STREET view was produced in Autumn 2021 as part of our first month-long residency at Turf Projects, on an initiative called Propagate This.
This was the start of our more formalised creative partnership – Bea and Jill – something that we were using the residency to explore and develop. It was also a project to think about Croydon, its challenges, community and what spaces were available and needed.
Bea has had ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) since a young age which impacts our lives every day and our relationship is much more entwined and intimate than a typical mother/teenager.
Whilst brainstorming for the project, Bea realised that their main point of reference for outside our home – for Croydon and further – was Google Maps, specifically Street View. From when Bea was first ill with ME/CFS aged 7, we like to “drive around” in Street View when we aren’t able to physically leave the house.
route 1: SO TIRED
route 2: WOKE UP TIRED
route 3: WHICH WAY?
Online art mediums are very important to Bea’s art practice as they can’t always use or access traditional mediums.
Bea decided they would use Google Maps again as their start point for Propagate This, creating a digital art piece – part illustration, part visual poem – making sentences out of “places I’ve been to online” to explain why “real life” isn’t always accessible for them.