''Our Freedom: Then and Now" is a nationwide creative program marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Led by Future Arts Centres in partnership with Libraries Connected and Open Eye Gallery, this initiative brings together artists and local communities to create 60 new artworks and events across the UK. Supported by Arts Council England, the project exploring what freedom means to people today through exhibitions and performances.
Layers of Freedom
Intertwining Memory, Symbol, and Belonging A participatory project at the Bluecoat, in collaboration with Open Eye Gallery Freedom carries a unique resonance for everyone; for some, it is rooted in distant memories of a homeland, for a child, it might be found in a favourite toy, and for others, it is a symbol of future aspirations. In the project Layers of Freedom, I invited families and children to transform these abstract notions into tangible images through the objects and symbols they hold dear. This collection is the result of a co-creative process hosted at the Bluecoat. Here, participants were more than just subjects; they were storytellers. By bringing in drawings, keepsakes, or items that represent liberation to them, we worked together to capture the profound connection between the individual and the object.
This project was developed in visual dialogue with the work of Yaqeen Amir. While Yaqeen used projection techniques to cast Liverpool’s architecture and urban landscapes onto the participants-rooting them in the physical fabric of the city-my focus remained on their internal and personal worlds. In my portraits, the objects speak. Each item represents a layer of the individual’s identity, brought from the private sphere into the public space of the gallery. The intersection of these two perspectives-one connecting people to the city through Yaqeen’s projections, and the other connecting them to their roots through my focus on personal symbols-offers a complete narrative of what freedom means to Liverpool’s diverse communities today.
A vital element of this project was its immediate, participatory nature. Participants were able to take a physical print of their portrait home with them on the day. This exchange shifted the act of photography from a purely artistic endeavour into a shared human experience, where freedom became more than just an idea-it became a recorded memory to be kept.
