Empathy Museum
December 2020
From Where
I’m Standing
Project for The Empathy Museum
During the summer I had the pleasure of collaboration with The Empathy Museum on a project called “From Where I’m Standing”.
The Empathy museum, is an arts project started by Clare Patey that aims to get us to look at the world through other peoples eyes. It has various touring exhibitions that use audio to focus on personal storytelling. ‘From Where I’m Standing’ is their first project that uses Photography as well as Audio interviews.
The project is focused on peoples experiences in the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s split into 4 strands - Nurses, Local , Health and Experience. Each strand was shot by a different photographer and they were interviewed by a variety of audio artists. I photographed the Local strand which was based in Brixton, my local area! The idea was, that each person chose a significant item that symbolised their time in Lockdown - Initially there were too many people choosing masks or esoteric things like parks, but after more in depth discussions the choices became more personal.
We found some amazing stories of local people - from a community gardener, to an online house choir or our supermarket’s favourite cashier. Each with their individual stories, but stories of kindness and empathy that surely echo around the country and the world.
You can hear the fascinating audio interviews on the “From Where I’m Standing” website here
Also there were various changing plans on how to stage the show, from Physical gallery exhibition, to bus stop digital displays. But they decided on the original and Covid safe plan of having the photos displayed on Estate agent style signs, with QR codes linking to the audio interviews. They can be displayed on any street for free by just asking for the residents permission.
The first iteration of the show is in Brixton on Dalberg Road, SW2, from Dec 10th 2020 through to Jan 10th 2021 and after that it is due to tour the country.
