‘All About Love’ is BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s first major curatorial and artist commission taking over large-format billboards across Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester between April – December 2023. The project champions artists who are either born in those cities or live and work there. It is curated by Zarina Rossheart.

‘All About Love’ is part of BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s ongoing Your Space Or Mine initiative, which gives artists and creatives across the UK a unique platform to present their work outdoors and connect with communities across our cities. The idea behind Your Space Or Mine is not only to support the creative community, but to also use street space as an intervention to inspire and energise local neighbourhoods. 

The point of departure for this newly launching commission was the quote from All About Love, the groundbreaking book, published in 2000, by a cultural critic, feminist theorist and author bell hooks: 

‘Whether it is the ongoing worldwide presence of violence expressed by the persistence of the man-made war, hunger and starvation, the day-to-day reality of violence, the presence of life-threatening diseases that cause the unexpected deaths of friends, comrades, and loved ones, there is much that brings everyone to the brink of despair. Knowing love or the hope of knowing love is the anchor that keeps us from falling into the sea of despair.’ 

We are living in the age of crises and uncertainty. Disasters are unfolding both locally in our cities and on a global scale, from the climate emergency to global warfare, to the refugee crisis, racial injustice and the cost of living, as a society we are collectively reflecting and responding to these events, making bell hooks’ seminal work, All About Love, more timely than ever. This project looks at hooks’ legacy and its ability to help us reimagine our future. 

In All About Love bell hooks offers us radical new ways to think about love. While considering our polarised, loveless and hyper consumerist society, hooks urges us to bring a new love ethic to every dimension of our lives. From politics, religion, the workplace, domestic households, to intimate relationships hooks offers us a bold new perspective. 

Using hooks’ writing as a starting point the ‘All About Love’ commission aims to inspire  audiences to create a better future together. Sacred, redemptive and healing – this project, along with hooks’ writing, offers a proactive new ethic for a people and a society bereft with lovelessness. 

Special thanks: Dr. Linda Strong-Leek at bell hooks estate, Serena Stent and Lizzie Rowles at HarperCollins UK, Kate MacGarry at Kate MacGarry London, Will Lunn at Copperfield London, Catherine Wood and Emma Poulter at Tate, Ben Roberts at Brighton CCA, Carmen Juliá and Niquita Munowenyu at Spike Island, Marina La Verghetta at Frieze Studios, Helen Cole at In Between time, Aldo Rinaldi, Jeremy Deller.

‘All About Love’ teaser poster campaign and website is designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio.