Lillian Wilkie
Photographer and Book Artist

For some time now I have been attempting to put together a book project on my adoptive home of Bethnal Green, East London. An interest in the development of the silk industry in the East End, a visit to Dennis Severs’ House, a walking tour of the area taken by the fictional Austerlitz found in W.G. Sebald’s novel of the same name, a revelatory lecture with Iain Sinclair and a fascination with the palimpsests of history that surrounded me has resulted in a mental archive of evidence, anecdotes and data which I have thus far struggled to form in to a coherent piece.

I now hope to take a different approach, towards a simplified body of work that will perhaps help to re-assess the research material I have gathered but that can also stand up as an art piece in its own right. I hope to collaborate with others who know the area; those who simply pass through on the weekend through to those who have lived here most of their lives – children, students, community workers, local artists, or really anyone who moves through the area. I’d like to put together a collection of maps of Bethnal Green drawn from memory, with landmarks, short-cuts and addresses individual to each cartographer.

If you’re happy to be involved, please get in touch and I will send you the relevant materials. Anything goes – your map can simply be a sketch of a couple of streets you regularly walk down or a detailed and comprehensive bird’s eye view, the only rule is it must be from memory. Be creative, be playful, be secretive or be abstract, or simply try to be as accurate as you can. Make it personal to your life and your experiences in the area.