From February 4th, 13 artists occupied the fifth floor of a largely unoccupied office building in East India Docks, as part of creative director and curator Caitlin Mavroleon’s ambitious project, OFFICE SESSIONS, in which various art projects activated 100,000 sqf of empty office space.
HOUSERULES was initiated by artist Nadia Berri, and the project was executed collaboratively with participating artists Tatiana Baskakova, Victoria Burgher, Terry Dynes, Ben Faga, Matthew Hammond, Jeremy Lee, Jayne Lloyd, Kate Mahony, Erifili Missiou, Cristina Pedreira and Daniella Valz-Gen and Rob Brown.
Over 42 days the artists engaged in the development of constantly evolving work for, and in direct response to 20,000 sqf of a deserted office floor. This particular setting offered great potential, while at the same time the ‘houserules’ of such an environment set out contrived boundaries: it was within this tension that the project took place.
HOUSERULES embraced the idea of indeterminacy within the restrictions of the 5th floor to bring, but also to question, freedom, action and play, in the context of an exhibition and also the given space. The participating artists work in a variety of media, including performance, film, installation, sculpture, text and sound.