Down, Down, Down and Still the Weeds Prevail

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'Down, down, down and still the weeds prevail' is a visual story that ebbs and flows from the abstract to the ‘real’ but always tries to capture the flux of existence without lingering on the perceived ordinariness and detritus of daily life. This project is part of a wider series 'Meanwhile' which began as a response to activating our archives, collaboration and the pandemic. 
The project investigates issues of mental space alongside cultural expectations, where memory, time and nostalgia create their own fictitious overlay. It reflects how differently we all view a single set of circumstances dependant upon our cognitive biases. It considers what truths are we hiding from the vantage point of the present moment and the implications of reframing the past. It is their perceived reality that carries them along.

The images were shot on polaroid film and outdated film stock reflecting the circumstantial unpredictability of life with some images subject to physical interventions. The distressed abstract and more regular shapes often represent disharmony but also a sense of playful realism.
The collaboration arose from a call out for text to friends and colleagues in the photographic community using "What is the use of a book" thought Alice "without pictures and conversation” (Lewis Carroll) and 'Wild Geese' (Mary Oliver’s poem) as entrance points. The texts received were their response to the first lockdown or taken from their own archive.
Stories help us negotiate our social environment and have the ability to prompt change or flee dictates of others. Whilst a diaristic record and an auto-fiction, it is shared in hopes that the viewer can find their own narrative, interacting with both images and texts, for ‘to be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of the world’ (Rebecca Solnit).

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