Lily Lloyd [B-Side Season]

For just over a week in September, the ‘isle’ of Portland, Dorset, UK, is given over to art, thanks to the b-side.org.uk project.  The island becomes a great big art gallery!  Different artists display their works in different sites all over the island.  And artists old and young are given the opportunity to show-case their projects.

Lily Lloyd is a young artist whose photographic work depicts people and activities from Fancy’s Family Farm, a community farm situated on a high point of Portland.  The farm is home to various animals: some cheeky goats, black pigs who have the cutest little piglets at the moment, donkeys and wallabies, to name but a few.  It is a lovely place that gives children the opportunity to be in contact with animals, as well as it being a place that gives a role to people with learning difficulties in its running.  It is a place for giggles, for wonder, and for quietness.  These vibes are captured really sympathetically by Lily’s photos.  A child’s perspective of the animals is so well portrayed, with the child crouching to the eye-height of the goat or the pig, above.  The look of the goat, focused on the girl, is also touching – two innocents sharing a moment: connection between the human and the more-than-human world; not worlds apart, but interacting through the simplicity of shared time and space; a fleeting moment of mystery and magic suspended and captured for us all to share.

The ‘gallery’ for Lily’s work is a Rotor Bunker, a former RAF radar station – the first of many unusual ‘galleries’ displaying artists’ work on the island that I was to see.

What a wonderful opportunity for young, vibrant, talented artists to share their work with a wider audience – to help us see the world through fresh pairs of eyes.