Anne-Marie Copestake: Birdsong and a bathroom

8 Jun-4 Aug 2024

PV 8 Jun 2024, 2-5pm

Birdsong and a bathroom, 2024, Still. Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Overview

LUX is pleased to present a new solo exhibition by Glasgow-based artist Anne-Marie Copestake, in collaboration with Holly Lodge Community Centre and as part of the Highgate Festival 2024.

As part of the centenary celebrations for the Holly Lodge Estate, the exhibition features a new film commission by Anne-Marie Copestake exploring the life of this iconic housing project in Highgate Village, North London. The film considers the legacies and lives of the Holly Lodge community, through the voices of the past and present residents.

The estate was built on grounds previously owned by 19th century heiress and philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, who was encouraged to support housing projects by her friend Charles Dickens. In 1923 distinctive faux-Tudor blocks bordering Highgate Cemetery were developed by a housing association, The Lady Workers Homes Ltd, to foster a “safe and pleasant” environment for single working women. The bedsits and flats were small with shared bathrooms, and a range of community spaces including planted grounds, a dining room, a library and a tennis court intended to create a thriving women’s community on the slopes below Highgate Village. 

Over the years, the ownership of the blocks transitioned from housing association to local council. A 2007 tenant association campaign prevented seven blocks from being sold off to private developers reflecting the challenges and vagaries of making a home in London and the enduring impact of the loss of council housing. 

The estate was also the site where Circles, the feminist film distribution network (now LUX’s sister organisation Cinenova), was founded, operating from curator Felicity Sparrow’s flat during the 1970s.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of workshops, talks and screenings. For more information please visit www.lux.org.uk.

The film will simultaneously be shown in a centenary exhibition taking place at Holly Lodge Community Centre. 

Commissioned by Holly Lodge Community Centre and LUX. Supported using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and The Elephant Trust. 

Artist Biography:
Anne-Marie Copestake is an artist living in Glasgow. Attentive to temporary and longer term communities, daily acts, acts of refusal, narrative and emotion, her work is concerned with entangled social political conditions surrounding choices, or lack of choices, and an exploration of histories and environments that may have contributed. She often works collaboratively, recently with musician Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh.