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LOOK PHOTO BIENNIAL 2022 : CLIMATE - THE NORTH WEST PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL RETURNS
LOOK Photo Biennial returns in 2022 for the first time since 2019 . The biannual photography festival takes place in venues across Liverpool and the North West and runs in opposing years to the Liverpool Biennial .
Since 2017 , LOOK has been delivered by Open Eye Gallery , Liverpool . Taking place in sites across the North West , LOOK ’ s programme operates as a cultural exchange both locally and internationally . The Biennial acts as a stage for sharing ideas in dispersed venues and locations across the North West .
The LOOK Photo Biennial 2022 theme is ‘ Climate ’, building on from Open Eye Gallery ’ s ten week long exploratory LOOK Climate Lab which took place between January and March 2022 . For the lab , Open Eye Gallery invited researchers , artists , academics and visionaries to take over the gallery and use it as a lab space , showing work in progress , inviting the public to engage via workshops and talk through ideas to tackle climate change . LOOK Photo Biennial 2022 : Climate is formed from partnership projects and ideas that began as micro commissions , community projects and research ideas during these LOOK Climate Labs . It aims to explore the agency of people within a sometimes overwhelming climate emergency , maximising the accessibility of photography to transcend languages , borders and cultures .
The LOOK Climate Lab has been preserved as a virtual reality exhibition which can be viewed online here .
LOOK 22 will take place across various sites including : RHS Gardens Bridgewater ( Manchester ), New Adelphi Gallery ( University of Salford ) and World of Glass ( St Helens ). LOOK will also exist in public spaces across the North West , such as charity shops across Chester and green spaces across the Liverpool City Region , highlighting climate prescient topics like textile recycling and environmental protection .
Exhibited in these spaces will be the project Are You Living Comfortably ?, Steve McCoy and Stephanie Wynne ’ s ongoing collaborative photography project with University Salford Art Collection and Energy House . These images , data , and interactive elements offer suggestions and guidance on how we can make small , everyday changes to make our houses more energy efficient . Another project for which the Climate Lab was a testing ground was the collaboration between the artist Andrew Broadey , photographer Kevin Crooks and a group of Carmel College students . LOOK will see their visual research using archival imagery from the industrial North West speculate how images can guide us to navigate the ecological crisis .
Each biennial , LOOK also partners with local and international artists to explore variations on a theme . This year , LOOK will exhibit the project On The Ground : The Story of Trans-Nzoia Through The Trees , the work of a two month residency in the Kitale forest , Kenya , by photographer Frederick Dharshie Wissah . The photographs depict food and water insecurity alongside the local communities aiding in preservation and conservation .
The full list of LOOK Photo Biennial 2022 : Climate artists and partners will be released in June . In the run up , Open Eye Gallery has launched an Open Call for photography focusing on themes of climate change and environmental issues to be exhibited in the festival . merseylife . com 13