Over the coming months in the pages of ‘South Leeds Life’ we shall be presenting a series of articles by and about artists that seek to shine a light into the artistic community of South Leeds.
As with anywhere you can get the measure of a community by the diversity of culture and activity that goes on within it and South Leeds is no exception, the area has a wealth of talent and opportunity to share with its inhabitants that extend far beyond the boundaries of LS10 and LS11.
Here we hope to be able to bring to you some of these individuals and organisations striving to put art at the very heart of the community. For some the process of creating work is a solitary endeavor, whilst for others it may be more a socially engaged practice, but whatever the preferred working method we aim to give you a glimpse into the lives of such creative practitioners in Leeds, South of the River.
Whilst art is generally perceived as something that deals with objects and images; sculpture, painting, drawing and such like, art can also be a tool for social engagement utilising less commonly accepted practice such as film, text and performance. In recent weeks in the pages of ‘South Leeds Life’ you may have read the article by Lloyd and Wilson in which they describe their practice and their lives as socially engaged contemporary artists.
Lloyd and Wilson represent a more unorthodox strand of contemporary art practice and as part of the Artist House 45 project run by East Street Arts, they will be residents of the Beeston community for at least the next year. South Leeds welcomes you Lloyd and Wilson. In future editions of this column we hope to bring you articles by other South Leeds organisations such as my own BasmentArtsProject, Eiger Music Studios, PoshFruit Creative, The Tetley and others . . .
To begin this series I would like to draw attention to a collaborative film project that has been in progress for some time now between members of the Beeston and Hunslet community and students and lecturers from BA Hons Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University, facilitated by BasementArtsProject.
The project seeks to ‘create an opportunity for students and members of the community to engage in a project that would allow them to experience something of each other’s lives in the process creating an artwork.’ With the subject of ritual at its core, this series of short films based in and about Beeston is being put together with the aim of screening them first here in South Leeds over the summer months. For more information on this project and to follow its development visit http://basementartsproject.com/event/leeds-metropolitan-university-basementartsproject-ls10-ls11-collaborative-film-project/ and on twitter using #southleedsfilm
Bruce Davies
Curator | Chair
BasementArtsProject
