‘Apart Together’ celebrated the artworks created between 2019 and 2021 by our OG Youth Collective, our Beacon School partners and the wider education community.

This exhibition featured our major lockdown art project, 10x10, a huge hanging sculpture, which was made by many hands over the past year and was inspired by the work of El Anatsui. Also exhibited were the OG Youth Collective’s pieces that responded to themes of identity, colonialism, repatriation, and the recent events that caused the toppling of monuments in the UK and wider world. Alongside these was a series of works made by local schools and our Beacon Schools who we worked with online and on site. These pieces were inspired by October Gallery artists and the students' own experiences of lockdown life.

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​Featured Artwork:

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10 x 10

Inspired by El Anatsui, Created by Esther Adesigbin and OG Education

10x10 was an installation created during the lockdown year. We invited our October Gallery artists and educators, young people, families, and schools to create a special ‘art’ square. Each square responded to feelings whilst staying at home and included heartfelt messages. The finished squares were linked together to make an art piece that celebrated our community staying safe by staying home. 10x10 carries the hope of reuniting again to celebrate this uplifting collaboration.

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“The ideas that I work with speak directly to the idea of regeneration. For example, the time I worked with clay and broken pots – I used the idea of the pot as my point of departure, demonstrating that when a pot breaks, it is not the end of its life. Rather, it is the beginning of a new cycle of life, allowing it more uses than when it was whole.” -- El Anatsui

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Events During the Exhibition

 

Family Art Day - for Under 5s

Wednesday 28th July

10am-11.30am

Gallery Space, October Gallery 

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The session was free and open to families with children of all ages.

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Free drop-in art activities for all

Friday 30th July  

12:30-4:00pm

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Visitors could partake in creative activities in our lovely courtyard. These art making sessions were accessible for everyone and ran by our amazing OG Youth Collective members.

 

Drop-in workshop with Toppled Monument Archive

Saturday 31st July

12:30-4:00pm​

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This creative workshop, suitable for all ages, explored ideas of monumentalising individuals and the UK government’s ‘retain and explain’ approach to monuments. The workshop explored monument poses, power structures, and experimented with dedicating monument plaques to individuals.