Building Space was a two-part event organised by Jupiter Woods and Katrina Black in partnership with the South London Gallery, on the occasion of Winnie Herbstein’s solo exhibition Brace at Jupiter Woods (3 May – 2 Jun 2019).

Brace expands Herbstein’s ongoing research into gendered labour and workspaces, including the typically masculine territory of the building site. The project also continues the artist’s and Jupiter Woods’ mutual research on historical and contemporary forms of alternative feminist organising in relation to architecture and the formation of space.

The two events place Winnie Herbstein’s research in dialogue with other works and practitioners, including Ayo Akingbade (artist), Rianna Jade Parker (curator and writer), Frances Bradshaw (Co-founder, Matrix Feminist Architectural Co-operative) and Charlotte Procter (Cinenova).

For the first event, organised with Charlotte Procter (Cinenova), a screening of the 1984 film Bitter Wages by Audrey Droisen and the Women and Work Hazards Group, and Herbstein’s film Studwork (2018) was followed by a conversation on tolerance and collaboration, tooling and dexterity with Winnie Herbstein, Charlotte Procter (Cinenova) and Gin Dunscombe (artist), chaired by Katrina Black (Jupiter Woods).

The second event explored methods of inhabiting space in relation to feminism within the architecture industry and housing rights. A screening of artist Ayo Akingbade’s Street 66 (2018), the story of housing activist Dora Boatemah and the Angell Town estate in Brixton, was followed by a conversation between Ayo Akingbade, Rianna Jade Parker (curator and writer) and Frances Bradshaw (co-founder of Matrix Feminist Architectural Co-operative), chaired by Carolina Ongaro (Jupiter Woods).

Street 66 @ South London Gallery (2019) from Ayo Akingbade on Vimeo.