Today was the first meeting of the group who will take part in the Lisen Profile Travel Journal Project. The group is made up of Eileen O'Connell and Ian Wragg who have been working with me during my residency at Parson Cross Library, Jo Stapleton and Carole Webster who are members of the Foxhill Arts for Health Group and Matthew Fisher and Dianne Cocker from LEAF community allotment in Longley.
We met at the Millennium Galleries at 11 to see the Katerina Seda exhibition. Curator Louisa Briggs gave us a talk about why the exhibition was commissioned, what took place during the project and answered questions from the group about the work.
The reaction of the group was mixed. People liked the community aspect of the project and they liked the stories that came out of the work. Eileen asked questions about why the work took place in the Czech Republic and not Sheffield. Carole questioned whether a work of art should need as much explanation as the Profile needs. The group commented that the theme and idea are very unclear from the exhibition and overall the concept is hard to understand. Everyone said that they would have liked to see more documentation and explanation of the process. Carole commented that she would have liked to hear what lasting affect the project has had on Lisen. She said that she doesn't have a problem with the exhibition not being visually impacting if the work has truly affected the community.
