Katriona Beales

London-based artist Katriona Beales hosted Art Club through the autumn and winter 2021, an intergenerational after-school club for Barking and Dagenham-based foster carers and children in care. The club met regularly through a series of online and in-person sessions to explore interactions between physical and digital spaces and states.

During the pandemic many of their social, educational and work interactions adapted to become screen-based. Together, the group explored how these interactions shape identities and how we can develop a sense of feeling at home in ourselves, both inside and outside the screen. With many families and young people spending more time at home together during periods of lockdown, domestic space and making things at home have also become more central to our wellbeing.

Through this collaboration, Art Club created handmade objects and then digitally transform them, through processes such as 3D scanning and printing. This culminated in a series of functional objects such as bean bags, cushions and wall hangings created for members of the Art Clubs’ own homes.