How We Build Home – re-opening!

How We Build Home – re-opening!

Tags: , , , ,
A graphic, the main text reading "How We Build Home". Above this is the GEM logo - GEM in letters that are purple amethyst. The smaller text under the logo reads "GEM Research Collective presents". Under the main title two lines of text read "An exhibition by GEM Research Collective/supported by Centre for Studies of Home and The Museum of the Home". The background of the graphic is a photogra[h of a starry night sky, tiny blurry dots of stars and wisps of clouds at the bottom of the image.

“Our home-making practice is about being loved for who we are, who we’ve been, and the endless possibilities of who we might be.  It is us sitting in the knottedness of our embodied geographies with the care and love that we deserve.”

We are happy to announce that How We Build Home will be re-opening at Museum of the Home on Wednesday 26th October.  After a long closure due to flooding and other issues, we are pleased to be able to invite you to visit these installations, which will be at the museum until mid-January 2023.

video still: close-up of a multicoloured curtain of beads and material strands hanging at the entrance to a a dark room; the shape of some kind of cushioned seat can be vaguely seen through the curtain, and dots of green light prick the darkness.
Entrance to Starry Nights

The Project
How We Build Home has had many iterations and eventually became an exploration of how Black women and genderqueer folk build home, whether by and for themselves, or in relation.  Imagined by the late and much loved Azeezat Johnson, and developed with artist and visual practitioner Oluwatosin (formerly Wasi) Daniju, the project explores the many faces of home, those we have experienced, those we imagine, and the possibilities of home that we can build together.

While the physical manifestation of How We Build Home is present in the form of film, photography and other installations, so much of its essence lay in the loving, challenging, questioning and comforting conversations between Azeezat and Oluwatosin over the past two years and more which created the foundation of much of the work on show.

A screenshot from the short film All The Women In Me Are Tired. It shows a woman seemingly asleep in bed. She is lying on her side, facing the camera with her eyes closed. She is wearing a long-sleeved night dress and a head tie, both of which feature floral patterns, as does the quilt pulled up to her chest. She is lying on a white pillow. On the screen, a wall of text, the transcript of the reports being heard in the video, rise across the screen and across the sleeping woman. The text is the same clolour as her skin, and in places is not legible wher eit covers her face and hand.
All The Women In Me Are Tired – still from the short film by Oluwatosin Daniju


Visit and engage with:

  • Interactive installation Starry Nights – an invitation to stop and dream
  • Photography and poetry triptych Home: A Promise Remixed and Returned To – layers of seeking, seeing, finding and creating home
  • Photography series Home Is Here & There and Where The Light Gets In – explorations of how we see home
  • Short film All The Women In Me Are Tired – an attempt to rest in a world that frequently denies us respite from its violence
  • Open letter Working with the Museum of the Home: Geffrye Must Fall – a necessary questioning of the context of the museum and our presence within it
    NB – these last two installations are in the chapel of the almshouse.
Close up of a section of a quilt. It has various materials sewn together, one part featuring a row of women; next to this, a small patch of green material with sewn flowers; and above these the statement "Freedom is coming" sewn in red thread and all caps, with a red heart next to it.
Section of the Women’s Group quilt

The exhibition also features a large-scale patchwork quilt and zine, both created by the Women’s Group of the South London Refugee Association during the pandemic lockdown.  The quilt, and the stories behind it, reflect a space of compassion and joy, and feeling of strength in togetherness, created by the women’s group community.

Take part:
We will soon be inviting you to take part in the activities we will run in relation to How We Build Home – these will include live-streamed tours of the exhibition, so you can visit from wherever you happen to be.

Do let us know if you plan to visit – we’d love to see/hear from you!

Screenshot from Museum of the Home website, from the "Visit Us" page. First paragraph reads " Entry is free. There is no need to book. We are open Tuesday to Sunday and bank holidays, 10am to 5pm (last entry 4pm). Please be aware that busy times, especially at weekends, you may have to wait a short while to get in. Our busiest times are on Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 3pm. If you're waiting, do take the chance to grab a coffee and cake at our cafe, or enjoy our glorious gardens." Below, in a box on the left, it reads " Opening Times Tuesday – Sunday, 10am to 5pm (last entry 4pm). We are also usually open on Monday and Friday Bank Holidays." Nex to this is a picture of the entrance to the Museum of the Home, a tall fence with the museum's name above it in red capitals.
Visiting Museum of the Home

 

How We Build Home will be at Museum of the Home from Wednesday 26th October until January 2022. The exhibition has been realised with support from Centre for Studies of Home and Museum of the Home.

Museum of the Home is at 136 Kingsland Road London E2 8EA.

 

gemresearchcollective

GEM Admin (for collective use)