Opening, January 11, 2011, 6 pm
Exhibition, January 12 – February 25, 2011
“Urban Utopias” is an ongoing series of photographs documenting municipal green spaces like parks, community gardens and city farms in southeast London.These sites are the meeting point for diverse narratives around community, nature, ownership and the city. The project presents these spaces as utopian. The utopia proposed is a contested one that might involve sites that are in a constant state of negotiation and renegotiation. The green spaces in the part of London that the project focuses on contradicts its public perception as an urban jungle. Indeed, there is an almost palpable need for this green space in the urban context. “Urban Utopias“ centres on areas like Camberwell, Vauxhall, Peckham and Brixton. Here, historical luminaries like William Blake and John Ruskin frequented some of the green spaces that now are part of contemporary urban London. Arguably, these areas are now considered amongst the less salubrious parts of the city: their names have become negative signifiers of class or race. The project considers whether the places to which they refer can transcend such connotations.
Virginia Nimarkoh (b. 1967 in the United Kingdom) lives and works in London.
www.virginianimarkoh.net
Curated by Christian Kravagna and Hedwig Saxenhuber.
