Workshops, Zines, Exhibition and Book Publication
The Young Shoots Social Club was a creative, joyful, and collaborative space for young people in Salford aged 14 to 17. The project allowed young people to connect with nature, learn new skills, and explore who they are through photography and storytelling.
This year-long project included:
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Portrait & storytelling sessions using digital cameras to explore identity and connection
⬩ Nature walks with cameras through RHS Bridgewater and local parks
⬩ Creative writing and interviews pairing images with their own words
⬩ Bookmaking and zine workshops with outcomes they could hold, share, and display
The Young Shoots Social Club began as part of a residency supported by Salford University, Salford Youth Services, RHS, Open Eye Gallery, and Arts Council England.
Rubbish Book
Exhibition and Book Publication
What does rubbish say about a place? Can it be a portrait of a community? Is it a mistake to look for beauty in litter? And what does the accumulation of litter say about those we entrust to clear it? During March and April 2022, we sought answers to these questions with a series of Rubbish Life Drawing classes at OT Creative Space in Old Trafford. As residents, we wanted to find a way to talk about rubbish without resorting to the usual complaints or rants. Instead, we wanted to use art as a tool for reflection and for bringing people together. Participants were invited to bring their own garbage found on the way to the classes, and we provided a series of drawing exercises to help find a way to represent their litter.
One positive about doing Rubbish Life Drawing classes is the resulting drawings and paintings can literally be rubbish. It doesn’t matter how skillful you are or how well you can handle paint or a pencil. What matters is simply taking the time to make marks on paper, discuss whatever’s on your mind with strangers and friends, and enjoy the process of making and reflecting.
This Rubbish Book filled with rubbish drawings and paintings doesn’t mean Old Trafford is a rubbish place. On the contrary, we love it here but it seems others don’t quite feel the same way. We hope that in these pages, the skills and talents of those who live here gives you a different perspective on the place and makes you think twice about littering.
View the Rubbish Book here.
Commissioned by OT Creative Space
Dedicated to the One I Love
Exhibition
Across Britain, some 50,000 young carers are believed to be caring for a loved one, parent or sibling with a long term illness. Many of the adults cared for experience mental health problems such as depression, anxiety or even dementia.
The consequences on young carers' own physical and emotional health can be significant, forcing many to miss out on the pleasures their peers have the freedom to enjoy. Domestic duties also impact heavily on educational development, keeping some behind other children their age.
In 2007, we spent two months working with young carers in East Manchester. At first, we saw them as heroes or victims. But as we got closer, we saw how a sense of obligation and responsibility were qualities not limited to adults.
Commissioned by Tameside Council and Central Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne
Exhibition at Central Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne
30 June – 1 September 2007
A Curious Old House
Book Publication and Exhibition
A contemporary record of Ordsall Hall's place in the cultural life and identity of Salford; a container carrying the impressions of people who have briefly encountered it, the recollections of those who have lived within it and finally, the stories of others who have become enchanted by it.
Commissioned by Ordsall Hall and Salford City Council
Ordsall Hall is a historic house in Salford, Greater Manchester, believed to be over 830 years old with the oldest surviving parts of the Hall built in the 15th century.
Between 2009 and 2011, the Hall underwent a dramatic restoration with rotting timbers restored and replaced, previously hidden medieval and Tudor features brought back to life, beams blackened by the Victorians stripped back to their original colour, and medieval stained glass windows restored and reinstated after languishing for many years in the basement of Salford Museum.
Although old documents housed in the museum allow us to identify the many structural changes made to the Hall through the ages, much about the lives, objects, and events that have filled it remain a mystery.
Likewise, the stories and anecdotes that give meaning to them are for the most part gone, replaced by myths and legends passed from one generation to the next.
We believe these stories to be as important to the life of a building and its place in the community as the bricks and mortar that hold it together.
While the conservationists worked on the physical structure, we set out to explore the building's significance to those whose lives have been touched by it and who have contributed to its survival. The result is an alternative archive consisting of old photographs, contemporary portraits, artefacts and interviews that reflect the relationship former residents, neighbours, workers and visitors past and present have to the Hall.
In gathering these diverse testimonies, we regard Ordsall Hall as a living palimpsest – a structure scraped clean to be re-used again but which bears the traces of its many previous incarnations.
As the Hall emerges from the most recent restoration in its long life, we see this book as a contemporary record of the Hall's place in the cultural life and identity of Salford; a container carrying the impressions of people who have briefly encountered it, the recollections of those who have lived within it and finally, the stories of others who have become enchanted by this curious old house.
Between 2009 and 2011, the Hall underwent a dramatic restoration with rotting timbers restored and replaced, previously hidden medieval and Tudor features brought back to life, beams blackened by the Victorians stripped back to their original colour, and medieval stained glass windows restored and reinstated after languishing for many years in the basement of Salford Museum.
Although old documents housed in the museum allow us to identify the many structural changes made to the Hall through the ages, much about the lives, objects, and events that have filled it remain a mystery.
Likewise, the stories and anecdotes that give meaning to them are for the most part gone, replaced by myths and legends passed from one generation to the next.
We believe these stories to be as important to the life of a building and its place in the community as the bricks and mortar that hold it together.
While the conservationists worked on the physical structure, we set out to explore the building's significance to those whose lives have been touched by it and who have contributed to its survival. The result is an alternative archive consisting of old photographs, contemporary portraits, artefacts and interviews that reflect the relationship former residents, neighbours, workers and visitors past and present have to the Hall.
In gathering these diverse testimonies, we regard Ordsall Hall as a living palimpsest – a structure scraped clean to be re-used again but which bears the traces of its many previous incarnations.
As the Hall emerges from the most recent restoration in its long life, we see this book as a contemporary record of the Hall's place in the cultural life and identity of Salford; a container carrying the impressions of people who have briefly encountered it, the recollections of those who have lived within it and finally, the stories of others who have become enchanted by this curious old house.
Borderland
Exhibition
Like many post-industrial towns entering the 21st century, Oldham struggles to redefine itself in the shadow of a golden age of textile production. Derelict mills, warehouses and rows of neglected housing litter a landscape perched on the edge of the Pennines.
Culturally, the town is divided between a predominantly white working-class population and communities from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and parts of the Caribbean. In May 2001, these divisions came to a head with some of the worst racially motivated riots ever seen in the UK.
Eight years on, despite efforts by local and national governments to bring investment to the area and increase community cohesion, the town continues to be divided. This photographic survey was produced between 2007 and 2008 as part of a regeneration programme attempting to bridge these divides through cross-cultural understanding.
Hinterland
Exhibition and Book Publication
The Hattersley Estate was created in the early 1960s to house residents displaced by the slum clearances of inner city Salford and Manchester and soon gained notoreity between 1963 and 1965 as the home to the Moors Murderers, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.
Lying in a relatively isolated area on the edge of the Pennines, residents today continue to wait for the investment and infrastructure promised to them decades ago. In the gap between promise and reality, a unique characted formed during years of adversity continues to thrive on the estate.
Commissioned by Hattersley Neighbourhood Partnership
Manga!
Exhibition
Manga! engaged a group of young people frequenting the Central Library and Central Art Gallery with the local history and heritage of their area.
Fifteen young people who all had an interest in Manga met at the gallery over several months and focussed on two aspects of Tameside’s past – the Gorse Hall murder and the legend of the Black Knight. They developed historical research skills, created comic books, made an animation dvd, learnt to use sewing machines to make their own costumes, did a photography shoot, planned and promoted an events day and finally brought all these elements together in an exhibition seen by over 4,000 visitors.
The project achieved the following:
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Enhanced self confidence and self-esteem among the participants:
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Helped the young people and in some cases gave them the confidence to change their home lives.
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Sparked aspirations for the future, with participants embarking on college courses as a direct result of the project.
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Taught participants new skills including sewing, photography, animation and design.
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Challenged negative assumptions about teenagers.
Commissioned by Central Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne
Present History
Permanent Exhibition
Present History was produced in Tameside, Greater Manchester in November 2008, as part of a project commissioned by Lime Arts for Ashton Primary Care Centre.
Working with Sixth-Form students from a local college, we produced a series of contemporary portraits inspired by early 20th Century photographs discovered at the The Tameside Local Studies & Archive Centre.
Commissioned by Lime Arts
Raw Material
Exhibition and Book Publication
"On entering the 21st Century, much emphasis is placed on the need for post-industrial towns and cities to develop new aspirational identities to attract outside investors and succeed in the global marketplace.
Having worked in the north of England for the past four years, we came to North Staffordshire between October 2007 and April 2008 and saw much of what we had seen elsewhere; A landscape scarred by economic forces that have left deep psychological and physical wounds. The themes that revealed themselves while we worked here included a coming of age, vulnerability, and role-play.
Our belief in photography is based on its ability to make us pause and question forces that progress at breakneck speed and it is in this social and thematic context that we present this work."
In 2008, we were commissioned by B-Arts with funding from Arts Council England and the North Staffordshire Regeneration Partnership to document the urban environment and local population of Stoke-on-Trent, and a programme of artists' commissions focusing on the heritage of the area. Our work was presented in a book publication and exhibition at AirSpace Gallery in Hanley.
Commissioned by B-Arts
