City Portraits is by Southampton鈥揵ased artist and photographer Laura Hensser鈥� in association with the John Hansard Gallery and Dr Paul Sweetman鈥� Lecturer in Sociology.
Launching this Friday (16 July)鈥� City Portraits has been installed in and around Southampton鈥檚 Guildhall Square鈥� at the heart of the City鈥檚 new Cultural Quarter. It features 20 larger than life鈥搒ized photographic banner images of Southampton residents. These works celebrate their lives and represent the diversity of the City鈥檚 inhabitants.
Photographer Laura Hensser comments: 鈥淎s a high鈥搗isibility鈥� high鈥搎uality鈥� collaborative art鈥搃nstallation and research project鈥� City Portraits celebrates Southampton鈥檚 residents鈥� whilst looking forward to its future as a developing city of culture.鈥�
The artwork is accompanied by a research project by Dr Paul Sweetman, focusing on participants鈥� experiences of the project and how they feel about having taken part.
Dr Sweetman comments: 鈥淢y research is informed by the idea that it can be positive for people to be focused on, pictured and represented in ways that they would not normally experience. I have been involved with the project from the beginning, and will be conducting focus groups with participants after the artwork is taken down, looking at people’s experiences of taking part, and asking whether they feel it has affected how they see themselves and their relationship with the City as a whole.鈥�
City Portraits is part of the Creative Campus Initiative (CCI), a consortium of 13 higher education institutions in the South-East, including the University of Southampton, which is delivering an exciting programme of cultural events and artworks in support of the Cultural Olympiad. The CCI as a whole is recognised by the London 2012 Inspire programme.
Val Drayton, Special Projects Manager at the John Hansard Gallery, adds: 鈥淭he Gallery is very proud to be associated with CCI. We support its mission to open up the cultural resources of South-East campuses and provide wider access to world leading, practice-based research in the creative and performing arts. City Portraits embodies the wider aims of the Cultural Olympiad in encouraging and welcoming involvement from the community and helping to showcase excellence in the arts.鈥�
The City Portraits banners will be in place until October 2010.