It was a full house last night at the VPL!  Thanks so much to every­one for com­ing out.

In mid-July,  a work party of South Hill neigh­bours trans­formed some  lanes west of Fraser Street into a large-scale com­mu­nity art gallery. Six giant 12 x 9 foot photo-murals were pasted up on select exte­rior walls in the area as part of the multi-platform inter­ac­tive web project, INSIDE STORIES.

Each image, taken by accom­plished local pho­tog­ra­pher Shan­non Mendes, por­trays a South Hill res­i­dent whose story is fea­tured on the INSIDE STORIES web­site. The por­traits include peo­ple like Ben Kwan, the tai­lor who escaped famine and rev­o­lu­tion in China to even­tu­ally set­tle and work on Fraser Street; and Jin­der Johal who arrived in Van­cou­ver from her vil­lage in India when she was 8 years old and who now heads up the South Hill library.

The local work crew was joined by the sto­ry­tellers as they watched their own por­traits emerge on the walls of their com­mu­nity.  Peo­ple of all ages grabbed a roller, climbed the lad­der and helped paste on the pho­tos.  Pac Blue Dig­i­tal Imag­ing, the co. that printed the murals,  also sent their good-natured installers to teach the paste up method.  The project was inspired by the work of JR, a Parisian street artist who exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catch­ing the atten­tion of peo­ple who are not museum vis­i­tors.
This photo instal­la­tion is a part of Vancouver’s 125^th Anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tions and is pro­duced in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the South Van­cou­ver Neigh­bour­hood House.

Cloth­ing Designer: Alli­son Smith

Pho­tog­ra­pher: Shan­non Mendes

Styl­ist: Tanus Lewis

Makeup and Hair: Krista Seller

Tal­ent:  adri­enne w. from Liz­bell Agency

South Hill shouts out its INSIDE STORIES on the web.

Three lead­ing Van­cou­ver artists and the feisty com­mu­nity of South Hill have com­bined art and neigh­bours to cre­ate INSIDE STORIES, a sur­pris­ing and intrigu­ing inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence on the web.

South Hill is made up of peo­ple from around the world.  Some are First Nations, most have immi­grated from cities and towns far away. Doc­u­men­tary film­maker Net­tie Wild, web designer Jeremy Mendes and pho­tog­ra­pher Shan­non Mendes have spent the past year record­ing and shap­ing extra­or­di­nary and mov­ing tales of leav­ing, of arriv­ing and of that momen­tous deci­sion to stay.

Take a look inside INSIDE STORIES