Corner Shop is an emotional short virtual reality / 360 stereo film created by Christian Krupa in collaboration with the British Library and their Leeds Youth Co Creation Group. Following commission, there was a series of workshops conducted in and around the city with both the co creation group, and separately, groups of the general public.
With the co creation group, they were focused on engaging with the direction of the commission, and direct dialogue between them and the filmmaker provided much of the thinking that went into the production process of the piece. Themes such as community, trust, nostalgia, fears for the future, sense of place were all important to the group, and provided a good range of interesting angles to pursue.
The public workshops (ran by We Belong) focused on using the themes to draw out visual and textual memories, that were recorded in collage, pastels and other drawing materials. The outcomes from these workshops were used directly in the piece, providing textures, drawings and written text that were used to build many of the scenes.
Two interviewees were asked about their life and memories growing up in cornershops in the North and North East of England, Jodie Russi-Red in the 1990s and Sunjeeda Hanif during the 1970s. The interviews revealed emotions such as feeling centred in the community, but also feeling like their upbringing was exciting with unusual experiences, some alienation and fears, but overall a sense of fond nostalgia. The interviews were finely edited and blended together to create a stream of memory that was illustrated in the piece with the workshop material, other contributors drawings, and archive material from the British Library’s collections, as well as artwork created by Christian.
On completion, it was installed in the White Rose Centre in early 2025 for public viewing on a headset, as part of a wider exhibition that displayed the outcomes of the workshops.
Full version for headset