I am so glad to be back at work having had nearly a year out. Being ill with Leukaemia was a very difficult time but I was able to make some work whilst in hospital, for about 5 months, mainly about white blood cells!!However, once home again I started to make work about Prees Heath in north Shropshire. This is a piece of common land wedged between the A49 and the A41 near Whitchurch. Easily seen from the road is the old WWII Air Traffic Control Tower. I had taken a series of photos of the Tower in 2006. Having been brought up in a RAF family the architecture of these old military buildings is very familiar to me.
Being quite weak I started to make very small images, 8"x8", of the control tower. And have even made some Airfix models of aeroplanes. The kit came with figures. I liked the one with the bike as it is very reminiscent of my childhood on RAF camps.
Across A41 from the Air Traffic Control Tower is a small aerodrome and the image of the wind sock evokes the history of the heath when it was a training camp for bomber aircraft.
I came and took this photo on 1st January 2011. Making a commitment to come every month for the next year. The common has now become a conservation reserve for the Silver Studded Blue Butterfly and is being restored and protected by this organisation.
I discovered that in 1991, the poet Eleanor Cooke was funded by the Arts Council and Shropshire Wildlife Trust to research and write a poem called Who Killed Prees Heath. A wonderful piece of work supporting the keeping of our common land which is rapidly disappearing as developers and farmers take over this land.
No comments:
Post a Comment