I have been privileged to do the previous AltBlackpool pieces on Jill Reidy’s ‘Seaside Towns Out Of Season’ project. I interviewed her in February as part of the launch of the crowdfunding to get the road trip off the ground, and last month I wrote a piece inviting applications to the curator post for the exhibition of the results. These can be seen from the end of the month at Blackpool’s Abingdon Studios.
Jayne Simpson, who was appointed to the curatorial role, comments:
“Jill led us through her own physical and emotional landscape, through image making, blog writing and a very honest and sometimes painful account of her feelings on depression, poured out through various social media platforms. Supporters encouraged and shared their own personal struggles and were grateful for Jill’s truly honest and open account, giving others opportunity to acknowledge their own pain. The images captured a final documentation of a far bigger journey.
Through these images, Jill explores what remains when the holiday season ends and captures through seascapes, architectural landscapes and through conversations and encounters with others. These conversations en route, documented in the form of a postcard acknowledgement of other’s feelings for their ‘Seaside Town Out of Season’.
This exhibition is a celebration of what has been achieved and overcome. A culmination, not only of the resulting images and installation but of a much bigger intervention. From one seaside town to many more around the UK this project has allowed for many conversations and acknowledgements of the people who live at the edge of the land. The work celebrates the beauty in nature and the recognition of the contrasting deprivation. Sometimes, thankfully, like the tide at the edge of the sea, the grey and the colour can often overlap.”
The exhibition features works taken at Whitley Bay, Whitby, Scarborough, Great Yarmouth, Southend, Margate and Brighton. Staging it in Blackpool gives local residents a chance to compare the images with their own town and their experience of it. It runs at the Abingdon Studios from Friday 29th September to Thursday 5th October. To arrange a viewing please contact Jill directly, via Facebook (personal or Red Snapper Photography) or mobile 07824393615.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1863819089/seaside-towns-out-of-season
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