Shona Neary / Sketchy Shona
I know Neukölln through my tours and workshops, exhibitions, business collaborations, two place-specific flash sheets and THE FLOOR residency.
A neighbourhood I know by making
I love Neukölln because my relationship with it comes from the work I make and the people I meet here. I know the neighbourhood through my tours and workshops, exhibitions, collaborations with businesses, two place-specific flash sheets and THE FLOOR, the artist-run residency I founded. This is not a list of current openings or an attempt to explain the whole district. It is a guide through the parts of Neukölln that have become part of my working life.
I do not want to use the neighbourhood as a backdrop or a style. The place changes what I notice, what I make and how people encounter it. That relationship is more useful to me than a checklist of places to photograph.
Neukölln in the flash drawings
My Berlin flash sheet and the DA SWAMP flash sheet are both rooted specifically in Neukölln. The Berlin sheet brings together a doorway, a bicycle, bottles, keys, a speaker, lighters and smaller street details that kept pulling my eye. I drew them in black ink for tattoos, but the sheet began as a way of looking closely at a particular place, not at an abstract idea of Berlin.
The DA SWAMP sheet belongs to another part of that relationship. It sits alongside the exhibition I made for 48 Stunden Neukölln, with the claimed designs marked by red crosses. The marks and objects on the page carry something of the neighbourhood into a form that can travel with another person.
Exhibitions and rooms that stay with me
DA SWAMP brought drawings, flash tattoos, objects, bodies and a sculptural installation into THE FLOOR during 48 Stunden Neukölln. I wanted the work to meet the room and the people moving through it, rather than appear as a row of separate objects. The space, its light and the activity around it changed how the work could be experienced.
THE FLOOR is my home, studio and project room in Neukölln, as well as an artist-run residency I founded. Artists can live and work there with time to develop an idea in Berlin. It is a private residence and studio, not a public venue with drop-in hours, so visits are arranged around the people living and working there.
Tours, workshops and working with businesses
My tours and workshops let me share parts of Neukölln through the work I have made, the people I know and the places I can genuinely arrange to visit. A private Berlin day can begin in Neukölln, move through Schillerkiez and across Tempelhofer Feld, then change around the group's questions. That is one possible route, not a fixed itinerary or a promise of access to private rooms.
Collaborating with businesses is another way I stay in conversation with the neighbourhood. I want the work to respond to the actual place, its people and what happens there, rather than borrow a local look and leave. At Klunkerkranich, Sketchy Sessions brought live drawing alongside jazz and DJs. Drawing became part of a night people were already sharing, and the event continued to feed the sketches after it ended.
A guide built from returning
For me, loving Neukölln means continuing to work with it and the people who make it a place to live, gather and create. The flash sheets, exhibitions, tours, workshops, business collaborations and THE FLOOR are different parts of that relationship. They let me share the neighbourhood without pretending that one image or one route can stand for all of it.
If you want to see this part of Berlin through my work, begin with the private art day, DA SWAMP, the Berlin flash sheets or THE FLOOR residency. Please arrange any visit to THE FLOOR in advance; it is a home and working studio as well as a residency.
Images from this journal record
My Neukölln: an artist's guide to the work, rooms and people / Sketchy Shona / Neukölln-specific Berlin flash sheet / black ink
My Neukölln: an artist's guide to the work, rooms and people / DA SWAMP / Neukölln tattoo-flash sheet / black ink
My Neukölln: an artist's guide to the work, rooms and people / Human Cocoon installation / DA SWAMP at THE FLOOR, Neukölln
My Neukölln: an artist's guide to the work, rooms and people / THE FLOOR / artist-run residency and studio in Neukölln
My Neukölln: an artist's guide to the work, rooms and people / Sketchy Sessions / live drawing at Klunkerkranich, Berlin
Credits
- First-person Sketchy Shona guide based on the artist's stated Neukölln connection and confirmed tour, exhibition, flash-sheet, business collaboration and THE FLOOR records.