North East Statues

Status: Temporary Exhibit (Friday 29th September – Saturday 7th October)

Middlesbrough Art Week is always something special and 2023 is no different, with three new outdoor installations for us to share with you.

The first is the work of Jason Hynes, a photographer whose installation will be seen on 10 scaffolding structures across Middlesbrough’s Centre Square, including photographs and hand-written notes and memories of the town.

The Middlesbrough Art Week description is as follows:

‘In 2030, Middlesbrough will be 200 years old. Working towards this bicentenary, Jason Hynes has begun a project creating a series of portraits of people who view Middlesbrough as their home town. Personal handwritten memories of the town from each person are exhibited alongside each person’s large scale portrait. The project celebrates and explores concepts around identity, place, memory and time.’

I spoke to Jason about the work in mid-September 2023:

“I want it to be organic. If people are interested and they want to do it, and think of Middlesbrough in a positive light rather than just moaning about it, then that’s what I’m looking for.”

When asked about the significance of the subjects and of the locations in which his photos were taken, Jason talked of the open nature of the work:

“Really with Hometown the idea is you don’t have to be born in Middlesbrough. If you view it as your hometown you could be from anywhere. It’s an integration rather than a loyalist thing about being born here.

I’m speaking to one lad in New York who wants to do it via Zoom, so it doesn’t even have to be taken in a location in Middlesbrough. If someone’s living down south I could go down there and shoot them.“

Each portrait is accompanied by handwritten notes (chosen to mirror the primary form of non-verbal communication 200 years ago), which Jason explained could be about anything linked to the town. “It could be a memory or a person…a poem about the town. Anything really, but it should be personal to them. Some people wrote about sweets that their grandmother gave them, another was about jumping over a fence and getting caught on barbed wire. Insignificant things that hopefully add up to the story of a town.”

According to Jason, an added benefit of handwritten notes was that participants had to slow down and think carefully about their memories, with many mentioning that they hadn’t handwritten anything as involved as this in a long time.

Many of the participants focused on the subject of change in their notes. One mentioned liking to walk across the Transporter Bridge during his youth and cross county lines into the bargain.

Jason hopes the MAW exhibition will bring him new people to photograph so he can complete a near-decade long project, “A lot of the photos in Centre Square will be visible from passing buses and the street, people might wander over and take a look.” He expects that many more will get involved and share their individual memories of their (adopted or otherwise) hometown.

You can see Hometown: Middlesbrough 200 in Centre Square (near Mima) throughout Middlesbrough Art Weekender (Friday 29th September – Saturday 7th October). If you call Middlesbrough home and would like to be part of Jason’s Hometown project, contact him at jasonhynes@me.com