Ju Row Farr talks about her artistic journey since leaving Blast Theory, being “very me”, and taking risks in a domestic space

Recycled t-shirt with screenprinting 2026

Hi Ju – this is your first Open House after leaving Blast Theory. I imagine it represents an important moment for you in the development of your individual practice? Can you tell us a little bit about the pieces you will be showing? How they relate to your well-known collaborative work – and also how they reflect your new direction/s as a solo artist?

I’ve been out of Blast Theory for three years this September and it has been quite a journey.  For a year I devised and ran a course at the Architecture Association in London with artist Ivan Morison, who has a commission in this years’ Brighton Festival called Soft Machines.  Since then I have been writing, mentoring, sitting on a commissioning panel and running Blast Theory’s Pot Luck, a creative social event every two months.

Open House is a moment to bring together where I am at now and open myself up to the public. In my new home, with some of the things I have been making and some from the past, I am trying to be very me about it all.

Deadstock cap with machine embroidery 2026

There will be some printed secondhand t-shirts with slogans on and secondhand baseball caps with text embroidered on the front. I have made a selection of collaged cards which are figurative and some collages which are using images from nature hidden within nature.

There will be necklaces I have made, an adult colouring book I made in the past, a booklet from the last Wider Ranch Saloon called I’ll Let Myself Out and some clothing labels with texts such as “I’ve Got Your Back”. There may be more or less items. I am currently making and deciding the final edit which will happen in about 10 days.

Clothes Labels 2026

Text is clearly an important component of your work – you publish frequently and extensively on Substack, and it forms the basis of many of your immersive and film performances, as well as your community workshops and research projects. It features prominently in your Open House this year, in the form of printed t-shirts and embroidered baseball caps. We were wondering if you have always had an interest in the written word as an important means of artistic communication? Are you influenced by any particular artists who use text in this way? And how do your longer prose pieces inform the concise, potent (and comic) slogans that form the basis of your sartorial offerings?

I have always been interested in words, spoken narratives, interviews, interactive methods, fictional or imagined – the list is endless. If I look back I can see certain works where this became central for me in projects such as The Thing I’ll Be Doing For The Rest Of My Life 2013 (https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/the-thing-ill-be-doing-for-the-rest-of-my-life/) I wrote a blog for the project for social media everyday and it was a chance to find my own voice away from Matt and Nick the other two artists in Blast Theory to write about the project as it developed.  We saw it as a part of the project and not just as social media or comms.  I found myself alone in Japan, making a hugely ambitious project and reflecting on the world around me. This is the link to the blog: https://thethingillbedoingfortherestofmylife.co.uk/ It was a writing stretch for me, a place where I could find a new part of myself creatively I hadn’t pulled out in this way before.

I love small phrases and the fun of language, the pieces in Open House are a bit of this and some boiling down from other places. The labels I have made can be sewn into clothes to come with you during your day, as can the t-shirts and caps.  They have a proximity to the body which I like and a sense perhaps of caring or humour. They are small parts of me or us. Again I am not especially drawn to other artists who use text in their work apart from writers both non-fiction and fiction, rather I am drawn to the languages of instructions, real events and people, reporting, mapping and architecture.  Oh and I love the words and language around medical and bodily naming and procedures.

Collage cards, from secondhand greek, roman, egyptian, Henry Moore, Michelangelo and wig books 2026

Collage, another powerful medium which has often been used as a vehicle for activism and subversion, is also central to a number of the new pieces you are showing this year. Is this something you have used in your work before? Are any artists of particular interest to you in this area? What does it offer you that other mediums don’t?

I have often in my work, used the idea of images, sites, ways of behaviour or forms coming together to make something other.  Collage sits in here for me.  I am not a purist, I believe in the collisions of the political, the cultural and the social.

The collages I am making for Open House give me a way of collating from recycled material.  I am nervous about putting more things out there into the world as a waste of resources, my work has largely been temporal before although it has often used technology and there are some works which sit as permanent pieces in museums. They are about slightly deceiving the eye, that everything is not as it appears on first glance and that there is always more going on below.

I’m not especially inspired by any other artists in this area – this is not how I work although I have a good understanding of it’s history.  Perhaps William Burroughs cut-up or the mashup of song and dance and drama in film musicals, if that makes sense.

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Recycled nature images from books and magazines 2026

You are firm believer in art as a means to “see the world in new ways, to think afresh and come together in surprising configurations.” How does your Open House reflect this?

For me it is really using my house, opening my house as the place to come across my work.  Its a chance to see how my house can be the site to encounter my work.  I am really interested in design and objects and I have never made work on this scale before to sell to the public.  It brings together my love of making at a smaller scale, my passion for interiors and things, and how what exists and what is made sit together. Opening my house up feels like an opportunity to find where my intimate life and my work collide.  Having previously kept the two separate to a certain extent, I feel safe to show more of myself and take risks in a domestic space.  It is trying on new shapes and seeing how myself, my work and my home fit together.  It is an experiment for me.

Ju Row Farr

You run a monthly event called The Wider Ranch Saloon and will be putting one on during the Open House. Can you tell us a bit about this?

I am trying to find a way of gathering people around ideas that is manageable for me now as a solo artist.  Interaction, connection and discussion around ideas are central to who I am as an artist. The Wider Ranch Saloon is within my wheel house of control.  And I see it as a place to test ideas out, to bring people together to meet, to do something new, to spend some time and go away inspired or like you have spent some time that is curious.  It is a ticketed event with drinks and vegan nibbles and something to take home at the end.

The Saloon during the Open House will be on Saturday 30th May 6-9pm at my house in Hanover.  I’m currently deciding what the theme will be and if you would like to know more about it please email me [email protected] or follow me on instagram –  @ju.rowfarr where I will post information about it soon.

“Dance of Light”, Kings Cross station 2023, Fujifilm X100V

You will be showing Robert White’s very striking and engaging black and white street photography in your Open House this year. Can you tell us a little about his work and why you decided to show together?

Bob is a dear friend of mine and I thought doing an Open House with him would be a lot of fun.  I think our work sits well alongside each other and I think we are both curious to see how this really looks and what people make of it both individually and together.

He often goes on adventures into bright sunshine and shadows waiting for something to be caught or heightened by this wonderful set of light.  There is often a dynamic quality to the subjects, like skaters in flight or pedestrians on the move which is intriguing to me, a kind of obsession.  He uses strongly contrasting light and texture as well as architecture and patterning to draw you into a moment which you will never fully be privy too.  Some of his work looks almost like it is sci-fi and some like it is from the fifties or another place.  He often travels to new places to hunt out a world that is real but somehow lets you glimpse something private.

“Shadow Bouncing” Brighton Beach 2022, Fujifilm X100V

Visit: Ju Row Farr
47 Cobden Road, Hanover, Brighton, BN2 9TJ
No.9 on the Hanover Trail

@ju.rowfarr
@robertwhitephotopage