7th April - 9th May 2010

Sharon Haward’s latest experiment in town planning looks directly at the city of Southampton. This city is a place of historical importance which has been shaped in the last half century by both the slow creep of unplanned urban development and radical and sudden change to the built environment brought about by war and reconstruction. Haward’s approach to architectural forms is a personal one, creating in the gallery an environment that reflects on collective memory and presents the city as stage on which different stories can be projected.

Haward draws on her own childhood  memories of attending school here and visiting the city with her family. The installation will reflect her interest in how memory can impact on our experience of the built environment. As part of her research the artist will be talking to people about their experiences of the city as well as researching the visual and sound archives that are publicly available. For this show the gallery will become a cityscape, based on Southampton, where memory and feeling hold more importance than geographical accuracy.