Winners: 'Neighbourhood' Artist Commissions 2019

neighbourhood

NOUN

1. A district or community within a town or city.

1.1 The area surrounding a particular place, person, or object.

1.2 [mass noun] Neighbourly feeling or conduct

We are delighted to announce the winners of the ‘Neighbourhood’ Artist Commissions 2019 who will producing Riso-publications with Rabbits Road Press.

 WINNERS

Tej Adeleye will be investigating the possibilities of creating an archive-zine on behalf of the George Padmore Institute as an outcome of workshops with community groups and activist campaigners in Ladbroke Grove interested in organising their archives in services of the local community, particularly to keep people informed of long-standing activism in the area. The zine will build on the work of campaigners to tell the story of local struggle in the area, centred around Grenfell tower, using social media posts and annotations to build a story that can be shared in the local area and for local activist groups.

Katie Peck is using the commission to produce an illustrated zine depicting her memories of growing up in Dagenham and the communities that can be found in the area.  The A5 zine will include contributions and interviews from local residents that breakdown stereotypes people have of Dagenham and will be produced in her chosen colours of pink, blue, orange and yellow.

Abondance Matanda will be using the commission to create 'Once Upon A Grind', named after Ms Banks' first mixtape, which builds on previous work and documents her experience of being without permanent housing this year and how she has held it down since, through her relationship to her faith and music. Relating to different elements of the mixtape and the boroughs Abondance has lived in, this zine will be her “London coming of age story”.

Zahra Halepota will publish a visual journey through her former neighbourhood in Melilla, Spain, a Spanish enclave in North Africa bordering Morocco to the south and west and exposed to the Mediterranean Sea on the other side. Its geography makes it one of the centres of the current global refugee crises, including refugees arriving from neighbouring Morocco.  The booklet will be hand-bound using saddle stitch.  

RUNNERS UP

Maria Mahfooz

Will be using the Risograph to create an “ASMR Roleplay of Manor Park”, disguising herself in different positions in local neighbourhood shops by taking on the role of workers and business owners on her high street. Her performance-to- publication will be documented through photography, photoshop manipulations and hand-drawn illustrations.

Luke Brown runs a monthly food project, FOSCafe, at Red Door Studios, offering a place in East Ham where people can eat and source good, seasonal produce that is grown as locally as possible. He plans to publish a map to guide people to food produced in the area and signpost products, local business and small scale suppliers to offer alternatives. The map will be able to be amended and changed by the user to accommodate new additions and discoveries