Open Eye Gallery and University of Salford Art Collection have commissioned two projects examining underrepresented repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The programme, How Will We Remember?  seeks to identify gaps in the public consciousness around who is affected by the global health crisis, and create opportunities to document the lived experience of those who have found themselves especially vulnerable. 

The two North West-based artists, Sarah Eyre and Kiara Mohamed, will respond to Covid 19 and its impact on creativity and wellbeing through their artistic practices. The resulting  artworks will be accessioned into the University of Salford Art Collection.

Kiara Mohamed‘s commission will approach the personal impact that Covid 19 has had specifically on the lives of Black and brown people. Using video calls as a device, Mohamed will photograph these conversations as they occur, giving a view into how daily life and the way we relate to each other have changed. 

Sarah Eyre‘s interest in presence and absence lends itself to the exploration of Covid 19 through a focus on how women are particularly affected by the virus. Eyre uses a cutout technique and layers images from a range of source materials. This could explore the absences that Covid 19 has left in women’s lives, as well as the gaps in provision or support that they might now be facing.

The commissions will be released initially online in July as part of a series of Covid 19 commissions for the University of Salford Art Collection. How Will We Remember? is the latest collaboration from Open Eye Gallery and University of Salford Art Collection, following several years of joint commissioning and programming. Previous highlights include China Dream, a year-long programme of activity around contemporary Chinese art; LOOK International Photography Festival 2017 and 2019, and He Was a Wild One, an exhibition of British Music photography selected from Open Eye Gallery’s archive. Open Eye Gallery and University of Salford also run a collaborative MA programme — Socially Engaged Photography Practice with Community Experience.

Sarah Fisher, Director of Open Eye Gallery, said:

“Worldwide, we are witnessing disparities in who is bearing the weight of the fallout of the global health crisis. In the UK, there is clear evidence that the lives of minority groups and women are more compromised, yet these disparities haven’t been given enough attention. How Will We Remember? is a step in the direction of addressing this imbalance, and engendering visibility for those whose experiences are underrepresented.

“We’re grateful to be working with our long-time collaborators University of Salford Art Collection on this, and contributing once again to their track record of bold, urgent commissioning.”

Kiara Mohamed is a multidisciplinary Muslim queer artist based in Liverpool. She works with photography, filmmaking, poetry. Her work is primarily concerned with addressing the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and self care, particularly in relation to forms of community and social responsibility. Open Eye Gallery encourages people to make a donation to help a queer, black, non-binary friend of hers move to safer housing; they are a low-salaried cultural worker who has been furloughed; they need to move out of the property they are living in because it is not safe for them. You can learn more and help out here.

Sarah Eyre is Northern based artist working with photography, moving image and collage. Her practice often combines found imagery, her own photography, animation and sculptural artefacts. Her recent projects ‘Wigs’ and ‘Copy / Cut / Paste’ both explore the way that women’s wigs draw attention to the complex relationships between the body, its external presence and our formation of self.

Open Eye Gallery is a not-for-profit gallery and photography organisation in Liverpool, UK. They produce exhibitions, long-term collaborative projects, publications, festivals, and university courses — locally and worldwide. Their programme seeks to proactively take risks to spark crucial conversations and enable creative expression.

The University of Salford Art Collection is an ambitious and growing collection of over 700 works of modern and contemporary art, founded c1968. The Collection is actively developed through new co-commissions, working directly with artists in order to tell a story of now to future generations.