I consent for you too by Jeremiah Brown at Stanley Arts
I consent for you too is a new photography and text commission by artist Jeremiah Brown, taking the Our Croydon community workshops as its starting point. Inspired by the stories of the Our Croydon Elders - prefect ties, house parties, chess sets and red rover tickets - Brown elevates the everyday in a deeply personal attempt to capture a community, a home, before it is lost.
Hailing from Croydon, Jeremiah questions how a community occupies a space. Drawing attention to issues of gentrification and redevelopments, I consent for you too, is the artist’s promise to his hometown - to never forget it. The exhibition speaks to the vital need for active archiving, of harnessing the spaces in between light and darkness, and exploring how we are impacted by the constant changing of our surroundings. Jeremiah says: “Archiving is active remembering. Undertaking this project I realised how much I have not been archiving Croydon. In one of the community workshops, a participant spoke about how they worked in Grants, ‘back when it used to be a department store’. It made me think how much of the Croydon I grew up with is different now or gone completely. This exhibition examines what it looks like to begin remembering later, whilst also actively remembering Croydon now. I consent to being remembered in my own life, to Croydon I say ‘I consent for you too.’”
I consent for you too is Jeremiah Brown’s first solo exhibition.
I consent for you too was presented at Stanley Arts Centre, 12 South Norwood Hill, Croydon from 18 November - 14 December 2023.
Read Jeremiah’s texts that formed part of I consent for you toohere
Image Credit: Lola Oh and Sam Nightingale
Our Croydon was a project led by Talawa Theatre Company in partnership with Museum of Croydon and Stanley Arts, part of London Borough of Culture.