PRESENTING THE PIGEON WING

This week we had a small conversation with Sarah Jury about the Pigeon Wing:

1. When and how did the Pigeon Wing start?
After graduating from Central St Martins Collage of art in 2008 Sarah Jury, Alastair T. Willey and Isobel Shirley registered the need for a platform for new and emerging artists to realize their ideas, present them to the public and open them up for discussion.
We were able to open The Pigeon Wing when we found our current home, which is an old Victorian warehouse in South London. We moved the pigeons out (hence the name), we built walls, plumbed and put in electrics and invited people to our first event in December 2008.

2. What are your main activities and how do you keep things running? (team, funding, etc)
The Pigeon Wing is not for profit and is currently in the process of finding funding. We keep things running by offering ourselves as a facility, exchanging our skills and space for collaboration to present interesting projects.

3. Can you tell us a little about some former projects/exhibitions at the Pigeon Wing?
In 2009 we presented 7 exhibitions, 2 residencies, monthly Sunday Crits, film screenings and events.
Last year our Residency program brought a total of 6 international artists to London for the first time. Staying for 3 weeks, these artists had the freedom and time to develop new work for the exhibitions that concluded their stay at The Pigeon Wing.
Art / Value / Currency is one of our ongoing projects, which focuses on the exchange of art and its discussion. We exhibited Part One in November of 2009. The project is now being developed further in New York and will return to The Pigeon Wing later this year.

4. What is your visions for your space/platform?
We feel that not catering to a commercial audience is important in realizing innovative unlimited projects. Doing this provides the public with the opportunity to see new uncompromised types of work while also facilitating our peers and other emerging artists in realizing their ideas without asking them to fit into a white box space. The Pigeon Wing’s regular open critiques make the projects we present a dialogue, so that the opportunity is made to develop ideas further. Retaining an open dialogue is very important to us.

Click here to learn more and apply to take part in the last Open Call promoted by The Pigeon Wing.