Everything Must Go – Closing Exhibition at SET Byward Street

SET Byward Street presents Everything Must Go, a week-long group exhibition, artist sale, and durational performance by Associate members Leily Moghtader Mojdehi, Kasturi Kiritharan, Poppy Driver, and Abi Palmer.

Since 2022, wedged between souvenir shops and office towers, SET Byward Street has operated as both an artist studio and an undercover gift shop. To passers-by, Tower Hill Trinkets was a mysterious shop window offering a tongue-in-cheek look at what artists “do all day.” To its residents, it’s been a studio, an exhibition space, and a collaborative home for emerging artists to grow and unfold.

Everything Must Go is a final wake for SET Byward Street, which closes its doors in April 2026. As the artists empty their shelves, we invite the public to witness the dissolution of the studio and take a piece of its history with them.

About the programme

Everything Must Go reflects on the experience of making art in a city defined by constant movement and disappearance. It is an exhibition that doubles as a closing-down sale, where the boundaries between “art” and “stock” are intentionally blurred. Visitors can browse a curated selection of new works, artist-made merchandise, and studio ephemera, all available for purchase as the space is cleared.

At the heart of the exhibition is the final chapter of Crip Casino. Originally created by Abi Palmer between 2018 and 2022, the Casino was an interactive gambling arcade that used hacked fruit machines to explore the “luck” of the healthcare system. Instead of money, the machines produced absurd medical diagnoses and bureaucratic fragments of difficult conversations disabled people are forced to have with doctors and carers. Following the death of collaborator Jackie Hagan in 2024, the arcade became a site of grief.

In a performance titled Death of a Casino, the machines will be systematically dismantled and their components dispersed. This act of destruction is not just a logistical necessity of the move, but a reflection on the loss of disabled spaces, artworks, and communities. As the studio is vacated, the work itself ceases to exist in its functional form, leaving only its fragments behind.

Programme schedule

While the exhibition, talks and performances are free and open to all, weekday viewings and appointments can be booked via studiobyward@gmail.com. Weekend hours are 12-6pm.

Public Opening Event
Tuesday 24 March, 6-9pm

A celebratory opening featuring ice cream, stick-on tattoos, artist-made postcards, and drinks. This is the final opportunity to experience the Crip Casino in its “living,” functional state before the dismantling begins.

Exhibition: ‘Everything Must Go’
Wednesday 25 – Sunday 29 March
(Weekdays by appointment; Saturday & Sunday 12pm–6pm)

A final showcase and “closing down sale” of the Byward Street studio. The public is invited to browse and buy new works, artist-made merchandise, and studio ephemera by the four resident associate members.

Performance: ‘Death of a Casino’
Wednesday 25 – Sunday 29 March
(Weekdays by appointment; Saturday & Sunday 12pm–6pm)

A five-day performance by Abi Palmer and friends. Over the course of the week, the Crip Casino arcade will be physically dismantled. Visitors are invited to witness this process and take home a piece of the working casino as it is broken apart and dispersed.

Talk: ‘An Oral History of Crip Casino’
Sunday 29 March, 2pm

Artist Abi Palmer in conversation with Jay Dalton and Nick Murray. The discussion explores collaboration, the legacy of performer Jackie Hagan, and what it means when disabled-led artworks disappear due to lack of space.

Talk: ‘Everything Has Gone’
Sunday 29 March, 4pm

A “house-cooling” conversation between the resident artists. As the final items are cleared, the group will reflect on the two-year history of the Byward Street studio and what happens next for their practices.

Both talks are free to attend. No booking required.

Contributing artists

Leily Moghtader Mojdehi

Website: leily-mojdehi.com
Instagram: @mojjyart

Leily Moghtader Mojdehi is a London-based artist and a BA Fine Art graduate from Goldsmiths, University of London (2021). Her practice intertwines painting, textiles, and sculpture to create mixed-media works that function as “woven diaries.” By drawing inspiration from ancient traditions, digital algorithms, and personal narratives, Mojdehi explores the boundary between the real and the representational. Her densely layered collage compositions serve as embellished stories of unplaceable experiences.

She exhibited at galleries and museums internationally, including Quench (Margate), South London Gallery (London), Ferens Art Gallery (Hull), Saatchi Gallery (London), Zhan Art I Space (Selangor, Malaysia) and SET 91 (London). She was selected for the 2022 Bloomberg New Contemporaries, shortlisted for the Ingram Prize (2023), and awarded the City of London x Outset Studiomakers Prize (2022).

Abi Palmer

Website: abipalmer.com
Instagram: @abipalmer_bot

Abi Palmer is an artist and writer whose work explores “sick bodies,” viscous textures, and ecological landscapes through film, text, sculpture, and sensory intervention. Her notable solo projects include the mixed-media exhibition Slime Mother (Chapter, Cardiff; Site, Sheffield), the film series Abi Palmer Invents the Weather (Artangel), and the interactive gambling arcade Crip Casino (Tate Modern, Somerset House, Wellcome Collection). She is the author of Slugs: A Manifesto and Sanatorium.

Palmer’s group exhibitions include Channelling for the Frieze Corridor Commission (2023) and Crip Arte Spazio at the Venice Biennale (2024). She is a Bloomberg New Contemporary Artist (2023) and has been recognised with the Henry Moore Foundation’s ‘Award for Sculptors’ (2025) and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s ‘Award for Artists’ (2022).

Kasturi Kiritharan

Instagram: @shoesatthe_door

Kasturi Kiritharan (b. 1998, London) explores the blurring of the real and the imagined, investigating how the act of recollection can tip memory into fiction. Using a process-led approach, she employs thin washes of oil paint, surface scratching, sanding, and staining to mimic the fluidity of memory. This speculative method allows everyday images recorded in her sketchbook or camera roll—from moths and horses to brick structures and rocky beaches—to re-emerge through the material possibilities of paint and surface.

Poppy Driver

Instagram: @poppaea.driver

Poppy Driver (b. 2000) is a Trinidadian-British artist. Drawing from childhood nostalgia, her work tells cautionary tales of womanhood. The dynamics in her work vary, ranging from romantic to platonic to moments of self-discovery.

About SET’s Associate Members Programme

This exhibition is presented as part of SET’s Associate Members Programme, which offers artists studio space alongside access to project spaces and opportunities to independently curate exhibitions, workshops, and events.

The programme supports a wide range of practices, from performance and installation to music, sound, print, and textiles, and is designed to provide space, visibility, and development opportunities for early-career and underrepresented artists working in London.

Event details

When: 24-29 March

Address: SET Studio, 7 Byward Street, London, EC3R 5AS

Access: Level access and a large, wide-entry toilet (no handrails). Sunday talks will not be mic’d or captioned live; captioned recordings will be shared online afterward

Enquiries: studiobyward@gmail.com