The production of daily life was a three-year project designed and delivered by Sol Archer, the first artist invited to participate in Household’s long-term artist-in-residence programmes in city neighbourhoods.
Between 2018 and 2021, at the invitation of Household, Sol Archer spent time engaging with groups intersecting and/or identifying with, or operating in, Sailortown and the surrounding area: elderly former residents, new migrant communities, local grassroots organisations, and children and young people living in local social housing. The production of daily life positions the Sailortown neighbourhood as a microcosm where histories are memorialised and (re-)enacted; forces of regeneration and speculation are at play and can be playfully examined; and community and communities are formed and (re-)imagined.
This three-year embedded residency programme included workshops, public events and screenings, the creation of a participatory Haunted House experience, the documentation of oral histories, and an exhibition, and associated public programme of interviews and discussions, including a custom designed online platform. Related content and events can be found below.
Sol Archer is a Netherlands-based artist who works through long-term collaborations with professional and non-professional groups and mixed communities of interest and place. He considers the encounter as a space of production and uses video as an apparatus for creating collective experiences and new work. He is interested in developing strategies for creating agency and auto-representation within groups, and platforming and supporting groups who see community building as acts of resistance.
Image: 'not only the earth we share' was an exhibition of film and sculptural installation by Household’s artist-in-residence Sol Archer at Golden Thread Gallery (24 April – 29 May 2021). The exhibition was curated by Household and examines the past, present, and future of a small neighbourhood in Belfast called Sailortown. A custom-designed website by NONGRAPHIC allowed viewers to watch extracts of film from the exhibition and other documentation captured by Sol since 2018.
Image: still from ,not only the earth we share', a film by Sol Archer developed during his residency
Image: edited still designed by NONGRAPHIC for an online platform featuring 'Who Makes the City', a resource of videos and situated conversations led by Sol Archer. It was part of the 'not only the earth we share' exhibition’s public programme and consisted of short commissioned videos inviting thinkers, activists, and practitioners of the urban condition to explore a central theme of the exhibition: who makes the city?It platformed the first iteration of this project with videos introducing the work of leading academics, writers and thinkers Samuel Stein, Brenna Bhandar and Daniel Renwick, Olúfemi O. Táíwò, and Anna Minton and Henrietta Williams. These speakers will discuss their work, research and thinking on city governance and property development; the relationships between property law and colonialism; rights to the city; solidarity, security and freedom; and environmental justice.
Image: Edited still from 'Walking the Elephant', a film by anna minton and henrietta williams included in the 'who makes the city' online platform, a resource of videos and situated conversations led by Sol Archer that broadly address how and by whom the city as a condition is determined and continues to change.
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