Inside: We Shelter Here Sometimes

Local resident and photographer John Callaway gives us a glimpse into the surreal world of My Dog Sighs’ art exhibition ‘Inside’.

For the past ten years or so, like many other Portsmouth residents, I’ve happened upon the work of My Dog Sighs. Sometimes on temporary hoardings, sometimes with a little more permanency…but always with the capacity to provoke thought, intrigue and raise a smile.

The notion of ghosts and fragments of thought and being percolate through this blog, so the opportunity to explore another fragmentary world, created by My Dog Sighs inside a derelict casino in Southsea, wasn’t going to be passed up.

As an aside, it also featured in the online publication ‘Brooklyn Street Art’, with its helpful tip on how to pronounce Portsmouth.

From his web page:

With this project I take my quiet little voices and shift the the narrative what is understood by ‘My Dog Sighs’. No longer is My Dog Sighs the scruffy guy with a bedraggled Mohawk the artist you thought, but, by entering ‘Inside’ you’re able to catch a glimpse of a new, alternative, world…

Like us, quiet little voices are not perfect nor are their lives perfect. They struggle, they make mistakes, they fail. But like us too, they don’t give up. Even among the decay they use their creativity to find hope…

So a few images of the ‘Inside’ exhibition below. Lucky enough to be first in the queue on arrival, so able to take a photo of the empty ‘gallery’. The others are pieces that resonated with me…

No captions, no ‘interpretation’ beyond:

All art work by My Dog Sighs

All photographs mine.

Listen to your own quiet little voices, and create your own story….

 

This article was originally published on John Callaway’s website, Ideas & images from Portsmouth and beyond. You can read more of John’s writing on his website and also see his live music photography.

Images by John Callaway.

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