We were delighted to welcome the team from BBC Points West to New Brewery Arts a couple of weeks ago, when they filmed this great piece. It’s wonderful to receive such coverage from the BBC. Over 2,000 people have visited the exhibition so far and this helps spread the message even further.
The show is open until April 2nd. Make sure you go along to see the show.
“It was devastating to lose our home. I lived there for 49 years.”
After receiving a significant and unexpected tax bill, Anonymous lost the home she shared with her elderly parents and daughter.
With nowhere to go, Anonymous had to sofa-surf at the homes of friends and family, while her parents moved into their brother’s small flat and her daughter into her sister’s.
After filing for bankruptcy, Anonymous went to the council for help and was given a Band B category of need. But then the council began to treat her case with suspicion and downgraded the family to Band E.
“I’m not stupid, but I’m not well-educated. I didn’t know how to discuss my case with the people in charge. And then I went to Shelter and met Philomena.”
After Philomena had Thelma’s case reassessed, the family were returned to high priority. In November, she successfully bid on a new social home.
After years of uncertainty, bankruptcy, eviction, navigating bureaucracy and surviving the Snakes and Ladders of Hope and Despair, all that my paired individual desired was a refuge.
These boots represent a home at its most basic, similar to that depicted in naïve domestic samplers. Using simple stitches, the embroidery reflects simple desires – family, dog, furniture – all protected by strong red brick, adorned with a rambling rose decorating the entrance. Precious and Fragile.
The linings depict the spiral of decline, somewhat like Alice tumbling into chaos, losing control, conversely interpreted as the never-ending climb out of the abyss.
While the person I am paired with wishes to remain anonymous, the name of her Shelter representative is hidden in the shoe - the silent hand that reached down as she was falling and brought her back out of the dark hole.
This is the story of homeless strife. It is also the story of the power of kindness.
The exhibition is open from 30th January to 2nd April at New Brewery Arts. It’s free to visit.
This exhibition first appeared at a Shelter boutique in London. We wanted to connect shopping, fashion and craft to tell stories of homelessness. Whenever you pre-loved donate clothes, or buy from us you’re helping Shelter fight the housing emergency that is devastating lives.
To donate clothing and items to our charity shops via post, for free, simply download a free postage label. Or you can find your local Shelter charity shop here.
To find out more about Shelter, click on the links below:
Shelter Website: http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Campaigning: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns
Support us: https://england.shelter.org.uk/GetHelp
Get help: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
For decades Missie enjoyed a glamorous acting career, performing in venues like the London Coliseum and living a fast-paced life out in the Netherlands.
But after her mum died, she was evicted from her house and ended up in a cramped, unsafe room. Without warning, she’d lost her job, her parent and her home.
That’s when she rang Shelter’s helpline – we helped her find a comfortable one-bedroom flat and gave her the security she needed to rebuild her life.
We also told Missie about Sing for Shelter – a special event at the London Coliseum where UK choirs were recording a single to raise money and fight homelessness. The performance was hugely cathartic for Missie. She could express herself and turn her experiences into something meaningful, positive and powerful.
Missie has continued to express her creativity with Shelter and has written a wonderful poem for the project called:' ‘Life in My Shoes - ‘A lie of their Own’
I really love Missie's spirit and love and respect her artistic impression.
I found it important to get people to think about how it could be in a homeless person’s shoes, how they look at homeless people and how they would manage being homeless themselves.
These difficulties are represented in the artwork as shoes not being the right size and shoes that can't be worn at all. I had the idea of making shoe lights, candles are part of Missie's home as is music, singing and performance.
The candle shoe is a type of "Sacred performance", where people light a shoe and reflect on homelessness. It also reflects Missie's own positive human aura and glow.
I have always liked the idea of lighting a candle for someone you love or to lament on something important.
Read about the development of the shoe
The exhibition is open from 30th January to 2nd April at New Brewery Arts. It’s free to visit.
This exhibition first appeared at a Shelter boutique in London. We wanted to connect shopping, fashion and craft to tell stories of homelessness. Whenever you pre-loved donate clothes, or buy from us you’re helping Shelter fight the housing emergency that is devastating lives.
To donate clothing and items to our charity shops via post, for free, simply download a free postage label. Or you can find your local Shelter charity shop here.
To find out more about Shelter, click on the links below:
Shelter Website: http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Campaigning: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns
Support us: https://england.shelter.org.uk/GetHelp
Get help: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
“The council spoke to me as if I was just a number or an animal.”
When Chantelle and her daughter became homeless, she felt as if no one cared. She used to leave the council office in floods of tears and struggled to secure any kind of permanent home from them.
After being pushed to breaking point, she decided to call Shelter – and it was the first time someone spoke to her like a human being:
“It made me feel warm. That one telephone call gave me comfort that was worth its weight in gold. I can’t thank Shelter enough.”
Today Chantelle is living in rented accommodation and has a greater sense of stability in her life. She’s now self-employed and working hard to build her own business.
Her daughter has even signed up to volunteer for Shelter – raising money so that anyone who’s struggling is treated with humanity, dignity and fairness.
This shoe is inspired by Chantelle’s resilience, drive and independence throughout her battle with homelessness.
The gravity-defying straps suspended by magnetic force is a visual representation of the force and struggle Chantelle overcomes on a daily basis. The upper of the shoe wraps around the foot like a protective blanket portraying the warmth and comfort Shelter provided for Chantelle during her darkest days.
The shoe is completely lined with a custom designed floral print to showcase her feminine and infectious personality. All these different elements combined create a unique sculptural shoe that reflects the story of an inspiring woman, and therefore the only fitting name for the shoe is Chantelle.
Read Daniel’s blogs on the shoe development
The exhibition is open from 30th January to 2nd April at New Brewery Arts. It’s free to visit.
This exhibition first appeared at a Shelter boutique in London. We wanted to connect shopping, fashion and craft to tell stories of homelessness. Whenever you pre-loved donate clothes, or buy from us you’re helping Shelter fight the housing emergency that is devastating lives.
To donate clothing and items to our charity shops via post, for free, simply download a free postage label. Or you can find your local Shelter charity shop here.
To find out more about Shelter, click on the links below:
Shelter Website: http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Campaigning: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns
Support us: https://england.shelter.org.uk/GetHelp
Get help: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
Almost overnight, the only home Angela and her son, Kardinell, had ever known as a family got taken away from them.
Her landlord ramped up the rent, leaving Angela with no choice but to sofa surf. They’d spend their days hopping from home to home, hoping that one friend or another would put them up for the night.
Kardinell was badly affected by all of this. He’d been distracted at school and was worried about things like paying the bills and dealing with the landlords – issues which no child should ever have to think about.
Thankfully, Shelter were able to help them find a social home. They’ve been living there ever since and have finally found a solid foundation upon which they can build a better future for themselves.
Ultimately, it’s a testament to their incredible resilience that Angela and Kardinell have been able to start over and regain control of their lives once again.
“I wanted to make an image that recorded that intimacy and the shift in Angela and Kardi’s lived experience from homelessness to homed.”
Angela and her son Kardi’s story made me think the about the nature of home, and in particular, of the experience of coming home and the tangle of shoes that always greet me when I open the door. More than that, it made me think about family, and the intimate bonds between mother and child.
We worked together to develop a pair of cyanotype prints of their shoes from both periods of being homeless and homed (Kardi’s feet have really grown!)
The result is a set of cyanotypes, an early photographic process which creates detailed images in evocative shades of blue.
The exhibition is open from 30th January to 2nd April at New Brewery Arts. It’s free to visit.
This exhibition first appeared at a Shelter boutique in London. We wanted to connect shopping, fashion and craft to tell stories of homelessness. Whenever you pre-loved donate clothes, or buy from us you’re helping Shelter fight the housing emergency that is devastating lives.
To donate clothing and items to our charity shops via post, for free, simply download a free postage label. Or you can find your local Shelter charity shop here.
To find out more about Shelter, click on the links below:
Shelter Website: http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Campaigning: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns
Support us: https://england.shelter.org.uk/suppor...
Get help: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
Home isn’t just about having a roof over your head. It’s about being surrounded by the people and places you love. It’s about belonging.
Amy-Jo was ripped away from all these things after being evicted from her home. Her council moved her to a rural area miles away from her friends and support network.
The move has been incredibly emotionally damaging for her – something which has been exacerbated by how dangerous the area is. Every day, she sees fighting, shouting and drug-dealing. Recently, someone smeared excrement over her front door.
In the end, Amy-Jo spoke to one of our advisers who phoned the council and gave a voice to her frustration. After being side-lined for so long, she now hopes to be reunited with the people who matter to her.
Her struggle isn’t over yet, but we’re working hard to give her the safe, familiar home she really needs – instead of the cramped, isolated house she’s been left in.
Amy-Jo’s courage and tenacity inspired the directional 3D printed shoe form; the pointed toe cuts through any resistance, in a way taking flight. Amy-Jo’s name is projected out from the shoe to become the heel.
The prominence of her name is a homage to her bravery, having come through the experience of homelessness. Her name is also a symbol of her power to rebuild her life, a reminder that when life circumstances start to come apart (Like the components of the shoe), Amy-Jo had the strength to pull things together, with Shelter's help, to move forward.
Her story shows homelessness can happen to anyone, and can often be the result of things such as personal illness, caring for a loved one, divorce or redundancy. Losing our home quickly fragments our world, separating families, support systems and communities at a time when we are most in need.
Special thanks should be given to Ravensbourne Research Office for their support in the creation of the shoe.
The exhibition is open from 30th January to 2nd April at New Brewery Arts. It’s free to visit.
This exhibition first appeared at a Shelter boutique in London. We wanted to connect shopping, fashion and craft to tell stories of homelessness. Whenever you pre-loved donate clothes, or buy from us you’re helping Shelter fight the housing emergency that is devastating lives.
To donate clothing and items to our charity shops via post, for free, simply download a free postage label. Or you can find your local Shelter charity shop here.
To find out more about Shelter, click on the links below:
Shelter Website: http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Campaigning: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns
Support us: https://england.shelter.org.uk/suppor...
Get help: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
No one knows as well as Kimberley and her husband just how cold, inhumane and senseless the UK’s housing system can be.
It was Christmas 2015. Kimberley was 34 weeks pregnant with her second child, and she’d just received an eviction notice from her landlord. The date they wanted her to move out was just three weeks after her planned caesarean.
Kimberley and her family had lived in their privately rented home for two years, the longest period they’d been able to stay in one home for a very long time.
But now it was chaos. Kimberley visited the council who told the family they would have to find another place on their own. Kimberley visited estate agents, trawled websites, but for each DSS-accepting property that became available, there would be dozens, if not hundreds, of people applying for it. Their bureaucratic nightmare would only get worse. The council wouldn’t help the family until the next stage of the eviction. Then they were told to wait for a court date. Then they had to wait for the paperwork. And then the judge's decision. And then the bailiff’s letter.
“It felt so impersonal. We were just the next one on the list, and there was so many. It’s cold, unfeeling and so hard to jump through all the hoops. You’re constantly fighting.”
“I spoke to the Helpline at each stage. They gave me the support I needed every step of the way. That’s what Shelter do: they give you the confidence you need and they make sure you know your rights.”
Operating in a system that feels designed to grind you down, having someone in your corner makes all the difference. In September 2016, nine months after receiving their eviction notice, Kimberley and her family moved into social housing.
“Making meaningful, personal connections to our surroundings - and the ability to be able to emotionally integrate yourself and your family within unfamiliar surroundings - is no easy feat.
My partner for the Shoe Have Names project, Kimberley, is a woman at the centre of her family. She embodies courage and strength whilst moving from property-to-property with limited space, accepting constant change, whilst providing comfort and protection for those who rely upon her. Longing to find ties that connect us to our home, wherever that may be, can feel like a relentless struggle.
Kimberley talks about an excitedness for finally being able to decorate their own space, which is something many of us can relate to. The clothes you wear obtain your smell and your touch, your shoes embody your very being as they also experience the journeys that you take.
By not just helping Kimberley’s family find a home, but by rebuilding a sense of belonging, the significance of the work carried out by Shelter cannot be praised enough. Shelter helped Kimberley’s family to find a place that they could make their own.
Obsessed by the history of things and their personal journeys, I have handcrafted the ‘Kimberley’ shoes out of re-purposed materials from my old sofa; panels unstitched, padding cut, cushioning re-shaped and its surface re-decorated.
This sofa, like they often are for many families, is an integral part of home. The surface of the leather from this sofa tells a story in the wear from its previous users; worn, stretched and shaped over time. This sofa already embodies two different chapters within its lifespan, and I am excited to follow its next journey as an upcycled pair of shoes.“
Tabitha Ringwood
Explore Tabitha’s work online
See Tabitha Ringwood’s Instagram
The exhibition is open from 30th January to 2nd April at New Brewery Arts. It’s free to visit.
This exhibition first appeared at a Shelter boutique in London. We wanted to connect shopping, fashion and craft to tell stories of homelessness. Whenever you pre-loved donate clothes, or buy from us you’re helping Shelter fight the housing emergency that is devastating lives.
To donate clothing and items to our charity shops via post, for free, simply download a free postage label. Or you can find your local Shelter charity shop here.
To find out more about Shelter, click on the links below:
Shelter Website: http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Campaigning: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns
Support us: https://england.shelter.org.uk/GetHelp
Get help: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
After a knee operation, Lola was forced to give up her job at a tea room as a result of the physical injury and the effect it was having on her mental health.
With no job and having to support her two young daughters, Lola received an eviction notice in November 2018.
By December, they’d been evicted and placed in emergency temporary accommodation by the council. Halfway through the year, they were uprooted and moved into a different temporary accommodation.
“Me and my sister lived in temporary accommodation. We had to duct tape our kitchen drawers together because the rats had been eating our food from in there.”
When Lola received her eviction notice in November, she rang Shelter and received advice on how to make a homeless application. This helped Lola secure better temporary accommodation.
Traces
The absence of a home, a home full of absence, no space for traces.
The emptied shoe box always comes with two sponges, three pieces of paper wrapping a missing shoe, and two stuffed scraps of paper that resemble the form of the feet or a last used to fill the inside of the shoe, to keep its shape intact. The destroyed boxes, when piled up, bear a resemblance to the structure of the shoe heel. I was always fascinated with debris, its mysterious, stratified records of past lives and its endless potential of becoming something new.
While observing the waste in the shoe shop and thinking about the different meanings of a shoe, I was connecting my train of thoughts with homelessness and my case study: Lola. She had faced homelessness and moved from one temporary housing to another after a severe injury at her knee, which eventually enabled her to work. She was living in lots of tinny temporary settlements, that she didn’t own as a tenant, nor as an owner. No rights to build a home there... everything is temporary and on the go.
During a visit to the shoe factory in Northampton, I got to witness all the stages of becoming a shoe. While browsing around, I found this lovely trace of absence in the bin of the craftsman. It was a negative record of a shoe. It hit me. There was something really poetic and very present in this absence. I got sucked into the idea of the absence versus the presence of the shoe, of the imprint, of the possession, of the owner.
The shoolessness is frequently associated with poverty. At the same time, a shoe can be a symbol of ownership. In the past, the gesture of stepping on land was used to finalised an ownership deal over a land. “To claim property, one might place shoes upon it or walk its perimeter.”
My studio experimentations were firstly about the shoe waste turning into a shoe. The moment of resurrection. But after a while, it turned into a device. “The Ownership claimer” is a device that fabricates shoe traces and claims the ownership over a space. With a gentle manoeuvre of the wooden “crutch”, we can lay the heel on a surface that we want to claim, leaving a mark, an imprint. The shoebox (which it also happens to be a symbol of a tiny little place to live) and the whole purchase debris, becomes a stand for the Claimer in order to present the imprinting powers to the audience. The heel of the Claimer is also made out of the cut-offs of the pilled shoeboxes. The material vocabulary is pretty much the materialisation of the homelessness and the street. Paper, cardboard, twigs, dust and water are all materials connected to homelessness. I added some brass as I found this was also used in the factory to finish off the cardboard patterns of the shoe parts in order to make them durable.
With my piece, I wanted to arm Lola with a device that will bring home to any place she wishes upon! No more temporary settlements, no more semi-packed boxes and bags ready to go. It is time for belonging, it is time to go home.
For the Shoes Have Name exhibition, we had to use the colour red in our pieces. I wanted to integrate it in the heel and as a trace, to magically wrap up the story. “To the alchemist, rubedo (a Latin word meaning “redness”) was the last stage of a long process of making gold or, psychologically, integrating the psycho-spiritual outcomes of the process into a coherent sense of self before its re-entry to the world. The stage can take some time or years to complete due to the required synthesis and substantiation of insights and experiences.
The exhibition is open from 30th January to 2nd April at New Brewery Arts. It’s free to visit.
This exhibition first appeared at a Shelter boutique in London. We wanted to connect shopping, fashion and craft to tell stories of homelessness. Whenever you pre-loved donate clothes, or buy from us you’re helping Shelter fight the housing emergency that is devastating lives.
To donate clothing and items to our charity shops via post, for free, simply download a free postage label. Or you can find your local Shelter charity shop here.
To find out more about Shelter, click on the links below:
Shelter Website: http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Campaigning: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns
Support us: https://england.shelter.org.uk/GetHelp
Get help: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
Shandor and Billy loved their home. There was a little garden where they grew tomatoes and, out front, a cul-de-sac where they flew kites.
But then an accident at work left Shandor disabled, with two discs dislodged from his neck and PTSD as a result of his injuries.
Because Shandor could no longer afford to pay the rent, he moved with Billy into a home owned by an elderly man named Jerry.
The three got on well. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than the alternative. Then Jerry died suddenly from a stroke.
In March, Shandor checked into a homeless shelter and was told the council would decide on his case within 33 days. Six months later, there was still no word.
“I decided to get in touch with Shelter. They sometimes ask people to get in touch with their stories to show others they’re not alone in what they’re going through.”
Shandor was nervous he might be wasting Shelter’s time. He didn’t see his story as important – but if it could make the difference to just one person, it’d be worth it.
Shelter featured Shandor’s story in a Christmas campaign. Soon after, Channel 4 were in touch – they wanted him on the news. Over 1.5 million people watched Shandor’s story.
“We now have a wonderful little one-bedroom flat. Billy, Peach the rescue dog, James the tarantula, and I are finally settled and happy.”
Arrows take you on Shandor’s story around the clog, shooting up down and around, giving a feel of the frustrations of his journey.
Shandor kindly gave me copies of the X-rays from his fall down a hole and these inspired the circle and punching in the leather. X-rays also have a shadowy property which I captured by printing from carved images of Shandor and his son, who is an important part of the story; wanting to protect and have a safe space to create good memories together.
Shandor appreciated having a good pair of comfortable shoes during his time being homeless- a work type shoe with toe cap was my response.
Once at journey’s end and in permanent housing Shandor described the little things that you appreciate like having a pet snake and being able to hang pictures on the wall with hooks – the clogs are adorned with pictures hung on ski hooks.
Read the blog updates from Jackie as she made Shandor’s shoe
The exhibition is open from 30th January to 2nd April at New Brewery Arts. It’s free to visit.
This exhibition first appeared at a Shelter boutique in London. We wanted to connect shopping, fashion and craft to tell stories of homelessness. Whenever you pre-loved donate clothes, or buy from us you’re helping Shelter fight the housing emergency that is devastating lives.
To donate clothing and items to our charity shops via post, for free, simply download a free postage label. Or you can find your local Shelter charity shop here.
To find out more about Shelter, click on the links below:
Shelter Website: http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Campaigning: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns
Support us: https://england.shelter.org.uk/GetHelp
Get help: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
