Reflecting upon these recent times of isolation, where gathering with loved ones or strangers became forbidden, and drawing from the history of the Loughborough Hotel both as a pub and a dancehall, Yesterday, Together, Tomorrow opens a conversation on the act of coming together in public spaces, in Brixton.

The exhibition works across two lines of investigation, evolving and blending throughout the course of its duration. A showcase of archival material in loan from the Lambeth Archive and Blak Outside, works as a first attempt to highlight a few moments of coming together in public spaces in Brixton. After digging into the rich records of social gatherings in the area in recent decades, the gallery in collaboration with the archives selected both photographic and oral material that reflected people coming together in various contexts: protests, parties, celebrations, queues, games, jamms. A call to personal archives constitutes the other part of the show, a collaboration with anyone willing to share their personal records of gatherings in Brixton. Whether shot on analogue cameras or on a phone, the gallery will scan or print the images and then hang them on the exhibition walls.

The exhibition, highlighting unseen moments of both personal and public archives, aims to create and further develop community ties, using the images and audio records as a springboard for further discussion and connection. The public programme will be an essential part of the show, a place to create further discussion around the social history of Brixton and to keep rewriting the exhibition itself.

The exhibition will be a space for hanging out, consulting books on display, or browsing the archives online, chatting, drawing, screening and debating.

Submit your own images

Have you got pictures of parties, protests, meetings, dinners, screenings, walks, plays in Brixton? Over the duration of the exhibition we’ll be adding photographs taken from the personal archives on members of the public, and overlaying them on top of the original exhibition. Please upload here and/or drop in to gallery. We will be printing your images on site and layering on top of the exhibition for the duration of the show.

Events

Throughout the exhibition: a call to archive for pictures of people coming together in Brixton : the images will be printed or scanned by the gallery staff and hung on the gallery walls alongside the exhibition works.

Loughborough Road Histories: Stories of a south London street (Talk and Book launch)

Thursday 16 September, 7-8pm

DJ & poetry night (open mic)

Friday 24 September, 6-9pm

Photography Workshop

Saturday 2 October

Collage workshop for families

Saturday 9 October, 11am–1pm

Blak Outside squats San Mei Gallery

Friday 15 – Sunday 17 October

Installation views

Collaborators

Lambeth Archives is the borough of Lambeth's record office and history library.

Blak Outside is a grassroots-led, intergenerational project, supportive of social housing residents and QTIBIPOC (queer, trans, intersex, Black, indigenous people of colour). Blak Outside 2021 will build on existing work, particularly the thirty years of community work of Carole Wright to provide a long term legacy within the communities where she lives and works. In 2021 Blak Outside was selected for the Support Structures for Support Structures, a fellowship programme initiated by Serpentine, that supports up to ten artists and collectives working at the intersection of art, spatial politics and community practice.

Visiting during COVID-19

If you wish to visit the exhibition during our normal open hours there is no need to book. However, all events must be booked via Eventbrite.