As the city focuses on the idea of community, the village starts to fragment. Its boundaries become blurred by the influences of infrastructure, technology and expansion. The work explores the myths created by popular postcard portrayals of the English village. The accompanying text refers to personal narratives, a combination of overhead conversations and personal experiences.

Whilst researching Luton Hoo, and in particular Madame de Falbe, I began to wonder if this walled garden can be interpreted by our 21st Century thoughts and feelings. In other words, does the garden have finite longevity, of does the recent restoration process bring it back cyclically to its original state.

The issues raised by my thoughts are that our roles as spectators of the rural have altered over the last century or so. It is no coincidence that the further industrialization of Britain post-World War Two came about at the time that this garden began to fall into disrepair.

Now, the government enforces carbon footprint limits, there are catalytic convertors on cars, there is recycling of waste. The perception of ‘the garden’ has changed considerably. Despite being walled, Luton Hoo has not been able to escape the socio-cultural ravages of the great industrial changes.

Through my photography I explore the connection between Madame de Falbe and her expectations and interpretation of the walled garden and our expectations of it as a garden today. have we improved ourselves socially and culturally since this time, or have, as E. M. Forster feared, we lost our spiritual connection with the land, with eth earthy Britain we took ourselves from? Is Luton Hoo an elegy for times gone, or, through the restorative process, will it be once again the vision that Madame de Falbe anticipated - even if it is renovated to its previous state, will our history prevent us from seeing it in the same way? What is our connection with the garden with rurality; with the post-Victorian artistic unease associated with mass mechanisation?

Only Connect was made during my residency at Luton Hoo Walled Garden.

The series of images ‘Lost in Taboo’ is my attempt to portray how my life has been affected by depression. Through presenting the process by which the depression takes, I attempt to take the viewer into this day to day reality. Accompanying the images are fragments of text that carry the work through from the beginning of my depression to an open ended image, hopefully by leaving this open the viewer can then think about what the final outcome will be based upon their own experiences.

Level 4 is an exploration of an exhibition, which was on at the Baltic in 2015. The exhibition showed an empty lorry, a direct copy of on that used to contain a whale called Jonah. Taking this as a starting point I spent three days in the exhibition space gathering information and material as to how audiences interact with the space, the objects and how in turn galleries are presenting work. The book deals with ideas of memory, particularly of collective memory, and how that informs our interpretations of artwork. The book contains photographs, texts and diagrams.

This book is part of the Baltic Centre of Contemporary Art Collections & Archives

For the first time ever we are able to present to you both instalments from the Alfred Wallace Collections.

The first instalment depicts a young Wallace travelling to the Amazon with Henry Bates to begin a natural history collecting expedition. The four year expedition proves fruitful, with Wallace collecting hundreds of specimens. But fate stands in our young explorer’s way when disaster strikes on the high seas. A fire breaks out sinking the ship, scattering the crew and passengers amongst the white jaws of the perilous waves, consuming nearly all of Wallace’s specimens and diaries.

In the second instalment we rejoin our intrepid explorer in the depths of the Malay Archipelago, where he lives in a small wooden hut on the island of Ternate. Whilst in a state of high fever he has a flash of inspiration. He realises how species can evolve, that the fittest individuals survive and reproduce, therefore passing their advantageous characteristics onto their offspring. In 1858 he finishes his seminal essay “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type”, and sends it to Charles Darwin.

This piece was created for a risograph publication.

Sessions is series of small projects undertaken by Allan that are usually researched and realised within a weekend. It is a form of flexing her artistic muscle beyond the scope of her normal practice, much like a musician when they play improvised pieces.