The Cultural Bridge with Deborah Stone
Image by Deborah Stone
The second of our blog posts about the Cultural Bridge project comes from photographer Deborah Stone who also travelled to Lorrach in Germany to take part in the programme.
Deborah shares her experience below ahead of the Wolverhampton exhibition launch on the 9th July at Asylum Gallery in Wolverhampton.
Can you tell us about your project theme and photographs?
My work explores Heritage, Traces and Phenomenology. With both German and English ancestry, I am interested in interpretation of tradition through places spaces and objects often reflected in a way of life. These are sometimes objects but often recorded, providing memories of what is left behind in a world changing so rapidly where remnants are no longer physical and often digital.
Considering the Black Country and Lorrach, I was interested in places and spaces and how our environments, though millions of miles, apart is similar and different. Composing industrial photography as I might in the Black Country or observing the day-to-day goings on – both similar and different.
What did you do during the visit to Lorrach and the exhibition?
During my time in Lorrach I explored, I photographed, I asked questions and I observed. What is it to live in a small town in Germany, what makes people proud of where they live, where they come from, their roots? What fuels pride, respect and bonding to a location? It was a town offering creativity to its community, responsibility to its teens and hope. A place you may grow up in move away form but always return to. A place where the local towns all created an atmosphere; it was not about one town but many, from Basel to Lorrach, to Schopphfhem and the Black Forrest; they came under an umbrella like Dudley, Wednesfield and Wolverhampton are all part of CBC.
It was about finding parallels and differences – and this is what my exhibition there was about – linked images of the Black Country with images I had taken there.
How did you benefit from the experience how has it influenced your practice?
I had just finished the Offsite 9 series of images which were about reflecting on a city and celebrating its history. In doing this I considered what makes us who we are, how we read and the ideology or idiosyncrasy of what we hold onto. Trinkets and treasures of our community.
Only moving forward I focused on my personal history and family heritage.
This experience has been pivotal in my practise after a difficult personal time. I will always see it as my new beginning to find true solutions.
Why is it important as a Wolverhampton practitioner to be part to be part of opportunities like these that connect you to European programmes?
The world knows about London, Birmingham, Manchester - all the big cities. It’s important for opportunities like this to exist for places like the Black Country to acknowledge that creativity exists throughout Great Britain. For CBC to be paired with Lorrach was ideal as they had so many similarities, industrial, urban community with village mind.
What is happening next in your work
I continue to explore Heritage through traces and Phenomenology:- still editing the images I took and considering where I live along with our movements as we grow, reflecting on balance.
EXHIBITION
On July 9 - 16 July ENTER will launch at Asylum Art Gallery and will showcase the works of all the photographers in both locations. By appointment only contact deborahstone27@gmail.com or komachall@hotmail.com to book.
ABOUT: Cultural bridge is a new pilot programme promoting new relationships to support intercultural exchange and dialogue in the field of participative arts and culture between Germany and the UK supported by Arts Council England, Fonds Soziokultur, British Council, Goethe Institute, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Wales Arts International and Creative Scotland.
Kulturvilla Nellie, Lörrach and Creative Black Country are one of seven projects awarded funding to come together and explore connections.
CBC have worked with four photographers, Henriette Simons and Laura Ablancourt-Maynard (Germany) and Deborah Stone and Kom Achall (UK) who have looked at themes of identity, belonging and place and developed a body of work called ENTER.