As part of the show we wanted to create some collaborative
pieces that would really bound our work. The process has been very much a group
effort and we wanted work to reflect this. We also thought it was crucial that
the show was as interactive as possible whilst remaining a way to show case our
work. I am impressed by galleries that strive for visitors across a wider range
of society that just the “Art World” and this was an ambition of ours. Leeds
Art Gallery has used simple but effective ways of engaging people by allowing
space for discussion. I have always enjoyed using galleries and museums as
creative spaces and so I created a drawing board as an extension of my
cityscape.
We also invited our visitors to build their own space by
providing a good old-fashioned box fort. There are few shared memories from
people’s childhood fonder than building your own castle and that pleasure was
still obvious in our visitors on our opening night. What started as a fairly light-hearted
idea evolved into a catalyst for some significant discussions. Next door to our
show, a local church was having an evening meal for homeless people of Leeds
and a lot of our visitors came across from here. Suddenly a work that explored
the idea of creating our own homes took on new poignancy when viewed with
people whose main form of shelter was less than we had provided as a form of
entertainment. It was a really amazing experience to talk to people whose
experiences of Leeds were so different from my own and whose lives were so
deeply entwined with the building we were occupying.
Home was also a feature of another group work, we created a
space entitled “Do you see where I’m coming from?” where we asked our visitor
to mark the place they felt had been or were still there homes. The rapidly
filling maps of Leeds, the United Kingdom and the entire world created links
between viewers and highlighted how small the world can be.
Our final work played upon the idea of regeneration of the
Merrion centre, visitors could move around the show and find miniscule scenes
of reconstruction and city life. Many of these light-hearted scenes used
blemishes in the room that were scaled up to provide shelter for the tiny
couples and meetings. We wanted to create a purely fun representation of life
for the show and these mini scenes became a way of encouraging movement around
the space. We were so pleased with this collaboration that we chose it to
figure-head our exhibition posters.
The group works exploration of home has a lot in common with
my work as I am interested in the idea of what makes a place a home. The maps
ask people that questions and the answer is sometimes hard to place
geographically. The formation of a home within the space followed the same
thought and questioned how we make the space that becomes important enough to
be painted, photographed or drawn onto a map.
