Protest of Identity / Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool

In response to a world in which we find ourselves inundated with images promoting conformity, societal-norms and social pressures, this work seeks to subvert these ideals. 

How can we use textiles as a tool for our own forms of expression? When do the lines between fashion, sculpture or protest blur?’ 

Protest of Identity was a co-created body of work with myself and Ocean Farini for Open Eye Gallery and The Atkinson and the minds and experiences of a group of brilliant young people at the SPACE in Bootle.

Press Release from The Atkinson Gallery…

A new arts project in Sefton challenges young people to use photography and fashion as a tool for championing social and environmental rights, and explores how images can be used to agitate.

Open Eye Gallery has been working with long-standing collaborators New Beginnings youth group, The Atkinson (Southport) and two new artists in residence, Ocean Farini and Sally Gilford on Protest of Identity. 

Together they worked to produce their own series of fashion items which culminated in a public exhibition this Autumn 2022, at The Atkinson.  For this new project, a group of young people called New Beginnings who are from  in and around Bootle, came together to talk and create in a space they knew well.

Protest of identity is all about exploring the potential of the politics of textiles and clothes, how we can use them as tools for expression and change, as well as questioning when these things blur the lines between fashion, sculpture, and political statement.

Protest of Identity was a project partnership between Open Eye Gallery and The Atkinson and is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation Access and Participation Fund.