With Us All

'With Us All' is a community project and my first permanent public artwork, in which we built a glasshouse from scrap windows in an edible garden. 

The project was commissioned by Metroland Cultures, a London-based arts charity, and the community partner, Sufra Foodbank and Kitchen – a Brent-based charity who run the edible garden. Staff from Sufra, along with residents from St Raphs Estate and garden volunteers selected the proposal. 

The glasshouse is made up entirely from recycled sash windows which were assembled according to designs by Sean Roy Parker. The fabrication of the glasshouse was led by Chris Prempeh with assistance from Sean Roy Parker, project curator Christy O’Beirne and apprentice Om Majithia. It took the team 10 days to construct the glasshouse structure in the grounds of St. Raphael’s Edible Garden. Newly-commissioned artworks by Izzy Johnson, Priya Jay and Sonia Odedra are located inside the glasshouse.

Local residents were selected to take part in a 3 day carpentry course. A small group of participants with no previous experience were led by facilitators Hannah-Lily Lanyon and Jack Narbed, learning woodwork and fabrication skills. The participants’ new woodworking skills were then put into practice in making furniture, including shelving, a desk and a bench – all made to measure specifically for the glasshouse.

Each lunchtime hot meals were cooked by artist Sean Roy Parker using surplus donations and ingredients from the edible garden and shared by all in the garden.

The glasshouse holds interesting second-hand tools such as binoculars, flower presses and contact microphones. These are available for visitors to use as they explore their relationships with the nonhuman life in the garden. People might use them to look at birds, wild plants or even microbes in the compost.