Created by artist Estabrak/إستبرق with local community groups
Installation open to the public from Thursday 22nd February until Sunday 25th February 2024
Pop-up space on Queensway, Crawley town centre, RH10 1HA
HOMECOMING is an interactive installation which asks ‘what does home mean to you?’ The installation will be open to the public from Thursday 22nd February-Sunday 25th February.
The public are invited to visit the HOMECOMING installation in the centre of town, taking place in a pop-up space. People are welcomed to step inside the blackened walls of a shipping container and contribute their ideas of what home means to them. They can do this by either writing or drawing with invisible ink in any language directly onto the walls.
The installation will house all the responses of Crawley peoples’ ideas of what home is to them, to us, and our feelings towards it. There will also be sound elements to listen to along with artworks created by local Crawley community groups.
It is created by Estabrak / إستبرق – an award winning cross-disciplinary artist, film maker, facilitator and researcher committed to experimentation, inclusivity and a participatory arts practice.
Estabrak/إستبرق said: “At such a globally polarised time where we are being live streamed the destruction of certain indigenous peoples homes for the sake of others, it’s a resonant time to be offering this project to the general public.
HOMECOMING means alot to me. Home is something that anyone, with or without one, has some kind of connection to and understanding of. I love the invitation HOMECOMING offers anybody, no matter who they are. So I’m really interested to see what comes of the phone contributions and installation once it’s in the hands of the general public here in Crawley, once they know they can say anything and write or draw whatever they want about home anywhere within the spaces offered.
May people enjoy this freedom and what HOMECOMING has to offer and reveal.”
HOMECOMING is part of Crawley’s Creative Playground, a long term project by Crawley people and for Crawley people, funded by Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme. Creative Playgrounds exists to champion everyday creativity and connecting people through shared experiences.
Over the course of October 2023-February 2024, Estabrak / إستبرق collaborated with two community groups in Crawley – Wyld Mothers and the Jumma Group – to explore what home means to them through different creative and multi-sensory approaches. What they created together will feature within the installation.
Tahira Rana, Langley Green Councillor and member of the Jumma Group said: “Estabrak/إستبرق has introduced us to creative thinking and enriched the group with her artistic skills, which we had never explored before. The installation project Homecoming will be good to show the people of Crawley, that talent and creativity exists in how we see things and the joy that is found in every detail.”
On Saturday 24th February, the public are invited to an unveiling event at the installation which will reveal the UV ink contributions for the first time.
For opening times, to book your free ticket and for more information, please visit the website.
People can also be part of the installation by calling the HOMECOMING phone line to leave a message. The messages left will be anonymised and featured in a sound recording that will be on display in the installation.
Please call or text 07895646280 to leave your message in any language you choose.
HOMECOMING is a Creative Playground project. Produced by Marlborough Productions.
Supported by Arts Council England, Crawley Borough Council’s Pop-Up Culture Crawley programme and Crawley Town Centre BID.
Access Information
The installation is set inside a shipping container. There will be a ramp in place for audiences to access the space without steps. The space inside will be very dark with minimal light. Some of the content inside the installation will reference Crawley and may reference current world events.
For more up to date content and access information, please email [email protected] or Call/WhatsApp 07951122157
About the partners
Crawley’s Creative Playground
Crawley’s Creative Playground is a project about being creative, sharing experiences and connecting with others. It is part of Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme portfolio of 41 projects across the UK.
Creative Playground is managed by Creative Crawley and is led by a core team, Community Connectors and Playmakers (the project’s volunteers).
Creative Playground began in 2021 and is led by Manor Royal Business District, along with a consortium of organisations: Creative Crawley, Crawley Community Action, The Hawth, Caridon House and Crawley LGBTQU+.
To get involved with Creative Playground and to see what events are coming up, visit: www.creativeplaygroundcrawley.com
Pop-Up Culture Crawley programme
POP-UP CULTURE | CRAWLEY celebrates Crawley’s local and visiting artists, performers, makers and producers who create cultural events in the Town Centre throughout the year including supporting them with POP-UP CULTURE’s own programme of test events. Managed by Creatives Across Sussex for Crawley Borough Council.
Crawley Borough Council
Crawley Borough Council is the local authority for Crawley, West Sussex.
Crawley Town Centre Business Improvement District
Crawley Town Centre Business Improvement District is an independent business-led, business-funded organisations formed to improve a defined commercial area. The Crawley Town Centre BID will deliver a range of projects and initiatives aligned to primary values; make Crawley Town Centre safer and more vibrant, businesses feeling more connected and widely promoting and showcasing the area.
Marlborough Productions
Marlborough Productions is a catalyst for queer culture and community.
They are a leading UK producer of queer-led, intersectional performance, parties, heritage and radical community gatherings
Led by Creative Director Tarik Elmoutawakil and Executive Director David Sheppeard, Marlborough Productions is a pioneering organisation that advances equality and social justice through producing intersectional queer culture.
Over the past ten years, Marlborough Productions has been recognised nationally & internationally for commissioning innovative new work from extraordinary artists, reclaiming spaces to create and share culture and developing communities.
Image credit: Courtesy of the Artist © Estabrak /إستبرق
