“Hello Neighbour!”

An artist in residence at Humanitas Deventer, Holland
Funded by the Arts Council’s International Development Fund
September 2018


Humanitas Deventer is a residental home where students live for free to support the older residents. It is world-renowned for it’s unique, intergenerational approach to supporting older people & its implentation of innovative environmental design to suit the older generations. You can read more by clicking HERE.

“Hello Neighbour!” is a collaborative art project between Ellie & her neighbour Joke, over the period of 3 weeks in September 2018. Each day, the pair chose a theme & documented their days with this constraint in mind: for example, the colour “blue”, “light” & “texture”. The project sensitively depicts the unfolding relationship between Ellie & Joke, as well as the wider community of Humanitas & the surrounding area.

“Hello Neighbour” has resulted in a collection of 21 photo-based books of A5 size, with smaller A6 books inside of them containing further documentation with various media: including pressed flowers, maps, paintings & texture rubbings.

The books were exhibited at Enys Gardens, Penryn, Cornwall as part of Cultivator’s Exhbition “So you think you know where you’re going?” in November 2018. They have also been published by Atlantic Press Books & were launched at Falmouth Universty’s CHAOS forum in March 2019 where Ellie presented about her experience at Humanitas & her creative process. Ellie returned to Humanitas in January 2019 to share the books & leave them a collection to refer to & share with their many international visitors.