I didn’t know Clapham Park much before I started my creative residency here as part of Clapham Park Creative Co-op. So the idea for the My Neighbour’s Keys project really came from spending time with the Over 50s group. They talked a lot about their relationships with neighbours with most describing a stronger sense of neighbourliness in the past, people helping each other out. They felt that things had changed a lot over the years, especially since the regeneration started. One member, Trish, used a small walking trolley, which had many key fobs attached to it from all the places she had visited in the world, so that gave me the idea for the installation. For me, It’s important to spend time just being with people, without an agenda. Building relationships, chatting, listening, laughing, drinking tea, finding out what really matters to people, allowing ideas to emerge; this is the work as much as making art is the work. I wish I had found more time for this.
Stella Barnes is a participatory artist and participated in the Clapham Park Creative Co-op as a Creative in Residence 2018.
— Photographed by Marcia Chandra at the Winter Warmer, December 2017.
CLAPHAM PARK CREATIVE CO-OP 