Farrell Centre presents How We Live Now

May 6–July 23, 2022

The Farrell Centre and Newcastle University’s School of Architecture Planning and Landscape, in association with Newcastle Contemporary Art, presents How We Live Now: Making Spaces in the North East with Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative.

The exhibition is based on an installation curated by Jon Astbury and Jos Boys for the Barbican Centre in London (and made possible with Art Fund support), which looks at the work of Matrix, a radical 1980s feminist architecture co-operative whose four founding members met while at Newcastle University.

The installation, which includes rare films, drawings, photos, architectural models, as well as posters, practice documents, and press clippings, explores Matrix’s design approaches, which aimed to empower groups that were often left out of building design, such as Black and Asian women’s organizations, community and childcare groups, and lesbian and gay housing co-operatives, to explore more inclusive ways of designing, building, and occupying spaces.

The installation was created by Edit, a feminist design team, in order to reflect Matrix’s design values. Visitors are encouraged to roam around and occupy four ‘pod’ constructions that approximate the scale, materials, and informality of a residential environment while framing and supporting Matrix archival material.

The Matrix installation provides a jumping off point for a display of contemporary projects from the North East of England that engage with the spatial implications of gender, accessibility, equality, and discrimination in the exhibition’s remounting at Newcastle Contemporary Art.

Featured contemporary projects include Running as Feminist Activism—Sarah Ackland; Embodied Knowledge of the City—Natalie Bamford; Listen with Mother?—Louise Mackenzie, Kaajal Modi and Ruth Morrow; Broadcast Bartender—Toby Lloyd and Andrew Wilson; Women, Children and Play on Streets—Alison Stenning and Sally Watson; Is There a Right Time? Through The Eyes of Young Fathers—Michael J Richardson and Albert Potrony; Undutiful Spirit—Rossanna Morris, Harriet Sutcliffe and Gayle Miekle; Dwellbeing—Julia Heslop; and Fenham Pocket Park Project—Armelle Tardiveau and Daniel Mallo.