City Portraits: New public artwork celebrates the citizens of Southampton

City Portraits, by Southampton-based artist and photographer Laura Hensser, in association with the John Hansard Gallery and Dr Paul Sweetman, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Southampton, features 20 larger than life-sized photographic banner images of Southampton residents. These works celebrate their lives and represent the diversity of the City's inhabitants.

Laura Hensser comments: "As a high-visibility, high-quality, collaborative art-installation and research project, City Portraits celebrates Southampton's residents, whilst looking forward to its future as a developing city of culture.

Councillor John Hannides, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Heritage says: "I am very excited about this unique exhibition spreading arts and culture around the streets of Southampton. It is the first exhibition of its kind in the city, appropriately placed in the exciting emerging Cultural Quarter. It is a great city project about local residents for local residents."

The artwork is accompanied by a research project by Dr Sweetman, focusing on participants' experiences of the project and how they feel about having taken part.

Dr Sweetman comments: "My research is informed by the idea that it can be positive for people to be focused on, pictured and represented in ways that they would not normally experience. I have been involved with the project from the beginning, and will be conducting focus groups with participants after the artwork is taken down, looking at people's experiences of taking part, and asking whether they feel it has affected how they see themselves and their relationship with the City as a whole. This material will then form the basis for a potential book with Laura Hensser and a public lecture at the Gallery, as well as publications in academic journals and elsewhere."

City Portraits is part of the Creative Campus Initiative (CCI), a consortium of 13 higher education institutions in the South-East, including the University of Southampton, which is delivering an exciting programme of cultural events and artworks in support of the Cultural Olympiad. The CCI as a whole is recognised by the London 2012 Inspire programme.

Val Drayton, Special Projects Manager at the John Hansard Gallery, adds: "The Gallery is very proud to be associated with CCI. We support its mission to open up the cultural resources of South-East campuses and provide wider access to world leading, practice-based research in the creative and performing arts. City Portraits embodies the wider aims of the Cultural Olympiad in encouraging and welcoming involvement from the community and helping to showcase excellence in the arts."

The City Portraits banners will be in place until October 2010.