Creativity Blooms at Kitty’s Launderette.
Written by Ella Crabtree as part of Kitty’s collaboration with the Tate Liverpool.
Back in the springtime, we had the opportunity to collaborate with Tate Liverpool on a project inspired by their public exhibition, The Plant That Stowed Away, which used painting, photography and film to explore the connections between the trading history of Liverpool and other cities and the movements of people and plants around the world. We were not only invited to a private tour of the display but also to host two workshops from local artists based on the themes of the exhibition.
As a group made up of launderette users, members of our writing group and other community members, we went to RIBA North for a private tour from the curator, Kate Haselden, where she introduced us to artworks exploring botanical histories and colonial legacies of our city and others across the globe. The display included works from Henri Matisse, Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid and Wirral-born photographer, Chris Shaw, whose works, Weeds of Wallasey, inspired the exhibition's conception. The artworks inspired great conversations amongst the group about how trade, historical and present, has affected the landscape, ecology, people and even our dreams! Afterwards, we even enjoyed a tea and cake spread courtesy of Tate Liverpool.
The following week, we hosted the first art workshop, facilitated by Hellen Songa. Hellen is an environmental photojournalist and socially engaged artist whose work centres around ecology, community activism, sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty. For our workshop, Hellen provided us with cameras and took us for a walk down to Everton Park. They encouraged us to use our senses to guide us around the park and find plants that attract us in a sensory way. They gave us a list of questions and prompts to consider before we photographed these plants. These included; “what did you first notice about them?”, “what do they remind you of?” and “if they had a voice, what do you think they would say?”. After we had collected our photographs, we headed back to the launderette to share our thoughts and photos with each other. We had a really engaging discussion around the lifecycles of different species in the park and how they nurture each other, sometimes even when they have passed. We also discussed the larger scale changes in the park and how it was amazing to be given this time to go and take in our environment, which we sometimes take for granted in our busy lives.
The final event from this project was a workshop facilitated by art scientist, Jay Hampton, whose practice focuses on how artistic and scientific methods combined have informed our understanding of botany, biology and the environment. Seed saving is a big part of their practice; they run the Old Swan Seed Library, collecting seeds locally from areas at risk of destruction and development. For their workshop, Jay took us for a walk down to the Homebaked community garden by the terraces to collect a few flowers and other natural materials. They were able to advise us about different species, which were invasive and which were fast-growing, in order to forage responsibly and not harm the local wildlife. We took our foraged materials back to the launderette where we used them to make cyanotype prints. Cyanotype is a photographic process that uses a UV light-reactive solution to produce a blue and white monochromatic image. We used our natural materials to make an arrangement on paper that was washed in the special solution and when we took it outside and laid it in the direct sun, it created really beautiful images in just a couple of minutes. Jay informed us that this process was developed by Anna Atkins, a female botanist in the 1800s, to produce the first ever book published with photographic images. It was really amazing the detail you could capture in the flowers and plants using just sunlight and we all had a lot of fun experimenting with different arrangements. Someone even got really inspired and started to experiment using their hands and even their keys to make some prints!
We are working towards an outcome of displaying/presenting all the artworks created during these fantastic workshops and also more collaborations between Kitty’s and Tate Liverpool. So be sure to keep an eye out for a sign-up sheet in the launderette for future opportunities to get involved with!
