Shelf is a small gallery space on a shelf in our house. The gallery is situated above our record collection, below our book shelves and surrounding wall and floor space and is run by me,  Gudrun Filipska and my daughter Sigi. We specialise in showing diminutive and site specific works and curate a running programme of tiny exhibitions.

Shelf makes a statement about the difficulty in obtaining and affording a ‘traditional gallery space’ as well as raising issues around the tensions between domestic and ‘professional’ spaces and the implicit assumption within the industry that these spheres remain separate. We playing with ideas of alternative audiences, the shows may be seen just by us, our whippet, people peering through windows, larger audiences if invited and disseminated to wider audiences digitally connecting to wider networks of alternative exhibition spaces around the world.

It also addresses the difficulties in conducting an artistic or curatorial practice within a ‘home’ setting and the challenge artists/gallery owners who are parents and carers also face.

Shelf was started as part of my Artists Residency in Motherhood in 2016.

In association with