TOKENS 

TOKENS is an exhibition at the Avenue Shopping Centre that explores the legacy of Thomas Spence (1750 –1814) and the Spensonian movement, still the only political movement to haveever been banned in Britain.

One of the most prolificand notorious token manufacturers of the 1790s was the radical writer,publisher and bookseller Thomas Spence of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Perhaps one ofthe most interesting and unusual items to carry satirical imagery wereimitation copper coins or 'tokens'

Tokens weremanufactured in Spence’s shop and sold to the public as a quick and efficientway to distribute his satirical messages. Tokens were a deliberate choice forsatire, as at this time rather than pay workers in coin, landlords and factoryowners would instead pay workers in tokens that could then be exchanged at the landlords’own stores for food and essentials, thus creating a chain of dependence andservitude.

Here, the idea of the Token shop is explored through site, public engagement and contemporary technology in the form of 3D design in Blender. The shop front advertises the 'wares' these contemporary satirical digital impressions are displayed as items in a shop front yet defy the purchase process as the experience is not transactional, it is instead shared and free as both a reference to the  ideals of The Spensians and as a question posed as to what retail spaces might be in the future.

The exhibition uses this history and contemporary exploration to explore questions aroundcurrency and ownership have alongside the proliferation ofalternative currencies such as Bitcoin and NFT’s, (Non- Fungible- Tokens). Associety moves away from physical currency into a digital and less quantifiablespace, the relevance of physical currency along with physical shops and retail has diminished and the British high street has been in a perpetual decline.

2024.

Song for the Death of the High Street

'Song for the Death of the High Street' explores the decline of the British high street through video, performance and sound. 

Filmed within the chasms of a disused shopping unit in the former utopian arcade of The Avenues Bournemouth. The Units featured in the video once housed high street giants JJB Sports and Sports Direct but have been left without tenants for some time. This state of affairs reflects the overall decline in the British high street. 

Ponderous shots of dilapidated walls and disused changing rooms are interspersed with a sinister and disconcertingly catchy and funny soundtrack reminiscent of the pomp of British shopping based Pop music, music that celebrated the confidence, iconography and permanence  of the high street available to millions.

Shown at The Avenue Shopping Center, Bournemouth as part of 'Mundania' 2023

S***ing Forecast

S***ing  Forecast  discarded 3.5 Meter Sailing Dinghy dragged into a Gallery space then sawn in half. 

Within the hull is a speaker playing an alternative recorded from scratch version of the iconic BBC4 Shipping Forecast available via QR code which links to a Soundcloud file. This recording reflecting a satirical critique on the waterway sewage dumping scandal and the selling off of state assets, provoking conversation around private/state ownership and the condition of our rural and coastal areas.

The work is a visceral encounter, that evokes the icomnography of the boat in paintings such as Gericault's 'The Raft of the Madusa' 

The Chace 

Brought together by a common interest in the forest, Emily Hawes, Mark Langston & Eugenia Popesco have drawn onliterary, archaeological and artistic references to explore overlapping enquiries into folklore, land rights and customsthat shape the forest. The show is a testbed for exploring new approaches within their practices, comprised ofinstallation, print, sound and film work.

The Chace directly references artist and archaeologist Heywood Sumner’s tapestry of the same name (1908), who livedin the forest between 1904-1940. Alongside his prolific Arts and Crafts output, Sumner carried out pioneeringarchaeological discoveries, notably surveying the prehistoric earthworks at Cranborne Chase and across the NewForest.

Depicting a hunting scene where a young fallow deer is pursued by riders on horseback and hounds, Heywood’s tapestry (The Chace) romanticises the medieval forest tradition of ‘hunting with the hounds’. The exhibition re-purposes this title to probe questions and themes that arise from the act of chasing itself; a methodology used throughout the centuries to eradicate, control and contain communities, animals and life-worlds within the forest. 

'Mark Langston’s installation New Forage takes a wry look at issues of contemporary access and ownership in the New Forest. Gates are a common feature of the New Forest landscape, they both close off and beckon in, here they invite us into a familiar yet unsettled scene. The common sight of hastily discarded dog poo bags hang like decorations in the New forest, here the unsightly throwaway memento of a day’s perambulation becomes something else, an invitation and curiosity, transmitting and broadcasting a strange code. The rudimentary replica of an upmarket estate agent sign, familiar in the villages and towns the forest sits on the back wall, reduced to a perch for wildlife whilst a kestrel hovers, hunting up ahead. 

Exhibited at SPUDworks Sway as part of 'The Chace'

RAGE Exhibition

Video Documentary Installation collaboration with Artist Eugenia Popesco. 'Poundland' exhibited as part of group show.

This work explored the strange goings on in the 'New Town' of Poundbury, situated next door to the Ancient Hillfort of Maiden Castle.

Poundland, involved interviews with residents regarding the development of the 'Model town' Poundbury on the fringes of Dorchester. The town itself was the pet project of the then Prince of Wales now King Charles III. The town evokes idyllic pastoral english motifs, and offered a simulacra of a merry England, in spite of what many residents believed was a contrivance and just a nucsience when it came to the parking..

Exhibited at the RCA Gallery Battersea 

Speculate/Accumulate

In the midst of BP's controversial sponsorship of the National Portrait gallery a new prospecting operation emerged in South East London. The transglobal oil conglomerate AOC gained permission to prospect for oil within the foundations of Camberwell College of Art, led by their charismatic Texan CEO Cornelius Blankenship III. 

The work consisted of a false floor build within the space, and the construction of a crater like form, reminiscent of a violent explosion. From this crater emitted the prized oil. Absurdist humour meets sculptural installation.

'The broken ground shakes and bubbles, black liquid oozes through the pipework, the steel barrels groan and slosh with their contents, while the magnolia of the wall glistens and the polished man in the suit looks down in perpetuity'

Shortlisted for the Vanguard Court Prize

Management Upheaval

'Within the confines of a disused Oxford Street office space, the surreal usurping of an executive took place.' 

The work features a desk peppered with arrows, complete with a pierced kettle fully working water feature. 

Indicative of an uprising of sorts, the work pokes a wry gaze at the modern working environment and a comedic surrealist jab at the politics of management and labour.

Shown as part of the Exhibition 'Multipack' Oxford Street, London.

Alcan Research Project

Project exploring the decomissioning of the Aluminium smelter in Lynemouth, Northumberland, The project explored the effect of this on local communities culminating in a mixed media exhibition at Multipack Oxford Street and The Jerwood Gallery.