Cathy's Art Diary

Sobering public exhibition in the courtyard at the back of St Martin in the Fields of photographs of Central London taken by homeless people during lockdown. Dan Barber and Lucy Wood paid six homeless people to take photographs everyday with disposable cameras. They were paid £20 a camera and could have one a day. They were encouraged to spend less than 1 hour 45 minutes a day doing it so they were paid at the London living wage. There were four stands of pictures with quotes from the participants, Carly, Darren, Kelly, Crag, Joe and Andre. Sadly Kelly died during the project. They highlighted issues which I hadn’t thought of such as the fact that the few people who were out and about stopped carrying cash so were unable to give money to those on the streets. They saw the unseen aspects and the changes the lockdown brought. The exhibition comes with an accompanying book. Website of the project : Www.outofhome.org.uk Closes 31 July 2021  

Interesting exhibition at the Geffrye Museum showing work as a result of a project the museum did with the New Horizon Youth Centre, a day centre for vulnerable young people. Using items from the collection about homelessness in Victorian London they held sessions to get the young people to discuss and react to their experiences of homelessness today. Each case looked at a different aspect of the project. I loved a set of poems in reaction to a picture of a women’s Salvation Army hostel where the women slept in boxes like coffins in rows. Another section looked at what the young people considered to be the essential items to have when living on the streets. Also a section where people defined what home means when you don’t have one and I loved the one who concluded in a poem “Ho|me, How obvious, it’s me” as “me” is included in the word “home”. The whole thing was thought provoking without being preaching or condescending.