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Not many people here yet is a playfully nostalgic unveiling of friendship and shared experiences across time.
Set along the coastlines of Dorset and Jersey and based around the two central characters of Milly and Lily from a found photo album, the series places people together who are connected by place, disconnected by time.
It is a story of journeys before and during a time when the world’s travel stopped.
Large scale digital composites place crowds of people (including the artist) in the same place as the two women, each with a different narrative. Original photographs sit alongside them, some of which have been disrupted through embroidery and collage, emphasising characters through portraiture.
The process of making the digital pieces was intricate. Search engines were used to find and appropriate contemporary images taken where Milly and Lily had visited. Screenshots, digitally edited and seamlessly blended together were made to look painterly. Props photographed at home were placed in front of people’s faces, in their hands, at their feet - symbolisms of mystery and disguise. (In real time we were all having to adjust to face coverings and everything represented by that.) Some of the masks were made from newspaper cuttings from 2020, and although randomly chosen, words such as ‘pausing’, ’quarantine’ and ‘virus’ are easily visible. The paper itself represents fragility, communication and knowledge.
The project involved research conducted from home during the UK’s first lockdown. Maps of the regions were examined and re-drawn so that the women’s footsteps could be retraced. Primary and secondary characters in the century old photo album were researched, although it proved almost impossible to trace them effectively. Vintage postcards sent from Lyme Regis and Bouley Bay were purchased, with messages on their backs (smooth flight, very few people are here yet, would you like a pair of black elephants, tomorrow will be a rest day), providing inspiration (and the title) for the work.
From a stormy coastline to surrealism, from umbrellas to a zebra, from paddle-boarding to roses on the beach, from 1929 to 2021, this work is all at once a time capsule, a social commentary, and a fictional tale. The large scale and smaller sized images invite the audience to look from different perspectives - in the same way that any good story should.During the first UK lockdown the population was under order to stay at home, and it was illegal to gather in groups. These large scale constructed scenes give a false impression of crowds during lockdown, an antithesis of reality. The fact that no faces are seen is a direct reference to the anonymity caused by the introduction of face coverings.
Crowds at The Cobb, April 2020
A digital fictional composite placing crowds of people on The Cobb in Lyme Regis during the UK’s 1st Lockdown in 2020. Hundreds of images appropriated online were manipulated, cut, resized. Each figure is meticulously placed close to where, at a different time, they had been standing/jumping/sitting on The Cobb.
Crowds at The Cobb, framed
A digital fictional composite placing crowds of people on The Cobb in Lyme Regis during the UK’s 1st Lockdown in 2020. Hundreds of images appropriated online were manipulated, cut, resized. Each figure is meticulously placed close to where, at a different time, they had been standing/jumping/sitting on The Cobb.
Matt C-type print.
400 x 500 mm including border
Framed print using repurposed frame
Edition 1/20
Crowds at Bouley Bay, 2020
A digital fictional composite placing crowds of
people on a coastal path during the UK’s 1st lockdown in 2020. Scores of images appropriated online were manipulated, cut, resized. For this image many props were photographed at home and added to suggest face coverings as a reference to the pandemic.
Milly is sitting in the foreground with my roses at her feet. I am sitting on the cliff (back, right).
Crowds at Bouley Bay install shot
Out and about
A digital fictional composite placing people together at Bouley Bay. Scores of images appropriated online were manipulated, cut, resized. Props were photographed at home and added to create surreal elements, as a reference to the times we found ourselves in during 2020-2021. I am asleep on the cliff in my red slippers underneath a lamp.
Installation shot (2)
Milly, 1929
Milly on the rocks at the end of Cobb wall 1929
Pro Luster print of scan from original photograph.
Repurposed frame and mount.
Self portrait 1987/2021
In 1987 I was photographed at The Cobb with the sea and boats in front and to the side of me. It was a lover’s photograph.
This is a digital photographic painting of a close crop of the scan.
Self portrait 1987/2021
The Cobb, Lyme Regis
Digital reworking.
Framed print on A4 Pro Luster using repurposed frame.
Edition 1 / 5