Neighbourhood Group - SEHSCT
A group of neighbours ranging between their 60s and 90s along with extended friends and family
Title of Work: Landmarks & lifelines
Facilitating Artist: Jason Parkes
Landmarks & lifelines: a map of life’s road trip - Our group consisted initially of Neighbours but expanded and adapted over the pandemic to include correspondence with extended friends and family. The intention had been to learn more about each others lives, to share stories and memories and to make plans for the future together and this certainly happened albeit in very different ways. We created postcards, letters and collages of photos featuring our hands, sharing meaningful landmarks in our life and there was plenty of laughter and some tears at times. At times we worked across the threshold, through an open window, or with me sitting on a garden wall whilst several neighbours pulled up chairs, staying in their own doorways. The best sessions were the early ones where we could actually meet together as as a group of neighbours, like when we were able to gather just before Christmas by a large tree in our street. Later on as lockdown tightened and the weather got wilder the contact became harder and conversation more fleeting. It was especially difficult for some who were isolating and so by necessity the project became predominantly postal where I put together art packs and the participants posted back their responses. It wasn't just a two way process by this stage however because part of the pack concept was to encourage communication and writing between family and friends so at times it felt like the postcards and letters became actual lifelines between us.
