Peckham Art Project Turns Neighbours Into Home Curators
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- Ben Broome launched "Rooms of Neighbours" on a Peckham street inspired by Ghent's 1986 "Chambres d'Amis" exhibition; 12 households — a mix of council and privately owned homes spanning different ages, classes, and diasporas — signed up after he knocked on doors and pitched the idea over tea, and were paired with established and emerging artists focused on domestic spaces and "social practice."
- Ghislaine Leung, a 2023 Turner prize nominee, recreated her 2024 mural for a young family, using bold block colors to interrogate UK government childcare provisions; the work now lives behind the cot in their child's bedroom.
- Raheel Khan developed a sound piece inspired by William Blake's childhood memories of Peckham Rye Park — a warped, looped rendition of "The Lamb" with added bass tailored to resident Nigel's convertible subwoofer — that now sits in Nigel's UK garage playlist.
- Olukemi Lijadu and resident Pamela, a retired social worker who has lived on the street for 40 years, scanned Pamela's family photo albums to make collages linking their shared Caribbean heritage; the two remain in touch and Lijadu is now considered family.
- Residents became "curators in their own home" through collaborative placement of the works, met many neighbours for the first time, and now communicate regularly over a WhatsApp group, with Pamela saying "it's like a new world that has been opened to all of us."
- Liam Gillick's architectural sculpture in a communal garden has been repurposed by neighbours as a BBQ gathering spot and garden-furniture storage, while Rirkrit Tiravanija's customised ping-pong tables opposite the houses are gradually becoming scuffed and tagged with graffiti — developments both artists and Broome welcome.
- Most works will remain in situ indefinitely; Broome argues institutional spaces are failing artists and the public due to lack of funding, and that "bringing art to people's doorsteps can act as a catalyst for something more."
Why it matters: The project demonstrates a working model for placing contemporary art in non-art-world domestic settings across a demographically mixed London street, with 12 households and multiple high-profile artists (Turner nominee Leung, Tiravanija, Gillick) participating alongside residents who had never visited the local South London Gallery — and crucially, the artworks will stay, with neighbours already reshaping Gillick's and Tiravanija's pieces through everyday use.
