Gimme shelter

RUTH MILLINGTON explores some home truths in a new exhibition which sees 81 artists explore ideas of shelter and what it means to be homeless...

- Ruth Millington is a Birmingham-based art writer and historian.

SHELTER can mean a home, where we feel safe and belong.

But it can also signify a space where unsettling secrets linger, while the term can provoke commentary around homelessness and displacement.

These are among the themes explored by 81 artists in 'Shelter: The Outside In National Exhibition, a moving new exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall, developed in partnership with award-winning charity Outside In.

At the heart of the show stands a small bed, with the shape of a child huddled beneath its colourful hand-printed covers. Lurking beneath the mattress is a black monster, whose claws curl around the wooden slats. It's equally playful and uncanny, hinting at a home's hidden dangers. Eviction notices and bills are pasted to one of the bed's pillars, threatening the sense of security, while weeds and vermin climb up others.

Selected for a 21-week residency ahead of the exhibition, Chantal Pitts created a collection of site-specific sculptures entitled 'Aspects'. Behind the bed, wooden doors, as well as roofs, are stuck to the gallery's white walls. Adding to the surreal atmosphere, winding cardboard staircases lead nowhere, while collaged figures swing from the ceiling of a doll's house.

Pitts tells stories through found objects, including discarded furniture. Here, she takes viewers on a psychological journey through her own lived experiences: "I unrav-elled a lot in this installation: I was evicted, then broken into, I'm facing rent increases, and now my daughter is leaving for university. Having your own home can be heavy."