LOCAL PEOPLE SEW A KILOMETRE OF STITCHES BY HAND TO MAKE NEW ARTWORKS
IMAGE: Rachel Dobbs (L) and Hannah Rose (R) holding the BUILD IT TOGETHER banner made from scratch by local people during their monthly Making Days at Grow Plymouth
Since April this year, Plymouth-based artists LOW PROFILE (Rachel Dobbs and Hannah Rose) have been inviting local people to join them once a month for open sewing sessions at GROW to make a series of new banners using simple patchwork and hand-quilting techniques. This month, the finished banners will go on show for the first time at an exhibition in GROW.
LOW PROFILE EXHIBITION AND POP-UP SHOP
Opening event: Fri 24 Nov 6-9pm
Exhibition & shop continue: Sat 25 Nov & Sun 26 Nov 10-4pm
All Welcome, no need to book
“We are really pleased by the response we’ve had from people to our invitation to come and sew with us. We’ve loved how much people have been enjoying the process of making the banners together. Many people returned month after month, some people took sewing home with them, and at our last session no one really wanted to stop.” Hannah Rose from LOW PROFILE
Their monthly drop-in Making Days were part of a six month public-facing artists’ residency where LOW PROFILE invited members of the public into the hands-on creative process. In the relaxed sessions, (where participants were free to come-and-go) more than 60 people worked together to make artworks designed by LOW PROFILE that draw on histories of radical quilting, union banner making and protest.
IMAGE: Participants sewing banners with LOW PROFILE at their monthly Making Days
During the sessions, LOW PROFILE guided conversations around celebrating the power of coming together to achieve change through community building, group effort and collective action. These ideas are a long-running theme for the artists, and also ones that informed LOW PROFILE’s artwork “PEOPLE” in 2022, where they gathered hundreds of the city’s volunteers on Plymouth Hoe to make a celebratory photograph together.
The banners will be exhibited for the first time, alongside a pop-up shop (featuring 16 artists and makers from across the city) and a series of ‘Proposals for Plymouth’ that LOW PROFILE have been developing recently.
IMAGE: from LOW PROFILE (2023) Proposals For Plymouth series
IMAGE: from LOW PROFILE (2023) Proposals For Plymouth series
IMAGE: from LOW PROFILE (2023) Proposals For Plymouth series
“We’re interested in how artists' impressions and visual mock-ups get used as part of the planning and redevelopment of places. Usually, they are made by architects and property developers as part of public consultations and PR campaigns, as explainers of what will follow. We thought it would be interesting to make some of our own, as a playful way to highlight, question and challenge systems of decision-making and power in public spaces, as well as expanding ideas of what is possible.” Rachel from LOW PROFILE
LOW PROFILE’s proposals are hopeful messages that speak to the importance of community, offer rally cries to those who are trying to make change happen in difficult circumstances, and highlight important spaces for culture, education and togetherness. They have made artists' impressions for different buildings and sites across the city, from Plymouth Citadel, The Box and the Millennium building on Union Street, to a patch of wasteland on the old site of the Good Companions pub.
They are interested in how viewing proposals allows people to imagine these text-works in real life and how these currently not-yet-realised ideas could be ‘put to use’ in the future.
About LOW PROFILE
LOW PROFILE are Rachel Dobbs and Hannah Rose - artists based in Plymouth (UK), who have been working together over the last 20 years. They are most interested in the connections between people, and creating new experiences that happen in people’s real life. They use things like bold statements, text, badges, sound, temporary gatherings, and event-structures to help do this. They make art that is designed to be encountered in social situations, public spaces and become part of people’s everyday. They work hard to make these encounters hopeful, engaging, joyful and thought-provoking. Find out more about their work: www.we-are-low-profile.co.uk
Funders and Partners
The BUILD IT TOGETHER project and residency is made possible thanks to funding from Arts Council England, supported by National Lottery Players.
The project is supported by a series of community partners: GROW Plymouth, Nudge Community Builders, Arts University Plymouth, The Village Hub, CAMP Membership, Queer District Collective, Plymouth Scrapstore, Take A Part, and University of Plymouth.
PART OF A YEAR-LONG SERIES OF RESIDENCIES AND CULTURAL EVENTS
This residency at Grow is part of a year-long series of pop-up residencies and cultural events working with partners to experiment and explore the building, its surroundings, heritage and looks to the future in terms of sustainability, inclusion, food and drink, grassroots arts, music and culture. The top floors have been converted into studios, which are now creative home to painters, audio artists, printmakers, installation and socially engaged artists.