Everything is compost – An low-stakes exhibition at my house
In 2023, I hosted Everything Is Compost, an exhibition of writing and ideas I’ve been developing since 2020. (Read here about my ongoing Everything Is Compost project). This was my first ever exhibition; it was a way of sharing and ‘show my workings’ and all the solitary stuff I’ve been doing behind the scenes. A process I’ve been informally calling ‘Stevie School’ – a form of playing around, an experiment in caring less and cultivating greater self-compassion. I was inspired to take a DIY approach to exhibiting after reading This exhibition doesn’t exist by The White Pube; I believed that having one at home would help me to get more comfortable sharing in a non-pressurised way and create something ‘real’ (i.e., something I could put onto my website and include in funding applications). It was also an excuse to gather friends and community. I designed an invitation and WhatsApped it to friends and an acquaintance I wanted to meet IRL.
On the day of the exhibition I printed my work, Blu-Taced it to the walls and fretted over how to group things. I installed a compost bin in my study and set up an audio station at my desk with my Bluetooth headphones, laptop and a Soundcloud of me reading works-in-progress aloud. My husband cooked moussaka, vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom. My friend Sarah took the photographs you see here. My parents arrived from the south west. A new friend’s son bought a pink pogo stick and bounced up and down outside the front door, a baby thought about taking her first steps. Someone brought their colleague along, a friend gave me an illustrated newsletter she’d made. I met my online acquaintance and they gave me a big bag of dried lemon verbena. I felt at various points like my work was stupid and this whole thing was deeply embarrassing, and at others I tried to remember the purpose of this thing: to share the work, to not pressure myself, to try to enjoy it. We ended the evening on the sofas, the window was open, the blackbirds sang, we told each other stories and laughed. I sent people home with a small pink envelope containing five postcards printed with iPhone photographs of my compost heap. (You can buy them here!)
