In spring 2023, I undertook a three-month residency at Perivale Library, London, as part of PAiR. The site itself—its community-led ethos, striking architecture with three skylights, and the layered history of Perivale—inspired a proposal that was interactive and dialogical by design.

Through six workshops, I invited local communities—library users, neighbors, and families—to co-create a socially engaged artwork, Under the Canopy of Our Stories. At its heart was drawing, used as a simple yet powerful tool of connection. Participants were invited to share their favorite stories through drawing, and to my surprise, almost all adults chose to illustrate their own lived, anecdotal experiences. This deeply personal sharing transformed the process, revealing the intimacy and immediacy of storytelling through marks on paper.

The workshops combined drawing with other creative processes such as eco-printing and tie-dye, using sustainable, homemade dyes. These sessions were not only about making but also about gathering, chatting, laughing, and exchanging knowledge across generations and cultures.

The project culminated in a site-specific installation in the library, which became both a physical and symbolic canopy—an artwork woven from shared stories, layered memories, and collective creativity. Installed in a communal space, it invited people to gather beneath it, celebrating the time spent together and the new and renewed bonds that emerged.

At its core, the work sought to question how histories are made and by whom, while also affirming the power of collective art related activity as a way of strengthening community ties.