Staffordshire St LATES | Film Club x Carousel: After Hours | The Wicker Arms x Festival of Community

Responding to The Wicker Arms exhibition, in which the space transforms into an immersive pub setting, After Hours challenges traditional screenings by exploring the interstices of London pub culture with 1970s folk horror, British sitcoms, and notions of magic and thresholds.

Featuring work from Poppy Frean, Andrew Finch and Sophie Sleigh-Johnson. 

Carousel is a film exhibition established in April 2022 as a platform for non-fiction, experimental cinema in London. It is committed to showcasing bold, experimental and transgressive cinema by moving-image practitioners and artists working today. It also screens rare, archival works from artists who have had a profound impact on independent cinema and contemporary art. Curated by Andrew Finch.

Info:

Thursday 14th August
19.00 - 22.00

 

Tickets:
General Admission: £12

Concessions: £6

This event is suitable for 18+

If you would like to attend but the cost is prohibitive, please get contact info@staffordshirest.com. If you are financially able, please consider donating, to keep Staffordshire St events accessible to all.

 

Carousel | @carousel_pbc

Carousel has previously premiered at Photo Book Café in East London, alongside accompanying exhibitions, with editions exploring contemporary themes of Landscapes & Psychogeography, Rave Culture & Electronic Music, The Occult & Folklore, and Underground Fantasies.

Previous artists and filmmakers include Derek Jarman, Mark Leckey, Anna Thew, David Wojnarowicz, Susu Laroche, Oliver Payne & Nick Relph, Ghostlore of Britain, Marc Hurtado, Simon Parris, Vinca Petersen, Jeremy Deller, Seana Gavin, bill daggs, Psychic TV, Katie Shannon, Joe Wilson, Sean Vegezzi, Tommy Malekoff, Daleya Marohn, Tess Hughes-Freeland and Stanley Schtinter.

Sophie Sleigh-Johnson | @sleigh.johnson :

Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, born in 1988, is a Southend-on-Sea-based writer, local journalist, and artist. She holds a PhD from Goldsmiths College, London, where she teaches as an Associate Lecturer in Fine Art Critical Studies. Her latest book. Code: Damp - An Esoteric Guide to British Sitcoms (2024) is published by Repeater. Her ongoing work invokes an occult connection between magic and place that is distributed across writing, printmaking, spoken word and cassette releases. She writes for publications including Darkside, The Leigh Times, Faunus, and The London Drinker.


Poppy Frean | @poppyfrean__ :

Poppy Frean is a textiles artist and poet from South East London who nurses a strong obsession with this part of the city. While her written work utilises words to dissect the feeling and experience of place, belonging and home, her textiles take up these metaphorical threads, and turn them tangible – a material reflection of this same concern.


Andrew Finch | @andrewjfinch :

Andrew Finch is a filmmaker and curator based in London. His work explores countercultures and the memories, mythologies and alternative narratives of spaces. His films have documented Brighton's free party history, the South East London waterways, and recently, the occult spaces once occupied by John Balance of Coil.

Andrew’s writing, published by The Face Magazine, Elephant Magazine and Radical Art Review, has explored Thee Temple of Psychic Youth in Brighton, Brion Gyin's Dreamachine and subculture grief. Andrew curates Carousel, an experimental film exhibition in London.

About the exhibition: 

Staffordshire St presents The Wicker Arms. Inspired by a fascination with folk horror, curatorial platforms ha. lf and the icing room come together to transform the space at Staffordshire St into an artist-inspired pub and immersive exhibition.

Incorporating work from 20 artists, The Wicker Arms materially explores ideas around community, through which we refocus narratives of belonging.
 

The Wicker Arms will be the centrepiece of Staffordshire St’s annual Festival of Community 2025: a collaborative programme of workshops, events, exhibitions and drop-ins that will celebrate our neighbourhood and the communities that fill its streets. Exploring notions of community, place and belonging, Staffordshire St will become a locus for playful creativity and celebratory knowledge sharing.

Accessibility: There is step-free access to the gallery via the door to the left hand side of the main entrance. There is a wheelchair accessible toilet. The event will be taking place in the exhibition space, which is a large open room with bright lighting and some seating available.
 

Staffordshire St is an independent project space in Peckham, South East London. The venue facilitates arts and cultural events and provides affordable studios for artists, makers and designers. ​

Staffordshire St is not-for-profit and all income is invested into developing our public programme which launched the summer of 2022. The venue was established as an art gallery in 2017, before then it was vacant for many years after a community centre closed. Originally it was built as a Methodist Hall. We intend to support a range of cultural events for the local community.
 

Staffordshire St will build on the established record of these histories, opening up again to the neighbourhood and developing a welcoming interdisciplinary arts space. More information on upcoming events at : info@staffordshirest.com or @staffordshirest