Thoughts between the Land and the Sea: Raising the Doggerland
Solo exhibition at Gallery SO- September 2019

Thoughts between the Land and Sea; Raising the Doggerland was a solo show held throughout September in Gallery S O, London. The exhibition showcased a fusion of jewellery works, wall mounted art works, film, animation and written text. Research sought to expand, interrogate and visualise socio-political possibilities through the mediums of Jewellery and interdisciplinary art forms.

Jewellery has a long history of worn objects signifying political stance- green and purple jewelleries of the suffragettes, yearly displays of red and white poppies and the ‘fuck thatcher’ pins of Scottish Socialists. This exhibition expanded on historical and socio-political possibilities of jewellery through more complex, subtle and interrogating narratives. The exhibition employed multimedia image and object to create a continuous narrative of a raised Doggerland (the sunken patch of land connecting the U.K to Europe) from which the artist reviewed and critiqued the current dilemmas of the U.K. Taking inspiration from art theory and fine art practice works within the output. “Doggerland” challenged traditional questions of autonomy/symbiosis within jewellery, wearability, role of research within jewellery production and presented jewellery as social documents contained within individual titled document folders/books.

Library research included philosophy, journalism and social theory, of particular importance was the work of Roland Bathes (Mythologies), Simon Critchly (Notes on Suicide), Greek Mythology and contemporary British press. The use of fictionalised dystopian lands to provide narrative structure for artworks was also researched via including the artworks of T.Shaney and D.Hirst and in writing via Orwell.

Described by craft-critic Martina Margetts as a ‘prodigious narrative of resistance and transcendence’. “Doggerland” has been used as founding material for lectures during its run at Gallery SO (receiving the highest footfall for a talk at the gallery), Glasgow School of Art and the RCA. Many of the artwork’s will be showcased at Collect 2020.