{"id":654266,"date":"2026-06-23T16:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/654266\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T16:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:14:09","slug":"a-new-world-has-been-opened-up-how-a-london-street-got-filled-with-art-and-brought-the-neighbours-together-art-and-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/654266\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A new world has been opened up\u2019: how a London street got filled with art \u2013 and brought the neighbours together | Art and design"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1986, an exhibition called Chambres d\u2019Amis took contemporary art beyond the confines of the museum setting and into the homes of 58 residents in Ghent. Forty years on, a similar experiment is taking place, but on a small street in Peckham<\/a>, south-east London.<\/p>\n

Rooms of Neighbours<\/a> is the brainchild of curator Ben Broome, who came across Chambres d\u2019Amis when he was between institutional jobs. With time on his hands and an urge to get to know his neighbours better, he began to wonder how he could apply the idea to his own community, but with a broader focus. Unlike the exhibition in Ghent, which mostly took place in the homes of art world friends and museum patrons, his own street \u2013 a mix of council and privately owned flats and houses \u2013 represented a wider demographic, with different age groups, social classes and diasporas. Few of the residents had any prior connection to the art world, he tells me: \u201cThe majority of people have never been to the Tate; they have never even been to the South London Gallery<\/a>, which is a local institution. But that\u2019s not to say some of the neighbours aren\u2019t really creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early last year, Broome knocked on the doors of his neighbours to introduce himself, before pitching the idea to them over cups of tea. The 12 households who signed up were paired with a mix of established and emerging artists, each of whom had an interest in domestic spaces or what Broome refers to as a \u201csocial practice\u201d. Since then, a collection of bespoke, site-specific works have been installed in the homes, gardens and communal spaces of those taking part.<\/p>\n

Family dynamics \u2026 Ghislaine Leung\u2019s mural for a young family. Photograph: Jorge Stride<\/p>\n

The works span different media, from painting and sculpture to more conceptual and ephemeral forms. Alongside an olfactory work designed for resident Raluca\u2019s bathroom, artist Racheal Crowther<\/a> made a motion-activated speaker which plays calming sounds at a frequency suited to her pet cat. A few doors down, 2023 Turner prize nominee Ghislaine Leung<\/a>, whose work explores childcare and family dynamics, recreated her 2024 mural for a young family, using bold block colours to interrogate the UK government\u2019s childcare provisions. It lives behind the cot in their child\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Raheel Khan<\/a>, who has previously made work related to sound in devotional spaces, developed a sound piece to be played on the custom stereo in Nigel\u2019s convertible. Inspired by William Blake\u2019s childhood memories of Peckham Rye Park, it features a warped and looped rendition of The Lamb<\/a> (the choral song based on the Blake poem) with added bass tailored to Nigel\u2019s subwoofer. \u201cIt was a fun project, because we could have gone very art history and critical theory about it, but actually it was just fun to drive around blasting this tune and get to know him a bit.\u201d The composition now lives among the UK garage in Nigel\u2019s playlist, and he continues to play it while the car roof is down. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to think that the work could potentially just be part of the fabric of Peckham,\u201d Khan adds.<\/p>\n

A blast \u2026 Raheel Khan\u2019s sound piece. Photograph: Jorge Stride<\/p>\n

This community spirit runs through much of the exhibition, from developing the ideas together to choosing the placement of the work, processes in which the residents have become both collaborators and \u201ccurators in their own home\u201d, says Broome. Multidisciplinary artist Olukemi Lijadu<\/a> worked with Pamela, a retired social worker who has lived on the street for 40 years, to select images from her family photo albums to scan and transform into collages that connect the dots between their shared Caribbean heritage. \u201cIt was so refreshing and so real,\u201d Lijadu says of the experience. \u201cI think when you\u2019re making work that\u2019s going to live in somebody\u2019s home, there\u2019s a responsibility, but there\u2019s also an intimacy because they\u2019re going to live with it every day.\u201d After months of working together, the pair remain in touch and Pamela now sees Lijadu as family.<\/p>\n

In many ways, then, Rooms of Neighbours is as much a social project as an exhibition. Many of the residents have met for the first time, and they now communicate regularly over a WhatsApp group. Pamela, who lives alone, says \u201cit\u2019s like a new world that has been opened to all of us. It\u2019s nice to know what\u2019s happening on the road instead of us just living in our little bubbles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the works will remain in situ indefinitely, living among the residents\u2019 plants and furnishings. An architectural sculpture by Liam Gillick<\/a>, which is installed in one of the communal gardens, has since been repurposed by the neighbours, who use it as a gathering spot for BBQs and a storage space for their garden furniture. Rirkrit Tiravanija<\/a>\u2019s customised ping-pong tables opposite the houses are gradually becoming scuffed from use and layered with graffiti tags, developments that the artist and Broome welcome. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for these kinds of projects to happen, outside the art world and in civic space, because they engage with people in a different way,\u201d says Broome, who believes institutional spaces are increasingly failing both artists and the public due to lack of funding. \u201cBringing art to people\u2019s doorsteps can act as a catalyst for something more.\u201d<\/p>\n

A talk at the South London Gallery<\/a>, 24 June, sees collaborators Olukemi Lijadu and Pamela Dayes discuss the project<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1986, an exhibition called Chambres d\u2019Amis took contemporary art beyond the confines of the museum setting and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-654266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}