The artists Othello De’Souza-Hartley and Jonny Briggs highlight social issues thanks to the transparency of photography in their respective work “Masculinity Project” and “Unpalatable Truths” part of the exhibition “Peer-to-Peer”. From October 17^th to December 22^nd, their photographs are displayed at the Open Eye Gallery and St George’s Hall in Liverpool among the work of 12 other Chinese and British photographers as part of the LOOK Photo Biennal 2019. 

Through the exhibition “Peer-to-Peer”, the artists communicate the global issues of the present, and exercise photography’s role in shaping the future. The uniqueness of the project lays in its concept as it has been curated by three artists, Lindsay Taylor, Thomas Duke, and Serein Liu , who nominated 14 influential cultural leaders in photography from across the UK and China. Then, each of them elected one artist and his most relevant series of work that they felt worth to be brought up on the international scene.

The photographer Othello De’Souza-Hartley was very pleased when he knew that the founding editor of Photomonitor, Christiane Monarchi, selected his work to be part of the exhibition. He said: “For someone to nominate your work because they have this personal picture of it, I think that’s the most beautiful thing. It’s a much more honest way to recognise your work because they have a personal engagement with what you produced.”

This original concept did not come without its array of challenges as Lindsay Taylor, the curator of the University of Salford’s Art Collection, explained “it was really about, first of all, making a selection, but then, think about how we make the exhibition makes sense when there is no sense behind this grouping selected by people.” 

Discover more about the works of Othello De’Souza-Hartley and Jonny Briggs below :

The project is part of the LOOK Biennial programme that showcases different exhibitions throughout the year in the aim to increase cultural exchange between the UK and another country. For the 2019 Edition, China had been selected partly because of “the shift in global politics”, as Lindsay Taylor mentioned, “but also because there is great work there. Each artist is different, but I like the fact that most of them are very subversive. In China, you can’t show everything (like nudity or political work), and a lot of artists we work with are good to get around it.”

The curators had to re-think the exhibition all over again to show it in the Shanghai Centre fo Photography from December 9th 2019 to February 9th 2020. Not only they had to design a new setup in a new space, they also had to pay attention to the content of the exhibition in order to respect the censorship that applies to art in China.

If neither Othello De’Souza-Hartley’s “Masculinity Project” nor Jonny Briggs’ “Unpalatable Truths” have been concerned by the issue, Lindsay Taylor pointed out her particular interest to Othello De’Souza-Hartley’s work about masculinity to be exhibited in China. “Masculinity Project” breaks down any kind of stereotypes that men should fit into within the society, strictly contrasting with the patriarchal and stoic qualities traditionally associated with Chinese men.

The exhibition “Peer-to-Peer” is not only an opportunity for the artists to get on the international cultural scene and to showcase to people artists they do not know, it also widely participates to unlock international dialogue by tackling issues existing all over the globe thanks to the twinning of two different cultures within the same exhibition.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.

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Part of the LOOK Biennal 2019, the exhibition "Peer-to-Peer" highlights the work of 14 artists from the UK and China at the @openeyegallery and @stgeorgeshall_liverpool in Liverpool until December 22nd. The project aims to increase cultural exchange between the two countries and to raise awereness about global issue through the power of images. Full article online with the interviews of one of the curators of the exhbition, Lyndsay Taylor, and the artists @othellodesouzahartley who raises the question about masculinity in the 21st Century, and Jonny Briggs who tackkes the issue of child abuse – link in bio. #peertopeer #liverpool #openeyegallery #stgeorgeshall #lookbiennal2019 #photography #uk #china #arts #journalism #artists #photographers

A post shared by 'Art'-Loud (@art_loud__) on Dec 12, 2019 at 4:57pm PST

Written Johanna Gayraud