A new art project is calling couples to share stories, photographs, music and mementos to create a new film and soundscape with artist Dawinder Bansal and musician Martyn Ware. Dawinder Bansal is pairing up with musician Martyn Ware - founder of The Human League and Heaven 17 - to celebrate couples who found love in the 1980s.
At a time when romance and relationships are often presented as being as simple as a right or left swipe on a dating app, couples are being invited to share their love stories and show what it takes to find each other and stay together. They are looking for couples to share their stories of falling in love in the 1980s and explore how they overcame obstacles to be together. These tales will feature in a new film and online archive to be debuted in October.
The stories selected via Instagram will be featured in a short film by Dawinder Bansal with an accompanying soundscape created by 80s legend Martyn Ware.
Bansal and Ware are hoping to find couples who overcame obstacles - whether that be racism, homophobia or class prejudice - to build their lives together.
Dawinder Bansal said, “The 1980s has so much resonance to our current experiences and circumstances as a population. We had a conservative government, industries were closing and we had high unemployment, we entered a recession, racism was rife, and the world was learning about a new deadly virus.”
Martyn Ware commented, “Art acts as a conduit for empathy and feelings of all kinds, and our music has often been seen as a significant part of many people’s emotional journeys.”
Helen Juffs and Deirdre Figueiredo, who met in 1989, are among the first couples to offer their story for We Found Love In The 80s. Twenty five years after meeting, they were finally able to marry in 2014. Helen said, “We met at Nottingham Castle Museum where Deirdre worked in the Exhibitions team, and I was a volunteer. Neither of us were 'out' or had had a relationship with a woman before. It was all very tentative, starting with an unexpected embrace up a ladder! We only confided in two friends who were gay, to start with, then more friends and eventually family some years later. We got married in 2014."
