollywood was a little-known subject to the artists and it was even less known that there was a network of producers, directors, and actors living in Thamesmead – in fact a small industry of filmmakers was operating right under their noses. This discovery led to multiple meetings and interviews with these local legends, where genuine friendships and collaborative partnerships were forged. These interviews can be listened to on the sofa upstairs, and soon will be available on the Thamesmead Community Archive website. In addition, a Nollywood weekend screening event will be hosted from The Thamesmead Travelling Cinema on the weekend of 25-26 September 2021.

Presented here on the four box monitors is a selection of films by local Nollywood talent, with some films being filmed between Nigeria and Thamesmead. A custom-built (Birthing) chair by local artist and designer Debo Adegoke is on display and invites you to sit and contemplate the very idea that Nollywood works are being created in and around Thamesmead, and that so much African talent exists on our doorstep. Films include: Dry Leaves (2018), Director Uche Odoputa; My Love and My Crown (2019), Director Ruke Amat; Consequences (2017), Director Ruke Amata; Transmission Transmission (2018), Director Neli Kings; Closed Door (2020), Director Neli Kings; Presentation of various Nollywood VHS tapes, loaned from the collection of Comfort Adeneye.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and Peabody.

THE NATIVE CHAIR, DIRECTORS CUT

African (birthing) chair?

Viking Chair?

No one knows for sure

It IS two planks of hardwood

(aka “Made by God”),

slotted together to form a

strong self supporting chair.

The best examples are carved,

with openings to keep the sitter cool.

This version is part functional, part allegorical.

The coat of arms at the top is rendered in

half-tone, a symbol of the never dying light

of the peoples will, shining out of the darkness.

The Nigerian government version,

would be coloured green, to match their

favourite klepto currency.

Laminated chipboard is not suitable for a chair

I know, but it’s Made in China,

like much of our economy.

That’s why it is structurally adjusted.

The air holes are approximately 8mm wide,

the same size as the bullets that the Nigerian Army

permanently ventilated the #endsars protestors with.

Growing up, our dear leaders (Oga) always addressed us

from lofty perches emblazoned with the coat of arms above their head,

directing our affairs one decree at a time.

I was told, as an adult, that these chairs were used by hunters

to rest and sleep in.

I imagined them around a camp fire

stargazing and sharing stories.

When @thamesmeadtexas asked for seating to accompany their

“Little Nollywood” exhibition,

comprising several TV sets all showing Nollywood films,

I figured that TV sets were but camp fires,

around which people gathered to get news and be entertained.

Bits and Pieces Odds and Sods – Christopher Trimmings

Bits and Pieces – Odds and Sods is the culmination of Scully and Scully’s extensive research and work with locals from the Southmere Estate, and Traveller, Nigerian and Nepalese communities across Thamesmead. Building close relationships with key community leaders and members has led to this multi-media display and network of stories and memories shared in one space. Over the 10-week run of the exhibition, Scully and Scully will be continuing their engagement with the local community by inviting key people to join and share their exhibition space to highlight their individual stories. Work by Alessia Gammarota, Asmita Shrish, and Daniel Turner, who have collaborated with Scully and Scully throughout the residency will also be on display. ALSO SPECIAL GUESTS: Little Nollywood (Victoria Inyama, Uche Odoputa, Nelli Kings, Ruke Amata, Comfort Adeneye, Debo Adegoke) Alex Tuckwood & Chris Trimmings.

CHRIS TRIMMINGS: ‘King of Things’ Chris Trimmings has been invited to join Thamesmead Texas with his ever-evolving shop, a spinoff from his regular car boot pitch at Birchmere Park, where he has traded since the 1980’s. Artist Liam Scully has been workshopping with Trimmings, a former Rag n Bone man to turn his hand to sculpture, making assemblages from an array of objects collected on his travels.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and Peabody.

Estuary Festival 2021- Glamour by Daniel Turner

For the Estuary Festival 2021, Thamesmead Texas have commissioned two artist filmmakers to produce new works for a screening programme in response to the theme of Imperial Legacy, specific to the sub themes of territories’, land ownership and mobile populations. The two featured artist filmmakers: Asmita Shrish and Daniel Turner (Aka ‘The Gypsy Sculptor’) are deeply embedded in Thamesmead, with a history of either living or researching in the locality. Thamesmead Texas have supported both Asmita and Dan to produce and display the works for a curated film programme, alongside an accompanying series of short films of their choice, for display from the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema, Lakeside Centre throughout the weekend of the Estuary Festival 29-30 May 2021. See more here.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Funded by Estuary Festival, Peabody and Bow Arts Trust.

“Glamour” was originally referred to a magic spell, an illusion said to be cast by witches, particularly this was associated with witches of Roma (“Gypsy”) origin, male and female.

Click here for interview with Daniel Turner

How did you first come to Thamesmead?

I was born in Dartford Hospital, but my family already lived in Belvedere. The area that is now Thamesmead, between Belvedere and Abbey Wood was part of marshland used by Romani as a stopping place since the late1890’s up to until 1956 when the last members of the community were evicted. Both sides of my family lived on the Marsh and later on in Belvedere, Abbey Wood and Slade-Green. I was a teenager at the time and watched (often closely) Thamesmead being built.

Could you describe the landscape, how it was growing up, how you experienced it, before what we now know as Thamesmead?

It was a mixture of green open space and industry. When I was growing up here before Thamesmead there was a farm or market garden which grew fruit and vegetables. It was close to where Wurth’s is now. It was a much greener space, which you only get glimpses of now. It was always possible to be out and about in open space. I often visited Thamesmead when it was being built. My friends and I climbed through holes in fences and rode down the unmade road that was then Yarnton Way, down to the lake in and out of underground car parks. We watched Thamesmead being constructed around us, where we once could go about freely. When I was young, I would walk down between the Working Man’s Club and houses near St. Augustine’s Church, Belvedere and cross the railway by a little gate was opened by the crossing man. Once across you were in fields of vegetables and fruit – strawberries, peas things like that.

You identify as a Gypsy Roma Traveller artist (GRT) what is the difference between the three groups?

This is a very complex question which is not really possible to deal with here except by making a lot of generalisations. A famous Romani scholar, Ian Hancock gives a list of 20/30 books which he

suggests people read before even starting this discussion. Gypsy Roma and Traveller communities are minority ethnic groups that have contributed to British society for centuries. Their distinctive way of life and traditions manifest themselves in nomadism, the centrality of their extended family, unique languages, and entrepreneurial economy. It is reported that there are around 300,000 Travellers in the UK and they are one of the most disadvantaged groups. The real population may be different as some members of the community do not participate in the census. Travellers, Romani and Roma each have very different customs, religion, language and heritage. For instance, Gypsies are said to have originated in India and the Romani language (also spoken by Roma) is considered to consist of at least seven varieties, each a language in their own right.

You have talked to us about how there are either very few artists who are GRT or identify as GRT. How can this be addressed; how can we all ensure we get more engagement with the arts from the GRT community?

I think this situation is not just affecting the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. In Europe there are many artists with a Roma heritage and who make and show work in much the same way as I do. This way of making, based on heritage and culture is widely practised by many artists from all around the world. You could say this is what art is: the filtering of ideas and images through a unique personal perspective. Having said that we are probably 10/20 years behind other artists working in this way. But this is also linked to anti-gypsyism and stereotypes, which like all institutional racism limits the expression and inclusion of others. I would suggest people checkout a Roma artist called Norbert Olah whose work, The Anxieties of the “Roma Artist” can be seen on the ERIAC-ROMAMOMA website. This would give people a good insight into a Roma artist thinking. Even having artists and others from the community celebrated or even shown in a positive way would go a long way to help to.

How did you get into art?

I came from a family of makers. I found that I had certain skills which I could use that led naturally into art. Also, at that time an art-based education was not so academically rigorous as it is today, which meant it was less formal and therefore more accessible to someone from my background. That’s not to say it wasn’t challenging, however.

Can you talk about your new work for the Estuary Festival 2021 and the experience of returning to Thamesmead to make it?

In this film I try to explore how GRT lives are lived in the tension between moments of erasure and

hyper-visibility. This jumping from invisibility to being all over the media (and never in a positive way) creating a cycle and the seeming impossibility of escaping this cycle. The idea of erasure/hyper-

visibility doesn’t only relate to the Romani/Roma community but to what has happened in Thamesmead and the communities that those people came from prior to their move to Thamesmead. In fact the cycle of erasure/hyper-visibility puts Romani/Roma into what is happening in a much wider context to working, minority and migrant communities all over the world. The focus of non-Roma, in relation to GRT culture is on the nomadic, the freedom to move and to keep on moving. However, from my perspective it is the camp, the stopping place which is the important thing. It’s a place where family and family histories meet. The camp is open to destruction and erasure because it can’t be understood look at the cartoons from the Bexley archives. It is the place of the other, which opens up the possibilities of alternative histories of that place. This is why finding the site of the old encampment and the possibility of it being marked is so important. If look at my practice in another way my art works are encampments, limited by duration and place.

Can you describe the intention behind the title of your work?

“Glamour” was originally referred to a magic spell, an illusion said to be cast by witches, particularly this was associated with witches of Roma (“Gypsy”) origin, male and female. As the title for this piece, I use the play between the words original sense and it’s modern derivation. One describes the fascination of non-Roma with Romani cultural heritage. A Google search will give you images, articles and websites of this glamour (very few made for or by Roma), this spell which is still cast by the idea of “Gypsy”. The other how to charm and change the everyday.

What will you take away from this piece, will we see it grow into something bigger?

From this piece I have found the links between communities are far stronger than differences. Coming from this piece I think there will be a series of works exploring other aspects of the area and its overlapping boundaries.

You often talk of and have provided a passage of poetry by Audre Lorde. How has her work influenced you as an artist?

I encountered Audre Lorde as various quotes over a number of years. As I began to develop my practice to be a less schizophrenic way of working I found she articulated what I was unable to do at the time. Her words provided a catalyst for me to look at my practice in a wholistic way. Particularly ‘Your silence will not protect you’ and ‘The masters tools will never dismantle the masters house’ when I read them resonated with my practice as it developed. “and remember for the embattled there is no place that cannot be home nor is” Audre Lorde, School Note.

What are your hopes for Thamesmead in the future and particularly the Traveller community in Thamesmead?

I hope Thamesmead continues to develop and include many different communities. Difference can often be romanticised, denied, or simplified and identities silenced. I hope that there is still a part for the Traveller community to play in and around Thamesmead which celebrates our history and continuity in the area.

Thank you for bringing this project to the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema, which is the first public outing of our cinema. It is our intention to use the cinema not only to entertain but also to show challenging works that draw awareness to issues that may go overlooked. Liam & Vanessa

A moving image portrait celebrating GRT culture with works by Black Saint, Damien Le Bas, Damien James Le Bas and Shane Meadows.

DANIEL TURNER (AKA The Gypsy Sculptor) is an artist and educator from London, a Romani born in Kent whose family are still based in South East London with its many close associations with Romani culture. Dan trained at Central St Martins School of Art where he completed a BA Honours Degree in Fine Art (Sculpture). He works across media, including sculpture, video and painting. His work “Seeds of Healing” was shown in FUTUROMA at the Venice Biennale 2019. In 2020 he exhibited in Wales, in the Gypsy Maker Project, supported by the Romani Cultural and Arts Company, and in Berlin at the Kaidikhas Gallery. He is currently working with the London Bronze Casting Company on their New Edition’s commission.

Estuary Festival – Little Nepal by Asmita Shrish

For the Estuary Festival 2021, Thamesmead Texas have commissioned two artist filmmakers to produce new works for a screening programme in response to the theme of Imperial Legacy, specific to the sub themes of territories’, land ownership and mobile populations. The two featured artist filmmakers: Asmita Shrish and Daniel Turner (Aka ‘The Gypsy Sculptor’) are deeply embedded in Thamesmead, with a history of either living or researching in the locality. Thamesmead Texas have supported both Asmita and Dan to produce and display the works for a curated film programme, alongside an accompanying series of short films of their choice, with works by: Farak Squad, Laxcha Bantawa and Maximus Limbu, for display from the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema, Lakeside Centre throughout the weekend of the Estuary Festival 29-30 May 2021. See more here.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Funded by Estuary Festival, Peabody and Bow Arts Trust.

Asmita Shrish has creates an intimate portrait of a group of local Nepalese women. These elderly women sit on the floor in their living room and discuss sisterhood and how they arrived in the UK as Gurkha widows. The Gurkha soldiers who have have served the British crown for 200 years and fought in every British battle since 1957 only won the right of British citizenship in 2004, these widows join as citizens of the UK to honour their husbands who passed away before winning this hard fought right.

Click here for interview with Asmita Shrish

Could you give us an insight into your background and your journey into filmmaking?

I studied computer engineering but after finishing the study (I passed somehow!) I chose to do a Masters in Visual Arts and Animation and then went into Filmmaking. Filmmaking is certainly a challenging world, but it has been very therapeutic for me, also meditative in a way.

Could you give us a brief introduction to why and when the Nepalese people first arrived in the UK and particularly the Woolwich/Plumstead and Thamesmead areas?

It all goes back to ‘Anglo Nepali War from 1814 to 1816’, by the end of which there was the famous ‘Sugauli treaty’. From that point Gurkha regiments began to be raised as part of the East India Company’s army, which eventually on 21 May 2009 the Home Office announced that Gurkhas (Nepali soldiers) who served between 1948 and 1997 in British army would also be allowed to settle in the UK. This means older veterans, some even in their 70s and 80s, won the right to come here. Before that until 2004, only Gurkhas who retired after 1997 were able to come and settle. So, the influx of most elder Gurkhas and their family started from 2009. Particularly in Aldershot and Woolwich because of Aldershot Military base and Woolwich Garrison barracks, which were prominent military bases in World wars I and II.

What are the biggest challenges faced by this community living in the UK now, and what are the battles we can win?

As I have been researching Gurkha migration and integration since my first documentary Auntie Ganga (2013), the biggest challenge faced is the language, which can be heard in the pilot as well. The challenge in language then escalates to branch out in communication gap in medical, social, legal, mental aspects of their lives. There should be no battle in first place, but the idea is to give this community a visibility outside of Gurkha (Nepali) or English soldier community. They are well known as warriors all over the world, but isn’t that again a form of Imperialism? Most of the Gurkhas (in old days) are from Indigenous background that also informs ‘Sugauli Treaty’ from Nepali government side. All political things aside I am just trying to capture the rhythms and textures of their present lives.

Please tell us about your new work for the Estuary festival 2021 and how it addresses the specific theme of Imperial Legacy?

For the Estuary Festival 2021, I am presenting a pilot of the ongoing participatory documentary Little Nepal (working title). This pilot in particular features four Gurkha widows in their 70s living in Woolwich. It will let audience to engage with them briefly while they introduce themselves. Some audience may find it a bit ambiguous but that is purpose of continuation of the work, which will bring some sort of clarity. The main purpose of featuring these four bojus (grannies) is to embed human migration caused due to British Imperial Legacy. They have been moving their whole life and even now in old age they chose to migrate, it is not a forced migration but there is an element of indirect influence, which I want to explore more.

In your film we see a group of women in the home, talking directly to camera, Is there a reason you chose not to show their husbands?

They are all widows, which can be heard in one of the dialogue. Regarding talking directly to camera, I like the characters to engage with the audience and they are lovely to see, their warmth, honesty and humbleness cannot be seen otherwise.

The work is a pilot for a bigger piece, where do you see the film going from here?

I am following different group of elderly Gurkhas all over UK but right now I am focused more in Woolwich and Greenwich area and more recently in Kent as well. I am hoping to get more participants and contributors in the documentary predominantly women. I have specific topics in mind to talk about but recently I talk to Migration Museum to collaborate with me for a workshop I am envisioning. If that happen that would be great!

We asked you to select a film that could show alongside your work; perhaps in dialogue with the themes you address, can you tell us about your choice and the artist you selected?

The films and filmmakers are chosen so as to cover the diverseness of Nepali community in the UK. Although I must admit all of the filmmakers are children of Gurkhas. That also speaks the volume of imperialism of why they are all here at first place. ‘Pawan’ is about a small boy who moves to UK, ‘Vendors’ explores notion of space and migration, the music videos are filmed in Woolwich periphery with Nepali youth initiative groups like Hamro Baje Bajai and Farak Squad. The topics they choose are subjective but nevertheless speak about space; identity and community, which I thought, would add more layers and compliment the theme of the pilot.

Thank you for bringing this project to the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema, which is the first public outing of our cinema. it is our intention to use the cinema not only to entertain but also to show challenging works that draw awareness to issues that may go overlooked. Liam & Vanessa

ASMITA SHRISH is an independent filmmaker living in London for the past 10 years and deeply connected with the Nepali diaspora in the UK. Her filmmaking practice oscillates from documentaries to dramas, anchoring real issues and narratives to navigate and represent identity within physical and metaphysical space. Her films have always been the results of collaborations with the subjects/casts with particular attraction towards characters that are intimately close to their environment. She is endorsed by British Council and a recent beneficiary of the Sinchi Fund 2019/2020 as an emerging Indigenous filmmaker.

Thamesmead Texas Travelling Cinema

‘The Thamesmead Travelling Cinema’ is a ‘social sculpture’ that aims to bring people together through the shared love of cinema, as well as continue sharing histories & archives unique to the people of Thamesmead, the biggest social housing estate in England. ‘The Thamesmead Travelling Cinema’ was built as a legacy project for the Thamesmead Community Archive Commission awarded to Scully & Scully in 2019.

Designed and built by Alex Tuckwood. Commissioned by Scully & Scully. Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and Peabody.

Click here for interview with Vanessa Scully and Liam Scully

With their community lacking a local film venue, the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema was set up in 2020 to finally give the people of Thamesmead in south-east London a communal space to watch films. In this blog, Lydia de Matos interviews the project’s founders, couple Vanessa and Liam Scully, on their cinema’s nomadic roots and their experience so far.

Lydia: Thamesmead seems so tied to UK film history, with some of the most iconic sequences from A Clockwork Orange filmed there, and yet the area never had a cinema until you both founded the Travelling Cinema last year. Was there something particular that spurred you to do so? And to do it in the way you did — community-focused, travelling, quite literally built from the ground up?

Liam: We set up Thamesmead Texas in 2018, a space for the new artist community in the area to come together. It started in our living room, and then moved to different locations. With rents going up, it’s difficult for an arts space to remain in one place — so we always saw it as nomadic.

Vanessa: And then we were given a Heritage Lottery Fund commission in 2019 to gather oral histories from people in the local community whose stories hadn’t been told, and to produce an exhibition which would display those stories as an experimental film. And what kept coming up was lack of investment in Thamesmead. That included cultural infrastructure. So, for example, a cinema was always promised but never delivered. We decided to produce a legacy project showing films representative of the people we were interviewing so that the wider community could get a better understanding of their cultures. So we appropriated our budget and built a cinema from reclaimed local materials.

Lydia: How have things evolved during the first year and a half? Was there anything you envisaged that wound up being impractical?

Vanessa: Initially we were very idealistic. There’s a Traveller community in Thamesmead, and they’re often out on horse and cart, and it’s magical to see, so we actually originally wanted to create a horse-drawn cinema, which obviously wound up being completely impractical.

Liam: The name Thamesmead Texas actually came from that, our first impression of Thamesmead with the horses tethered to the brutalist blocks, and the open skies and marshland.

Vanessa: There were other blue sky ideas as well: having solar panels, being 100% environmentally sustainable, and having screenings determined by the seasons, none of which wound up being fully possible.

Lydia: You’ve held screenings at varied locations around Thamesmead, how does the decision-making process work with choosing where works best? Do practicalities change significantly location-to-location?

Liam: We have our anchor venue, the Lakeside Centre, which is where our studio is, and practically that’s very easy, we can keep the cinema parked there, our studio provider (Bow Arts) supports us in many ways. And when we began travelling, we had to work out the practicalities of that, how it’s done, who tows it; there were legal formalities about the weight and the generator, etc. All of last year we only travelled it once, to a local square, and that was supported by Peabody, so they brought in a generator and a technician, but this year we’ve worked completely independently.

Vanessa: We try to select places that are already known to the local community, so we go to parks and squares often. That way we can increase audience capacity as well, because at the Lakeside Centre we’re limited with space and seats, whereas in a park people can bring blankets, and it becomes a sort of community picnic. And that goes hand-in-hand with our programming. So, for example, for our screenings in Birchmere Park this summer, we chose childhood classics with inter-generational appeal, so that whole families could come and watch together. Before that though, we tested the cinema in the marshes, for a shoot with a filmmaker who has supported the cinema and wanted it to feature in her new work.

Liam: Thamesmead has a really unique eco-system; there’s the Thames, ancient woodland, ancient marshland, and the brutalist urban environment, so it’s quite exciting to have those possibilities, and we’d like to go screen in all those different places, with films that match the landscapes.

Lydia: You’ve both lived and worked in Thamesmead for quite a few years now, but you don’t have as strong roots as some; did you find the more long-standing community receptive to you building the cinema? How did you build the audience?

Vanessa: With the oral histories project, we continued talking to the people we’d met beyond the interviews, and many became friends. And through that ongoing informal discussion, we floated the idea of a cinema, and people were really receptive to it, so we felt like we were given permission to run with it and make it a reality. And to honour their voices and concerns, we decided on a co-programming approach, which is how we crafted last year’s world cinema season.

Liam: Through the interviews, we were talking with Nigerian and West African communities, Nepalese communities, the Traveller community, Indian diaspora communities, and so for example, we found that there was a big Nollywood community in Thamesmead; residents who had directed and shot and acted in Nollywood films. Notably, we met Ruke Amata, who’s part of a filmmaking dynasty, his family were instrumental in starting Nollywood in the early 90s, and we invited him to our Nollywood weekender, showcasing some of his films. So that was our co-programming approach, inviting someone with an existing audience or network, and bringing them to the cinema, which then would hopefully return for other community events. So over the months, we built a really diverse audience. And for each of the events, we would invite a caterer and a musician specific to the culture we were celebrating, and almost create a mini-festival each weekend.

Lydia: Have you found that the audience has changed while you’ve been running the cinema? Especially with the new Elizabeth line, are there more central Londoners finding their way over?

Liam: Since the Elizabeth line is so recent, it’s difficult to determine. For example, the last screening we held was A Clockwork Orange, and it was the most successful we’ve done in terms of numbers. But around 70% of the audience were from outside of Thamesmead, whereas usually it’s the other way around. It could be because of the notoriety of the film, because of the fifty-year anniversary, but there’s also the Elizabeth line. We did notice there was a different atmosphere to that screening though, typically people hang around before and after, whereas at this one people didn’t really mingle in the same way.

Vanessa: But we see that now as a challenge to encourage the new audience to come and mix with the existing audience, and maybe we need to find different ways to do that.

Lydia: Do you worry about an expanding audience potentially taking away from the community focus which is so core to the cinema?

Liam: It’s definitely a concern. We don’t want it to turn into mostly working professionals from central London, especially because we’ve only got so many tickets. So we have to think about solutions to keep things balanced. We’re both from working class backgrounds and grew up in small towns, where there wasn’t much access to art and culture. And we see that in Thamesmead, so our mission is to engage the people here in our programmes. A carriage converted to hold a cinema screen showing a scene from Clockwork Orange at night. The travelling cinema screening A Clockwork Orange.

Lydia de Matos is a student, filmmaker, and writer based in London. She’s a lover of community cinema, and you can usually find her raving about Agnès Varda or John Berger, often at the same time.

Interview commissioned by ICO blog

The Thamesmead Travelling Cinema is a 25-seater mobile outdoor community cinema made for the people of Thamesmead! Built using recycled materials, including almost 500 vinyl records, we launched in Spring 2021 and host seasonal screenings co-programmed for, by and with local residents from Thamesmead. Winner of Green Award, Film Society of the Year Awards 2022. See our programme here

The Future of Artists and Architecture

While the reputation of 20th century film director Stanley Kubrick is cemented with a retrospective exhibition at the Design Museum in London in 2019, the concrete housing blocks of Binsey Walk on the Thamesmead estate are raised to the ground. Although significant parts of the work of Greater London Council architects of the 1960s such as this, described by social researcher Dr Valerie Wigfall as ‘innovative in many respects’, (2009: 86) lie in ruin, the importance for Kubrick of its depiction in A Clockwork Orange, (1971) is revealed by Stephen Babish, adjunct Lecturer, DePaul University, to have belied its only appearing twice in the film. The author cites a hand-written list of scenes blocked out by length found inside the back cover of the director’s working copy of the screenplay. This includes ‘Thamesmead Fight’, singularly identified by both action and location. (2018: 210)

The action continues in Thamesmead to this day, under the partial demolition order of its latest owner the Peabody Group. Who also manage Parnell House, built in 1849, listed by Historic England as ‘the earliest surviving example of flats to provide accommodation for the “deserving poor” in regular employment’ (2006) and ironically still standing today in Streatham Street, Camden, London. At a time when architecture, more especially public housing, is coming under ever more scrutiny, from specialist and non-specialist alike. Take for example a recent walking tour of South Thamesmead led by modernist architecture enthusiast Thaddeus Zupancic, in association with the Twentieth Century Society, during Open House London. For which the Lakeside Centre at Thamesmead also opened its doors to the public, newly restored as artists’ studios. (2019) What might the legacy of artists who moved to Thamesmead in 2018 be?

This exhibition does not seek to tell the story of Binsey Walk, or of Thamesmead. Instead it invites more voices to join a conversation initiated by Liam and Vanessa Scully (under the proposition Thamesmead Texas) to which Stephane Chadwick and James Lander respond with U-Build and Yellow House 55.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Part of Art Licks Weekend 2019. Funded by Bow Arts Trust.

WORKS CITED

A Clockwork Orange. (1971), [film], Stanley Kubrick, London.
Babish, S. (2018), ‘A place in London’s future: A Clockwork Orange, Thamesmead and the urban dystopia of the modernist large scale plan’, Screen. vol. 59. iss 2. 197-212.
Historic England, (2019), Thamesmead – City of London, Historic England [website], 23 November 2006. https://www.historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/parnell-house-streatham-street-camden-town-9433 (Accessed 1 September).
Lakeside Centre. (2019), Open House London [website], 1 August 2019. https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/4547 (Accessed 16 September 2019).
Thamesmead Information Hub. (2019), Open House London [website], 1 August 2019.
https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/7534 (Accessed 16 September 2019).
Wigfall, V. (2008), Thamesmead: a social history. London: Greenwich Community College Press.

STEPHANE CHADWICK – Director Studio Bark, London. BArch(Hons) DipArch
Steph previously worked in London for an award winning practice gaining experience on a number of projects ranging from large mixed use developments to small, bespoke refurbishments. He also gained experience working on a number of small scale construction projects, and still enjoys getting his hands dirty during the Bark Live Build projects. In the Studio he is interested in finding new solutions to everyday problems, creating unique designs with a strong environmental focus. Steph has a passion for the craft and detail in architecture and is a strong advocate of designing through making. Steph studied at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and London Metropolitan University.

JAMES LANDER – Artist, Researcher, Teacher, London
James completed a PhD by-practice at the University of the Arts London in 2019. His thesis relocated the site of contest from the storeys of Ernö Goldfinger’s Balfron Tower, where he lived for four years before it was privatised, to the stories kept public in the archives. These include his unofficial archive, fragments of which were shown at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, as part of the London Festival of Architecture in 2018. The accompanying catalogue ‘Balfron Tower: Archiving Fragments’ and book ‘Walking Between Streets in the Sky’ published in 2017, convene a non-specialist community. His activism as a non-specialist advocates for and promotes public access to modern architecture.

Moloko Plus Six Show 2

‘Moloko Plus Six’ named after the infamous cocktail featured in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ where much of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece is set; representing six artists based in Thamesmead our rendition is a milk-based drink laced with six secret ingredients. Over the course of the summer we invite three local artist pairings to present their practice at the Lakeside Centre, as part of a Summer Residency to launch the recently reburnished community centre. Pull up a stool at the Thamesmead Texas bar and order a drink of the ‘Moloko Plus Six’ whilst overlooking the live demolition of the Clockwork Orange ‘Flat Block Marina’, more commonly known as Binsey Walk. Moloko Plus Six is a series of exhibitions, featuring pairs of artists based in Thamesmead.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Funded by Bow Arts Trust.

Thamesmead Texas brings together two artist’s working in sculpture, showing together for the first time. Natasha Bird and Miyuki Kasahara are united through the shared locality of Thamesmead and their sensibility for utilising the recycled and readymade to narrativize environmental and ecological concerns.

The river Thames flows less than a mile to the north of the Lakeside centre, essentially the bowels of greater London, just behind the centre is the Ridgeway a constructed walkway, designed by Joseph Bazalgette after a cholera outbreak in 1853 and the ‘Great Stink’ in 1858. This walkway encases the Southern Outfall sewer, leading directly to Crossness pumping station located in Erith Marshes. This engineering milestone at the base of the Thames informs perfectly the exhibition at Thamesmead Texas.

Bird’s modular sculpture ‘Embankment’ (2019) addresses directly the themes of consumption, waste and stagnation. These large modular curved panels are designed to be rearranged and take on different architectural forms, once bolted together they obstruct as well as channel the viewer to move according to the new form. The panels are constructed from wood and mulch, the mulch is produced from the discarded newspapers of London’s commuters and reformed to mirror and frame the concrete architecture that typifies the surrounding Thamesmead.

Miyuki Kasahara’s installation Utoh ‘Birds of Sorrow’ (2018) also takes waste product to address the ebb and flow of water, consumption, pollution and waste. Kasahara has collected a plethora of ephemera from the mud of the Thames, plastic toys, feathers, bottles, lids and all kinds of rusty unidentified fragments; and suspended each individually on crimson wire, dangling from ceiling to floor representing the flow of tears of the Utoh (bird of prey). Inspired by a 15th Century Japanese Noh play. This work was originally commissioned for ‘The Ghost Tide’ (2018) curated by Monika Bobinska and Sarah Sparkes. The narrative of the play tells the story of Utoh the hunter (Utoh is a seabird – the rhinoceros auklet) whose ghost is sent to hell to be tormented by his prey that have become phantom birds. Using detritus from the Thames foreshore, the work re-imagines this story for the 21st Century, raising the spectre of our environmental pollution and its deadly repercussions for marine life. For Thamesmead Texas Kasahara has incorporated a new rendition of the installation animating the flow of the Utoh’s tears of blood. “From the sky the parent bird is weeping tears of blood…faster and faster fall the tears of blood, until my body cannot escape their mortal touch.” (Zeami, Utoh – Birds of Sorrow).

NATASHA BIRD (1985) is an artist living and working in London. Her current work is concerned with ideas of flow and stagnation and their potential for production, both in historical and present-day real-world technologies, as well as sci-fi and fantastical narratives.

MIYUKI KASAHARA Born in Japan, and based in London, Kasahara graduated with an MA from the Royal College of Art and is based in London. Her research examines the factors affecting the global environment, including that arising from politics and societal change.

Moloko Plus Six Show 3

Curated by Scully & Scully. Funded by Bow Arts Trust.

Thamesmead Texas presents the third in a trilogy of summer shows in our project space at the iconic Lakeside Centre. Matthew Berka & Dominika Kieruzel present a new video work ‘Inland’ (2019); and Vanessa Scully has installed her film ‘Decolonizing Marisa’ (2019) as well as two new paintings. Seemingly completely different works both artist films have connections to the Australian landscape, however were filmed in relative proximity to Thamesmead. As artists living and working in Thamesmead one cannot help but be drawn to the landscape that surrounds us; the vast skies, the marshes, the woodland, the concrete and the lakes. This absolutely diverse ecosystem starts forming our very being, while seeping into our work in varying degrees. For Matthew Berka and Dominka Kieruzel’s film, the body, the landscape and the camera congeal, we are uncomfortably close and silent, a slight itchiness perhaps, hypnotic, before our eyes begin to dissolve

“The title of the film is borrowed from a novel by Australian writer, Gerald Murnane. The film relates to the book in its character, in so far as it is a perambulation, an excursion into landscape in a view to see it anew. It is also an account of such an excursion: the core part of the film is a record of it, an experiment in which a joint vow of silence and lack of instructions lead the characters on both sides of the lens to another time and another place. In the course of the excursion the camera becomes a part of the landscape, it too is seen anew. It becomes many things. The surprise of this film is that the one who is usually looked at – is also looking, and it is sort of equal in looking. The hierarchical relationship of the camera and what it sees – subject and object – is broken, there are two subjects. But there is also something beyond that, somewhere we get by way of being still, somewhere we get by way of being-looking. Perhaps an eye is a key. An eye is a window to your house, your body is your house. An eye, a lens, a camera, a room. A camera is a room.” Matthew Berka and Dominika Kieruzel.

The degrees are ramped up to 110 in Vanessa Scully’s narrative/ hybrid documentary ‘Decolonising Marisa’. Based on a true story, Scully’s film also brings us uncomfortably close, as we watch a domestic drama unfold. The artist places us the viewer nearby, invited to sit with an Australian beer like nosy neighbours on the periphery of the drama.

“This hybrid film form, marries fiction, documentary, research, appropriation and autobiography to explore themes related to migration and displacement through a multifaceted approach. This work is based on true stories. Set in a caravan park on a coastal village in Australia, a domestic drama unfolds, between an old man and his young, recently acquired Filipino bride. Centred around a TV dinner, performed in real time, the film escalates through layers of time, space and form, using an obsolete television as a time travelling device. Intersecting fiction with research, staged performance is combined with found footage, to create a dual narrative shown concurrently on a single channel. ‘Decolonizing Marisa’ seeks to question the institutional knowledge of the Philippines, as depicted by the mass media news and entertainment machine. This film is based upon my mother passage to ‘a better life in the west’.”

WORKS

INLAND

Matthew Berka & Dominika Kieruzel

UK, 2019

17 mins, colour, stereo, 16:9, HD video

DECOLINIZING MARISA

Vanessa Scully

UK, 2019

28 mins, colour, stereo, 16:9, HD video

*viewings every half hour on the hour. Book in a half hour slot for viewing with headphones.

GOOK YELLOW & BOONK YELLOW

Vanessa Scully

UK, 2019

Oil and Gesso on Linen, 8×10

MATTHEW BERKA is a London-based artist and curator from Melbourne who works with film, video and sound. Through audiovisual assemblage he creates speculative films that explore associations between place and the unknown.

DOMINIKA KIERUZEL is a visual and performance artist, working across media, from painting and sculpture through to textile and sewing, to performance, photography, music and film. A central focus of her work is contact. In a wide sense her work is often an attempt to be close to an object, a person, a place or herself and as such, it draws on the intimacy with the immediate environment and the everyday.

VANESSA SCULLY is an Australian artist and filmmaker based in London. Most recent projects explore her mixed-race heritage as a ‘person of colour’, whilst questioning the institutional knowledge of ‘the Philippines’, as depicted by mass media news and entertainment. Scully graduated with an MA in Experimental Film from Kingston School and Art in 2019.

Moloko Plus Six Show 1

Curated by Scully & Scully. Funded by Bow Arts Trust.

EMILY CROOKSHANK studied Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art and exhibits regularly across the UK. Emily’s passion lies with the developmental nature of printmaking. Often working in a series, Emily allows the work to evolve organically, observing the subtle changes with each print taken. This happens over many dedicated hours, experimenting with technique and exploring the natural characteristics of the medium. Her work celebrates the materials and the many satisfactions of the printmaking process.

JACKSON PAYNE is an Australian artist living in London. His practice is rooted in the traditions of painting and experimental film making and aims towards the formal development of painting incorporating technology. JF has a longstanding interest in the ambiance of the everyday, discarded and invisible objects. He works with painting, sculpture, casting, photography and digital animation.

Speed Exhibitions

Thamesmead Texas was set up as a tool to bring artists together whom had recently moved to the outer London town of Thamesmead, through a Bow Arts Trust artist live/work scheme.

Thamesmead Texas began on the Sunday 16th September 2018, with a series of eight weekly art exhibitions hosted from a domestic living room in Radley House, Wolvercote Road, Thamesmead. Each Sunday a new artist from the Bow Arts community exhibited a new piece of work, designed an accompanying artist cocktail, and invited members from the ‘new community’ to meet up and discuss. Home made cowboy beans and Sol beer was served, exchanges made and friendships formed. As each week passed a new work of art populated the space, eventually filling the living space with a collection of artworks, ranging from painting and drawing through to performance, video and sculpture.

With London becoming an increasingly unaffordable place to live, an exodus of artists are leaving the capital city, many leaving to cities and towns including Margate, Nottingham, Glasgow and Bristol. For some, Thamesmead is the last bastion for a life as a creative practitioner inside London.

While not representing the entire community occupying those spaces, Thamesmead Texas hosted a series of exhibitions by eight of the newest residents, while creating a welcoming hub for the rest of the Bow Arts community to meet, share food, ideas, and discuss the prospect of a new life in Thamesmead.

Curated by Scully & Scully. Supported by Thamesmead 50th fund.

Featuring work by:
Joseph Griffiths
S.P.A.R with Brian Guest, courtesy of artist and performer Calum F Kerr
Almudena Romero
Liam Scully
Dominika Kieruzel
Miyuki Kasahara
Vanessa Scully
Jackson Payne

The Speed Shows were also staged as a group exhibition open to the general public at the Peabody Information Hub, from Saturday 23rd March 2018. With performances by Dominika Kieruzel and Joseph Griffiths; Liam Scully and S.P.A.R with Brian Guest, courtesy of artist and performer Calum F Kerr.

Art Bar

Liam Scully has created a centrepiece for Thamesmead Texas, a work of social sculpture that expands, hosting a new artist cocktail by exhibiting artists.

The bar is salvaged from an old piece of furniture disposed of on the Southmere estate and reconfigured to create a tex-mex style saloon bar, which has also become a pin board for the artist’s 35mm photographic work and drawing. ‘The Big Fight’ is screened at the bar for the duration of each exhibition or event.

LIAM SCULLY – Artist, Filmmaker and Cinematographer based in London. Constant drawing underpins most of Scully’s practice; this is often expanded upon and develops through painting, performance, video, music and installation. The drawing is blunt and essentially diaristic in its approach. Scully graduated with an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art (2003), BA in Fine Art at Birmingham University (2002) and an Masters in Cinematography at Goldsmiths University (2020).