This Is My Statement

Working with artist Richard Bliss, boys from Heworth Grange School took part in a group called Boys Will Be Boys?  Together they explored gender identity politics and shared their experiences of what it’s like to be young and male. During lockdown, Richard encouraged them to keep a journal to give them a space to document their thoughts and feelings.

"Happiness" by Kika, BALTIC Foundation Club Collective“

Lockdown has taught me the importance of happiness, being kind to each other, and finding happiness in small things."

The next clip shows young people exploring questions surrounding the subject of play: what it looks like, how it's changed, what you need for play to happen, how it soothes and the perils of taking it away.

Inspired by play-led exhibitions at BALTIC, this film examines what it is to play and its differences at the varying stages of adulthood.   

Teenagers play differently. 
Growing vegetables and making happy. 
That’s a hard one, I really don’t know. 
We sing and we dance, 
You spend all your day at work. 
When you’re home, it’s your own little world, isn’t it? 
Isn’t it? 
Parents spend time, wanting more and more 
To live like children. 
To live with their children. 
To have no inhibitions. 
A Dad and a daughter, happy and carefree, careful! 
Careful. 
This is what time is about. 
Time flies when you’re having fun. 
Routines take time away, away. 
Sometimes you have to take time away. 
Away, away to the beach. 
All the people in the sand, I’m looking at the sea, they’re looking at screens. 
Colours, noises, shapes, voices, voices of children. 
Happy screams in the sea, time to go home. 
Time moves slower. 
Adults in routines. 
Brains don’t register anything new, where has the time gone? 
Gone, gone away with lost ambitions. 
Can you blame society? 
Say no. No to being free. No to being childish. 
No fun, fun. Fun is forgotten. 
Is it a child that brings it out? 
Do adults with no children have fun too? 
Do they use technology? 
Is it grown-up happiness? 
Is it escape from reality? 
Does everyone feel the same? 
Maybe we’re not the same? 
It might not be the same.