People of Anfield was an artist residency in Anfield commissioned by Culture Liverpool and Open Eye Gallery, which culminated in an exhibition at Open Eye Gallery called The Flowers Still Grow.
Through a series of interventions from creative writing workshops and photography walks to pop-up street parties, photographer Emma Case and writer Pauline Rowe worked with residents of Anfield to co-produce the display.
The artists and residents also worked closely with a range of community organisations and spaces including Kitty’s Laundrette, Homebaked CLT, Liverpool Lighthouse, Anfield Improvement District and Pinehurst Primary School, to develop works shown throughout the exhibition.
The exhibition primarily focused on story-telling through photography with vibrant images of street parties and resident portraits, demonstrating the strong community spirit that runs through the streets. While the inter-generational exhibition evokes a sense of nostalgia with the residents exploring what it was like growing up in the areas and questioning what we have lost, it also looks to the future.
The project also included a collection of poems inspired by the creative writing workshops, which can be read here, and a short film ‘Terraces‘, exploring the local built and natural environment, shared through the voices of Anfield, which can be viewed here.
Hear from Pauline Rowe talking about the project on Radio Merseyside here and Anfield resident Janet Gardiner here.
If you missed the exhibition, you can catch it on hoardings outside LFC’s grounds. The hoardings have been coated with Clean Air, an anti-pollution solution proven to reduce harmful emissions substances like nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds by 40% over a 12-month period. The hoardings should see a net reduction of nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere equivalent to the emissions produced by an average family car covering 110,150 miles per year.
Image ©Rob Battersby
