BUILDHOLLYWOOD launch ongoing collab with Dazed on billboards across the UK

Partnerships

BUILDHOLLYWOOD launch ongoing collab with Dazed on billboards across the UK

The billboard takeover showcases the work of Dazed Club members and celebrates the communities we belong to.

The scope and pace of technology have enabled us to be electronically connected with vast numbers of people at all hours of the night and day. But if we can communicate with people from all over the world at the touch of a button, then why are so many people still feeling chronically isolated?

The experience of modern life can feel dislocating, especially throughout the lockdowns over the last few years. As access to communal space was quite suddenly denied to us and businesses, offices, and many public places closed indefinitely, we missed the bodily magic of being in the same space as other people. Siloed in our homes and unable to meet up in any communal way, we were denied so many of the important everyday interactions we perhaps took for granted before. Connecting remotely is no substitute for being together.

As the world reopens its doors and we are once again able to mix with one another again, we felt it was more important than ever to celebrate community in all the forms it takes. To launch the ongoing partnership between BUILDHOLLYWOOD and Dazed Club, we decided to stage a takeover project occupying billboards across London, Bristol, Sheffield, and Manchester, and we put out an open call inviting members to “Show us your club! After years at home, clubs of all kinds are more important than ever as a place to find community – whether that’s an actual club with dancing, or mushroom hunting with a group of friends, or a collective finding purpose through their work. Getting together is our act of creativity. So show us your club! The work can be anything visual you like – either what your club does, or your club doing what they do – we just want to see you’re up to, and put it on posters.”

01.07.22

Words by Emily Dinsdale

Lenacha Lema - Dazed Club x BUILDHOLLYWOOD

A judging panel of industry experts composed of Dazed’s Art Director Gareth Wrighton, Photo Director Jo Evendon, BUILDHOLLYWOOD photographer Steven M. Wiggins, and Dazed Club representative Joe Puxley selected nine entries and, this week, the Show Us Your Club takeover launched as their work appeared on billboards across the country.

Images and text by Alice West, Lenacha Lema, Emily Dodd-Noble, Emily North, Safeen James, Babes in Development, Samiira Garane, Aretha Brown, and Bibiana Walmsley will be displayed at sites in four major cities. From music and club culture, to Black women and nonbinary writers, predominantly indigenous art collectives, and underground queer parties in Berlin, the nine winning entries represent a multiplicity of interconnectedness. Yet, while the different types of ‘clubs’ they depict are diverse, what they have in common is commonality itself.

Bibiana Walmsley - Dazed Club x BUILDHOLLYWOOD

Bibiana Walmsley is an artist and photographer from South London whose billboard (at The George Tavern, 641 Commercial Road, E12 7NT) celebrates “being together and free once again.” Walmsley tells us: “During the pandemic, many of my friends had feelings of isolation, lack of freedom and high pressure to look, feel and act in a certain way. I worked to reclaim the way these young women were made to feel during this time — with body-positivity, individuality, diversity, and acceptance as foremost concerns.”

Bibiana Walmsley - Dazed Club x BUILDHOLLYWOOD

Multidisciplinary creative Safeen James specialising in filmmaking and photography and describes the focus of her winning entry as “my people”. She explains: “As an Afro-Brit, I feel compelled to tell nostalgic stories connected to my cultural identity, especially the parts that allow me to delve deeper into my heritage.” You can visit James’ billboard in Bristol at 30 Ashley Road, BS6 5NP.

Safeen James - Dazed Club x BUILDHOLLYWOOD

Aretha Brown, whose work Indigenous and Thriving is on display in Bristol on a billboard at Deben House, Lawrence Hill, BS5 0BY, has chosen to explore her personal experiences of living in London as a young Aboriginal woman. Brown is part of a painting crew called **Kiss My Art Collective. “We champion young women and non-binary artists,” she tells us. “Artists within the collective come from diverse backgrounds, however, it is overwhelmingly made up of young female Indigenous artists. Some people think that Aboriginal and Indigenous people are merely surviving when that’s not true at all, we are thriving. We are making art, telling our stories and exceeding expectations in so many creative and other fields and it makes me so proud.”

Sign up to Dazed Club for news on future collaborations with BUILDHOLLYWOOD. Meanwhile, here’s a list of the current billboard takeover project locations to look out for:

London
Lenacha Lema – 99 Whitechapel Road, E1 7PH
Alice West – Dalston Lane, E8 2BF
Emily Dodd-Noble – Limehouse Station
Bibiana Walmsley – The George Tavern, 641 Commercial Road, E12 7NT
Babes in Development – Stamford Hill Station, N16 5AG
Samiira Garane – Stepney Green Station

Bristol
Safeen James – 30 Ashley Road, BS6 5NP
Emily North – 34 Ashley Road, BS6 5NP
Aretha Brown – Deben House, Lawrence Hill, BS5 0BY

Manchester
Emily Dodd-Noble – Chapel Street West, M3 6AD

Sheffield
Bibiana Walmsley – Norfolk Park Road, S2 2RU