Focal Point Gallery
Tip of the Iceberg
12 September 2021 to 9 January 2022
For Tip of the Iceberg I have been working on PLOT: The Peoples’ Landscape which explores the social, cultural and historical connections between current day society run allotments in the Borough of Southend and historical alternative uses of land such as the Plotlanders (Plotlands refers to small pieces of land laid out in regular plots on which a number of self-built settlements were established in the south-east of England from the late 1800s and up to the Second World War). The Plotlanders could be described as both a community, a movement and a way of life which although no longer exists in the same way, could be seen to live on through today’s allotment societies; particularly through a DIY sensibility, growing your own and community care via working the land.
This new body of work includes a series of map drawings of five society run allotments developed through an ongoing collaborative process with the community who work the land. Through these conversations a series of oral histories will be captured and made available as a digital podcast, exploring the thematical links between the communities and time periods. Once complete each drawing will be re-printed and gifted back to the allotment societies as a record.
Reviews
‘The Tip of the Iceberg’ by Ellen Mara De Wachter for the Contemporary Art Society’s Friday Dispatch. Read it here
Photography Anna Lukala
The Peoples Landscape: Podcast
Shaun C. Badham with Fay Armstrong, Ron Bates, Pauline Beckwith, Tilly Hogrebe, Ray How, Kamil Pachalko and Philippa Stewart.
17 November 2021 to 16 January 2022
The People’s Landscape podcast aims to look at how the ownership of local land in South Essex has changed over the years from farmers, land speculators, plotlanders to current day. We hope to better understand the synergy between both these past communities and today’s local allotment societies and community growing projects. By tracing the demise of the plotlanders from compulsive purchasing schemes to slower encroaching commercial developments, what can this history tells us about today’s precarity around community land ownership and what the future holds for these groups who care and work the local land today. The podcast brings together current day conversations and historical accounts.
A podcast by Shaun C. Badham with Fay Armstrong, Ron Bates, Pauline Beckwith, Tilly Hogrebe, Ray How, Kamil Pachalko and Philippa Stewart. Edited by Gabriella Milanese, Realm Video.
You can listen to the podcast here
Contributors & Credits
Thanks so much to our incredible contributors:
Kamil Pachalko – Southend in Transition Community Allotment – https://southendintransition.co.uk/
Ron Bates – Allotment Holder at Manchester Drive and Trustee for Trust Links – https://www.trustlinks.org/
Ray How – Treasurer and Site Manager at Gaynes Park Manners Way Allotment and Gardens Association – https://gpmwallotments.co.uk/
Fay Armstrong (Secretary) and Pauline Beckwith (deputy chair) of Westcliff Land Cultivation Society at Springfield Drive Allotments – https://wlcsallotment.wordpress.com/
Tilly Hogrebe – Member of Southend in Transition and Urban and Coastal Forager – https://www.instagram.com/soswildfood/
Philippa Stewart – Allotment Holder at Springfield Drive and Artist – https://www.philippastewart.com/