Kathryn Prescott, starring actress from the TV show Skins, challenges perceptions in her new charity art/photography exhibition “What makes us care?” in which well-known actors and actresses, posed as homeless persons, are nearly unrecognisable. The exhibition in The Crypt gallery at St Martins-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London is open to the public until 13 October 2013.
TV stars become homeless to raise awareness
Youth homeless charity, CentrePoint, states that in London alone, the numbers of people sleeping rough has raised by 64 percent in the past 12 months. For young people 16-25, this number is even higher – 129 percent. Actress and portrait photographer, Kathryn Prescott (of Skins fame), worked with 20 television stars to portray disadvantaged men and women in a project to increase awareness for rising levels of homelessness in the UK’s biggest city.
The point of this project, she says, is to “…help break down stereotypes about those without homes. So they are seen as people rather than simply part of the scenery of modern life, or pests to be ignored. These people living on the streets could have been friends you once knew. They are people who have somehow fallen through the gaps and found themselves, often through unimaginable circumstances, on the cusp of existence.”
“In another reality, this could easily be me or you.”
Because teenagers are typically more judgemental about rough-living, drug addiction and related issues, Prescott asked fellow young actors and actresses from popular shows for the portrait project. By using well-known celebrities, she hoped that young adults in particular would do a double-take on a photo of a familiar face and then perhaps “…relate to issues outside their own more protected lives.”
CEO of The Big Issue Foundation, Stephen Robertson, continues the debate, “This exhibition brilliantly asks us to think again and to decide just what makes us care.”
“Do our stereotypes and assumptions … maintain an unrealistic view of people in the modern world?”
More links and information
- The Big Issue covers Kathryn Prescott’s “What Makes Us Care?”
- Kathryn Prescott asks, “What’s in a face?” – guest blog in The Big Issue
- “TV stars become face of street homelessness for new charity photography exhibition” [Press Release] – St Martins-in-the-Fields events page
- Click here to buy exhibition prints. Proceeds from sales of photographs will benefit:
CentrePoint – “giving young homeless people a future”
The Big Issue Foundation – offering health, finance, housing and aspirational support to homeless people - TimeOut London says, “What Makes us Care?”
- Liz Hoggard of the Evening Standard writes “Skins actor Kathryn Prescott’s new exhibition shows stars posing as homeless people”
Exhibition details: “What Makes Us Care?” is on in The Crypt gallery, St Martins-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ from 18 September through 13 October 2013.
Opening hours of the Gallery in the Crypt, St Martin-in-the-Fields, are:
Monday-Tuesday 8.00am-8.00pm
Wednesday 8.00am–6.30pm
Thursday – Saturday 8.00am – 9.00pm
Sunday 11.00am-6.00pm.
If the Gallery in the Crypt is closed for a private viewing or an event, the details will be listed on the St Martin’s website http://www.smitf.org
– KF
kelise soixante-douze 