Jayne Lawless
Multi disciplinary artist, Liverpool, UK.
My proposal to Habitable Spaces consists of bringing projects and ideas I’m working on currently in Liverpool to the local community of Kingsbury, Texas. I’m interested to develop and document the reaction and interaction of the projects in an environment totally different to where they were conceived. Also to learn from Alison and Shane about the setting up and running of Habitable Spaces, with an eye on a future dream to follow in their footsteps in Europe and continue to work together.
The projects:
North End Sketch Club - I’ll be looking for people to join me each week to have a sketch together, a walk and a chat, show me good places to sketch, tell me about Kingsbury, your town and neighbourhood.
Getting To Know You - I want to know what you can do Kingsbury, show and tell! This will culminate in a night of sharing, what we do, what we know, an exploration of talents and hidden gems.
Dead Pigeon Gallery - Yeah I know it’s a strange name, it was born from the fact that the first pop-up gallery space I curated was literally full of dead pigeons, the nickname stuck and I decided to pay homage to the much detested city bird and turn it into our talisman. DPG will be hosted this time at Habitable Spaces. What’s exhibited (in the widest sense) will be determined by the locals of Kingsbury.
I’m from a sculptural background and have a desire to make that runs alongside the curatorial and events based aspects of my work. Finding beauty or qualities that may have been missed or overlooked is a thread running throughout my practice and has drawn me towards art that looks outside of the traditional gallery environment and eventually to projects developed within local communities.
The area I’m from in Liverpool had a lot of things, ‘done to it.’ Rather than listen to or consult us, it was decided for us that our homes would be demolished, streets and streets of thousands of homes, and lives, friends, memories dispersed and gone forever. This awoke something in me that’s fed into my practice ever since, a sense of injustice and waste and ultimately that we’re stronger together than apart.
Working within my local community has demonstrated to me personally how powerful art and culture can be, on so many levels, from grass roots right up to national and international. Interspersed with travels and projects in the US, Mexico, Cyprus, South Africa, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Portugal my practice takes in aspects of other cultures, flavours, influences that continue to inspire and impact my thinking around positive action using art as a vehicle for change in community led activism.
Learn more about her work at artinliverpool.com/feature-coming-home and on her blog.