The Old Library, Cardiff. Until Fri 22 July
words: JEN THORNTON
Big Little City is an exciting exhibition co-ordinated by Cardiff photographer Dan Green. His 2008 exhibition Cardiff: Characters celebrated the people and personalities of Cardiff through photography but this latest project takes that idea one step further, utilising work from a huge number of artists and various members of the wider Cardiff community in order to reflect, document and characterise the people and places that make up Cardiff.
The Big Little City website has been live for just over a year with regular updates on the various projects inviting submissions from the people of Cardiff. This really is crowd-sourcing at its finest. Big Little City has taken work from a number of different professional, amateur artists, photographers and more on a range of different topics. Submissions to the Big Little City Flickr group rotate on a big screen, while personal stories from the We Are Cardiff blog are displayed in printed form on the wall and masses of visual art and photography, all about Cardiff, fill the gallery’s walls. It’s not just painting either; there’s every type of work from wood carving and paper cutting to a full graffiti wall.
At every turn there is an opportunity to get involved, from telling your own Cardiff story to demonstrating or promoting your talent on a postcard. The postcards have become a sort of guerrilla advertising space for community projects and local businesses, but this doesn’t feel wrong at all in an exhibition which is so alive.
Big Little City is billed as a celebration of the city, its people and its creative talent and it does not disappoint. There is a wealth of talent and creativity that doesn’t really have a voice elsewhere. It’s hard not to feel part of something really exciting as you walk around this excellent exhibition.