Our Place group exhibition curated by Lauren McNicoll

A woman’s body is a site of intensity. Its collisions with the world are often not expected or summoned but take place regardless. We exist in these fleshy forms which in turn sit amongst, lean against, and trod through the physical world.

Thinking about the comfort/discomfort of this reality through the lens of our differing experiences as women, it became apparent the home is a space in which we most commonly reach states of being either absolutely present in our bodies, or entirely out of our bodies. A result of being within our private cocoons in which we are surrounded by the physical debris of our lives.

The premise for this exhibition is built upon the idea of the domestic setting as a trope for a woman’s place in the world. In this context it is being reclaimed to infer a site of safety, contemplation, and activism (a nod to Womanhouse, 1972). The exhibition dissects the importance of making as a woman, through the idea of making the home; and the societal expectation associated with this.

Crucially, the voices of the exhibiting artists span a range of ages, upbringings, and ethnic backgrounds. From crafted ‘data touchstone relics’ that immortalise a personal digital dating history, to skeletal structures made by re-forming discarded garments, this group show brings together a number of female artists living and working in London and the South West. Drawing, textiles, writing, painting and sculpture are all curated together to form a dismantled, reconfigured, collective living room.

Alongside the exhibition will be a number of workshops associated with the themes in the exhibition.

Lauren McNicoll (Kent, 1995) is currently based in South London, whose practice combines multiple disciplines and encompasses a space that sits between sculpture, performance, and workshop. Her research is rooted in queerness, community and feminism, and grapples with the ways in which history and societal expectations play out in interpersonal encounters.