Matchmaker
Yan worked with five key participants who were interested in either football or photography. Her initial idea was to explore the relationship between football and women. This was quickly expanded once the team started working together and generating many more ideas. A large amount of local residents and SUFC staff were actively involved, interviewed or photographed. Many football matches were watched and pints shared. Their themes included:
1. Football portrait grid.
66 portraits of football fans and non-supporters were captured in an universal manner and shown together as a grid. There were 6 rows with 11 portraits in each row.
2. Football journeys
Participants Jean and Sue both captured their journeys from home to their beloved football grounds. Jean made a map and a slideshow, while Sue made an album to show how important the football was to their lives.
3. Who ate all the pies?
Pies are important match day must-haves. Yan collected the squashed pie foils after the matches, and made these into installations.
4. The lucky charms
Many football fans have their lucky charms. These can range from a special parting slot to which type of polos they chew. During the project the team interviewed many people about their charms and photographed them.
5. The portraits of local people and photos of their environment
Participant Sarah interviewed many locals about their relationship with football, either love or hate. She also observed the local urban environment and turned these into fish-eye photo installations.
Their exhibition was shown at Sheffield United Football Club in 2008.
Commissioned by the Federation of Stadium Communities
Matchmaker is a creative project that represents an innovative way of inviting and enabling a community such as Sharrow to share the relationships they experience with a football club that sits in its midst. Trough the use of film, photography, visuat art, narrative, sound and textiles. The project explored and researched a range of creative ways that a club such as Sheffield United and a community such as Sharrow can begin to make connections, explore differences and take steps towards forming new relationships.
From September 2007 to January 2008, Yan was commissioned by Federation of Stadium Communities as the Photographer, together with filmmaker Jim Prevett, printmaker Sarah Godfrey and poet Craig Bradley, to deliver this exciting project. The project was managed by Trish O'Shea and Mike McCarthy.
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