We Are 20 - Workstation Exhibition

Opens Friday 26 July until end September
FREE and open to the public Mon-Fri 8.45am-8pm

Featuring a specially commissioned piece by 'We Live Here' artist Jonathan Wilkinson (the image above is a sneaky peek!) and photography documenting the building and its inhabitants by Shaun Bloodworth, Mark Harvey, Graham Gaunt, Hugo Glendinning and Matthew Conduit.

In 1993 Jurassic Park and Mrs Doubtfire were the top-grossing films, Schindler’s List won the Best Film Oscar, Nirvana’s In Utero and Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish were released. Princess Diana sued the Daily Mirror, John Major launched his ‘back to basics’ campaign, Audrey Hepburn, Bobby Moore, Anthony Burgess and Les Dawson passed away and three of the five future members of One Direction were born. Sonia scored 164 points for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest but lost out on the top spot to Ireland.

Meanwhile in Sheffield, the old Kennings car showroom on Paternoster Row had been reborn as the Workstation and the first tenants moved into their offices in the heart of what had been newly dubbed the Cultural Industries Quarter.

Now, 20 years on, we’re celebrating! Explore the history of the building and find out about the hundreds of wonderful creative people who have made the Workstation their home some time during the last two decades.

This exhibition kicks off a season of special birthday events – keep an eye on the website for more event announcements.

The Photographers:

Shaun Bloodworth

Shaun Bloodworth is a photographer and filmmaker who has worked for the past 24 years in Sheffield. He is particularly drawn to popular music culture; his images are widely recognizable – in magazines, on record covers. He says: I feel driven to record modern culture because it’s important for the future. It’s part of getting older.

We recruited Shaun to document many of the tenants housed in Workstation in 2011 and 2012. The photographs show the array of different environments contained in the contemporary building as well as putting faces to the names and brands of the talent currently working in the Cultural Industries Quarter.

www.shaunbloodworth.com

Matthew Conduit

Matthew Conduit is a photographic artist. He has had solo exhibitions, most recently at the Sheffield Institute of Arts in 2011, as well as being involved with various group exhibitions including The Photographers Gallery, London. He was Director of Untitled Gallery, and moved the gallery from Walkley to next door to Workstation in 1988 (now Site Gallery). From there he spent over 10 years developing the Showroom Workstation and Cultural Industries Quarter. Since 2006, Matthew has been assisting Heeley Development Trust in Sheffield to redevelop the old Ann's Grove School into the new Sum Studios project. He has kindly lent his memory and expertise in researching and mounting this exhibition and we are pleased to be able to include some of his images of the finished building from 1993 as part of the We Are 20 story.

www.matthewconduit.com

Graham Gaunt

Graham is a practicing architectural photographer. His work has been published internationally, and he has contributed to exhibitions, libraries, architects journals, books, and annual reports. In 1991 he contributed to The Sheffield Project, an exhibition documenting decay and regeneration in the city. These photographs, taken to document the Showroom Workstation development almost seem to capture change taking place as the building waits for its renewal.

www.grahamgaunt.com

Hugo Glendinning

Hugo Glendinning is an arts photographer who has documented and collaborated with a wide range of leading performance and fine art practitioners. Hugo has worked on a continuing project of documentation and the investigation of performance photography with theatre company Forced Entertainment who were one the first tenants to officially move in to the Workstation. Despite touring the world with their acclaimed performances their base still remains here. The images shown are from Forced Entertainment’s rehearsals in this building in the 1990’s.

www.hugoglendinning.com  www.forcedentertainment.com

Mark Harvey

Mark Harvey (iD8 Photography) has over 20 years of experience capturing and chronicling a wide range of subjects connected to today’s society and the urban environment. Included in We Are 20 are a small selection of images which were commissioned by Workstation to document events which took place in the first years of the buildings operation. His photographs point us towards important moments and remind us of great characters who populated the building. Mark has been a tenant for the majority of time that the building has been open.

www.id8photography.co.uk  www.socialissuesphotography.co.uk