Inhabiting the space and responding to it
Jannat Alam (b. 1997, London) is a British Bangladeshi artist whose practice spans performative installation, photography, drawing and painting to investigate bodily and mental relationships to space. In addition to her training in Photography, Alam’s background in Architecture and Surveying informs the making of her works. Within them, tensions are carefully constructed so as to challenge our sense of stability.
Following the artist’s recent MA graduation at London’s Royal College of Art, Jannat Alam’s debut solo exhibition, Nest – বাসা, is the final chapter of Casa Tomada, a series of three site-specific installations developed for a 3m-wide cube that visitors enter alone. Curated by Cecilia Vilela and hosted by Ron Henocq, the project invites artists to explore themes of their choosing and create works that become places for visitors to inhabit at their own pace.
Pronounced ‘basha’, বাসা is the Bangla word used to describe a home or a nest, carrying a sense of emotional shelter and dwelling beyond the physical definition of a living space. Within Casa Tomada’s confined space, Alam engages her signature practice: stemming from a desire to recreate a primal sense of comfort and protection, her interventions experiment with instability, fragility and precarity. Heavy-duty clamps, clips, ropes, and bricks are employed to balance, hang, tie in, lean against, and entangle drawings, paintings, branches and found objects. Formed through a gradual and quiet process of inhabiting the space and responding to it slowly, with intuitive adjustments, elements in Nest – বাসা appear only just held together, while capturing something that exceeds their materiality. The assembling of Nest – বাসা is a performative process, as is its witnessing – held in a constant state of vigilance for something about to dismantle, fall away or even collapse entirely.
Please note that entrance to the exhibition space is granted to one person at a time. There may be a queue for access during the preview evening.
Following the preview evening on Friday 20 February, 6–8pm at 92 Webster Road, Bermondsey, SE16 4DF the exhibition continues from 21 February – 15 March 2026, open Friday – Sunday, 12pm–6pm.
