Rehearsals for a retreat

Hockley Library, Hockley

1 Sept -30 Sept 2008

‘During his advance into this region in the canoe he had in fact become slowly stupefied by the poisonous vapour he had inhaled. His mind was partly in abeyance; it acted, but only after some time had elapsed. he now at last began to realize his position; the finding of the heap of blackened money touched a chord of memory. These skeletons were the miserable relics of men who had ventured, in search of ancient treasures, into the deadly marshes over the site of the mightiest city of former days. The deserted and utterly extinct city of London was under his feet.’

After London or Wild England (Richard Jefferies, 1885)

‘…Crawford was gathering photographs of the world around him in preparation for a post-revolutionary future…’

Bloody Old Britain: O.S.G. Crawford and the Archaeology of Modern Life

(Kitty Hauser, 2008)

This series of photographs, taken over the summer of 2008, are both a document of a route through the landscapes between London and the town of Hockley, and a sequence of images that seek to project a sense of trepidation regarding the future onto the landscape itself.

Following a route from the built-up urban centre (made by walking and a short passage by canoe), the photographs take a forensic approach to observation of occurrences and locations as if some kind of catastrophe had happened, forcing a flight from the city to the assumed safety of the country.

The perspective shifts back and forth from distant zooms to extreme close-ups; views from within the ground, and looking across at hills; blurry towers becomes makeshift bearings to navigate by; discarded bottles metaphors of the dilemma of waste and preservation. The photographs’ protagonist’s route is convoluted- a precarious balance between taking refuge and obtaining a strategic view. In a changing world, the function of objects and landscape alters around us, adapting to us as we adapt around them.

It becomes difficult to know what to attempt to conserve and what to discard. What is most worth striving for?

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