rough music
“I became interested in the performative nature of women banging bin lids on the ground to warn of approaching soldiers and patrols. “
“I was fascinated by the transformative element of the mundane domestic object, and of its impact. When I was a kid, I remember my dad telling me that ‘when they banged the bin lids, we used to break their windows or their tellies with the butt of our rifles.’ He told me this was because the bin lids alerted the gunmen, and that the soldiers could get shot or caught in a riot. The same bin lids were also a signifier of home, back alleys with rows of metal bins were, and still are, an important feature of the aesthetics of the town that contributes to my own identity.”
Referencing this act of resistance, Holman created a collection of galvanised steel bin lids which held different aesthetic qualities depending on their source. Becoming more and more interested in the potential ambiguity of these objects and the transformative nature of the most mundane domestic objects, depending on geography. Imagining his own mother putting out the bins while, women her age were banging them on the street as my dad approached their houses. An ambiguity exists in this representation of conflict. Ugly objects are presented as beautiful. While the title infers the sound they made during this signifying act.
Rough Music 3, 2020
Rough Music 2, 2020
Rough Music 1-6, 2020
Rough Music 4 2020
Darbyshire of london
Exhibited at…
Solo exhibition, curated by Dan Edwards at Darbyshires London, October 2016.
Six C Type photographs of aluminium dustbin lids that were banged on the street by women to alert the residents that troops were approaching. The sound produced was described as 'rough music' The exhibition includes internal casts of the bin lids in various grades of concrete.
Common Ground brought together new and previously unseen works by Jamie , whose practice fused traditional craft with industrial production.
Spanning painting, textiles, sculpture, and audio, Holman’s work reflected on the resilience and evolving identity of working-class communities in the UK and beyond.
Curated by Hope Gallegos, the exhibition was shaped by a personal and transatlantic connection. Both Gallegos and Holman are children of military fathers—an unexpected but powerful shared history that became their own “common ground.” Through this lens, Gallegos found a deep emotional affinity with Northern England’s industrial heritage, reading Holman’s work as a reflection of community, transformation, and inherited strength.
The exhibition unfolded across three floors of Saan1, with each level representing Gallegos’ interpretation of Northern identity. From pub culture and public streets to civic power and governance, this layered structure offered an immersive journey through the everyday rituals, spaces, and systems that define working-class life.
Through Holman’s use of industrial processes and craft-based methods, Common Ground became not just a reflection of heritage, but a space for connection—where personal history and cultural memory converged to form something both intimate and universal.
