Guardians: the school we lived in

An exhibition on property guardianship: when abandoned buildings become homes.

A mix of portrait & still photography, found objects, and an accompanying soundscape, documenting nine
property guardians living in an abandoned school in Hackney Downs.

'Guardians: the school we lived in' documents
the last hurrah of a disused school in Hackney
Downs in which its final earthly purpose was to
be a home to nine property guardians (including
the artist).

Property guardianship, a business whereby
abandoned or disused buildings are rented, has
prospered in recent years as a result of the current
housing crisis and particularly since squatting
became a criminal offence in 2012. The main
appeal for property guardians is that rent is cheap
and the buildings on offer are often commercial
properties which provide large spaces in prime
locations. There are, however, regular inspections
and renting is on the basis of short-term licence
agreements which means the length of stay is
often unpredictable.

The school, built in 1969, was in use until 2014 for children with learning difficulties. Despite the school's uncertain future the property guardians remained creative and resilient; repurposing the space and
breathing new life into the old classrooms. They lived there for 14 months before the school was demolished in 2016.

The single-storey breezeblock building had a distinctive architecture featuring semi-circle windows in ultramarine blue and all the regular school facilities: a jungle gym, basketball courts, assembly hall.
Unique to the school was what the guardians dubbed 'the emotion room': a small box room with long-forgotten pictograms of faces on the walls representing different emotions, which will be reproduced in the exhibition. The school also included a vast array of buttons and switches in dusty cupboards and cobwebbed corners, which will be presented as a series of stills 'what does this button do?'

Essentially an installation of portraits, stills, found objects, and a soundscape, the work aims to immerse you in the property guardian experience and explore themes of uncertainty, change, our inextricable link to the temporary nature of things, and the question of our legacy: what do we want left standing and what do we
leave to be destroyed?

The site of the school currently has two towering white cranes lying in wait for the construction of a new school and high-rise apartment block, which will loom over Hackney Downs.