Open Eye Gallery opens up all three galleries from July to September 2022 to a host of work that follows on from the LOOK Climate Lab 2022.
In Gallery 1, there will be the ongoing photography projects On The Ground: The Story of Trans-Nzoia Through the Trees and Tree Story – A History of Liverpool City Region Through Its Trees, two projects which explore the importance of trees and community in both Kitale, Kenya and Liverpool, UK.
On The Ground is the work of a two month residency in the Kitale forest by photographer Frederick Dharshie Wissah, depicting food and water insecurity alongside the local communities aiding in preservation and conservation.
Tree Story is a collaboration between Open Eye Gallery, dot-art, and Mersey Forest, who invited the public to create a history of Liverpool through its trees using personal stories and photography.
The work has been created in collaboration with photographer Andy Yates. Gallery 2 presents Other Lines, stills and moving image work by David Kendall using thermal imaging and SMART phones to visually research air emissions produced by industrial landscapes, such as oil refineries, in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
There is also photographic work sourced through an open call which asked for images responding to themes of energy, materials, transport, or non-human animals. LOOK will showcase Hellen Songa’s Mwalula, a photography project produced while Hellen visited their father Chileshe’s home country of Zambia after 23 years of separation.
Despite the differences in location and culture, both reconnected on their similar interests in farming; in particular, Mwalula Green-Life Farm, a plant-based, organic farm bought and ran by Chileshe and directed with Hellen. Mwulula will be facilitated by Groundworks to show in several public settings – Faiths4Change, Hope Community Garden, Friends of Everton Park and John Archer Hall.
Open Eye Gallery will also be showing Hellen’s Volunteer Voices: Liverpool Food Growers Network, which exhibited at the LOOK Climate Lab 2022 and exhibited in several public locations.
The portraits are a visual display of 100 volunteers involved in community food growing across Liverpool. Descriptions alongside the portraits highlight the positive benefits individuals get out of volunteering and that these projects have on local nature.