As part of LOOK Photo Biennial, 2019 - delivered by Open Eye Gallery - The Allotments exhibition considers Dingle Vale allotments in Aigburth, one of twenty-five working allotment communities in Liverpool. It has been authored with the co-operation of the allotment holders, who shared their insights, stories and experiences. It will be shown at the Victoria Gallery & Museum between 29 August and 28 September.
The Allotments reflects on place and people and offers a meditation about plots of earth that remain places of belonging away from home; the exhibition is, also, an exploration of collaborative artistic practice.
Allotments are spaces in the heart of a city that feel separate from urban noise and demands — places that celebrate and respect the seasons, the cycle of life. They offer escape from the everyday and provide the opportunity to work alongside others to learn and practice the ancient human labour of making things grow. Here we find small habitations and glass-houses, aspirations embodied in flowers, fruit, trees and vegetables – a harvest that offers elegies to other times and demonstrates hope for the future. There are dahlias and purple sprouting broccoli, cabbages, rhubarb, summer and autumn raspberries, plum trees and tomatoes, busy beehives and a kit of pigeons in flight above the plots. Allotments offer opportunities for friendship and exchange, lessons in the seasons and time to reflect.
This exhibition explores these spaces of cultivation and society through the work of photographer, David Lockwood with poet Pauline Rowe and painter, Arthur Lockwood who, at the age of 85, died while he was working on this project. While Arthur’s career was in publishing, he rekindled his passion for painting when he retired and spent most of the last 30 years exploring, painting and recording the changing face of industry in the Midlands. In his final project he explored the urban oasis of green that provides space and leisure away from the world of work. Arthur brought his characteristic colour to this exhibition.
The Victoria Gallery & Museum is at Ashton St, Liverpool L69 3DR and further information can be found here: http://vgm.liverpool.ac.uk/
Artists:
David Lockwood
David is a Liverpool based photographer who has been active in both photography and photographic education since graduating from Staffordshire University in the 90’s. David is currently working as a photographer and course leader of the BA Hons Degree in Digital Imaging and Photography at the Hugh Baird University Centre in Liverpool, England.
He has won numerous awards such as the AFAEP (Association of Photographers) Still Life award and North Staffordshire Arts Society Award. He has also exhibited in a wide variety of solo, joint and open exhibitions including the following; Finding Fangorn (displayed at the Open Eye Gallery as part of The Charter for Trees, Woods and People events), playmate, Contra Naturam, Another Mind in Your Eye touring exhibition and performance, Standing Shift performance with photography, the National Trust’s Ham House – Times Past and Present and South BankPhoto Show opens. Website: www.dglockwood.com
Arthur Lockwood
This was Arthur’s final project. His contact with art began early in life sketching in the company of his father, the painter and designer Frank Taylor Lockwood. Arthur attended Bournville School of Art from the age of 15 then Birmingham College of Art and (after National Service) The Royal College of Art where he studied graphic design. After a distinguished career as a free-lance designer in the publishing industry in London he returned to the Midlands in 1987 to paint full-time. His mission was to record the architectural and industrial heritage of his native city before it was lost. Arthur was a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, the Royal Society of British Artists and an Associate Member of the Royal Watercolour Society.
Arthur donated over 1,000 works by himself and his father Frank Lockwood, to Birmingham City Art Gallery & Museum, over 350 paintings and drawings of Black Country Industry to Wolverhampton City Art Gallery and 30 drawings of the coal mining industry to the Herbert Art Gallery Coventry.
Further Information: http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/Lockwood/Paintings.htm
Pauline Rowe
Pauline is a Liverpool based writer, poet and tutor. She is a member of the Society of Authors and the National Association of Writers in Education. She has worked with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust as Poet-in-Residence since 2013 and at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool as Writer-in-Residence, 2016-2018. She has two poetry pamphlets and two collections. Collaborations with artists and local people include the following projects and exhibitions – ‘Enigma’ (Sudley Project, 2014), ‘Liverpool Elegies’ (Liverpool CCG/North End Writers, 2015), ‘Sleeping in the Middle’ with photographer, A.J.Wilkinson (Open Eye Gallery, May 2018), ‘Here & Now’ (Open Eye Gallery/ Merseycare NHS Foundation Trust, 2018), ‘1918’ (North End Writers/Radio Merseyside, 2018).
She founded the Liverpool charity North End Writers in 2006 and worked as an editor for North End Press, 2007 – 2019. She has an MA in Creative Arts from Liverpool HOPE University and was awarded a PhD from Liverpool University in 2019. She has a poetry pamphlet, ‘The Ghost Hospital’ forthcoming with Maytree Press, November 2019.
Her blog: https://paulineroweblog.wordpress.com/
For further information about LOOK Photo Biennial please contact Thomas Dukes or Jacob Bolton at Open Eye Gallery – Tel: 0151 236 6768
