Otis Reading

March 25th, 2023

A banner for the town of Reading, featuring Otis Redding, reading. What an honour to carry soul giant and philanthropist Otis around the streets of a place that was originally spelt like his surname. No better figure to claim as our forefather. Have you ever searched online for Reading information and been offered a long list of reading material instead? Made for the March to Reading Goal.

s/o names unknown

October 1st, 2022

I am proud to be looking at the story of a Wotjobaluk child brought to England in 1851, from the Wimmera region of what is now called Australia.

The initial research has been supported by a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company.

Uncultivated

September 13th, 2022

Uncultivated, (2m 52s)
 
A tiny film looking at self-sowing plants and their ability to thrive in hostile environments. Not only do they survive, they are beautiful. Grasses, plantains and poppies on local walking routes push through hard barriers with quiet persistence. Uncultivated suggests that these plants exhibit qualities which could also be applied to people –such as being adaptable or opportunistic. The audio was recorded remotely by some of those close to me, similarly maintaining attitudes of getting on with it. It is a message of courage and power in small efforts, embracing parallels with creative and social struggles.
 
Watch here
Closed caption subtitles are available by clicking on the cc option in the bottom right of the viewing window

for kids and everyone else

September 2nd, 2022

I have written a piece about the Women’s Strikes for The Feminist Library in Peckham. It is part of Transnational Journeys, here.

30/30

May 24th, 2022

12ø collective run a project challenging artists to make thirty responses on thirty days. Here is one of mine.

 

borne

April 27th, 2021

Listen here

Read the full transcripts

 

borne was commissioned by The Museum of English Rural Life, Reading as part of their 70th anniversary celebrations, 51 Voices.

Birth call out

January 30th, 2021

I was nearly born in the lift at The Royal Berkshire Hospital, over the road from The MERL. Mum had snoozed through the night in her bed, aware that something was happening yet not feeling anxious. She kept in mind what her father had told her about animals choosing dark and quiet to have their babies.

My grandfather studied Agriculture at Reading University and my gran Dairy Sciences in the building next to The MERL, in the year it was founded. They went on to run a smallholding and my mum was born in the house there, a former inn from the 1600s. As my grandad waited for my mum to be born, he chatted to the midwife who had arrived on her bicycle. She had bought new piglets and had many questions about how best to look after them.

When my brother was born in the early eighties, Mum wanted a home birth like her mum. She worked with friends to establish the Reading Birth Centre: committed individuals with skills to support families toward the birth they hoped for.

My second child was born at home before the midwife arrived, and was caught by my mum.

As the pandemic has developed in the UK, home births and free births have risen. How has this felt for families who have had babies during this time?

Happy May Day!

May 1st, 2020

Download this poster for free from Just Seeds or The Social Art Library.

 

At the Yafa Deli, part of Papergirl Brooklyn 2020. Thanks to Vannessa Hock (@vanessahockphoto) for the use of her image.

 

Public Sociologist Dr Meg Krausch used my image to accompany her post about Covid.

Radio Influenza

March 19th, 2019

RI

Just finished the research to support a new artwork by Jordan Baseman: radioinfluenza.org

‘Each day a new soundtrack reports on the devastation of the epidemic through the everyday, using newspaper accounts from exactly a hundred years ago to explore how the profound impact of the flu affected every aspect of life.’

Radio Influenza is commissioned by Wellcome and produced by Matt’s Gallery, London.

 

Socialism: a family film

May 19th, 2016

Anna 4

Anna 3Anna 2Anna1

25–27 March 2016

A number of spurs (including the loss of a great aunt who had fled Czechoslovakia the day before the Nazi invasion) conflated, with the realisation that there are great gaps in my knowledge of socialism. My practice is social: concerned with others, how we communicate with and care for each other. It seemed vital to set an informed foundation for my work, to further educate myself and look at how these ideologies might be discussed with younger people. I put forward a project examining socialism – its history, key figures and relevance in modern life. This would be used by us to make a short film: a rare opportunity to conduct a family residency.
Tolpuddle Martyr’s Museum is not too far from Powerstock, so we called in to find out more about this early example of attempts at an agricultural trade union. We found this village to be a hub of activity, hoping to return for the festival in the summer.
We arrived at Copse Barn in the bright sunshine, with a big wave from Anna. I had brought her some cooked red cabbage, a recipe of my great aunt’s. The one room would house us as we intensively worked on the initial stages of the film. I had been researching and planning for a month, with a list of episodic projects I thought might be absorbing and manageable. The stove was stoked and kettle put on the hob. As the temperature rose in the caravan, ladybirds spluttered from behind cupboards: red dots punctuating every surface. We also migrated around the interior. Flip-book construction on the sofa, slogans on stickers at the bedside table and a roll of lining paper stretched across the width of the kitchen worktop at the front of the caravan. Standing, we traced portraits of socialists, using carbon paper. The large windows, on most walls, encircled us with light and and a vantage point for the activities of Copse Barn and the weather. Wind and rain rocked the shell of the Traveller’s Buccaneer. Daffodils leaned in the gusts and the conifer under which the caravan sits, thrashed and squeaked. We were acutely aware of our domestic preoccupations, our negotiations with each other in this pared-down scenario and the attempts at order against the backdrop of the elements. In bright spells, we dashed out to film, running past the goose in her bathtub with a red flag. Anna’s welcome, her openness to sharing her space and her home, made this explorative venture – where making and playing, living and thinking were not compartmentalised – alive, flexible and possible.

Watch Socialism: a family film.

Part of  The Mothership artist residencies, hosted by Anna Best of unincorporated collaborations.