The Newspaper House
March 4th - March 9th 2008
Audience and participant comments:
"There was a paper house. It stood in Gillett Square. On Saturday 8th March my Granny and I were there." (Ajanta Palmiero)
"I would like this house to be in the museum and people can make things to finish it like chairs, a chimney, a swimming pool." (Anon.)
The Newspaper House was the first large-scale visual art project which has been realised in Gillett Square. The installation was created by Hackney-based artist Sumer Erek and produced by Karen Janody of Creative City. Gillett Squared worked with the artistic and curatorial team from the inception of the project on partnerships, fundraising and production management. London Borough of Hackney’s Cultural Development Team made a significant funding contribution to the installation and was instrumental in publicising the event. Finance was also secured from Arts Council England, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and UnLtd.
Following initial construction at St Barnabas Church Hall, The Newspaper House arrived as a 5m x 3m wooden shell on Gillett Square with only one completed corner inside. During a week of open participation to recycle sack loads of newspapers into building materials, people stopped for a few minutes and many individuals devoted hours of their time to making the installation. Participants recycling the waste newspapers also wrote messages onto the building materials, which became woven as additional, secret texts into the installation. A dedicated team of volunteers recruited by Creative City included members of Studio Upstairs, which is based in the Dalston Culture House. (www.studioupstairs.org.uk) Circle Line textile designers, also based in the Culture House, volunteered to make a cloth ‘dress’ for the unveiling moment.
The project also involved collaboration with Metronet Rail’s daily logistical operations. They delivered two tonnes of waste newspapers, discarded in tubes and trains across the city, to be incorporated into the installation. The Newspaper House incorporated over 85,000 waste, ‘free’ papers. Over 1000 people actively took part in making the Newspaper House and up to 800 people came to visit the unveiled artwork on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th March.
Newspaper House attracted national and international media coverage from the BBC, Big Issue, Building Design, Europe 1, Evening Standard, the Guardian, Iconeye, Metro, Reuters and Turkish Daily News as well as in art and environmental magazines in China, France and Brazil.
The project has continued to the 2008 Liverpool Biennial: www.newspaperhouse.blogspot.com
Photos by HCD and Nazir Tanbouli (third down)
The members of Gillett Squared:
Hackney Co-Operative Developments
New Vortex Jazz Club
East London Design Show
