Exhibition celebrates the “(Un)Common People of Rotherham”

The portraits are part of a new exhibition called ‘The (Un)Common People of Rotherham: Angels of the North’ at the Test Space Gallery at Clifton Park Museum.

Artists Chris Slater and Ken Horne came up with the idea after seeing a previous exhibition at the museum called ‘Giants of Rotherham’, which celebrated the achievements of well-known people from the town.

They decided there should be space for the “(un)common” people of Rotherham to be celebrated too.

Chris said: “We came up with this idea because we thought, it's always celebrities who get noticed, and yet there's a lot of uncommon people who do brilliant things, like lollipop ladies, nurses, doctors and bus drivers.

“We decided to celebrate them as well, because they do just as good a job but they don't get any praise.”

The portraits, which Chris says are inspired by Henri Matisse, represent people that both artists know, including firefighters, traffic wardens and NHS workers.

The exhibition also includes three mannequins with angel wings made from recycled paper, where people can write the names of their personal heroes on each part of the wing.

The artists are also holding workshops so that visitors can create their own collage portraits.

Chris said: “The idea of these workshops is for people to get an idea of the process, then they've got a chance of having it exhibited in here, so they become part of it."

Chris and Ken have worked together before. In December 2017, they held an exhibition to display 100 portraits of ordinary people from Rotherham, which they had created over a year.

‘The (Un)Common People of Rotherham’ exhibition opened on Tuesday February 27. Visitors can also meet Chris and Ken on Friday March 8 between 10.30am and 12.30pm.