Public Wealth, Private Sufficiency

In May 2019 I was invited, by the Walworth Community Garden Network, to create a site-specific work for the Chelsea Fringe (2019).  The Fringe is a response to the Chelsea Flower Show an annual event aimed at affluent landowners - it begs the question how much does an individual need to own privately? What is sufficient? Where is the balance between public and private wealth?  I chose to run a sound walk.  I wanted to tap into the experiences of people who are not normally represented in the dominant narratives of the city. 

18 people walked in silence, for 45 minutes, through the community gardens and estates of West Walworth.  We used Michael Chion’s (1991), three ways of listening, to identify the sounds we know, to describe the quality of the sounds and to consider their meaning. I recorded the sounds and the discussion and poems the walk generated. The resulting works take inspiration from the people I met and the plants in the gardens.  The series of works Public Wealth, Private Sufficiency (2019) ceramic letters and letter print, Walworth Skies (2019) hand dyed textile, Echium Pininana (2019) plaster cast and ceramic leaves have been shown at Islington Arts Factory, London, (2020) The Project Space, Hendon (2020), The Royal Air Force Museum London (2020) and  Lerici Castle, Italy (2020).  

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