Archive Alive at York Design Week
Exhibition Title: Archive Alive
Exhibition Type: Collaborative Public Installation & Residency Showcase
Organizing Partners: Kaizen Arts Agency, Dogeatcog, and United by Design
Venue: York Railway Archive / Pop-up Festival Space, York, United Kingdom
Dates: October 23 – 30, 2019
Collaborating Artists: Jim Joel, Shohrab Jahan, Sheala Sharmin, Emilie Flower, and Ruth Kelly
Medium: Collaborative Photographic Installation & Spatial Design
The "Munna Kampala, omanyi Kampala?" visual research practice traveled to the United Kingdom for the inaugural York Design Week in October 2019. Stemming from an artistic research residency exploring the York Railway Archive, this exhibition marked an expansive cross-cultural leap for the 365-day documentary project. [1, 2]
Working in collaboration with artists Shohrab Jahan, Sheala Sharmin, Emilie Flower, and Ruth Kelly, the group developed an interactive installation titled Archive Alive. The project brought hidden historical collections out of the vaults and into public conversation. Central to the installation's design was the geometric form of a triangle—conceived by the artists as a universal shape uniting their respective practices, national backgrounds, and research interests.
Featured artworks exhibited at the York Design Week
By juxtaposing visual documentation of Kampala’s railroad and urban infrastructure alongside York’s deep locomotive history, the installation functioned as a living laboratory. The exhibition was supported by public "Walkscapes" workshops that re-examined how everyday architecture and transportation shape modern community memory. Bypassing traditional gallery walls, Archive Alive successfully integrated Kampala's built environment story into a broader global dialogue on industrial heritage, data visualization, and civic space.
Installation Views
