Dear Minister explored the possibility of communal eating in common spaces leading to positive social change.

Having worked with various homeless organisations in the city, specifically centres for families in emergency accommodation, my aim for this project was to humanise the hardships and destruction people affected by the housing crisis encounter to the (at the time) minister of housing, Eoghan Murphy.

Focusing my research on the psychology of meal sharing, I learned of its benefits in facilitating conversation, breaking down social barriers and promoting mutual feelings of empathy. Site-specific to the portobello plaza where artists studios and a language school had been recently demolished, the pop-up dining space sat in front of a soon-to-be 178-room hotel. 

I invited members of the public to share a hot meal and to informally discuss the crisis. The communal eating facilitated natural flowing conversation and the backdrop of another hotel in construction paved way for passionate, frustrated, healthy ventilation. I asked everyone to write messages/questions/words on the tablecloth to the minister as if he were there with us. Some were constructive suggestions, some words of anger but all was heart-felt, relevant and honest. After the event I posted the tablecloth to Eoghan Murphy’s office.