F_able
See also the F_able archival project, and the F_able art walk
Photograph courtesy of the F_able Archive
A joint project of Helena Aðalsteinsdóttir, Mya Berger, Kat Christidi, Will Heyward, Tashy Hughes, Lucy Malone, Sara Milosavljević, and Anna Spyropoulos in collaboration with The Common Room and Roman Road Trust. This project is inspired by and centred around the Common Room, a paradigm of common land created to explore whether such a method of commandeering public space could be replicated elsewhere. This space, which resides at the corner of Roman Road and St Stephen’s Road, embodies the importance of pursuing and sharing cultural rather than economic value, a vital approach within the increasingly individualistic and disjointed society we inhabit. Taking this forward, we observed the inherent potential for social value in the under and un-used spaces which populate Roman Road.
The goal was to explore the potential for the abandoned or under-used spaces — on and around Roman Road — to foster imagination and activism. Several empty shops, a dead-end-street, a parking lot, or a (barely used) market square were re-thought as a fantastical cake shop, a public oven and community kitchen, a fish museum or a vitamin C clinic.
This was put into practice in four workshops. Two took place at Old Ford Primary School. Two workshops also took place in the Common Room and brought locals and artists together in order to create fabulations for the under-used spaces. The artists then took these ideas and translated them into artworks. These works were exhibited or performed for a map-led art walk on the evening of the 24th November 2019, F_able navigates another space, another time. The ideas generated during the workshops have also served as the inspiration for an archive, which evidences the fictitious reality of the eight spaces.
For more information please see the F_abe Instagram
Project dossier available upon request