As part of Ben Judd’s Stanley Picker Fellowship project The Origin, a series of workshops, performances, talks and tours took place at Stanley Picker Gallery, a boat moored in Kingston Upon Thames and online throughout June and July 2021.

On 26 June, Martin Glover led a British Sign Language tour of the exhibition at the Gallery The Origin. Visitors registered for the tour were then transported to the boat moored in Twickenham for a tour of Eel Pie Island, concluding at the Eel Pie Island Museum.

Martin Glover is a Deaf Architect and an established BSL tour guide and facilitator in galleries and museums, covering a wide spectrum of themes including architecture, art and social issues. He is currently part of the cohort on Engage’s Extend Leadership programme, researching the theme of inclusion and leadership. As a recent co-founder of the Digitspace project, he secured a grant to lead a nationwide social cohesion programme to increase deaf awareness in arts venues whilst running workshops to encourage deaf people to become guides in these venues.

Ben Judd’s Stanley Picker Fellowship project The Origin reflects on Britain’s island status, both literal and metaphorical, and how islands shape the communities that live there. The Origin brings together the communities surrounding the Stanley Picker Gallery – from Kingston University students and academics to local networks, charities and residents – and asks them to imagine a classless, stateless, humane society based on common ownership. A temporary community, an experiment in living, a fictional island group. This collaborative project culminates this summer with an installation at the Gallery, a boat on the River Thames and a series of performances, workshops and events – a rehearsal for an alternative future.