International dialogue and global identity are at the forefront of a new photography exhibition in Liverpool.
The ‘LOOK Photo Biennial 2019’ opened up its Peer to Peer project, located in both St George’s Hall and Open Eye Gallery, on October 17th.
The project features a collection of artists from across the UK and China and runs until December 22nd 2019. The same exhibition will then be showing at the Shanghai Centre of Photography until February 2020.
Othello De’Souza Hartley is one of the 14 artists displaying their work in the Peer to Peer exhibition. The latest instalment in his ‘Masculinity’ series is currently featuring in St George’s Hall and this isn’t the first time the Londoner has shown his work in Liverpool.
YouTube: Ash Rowe
He told JMU Journalism: “I just love the fact that in Liverpool, you come here, and everybody talks to you straight away, and you get a story from everybody. People are proud to be from Liverpool, whereas a lot of Londoners are like ‘yeah, I want to leave’, but I don’t get that with Liverpudlians.”
The 42-year-old artist added: “One of the things I’ve noticed up north, is that the men talk about them and their families and friends. In the south it’s more about ‘me and myself’. Big difference. I’ve noticed that it’s more about community and friends.”
Nick McDowell, international director of Arts Council England, said: “Next month it’ll be 30 years since the Berlin wall came down. We were told back in November 1989 that the end of history was imminent.
“A new dawn of free movement and free market economics seemed to have arrived. How much has changed.
“Borders and walls have re-entered the discourse and the reality since the Brexit referendum in 2016 and the election of the current American president some months later.”
He added: “While politicians are closing and enforcing borders, artists participate in an increasingly global conversation.”