A huge photo installation featuring 70 Thanet artists, poets, DJs and musicians as part of a global project has prompted a renowned artist to issue a fresh appeal.
Stretch Outsider Art Gallery has taken portrait shots of the 70 people and created them into large scale prints that will be displayed on a specially erected scaffold tower around the Newgate Gap shelter in January.
Thanet’s ‘Inside Out’ art will be part of an exhibition alongside visual art, films and installations by Kurdish artist Zehra Dogan. Zehra is an artist and journalist from Turkey and a founder and editor of Jinha, a feminist Kurdish news agency with an all-female staff.
In 2017, she was sentenced to 2 years, 9 months and 22 days in prison for “terrorist propaganda” because of her news coverage, social media posts, and sharing a painting on social media depicting the destruction of a town in Turkey after clashes between state security forces and Kurdish insurgents.
Artist and TED prize winner JR called for the creation of a global participatory art project with the potential to change the world. The Inside Out project features large scale portrait walls at locations across the globe, Each Inside Out work is documented, archived and exhibited online. More than 260,000 people have participated in 129 countries, with Thanet’s contribution almost complete.
In response to the isle project JR has contacted Stretch Outsider lead Dean Stalham with a new request which could see one Thanet tot feature in a new children’s book by JR bringing together 100 portraits of people aged one to 100 from around the world.
An email from the JR team says: “This will be a groundbreaking visual reference book that helps children understand the concept of age by giving them a portrait they can look at and a short “story” they can read, for every single age. “
Thanet has the chance to be the sole representative of the UK in the book with a youngster who has had, or is due to have, their first birthday this year.
The email adds: “By participating in this project, not only will they be a representative of their age, but they will also be taking part in a book that connects them to people of all ages around the world, and to individual children who will hopefully be reading this book at every single age and stage of their lives.”
Dean said: “The internationally renowned artist JR and his global people’s art project is putting together a children’s book.
“He has told me that my project – Pavement to Prison, Zehra;s Journey – is so amazing he wants me to find the sole UK representative for it.
“The book will be a global message of peace – and will resonate forever.”
If you think your child could be the ‘UK face’[ of the book contact Dean on [email protected]
Zehra’s work will be exhibited at the Joseph Wales studio at 2 Dane Hill, Margate from February 1-29.