*New* cosy 1 bed home | Shoreditch | Long Stays is an exhibition which takes place in an Airbnb in Bethnal Green. Titled after the apartment’s online listing, this show seeks to challenge the notion of home through contemporary art, highlighting the commodification of the domestic and its impact on social and economic networks, as well as themes of displacement and the search for belonging.
Airbnb, Inc. is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and long-term homestays in various countries and regions. It acts as a broker and charges a commission for each booking. Founded in 2008, during the financial crisis, Airbnb is now the most popular company for short-term housing rentals and was able to thrive amidst an emerging economy of subscription and gig-based companies, where traditional brick-and-mortar industries transitioned into streamlined ‘hyper-convenient’ click and buy services.
The exhibition, which is site specific and devoid of any ‘permanence’, serves as a disruption to the cyclical order of how Airbnb operates. The sacrilege of *New* cosy 1 bed home | Shoreditch | Long Stays starts in its name. Staged in a non descript modern apartment, the show is housed within the walls of a (now converted) church, built by Edward Blore in the early 19th Century. Having once served as a site for congregation and communion, it is currently an absolute transgression from its intended purpose. A place of worship and faith, later converted into private housing, now serves as a godless commodity which can be marketed and consumed.
The home is what economic systems as epistemologies of commodification are derived from: the combination of the Greek words oikos (household) and nomos (management) makes up the word ‘economy’. This domestic-economic duality is further amplified through these works as they splice open the complexities behind an unhomely home; in this instance the Airbnb. The sterile grey walls, tiles and linoleum of the ready-made, one-size-fits-all interiors are juxtaposed with artworks which consider these economic entanglements and the relationship of the self to spatial and temporal motifs of domesticity, serving as a voyeuristic insight into the social and political systems which impose this merchandised aesthetic. Liminality becomes omnipresent.
Existing in relation rather than in opposition to each other, alienation and belonging are rendered through many facets of the material world in the artworks of this exhibition. Some present non-congruous reflections on the economic and social frameworks that shape the commodified home while others affront their emotional and psychological impact on the self. To Be Placed Inside A Book And Forgotten depicts a young Jonathan Monk, playing on a moment of discovery when living in a strange home amongst strange things. It begs the question - should we be looking at this? Quasimodo is a depiction of embodiment within unfamiliar space where Arthur Marie excavates feelings of alienation and loss. When emotions latch onto systems of production what do they morph into?
The works expose how the domestic is now a condition which is managed, categorised and manipulated by the invisible hand of the market. They scrape the remnants of these (un)familiar spaces through architectural and functional interventions, questioning the very notion of these domestic forms to understand systemic alienation and our shared, uncanny material conditions.
