Grey Areas | Jessie Edwards-Thomas

Jessie Edwards-Thomas has co-designed and co-produced Grey Areas, a photographic dialogue with five individuals with complex needs who have past or present experience of being homeless in Bristol. The work has been made in collaboration between Alana Richards, Jackie, Jessie, Lex, Louise Johnson and Freddie Moore.

The work was created during the winter of 2020/21, the year of the pandemic; when our basic needs for shelter and safety were highlighted across the nation. Our concerns were rooted in the question ‘what does Home mean to our sense of Wellbeing?’

What is continuing to happen to our city spaces which is pushing people further and further away, physically, mentally and socially?

Grey Areas reflects the impact our physical spaces have upon our mental spaces. Here you see a collection of thoughts, feelings, experiences expressed through image and text. The fictitious scenes, costumes and ambiguous figures give an insight into the actuality of how it feels to exist and be perceived in the homeless pathway for these individuals.

This work does not provide answers, but asks you, the viewer, to question the broken perceptions we may hold.

This original body of work has been produced during Blueprint: Housing & Wellbeing, an artistic commission by Arnolfini and  Bristol Photo Festival in collaboration with Golden Key and supported by ArtFund.