Drawn to the Boro
Ten large-scale portraits of Middlesbrough residents nominated by their community, with recorded audio from each sitter. Supported by Borderlands, part of the Arts Council's Creative People and Places programme. Exhibiting in Middlesbrough, 2027.
Middlesbrough was built on migration. Founded in 1830 and grown rapidly through industrial expansion, the town drew workers from across the UK and from much further afield. Migration is woven into its identity, and into mine. My family left Middlesbrough for work in the 1970s and 80s, and as a child I lived in Africa and Canada. If you look far enough back, most families here hold stories of movement in one direction or another; in a town like Middlesbrough, those journeys are everywhere.
The project invited communities to nominate people they wanted to see recognised: those who give generously to others, who steady and strengthen the lives around them, who are valued deeply by the people who know them. The ten I have worked with span generations, backgrounds and experiences. Some came to Middlesbrough from far away; all have shaped the town in their own way, and each was put forward by someone who wanted them seen.
Every portrait begins in conversation, often over many hours. I ask each sitter to bring an object that matters to them, because it is usually there, in something a person loves, that they begin to talk openly. These conversations are central to how each painting takes shape - and we have recorded them, so that the edited audio becomes part of the work: a way for each sitter to be heard directly, in their own voice, alongside the portrait.
Each measures roughly two metres by one, the scale of a public painting rather than a private one. Pattern enters the work as a way of storytelling: embroidery, ornament and symbolism drawn from across cultures and centuries, chosen to speak to each sitter's heritage, their history, and something of their inner life. The patterns are not decoration laid over a likeness. They are part of how the painting says: here is someone specific.
That, in the end, is what the project is for. Part of what we are losing, I think, is the simple practice of sitting down and listening to someone whose experience is very different from our own. Portraiture is a rare medium for that kind of attention. It asks both the painter and the viewer to slow down, look carefully, and be willing to change their mind. My hope is that the painting offers the same to whoever stands before it: not a stranger to be observed, but a person to be met.
The sittings are now complete, and the paintings continue to develop in the studio. I am grateful to every sitter for the openness, the time and the trust they have given.
Drawn to the Boro is supported by Borderlands, part of the Arts Council's Creative People and Places programme for Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland. The portraits will be exhibited in Middlesbrough in 2027. To follow the project as it develops, please subscribe to the newsletter below.
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