Engagement & Participation

Here is a gallery of images I have selected from some of the past which include Venice Bienalle for Architecture, The Sheffield Town Hall Residency, Matchmaker at Sheffield United, Birch & O’Shea at Allhallows Leeds, Encounters in Liverpool, Batley, Sheffield.

I was a founder of Sheffield based Encounters along with Ruth Ben-Tovim, and we pioneered and used creative methods that brought different communities of people together to share aspects of their lives. We occupied disused shop spaces in Sharrow, Sheffield, and used them as a base to make art work in response to people and the environment. We enabled people to participate in that process by sharing stories, objects, thoughts and ideas about where they lived and in so doing enabled people to contribute to the making of evolving and evocative art work. Over the years I have worked alone and collaborated with many artists and other people, and continue to develop a participatory practice that enables the making of art in a variety of form and media that examines, unearths and reveals aspects of places and communities often hidden. The artwork acts as a snapshot and a view of a place and a community at a particular moment in time. I continue to be inspired by, and have great belief in the power of creative participatory work. How it can bring people together, and how as an art form it provides a connection with and between people and places, and can result in deeper knowledge and understanding.