Cutting Shapes
2015 Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK

16 June - 18 July

Young people from Sheffield commissioned and worked with artist Harold Offeh to develop Cutting Shapes, an exhibition exploring the crossover between contemporary youth identity and internet cultures.

Moving image clips circulate through interlinked friendship groups at speed, developing short-cut communications about ideas and trends, and creating shared reference points. Examining this idea, Cutting Shapes includes photography, performance and a curated exhibition of artists’ films and videos, including work by Mark Leckey, JJ Stratford and Evan Ifekoya, alongside cult internet finds.

Acting as researchers, curators, producers and artists, the young people created an experimental space. The exhibition was a live production site, with an interactive recording studio and a webcam photo booth allowing new work to be generated and submitted throughout the duration of the project. These works were then edited together to form a dynamic, collaborative exhibition.

Cutting Shapes was part of the AHRC Connected Communities Festival, which took place from 15 – 29 June 2015. The project was an Arts Enterprise collaboration with the University of Sheffield, and formed part of Site Gallery’s young people’s programme, supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.