WAR exhibition and conference, 2013
at the Yorkshire Craft Centre, with Bradford College and the University of Bradford
In the Autumn of 2012 I was invited to take part in an exhibition and conference entitled WAR, as part of a symposium in February 2013 set up by the University of Bradford, Bradford College and the National Media Museum, with speakers from the Imperial War Musem, to comemmorate the forthcoming 100th Anniversary of WWI. The exhibition was set up in the gallery at the Yorkshire Craft Centre, Bradford.
Awarded funding by Bradford College for a research trip to Arras and the surrounding landscape near La Boiselle Crater, and the English and Welsh War Memorials. Resulting in work made in installation and photography as part of the group exhibition.
With a practice that looks to raw natural materials as its starting point, and with a focus on how the minimal and material can speak, experientially, of the past in the present.
And the simple act of walking, in the recently ploughed Somme landscape, being, documenting, collecting earth.
Awarded funding by Bradford College for a research trip to Arras and the surrounding landscape near La Boiselle Crater, and the English and Welsh War Memorials. Resulting in work made in installation and photography as part of the group exhibition.
With a practice that looks to raw natural materials as its starting point, and with a focus on how the minimal and material can speak, experientially, of the past in the present.
And the simple act of walking, in the recently ploughed Somme landscape, being, documenting, collecting earth.
‘Somme’, earth circle, 2013, with Howard Eaglestone and his painting ‘Broken Spectre’
Panorama, 180 degree view South from La Boiselle crater, 2013
Digital print on Somerset Paper
setting up in the gallery and the making of the work
Somme, earth circle, with Panorama and work by Howard Eaglestone, Simon Ford on walls behind.
The experience of being in the Somme, and walking over three days across the land, and to the memorials has been one of the most moving and important of my life. It is with deep gratitude that I was a part of this exhibition, and with deep gratitude I have been here.
On the circular walk from La Boiselle at dawn to the Welsh War Memorial, I found myself returning across the fields just behind what was the frontline in 1914 at dusk. I took the time to sit, and wait for darkness to fall, imagining how it must have been.
The landscape still steeped in the memories of World War I, some evoked through knowledge and reading, but also and most poignant for me, memories from the physical, bodily encounter with the land, its soil, the remnants, a material history left behind that still surfaces, even now, when the fields are ploughed each year.
This landscape, this here, this now, its ongoing day to day life and activity, still speaks of what’s important, of what grows and what remains, and of the memories and the need to remember, and give thanks.
The La Boiselle panorama photographic sequences that accompanied the earth circle, were developed from hundreds of images taken on an 8hr circular walk from La Boiselle crater to the Welsh War Memorial, and back across these fields, at dusk
The first, looking South, the second, from the same spot, looking North
Influenced by my former practice in sequential composition work in photography, and the symmetry and layout of the cemeteries, these were printed onto Somerset Watercolour Paper to keep the sense of the soft light in the landscape, and a matt surface, no ‘film’ or gloss, for a closer, more direct and felt connection to each image
On the circular walk from La Boiselle at dawn to the Welsh War Memorial, I found myself returning across the fields just behind what was the frontline in 1914 at dusk. I took the time to sit, and wait for darkness to fall, imagining how it must have been.
The landscape still steeped in the memories of World War I, some evoked through knowledge and reading, but also and most poignant for me, memories from the physical, bodily encounter with the land, its soil, the remnants, a material history left behind that still surfaces, even now, when the fields are ploughed each year.
This landscape, this here, this now, its ongoing day to day life and activity, still speaks of what’s important, of what grows and what remains, and of the memories and the need to remember, and give thanks.
The La Boiselle panorama photographic sequences that accompanied the earth circle, were developed from hundreds of images taken on an 8hr circular walk from La Boiselle crater to the Welsh War Memorial, and back across these fields, at dusk
The first, looking South, the second, from the same spot, looking North
Influenced by my former practice in sequential composition work in photography, and the symmetry and layout of the cemeteries, these were printed onto Somerset Watercolour Paper to keep the sense of the soft light in the landscape, and a matt surface, no ‘film’ or gloss, for a closer, more direct and felt connection to each image
Somme, Panorama I, 2013
180 degree view South from La Boiselle crater
Somme, Panorama II, 2013
180 degree view North from La Boiselle crater
Somme, Seedlings, late Spring, 2013
After the exhibition, I placed the earth in a round terracotta bowl, to see what, if anything, might grow.
Many seedlings came through amongst them was a thistle, and a poppy
Next ︎Sometime at New Briton