Islington Exhibits

Nela Milic was appointed Artist-in-Residence with the Holloway Neighbourhood Group at the Old Fire Station in May 2011. Following the success of this collaboration, an exhibition of her work-in-progress was displayed during Islington Exhibits, as plans for the residency were extended.

Nela worked with Metropolitan Archives and the local Library Repository, where she found images of the Old Fire Station from as far back as 1903! Populating them with images she took of current users at the community centre, she both represented history and transmitting the journey between present and past through the use of photography and archival images.
Nela developed her work according to the various activities provided by the centre and so aims to encompass the interests of several groups, including Sewing, Bingo, Thai Chi, Gardening and the Lunch Club. She utilised the newly established mobile library. Creating archive-sourced postcards, new library posters and Old Fire Station bookmarks, she hoped to encourage the take off of this new mobile service managed by the Old Fire Station's infinitely wise receptionist Eleni. Nela envisages her task as to produce work that encourages everyone to work together and in doing this she adopted Ed's photographs of the garden, designing panels and posters for the Holloway Neighbourhood Group's activities, contributing to chef Teresa's cooking by introducing authentic food seasoning from her own cultural history and producing bookmarks made from material off-cuts donated by the sewing group.

And all of this in a month - phew!