Behind the Line
As part of our CARE: R&D Programme, the Kwanzaa Collective UK explored the question: How do you do a job that involves caring for others, when you are working within a system that doesn't care about you?
Rebecca Kremer was lead artist on this project, supported by poet Gabriella Gay and photographer Adina Lawrence.
Photo credits: Adina Lawrence.
The Work:
The ONS have reported that over 60% of COVID-related deaths on the frontline have come from ethnic minority backgrounds, yet ethnic minorities only make up about 17% of the NHS - with black people being only 6.1% of that. This disproportion generates a lot of questions, that desperately need answers.
Working closely with 5 black frontline workers and NHS staff, we wanted to hear what they have experienced - during the pandemic, and over the course of their career - and to answer the question: who is caring for our carers?
Using their words and stories from several personal interviews, we compiled spoken word poetry, personalised ‘care packages’ for them, and captured a series of intimate, anonymised portraits.
The Gallery:
The Care Packages:
As part of the project, the frontline workers we worked with were all asked what physical or figurative things they would put in a care package for someone working during the pandemic. In response to their answers, we compiled personalised care packages for each of them filled with poems, gifts, photos, and more.
The boxes were hand painted with some of the words and phrases they had said during their interviews, and filled with the things that they mentioned would be valuable to frontline workers.
Some of their suggestions included: breakfast bread, time for a walk, bible verses, a shoulder to cry on, music, vitamin D tablets, and hand cream.
These care packages are now all full and ready to go out today, and will be gifted from one carer to another, to share the love and gratitude for all the hard work they do. The boxes are on their way out now and we can’t wait for them to receive them!
The Artists:
Rebecca Kremer
Rebecca is a Stoke-On-Trent based multi-disciplinary artist and illustrator, working with a variety of broad mediums – from designing digital artwork and animation; to producing art that responds to spaces; to creating patterns and prints for large-scale art projects.
Rebecca loves creating art that plays with themes of minority representation, bold prints, mesmerising portraits, complimentary colour schemes, floral patterns, and ethereal narratives.
Gabriella K A Gay
Gabriella is a mother, teacher, vintage dealer and page-stage poet whose work is rooted in connection, community and highlighting a range of voices. She is the founder of Stoke’s Roaming poets, she was the local writer in residence for Nationwide Voices and she was the writer in residence at Hanley Car Boot Sale.
Gabriella is regularly commissioned to perform, write, organise events and facilitate workshops for a range of organisations such as The New Vic Theatre, The Mitchell Arts Centre BBC Radio and Restoke.
Adina Lawrence
Adina is a Black British portrait photographer, who enjoys implementing a fantasy-like feel to create flamboyant, conspicuous and stimulating images.
Adina is known to have a way of capturing and presenting images, to have a more metaphorical statement rather than just a still subject. It tells a story yet comes across as subjective and playful.
Adina’s images don’t always have to be over- flowing with hues and tones, they can be more personalised, person centred and simple. Avoiding factors that can distract the audience from the subject matter, allows the audience to somehow believe that they know this person personally.