Anne Rayner was enjoying a day out with her husband, Bob, and two-year-old granddaughter Phoebe when she took this photo. The three of them had headed into Newcastle city centre to find some fun, while Rayner’s daughter-in-law was caring for Phoebe’s siblings, six-month-old twin boys, at home.
Walking along the quayside and crossing the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, they pointed out landmarks to Phoebe as they went: the Tyne Bridge, the Glasshouse International Centre for Music. They arrived, eventually, at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, where Harold Offeh’s exhibition The Mothership Collective 2.0 was showing (it’s on until 18 January).
The show is described as a “sci-fi playscape for collaborative encounters” and made up of different zones. The two bubble-like objects Phoebe is reaching for are, in fact, inflatable plastic balls. Rayner used her phone to capture the little girl in action, noting that the “geometric lines, strong colours and shadows created a striking image”.
Rayner says of the artist behind the balls, “His ambition was encouraging joy through play, and he achieved that.” She adds that Phoebe “rolled, threw and kicked each and every one, and after lunch in the cafe even asked to go back a second time. At bedtime she excitedly relayed her day, and the exhibition, to her parents and little brothers, captured perfectly by this photo.”
