Tynesider Amanda J Kennington somehow won the backing from the areas's Metro operator to give up 25 lucrative poster sites for her Telling Tales art project. Viv Hardwick talks to the artist, who is about to give the North-East commuters a taste of her photographic art, which is fairytale project come true.

NEWCASTLE artist Amanda J Kennington isn't just putting the strong women of fairytale legend on the map, she's plastering their posters all over the city's Metro system. The 25-year-old, who is busy completing her MA at Sunderland University, expressed relief that her own quest to stage her first major photographic project is being given, quite literally, a public platform from the end of the month.

Telling Tales will feature 25 40x60 inch posters showing famous stories like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella on the busy city transport network.

Kennington has cast herself as Little Red Riding Hood and speaks about the difficulty of an unknown art graduate from Swansea University gaining the financial and artistic backing for her public debut.

"It's my first solo show and the first time I've given funding and sponsorship a go. Before I started, I thought it was going to be even more difficult than it has been. Basically, I contacted John Marr of Nexus (the Metro operators) and showed him my portfolio.

"He agreed to give me 25 billboard spaces, which would normally bring in £3,500. With that agreement, I applied for funding to the Arts Council and they gave £1,500, which wasn't as much as I needed initially, but the figure was the most I could get until I proved I could run a project.

"Now I've done it, and proved I can manage a project, they are more likely to give me funding and a larger budget. But it did mean I had to narrow down what I wanted to do."

North-East businesses like Recruitment UK funded Kennington's purchase of a medium format camera, which allows her to take poster-size pictures, Heaton's People's Theatre provided the costumes, Newcastle's Rip printing company did a deal on costs and Wasp advertising assisted with her publicity campaign.

"I'm really grateful that all these people helped me out and without them I wouldn't have been able to do it. I've been working on the project since last June and when I delivered the images to the printer it was a big weight off my shoulders."

She confesses that if it hadn't been for ESF (European Social Fund) cash from Sunderland University, it would have been unlikely she'd have got so far.

For models, Kennington persuaded friends to pose and feels particularly guilty about her Cinderella work.

"My friend Rachel had to lie on the concrete without a jacket as Sleeping Beauty quite a few times and I'm really glad she'd didn't develop hypothermia. In fact, all my models are well and safe," she laughs.

ON the impact of her art, Kennington adds: "I work at Baltic and I've noticed that a lot of the public have never seen contemporary art before and, sometimes, I get the impression that people don't think the art is very accessible. So one of the things I wanted to do was create art which means something to everyone and can work on a number of different levels," says Kennington, who is a B-Crew invigilator at The Baltic where she acts as a guide to the centre's rolling programme of exhibitions.

Kennington, who has had work shown in London and at Newcastle's Fingertips, Waygood and Hatton galleries, will launch the first poster at Newcastle's Central Station on March 31.

She says: "I don't expect that everybody is going to love them and everybody will gain the same thing from looking at them but I think some will enjoy the posters on a visual level and I'm sure all will understand something from the fairytale connection.

"Certainly, subjects like life and death, love and hate, victory and defeat will engage the audience and there are titles on each poster. I want to get people talking and there's a website address so that people can give feedback and gain further information.

"I've been thinking about this project for years and wanted to feature female characters and times in your life like the loss of innocence (Red Riding Hood)."

Her next project is likely to be a book, "but I'd like a couple of months off when I complete my studies in September".

But will the posters be torn down when the exhibition ends on May 8?

"No, no, no. I'll make sure I get them back and I've had a few people already talking about buying some," adds Kennington, who is already planning a limited edition signed print run.

* Telling Tales can be seen from March 31-May 8 on the Tyne And Wear Metro system.

Published: 17/03/2005