Common Ground

2017

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Torn red no-trespassing sign on metal railings, scrubland behind
Close portrait of a woman with red-framed glasses against a stone wall
Red sign spray-painted with No more land grabs you thieves over original text
Close portrait of a man with wire-framed glasses against a stone wall
Red warning sign on metal railings with letters obscured by vandalism
Close portrait of a woman with hoop earrings against a stone wall
Red Warning — Keep Out, Private Property, No Trespassing sign with graffiti overwritten
Close portrait of a man with rimless glasses against a stone wall
Red Warning — Private Property, No Trespassing sign with a handwritten note taped over it
Close portrait of a woman with short red-brown hair and black-framed glasses against a stone wall

Statement

For this work, I collaborated with writer Simon Guy to look at spaces where access is threatened. The portraits were made at a community centre whose future was uncertain due to squeezed public funding. Not far away, I photographed ‘no trespassing’ notices around a plot of scrubland. Assumed to be public for a long time, it had been abruptly fenced off by a private owner. The notices were vandalised as acts of protest. I placed the portraits and notices side-by-side to highlight the tensions, contradictions, and questions raised by different claims to shared space.

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