Project: Tadcaster Community Portrait
Client: North Yorkshire Council
Arts Programme Manager: Hazel Colquhoun Public Art Consultant
Creative Collaborator on TAD’ah! David Lindsay, Photographer
Specialist Printing and Installation: VGL
Community Collaborators: The Barn, Tadcrafters, Tadcaster Grammar School, Tadcaster History Society, John Smith’s Brewery, Tadcaster Harriers
‘TAD’ah!’
TAD’ah! is a personal portrait of a community. Not the whole Tadcaster community, but more importantly, the part of that community who embraced my presence in the town, who enabled my project at the Bus Station to come to life. These are the people who welcomed me in at The Barn, the people who met me at the Bus Station and took me on a walk around town, the people who told me their stories and allowed me a look into their lives, jobs, allotments, and homes.
The very people who stoically turned up at The Barn on a rainy and stormy day to have their portraits taken, to smile and wave and throw some moves for the camera, even brought their craftworks to be documented too. It is a portrait of a memorable moment in time, when those who could, took time out to help and make this event a significant one.
A huge thanks to David Lindsay, our photographer, who just happened to live locally and know almost everyone, who made my job easy and stayed in focus.
I didn’t expect the final work to be quite so ambitious or such large-scale, but once started I knew that scale was everything, I wanted to show my thanks to the community and say it loudly! We shared two days of celebratory portrait photography at The Barn in September and October 2023.
Families, friends, pensioners, skate-parkers, nosey-parkers, scooters, Tadcrafters, Tadgrafters, gardeners, tad harriers, local councillors, school caretakers, archivists, historians, librarians, linguists, cyclists, a reverend, a veteran, a florist, the mayor, footballers (on telly), butchers, brewers, a potter, an ironmonger and ‘Marra’ the ice cream man.
The artwork takes the form of a large full colour photographic collage. 4.5m wide x 3.2m high – almost 15sqm. It is to be hung on the back wall of the main hall at The Barn. Hundreds of photographs were taken, and digitally cut out and collaged into a vivid and spontaneous memory of a particular time and a place. Adults, children, and babies, buildings, bridges, trees, flowers, a viaduct, an ice cream van, some cows, four dogs, a heron, and a red kite or two. All the detail and colour of a vibrant and creative community pitching in together in a very friendly place with a river running through it.
Image: TAD’ah! Final Artwork
