Trellis

About

Addressing urgent contemporary issues including the Hostile Environment Policy, England’s damaging disregard for deaf language and culture, and destructive misconceptions about neurodiverse citizens, Trellis is a powerful multidisciplinary exhibition featuring seven contemporary artists working in collaboration with researchers and east London community groups. The resulting works are insightful, passionate and political, giving a voice to people whose stories are rarely heard. 

All of the artists exhibiting in Trellis have strong ties to east London, either living or working in the area. The selected artists are: Edwin Mingard, Jon Adams, Briony Campbell, Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, Sarah Carne, Sara Heywood and Jane Watt. 

New Contemporaries artist Edwin Mingard has turned the lens on the Home Office’s policies of surveillance under the Hostile Environment Policy. Focussing on the UK’s oppressive border regime, and the asymmetrical relationship between ‘identity’ and ‘identification’, Edwin Mingard has worked with Dr Keren Weitzberg of UCL History, and those with experience of asylum and migration to the UK. Together they are exposing the gulf between the narrow data-driven perspective of the hostile environment policy and the rich cultural lives of migrants in east London. The resulting film provides both an insight into the impact of the inhumane policies and a platform to celebrate the irreducible individual stories that endure in spite of this oppression.

Polymath artist, Jon Adams, and photographer-filmmaker, Briony Campbell, have collaborated with Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou from Psychology & Human Development and Psychology and Language Science at UCL, and autistic people in east London. Together they are exploring the importance of relationships within the autistic community, and reflecting on the impact of distancing and mediated communications during the pandemic. Through drawing, narrative, film and photography they are tackling the damaging stereotypes that exist about autistic people and celebrating autistic narratives. 

Deaf artist Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, Professor Bencie Woll from the UCL Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre, and members of the east London deaf community, examine the underrepresentation of their community in cultural discourse. With a focus on the historic suppression of the deaf community’s history, culture, and language, and its impacts on their lives today, the group shared their frustration at the lack of respect afforded to British Sign Language. Initiated by the demands of the pandemic, they explored the potential for digital video platforms such as Zoom as sites of co-creation for the deaf community, developing a film-based artwork which brings wider attention and visibility to the community’s presence, and insights into a panoply of inner lives which are often excluded from society and the media. Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq says the resulting artwork “is political”.

Artist’s book A bitter orange tree and an orange tree: practices of care is the result of artist Sarah Carne’s partnership with researchers Danielle Purkiss and Charnett Chau from UCL’s Plastic Waste Innovation Hub, and Xenia women’s community group. Xenia brings migrant, refugee, asylum-seeking and British women together to connect, share and learn together. Together the women conducted citizen science investigations into the issues of food and plastic waste, using these experiments to explore collaborative, science-led art production. The resulting book probes the nature of care. 

The significance of heritage trees to local communities is the focus of artists Sara Heywood and Jane Watt’s collaboration with Dr David Chau, from the Division of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at UCL’s Eastman Dental Institute. Together with community members from Bethnal Green, they have delved into the scientific, cultural and artistic potential of the iconic mulberry tree, focussing on an historic tree in the area which is under threat. In addition to the online exhibition, their installation piece will be sited in the shop window at Create Space in St Margaret’s House, and will invite viewers to creatively engage with the work in situ. This will be open Friday 16 - 18 April, 12pm to 10pm daily, St Margaret’s House, 26 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PL.