How, in today’s disjointed societal landscape, do we bring about real change?
The third exhibition in Open Eye Gallery’s Open series spotlights five early career artists making work in and around Liverpool, in collaboration with organisations working hard to transform the lives of others. Open 3: Affecting Change unfolds a platform of discussion for how long-lasting change is made today, and what role photography has in that process.
The artists have worked in collaboration with various collectives across Liverpool, a city renowned for transcending insular politics by championing positive change. Rather than simply document their actions, the artists worked alongside the people in each organisation to encapsulate their ethos and share their successes.
Yetunde Adebiyi focuses on Between the Borders, an open collective of people with and without UK Citizenship that offer a platform to asylum seekers and raise awareness about the asylum process. Her work, presented in a zine format, charts their daily working processes. She also travelled to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire, to participate in and document a regular protest against the living conditions of the women contained there, awaiting deportation.
Danny Ryder has chosen to focus 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. It 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, help children living with cerebral palsy to become more independent, confident and mobile.
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.
Kindly supported by Brian Mercer Charitable Trust