Colour Outside the Lines

Final-year BA Culture, Criticism and Curation students collaborate on a participatory event exploring beauty and power in King’s Cross.

In their final year, graduating students on BA Culture, Criticism and Curation have the opportunity to flex their creative muscles and apply their learning in a real-life, London based project, often involving external organisations. Taking either the Live, Exhibition or Publication route, students can organise an event, curate an exhibition or contribute to an art publication. The wide range of outcomes reflect the diverse set of skills and knowledge developed over three years on the course, with each route offering students a set of roles and responsibilities spanning art curation, project management, writing and communications.

This year, the Live group produced a three-day-long event which fused live performance with participatory activities for audiences. Taking place between in April at Kiosk N1C at Coal Drops Yard, Colour Outside the Lines invited visitors to question the so-called “beauty” of King’s Cross while championing the voices of the local community. What do you find beautiful or ugly about King’s Cross? What makes you feel authentic? These were among the questions students asked audiences about the King’s Cross area, with answers scribbled on large canvases that hung from the walls of Kiosk N1C. Answers spanned from quirky doodles to thoughtful reflections about an area that has become synonymous with London’s gentrification.

Students curated a playful and interactive space where participants engaged in a piece of community artwork, questioning the so-called “beauty” and “ugliness” of the area. The project aimed to challenge the UK Government’s 2020 regeneration commission Building Better, Building Beautiful which placed beauty at the top of the agenda. Colour Outside the Lines engaged a range of audiences from families with children, to art students and tutors and local business employees, in a complex subject that warrants public attention. It combined a sense of play with poignant storytelling, discussion and debate as a lively opening night hosted Peter de Graft-Johnson known as The Repeat Beat Poet, while later showings presented harpist Flòralyn and bassist George Prince.

One participant described King’s Cross as “hermetically sealed”. Pristine, clean, sanitised – it’s true that King’s Cross is barely recognisable from its wilder years, when its ex-industrial, derelict buildings and streets were notorious for rave culture, sex-work and homelessness. Today, in stark contrast, the area is characterised by its alfresco dining spots, boutique shopping and the kissing roofs of Coal Drops Yard. The new King’s Cross is cool, popular and pricey. “The area gives the illusion of public, free space,” student Ese says, gesturing at the bustling markets outside, “but the reality is, it’s privately owned and every stall-holder applied for a license, including us.” King’s Cross is one of many pseudo-public, corporately-owned areas increasingly dominating London. Privately owned public space, or “Pops”, exhibit the look and feel of public space, but actually are owned by corporations who have no obligation to publicise their regulations. This means landowners can develop their own set of rules and potentially ban activities which are a legal right in public spaces, such as taking photographs, holding a protest or having a nap.

King’s Cross has been celebrated as the perfect mix of grittiness and shininess which demonstrates the appeal of the area’s characterful history. “In theory, they want to include local communities,” student Zach told me, “but “beauty” is used to regulate behaviour and the result is whatever is deemed ugly, poor or inconvenient is phased or pushed out.” The transformation of rundown areas into safe, clean public-used spaces appears progressive, but the lack of transparency around regulations begs the question – safe for whom? Building Better, Building Beautiful aims to ensure better-designed housing development that will be welcomed rather than resisted by existing communities – but if regeneration leads to displacement and financial exclusion, how accommodating can it really ever be?

Molly Coffey graduated from BA Culture, Criticism and Curation in 2021 and was part of the live project group which produced Everyman for Themselves, an immersive art exhibition that brought together the work of emerging sound and video artists. Molly is a freelance producer, curator and writer. Most recently, as part of the Guernsey Photography Festival, she coordinated Face to Face, curated by Ekow Eshun – the free, public social documentary and portrait photography exhibition, originally exhibited at King’s Cross in 2020 in partnership with the Global Fund for Human Rights.