Three Layered City by Harry Payne; University of Portsmouth Art & Design students; The King’s Trust students participating in Sustainable Conservation Trust workshops.

This exhibition explores three versions of the city: the Portsmouth that exists, the Portsmouth that artists imagine, and the Portsmouth you can explore through play.

Images of historic dockyard buildings from Sustainable Conservation Trust’s workshops with The King’s Trust students capture the Portsmouth that exists, celebrating the city’s built heritage and the young people’s engagement with these places.

University of Portsmouth Art & Design students have interpreted the city’s buildings and places through their own eyes. Their work fills the windows of Storehouse 9 as large, illuminated panels, glowing outwards into the evening and layering colour and light through the space.

Inside, artist Harry Payne’s interactive game takes players on a journey around Portsmouth and its buildings. Watch it unfold on the big wall, help choose where to go next, or pick up the controller and have a go yourself.

Storehouse 9 is part of the story too. Rather than a blank gallery, the building’s own character frames the work, connecting the physical city with illustration and digital storytelling.

Presented by Sustainable Conservation Trust, which brings heritage places and contemporary creative practice together.

Artist Bio:

Sustainable Conservation Trust (SCT) works to preserve historic and culturally significant buildings and bring them into sustainable use for the benefit of communities. Through creative projects, cultural events and practical heritage workshops, SCT helps people discover, understand and care for their local built heritage. It brings together building owners, community groups, educational institutions and skilled practitioners to find new uses for historic places and support their long-term future. Find out more about Sustainable Conservation Trust here.

Harry Payne is an artist based in England who combines interactive installations, emerging technology and material craft to explore heritage, archives, memory and possible futures.

Using real-time systems and archival materials, he creates environments in which visitors actively shape the experience. His work connects historical narratives with the present, increasingly drawing on personal memory and lived experience to explore our place within wider histories.