Hole Story | Dig Collective commission, St John’s rectory, Hackney, London

Ravenous property developers, aspirational lifestyles forced into our eyes and minds at every opportunity, the cynical selling of false realities.

And then the making the best of it. How to live in one tiny room, eight cubic or squared feet of living space.

In One Room Living, 2006 eight people built a room on a platform using Ikea flat pack furniture and interior accessories. Participants followed instructions taken from Ikea’s suggestions for living in cramped spaces and were not allowed to leave the platform during the assembly of the room.

In 2014 I revisited this idea, when Dig Collective commissioned me to make a room in the hole they had dug in the garden of a rectory in Hackney, slated for property development. Live / Work / Space was a living/studio space which I occupied, along with a group of friends and visitors over several days. In a wry nod to artists’ involvement in the gentrification process, I even hosted a pop-up Mexican kitchen in the hole. Find out more about the award-winning ‘Hole Story’ here, and featured here in the London Review of Books by Iain Sinclair.

Hole Story | Dig Collective commission, St John’s rectory, Hackney, London | Photo: Alberto Duman

Hole Story | Dig Collective commission, St John’s rectory, Hackney, London | Photo: Alberto Duman.

Hole and its lid.

Drawing made from charcoal found in the wall of the hole, recording the contents of the walls.

Rope ladder made by visitors to the hole as a means of egress.

Using the rope ladder to leave the hole for the last time.

Chelsea College of Art & Design Parade Ground, London