New photography exhibition coming to venues across Wigan borough

Open Eye Gallery and Wigan Council will present work from the LOOK Photo Biennial 2022 alongside photography from students at Wigan and Leigh College, during December.

Opening in the new Horrocks Gallery in Leigh Spinners Mill, on Friday December 9, is an exhibition of photography from the Ways of Living archive and photography from the college students. A preview of this exhibition will also be on display in the windows of the Castlefield New Art Spaces at the Grand Arcade, Crompton Street, Wigan.

The exhibitions are part of the Open Eye Hub, a space to champion local voices and collaboration between communities of Wigan and Leigh and the wider photography community based in the UK and beyond. The hub will be a space to share ideas, bring people together, and through photography, explore and communicate the urgent themes and issues of our times.

The show has been co-curated by two local, early career arts professionals, Sara Lawlor, and Hannah Tipping, working alongside curator Mario Popham and Producer Charlie Booth. As part of their role with the Open Eye Hub, the Community Fellows researched and selected pieces from the archive that resonated with them and that reflected issues they felt were relevant to local Wigan borough audiences.

It has a political and environmental message which says that with the warming world impacting every corner of the globe, a sea-change, or dramatic transformation, is necessary in our attitudes to nature and our place within it. The photographic projects in See Change, made by artists working in northern Britain and abroad, emphasises this interconnectedness of climate-based issues. The exhibition shifts the focus from the apocalyptic imagery that makes up much of the media coverage of the issue, instead directing our gaze towards the quieter stories of people and communities adapting to and anticipating a changing world.

Artists exhibiting in the See Change exhibition include: Simon Bray, Katie McCraw, Joshua Turner, Gabriel Fernandez, Edwin Huddlston, and Charlotte Dobson.

Artists from Wigan and Leigh College with work in the exhibition include: Milly Gallagher, Leah Farrimond, Phoebe Burns, Hannah Bate, Alice Balkwill, James MacLelland and Hollie Warhurst.

Exhibition opening times at The Horrocks Gallery will be from 11am - 4pm Wednesday - Saturday each week (closing for Christmas holidays on December 18 and re-opening in the new year on January 4, 2023.