Wednesday 6 May 2015

The Poor Door Exhibition - Seeking Artists!


OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS
The Poor Door

A Collective Exhibition Tackling the Housing Crisis

I am curating an exhibition which will be held at A-side B-side Gallery in October.  I’m currently looking for artists who make work about housing and the home.  Please see below for further information about the show, and details for submitting work if you would like to apply.

'Contemporary, Spacious First Floor Double Room' Tinsel Edwards 2015



“This Ghetto crowding is not through inclination, but compulsion.”

Jack London The People of the Abyss

It’s 2015 and we are in the midst of a major housing crisis in the capital.  In 1903, Jack London wrote ‘The People of the Abyss’, a book describing the cramped living conditions and experiences of the poor in the East End of London.  Reading the book in 2015, some of it seemed strangely familiar. 

The extreme poverty experienced by many people in Victorian London is another world and another time, but the soaring rents and escalating house prices that London’s residents are experiencing today are similarly disempowering.

“It is notorious that here in the Ghetto the houses of the poor are greater profit earners than the mansions of the rich.  Not only does the poor worker live like a beast, but he pays proportionately more for it than does the rich man for his spacious comfort.”

Jack London The People of the Abyss

The Poor Door exhibition is an arena for debate and discussion surrounding the housing crisis, an opportunity to challenge the status quo and to campaign for change through visual language including painting, photography, sculpture and performance. The title is inspired by the furore over the development at One Commercial Street in Aldgate, which was built with two separate entrances.  Luxury marble floors, chandeliers and concierge for the wealthy city workers, and a side-alley door for the ‘affordable’ housing tenants.  The Poor Door is a growing trend in new housing developments in London, but this divisive phenomena seems reminiscent of the Victorian era.

“In a civilization frankly materialistic and based upon property, not soul, it is inevitable that property shall be exalted over soul”

Jack London The People of the Abyss

Exhibition Details and info on submitting work:

The show will be curated from an open submission, a percentage of sales will raise money for the housing charity Shelter.  If you are making art work about housing and you would like to take part in the exhibition please email jpegs, cv and info to: tinseledwards@hotmail.co.uk


·      Maximum of 6 jpegs labeled with your name and the title of the work

·      CV

·      Some brief info about the work you are submitting and why it relates to the theme of the show.

Deadline to submit artwork: 1st June

Venue: A-side B-side Gallery, Hackney Downs Studios, E8 2BT

Dates: First two weeks in October – Thursday 1st – Wednesday 14th.

Public View: First Thursday

Throughout the week there will also be film screenings, talks and events from several communities, groups and individuals.