Output details

Clouds Descending

The series of 45 photographs examine the post-industrial coastal landscape of Cumbria. The work studies examples of ‘industrial geology’, looking at how processes of erosion continue to reveal the historical legacy of the iron and coal industries of the region. The pictures also feature the use of industrial waste in the construction of coastal furniture; depicts the harbours from which much of the produce was exported, and the river estuaries that dominate the southern section of the coast. Fourteen sites were selected for their significance and variety, and were revisited over a three-year period. As well as the historic significance of the region, the pictures consider the more recent industrial interventions of the armaments and nuclear industries and tourism.

The project was the result of a commission from the Lowry, Salford and was supported by a £15000 grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation, which enabled a series of collaborative walks along the coast with a selection of writers, historians and an ornithologist. The ambition of these collaborative walks was to bring different fields of study, knowledge and experience together to create a multi-layered response to the sites visited. The exhibition toured to Tullie House Museum, Carlisle. At Tullie House a further series of collaborations were developed with the Keepers of Natural History, Social History and Fine Art which further contextualised the landscape on the Cumbrian coast within the works of the original exhibition. The exhibition has subsequently toured to the Dick Institute, Kilmarnock.