How, in 2017, do we bring about meaningful change?
Open 3: Affecting Change looks at how real change is made today, and what role photography has in that process. The exhibition features five rising photographers working in the North West.
The works on show look into the daily lives of people working hard to transform the lives of others. The artists have worked in collaboration with various collectives across Liverpool, a city renowned for transcending insular politics by championing positive change.
To produce the work in the show, the five young artists have immersed themselves in the practices of five community organisations driving positive change. Rather than document their normal rituals, the artists worked alongside the people in each organisation to encapsulate their ethos and share their successes.
Yetunde Adebiyi has produced a set of images with Between the Borders, a group proactive in their concern for the issues surrounding migration. They address this crucial discussion through a zine dedicated to supporting refugees and clarifying the asylum process. The zine is a space for poetry, essays and art from both UK citizens and people amidst their journey through the asylum process. Yetunde’s work, all shot on film, will be presented in a zine format across the walls of the gallery with an accompanying publication.
As part of the project, Yetunde accompanied the group to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire, to participate in an on-going protest against the living conditions and asylum situation of the women detained there, some of whom have been held for years awaiting deportation.
Danny Ryder focuses on News From Nowhere – Liverpool’s long-running radical community bookshop. Danny is taking over the gallery’s upstairs space, recreating the not-for-profit bookshop and hosting a range of independent, feminist and children’s literature for anyone to browse and buy. The replica bookshop will also function as a reading room and social space, with seating and hot drinks provided.
Libbi Groves is a photography student at Hugh Baird College living with cerebral palsy. Her photographs look at how Stick ‘n’ Step, a Wirral-based charity, empowers and inspires children living with cerebral palsy to become more confident and ambitious. Her work focuses on the dedication and resilience of the young people the charity works with, looking at how they overcome their personal barriers and become stronger every day.
Jane MacNeil has produced a series with North Docks Community Group, a collective that are ensuring Liverpool’s soon-to-be redeveloped North Docks remain accessible and habitable to all the people currently living and working there.
Matty Lambert, the final photographer in Open 3: Affecting Change, has worked alongside UTS Foundation, an athletics institution that offers free and accessible coaching, health and well-being sessions to vulnerable community groups across the Wirral. These groups include disaffected young people, older people with health or mobility issues, and people recovering from cancer care.
Open 3: Affecting Change is supported by Brian Mercer Charitable Trust, as part of their mission to help the development of promising young North West artists working in visual arts.
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Open:
10am – 5pm, Tue – Sun
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