Residency Announcement: Andy Yates and On The Ground
Starting in October 2020, photographer Andy Yates will be undertaking a residency with Open Eye Gallery for the project On The Ground.
On The Ground is a socially engaged residency project using photography, and audio visual work to explore the current climate crisis and approaches to sustainability with and for the Liverpool community. Environmental photographer in residence Andy Yates, will spend time with local communities of interest, as well as exploring site-specific urban green initiatives across the city. Together, with participants and key cultural and environmental partners, Andy will co-author and create a new body of work for digital and/ or physical exhibition partnered with Open Eye Gallery, the Urban Green Up initiative led by Liverpool City Council, and partnering dot-art, Mersey Forest and the Bio-Diversity Bank.
Funding will support research and development time, as an artist in residence, plus some production support. Activity will employ collaborations championed as best practice in socially engaged art, engaging discrete communities with each other & through his practice, co-authoring artistic & contextual content. Activity may include initial site visits, interactive workshops, photo-walks and active collaborations with cross sector experts in environmental studies and climate change.
This will culminate in a new body of photographic and audio-visual work for exhibition at Open Eye Gallery as part of the LOOK 2022 Biennial, as well as online and through critical reflective blogs via the Socially Engaged Photography Network, and broader partners on climate change programme including partners in Australia.
As the photographer in residence, Andy comes from the starting point of his own lived experience, acknowledging a greater need to understand what individuals can do to truly support sustainable living, and will be learning as a process of engagement with others as the residency progresses.
Andy has also been working on ‘The Story of Liverpool Through Its Trees‘, a public project to create a history of the Liverpool City Region through its trees. The project is being delivered by Open Eye gallery and dot-art, with support from Liverpool City Council and Mersey Forest.
Image: Gingko Tree – Liverpool John Moores, by Andy Yates as part of The Story of Liverpool Through its Trees
