#16 Amber Wykes, Remembering things never remembered before
2 - 21 March
Amber Wykes was born in Middlesborough, 1974. She studied at University of East Anglia, 1997 - 2000. She lives in Norwich and works in Great Yarmouth.
Amber Wykes’ photographic project Remembering Things Never Remembered Before deals with the changing landscapes that skirt the towns and cities in the Eastern region. This subject matter tends towards the universal questions regarding landscape and its transition between natural and cultured states.
Over the past two years Wykes has been photographing areas of derelict land around Norfolk, paying particular attention to a site within the borough of Cobholm in Great Yarmouth given over to community allotments in the pre-WW2 period. The pictured allotments have seen better days. Some plots are obviously still used, and the care suggested by this tended ground forms stark contrast to the chaos of the abandoned plots which stand empty and exploited.
The work focuses attention towards the areas of land that boarder civilisation, where the urban meets the rural; the edges of roadsides and railways; commons and allotments; islands of green dereliction in the midst of urbanity; areas where the issues of ownership are ambiguous, giving the land the freedom to do as it wishes. A consequence of this freedom is that such territory is left vulnerable and open to misuse. Neither tended or utilised, often overlooked and neglected, these precious areas exist on the cusp of degeneration.
The large format photographs in Remembering Things Never Remembered Before generate from Wykes’ desire to provide a detailed visual document of the relatively recent history that stems from man’s intervention into this wild, natural environment. Made at a particular moment in time the work contributes a poignant record of this fragile area’s fleeting evolution - from community land back to nature – prior to its recent clearance by housing developers, who in this new phase have reclaimed this territory, stifling the earth’s attempt to restore its natural wild state. Now in its place stand carefully calculated grids of buildings with regimented squares of turf, trees and shrubs, extremes of containment and order compared to their wild and organic recent past.
This work remarks on a widespread situation occurring in towns across Britain. With the green belt being more fiercely protected, the government has issued initiatives to developers to utilise ‘brown sites’ with an emphasis on the, “refurbishment, renovation and reuse” of vacant land. Cobholm, a large estate in the borough of Southtown, Great Yarmouth is placed high up on the government tables of deprivation and has been for years. It has become an area of focus for regeneration, along with the greater borough of Great Yarmouth generally. As demand for housing increases, we see the edges of our British towns spreading and these spaces between towns being shaved smaller, leaving this truly precious land off guard, and open to terminal change.
Amber Wykes originates from the North East of England. She currently lives and works in Norwich and has shown in selected group shows since graduating in 2000. Remembering Things Never Remembered Before at OUTPOST Gallery is Wykes’ first solo exhibition.
We are presented with six large format photographs; two on each of the three exhibiting walls. Running clockwise around the room, the first image shows a small field with tussocks of unkempt grass and towering dry stalks of Giant Hogweed or Cow Parsley crowned with their dead heads. The foreground is in sharp focus and in the distance is a barrier of trees and bushes. The next image is of a collapsed shipwreck of a shed. A tree sprouts from the edge of it. A foreground of snowy ground has tufts of grass poking through. On the far wall we are shown a vintage caravan that appears to be in use as a potting shed. A makeshift bench constructed from a sheet of wood and Sunblest bread carriers sits against it. A wheelbarrow appears to have skidded to a halt underneath the bench. The next photograph shows blooming roses within a proliferation of untended vegetation. On the wall to our right an image shows a large greenhouse with three pitches that spreads to either side of the frame. A well-trodden path leads up to a door. Many of the traditional glass windows have been replaced with black bin bags and compost sacks. Several plastic water butts stand outside. The final image shows an overgrown allotment scene. A scattering of sheds and greenhouses sit within their untended grounds.
A discussion between Kaavous Clayton and Amber Wykes at OUTPOST on 28th February 2006.
Kaavous Clayton: What attracts you to the sites you photograph?
Amber Wykes: The tension between the evidence of human life, and the landscape returning to its natural state.
KC: And within those sites how do you select the views you capture?
AW: The way the evidence of human life manifests itself. This may be a trodden path, tended roses in a deserted garden, the more structural indication of shelters, buildings or boundaries or just a haunting feeling.
KC: Are you celebrating the fact that the landscape is overcoming the human invasion and will reclaim its territory?
AW: Yes I’m definitely on nature’s side, and do feel a sense of victory when I see land that’s been allowed to redefine itself after human interference.
KC: Do you think land that has recovered from human interference is different to land that has always remained under its own control?
AW: The sites I’ve been photographing are places that are about to be redeveloped, usually with new homes. This becomes quite a solid, final conclusion for the land. Because of this, I feel there is a tremendous sense of loss within these sites. Loss of the land’s history, a loss of life these places have experienced, and a loss of the memories people have of them.
KC: So you are documenting a moment between times. The land has been used by humans, struggles to fight back only to have humans take control again.
AW: Yes.
KC: This seems to be part of a larger struggle. Your photographs show a small glimpse of a bigger picture. What do you think the outcome will be?
AW: The outcome for what? The sites?
KC: More for the struggle of humans versus nature.
AW: Unfortunately I think humans are just going to keep blundering on belligerently oblivious to how fragile our planet is. And maybe this adds to the sense of loss on these fragile pieces of land.
KC: I think your images contain a sense of foreboding that seems increasingly relevant with each passing day. Do you think there is any hope?
AW: I try not to think about it, it’s too hard. I just cling to the beauty of life, and try to remain hopeful.
KC: But your photographs seem to be latching onto the balance between life and death and portraying the beauty of both.
AW: I don’t know if there is any beauty in death is there? Life is much more beautiful.
KC: We’ll have to wait and see.
