The Allotments - by photographer David Lockwood and writer Pauline Rowe
29 August - 28 September

Location: Gallery 7, first floor

The Allotments - by photographer David Lockwood and writer Pauline Rowe

The Allotments exhibition considers Dingle Vale allotments in Aigburth, one of twenty-five working allotment communities in Liverpool, where the allotment holders shared their insights, stories and experiences.

The Allotments reflects on place and people and offers a meditation about plots of earth that remain places of belonging away from home; the exhibition is, also, an exploration of collaborative artistic practice.

Allotments are spaces in the heart of a city that feel separate from urban noise and demands — places that celebrate and respect the seasons, the cycle of life. They offer escape from the everyday and provide the opportunity to work alongside others to learn and practice the ancient human labour of making things grow. Here we find small habitations and glass-houses, aspirations embodied in flowers, fruit, trees and vegetables – a harvest that offers elegies to other times and demonstrates hope for the future. There are dahlias and purple sprouting broccoli, cabbages, rhubarb, summer and autumn raspberries, plum trees and tomatoes, busy beehives and a kit of pigeons in flight above the plots. Allotments offer opportunities for friendship and exchange, lessons in the seasons and time to reflect.

This exhibition explores these spaces of cultivation and society through the work of photographer, David Lockwood with poet Pauline Rowe and painter, Arthur Lockwood who, at the age of 85, died while he was working on this project. While Arthur’s career was in publishing, he rekindled his passion for painting when he retired and spent most of the last 30 years exploring, painting and recording the changing face of industry in the Midlands. In his final project he explored the urban oasis of green that provides space and leisure away from the world of work. Arthur brought his characteristic colour to this exhibition.

This exhibition is part of the LOOK Photo Biennial, 2019 - delivered by Open Eye Gallery in partnership with the Victoria Gallery & Museum.