Trellis 5: A Place of our Making

What happens when east Londoners, UCL researchers, and artists come together to explore how we could live easier, happier lives? Find out in "A Place of Our Making", a multi-sensory exhibition about east London.

Get ready for an immersive adventure! From Friday 14 March - Sunday 13 April come and explore 'A Place of Our Making', a vibrant multi-sensory exhibition about east London. Open 10am-6pm daily (late openings on Thursdays) and free to all. 

Alongside the exhibition is a series of fun, interactive, events for you to get involved in. Ever wanted to meet a giant puppet? Well, now’s your chance! Say hello to Chippie, our 7ft puppet, at the It is Good to Meet You: Puppet Procession. Plus, if you're a fan of trying new things get ready to 'Follow Your Nose' on the Brick Lane Sensory Walk, where you’ll explore the iconic area through the magic of scent!

A Place of our Making is an exhibition brought to you by this year's cohort of the UCL East Trellis programme (now in it's 5th iteration!). Trellis is a programme, which brings together UCL researchers, east London communities and east London artists to tell stories through creativity. Five commissioned projects work together on collaborative projects which are showcased in a celebratory exhibition, where visitors are able to explore UCL research, issues facing the local community, and explore the impact of their projects through the art produced. 

This year, Trellis 5's matchmaking process successfully brought about five partnerships, notably including an artist who is one of our very own UCL East students; Libby Liburd. Libby is an actor, writer and producer, currently studying MA Audio Storytelling for Radio and Podcast on our UCL East campus. Last year, her first audio feature, FIGHT FAIR, won the Charles Parker Prize ‘24 and was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Through Trellis 5, Libby partnered with José Izcue Gana. A medical doctor who worked with the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, to investigate what prosperity means to local communities in London. Together, working with local residents, they have created 'Priced Out: Life on the Edge of Regeneration’. Their work explores east Londoners navigating social housing, temporary accommodation, and hidden homelessness.

Priced Out: Life on the Edge of Regeneration. Image credit: Mary Melodies.

The other four successful exhibiting collaborations include:

'Rewilding Healthcare' by artist Laura Copsey and researcher Dr Sarah Yardley, whose partnership was born of a shared love of sailing. Together they worked with people who have experience with serious mental or physical illness, using maritime metaphors and the use of sailing language and island living, to rethink risk, safety and choice in healthcare during their creative workshops with Cody Dock.

'It's Good to Meet You' is a work by kinetic sculpture and puppet artist Tony Mason and researcher Dr Azadeh Shariati, who researches soft robotics and haptics. They came together to explore how people from different backgrounds meet, greet, and bond through the creation of Chippie - a remarkable seven-foot puppet.

Chippie the puppet's face. 
 

'East London Smells'  is by artist Daisy James and by researcher Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, an architect. ‘East London Smells’, grew from a fascination with smell and a curiosity about how sensory experiences shape our understanding of place. Inspired by the rich diversity of Brick Lane, they collaborated with Beyond Sight Loss, a peer-support group for visually impaired people, and engaged local businesses through walks, workshops, and conversations.

'Acceptance of Difference (Here?)' is by mixed media artist Lottie McCarthy, interdisciplinary researcher Monika Gravagno and Dr Sara Adhitya, a Senior Research Fellow and the Arts-Sciences Programme Director at UCL PEARL (Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory). Lottie, Monika, and Sara forged a partnership between UCL PEARL, a life-sized environmental simulation laboratory that studies the senses, and the Tate Institute, a social and creative hub in Silvertown, to explore how the Tate Institute could be redesigned to better serve neurodivergent users.

Trellis 5 is supported by Foundation for Future London’s Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, funded by Westfield Stratford City, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Impact Acceleration Account funding. 

How to get here?
This exhibition is at UCL East Marshgate on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford. Click here for directions!

So, whether you’re a local or just visiting, don’t miss this immersive, creative exploration of life in east London.

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