People We Love — York Mediale
People We Love
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An invisible transaction of love

Beautiful, moving and timely, People We Love explores the invisible transaction between a person, a piece of art and that emotion which bonds us all. Love.

Five, floor mounted, high definition screens, set in the York Minster, exquisitely lit, they show a portrait of a York citizen.

Each person is gazing at a picture of someone they love. A picture you never see. Feel each unspoken story as the faces tell the tale of a person they love.

People We Love – Trailer
Kit Monkman Artist
People We Love — York Mediale

“Whatever our differences, however much we don’t know, empathy begins as an act of imagination.”

People We Love — York Mediale

Viewers of People We Love will meet the penetrating gaze of the work’s subjects, never knowing who the focus of their detailed attention is. In the most direct sense, the aesthetic subjects of the installation, i.e. the people we love, are absent, and can only be conjured into existence through an act of imagination on the viewer’s behalf. The work turns on this notion, the notion that love and empathy start as an act of imagination.

Kit Monkman from KMA explores this further in his blog An Invisible Transaction of Love.

People We Love — York Mediale

People We Love finds its inspiration in the book The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. First published in York in 1759, the book contains a blank page for the reader to imagine, draw or write about a person they love. To learn more about how this groundbreaking book inspired People We Love read The Blank Page.

Kit further explores the notion of the viewer taking on the role of both the artist and the artistic subject in his blog The Artist & the Viewer, and in the video below.

An interview with Kit Monkman
Learn more about People We Love

People We Love was first shown in York Minster in 2020 as part of the York Mediale 2020 festival. However, due to the November lockdown, the piece could only be seen for 3 days.

The following year, in collaboration with St Leonard’s Hospice, People We Love returned to York Minster with both the previous installations faces, and some filmed specifically for this version.

The installation then moved to Pittsburgh in 2022 where it featured Pittsburg-ians, filmed specifically for this installation.

Created by York-based KMA, People We Love is brought to you in collaboration with St Leonard’s Hospice. Voice over by Erin Carter. Music by Axis Neptune.

Original commission supported by:

People We Love — York Mediale

In collaboration with:

People We Love — York Mediale
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