Tobi - our man on the ground in Kolkotta - is busy visiting the construction sites of three new resource centres spread over the three districts of Nadia, Medinipur and Puruliya in West Bengal. Initated by 'Banglanatak' a group of social entrepreneurs who are working closely with artists and craftsmen in several villages of West Bengal.

The resource centres are part of a wider development of regional heritage trails. Each centre is dedicated to a specific artform which is dominant in the area. The land for the centres has been donated to the project by the local artists and crafts communities. The heritage trails are being developed with the Department of Tourism, Culture and Development at London Metropolitan Business School. The resource centres act as nodes for the trails and as an important piece of infastructure in the future development of the artform and its economical success.

Tobi Sofela from public works has the pleasure of spending three months in Kolkotta, overseeing the completion of the centres in cooperation with the local architect and contractor.

Posted September 10, 2010 18:00 by Andreas Lang

Join us on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 September 2010
9.30am - 5pm
Venue: firstsite 4 - 6 Short Wyre Street Ages:
For Everyone Price: Free, just drop in

The Colchester Inn project continues to grow following the February launch of The Knot Curtain, made with Colchester Chinese Culture Society (CCCS). We are now working with three more Colchester based groups to produce the new space for hosting and welcoming in Colchester.

On 8 and 9 September a group of students from the BA (Hons) Art and Design - Three Dimensional Design and Craft course at Colchester Institute will develop a typical 'front room' at firstsite, where knick-knacks and selected objects will be arranged as conversation starters that can also be swapped by and with the general public. Come in and see what's going on

Posted September 7, 2010 11:34 by Andreas Lang

Join My Club at the Polish Arts Festival in Southend-on-Sea from the 12th to the 13th of September 2010. public works ongoing collaboration with 30Bird Production continues on the newly designed and customised Bedford truck which hosts a temporary roaming cultural space.

A military truck, a tower, a shed in the sky, a house cut in half and the British army: Chodzenie-Siberia is a spectacular outdoor event inspired by the journey of Poles to Siberia and Iran. Come and walk through regiments of soldiers, a wall of sound and enter the weird and wonderful world of Chodzenie-Siberia, see film projections on the truck, and climb a spiral staircase in the tower to look into the shed and see trains and towys against a vast landscape.

Join us in the city centre. We will be making army uniform inspired accessories in the thin rooms of an army truck, displaying them in gilded framed windows and hold intimate specialists talks in the shed in the sky on the truck. So come along, bring inspiring fabrics and commission your own accessories. Sign up for talks and have a cup of tea.

Posted September 6, 2010 16:00 by Andreas Lang

Dear old Hackney Wick
The place of our abode
There is no other in the land, it beats the mile end road
It's there that we were born; it's there that we will stick
There is no other in the land like dear old hackney wick
Have a banana !

public works got a new commission for a small temporary project in Hackney Wick. The piece - Route Book (working title) - is commissioned by muf architecture/art as part of their wider involvement with the public realm work in the area.

As the landscape of Hackney Wick and Fish Island changes once again and new routes are being cut across the area, bridges being build and new connections being made we will revisit every day journeys, walks and narratives that cut through Hackney Wick and Fish Island from a very local perspective.

The piece will directly contribute to - and be a continuation of the Wick Curiosity Shop, an eclectic collection of local produce, memorabilia, oral history, songs and stories from or about Hackney Wick in East London

We are happy to be back in the Wick - not that we ever left - but its a great opportunity to spend more time on site.

Chek our log for updates on the project as it develops:
- Lea Bank Square Open Day
- Seed Bomb Pressing

Posted September 2, 2010 18:05 by Andreas Lang

Mobile Porch is on a month long visit at Abbey Wood and Woolwich in South East London. Polly and Paul from Avant Gardening are roaming through two estates on two separate projects. For more details visit their ever growing Avant Gardening website.

http://www.avantgardening.org/projects/avant.gardening.barnfield

http://www.avantgardening.org/projects/flowers.in.the.wood

Posted August 30, 2010 09:29 by Andreas Lang

The "Individuals Group" from the Colchester Inn project are organising a Public Tea Party to test run a few ideas for their contribution to the overall project which looks at different forms of hosting:

- an oven made from local clay, kind of replicating a roman clay oven

- homemade cakes and collecting recipes for "camping baking"

- a great selection of cups and mugs from the local Charity shops.

If you re around drop by for a cup of tea and some freshly baked (hopefully) cake.

Posted August 18, 2010 12:28 by Kathrin Böhm

The art department of the school has moved in with their work and are now taking over from public works

The art department moves into St Angela's secret garden

The dye garden which aimed to start the beginnings of a flower garden to make dye for the art department is now up and running. We made 3 pots of dye from beetroot, leaves of sweet peas and marigolds with saffron.

The science department want to collaborate with the art department through the garden, as science students learn about dyes from flowers.

The picture above shows the launch of the garden to the wider school, the management and the governors.

Posted July 7, 2010 12:46 by Torange Khonsari

We re running a three day ad hoc production stall called "shred exchange" on Reuters Plaza/Canary Wharf, as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2010.

Local material: shredded paper from some of the large corporations (extremely fine stuff!).

Tool: a handpress on a mobile stall.

To do what: to compress shredded paper and anything else from your pockets into balls.

It s less about function but about fun.

The brand new Abbey Gardens Honesty Stall will accompany us, with a bag full of compost and seeds to compress seed-bombs in exchange.

Fri 25th - Sun 27th July, daily from 11.00 - 17.00.

With Emmett Walsh and Millie Harvey

Posted June 24, 2010 10:57 by Kathrin Böhm

Location map of the Folkestonomy project by public works

Coffee drinking customs in north and south Nicosia

public works has been invited to run a workshop on cultural mapping in Nikosia as part of the Euromed Heritage programme an EU funded programme which contributes to mutual understanding and dialogue between cultures through the Mediterranean region.

The workshop will take place from the 17th to the 19th of June. You can read more about the workshop in the Euromed Heritage press release.

We have been invited via Dr Julie Scott, Senior Research Fellow for Tourism, Culture and Development from London Metropolitan Business School. Julie and our path have crossed on many different projects which dealt with aspects cultural mapping (e.g. Folkestonomy) and tangible or intangible history (e.g. Folk Float)

We are also currently collaborating with Julie and Jonathan on an EU funded project in India adventurously entitled Ethnomagic which is lead by Banglanatak a very energetic NGO based in Kolkata, India.

Posted June 17, 2010 22:34 by Andreas Lang

public works created a new informal space - a dye garden in a left over space in St Angela Ursuline Catholic school in Forest Gate, London - as part of a year long residency for the Whitechapel Gallery's 'Contested Spaces' programme.

The project opens at the Whitechapel Gallery on 16th June 4pm-6pm, please come and join us.

There will be an open talk about the project on 17th June at 6:30pm at the Whitechapel Gallery. The project questions the role of artist residencies in schools and demonstrates the spatial potentials it can create.

Posted June 14, 2010 21:37 by Torange Khonsari