Something from the past is missing in the present
Imagine walking through a meadow in 1970. What can you see? What can you hear? How many insects are buzzing around the flowers and plants and grasses at your feet.
Now imagine it's 2020.
Insect biodiversity is in sad decline and the effect is profound.
This book is a circular concertina, hand cut and bound, and carrying QR codes which trigger visual immersive artworks you can view of your smartphone. Think Pokemon Go but without the Pokemon!
Each artwork emulates a small patch of meadow at different points in time; 1970, 2020 and 2050 at which point 2 possible futures are presented; one in which no measures are taken to curb the issues affecting insect biodiversity and one in which they are.
8 page circular concertina book, Digitally printed with bellyband
95 x 95 mm
Presented at (Un)Common Worlds III, conference, University of Oulu, Finland, October 2023
'Mount Craig: Colorado':
Artist's contribution to World Book Night 2026; The Mountains are calling, An Exhibition for World Book Night 2026 Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol 2-4-26 - 31-7-26
WBN United Artists put out a call for responses to a text or book about mountains. Our starting point for 2026 was recommended by Nancy Campbell – Nan Shepherd’s book The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland, Canongate Canons, 2011.
We invited artists, writers, students and the public to make work and send us a recommendation for a shared bibliography of mountains inspired reading. We received 200+ entries from 188 artists in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, USA.
This altered map is laser cut with illustrations of ink-drawn insects inspired by Sockman's study of insect decline in the Colorado mountain area. Sockman focused on areas of apparent low human engagement, discovered "Flying insects at a montane site in Colorado have declined in abundance by 72.4% over the past 20 years."
‘Mount Craig: Colorado’ inspired by 'Long-term decline in montane insects under
warming summers' by Keith W. Sockman 2025 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.70187
WBN 26, The Mountains are Calling, Bristol, UK
Laser cut withdrawn map. 600mm x 600mm
