An Islington art student has created a life-size model of the Milner Square room she still shares with her elder sister as a comment on the capital’s housing crisis.
Mimi Hope, 22, is exhibiting Our Room – made from steel poles – at the Chelsea College of Arts.
She told the Gazette: “I wanted to make work that could address both my personal experience and a generation-defining political issue in its most critical hour.
“My sister and I share this space because, like many others, we’ve been inevitably impacted by the physical parameters of our home environment as determined by household income, relative predisposition of government to social justice and access to opportunities.
“By stripping the room to its skeletal structure, Our Room speaks directly to the severity of the housing crisis and its manifold ramifications.
“In Islington and the majority of London, it’s really hard to find somewhere that isn’t either completely unaffordable or unsuitable for living. I really feel like this situation is reaching breaking point.”
Mimi, in her second year of an art degree, added: “I’m going to put lots of different artwork in it and hopefully take the work on tour, putting it in different locations.
“It’ll include lots of paintings and also performance work – I also hope to change the room into a garden.
“Although it’s a very serious topic I want to present it in a way to subvert the situation.”
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