Produced as part of Our House of Common Weeds curated by Nathalie Boobis. All the works in the exhibition bore traces of lived experience that the artists have identified as potent ingredients for other possible futures. Our House of Common Weeds proposed the aesthetic experience of the artworks as a set of tools for activating disenfranchised knowledge and interrupting the singular version of the future that is currently unfolding.

 

I undertook a residency in my local karaoke pub The Bowling Green on Wigan Lane, Wigan seeing this space of expression, joy and community as a story of hope with echoes of states of otherworldly euphoria in cults in ancient Greece, and the Greek concept of kephi ( the energy of joy and passion ). I related the pub and the karaoke with the post-war Greek popular music genre of Rebetiko and the dens where it was enjoyed and the political ambivalence as discussed in 'Bawdy Songs and Virtuous Politics”: Ambivalence and Controversy in the Discourse of the Greek Left on rebetiko' by Yiannis Zaimakis.

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Through regular visits, and many songs and conversations I developed a work around the collective potential of communal intoxication, singing and revelry. Created in collaboration with regular karaoke-goers at The Bowling Green pub in Wigan and its landlady Nancy Jones.

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The below text presents the voices of some of the pub regulars I spoke with, expressing their feelings towards the 'utopia' they have created.