Annabel Duggleby: Yarl’s Wood (2016)
Annabel Duggleby is a recent Fine Art: Print and Time-Based Media graduate from Wimbledon College of Arts and has been selected for this year’s Art for the Environment International Artist Residency Programme (AER) Hauser & Wirth Somerset Residency.
Annabel’s practice revolves around issues related to landscape and power, and deals with themes of mobility, land use, globalization and post-colonialism. For her degree show piece Annabel looked at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedford and made a 10 minute video essay that responded to the site: combining history, theory and botanical study to create a critical portrait of the Centre, that examined the affect of immigration law on the landscape. The process involved several site visits, both alone and with a protest organized by Movement For Justice. Over the course of a few weeks she researched the history of the industrial estate where Yarl’s Wood is located; the history and ethics of immigration detention in the UK; and made drawings, photographs and written pieces about the surrounding landscape.
Yarl’s Wood (2016) has been exhibited in two film screenings to raise funds for refugees, and most recently has been exhibited at the UK Young Artists Festival: Derby 2016. The UKYA festival involved a three-night stay in Derby where over 80 emerging artists exhibited, performed, networked and collaborated together.
Since then Annabel has been working on a project that looks at the Victorian practice of plant hunting: sending horticulturists across the world to find, examine and bring back new plant species, which were then cultivated and sold to the wealthy. Many of these plants have since become staples in English gardens, such as the Rhododendron and the Monkey Puzzle tree, but their collection has had negative repercussions for indigenous landscapes. Alongside this she is looking at the more modern practice of seed patenting and what affect this has on agriculture, the environment and different social groups. Is seed patenting ethical? Does it create monocultures? Who owns nature? She wants to present these two topics in conversation with each other to explore the wider themes of ownership; cultivation and the botanical categorizing and naming practices that give power to some and exploit others.
Image courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Hélène Binet
Annabel feels that the AER residency at Hauser & Wirth Somerset would be a great opportunity to develop this work. She is particularly interested in working with the Piet Oudolf garden and would like to research the plants and grasses used, their history and the journey that brought them to Somerset. She plans to film in the surrounding landscape, gardens and possibly in Bristol Botanic Garden. The resulting work will be an installation comprised of moving image, objects, photos and writings that present different histories, narratives and sites alongside each other.
With this work Annabel aims to continue exploring how the English landscape can be engaged in a political conversation, but also find positive outcomes that might arise from problematic colonial histories.
Planned rough schedule:
- Week 1: spending time in the landscape; researching plants and local landscape history; filming, recording, note-taking.
- Week 2: film editing and refining; finding links; making connections
- Week 3 and 4: exploring exhibition/installation compositions
Current Reading:
- Demos T.J (2016) Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology. London: Sternberg Press
- Scott E.E and Swenson K. (eds) (2015) Critical Landscapes: Art, Space and Politics. California: University of California Press
- Shephard S. (2003) Seeds of Fortune: A Gardening Dynasty. London: Bloomsbury
- Van Dooren T. (2008) Inventing Seed: the nature(s) of intellectual property in plants. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26, pp 676-697
Related Links:
www.annabelduggleby.wordpress.com
http://www.hauserwirthsomerset.com/
AER Background
The Art for the Environment International Artist Residency Programme (AER) was launched in 2015 by Professor Lucy Orta, UAL Chair of Art and the Environment, Centre for Sustainable Fashion.
AER provides UAL graduates with the exceptional opportunity to apply for a 2 to 4-week residency at one of our internationally renowned host institutions, to explore concerns that define the 21st century – biodiversity, environmental sustainability, social economy, and human rights. Through research, studio practice, critiques and mentoring the AER programme is designed to envision a world of tomorrow; to imagine and create work that challenges how we interact with the environment and each other.