Mathis Collins left France to join Open School East, where he sought to pursue his interest in participatory and pictorial art. Taking with him such iconic figures as the ‘Garçon de café’ and the shisha pipes, he produced over the year a series objects and images representing groups of people making art collectively. This interest in public stages and the ‘workshop aesthetic’ is both a reflexion on Collins’ interest in the use of community art making as a tool of emancipation, and the representation of an art scene, both as a social event, and as a literary subject. By mixing 19th century aesthetics with commercial photography, and by using multi-culti objects found around coffee shops, Collins creates chaotic scenes where society is rhythmed by arts and craft.