The Newspaper House is an interactive public installation making use of the free discarded newspapers found scattered in and around London.
Artist Sumer Erek will build a “house” of newspapers. The public will be encouraged to collect newspapers they find lying around on the tube, bus, streets, public spaces, in their homes and bring them on location. Sumer Erek will lead the public to follow his instructions: including their personal news within the newspaper, rolling and adding it to the structure, hence contributing to building the house.
/// Newspaper House, Gillett Square, London Dalston
March 3 – 10, 2008
The Newspaper House will move into St Barnabas Hall on Jan 20th to start storing and compiling materials to build the installation on Gillett Square.
On March 3, 2008, the Newspaper House will move to Gillett Square, where everyday added newspapers will grow the installation.
The final piece will be unveiled on 8 March 2008 and will remain untouched till 9 March 2008. What will happen to the House will depend on how many people, members of the public, travelers, companies came to Gillett Square with newspapers.
We need 120,000 newspapers !!!
Thus far, the Newspaper House has received tremendous positive feedback, being described as an ‘innovative and imaginative response to a local environmental issue’. The Newspaper House is a project developed by Creative City in collaboration with Hackney Council and Gillett Squared. Hackney Council's Culture Team has played a key role in getting the project off the ground. Its involvement demonstrates Hackney's aspirations to increase access to, and participation of the arts for all its communities. The project has received funding from Hackney Council,Arts Council England & UNltd.
"Hackney is the home of a dynamic and prolific visual arts sector and we are proud to support its continued development. Hackney's Culture Team is delighted to be a partner in the Newspaper House. This innovative project will be the first temporary art installation in the public realm in Gillett Square. It's strong environmental message will engage Hackney's communities in the 'reduce-reuse-recycle' debate."
Kim Wright, Council Corporate Director, Community Services.
The partnerships developed by and around the project make the art, public art, education and the community culminate into what aims to be a reference first class collaborative installation. A combination of the public and the private, environmentally lead Art and public art with a social conscience, implementing change in resources and habits.
/// The concept
NewsPaperHouse concept breaks down into:: News / Paper / House.
News ::
In entering the 21st century, we have moved further away from the “paper” era and further into a pan-global digital age, where news is not local any longer but available within seconds across the world. This results in an apocalyptic urgency that readers feel alarmed by, but totally disconnected from.
± Members of the public who attend will subvert “the news” by inserting their own personal, private news (observations, secrets, questions, thoughts and so on) into the newspaper before adding it to the structure. The public symbolically regains some connection with the newspaper. The action becomes theirs, the installation contains their contribution, the message acts as a carrier for the added sense of citizenship.
Paper ::
We all believed that moving into the digital era would diminish the use of paper. On the contrary, there seems to be a resurgence of printed material and newspapers, much of it free and everywhere - yet we don't think much about where paper comes from and where it goes after we've used it..
± Paper is a typically domestic and commercial waste material. The piece returns paper to its origin: wood. The newspaper rolls into a lock, which takes the shape of a branch and trunk. News items become the thread of life and grains of the wood.
House ::
Newspapers pile up in our houses, lie on the streets and on public transport. The issue is not likely to disappear ; we must find creative ways to deal with it. We are urged to consume without thinking about how to discard. The first step is inviting people to think about and value the material itself, and to consider the issue of “waste”. Too much discussion of waste and environment is delivered in apocalyptic terms, which alienates people and does not engage them creatively. Bringing it back “home” to the familiarity of “the house” and the idea that “the city is your home” should inject some fun into the issue and at the same time unleash public creativity.
± the house will fill from within, filling up with newspapers (rolled-up) to create an installation. The more newspapers the public brings, the more it fills and shapes the house, the less personal space is available inside.
/// The future is bright!
The Newspaper House aims to travel across London, the UK and internationally.... tbcontinued
/// Contacts
Info, partnerships & booking, contact ::
Karen Janody karen[at]creative-city.co.uk
Press & PR, contact::
Gillian Burton press[at]creative-city.co.uk
Corporate & creative opportunities, contact ::
Sarah Allen sarah[at]commissioner.org.uk
Documentary, contact ::
Gillian McIver gillian[at]creative-city.co.uk
