THIS IS HERE, THIS IS HOME.
Awarded by The Leap and in conjunction with BD:is LiT Festival 2023
With permissions from Bradford council and Cliffe Castle Park & Museums
As part of Bradfords light festival BD:is LiT, The Leap, who are a community-driven organisation in Keighley commissioned a group of local artists to create projects and artworks which were developed with community groups and the local people in Keighley.
Inspired by Carl Sagan and his ‘Pale Blue Dot’ speech, the passion that he had for science communication and education about the environment was my inspiration for this project. In his speech, he spoke about the perspective of the planet, as Voyager 1 drifted further away from the earth and into the outer solar system. As it did, it turned back to the earth and took the further photo away from earth of the earth itself. Appearing as a pale blue dot, Sagan reflected on the significance of this image. He spoke of the quantity of the people that lived on the planet, the various ideologies and the countless feuds that groups of people had towards others. To the wars that had been fought and the blood that had been shed trying to control a portion of the pinprick of light, that was the pale blue dot. How empty space is, how alone we are in the universe, and how (as far as we currently know), we only have each other.
It speaks of tolerance, acceptance, understanding, empathy and positivity towards one another, a message which resonates in my motivation to create work.
Since moving to Keighley, I had walked through Cliffe Castle Gardens on the way to the train station often. A bandstand in the park always caught my imagination and I began thinking about how the space could be reinvigorated once again to encourage live music and events. This award from The Leap was this opportunity, and inspired by the sentiment behind the phrase ‘this is here, this is home’, i began to take photos around Keighley of local architecture and sights around the town.
Working with People First Youth Club, I worked with the youth group to use the pictures as inspiration for creating shapes found in the images. The artworks created by the youth group were the perfect start point for me to then design what the mural could look like based on the creative shapes and colours the participants drew from the photos.
From initial thoughts about the bandstand a few years ago, to working with the wonderfully creative people at People First, to sketching out designs and then painting them onto the bandstand walls, the pride of place was shining through.
Emma Denby 