GOT DAMP / PÚSCADH ANUAS is an installation by Avril Corroon that explores damp as ‘a crisis of nature in the home’ and considers housing insecurity, the cost of living crisis and its health impacts, and forms of community protest. It is a timely intervention into our current, impassioned national discussion about housing: from crises around scarcity and eviction, to longer-term conversations about precarity and the conditions in which people are living. GOT DAMP / PÚSCADH ANUAS was commissioned by Project Arts Centre, as part of its three-year public research project on housing, and TACO! London as part of its work with communities across South East London.
GOT DAMP / PÚSCADH ANUAS was developed over 2 years of research into living conditions in London and Dublin including an ongoing exchange with 55 households from the two cities. Through a callout to members of the tenants' union CATU and then to a wider public, Avril provided energy-efficient dehumidifiers and participant households contributed experiences, ideas and collected their damp as a material for an artwork. Over 700 litres of damp have been collected in Dublin alone and will be used as material in the exhibition, along with an architectural installation and a video work drawn from participant interviews and including footage from a thermal camera.
Avril’s enquiry sets out to frame damp as an entity with agency and the sculptural potential to represent the socio-economic conditions and structures that created it. The title Got Damp refers to an historic incident in Thamesmead. In 1971 residents collectively organised to highlight the issue of damp and water seepage in their recently built modern prefab homes. A visiting MP with delegates from the GLC was greeted by posters in the windows of residents simply stating ‘I’ve got damp’. The impact of such a large volume of protest posters displayed in windows captured the scale of the problem and quickly led to remedial work being carried out by the GLC. -TACO!
GOT DAMP / PÚSCADH ANUAS is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council and Arts Council England.
Damp is caused by excessive moisture in the air that has no way to vent or escape. Such moisture can be generated through problems with the fabric or design of a building, or through our everyday living such as breathing, cooking, drying clothes or bathing. If left untreated damp can damage buildings and lead to the growth of moulds which can be harmful to human health.
Damp can affect any type of home, old and new, and the experience of damp transcends social class. However damp has a cultural stigma unfairly associated with it. The ability to manage and address damp, and the impact it has is often defined by wider socio-economic structures outside of a single person’s control. Those within precarious economic situations or living in rented accommodation are often more vulnerable to the effects of damp and have less capacity to manage it. At a time of housing crisis and increasing economic precarity for many communities, the prevalence of damp as an issue has become an indicator of Ireland and the UK’s underlying social inequalities. -TACO!
Socially Distanced Opening Hours
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday | 10am – 11am
Join us for a socially distanced viewing of the exhibition, visitor numbers will be limited. Visitors during this time are required to wear a face mask and there will be one member of staff present wearing a mask.
Please e-mail box-office@projectartscentre.ie before 5:30pm the previous day to book your place. Thank you.
