In 2024 we were selected for the world-famous Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Held every year since 1769, the Summer Exhibition displays works in a variety of mediums and genres by emerging and established artists.

Our collaborative piece was titled Sum of Its Parts. The artwork was comprised of a welded mesh frame, adorned with an assemblage of artefacts provided by the many individual makers, visitors and staff that access our space, who contribute to the evolving community that can be found here at Blackhorse Workshop. The sculpture responded to the provocation of ‘Spaces for Making’ and was exhibited in the RA’s Architecture Rooms between 18 June to Sunday 18 August 2024.

The artwork was continually ‘in progress’ in the run-up to the exhibition, with material objects adorning the frame via cords, hooks and appendages. These talismen were contributed for a material archive, creating a totemic object that evoked the rich patchwork of individuals, and a gathering of things and people. The collaborative work and process acted as a metaphor for both the building of a public space and the community that is found here at Blackhorse Workshop.