"Conversations with Smokers"
2004
A commission from Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery
A collaboration with smokers from St. James's Hospital, Leeds. I walked around the hospital site and started conversations with anyone I saw who was smoking . The vast majority of these were staff but many also had experiences as patients and as relatives of patients. What developed was primarily a process-based work in which the smokers were both the collaborators and the audience. Generally, people were very interested to discuss their experiences (particularly with a non-smoker) but were reluctant – for a variety of reasons – to be identified publicly as smokers. From this came the idea of a book of unattributed comments and anonymous photographs.
Two large laminated versions of the book were exhibited at the gallery - one inside and one outside where it could be read by smokers who generally congregate around rubbish bins beside the gallery windows.
