For the whole of the street exhibition we were based in the Bengali community - specifically a Bangladeshi Arts and Community Centre. I've had a strange relationship to the centre and the activities in it. On the one hand I've fallen into the exoticism of it, learning a few Bengali words, enjoying the play that has been rehearsed throughout, making acquaintances with curry house waiters.
I have even had moments of arrogance, assuming that most people wouldn't expect good contemporary art to be associated with a Bengali cultural centre. I've been happy to undermine 'people's expectations' - expectations I have assumed to exist but don't actually know.
And then I remember how I would feel if it was a Jewish community hall. I would be running 10 miles from it. I would see the plays and the events that go on in the context of a small community with all the amateurism that often surrounds them. I also would expect contemporary art from my community along with the traditional stuff. But because it's not my community, I'm paradoxically both open to what's happening within it and at the same time, subject to framing things through stereotype.