This short video describes the launch of City Portraits, a major new public artwork and research project organised in association with John Hansard Gallery, artist Laura Hensser and Paul Sweetman, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Southampton. In 2010 Twenty Southampton residents were photographed for a series of full-length, life-sized portraits, installed on banners and suspended above the city’s newly refurbished Guildhall Square.

John Hansard Gallery

Laura Hensser: City Portraits - celebrating the project launch

Tom Trevor, the Director of Arnolfini, Bristol, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2007, talks about 'Port City: On Mobility and Exchange', an international group exhibition which explores the relationship between global sea trade, slavery and the migration of people today.

A conversation with Tom Trevor, Director of Arnolfini, Bristol

Zineb Sedira, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2009, discusses her exhibition Seafaring, a series of film and photographic works set against the maritime backdrop of North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

A conversation with artist Zineb Sedira

Caroline Bergvall, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2010, talks about her exhibition Middling English, which explores some of the pleasures and complexities of language use, in and through writing.

A conversation with artist Caroline Bergvall

Juan Bolivar, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2008, discusses his exhibition Geometry Wars, comprising twenty one paintings and two sculptures. Bolivar's work playfully exists somewhere between abstraction and the recognisable world, and hints at both humour and tragedy.

A conversation with artist Juan Bolivar

Ruth Maclennan, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2010, talks about her exhibition Anarcadia, which features a video projection and accompanying photo-series shot amongst the desert expenses of Kazakhstan. Co-commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and John Hansard Gallery.

A conversation with artist Ruth Maclennan

Tim Brennan, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2009, talks about his exhibition English Anxieties, which combines original archival material of Mass Observation and the re-working of an account by British explorer and archaeologist T.C. Lethbridge of a concealed enemy presence in Cambridgeshire; by taking descriptions and drawings made by Lethbridge as a starting point, the work represents this data in the form of large, colourful maps inspired by the Isotype graphical system developed in the 1930s.

A conversation with artist Tim Brennan

Steve Beard, Victoria Halford, Steve Rowell and Neal White, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2009, discuss their exhibition Dark Places, which uncovers sites of secrecy and technology across Britain. Commissioned by the Arts Catalyst and co-curated with the Office of Experiments, John Hansard Gallery and SCAN, the exhibition presents new artists’ works that explores spaces and institutions below the radar of common knowledge.

A conversation with artists’ Steve Beard; Victoria Halford; Steve Rowell and Neal White

Kit Hammonds, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2010, discusses how art practice, mapping and cartography come together within the exhibition Ground Level, which showcases international artists who perform their own personal forms of cartography. Hammonds was the winner of the Hayward Touring Curatorial Open 2010.

A conversation with 'Ground Level' exhibition curator Kit Hammonds

Jay Bolotin, in conversation with Stephen Foster in 2008, discusses his exhibition the 'Jackleg Testament Part I: Jack & Eve and other works', featuring a motion picture derived from woodcuts, a hybrid of German expressionism, Brueghel and medieval religious imagery. The film reinterprets the story of Adam and Eve as a dark and provocative tale in which Eve is lured from the Garden of Eden by a Jack-in-the-box.

A conversation with artist Jay Bolotin

The John Hansard Gallery, based at the University’s Highfield campus, is one of the leading contemporary art galleries in the UK, hosting exhibitions, talks and events throughout the year. This series brings together a selection of the acclaimed national and international artists and curators who have exhibited there, in conversation about their practice with gallery director, Stephen Foster.

Laura Hensser: City Portraits - celebrating the project laun...