As debates over artistic freedom intensify following the recent cancellation of an exhibition at Jubilee Library, Mid Street Contemporary Art Lab is pressing forward with a show that confronts the politics of borders, belonging and mental health head-on.
‘Borders & The Bits Between’ brings together two Brighton-based conceptual artists, Broken Glass and Vb, in an exhibition that positions art as a site of public accountability rather than a space to be sanitised.
At a time when cultural institutions are facing increased scrutiny over what can and cannot be shown, Mid Street Lab says the decision to platform this exhibition is deliberate. The works examine how border policies shape everyday life far beyond the headlines through what the artists describe as “the nervous system of migration”: sleeplessness, hypervigilance, paperwork, and the emotional cost of being asked to justify one’s right to exist in a place.
The exhibition pairs smuggled lullabies, bureaucratic landscapes, wearables stitched with visa refusals, and sculptures that breathe like anxious lungs. Together, they map the checkpoint between body and state and ask a simple question with far-reaching implications: who gets to arrive, and at what cost?
Rather than presenting migration as a crisis, the show frames it as policy and places mental health within the wider social conditions created by detention systems, landlord borders and administrative hostility. The curators say the aim is not to evoke pity but to foreground solidarity, mutual aid, and community truth-telling at a time when public empathy is often flattened into political talking points.
About the Artists
Broken Glass
Award-winning poet, scholar and University of Brighton postgraduate Broken Glass brings working-class, Latinx, and post-globalisation perspectives into the centre of the conversation. Their nationally exhibited work forms the conceptual backbone of the show, interrogating historical scars, class realities and the transient self.
Their practice rooted in conscientisation prioritises a critique of how meaning and power are produced, challenging Eurocentric aesthetics and the sanctioned narratives that often shape cultural spaces.
Vb
The enigmatic artist Vb offers a counterpoint of disarming clarity, exploring fundamental questions of care, value and what is worth fighting for. Their work anchors the political in the everyday, creating emotional entry points that highlight the human stakes behind policy decisions.
A Local Venue Taking a Stand
Mid Street Lab says the exhibition is part of a wider commitment to keeping space open for difficult conversations at a moment when some artists in Brighton report increasing pressure to dilute or avoid political content.
“Art isn’t here to be decorative, we see it as a shared act of world-making,” the organisers said. “We’re grateful to Broken Glass and Vb for trusting our space at a time when many cultural workers are questioning where their voices are welcome.”
The exhibition runs until Sunday 14 December at Mid Street Contemporary Art Lab.
