Van Gogh House London

Working with a range of local primary schools, Jasmin Bhanji lived in Van Gogh House for the month of June, 2024.

Jasmin Bhanji is an artist with a studio practice that focuses on ways of learning in art education across different stages, from nursery to adult education. At the centre of Jasmin’s practice is her community and education work. Her research explores the relationship between practical and theoretical modes of enquiry, through performance, enactment and embodied learning.

During the residency, Jasmin created a space with a pedagogic and socially engaged practice to inhabit Van Gogh House and its studio, working collaboratively with children from three local primary schools. The artist and the primary school classes invited each other into their spaces and comfortable terrain, creatively engaging with these environments and co-producing works of art to be shown at Van Gogh House on the final weekend of the project.

‘Exchanging Spaces’ is a pilot project staged in conjunction with Oval Learning Cluster, which works to support primary schools in the area of Lambeth in which Van Gogh House is situated. The classes are drawn from three primary schools local to Van Gogh House: St Mark’s, Reay and St Stephen’s Primaries.

“Van Gogh House is such a generous place in every way. It feels like a real ‘sharing space,’ because of its history of being a home for so many different people, groups, and families over the years. It was the perfect place to create art with the children. Even the adults who came to the house for the exhibition felt like children again.“

– Jasmin Bhanji

Workshops and Exhibition

Jasmin’s residency began by introducing the participating classes to Van Gogh House and its local area. The sessions started at Van Gogh Walk, where children learnt ‘frottage (rubbing) techniques, capturing all the different surfaces in the area. Students worked on layering different colours and textures to create collaborative drawings that represented the nature and built environment of the street. This exercise was great for honing observational skills, so when the children stepped into Van Gogh House, they were expert at discovering clues and hidden features of the house. Jasmin lead the groups through the rooms of the house, using postcards and artefacts to uncover stories of previous residents including but not limited to Vincent Van Gogh.

The next series of workshops took place in the schools. Students made plaster casts from around their school ground, which drew inspiration from the layers of history revealed by the renovations at Van Gogh House. By exploring and capturing these textures and surfaces, the students were able to engage with the material world and learn about the transformation of a familiar space over time.

Jasmin also introduced students to cyanotype printing, allowing them to capture the shapes of their personal toys and pressed flowers into blueprint.

The project culminated in an exhibition, where the textures and impressions of the three schools were brought back into Van Gogh House. Jasmin compiled the work in thoughtful ways – sewing together the paper rubbings and cyanotypes, and finding special spaces in the house to place the casts. Children and their parents were invited back to celebrate and see the work in-situ.

This residency was generously supported by AKO Foundation.