Verity-Jane Keefe

Conversations /

“Conversation (noun)
A talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged.”

A series of conversations in response to the themes of Living Together, Becontree and its centenary. The conversations will be blended, recorded in front of a live studio audience at Valence Library and streamed on LT TV.

Conversation #1

On Useful information

Living Together Becontree Handbook launch event

3rd March – Broadcast from 7-8.30pm, in real life (IRL) from 6.30-9pm.

Join residents past and present from Becontree in conversation with artist Verity-Jane Keefe and curator Charlie Gregory discussing the newly produced A Residents Handbook for the Becontree Estate.

Find out more & booking here

Conversation #2

On Living Together

10th March – Broadcast from 7-8.30pm, IRL from 6.30-9pm.

Join artist Verity-Jane Keefe in conversation with designer Paul Bailey on the processes of collaborating on the visual language of Living Together. This will be chaired by Peter Nencini.

Since 2018 Paul Bailey has worked closely with Verity-Jane Keefe as project graphic designer, to help visualise the research in response to walks, archival material and conversation with Keefe. This process has developed and responded to the project whilst in development and delivery through the Covid-19 pandemic. This conversation will discuss these processes between designer, artist and place.

Find out more & booking here

Conversation #3

On Writing Becontree

17th March – Broadcast from 7-8.30pm, IRL from 6.30-9pm.

Join writer and journalist Tim Burrows in conversation with artist Verity-Jane Keefe on what it is to write about and for Becontree over the centenary year of 2021. The conversation will be chaired by Lena Smith, Pen to Print Library Project Manager, LBBD.

Tim Burrows has been commissioned by Verity-Jane Keefe to do a Writing Residency in 2021. There were four collaborative seasonal outputs over the year, written in response to Becontree and Living Together. Tim’s texts were printed alongside photographs taken by Verity during site walks together. These were then distributed across Becontree as editions of 250 and are available to read online here.

Find out more & booking here

Conversation #4

On Collecting Becontree

24th March – Broadcast from 7-8.30pm, IRL from 6.30-9pm.

Join Borough Archivist Karen Rushton for a conversation with Verity-Jane Keefe on what it is collect a contemporary Becontree, a contemporary place in flux? Full line up for this event will be confirmed over the coming weeks.

Find out more & booking here

Conversation #5

On Reading Becontree

31st March – Broadcast from 7-8.30pm, IRL from 6.30-9pm

Join members of the Living Together Reading Group in conversation with artist Verity-Jane Keefe and writer Daniel Trilling, who’s book Bloody Nasty People was a reading text for the group and turns 10 this year, looking at the rise of the far right across East London and the UK, with Becontree featuring then, and now.

The Living Together Reading Group was established in 2021 by Verity-Jane Keefe via an open call across Becontree and her networks. It comprises 15 members from Becontree, London, Essex, Kent, Istanbul, Australia and the Netherlands. Meeting online every other month, Keefe selected key texts that respond to the themes of Living Together and posted copies to the group, who would then meet online to disuss. Daniel Trilling’s book was the last text that we read and discussed together at the end of 2021.

Find out more & booking here