Celebration event and you are invited 31st March 2011 3pm - 8pm

Mapping Spaces

Community art celebration and exhibition

Thursday 31^st March 2011

3pm – 8pm

The  Nunnery, 181 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ

Join residents from in and around Taylor Place to celebrate their very first community art exhibition.

The work show has been made by residents of Taylor Place, children from Bow Childcare and St. Agnes Primary School.

With local artist Ashley McCormick, work has been created from a series of workshops using ideas about mapping the spaces in our local environment. The work on show will help uncover the special qualities of Taylor Place and its surrounding neighbourhoods.

For more information call Anna 020 8709 5291

Walk and arts session - Mapping Spaces 25th March 2011

There are still places to join Ashley on a walk from Taylor Place to the Nunnery Gallery, 181 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ

You can take photographs, share your stories about local place names and make collages.

The session is free to attend. Refreshments and materails are provided.

8 bells at Bow

On Friday 11th March Year 1 pupils at St.Agnes Primary School were inspired by the relief panel at 161 Bow Road which marked the building as the one time home to a branch of the Stratford Co-operative & Industrial Society. The bees are emblems of collective hard graft, and the beehive is the place where bees gain benefits from mutual co-operation. The object of the Co-op was to purchase goods in bulk at low prices and instead of giving the profits to shareholders pass this benefit on to their members as lower retail prices and in dividends. Staff and children brought the scene to life with colour and movement, making a small swarm of friendly 3D bees

Inspired by Bow Church bell tower, Year 2 pupils at St.Agnes Primary School made 2 frame animations and a soundtrack adapting the lyrics of the traditional, childrens' rhyme Oranges and Lemons. 

Working with photocopies of the 1:1 'micro maps' produced by rubbings made in Taylor Place last week, developed a set of playing cards. These cards can be used to play a game that requires close observation and recall - matching pairs of identical abstract images.

Visitors to the Nunnery Gallery on Thursday March 31st can watch the animations and play the game.

5:20 all day, every day

Bow Church is located on an island site in Bow Road. There has been a church on the same site for 700 years. The church was bombed in World War II and the tower was reconstructed, just after the war. It holds 8 bells and 4 clock faces, all of which stopped at 5:20 well over a year ago.

On Monday 8th March, responding to Bow Church tower, children aged 2 - 4years at Bow Childcare modelled bells and clocks, exploring these sources of sound and how often and far the sounds travel throughout the neighbourhood.

Eye Spy

On Friday 4th March Year 1 and 2 pupils and staff from St.Agnes Primary School pieced together a route to Taylor Place, from a pile of puzzling photos. They shared ideas about what might happen in these places, but some buildings don't give any clues about what happens within their walls.

Arriving at Taylor Place and looking up to the top of the tallest building, Fondant Court, which is 16 stories tall, made everyone feel a little dizzy.

Pupils sought out different patterns and textures and made rubbings. These rubbings act as 1:1 'micro maps', maybe they could be useful for ants trying to navigate their way around the space?!

Looking closely, they found that the oldest building in the development is dated 1897. While playing “I spy, with my little eye” they discovered details of residents lives, which can be seen at windows and balconies: a vase of lilies, stacks of books, photoframes, a tiny Turtle, a blanket acting as a curtain, a broom propping a door open and a line of laundered underpants!

Busy Bees and Cocoa Bow

Morning activities, on Monday 28th February, were inspired by the relief panel at 161 Bow Road which marked the building as the one time home to a branch of the Stratford Co-operative & Industrial Society. The bees are emblems of collective hard graft, and the beehive is the place where bees gain benefits from mutual co-operation. The object of the Co-op was to purchase goods in bulk at low prices and instead of giving the profits to shareholders pass this benefit on to their members as lower retail prices and in dividends. 

Staff and children at Bow Childcare brought the scene to life with colour and movement, making a small swarm of 3D bees and layers of paper honey combs.

Taylor Place is named in memory of the Taylor Brothers, famous chocolate manufacturers who at one time had buildings on the site. The same reference is carried through in the naming of each residential block e.g. Fondant Court, Caramel Court, Praline Court and Mocha Court

In the afternoon, fusing the past use and the new shape and names of the place, the children co-created delicious, edible model buildings using chocolate waffles, caramel cookies, honey and chocolate spread and sweets.

On Friday 25^th February this is the view from Fintan and Negar’s workplace in the P1 studios in Taylor Place. They once had a clear view of the courtyard and sky, but to avoid the gaze and distraction of passersby, and ensure more privacy, they applied paper to the window panes. This paper screen rose incrementally. They mean to hang some curtains soon. Since the skyline outside has changed with the new residential development to the western edge of the courtyard, the quality of light in the studio has diminished.

The neighbourhood reminds Fintan of Chelsea, New York, where he lived and worked over 10 years ago. The mix of old, industrial scale buildings inhabited by illegal parties, artists and makers, the construction sites and new housing maps the course of regeneration. 

Fintan is a photographer and would like to make a study of the launderette on Bow Road.

He gets his hair cut at Noor’s Barber regularly, although the staff are sullen, they are highly skilled. He and Negar often buy coffee from the café tucked away up an alley way by a carpark whose walls bare the traces of a bygone rave scene. As a graphic designer Negar has a particular interest in visual communication. She noticed the sign at the local 24 hr MacDonalds Drive Thru that bids goodbye, for the first time today. 

If you live or work in Taylor Place or its surroundings and would like to take part in the project please email p1communityarts@gmail.com