Arkadia (The Lost Exploitation Journals) 2013

Installation of four digital prints, two projections, 600 newspapers

Although I have worked with this image before, here I was interested in re-fragmenting the piece into its constituent parts. The idea of the banner has an interesting etymology from bandum (Latin), for the cloth that is made into a flag. But it also is the basis of the word abandon which is ‘against the bandum’ or to be disloyal or disobey orders of the flag (of authority)- these banners are, therefore,  banners of abandon. There is a lovely correlation between the initial ideas and the format  in relation to this concept of abandoned spaces/ the political dimension: the history of the use of banners in May Day processions/ by trades unions in the 19th/ early 20th century – where the environment was being changed forever by the industrial revolution, with new mills, factories and mines. The use of banners in commercial printmaking for all kinds of uses also connects the work to both the history of printmaking as well as the its use in contemporary advertising etc- Here the banners allude to the arbitrary division of geographical borders and the loss of the our relationship to the environment. This piece won an award from the Printmakers Council 2013.

Installation shot, Abandum Arkadia (2013) banner prints, 600 newspapers and projection, Gaerd (2013)