A/B Commissions were a series of micro-commissions for people with lived experience of the Hostile Environment.

The Hostile Environment is the UK government’s name for the broad basket of policies it claimed would create “a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants” (Theresa May, 2012) but in fact went much further, contributing to a rising tide of xenophobia according to the UN Human Rights Council, found to have broken equalities law by the Equalities and Human Rights Council, and responsible for the deaths of many innocent people from migrant backgrounds. The policy continues to affect many aspects of public and private life in the UK, from access to housing and medical care to forced evictions and deportations. It is widely associated with the Windrush Scandal, and with advertising vans displaying the slogan “GO HOME” which were driven round areas with significant immigrant communities in London, at UK taxpayers’ expense.

Against this backdrop, A/B Commissions sought to provide a small space where artists and non-artists who have experienced the effects of the Hostile Environment might express something important to them. Each commissioned work was a very small piece of video that either explored an aspect of the Hostile Environment from a personal perspective, or celebrated something of cultural importance associated with immigration.

Commissions were designed to be something that could be made in a day. Each person selected received an artists’ fee of £255 or £510 (one or two days’ artists fees at nationally-accepted a-n rates), high-end production equipment to make their section, and a full edit, sound mix, soundtracking and grade of their video.

The videos were not commissioned or made in isolation, but were part of a new collaborative work led by artist Edwin Mingard and historian/ethnographer Dr Keren Weitzberg.

The broader project, and A/B Commissions, were supported by University College London and Arts Council England.