If Only We Had the Space was a new exhibition that ran from 17 to 26 October 2024 at Platform (Easterhouse, Glasgow).  

The exhibition responded to modern and contemporary politics of housing, property rights, and access to space. It featured a new commission by Jeni Allison, along with works in textiles, ceramics, and glass by Deirdre Nelson, Fionn Duffy, and Jack Brindley, whose collective practices crossed over art, design, and craft.

These contemporary works were contextualized in the space with Glasgow-based archival ephemera and film footage documenting housing activist movements and redevelopment schemes from Glasgow (archives included were from the 1960s to 1990s), as well as interviews with makers.

Through the craft of the four exhibiting makers and these significant moments in Glasgow’s housing history, the exhibition explored 'the through line of creative inhabitation, the changing role of homes as places of production as well as domesticity, and negotiating the right to space'.  

Exhibition Publication

View the exhibition's online publication.

Workshops held at Platform with Jeni Alison

Activity Day: Sat 19 Oct 

Colour In! Workshop

Morning, Sat 19 Oct 

Platform Easterhouse

Colour In! Design your own Knit inspired by Jeni Allison’s multi-coloured textiles. Jeni selected favourite patterns from home and developed her design by colouring in graph paper, each square is a stitch used to plan the final design. What is your favourite pattern from Home? Free, drop-in and self-led session.

Patterned Paper Blankets 

11am - 12noon, Sat 19 Oct 

A workshop run by Jeni to create patterned paper blankets inspired by the work that is on display in the exhibition..

Activity Day: Sat 26 Oct 

Our Garden - create your dream garden

11am - 12noon and 1pm - 2pm, Sat 26 Oct

Platform Easterhouse

As a group, everyone who attended collaborated to build and create a dream garden together. Using cardboard, found paper, and bringing together color and shape, they led to the emergence of a growing space.
 

Meet the Maker

1 - 2pm, Sat 19 Oct 

Platform Easterhouse

This was a drop-in workshop for families. Jeni enjoys combining technology and traditional knit techniques to create something new. Participants came and learned more about Jeni Allison's process.
 

Panel Discussion with Dr Adele Patrick and Deirdre Nelson

2 - 3pm, Sat 19 Oct 

Studio Theatre, Platform Easterhouse

A special panel discussion with Dr. Adele Patrick and Deirdre Nelson as part of If Only We Had the Space.

Learn more about the panellists.

All Photography by Laura Prieto Martin