An Exhibition Exploring Love and Loss Through the Lens of Lived Experience
About the event
Blackpool Central Library | 9.30am – 4.30pm | Drop in when you can
What do we hold on to when someone, something or somewhere is lost? How do we begin to understand what support may be out there?
This exhibition brings together five artists working with communities to explore memory, loss, place, identity and the traces that remain through photography, visual art, ceramics and cyanotype.
Featuring work by Henry Iddon, Richard Oughton, Helen Kay, Michael Cassidy, Danielle Chappell-Aspinwall and local workshop participants, the exhibition offers different ways of looking at grief as something that can be carried, transformed and given new meaning through creativity.
Photography captures moments that might otherwise disappear. Objects and materials hold traces of touch and time. Images can preserve people, places and experiences, while the physical processes of making can become a way of reflecting on what has been lost and what remains.
Henry Iddon’s photographic practice includes socially engaged work and explorations of landscape, place and memory. His work invites us to look closely at the environments and stories around us.
Richard Oughton’s photography explores identity, community and belonging. His atmospheric approach to light and portraiture creates photographs rich with character and feeling.
Helen Kay distinctive photographic perspective uses the cyanotype process to explore memory and the family album while offering a different way of looking at the images and moments we choose to hold on to.
Michael Cassidy works primarily with ceramics, using clay as a material that records touch, takes impressions and responds to time, gravity and force. His work is particularly interested in the traces and textures of the places we inhabit, transforming them into new forms and meanings.
Danielle Chappell-Aspinwall works to connect people and art through place, nature and wellbeing. Advocating for positive change, unity and accessibility, she opens up conversations around mental health awareness, hidden disability and subtle ways to preserve our planet through creative recycling.
Together, these artists create a space to pause and reflect on the many forms grief can take: personal and collective, visible and hidden, immediate and long-held.
The exhibition asks us to consider what we keep, what changes, and what remains with us.
Because sometimes, when everything changes, art can help us hold on.
Access information: Fully accessible venue with step-free access, lift and accessible toilets. Hearing loop available.