Leaves / Leaving

This exhibition is also on display on the Bluestairs Gallery at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

Leaves / Leaving was a participatory project by artist Lowri Evans which took place under three trees in Salford in November 2021. It was documented by photographer and MA Socially Engaged Photography graduate Joseph Lee.

In early September 2021 Lowri started to research the trees of Salford – meeting with enthusiasts, experts and the trees themselves – with the view to return to make a work with the falling leaves later in the season. But the leaves had already started to leave. She said ‘Autumn was cracking on in its usual abundance of beginnings and endings. The world was supposedly coming out of a global pandemic and my body clock was ticking louder than ever. I wanted to pause in all the change. I wanted to see if anyone else did too.’

Lowri invited members of the public to drop by for a chat under three trees in Salford – Eccles Recreation Ground, the gardens at Ordsall Hall and the University of Salford campus – and let go of something. These thoughts were captured on leaves found under the trees.

Reflecting on cycles of life, death and the act of letting go, Lowri’s project Leaves / Leaving asks what we can learn from nature – and what wisdom we might share with each other.

under a tree
in Autumn
an explosion
of
change
and
orange
and
fall-
ing
debris
in the shhhh of trees
eighteen conversations
some time
in the time

Information about the artist

Lowri Evans (b.1983) studied art at Manchester Metropolitan University and makes art in Greater Manchester and São Paulo.

She makes intimate art projects in unusual places with complete strangers.

In 2015 she won a Manchester Theatre Award for The Shrine of Everyday Things with Renato Bolelli Rebouças, Rodolfo Amorim and Contact Young Company. She is an associate artist with Eggs Collective and the international producer for Coletiva Ocupação. She also plays in the band Hotpants Romance.

Leaving is a continuation of Fragile Handle with Care, a pre-pandemic project that saw people in Salford invite the artist into their homes, destroy a treasured possession and talk about it; photos, texts and fragments of which were exhibited at The Lowry and will become part of the University of Salford Art Collection. Here, instead of domestic spaces, Lowri was out in the elements exploring the cycles of life and death and life again.

thelowri.com @thelowri

luckyjoesphotos.co.uk @luckyjoesphotos

This project has been commissioned by University of Salford Art Collection and Salford Museum & Art Gallery, on behalf of Salford Culture and Place Partnership. It is part of the wider Rediscovering Salford programme which is generously supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.