SPACE

11 Nov - 20 Jan 2007

Loraine Leeson

The exhibition Art for Change celebrated Loraine Leeson as an artist whose work has influenced and supported social change for over 30 years. The exhibition presents a retrospective of work from the mid 70s to the present day. Combining activism, politics and education Leeson's collaborative grassroots campaigns using classic photomontage techniques are among the most exciting in East London's rich social history.

Leeson's continual use of changing technology as a tool to engage communities and social groups can be seen throughout her practice. This is first evident in billboards and posters from the East London Health Project (1979-1980) and the Docklands Community Poster Project (1981-1991), both in collaboration with her former partner, artist Peter Dunn. Developed from hand-made photo-montages the posters and billboards were coloured individually by hand and displayed throughout East London.

Also on show is the 13ft x 7ft digital montage Awakenings (1994), made with Peter Dunn. A re-make of Stanley Spencer's historical painting Resurrection, Awakenings was originally commissioned by Tate and encouraged young people to consider themselves and their own physical environment. Loraine and Peter were among the very first artists to use image editing software in the production of their work.

Other works on display included the 4 slide projector piece Between Family Lines (1994), a collaboration with Karen Merkel and Leeson's current project VOLCO which is being developed with Hackney Schools. This innovative online virtual community allows classrooms to create their own settlements on the planet VOLCO and allows children to generate their own content by creating characters with their own individual personalities.

Taking place alongside Art for Change was the symposium Total Regeneration on Friday 19th January.

Also on Friday 19th January 6-7.30pm Loraine Leeson was in conversation with Carmen Mörsch, artist, educator, researcher and associate professor at the Institute for Cultural Studies, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany.